Why I Still Have Faith In John Locke – Thoughts Post “Incident”

There was a moment during “The Incident” that I began to see the clues concerning Locke’s true rebirth piece together — The ‘reincarnation’ van, Ben’s reference to “Doubting Thomas”, even Loophole-Locke’s desire to revist Locke so that Richard Alpert could convince him to die. An act in which Ben served as a pawn, only to be surpassed by his service to Loophole-Locke once more in the shadow of the statue.

Quite a turn around for Ben, quite a loophole for Loophole-Locke.

So moments before true-Locke toppled out of the box, I realised that what we have been witnessing was the latest in a long line of attempts by ‘Loophole’ – Jacob’s rival – to put a halt to Jacob’s offerings to mankind. I should have seen it at the start of the episode, of course — The moment Loophole said that he wanted Jacob dead, tallied with his desire for Ben to kill the leader – in other words, he couldn’t do it himself, similar to Widmore and Ben being unable to kill one another.

Locke has always been the underdog, the guy with heart, courage and defiance in the face of defeat, and dare I say, destiny (Yeah, I said it!). He was led to the island, and led to believe that he was special. If what we’ve seen of Locke in season 5 has been, for the most part, an impostor, then I very much doubt with seen the last of true-Locke. If he’s out there somewhere (and I believe he is), then I have faith that he’ll find his own loophole and return to fulfil his destiny in season 6. It would be more fitting that way, in the final hour of the journey..

I realise that dead is dead. But what if it isn’t? Are we not dealing more with alternate time-lines and ‘loops’ than a linear path? Could the incident (thanks Juliet!) converge time-lines, causing certain things to change whilst others remain the same? Could this somehow rebirth true-Locke or reset certain pieces in the game?

Or maybe Jacob himself has a plan? Others have convinced me that Jacob ‘wanted’ Ben to kill him. Although Jacob may have been conceding to Ben’s freewill when he uttered, coldly; “what about you?”, perhaps these were the words need to out in motion his own counter plan? After all, one aspect of Loophole-Locke’s journey that doesn’t sit right with me is his seeming lack of knowledge over what happened to Ben down in the Temple. If he’s to be believed it would seem that he didn’t know that Alex (aka Smokey? aka Jacob? aka Island) told Ben to do whatever ‘Locke’ told him (including, ultimately, stabbing Jacob). So what if THAT was Jacob’s own strategy – convincing Ben to do what Loophole-Locke said so that his long-con could play out?

I don’t know what that long-con could be, but I have to believe that Jacob had a plan – that he knew from the moment Ajira 316 landed [on the small island] that his rival had taken advantage of his faith in mankind by body-hopping John Locke. As Jacob said, it only ends once – perhaps his sacrifice is part of the progress needed to convince the island that mankind can change, that we can prosper rather than destroy and corrupt.

Personally, I’m rather relived that ‘Loophole’ didn’t turn out to be the Locke we know and love – something never felt quite right. What makes Locke Locke are his flaws and his ability to overcome obstacles whilst retaining a sense of compassion and..humanity. If Jacob is to ever convince the island [or whomever] that mankind deserves a chance, then the story will need the Locke’s and Hurley’s of this world to do that.

So maybe I’ll have to get used to the loss of Locke, but until the last moment of the series, I’m still holding out hope that he will return to save the day.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

Preach!