604: 'The Substitute'
Wr: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Melinda Hsu Taylor
Dr: Tucker Gates
Synopsis: Locke goes in search of aid to further help his cause.
Review: It says something about the strength of a show’s central concept when, after six years and over a hundred episodes, it still manages to run rings around virtually the entire competition with every single episode. ‘The Substitute’, Lost’s latest offering, is yet another example of how to write hugely suspenseful drama while offering a wealth of believable and satisfying character development at the same time. Sarnoff and Taylor’s script is pitched at the perfect pace to keep us on the edge of our respective seats, maintaining the sort of forward momentum that shows like 24 can only have wet dreams about. And what’s more, it slots a few more pieces into the collective jigsaw too, providing obliquely disguised answers (or rather, suggested answers) to a number of questions that have lingered for years, as well as teasing us with a slue of typically baffling moments that beg for further attention.
Inevitably, the majority of the more intriguing and head-scratching moments occur on-Island, as Smoke Monster Locke begins ‘recuriting’, in Ilyana’s words. This notion is fascinating enough in itself: what exactly is he recruiting for? His end game appears to be to leave the Island, but how many people does he need in order to do so and what purpose will they serve? As we discover at episode’s end, he wins Sawyer round to his side, which is a perfectly logical development for his character and also forms a wonderfully infuritating cliffhanger, the kind that makes you claw at the television set hoping for more, but his means of doing so are invariably predicated on manipulation. Effectively, he’s praying on the guy while he’s weak, when he’s at his most downtrodden in the wake of Juliet’s demise. Josh Holloway and Terry O’Quinn are excellent here, proving to be very effective foils for one another and delivering some truly stellar performances. Their final scene together in the cave is particularly intriguing, turning the previously established binary opposition between Jacob and Smokie on its head and suggesting that perhaps Marc Pellengrino isn’t quite the saviour that we’ve come to believe. The suggestion that he frivolously orchestrated the Losties’ plight in order to find a replacement for himself as ‘Island guardian’, when actually there’s nothing to protect it against, puts a rather interesting spin on things. It certainly isn’t outside of the realms of possibility within the show’s framework and provides further proof that Lindelof and Cuse really are masters of their art. Even at this late stage in the game, they are able to manufacture enough ambiguity and intrigue to keep their audience yabbering around the watercoolers for eons. The ‘candidate’ concept slots nicely into the mythology, offering a solid explanation as to the presence of our favourite castaways on the Island, and also produces a wonderful visual with the revelation of Jacob’s ceiling scribbles. Significantly, the Oceanic Six (and Sawyer) are demarcated by those numbers, and Smokie’s hint that his compatriot ‘had a thing for numbers’ seems to hint at further significance, and perhaps an eventual explanation, for these wonderfully obtuse buggers. However, it’s probably more intriguing to freeze-frame the thing and puruse those names that are crossed out. It’s almost a given that there’ll be some interesting tidbits in there, in much the same vein as the Hatch Map in season two.
There are other beguiling mythology crumbs scattered across our path too. The scales at the entrance to the cave, despite being ‘an in-joke’, seem to recall the black and white stones found in the pockets of ‘Adam and Eve’ (you know, the dead bodies) waaay back in season one and symbolically suggest at least a superficial alignment with the conventional binary opposition of ‘good and evil’, although, inevitably, it will be nowhere near this simple. We are clearly supposed to infer this but knowing Lindelof and Cuse, they will take great relish, six or seven episodes down the line, in stomping all over our expectations. Smokie’s tet a tet with Richard is loaded with meaning too, although most of it is conveyed by expression. It’s an interesting twist to have Alpert so visibly terrified at the presence of the monster in Locke’s form, yet stand his ground so firmly. To take a character who has, up until this point, appeared all-knowing and powerful (he doesn’t age, for God’s sake!) and expose him as perhaps little more than Jacob’s lackey is a brave and fascinating move. And what about the notion that Smokie was once a man? What could have happened to transform him into a pillar of black smoke? Did the Island do this to him? Is that why he so desperately wants to leave it? Where does he want to go? Will something horrible happen to the Island if it is abandoned without a guardian or will it make no difference, as he seems to suggest? And just who is the boy that Sawyer can see but Richard can’t, telling fake-Locke that he ‘can’t kill him’ because ‘you know the rules’? And what does he mean by that? This is wonderfully oblique stuff, providing the viewer with significant food for thought while drip-feeding enough hints to reward perseverance.
Since this is a Locke-centric episode, O’Quinn is given a chance to shine and boy, does he. In Smokie, it’s quite remarkable that the actor is able to create someone so intrinsically yet, in paradoxical fashion, subtely different to his usual character. As Sawyer notes, it’s clear that this is not John Locke, but it’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint exactly how O’Quinn manages to achieve this. There are notable nods to the character, particularly in some of his dialogue (‘don’t tell me what I can’t do’ is a nice nod to seasons past) and this approach to those with whom he comes into contact (offering Richard water is a moment that springs immediately to mind). Regardless of the how, this is nevertheless a brilliant accomplishment, and it works well in juxtaposition with the self-doubting Locke of the episode’s flash sideways. It’s pleasing to see this element occupy the B-storyline position, thereby placing greater emphasis on the developments to the show’s mythology and avoiding the slight problem suffered by ‘What Kate Does’ of seeming a little futile at times. However, that doesn’t lessen its impact. There are some very interesting moments here, particularly the manner through which Locke comes into contact with fellow 815 passengers. Clearly, the show is illustrating that the lives of these individuals were destined to be intertwined regardless of the outcome of the flight, but thankfully, it is presented in such a way that it refrains from seeming hokum. Hurley’s inclusion in the narrative is completely logical, given that it was previously established that he owned the box company, while Rose and Ben’s appearances serve to make points about certain aspects of Locke’s character. Sarnoff and Taylor provide a nice mixture of the comedic and the emotional here, setting sequences such as the teaser in which John falls into the sprinklers in paradigmatic comparison with moments such as his unceremonious firing and, most importantly of all, Helen tearing up Shephard’s card. This is a wonderfully executed scene, really getting to the heart of Locke’s neuroses and providing a semblance of happiness and serendippity for a character who has suffered somewhat at the mercy of the writer’s pen over the years.
There are a few other points worthy of note too: the scene in which Sun, Ilyana, Ben and Lapidus bury Locke’s body is a brilliant slice of black humour, capped off by Ben’s confession. The cliff-face ladder descent is expertly harrowing, executed perfectly by the production crew to give the viewer vertigo just by watching a few seconds of it. There’s also a marvellous sequence within the first five minutes in which the camera takes the first person perspective of the smoke monster, which manages to add snippets to the established mythology by suggesting what it is that Smokie is doing when certain noises are made (eg the ‘tick-tick’ noises appear to be when he floats high over the ground etc.) It’s also exceedingly eerie, particularly as we are treated to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reflection in the window of one of the DHARMA houses. The only aspect of the episode that grates, really, is the inclusion of the ‘minor’ flashbacks within the standard narrative to demonstrate how Jacob entered the lives of his ‘candidates’ in the season five finale (and also the incorporation of shots of his death). These seem rather superfluous for a show that has as devoted and solid an audience as Lost. The show doesn’t really attract casual viewers and as such, virtually everyone watching will be aware of what is being referred to. It just seems a little unnecessary and doesn’t really treat the audience with the level of intelligence that the show so traditionally has. Still, this is a minor quibble and doesn’t have a great impact on the overall quality of the episode.
‘The Substitute’ is an expertly written episode that provides enough dramatic development, suspense and intrigue to thoroughly immerse the viewer in the experience and leave you desperate for more once the final, fantastic cliffhanger rolls around. There are also some lovely character moments on offer, particularly in Locke’s flash sideways, as well as a tonne of questions to pass the time in the office on Monday morning. Once again, Lost maintains its reputation as just about the best damn thing on television. What are we going to do when it’s all over? 9.4
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