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Half way through “The Substitute” I knew I wasn’t paying enough attention to the episode. It’s not that I was paying less attention than usual, simply that you can’t really do this episode justice without sitting there taking notes – they just gave us so much to think about.

I went into this episode with a couple of thoughts. I was pretty sure it’d be Locke centric, the preview showed a conversation between Locke and Randy Nations, if memory serves. I also knew the title – “The Substitute”. This made me think about the conversation between Eloise Hawking and Jack in the Lamp Post station. She explained to Jack that they needed to take Locke’s body with them, as a “proxy” for Christian’s body. “Proxy” and “substitute” – it wasn’t too big a leap of faith to assume that the episode would tackle something to do with Locke’s body on the Ajira flight. That was about as far as my thoughts for this episode went.

We spend a good amount of this episode accompanying divergent timeline Locke. We see his suburban home – living the “American Dream” by the look of it.

This leads me to something I personally thought was very interesting. Stubborn as always, Locke tries to wheelie off his broken wheelchair lift, instead of calling for help. Not sure I blame him personally. He ends up sprawled on the grass, his wheelchair folded beside him to add insult to injury. His body language says “well that sucked, but I will persevere” and then the sprinklers click on. I swear his reaction here is one of good humour. He seems to be laughing at the situation! Especially while talking to Helen (nice to see her alive!). Other people have mentioned to me that he seems upset, hurt, but I really didn’t see it that way. To see him finding amusement in the situation made me think that this is a happier Locke, a Locke that is less angry at his situation. Less stubborn, but still trying to look after himself.

We find out that John and Helen are getting married, and appear to be very much in love. Helens comments about “destiny” are very reflective of the Locke we know. What ARE the chances of him running into a spinal surgeon? Well, fairly good in Lost!

She mentions his father here, this is a funny little rabbithole to climb down. If he and his father are on good terms, then perhaps his father isn’t a con man, perhaps he never got pushed out of the window. So why’s he in a wheelchair, and are Sawyers parents still alive?

We see Smokey zooming around the island, appearing to manifest himself as Locke to pick up a machete and cut Richard down. Richard is quite the contrast to Ben, looking quite surprised at his hurt, abused state. We’re used to seeing a bloodied up Ben Linus. But Richard is usually looking handsome and well dressed. Does this count as proof that Locke is definitely inhabited by Smokey? I’d say so, we’re not going to see CGI morphing between Locke and Smokey anytime soon.

Turns out that the divergent timeline hasn’t done anything to make Randy Nations any less of a “douche”. He comments on Locke’s Australia-tan and tortures him for a while instead of straight out asking where Locke was. Thing is, I would’ve liked an answer to this question myself. In our timeline Locke was turned away, but the walkabout company bought him an early flight home. But in this timeline things seem a bit different. Locke says “why don’t we just call it my vacation week” – inferring he was away for a week. If he intended to go on walkabout it’s safe to say that he went to the tour company as soon as he arrived in Australia. Assuming they turned him away then, he’d still have the rest of the week to kill. Randy comments on his tan – I doubt you’d be getting much of a tan if you few straight back home, and I doubt he’d have been sitting at home all that time. So did this Locke stay in Australia? If i’m right about this version of Locke being less stubborn he may well not have got quite as angry in the tour place, and may not have been bought an early flight home. So I say again, what did he do with the week? Why didn’t he just go to the conference? Maybe he went to see Isaac the healer.

“Richard, I’m sorry I hit you in the throat and dragged you off the beach”. Now there’s a hell of a line. The dialogue between Richard and “Locke” was very interesting. Let me break something down.. Richard told actual-Locke that he had to die. He told him this because fake-Locke told him to say it. So does that mean that fake-Locke manipulated Ben into killing Locke (a candidate) so he could take on Locke’s body and use it to manipulate Richard into letting he and Ben near Jacob and manipulate Ben into killing Jacob? If this is the case then MY GOD fake-locke has game.

Add Richard to the list of people who seem to know who fake-Locke actually is, a list which does not include us. People think that fake-Locke is the Man In Black, and also Smokey. I think the latter is definitely true, and the former is probably true – but till we find out for sure I’m not placing money on anything. Richard and fake-Locke have a history, seems that fake-Locke has tried to recruit him before! He plays the “Jacob didn’t tell you anything” card, I guess now Richard knows what Ben was going through.

Then the boy appears. The sound you can hear at this point is thousands of people rewinding their Tivos. What’s with the Jesus stance and the bloody hands? Why does fake-Locke look so disturbed by this? Isn’t he supposed to know what’s happening?! I mean, sure, you see a kid standing in a beam of light with bloody hands, you’re going to be taken aback – but if you happen to be a dude who can turn into smoke, shouldn’t you be a bit less shocked?

The kid’s gone before Richard see’s him, but I doubt Richard would’ve had a clue anyway. I’m not sure if the kid turning up is why fake-Locke decides to let Richard go, or if he was going to do that anyway.

Illana knows what’s going on. I bet. She’s got a close relationship to Jacob, we’ve seen him come to her and ask for help. I think she leads this… “force” that were trying to protect him. She takes his ashes, we know ashes have significance. Maybe she’s going to try to bring him back, or maybe she’s going to use them against Jacob’s enemy.

If I was fake-Locke, and I was recruiting, I think I’d go for Sawyer first. “This isn’t your house… You just lived here for a while”. Reminds me of divergent timeline Locke’s conversation with divergent timeline Jack about his fathers body not being his father. His reaction to Sawyers accusation of “not being Locke” was interesting too. He doesn’t say he’s not Locke, perhaps because Locke IS still part of him?

Nice to see that Hurley still has his yellow Hummer. Also nice that he’s lucky enough not to get it scratched by Locke’s lift. I love happy Hugo. Then again I think he’s fantastic in every part of this show, and I’m sure he’s the key to the whole mystery. The way he interacts with John here is almost on par with Jacob visiting the candidates.

Illana points out that she knows who Jin is. How does she know that? Maybe Ben told her, maybe Jacob told her, maybe she’s researched all the “candidates”. Burying Locke is a good idea. But I’ve talked about burying too many times.

The kid appears again, great, as if we haven’t been creeped out enough already! fake-Locke is surprised that Sawyer can see him. Lets talk about that. Hurley can see people that other people can’t. They’re either in his imagination, or they’re dead. Perhaps this is also true here. fake-Locke assumes this boy is a manifestation of the dead, but as soon as he finds out that Sawyer can see him he realises the kid is real – hence the chase.

“You know the rules, you can’t kill him”. Seems obvious that he’s talking about Sawyer here. Sawyer is a candidate, you can’t kill candidates. As I mentioned previously it seems that fake-Locke had to work pretty hard to get Ben to kill Locke (a candidate) so perhaps the kid is just reminding fake-Locke that he can’t simply do away with Sawyer himself.

I want to talk about something here, a series of books close to my heart. Written by a Russian author called Sergei Lukyanenko they follow the struggle between two sides – light and dark, who have sworn to uphold a balance between them. The members of these two sides are abnormal humans with certain abilities. Whenever a new person of this kind is “tapped” he is unaligned, somewhere between the two sides. Neither side is allowed to directly force the person to join, but instead can try to guide them to find their own path – select their own side.

This scene reminded me of the books. We’re talking about two sides, who have rules, and are portrayed as light and dark. Perhaps Jacob and Man In Black have spent all this time maintaining balance, influencing people to join their respective sides. Jacob kept bringing people to the island to try to tip the balance into his favour, but Man In Black thought the whole thing was a waste of time. He’s sick of it, he just wants to end it all. He’s playing dirty now, killing people. Perhaps this kid is just reminding fake-Locke that, if he wants to do something, the most he can do is influence Sawyer, not just kill him. Or maybe not.

A great moment here is fake-Locke screaming John-Locke’s catchphrase. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do”. Is some of Locke still in there? Perhaps fake-Locke just has enough of John’s personality and memory absorbed that it felt like the right thing to say.

Rose gives a little speech about getting over her cancer depression. Living her life. Didn’t she just get back from seeing the Australian healer? Probably not!

I like hearing fake-Locke say that he used to be a man. I believe this. But I’m not sure if he’s talking about Locke’s experience, or from his own. Either could be the case.

Mr Eko’s church appeared again. I miss Eko. How would things be different if he was still in the show? I’m sure they had big plans for him.

I think Ben is telling the truth when he says he thinks Locke was a better man than him, and that he’s sorry for the murder. I do honestly believe he means it.

John talks about there being no such thing as a miracle. Maybe my previous idea about the faith healer wasn’t so far off the mark. Maybe he went to see the healer and had a bad experience.

I’m not sure about this scene with fake-Locke and Sawyer on the ladders. If fake-Locke wanted Sawyer dead he could have just let him fall. Maybe he IS recruiting, or tying to influence Sawyer. The white and black stones on the scales are fun. I don’t understand using the ceiling as a place to write.. But then again, I have enough time getting cogent thoughts down on a piece of paper.

John as a substitute teacher, delightful. Ben as a teacher, wondrous. This moment really bothered me though. Seeing Johns face when he refers to himself as a “substitute”, and the cut straight to fake-Locke’s smug face. Uh oh.

Jacob had a “thing for numbers” but apparently not for names – Shepherd’s name on the wall. But doesn’t specifically say “Jack”. Same with “Kwon”. He does imply that it DOES mean Jack, but didn’t Mr Friendly say that Jack wasn’t on Jacob’s list? fake-Locke points out that Jacob really did manipulate all of the candidates, manipulated them on key points in their lives. We all assumed this, and apparently it was true.

Sawyer listens to fake-Locke suggest that Jacob manipulated him, pushed him to the island, but seems happy to accept fake-Lockes suggestion that they leave – without worry. Silly.