To counterbalance the flawed man of science in Losts main protagonist Jack Shephard, the show gave us John Locke: a man initially set up to act as the spiritual yin to Jacks yang, the believer versus the sceptic. If theres a real secondary protagonist in the early going, its Locke and thats why its so senseless how the character ends up. The finale of season three shows us an unattended funeral and a coffin, revealing the events of Jacks flashback to actually be a flashforwards: Jack and some others will leave the island. The finale of season four reveals that the coffin contains Lockes body, while the fifth season episode The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham shows him resurrected, and details in flashback the events leading up to him leaving the island, suffering a crisis of faith and being murdered by Ben Linus. But its okay, right? I mean, we know that hes brought back to life when they bring his corpse back to the magic island hes dedicated his life to. So even though its damn harsh what happens to him off the island, his story is far from over except it is over. The season five finale reveals that the Locke we see back on the island, walking around being enigmatically cool and inscrutable again, isnt our beloved secondary protagonist but the antagonist: the demonic smoke monster, who can take Lockes form now the same way it took the form of other dead people. Far from being an engaging part of the narrative for seasons four and five, Lockes been on a collision course with a noose in a crappy hotel room, and thats all she wrote. Worse is the realisation that one of the shows best and brightest characters dies almost as an afterthought. Lockes murder carries almost no dramatic weight in Jeremy Bentham because its a flashback the beginning of that episode shows him resurrected again. Finding out in the season finale that he wasnt: that Locke died for good ages ago and that we should have mourned him then, is bad storytelling, and a poor way to treat such a special character.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
