NCB and Evil, can you say more about why the phone sex conclusion is bothering you?
To me it makes perfect sense. Frustrated and lonely paraplegic calls a sex-line for release. The woman is friendly and makes him feel better (in more ways than one). He calls back and asks for her specifically. Over time they simply engage in conversation. He falls for her, and mis-reads her friendliness as reciprocating his feelings for her. All this time she has no desire to inhibit his feelings for her because it’s an easy call. She makes money by simply carrying on a conversation instead of what she normally has to do – work at turning the guy on.
I think it is a perfect backstory for Locke. Fits well with the Blank Slate, “everyone gets a chance to start over” philosophy of the show. He’s a guy so lonely for companionship that he falls for the sex-line operator. Then on the island he’s this mysterious macho guy, with knives.
Keep up with the rest, SenorBeef! We’re on to a different part of that now. (Yes, not therapist. Other options may still exist, but I’m leaning towards phone sex. Just not quite sure yet.)
The thing that’s bothering me about the phone sex may be my real life unfamiliarity with how it operates. An hourly charge? hmmm The seemingly real (to him) chance they could meet in person? The very nature of the apparantly extended conversations over a period of months…
Sure, maybe the actual company running the line doesn’t care what’s being discussed, as long as they get the money. But… it just makes preflight Locke so horribly pathetic. Maybe the last reason is the biggest for me. I kind of like the Lost Locke character.
Still, I have to admit the phone sex argument is pretty darn strong.
I originally thought phone sex girl when the scene ended but have since then started leaning towards psychic hotline operator. It would be more in line with the show and the idea of it being Locke’s destiny. It was probably HER that years ago when he first called told him that he would go on a “walk about”. She of course probably didn’t know he was paralyzed and the idea of him going on this journey would’ve appealed to him. She would of course later find out he was in a wheelchair. This would then require either the “you can do it” = “don’t tell me what I cannot do” OR she might’ve implied that he was destined for a miracle. Either one or a combination of both scenarios would (for me) make a better scenario and fit the philosophical slant of the show thus far.
Would it be too much to hope that someone taped last night’s episode and is willing to send it to me? I’ll be happy to pay for postage or something. DirecTV was supposed to have my dish hooked up and didn’t get it done so I’m without cable until tomorrow.
I taped it. It might be easier for me to send you a copy than try to type out a summary. It might take me a few days to copy it, since I think I am out of blank tapes. I will post this in Jon’s LJ.
I said after the episode (and I always assumed she was a PSO) that Locke was now my favorite character. Sure, he looked pathetic, and lonely and sad and deluded. But after the plane crash, he’s . . . liberated. He can walk again, he has knives (which will definitely prove to be useful on a desert island) and he’s getting the chance to do what he came all the way to Australia to do but wasn’t allowed to. That’s kind of exhilarating to watch. (This assumes one ascribes his paralysis to some kind of psychosomatic disorder, which to me is the least distracting explanation, and could also lend itself to a plot point further on down the road.)
I just finished watching it (it is so hard to wait a day, but Tivo makes it worth it). Glancing through the comments, I would not read more into the phone sex thing. Normally it is by the minute, but if Locke had befriended an operator, they may have moved on past that, especially if he talks to her for extended periods of time.
I agree burning the plane during the day would make more sense, but Jack made a call on it, and nobody challenged him on it since he is the ‘leader’. I’m sure he knows the bodies won’t completely burn, but what other choice do they have? They can’t bury them and you sure as heck won’t send them out to sea.
There is too much to learn about Locke yet for me to even begin to speculate. His reaction to regaining the ability to walk seems a little too calm, though he had the first couple of days there alone to deal with it. I guess he didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and fully take advantage of the walkabout.
The one thing I did not notice anyone touch upon yet is Rose. In particular, what she said about her husband not being dead, but instead on another part of the island and he was thinking her side of the plane had also died. This is not the first time this was brought up (I forget who mentioned it the first time, but it wasn’t Rose) so perhaps there is something to it. At worst case, they run out of character development for these 48 and run into the ‘other’ group in a couple of seasons?
As for who the guy is, we can safely rule out Mr. Roarke since he deals in magic. I’m going to have to put my money on the dreaded Dr. Shrinker and his nefarious sidekick, Billy Barty.
They might speculate about the people in other parts of the plane, but in Kate’s flashback, they lost the rear of the plane at altitude. No one back there could have survived.
Fair enough, but how realistic is it that this middle portion survived? I’ll grant that those that actually FELL out are fish food, but for those in the tail piece? Perhaps pseudo science at work again.
Well, I wrote that, then finished the thread, and noticed that no one questioned the idea of a dial up shrink, and decided to post anyway.
I’d imagine they’d be happy enough with such a regular customer that they’d have special hourly rate plans… I’m guessing it’s uncommon but not unheard of. As to the rest… he was delusional.
Well, that’s part of the character. He was really dissatisfied with his life, somewhat delusional, but determined very much to change things. Here’s his chance. It makes the character more interesting in some ways than a mysterious bad ass who was a bad ass all along.
They had the engines and the wings. It’s more likely they survived than the pilot.
Algernon - the main thing bugging me is the hourly charge. I also got the impression that he’d just called her to tell her about the trip, not that he was telling her at the end of an hour’s conversation.
The only problem with that is that during their conversation Locke says they’ve been talking for 8 months, and later when he’s arguing with the tour guide he said he’d been preparing for the trip for years.
I’m not saying she isn’t a psychic, she may have encouraged his dream, saying it was his destiny.
I reallllly think you guys are reading more into the phone sex chick than there needs to be. He’s a lonely guy, confined to a wheelchair. The first thing that popped into my head during that scene was when Sgt. Dan got the hookers for he and Forrest; the only way they get love/attention is via credit card.
Locke may have been planning for the trip for years probably both mentally and physically, which is part of why he is so good with knives. He may have gone through endurance training so that he could use crutches to haul himself along the outback. That doesn’t change the fact that he lives alone as ‘less of a man’ (I don’t think he is, but many might) and as such, has to pay for phone sex.
During the course of the phone sex sessions, he develops a bond with the woman on the other end, befriends her, confides in her, etc. He has nobody else to talk to (his coworkers certainly aren’t the kind he can chat with) so his relationship with Helen strengthens and she amuses him, but she realizes that this is still just a working relationship. He finally goes ahead with his walkabout plans and wants to bring his ‘girlfriend/confidant’ with him at which point (and this is surely not the first time) she reminds him that their relationship is simply about the money. He probably calls enough that she’ll sometimes drop the charge, but she’s understandably creeped out at this point and lets him know that it is in fact about the money.
Despite that, when he gets winged by the boar, he temporarily thinks of her because he really does have feelings for her and calls her name.
I am not seeing anything psychic or any type of followup with her beyond showing the sad state of Locke’s life leading up to his desire to take this trip.
We don’t know how he wound up in the wheelchair yet, do we? What or why was he in the chair in the first place. People who have lost the use of their legs for long periods of time usually lose the muscle mass needed to use their legs even IF they were miraculously cured. I suspect that Locke hasn’t always been wheelchair bound. The impact did something to repair damage he experienced at some earlier time. Thus his hesitation in getting up after the boar incident. Profane I didn’t recall the 8 months comment, that would change things a bit. Perhaps she has kept his “hope” alive while draining his bank account. Maybe some psychic healer? That is a big thing with some folks desperate for a miracle cure. His legs are physically just too strong IMHO for this injury to have been for any extended length of time.
Yeah, I was thinking that too. But I wonder how much of it was just “we want to have a guy in a wheelchair who can walk again, and fans be damned if they want to nitpick about his legs having atrophied.”
I think people are reading too much about the Helen thing for no other reason than it seemed like it was just there to establish the guy’s loneliness and “impotence” (not necessarily the literal impotence). Not every single detail on the show has to be opened to scrutiny.
The whole Locke back story just boiled down to this: he’s a lonely guy in a wheelchair and a cubicle who plays out commando fantasies in his mind. That’s it. Now, we witness his growth on the island based on that.
We’re on to a different part of that now. (Yes, not therapist. Other options may still exist, but I’m leaning towards phone sex. Just not quite sure yet.)