Lost Season Six Episode Four The Substitute

Season 6 Episode 4: The Substitute

Quick Recap, Questions, and Observations…    

Off the island story

Locke and Helen are together and planning a marriage. They are apparently on good terms with Locke’s father as they speak of inviting him to the wedding. Locke gets fired, meets Hurley, Hurley hooks him up with a temp agency where he meets Rose, then Rose gets him a job as a substitute teacher where he meets Ben Linus who is a European History teacher.

On the island story

New Locke sees visions of a small boy (presumably a young Jacob) New Locke then tries to recruit Richard and Sawyer to join his side. Richard turns him down but is obviously scared of New Locke and Sawyer tags along to see what New Locke knows. They go to a cave where New Locke shows Sawyer a bunch of names written on the walls where many of them are scratched out with the exception of a few. He says these are possible candidates to replace Jacob as the island’s protector. The names that were not scratched out were, Locke, Sheperd, Kwon, Reyes, Ford, and Jarrah. For those of you who are not good at keeping track of last names these names imply John Locke, Jack Sheperd (maybe his nephew) , Sun or Jin Kwon (maybe their child), Hugo Reyes, James (Sawyer) Ford, and Sayid Jarrah.

Light – vs – Dark

In this episode I’ve noticed several, possibly insignificant, details referring to light versus dark. Whether or not they have any actual meaning I don’t know, but I just feel like pointing them out.

1) In the timeline without Jacob’s influence Helen gives Locke the choice between two colors, light green and dark green. John chooses light green then changes his choice to dark green to accommodate Helen’s favorite. Maybe a reference to the evolution of John Locke’s character throughout the seasons ?
2) Back on the island New-Locke (smoke monster) tries to recruit Richard. Richard declines but seems clueless to what is really going on. New Locke tells him he would never keep him in the “dark” like Jacob has.
3) After New Locke and Sawyer travel down Jacob’s ladder into Jacob’s cave – Locke takes a white rock off of a scale and throws it into the ocean leaving only the dark rock left with the scale tipping in it’s favor.
4) Helen’s fingernails were painted black.

Questions

1) Sheperd was on the list in Jacob’s cave, but in Season 3 the Others state that  Jack, “Isn’t even on Jacob’s List.” So, does this mean that the list shown to us wasn’t Jacob’s list ? Or, did Jacob lie about his list to the Others for some reason? Or does this mean that Claire’s son is a candidate and Jack never was?
2) If John and his father have a good relationship in this timeline without Jacob’s influence, did he still become paralyzed from his father throwing him out of a window? If not, how did he get paralyzed?
3) Why does the island require a protector?
4) Why can Sawyer and New Locke see the young kid and not Richard ?
5) The young “Jacob” tells New Locke he can’t kill Sawyer because that would be breaking the rules. What are these rules and who enforces them? I find it highly unlikely that it’s just a gentlemen’s agreement between Jacob and the Man in Black.
6) Why is Iliana crying about Jacob’s death, why did she take some of his ashes, and why does she seem to know so much?
7) What role will Claire’s child (Jack’s Nephew) play? What about Sun and Jin’s child?

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