Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Frustration Point













This is one of the things that really bugged me about Season 3 and especially the first half of Season 3 -- why after Locke's big speech about finding our friends did he not go look for Jack, Kate and Sawyer? Later he says he wasn't motivated, but damn John, what changed? Episodes 3-5 you were motivated, but a night on the beach listening to Charlie and Desmond sing soccer songs kills it?

Was it the case that Locke was waiting for backup to follow his message from the Island? Like he waited for Kate to enter the Hatch, was he waiting for her to go traipsing towards 305? Locke clearly isn't looking for Jack. In retrospect I'm amazed he didn't wait until Jack was on the sub to blow it up. Instead Locke was on his prevent anyone from leaving the Island tour, but why wait to embark upon it in the first place?

4 comments:

lost2010 said...

I liked the first half of the season, but you do have a point.

No wonder half the people won't leave the beach. If you disappear, they're going to look for you for a day - maybe 2 at the most. :)

And it's not just Locke. What happened to Sayid having Jack's back? Or Hurley? Had they just given them up for dead until Kate and Sawyer showed back up? And with his penchant for revenge, it was a little hard to believe that Sawyer didn't grab a gun and head right back to the Hydra whether he was interested in helping Jack or not.

Maybe we're just supposed to believe that the others had them so demoralized by that point, that they'd practically given up.

memphish said...

To me it feels most like TPTB were heading one way and then decided to head another. But it's why I really dislike Locke's pot farm flashback because after showing us his desire for a family and being the family savior then that whole thing went nowhere. Same with what was happening during Eko's episode. They see Patchy; Locke gets his stick message and then nothing. It takes Kate running back into the jungle to get the action moving again.

lost2010 said...

So what would that have original plan have looked like? Locke would have lead his search party off to the north. Later, Sawyer would have revealed to Kate that he let Karl go so they could follow him with her keen tracking skills. (At least, that's why I originally thought they let him go.)

Locke's party finds Mikhail and company. They could have had an encounter with Danielle along the way to give them time for the timelines to match up. That gives them a way to get to Otherville.

Following Karl, Kate and Sawyer find Jack playing football. Boy, now Sawyer's really going to be ticked that Kate made him come back for Jack. That would have been an argument to watch. Bet they would have stomped back into the jungle to regroup.

Where they would have met up with Locke's search party. Sawyer could have really made a jerk of himself by stomping back to camp where he'd have been able to participate in the bus project (one of my favorites).

Leaving, Locke, Kate, and Sayid to resume the story at the point where it really started getting good.

I'm terrible about getting started on one of these - if this one thing had been different tangents.

Trevor McFur said...

Maybe the death of Eko shook his confidence? He had this vision, saw Boone, and rescued Eko from the bear, which he believed meant that he was in tune with the island. Then, one or two days later, Eko's killed by the island in the form of the monster (not sure exactly how long it was, but I know that Eko was lying in the hut recovering when he wandered off). Also, how many days was it really in between the time that Eko died and Kate & Sawyer got back to camp. 'I Do' and 'Not in Portland' couldn't have taken more than a day or two of time, and K/S were back to camp by the end of 'Stranger'. So, three days, maybe 4, during which time he's trying to first figure out why the island killed Eko when two days before it wanted him saved, and then second trying to convince Sayid that he was killed because they're supposed to take his magic stick and go north to find Jack and company. I think that it adds up.