# LOST 6.4 "The Substitute" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234 "2010-02-16T19:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/21 "2010-02-17T02:54:37Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > This whole episode could be summed up in about a brief paragraph. please astound us ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/22 "2010-02-17T02:55:42Z")
Hah!! In the alternate timeline, Ben is a school teacher! Molding fresh young minds? Warping them into demonic evil little beasties? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/23 "2010-02-17T02:56:43Z")
It’s the numbers! ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/24 "2010-02-17T02:57:37Z")
4 - Locke 8 - Reyes 15 - Ford 16 - Jarrah 23 - Shepherd 42 - Kwon sweet… where’s Kate’s name? Jacob visited her, too ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/25 "2010-02-17T02:59:33Z")
Yep – Esau’s “home” is off-island (not the Temple). He wants off. And he has him a recruit. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/26 "2010-02-17T03:01:11Z")
Locke is now a SCIENCE teacher. Get it. Get the irony? If not, we will continue to shove it down your throats. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/27 "2010-02-17T03:02:27Z")
I don’t like Locke in any of his incarnations. and I can’t believe my Sawyer is really falling for him. and I think the alternate timeline is a big fat waste of time. I’m not gonna care about it until I have any reason to. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/28 "2010-02-17T03:03:12Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Locke is now a SCIENCE teacher. Get it. Get the irony? If not, we will continue to shove it down your throats. Uh, I thought he was a substitute teacher, but yes, it was science. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/29 "2010-02-17T03:10:00Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > She also made a comment about getting together with her mom and his father, or something to that effect. Obviously the non-crash timeline changes start earlier than just Flight 815. Hurley goes by his given name, Hugo, and is happy and lucky. Not everything is different, though – his supervisor Randy is still a dick. I wonder whether John actually has a relationship with his father in the non-crash timeline – and if so, how did he end up in the wheelchair in that timeline? She mentioned that they get her parents and his dad together for a quickie wedding. It also has me wondering what you are wondering. SURELY he didn’t forgive his dad for pushing him out a window?! > [@stpauler](#): > > Locke is now a SCIENCE teacher. Get it. Get the irony? If not, we will continue to shove it down your throats. Eh, he’s a substitute phys-ed/health teacher. Not a real teacher (in Ohio at least, anyone with a bachelor’s degree can be a sub) and not really science. Around here, the phys-ed/health spots go to whoever is willing to take the job that day. Many subs would blow that one off. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/30 "2010-02-17T03:25:47Z")
Holy smokes. We finally get a peak at some meaning behind those numbers. So, Jacob assigned each of the cadidate men a number value, but we don’t know what that value _means._ I’m assuming 42 = Jin, since the rest are guys. Any ideas on what the number value stands for concerning to whom they’re assigned? Also… That boy. Perhaps he’s some all powerful gamemaster of the island. He makes the rules, and Jacob & “Esau” have been nothing but pawns in some cruel game they’re trying to escape from. That is if he’s some new character, and not some weird time-twisting possibility of someone we’re already aquainted with, like Jacob (or Aaron) ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/31 "2010-02-17T03:27:11Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > She mentioned that they get her parents and his dad together for a quickie wedding. It also has me wondering what you are wondering. SURELY he didn’t forgive his dad for pushing him out a window?! Unless in the alternate events he was paralyzed in some other way. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/32 "2010-02-17T03:28:35Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Also… That boy. Perhaps he’s some all powerful gamemaster of the island. He makes the rules, and Jacob & “Esau” have been nothing but pawns in some cruel game they’re trying to escape from. That is if he’s some new character, and not some weird time-twisting possibility of someone we’re already aquainted with, like Jacob (or Aaron) I wonder if he ever spent any time hanging out with WAAAAAAALTT! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/33 "2010-02-17T03:32:06Z")
I’m fairly certain the little kid is young Jacob. Which would explain why 1) some people can’t see him, 2) why Locke recognized him, and 3) why Locke was so freaked out by him. The “you can’t kill him” was directed at Sawyer. I’m thinking all the candidates are protected by the same loophole that Jacob was. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/34 "2010-02-17T03:41:40Z")
The boy looked very much like a boy they would use if they ever showed us a child version of Jacob. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/35 "2010-02-17T04:10:09Z")
Frank: “Worst damn funeral I’ve ever been to.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/36 "2010-02-17T04:12:52Z")
I wonder if Widmore is relevant to the show any more… if we’ll be seeing any more about him (or about Eloise) ---
**Author:** ![BMada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@BMada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMada)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/37 "2010-02-17T04:34:36Z")
i liked the Penny/Desmond thing too, doubt that’ll get any play with the flash sideways. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/38 "2010-02-17T04:36:48Z")
> [@BMada](#): > > i liked the Penny/Desmond thing too, doubt that’ll get any play with the flash sideways. We saw Desmond feature in one the very first scenes this season, so I wouldn’t count them out. And Eloise’s comment last season about Desmond being involved a conflict that began a long time ago makes me think that she and Widmore know more about the Jacob/Esau conflict that Ben ever did. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/39 "2010-02-17T04:41:18Z")
Aha, now THAT was my LOST, back after last week’s snoozefest! :eek: 😕 😕 😃 I like the idea of the blond kid being Aaron, but it does actually look like little Jacob and it would make more sense given Flocke’s reaction to him. Notice they didn’t show Kate’s name or her touch by Jacob; in fact, Evangeline didn’t appear at all besides, in NYC at least, her L’Oreal commercial in the last break. Sweet. Aside from wanting a little more closure on the Jin/Claire meetup, this was almost perfect. I loved the Smokey-eye view (not that he has eyes) of him rushing around the island. Loooove Katey Sagal and the worst funeral ever (glad they buried Locke, I was wondering how the master embalmer in LA’s work was going to hold out). ---
**Author:** ![BMada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@BMada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMada)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234/40 "2010-02-17T04:42:56Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > We saw Desmond feature in one the very first scenes this season, so I wouldn’t count them out. And Eloise’s comment last season about Desmond being involved a conflict that began a long time ago makes me think that she and Widmore know more about the Jacob/Esau conflict that Ben ever did. but Desmond disappeared so quickly, as if he was a ghost. Perhaps he’s married with Penny in the flash sideways universe. Perhaps Penny doesn’t even exist since she’s on the new Flash Forward series. They’ll write her out like they did with Juliet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-6-4-the-substitute/529234.md?page=3)