John Locke

(About the actor: Terry O'Quinn)

Flashback Episodes: "Walkabout", "Deus Ex Machina", "Orientation", "Lockdown", "Further Instructions", "The Man From Tallahassee", "The Brig," "Cabin Fever"


Introduction: Johnathan 'John' Locke is one of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. His paralysis was immediately healed upon crashing on the island, which has ultimately led him to believe that he has some sort of connection to the island. He is sometimes shown in antithesis to Benjamin Linus, sharing several traits including the ability to commune with Jacob and a mother named Emily. Seen as antithetical to Jack Shephard, he and Jack are philosophical opposites and share leadership among the survivors.

Hails from: Tustin, California

Status: Alive in Present Time. Confirmed Dead In Flash Forward (There's No Place Like Home - Part's 2 & 3)

Plane Section: Middle

Who he was before: Home inspector, Worked at a box company, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, anger management attendant, marijuana farm worker, sucker who got conned...twice

Who he is now: Survival expert and cool guy, great hunter, island mystic. He stays in a constant and quiet power struggle with Jack. Is responsible for the amount of high quality knives on the island. Believer in the spirit of the Island and destiny.The Others consider him to be "special."

Why he was in Australia: To go on a walkabout.

Daddy issues: He grew up in an orphanage; when his father resurfaced, it was only to con John into giving up a kidney. His father is also the reason his back was broken - when he confronted his father, Anthony Cooper (one of his many aliases), he threw him out of an 8 story window.

Locke's Mom: Locke's mother, Emily Annabeth, spent some time at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute (Hurley and Libby also spent some time there as well), around 1992 or 1995 (based on the papers Locke looks at in "Deus Ex Machina" ).

Romantic entanglements:
Pre-island: Met Helen in a therapy group, but she left him over his lies surrounding his father. Also had a thing with a phone-sex operator, "Helen", wink, wink.
On the island: Locke became close with Claire; however nothing developed and he is more of a father figure towards her.

Possible Namesake: John Locke was an important Enlightenment thinker that inspired Thomas Jefferson while writing the Declaration of Independence.

Island Adventures:
On the forty-four initial days (First season), Locke is the hunter and believer of the group of survivors. He leads the hunting group when they run low on food, and along with Michael and Kate they go hunting for boar. During the journey, he finds himself head to head with the Monster, and he later states to Jack "I've seen the eye of the Island, and what I saw, was beautiful". During Claire's search after her kidnapping by Ethan, he found, along with Boone, a hatch, which he ventured to open with the boy's help, believing he was meant to. Asking the island for instructions, he gets a dream of a Beech-craft and sees Boone injured, later to find it. He starts to lose his ability to walk -again-, and Boone must climb it, falling with it and dying. That day, he pounds at the hatch's door, and a light turns on -a signal that he should continue his quest-. John later admits that he attacked Sayid while he tried to triangulate Danielle's signal. On the season finale, along with Jack and the dynamite party they blow open the hatch, not after finding the monster and experiencing fear in his eyes. He tells Jack that each one of them was brought there for a reason, that the island gathered them - that it was destiny. He states that Boone was the sacrifice the island demanded.

The next twenty-three days (Second season), Locke spends most of his time pushing the mysterious button in the Swan hatch. Eko shows him the missing part of the Dharma tape, which further increases his faith in the island. Days after Henry Gale (soon to be known as Benjamin Linus) is captured, Locke's trapped in the hatch when the blast-doors fall, gravely injuring his leg, and getting a glimpse at a mysterious map drawn on the door, which depicts some of the hatches on the island. He isn't comfortable with Jack's lead over the group, and claims it's his hatch. When he's starting to lose faith in the island, after Benjamin tells him nothing happened when he didn't push the button, Eko partners with him after Ana Lucia's and Libby's deaths to find the ? point in the map, which it's revealed to be The Pearl station. Watching the video in which it's said that the Swan and the button is nothing more than an experiment, he's frustrated at the deception and stops pushing the button - not without Eko taking his role. With his leg coming back and leaving the crutches, he joins Desmond and tells him that they must stop Eko from pushing the button and figure out what happens if they don't do it. While locking Eko out, Desmond realizes he took down the plane the day he didn't press the button, but John destroys the computer, later to realize he was wrong.

During the start of the next season, Locke wakes up mute, and with Charlie's help builds a sweat lodge, in which Boone tells him that he was indeed the sacrifice the island demanded, and tells him he must save Jack, Sawyer and Kate, after cleaning up his own mess. He ventures in the jungle with Charlie to save Eko's life from the polar bears. He takes the role of the survivors' leader, and heads to the Pearl along with Sayid, Desmond, Paulo and Nikki to try to find Eko and a computer. After Eko's encounter with the Black Smoke, John tells him "What I saw was a beautiful light". Inside the hatch, they see a man with a patch (Mikhail) on one of the surveillance cameras in The Pearl, then are interrupted by the Smoke Monster killing Eko outside. He's told by the dying man "You're next." Locke tells Sayid the monster is what brought them to the island, and that Eko died for a reason - he had to find what it was. While burying Eko with his Jesus Stick, he reads the religious inscription "LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND LOOK NORTH JOHN" - he had finally received his further instructions.

Big secret:
Locke was paralyzed before crashing on the island. He father put him in his wheelchair by pushing him out an 8 story window.

Rose is the only one who ever appears to have noticed and mentioned anything about Locke in his wheelchair before the crash since she saw him in the airport. Locke did reveal this secret to Boone, but Boone took that secret to his grave.

Saw the Monster (Tells Jack that he saw the eye of the Island, and it was beautiful; told Sayid it was what brought them there; and told Eko he saw a beautiful light).

In "The Man from Tallahassee"we learn that John's father pushed him out of an 8 story building, when John confronted him about a murdered boy who had suspected him of being a Conman. John goes with Kate and Sayid to rescue Jack, after Kate tells them what Karl had told her. On the way there he kills Mikhail by pushing him into the sonic fence, when he didn't need to, though not before Mikhail explains how he got to the island- which is by submarine. It later turns out that Mikhail survived. Locke also steals C4 out of the flame, and puts it in Sayid's backpack.
When they get there, he leaves the backpack with Sayid and as Kate goes to Jack, he breaks into Ben's house with a handgun. When Alex comes to check on her 'father' Locke grabs her, and then hides with her in the closet when another Other comes to tell Ben that they have captured Kate and Sayid. Ben tells the guy "bring me the man from Tallahassee." The man leaves and John asks if that is code for something. Ben says "No, we don't have a code for 'there's a man in the closet with a gun to my daughter's head' although we obviously should."
Locke has Alex go retrieve Sayid's bag, supposedly under her father's orders. After a talk with Ben, he finds out that Ben can't understand why Locke is healed, and he is now in the wheelchair. Locke tells Ben that he is 'cheating' (he has the good luck to be on the island but is using electricity and other things) and supposes that is why they have switched places. As Locke goes to leave Ben says, "Imagine a big box, and anything you wish for can appear in it. What would you say to that?" Locke replies, "I hope it's big enough for you to wish a submarine into it."
Locke appears to blow up the sub. It looks like what Ben said during their talk is right, Locke doesn't want to leave the island because he is afraid he will be paralyzed again. Ben also asks Locke if he wants to stay on the island so he can be away from his father. John doesn't answer, but we have to wonder because... After the sub gets blown up and Locke is taken into captivity, Ben goes to Locke. John asks if he is going to start talking about the 'box' again. Ben says "No, I'm going to show you what came out of it." When John opens up a random door that Ben has brought him to, he gets a panicked look on his face once he sees what's inside... his Father.

Ben instructs Locke that he must kill his father in order to prove his devotion to the island and also learn its secrets. Locke attempts to sacrifice his father on the stone pillar at the Other's camp but realizes he cant do it, much to his Father's and seemingly Ben's delight. After he has Sawyer kill his father (since, as it turns out, this is the man who conned Sawyer's mother, leading to his being an orphan) and gives Sawyer Juliet's tape, he demands Ben take him to the mysterious Jacob. Ben reluctantly agrees.
On their journey, Locke notices gray powder on the ground, but Ben refuses to comment on it. Once at Jacob's house Ben says "Once I open this door there's no going back". Locke makes him open it and sees nothing but an empty chair. He thinks Ben is crazy when he speaks to the empty chair. Ben is constantly asking if he can see him, then when Locke turns away he hears "HELP ME" from the room, turning on the flashlight we see the house begins to act strangely with the door closing, windows breaking, the Lantern spilling and cracking, and as the camera changes, a figure in the chair. Locke runs out and Ben comes out incredulous of Locke saying what did you hear?
Later after walking Ben reveals that he was not part of the others initially and show the ditch with their bodies. He says, "I'm smart enough not to be down in that ditch, unlike you."
He shoots Locke who falls in the hole and the last we see of Locke in the episode is his supposedly last breath.
In the finale he sees Walt who tells him to get up because he has work to do. The next time we see him, he throws a knife into Naomi's back and is trying to stop Jack from calling for rescue.

Locke (through Jacob) has become the Island. He now has more clout than Ben. Locke is in charge and will let those who want to leave, leave; and those who want to stay, stay. But he loves the island and knows that it is his salvation.

Questions:
Q: How did Locke get paralyzed?
A: His father pushed him out of a 8 story high building.

Q: Why can he walk now?
A: The Island somehow gave him the ability to walk again.

Q: Why did Locke see a 'beautiful light' while Eko saw smoke? Did he actually see the monster that first time while hunting, or was it something else, given that his reaction when seeing the smoke monster while on the way to blow open the hatch was very different?
A: Well, as we know, Locke sees the Island as his destiny, so it could have just been a philosophical thing to say. He also thinks the monster is what brought them to the island, and is therefore a "light" to him.

Q: Was Henry really coming to get Locke when he was captured?
A: Possibly. Ben says that he's very interested in the connection that Locke has with the island; he doesn't understand why, he who has lived on the island his whole life, got a tumor and then an infection; when paralyzed Locke after being crashed on the island for 5 minutes is able to walk. However, anything that comes out of Ben's mouth could be a lie.

Q: If Locke is "one of the good ones", then why didn't the Others try to capture him before?
A: He's not. Mikhail said Locke was not on the list because he was too angry.

Q: Is Locke's father, the conman that was responsible for Sawyer's family crisis?
A: Yes, he is we find this out in the episode "The Brig". Locke's father operated under the alias "Tom Sawyer" at the time.

Q: Is Locke one of them?
A: No, He was clearly on the plane.

Q: Is Locke being chosen as Ben was 30 years ago?

Q: Locke was shot and left for dead by Ben at the end of The Man behind the Curtain. Will he really die or not?
A: That episode represented Locke appearing to take over from Ben. The Others appeared to defer more to Locke than to Ben. Ben's daughter handed Locke a gun before he went to see "Jacob", right in front of Ben. To have Locke die now seems too abrupt a reversal in the developing story line with Locke's ascendancy to be believable from the writers. There are way too many mysteries that the writers have created and not explained concerning Locke to let him leave the show now. Explaining them via flashbacks when Locke is dead just would not be very powerful TV.
In the finale we see he gets up and attempts, but failss to stop the other Losties from using the radio.

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