Keamy is powerfully evil. In just a handful of moments he scares the crap out of me. It is not just the violence, or the history of genocidal violence Ben alluded to just before he killed Ban's daughter -- it is the casting.
The fat on his cheeks and his sort of Chipmunk teeth are almost horrifyingly friendly, and boyish. He is the apotheosis -- I use that word too much, blame Bloom -- of the schoolyard bully, and thus the perfect villain for fans of Lost, who skew more toward the RPG side of after-school activity. The man strikes fear into my bones.
Also good casting -- Locke's mom did look a lot like a young Swoozie Kurtz, though some people thought Claire.
Locke's flashbacks were interesting. I have maybe not had enough time to process them, but I found them odd. Noel Murray of The AV club had this to say:
The model of the reluctant, ignorant and/or unexpected hero is fairly common in myth (and in fantasy fiction), but the way these archetypes have been combined in Locke is especially compelling. Here’s a guy who wants to be a hero, but keeps missing the signs and opportunities, because the model of heroism in his head is all cocked-up.
This is an interesting point, but I still don't know. Maybe his destiny was to be a scientist, but then Christian confirms that he is still chosen in his current hunter form, defined by that knife that he apparently should not have chosen during the Batmanuel Dali Lama scene. He should have chosen, I guess, the comic book -- which is a real comic book, by the way, and not a prop, as perfect as the cover looks for LOST. If he had not been a "hunter" he would not have survived on the island in the first place? Or maybe never been on the plane? So the rejection of his destiny brought him to his destiny, which is how destiny works? But the Alpert seemed so disappointed beneath his raccoon eyes? Or Alpert -- representing the hostiles -- wanted him to be a scientist, while Abbadon (whose name has all kinds of evil bible resonance) who may be working for Dharma wants him to be that hunter and so guides him toward the Walkabout? I kind of do not want to go nuts thinking to hard about all the destiny-choice stuff just now. I am not saying it is a mistake. I just did not land with me just yet. Lt. Daniels is Awesome as Abbadon.
And I should have learned my lesson here last week, but this seems fairly likely and obvious -- surely where we are going with all this is that Sayid finds the Castaways who maybe went inland toward Keamy (stupid people) and gets the Oceanic Six on that raft (though how he gets Jack to go I cannot imagine), probably at least Juliet gets killed, and they escape; when Sayid returns for more people Locke has, in the stunning last line "moved the island" (in space? in time?) and that is why only these people got back and why they need to return. Hopefully Locke will do what has to be done at the temple -- a space we learned about at the end of Season 3, but that we have not seen yet.
Can anyone remind me when we saw Horace before. I thought we were seeing him for the first time this episode, but he must have been in that season three Ben flashback and I forgot about him.
Hurley and Ben sharing the candy bar was awesome, and not just because of the Laurel and Hardy-esque difference in size.
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In Ben's flashback episode from season 3, Horace is the guy driving the car when Ben's dad comes running out of the woods with the newborn Ben and his dying mother. Later, Horace is the first person to welcome them to the island as he is apparently a Dharma bigwig.
Significantly, when Ben returns to New Otherton after gassing his dad and finds all the Dharmites purged, Horace is the guy who has died sitting on the bench. Ben gives him a pitying look and closes his eyes - something he does for no-one else.
2 quick moments to support my Faerie Kingdom idea:
"you have to call him John!" - says Locke's mother.
Keamy's beating of Michael is inspired by Michael having given up his name to Ben.
Names in Fairy-Land are a major source of Power, not to be given or taken lightly. Also remember Clare's difficulty in deciding upon a name for Aaron.
I called the Island being mobile in season 1, based on 1) the cable running out into the sea (which turned out not to be a clue, but hey) and 2) the Black Rock being waaay inland. As Geoff says, it may yet turn out to "move" through time only, but right now I feel kinda smart?
The island moving also helps explain how Eko's plane got from Africa to the island. The South Pacific seems a long way from Africa for such a small plane.
Also: great entry, Geoff. I wasn't sure what bothered me so much about Keamy, but you nailed it. I told my girlfriend yesterday that he was "annoying", but that's not it: he makes my inner-teenager boil with impotent rage.
Oh, and I thought the teenaged Locke was incredibly well-cast, too.
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