Season 4, Episode 11: Cabin Fever recap

This week, on American Dreams! I mean, Lost.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Out.”

“With who? Him?”

“Yes, and you can’t stop me. We’re in love.”

“He’s twice your age, Emily.”

“So what, Mom. Are you jealous?” Probably.

Emily runs out the door and into the rain. Then, inexplicably, she runs right into the street without looking where she’s going.

Take that, Mom! Jealous much?

After a flash of white light, we see Emily regain consciousness in a hospital, where she tells a nurse that she’s almost six months pregnant. Next thing you know, she’s poppin’ out a preemie. The nurse tells her it’s a boy, and he’s okay, just “real early.” She can’t hold him either – “he’s just too little” – but as the nurses wheel him away, she shouts, “Name him John, okay? His name is John!” John Locke!

Back on the island, a decidedly older Locke leads Hurley and Ben through the jungle. Or does he? I still think Ben is pulling strings.

Locke asks Ben how long till they get to the cabin, but Ben says he’s been following Hurley. “I’m not even in front,” says Hurley. Ben says he doesn’t know where the cabin is, Hurley saw it last. Not it! “Oh, this is just awesome,” deadpans Hugo. Ben asks Locke what he thinks they should do, and he decides to make camp. “What? Here, in the dark, with the monster, and….” he nods towards Ben, “him?” Locke half-heartedly assures him it’s okay, even though he admits he still doesn’t know what to do when the freighter gang gets back. Not yet, anyway.

Sweet dreams!

Back on the freighter, Sayid wakes Desmond. The chopper’s back.

Keamy and the boys unload their injured man. The doc asks what happened. “Black pillar of smoke threw him 50 feet in the air,” states Keamy. “Ripped his guts out.” That is what happened. Keamy rolls up on Sayid and asks how many people are on the island and where they are. And why would I do that, asks Sayid? Keamy recognizes the rhetorical nature of his question and moves on to Captain Gault.

“You gave me up. Linus. He knew who I was, he knew my name, he knew everything about me.” Nope, not me, says Gault. They head down below to confront Michael, who acknowledges that, yes, he told Ben about Keamy.

So he shoots Michael in the head and kills him. Except no bullets come out, and he doesn’t kill him. Gault tells Keamy that they need Michael to fix the engines, because he’s the one who broke them. Keamy makes one of his psycho nutjob faces and knocks Michael out.

Break.

Morning, Locke.

What’s that sound? Hurley and Ben keep sleeping as Locke goes to check it out. It’s Horace Goodspeed chopping down a tree. “Hello there,” he says. Locke asks who it is and what he’s doing. “Building a place. Little getaway for me and the missus. Sometimes you need a break from the DI, ya know? The Dharma Initiative? I’m not making any sense, am I.” No, says Locke. “That’s probably because I’ve been dead for 12 years,” says Horace.

Then Horace chops the same treee again. “Hello there!” Locke looks up and, well, the tree is still there, unchopped.

It’s great that hints of time travel and time looping are ubiquitous on Lost now, not only weekly but throughout most episodes. Great, i tell you. Horace continues. “You gotta find me, John. You gotta find me. And when you do, you’ll find him.”

“Who?”

“Jacob. He’s been waiting for you a real long time, man.” Horace goes back to chopping. “I’m Horace.” Pleased to meet you! “Godspeed, John.”

Creepy. Was Ben in John’s head? It feels that way.

Locke shakes Hugo to wake him up. “Mallomars,” Hugo mutters. Haha, nice dream. Time to go, says Locke. “I thought we didn’t know where we were going?” We do now, says Locke.

Ben keeps staring at Locke, or undressing him with his eyes, one or the other. “I used to have dreams,” says Ben. About Mallomars? Oh, about the island. Locke nods like, Okay playa, let’s go.

“Hi Emily, Mrs. Locke. It’s good to see you,” says the nurse. Emily asks how he’s doing. “He’s amazing. He’s the youngest preemie ever to survive in this hospital. He’s had infections, pneumonia, you name it. And every time, he knocked them out. He is a fighter, your little John.”

“That’s wonderful,” says Mrs. Locke, as if she doesn’t care at all. Then – get this – she CHECKS HER WATCH.

We keeping you from something important? What’s that all about.

The nurse continues. “The other girls say he’s a miracle baby. And today, we’re gonna take him out of the incubator, so you can hold him for the very first time.”

“I…I can’t do this. I’m sorry, I can’t!”

She runs out out of the room. Chicken! Her mom casually asks who to talk to about adoption as she prepares to light a cigarette. No smoking, says the nurse. Sorry, says Mrs. Locke, who turns to see a mystery man watching them.

“is that the father?” asks the nurse.

“I…I don’t know who that is.”

Whoa nellie! It’s Richard Alpert, looking the same as ever. He nods to Mrs. Locke, possibly as if they know each other, which is somewhat corroborated by her reaction to seeing him and her stammering denial about knowing him.

So what’s he doing here? No answers now. He walks away.

Break!

Locke leads Hugo and Ben through the jungle. Hurley asks why he’s here. Because you can see the cabin, says Locke, and that makes you special. “Well, I have a theory as to why we’re the only ones who can see it.” Love to hear it, says Locke. “I think we can see it cuz we’re the craziest.” Tee hee.

Locke tells Hugo they’re making a pit stop first. Where? “You ever wonder what happened to the Dharma Initiative, Hugo? There must have been at least a hundred of them living on this island, manning the stations, building those homes, making all that ranch dressing that you like. And then one day, they’re all gone. They just disappeared. You want to know where we’re going? We’re going to see them.”

“Whoa. What happened to them?”

Locke nods at Ben. “He did.” Ben gives him a look like, Sure, it’s always my fault. (Usually, yes.)

Break.

Lil’ Locke. And he’s playing backgammon. Adorable. His foster mom tells him he has a visitor.

Yikes! Richard again. Foster mom puts Lil’ Locke on his best behavior and leaves him alone with a stranger, because that’s appropriate.

“Do you like backgammon?” Lil’ Locke nods. “You seem to have a pretty good sense of the game. I’m Richard, John. I run a school for kids who are…extremely special. And I have reason to believe that you might be one of them. Mind if I show you a couple of really neat things?” Lil’ Locke nods to indicate that he doesn’t mind. Then Richard gets up and sees this!

Smoke Monster? “Did you draw this, John?” Lil Locke nods yes. Richard sits him down. “I want you to look at these things, and think about them.”

“Now, tell me, John, which of these things belong to you.”

“To keep?”

“No, no, John, which of these things belong to you…already.”

Lil’ Locke looks at all the stuff. He takes the vial of sand-looking stuff. He takes the compass.

Then, after some deliberation, he takes the knife.

“You sure the knife belongs to you, John? You sure about that?”

Lil’ Locke nods in the affirmative.

Richard yanks the knife away from him. “No, it doesn’t.” Richard gets up hurriedly to leave. Fine, who needs him anyway? Foster mom comes in to see how the little man did. “I’m afraid John isn’t quite ready for our school. Sorry I’ve wasted your time.”

“What did you do?”

Aww, Lil’ Locke is sad!

So ends the most unfunniest scene of Suddenly Susan ever.

On the island, Locke is rummaging through the dead bodies in the Dharma pit. Still not ready for that gifted school! Hurley strikes up some small talk about the time Ben shot Locke and left him for dead. Yup, this is the spot, says Ben. “I should have realized at the time that it was pointless, but I really wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Is that why you killed all these people too?”

Cue dramatic music. “I didn’t kill them.”

“Well, if The Others didn’t wipe out the Dharma Initiative – “

“They did wipe them out, Hugo. But it wasn’t my decision.”

“Then whose was it.”

“Their leaders.”

“But I thought you were their leader.”

“Not always.”

And just when we’re about to get all the answers to everything we’ve always wanted to know about Lost, we see that Locke has found Horace’s dead body, and inside Horace’s pocket, a blueprint.

“The cabin,” says Locke. “He was building it.” Certainly looks that way.

Back on the freighter, Keamy tells Frank to gas up the chopper and get ready to head back to the island. Frank begins to protest, but Keamy reiterates his simple request: “Gas up the chopper, Frank.” Okey-dokey, says Frank. Captain Gault tells Keamy that he might be suffering from a case of the crazies like Regina was, but Keamy isn’t looking for analysis, he’s looking for Captain G’s key – which he rips right off his neck.

Gault follows Keamy into the office, complaining that there are two keys because they’re only supposed to open the safe together. “You’re here, aren’t you?” quips Keamy. Then he takes something out of the safe.

“What is that?”

“It’s the secondary protocol.” Keamy starts reading it. Rude!

“What does it say?”

“It says where Linus is going.”

“How would Mr. Widmore know that?”

“Because he’s a very smart man. And if Linus knows that we’re gonna torch the island, there’s only one place that he can go.” Applebee’s? Gault starts to complain that this wasn’t what he signed up for, but Keamy doesn’t give a what. He takes out his gun. “Fix my gun,” he tells Gault. Seriously, fix it.

Up on deck, the soldiers are bringing back the dead body of the guy who got his ass full-on whupped by the Smoke Monster. Gault comes up and tells Omar that Keamy wants him. Omar leaves Gault to watch Sayid and Desmond, and as he walks away, he gets the Morse code message from the island! Wacky.

Gault tells Sayid and Des to go hide in the pantry, but that’s now how Sayid gets down. “Hiding is pointless. Give us your Zodiac raft, so we can start ferrying people back here from the beach. The only way to save our lives is to get our people off that island.” Des looks at Gault like, Yeah, what Sayid said! Gault says he’ll have the boat in the water in ten minutes.

On the island, Locke locates the cabin on his new map. Hurley gives him a bottle of water, because “digging through dead bodies takes it out of ya.” Locke tells Hugo he can head back to the beach. “Oh, I get it. Now that you got your magic map you don’t need me anymore.” Locke offers him another chance to leave, but Hurley decides it’s not any safer to leave than to stay.

“This way?”

Hurley walks off, but Locke and Ben stay behind for a minute.

“He actually thinks staying was his idea,” says Ben. “Not bad, John. Not bad at all.”

“I’m not you,” says Locke.

“You’re certainly not,” says Ben. Saucer of Dharma milk over here! Don’t hate Big Lil’ Locke just because you don’t have dreams anymore. Or is Ben cleverly manipulating this ENTIRE episode from the backseat? That’s my guess. Even though Ben seems to be out of the loop right now, my Ben-dar is still going off like crazy.

Back in Locke’s humiliating childhood, an awkward teenage John gets let out of a locker by a nerdy teacher. There’s a Geronimo Jackson poster in Locke’s locker!

What? What is up with Geronimo Jackson and Apollo Bars popping up in everybody’s flashbacks. I can’t even think about the meaning of those appearances anymore, it would literally drive me insane. Okay, just a little. Why? Why? WHY? WHY???? Why.

So the teacher sits Locke down and tries to get him to sign up for science camp at Mittelos Laboratories with a Dr. Alpert. Locke doesn’t want to be signed up for anything that will involve more ass-kickings and Locke-locker-lockings. Can you blame him? The nerdy teacher can blame him, apparently. “You can’t be the prom king. You can’t be the quarterback. You can’t be the superhero.”

Locke leans in all gangsta-like. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”

Back on the freighter, Frank goes to visit Michael and give him a hand. Michael tells Frank he can’t fly Keamy back because he’s going to kill everyone on the island. Frank says he’ll worry about Keamy. I think we’re all worried about Keamy, playboy.

Things get a little weirder when we see Omar strapping what looks like a metronome to Keamy’s arm.

Hmm. Maybe Keamy is an oboist and he needs that to tune the orchestra? 440 A in the house!

Up on deck, Gault gives Sayid and Des a compass and sends them off on the boat. Who knew Gault would be down for the cause? Sayid gets ready to board, but Des is kind of frozen. “I can’t go with you,” he says to Sayid. Why not? “I’ve been on that island for three years. I’m never setting foot on it again. Not when Penny’s coming for me.” Sayid doesn’t argue, he just says he’ll be back with the first group as fast as he can. “Stay on that bearing, yea?” says Desmond. Gault tells Sayid to break out already. So he does.

This scene’s a bit sad, isn’t it? I feel like it’s the start of Sayid’s lone gunman days. At the same time, some funky-ass cellos kick in at this part. Have we had a lot of funky cellos on Lost? These are mad funky.

Break.

Locke’s got a torch and he’s leading the way to the cabin. Ben goes back into Ben mode: “Are you sure it’s gonna be there, John?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The cabin. What if it’s moved? Again?”

“It hasn’t moved, because I was told that this is where it would be.”

“I was told a lot of things, too. That I was chosen, that I was special. I end up with a tumor on my spine and my daughter’s blood all over my hands.

“I’m sorry those things happened to you, Ben.”

Trick please! He’s crying crocodile tears. “Those things had to happen to me. That was my destiny. But you’ll understand soon enough that there are consequences to being chosen. Because destiny, John? Is a fickle bitch.” Ha!

Hurley interrupts. “Guys? Cabin.”

CABIN!

This is like The Goonies 2008.

We join off-island Locke in the middle of some post-fall physical therapy. He looks humiliated to be there. An orderly helps him into his chair and wheels him away. “You don’t give up, Mr. Locke,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, don’t give up. Anything’s possible.”

“You should read my file. My spine was crushed. There’s a 98% chance I’ll never get any feeling back in my legs. So I don’t know why I’m even trying to drag my – “

“I did read your file. You survived falling eight stories out of a building. That’s a miracle, Mr. Locke.”

Abbadon! No way. No way, no way, no way. NO way. Yes way. I’m up off the couch. “Let me ask you something. Do you believe in miracles?”

“No, I don’t believe in miracles.”

“You should. I had one happen to me.” Abbadon takes him right up to the edge of some steps like he’s gonna push him down, then presses the elevator button. Fakeout!

“Hey, look, i just wanna go back to my room.”

“You know what you need, Mr. Locke? You need to go on a walkabout.” Whaaaat.

“What’s a walkabout?”

“It’s a journey of self-discovery. You go out into the Australian outback with nothing more than a knife and your wits.”

“I can’t walk about anything. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a cripple.”

“Is that what you are, Mr. Locke?”

“I went on my walkabout convinced I was one thing, but I came back another. I found out what I was made of, and who I was.”

“And here you are…an orderly.” Good one.

“Oh, I’m a lot more than just an orderly, John.”

Abbadon puts him on the elevator. “When you’re ready, Mr. Locke, you’ll listen to what I’m saying. And then, when you and me run into each other again? You’ll owe me one.”

The elevator doors close. That was intense! And back on the couch I sit.

So the boys on the boat are getting the chopper ready to go, packin’ up guns and stuff. Desmond watches from afar. Omar goes up to Ray and says, “Hey doc, wanna hear something weird?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You know that Morse code message that I got from the beach? It said the doctor washed up on the shore with his throat slit.”

“But I’m the doctor.”

“Crazy, right?”

Not that crazy. So Keamy shows up and tells them to get all the guns and stuff on the chopper. Frank’s not feeling it. “What are you gonna do with all that?”

“Fire ‘er up, Frank.”

“Mr. Keamy, I was hired to fly scientists.”

“Get your ass in the cockpit and fire up the chopper, Frank.”

“I’m not taking you.”

“I’ll kill you, Frank.”

“Yeah, well, you do that and you’ll never get back to the island, cuz I’m the only pilot you got.”

Keamy is surprisingly cool about the whole thing. He calmly walks away, puts a friendly hand on Doc Ray’s shoulder, then slits his throat and throws him over the side. Splash! “That change anything, Frank? Huh? Another 30 seconds go by and it’s someone else’s turn – “

BANG!

“I fixed your gun.” Gault just let off a warning shot. “Now stand down, Martin, or I will fire.”

Keamy passes the knife to Omar, then gestures to the thing strapped to his arm. “I don’t think you wanna do that, Captain.”

“What’s that on his arm? What’s that on his arm?” Gault looks over to the side, which was not a good look, because Keamy grabs Omar’s gun and shoots him dead.

Cap’n Faceplant!

Des is like, I’m out of here. Keamy turns to Frank. “HEY! What’ll it be, Frank?”

“We’re flying.”

Frank fires up the chopper. Keamy gets his gun back. “Thanks, Cap’n.” Nice guy, that Keamy. I don’t care what anybody says. And just like that, the chopper takes off.

Back on the beach, it’s nighttime, and – no, not Jack and Juliet! You’ll ruin the episode! No! Abort! Abort!

“Jack, you have to rest…” Oh, brother. Didn’t we have enough of this last week? I’m not recapping this. Fortunately, the chopper shows up and drowns out the talking. Everyone on the beach watches it approach, fly directly over them and drop some type of payload out. It’s a bag, and it’s beeping. A bomb? Jack sorts through the bag looking for the noise. It’s a sat phone.

It shows the chopper moving away from them as a yellowish-greenish blip on the screen. And it looks like it has about three bars of service, so might be a good time to call some friends. Free nights and weekends!

“I think they want us to follow them,” says Jack as everyone else looks on with stuck-on stupid expressions.

Back to the cabin.

Locke turns back to Hurley and Ben.

“All right. Let’s do this.”

Ben’s not into it. “I’m not going in there with you.”

Locke is shocked. “What?”

“The island wanted me to get sick, and it wanted you to get well. My time is over, John. It’s yours now.” Really? I find that hard to believe. I also don’t think the island has desires and emotions. In fact, I think this is all a big ol’ fakeout.

Hurley adds, “Yeahhhh…I’m cool with you going in alone, too.” I laugh really hard.

Locke hands the torch to Hugo and takes off his bag. Ben wishes him luck.

I’m a little freaked out. Locke lights a lantern outside the cabin. I’m up off the couch. Now he’s going into the cabin. This is scary. I’m up off the couch AND doing the twist.

Locke shuts the door. “Are you Jacob?”

“No. But I can speak on his behalf.”

Locke takes a few slow steps forward. “Well, who are you?”

“I’m Christian.” Zoinks!

Locke sits down and takes it all in before speaking again. “You know why I’m here?”

“Yeah, sure. Do you?”

“I’m here because I was chosen to be.”

“That’s absolutely right.”

Locke hears a creaking noise on the other side of the room. He gets up and walks over with his lantern. A shadowy figure comes into Locke’s light.

“Claire?” Double zoinks!

“Hi, John.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’m with him.” She smiles and points at Christian. Locke looks back at Christian, who is also smiling, then back at Claire.

Locke asks Claire, “Where’s the baby?”

“The baby’s where he’s supposed to be,” says Christian, “and that’s not here.”

“it’s probably best that you don’t tell anyone that you saw her.”

“Why? Why is she – “

Christian raises his hand in the universal “bitch please” expression. “We don’t have time for this. The people from the boat are already on their way back. And once they get here, all of these questions won’t matter one bit. So why don’t you ask the one question that does matter?”

“How do I save the island?”

And I think that was my favorite scene ever.

Now Locke comes out of the cabin.

“Did he tell you what we’re supposed to do?”

“He did.”

“Well?”

“He wants us to move the island.”

*BBHHWWWONNGGGGGGHGGGGGHGH*

Wow. That was crazy! I’m still in shock, but it’s the best kind of Lost shock possible. And it can only get crazier from here, peoples. I think we’re about to see Lost’s space-time dimensions get twisted this way and that.

Can’t wait for the first part of the season finale next week, and the two more hours of finale magic after that. What do you think is going on? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

My Lost hysteria is out of control right now, I think I need to slay a wild boar or something.

Sneak peek video clips to come shortly. In the meantime, check out some other stuff on Lost Recaps:

Promo trailer for Season 4, Episode 12: There’s No Place Like Home (Part 1)

Season 4, Episode 10: Something Nice Back Home recap

Sneak Peek video clips from Season 4, Episode 11: Cabin Fever

Promo trailers from Season 4, Episode 11: Cabin Fever

Season 4, Episode 9: The Shape of Things to Come recap

Season 4, Episode 8: Meet Kevin Johnson recap

Season 4, Episode 7: Ji Yeon recap

Season 4, Episode 6: The Other Woman recap