The Man from Tallahassee
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| “The Man from Tallahassee” | |
|---|---|
| Lost episode | |
 John Locke ends up in his wheelchair |
|
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 13 |
| Guest stars | M.C. Gainey (Tom) Tania Raymonde (Alex) Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau) Kevin Tighe (Anthony Cooper) Patrick J. Adams (Peter Talbot) Barbara Baehler (Mrs. Talbot) Don Nahaku (Detective Reed) Marlene Forte (Detective Mason) Stephen Bishop (William Kincaid) Cleo King (government worker) Brian Goodman (Ryan Pryce) |
| Written by | Drew Goddard & Jeff Pinkner |
| Directed by | Jack Bender |
| Production no. | 313 |
| Original airdate | March 21, 2007 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Par Avion" | "Exposé" |
| List of Lost episodes | |
"The Man from Tallahassee" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of Lost. It was aired on March 21, 2007, making it the 60th episode of the series. The character of John Locke was featured in the episode's flashbacks. This episode was written by Drew Goddard and Jeff Pinkner, and directed by Jack Bender.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
In a flashback, Locke is denied his disability benefits. It is revealed that he is suffering from depression and has ceased treatment.
In the bushes outside the Others' compound, Locke, Sayid, Kate and Rousseau watch as Jack and Tom play football. Unnoticed, Rousseau slips away. Juliet comes out, and then Ben rolls out in a wheelchair and shakes Jack's hand. Jack smiles, and they all go inside. The survivors are shocked. Kate is angry; she locks and loads her rifle, ready for the fight. But Sayid cautions her. Maybe Jack doesn't want to be rescued. Kate insists that the Others have done something to Jack. Locke interrupts and calmly reminds them that "It's Jack. The first time I saw him he was risking his life, pulling people out of burning airplane wreckage. If he's shaking hands with the Others, I'm sure he has a good reason. We just have to go down there and find out what it is."
In a flashback, Locke is in his apartment watching TV and eating a TV dinner. He seems melancholic and defeated by the world. Then a young man, Peter Talbot, knocks on his door and asks if he is John Locke. Locke tells him he's got the wrong guy, but Peter asks him how many kidneys he has.
Locke invites Peter in, and he tells Locke that Peter's mother met a man named Adam Seward a couple months ago. Adam said he was a retired computer entrepreneur from Ontario, but something about him bothered Peter, so he checked out Adam's story. Peter discovered Adam's name was actually Anthony Cooper, and that Locke had donated one of his kidneys to him. If Locke did that, then "Adam" couldn't be all that bad, right? Locke lies to Peter and tells him it was an anonymous donation.
On the island, Kate, Sayid, and Locke wait until night falls to sneak up to Jack's house. Kate quietly enters and finds Jack, alone, playing the piano. Emotion floods her face, but Jack is apprehensive. He demands that she leave immediately. Jack says they're watching him, and he points up to a video camera in a corner of the room. Kate says she isn't leaving without him again. Right then the door bursts open and two armed Others grab her and force her onto the floor. Jack yells, "Don't hurt her!" They bring in a struggling Sayid and ask who else is with them. Kate realizes they didn't catch Locke. Kate and Sayid look at each other and Sayid nods; she lies and says it's only her and Sayid.
In Ben's house, Ben hears something and wakes up. Standing in his room, pointing a gun at him, is Locke. He demands to know where the submarine is. Locke says he learned about it from Mikhail. But they are interrupted — first by Alex, whom Locke grabs and hides in the closet with, and then by Tom. Tom tells Ben that they captured Kate and Sayid trying to rescue Jack. Ben tells him to separate them and interrogate them. He wants to know how they found the barracks. Then Ben gives Richard a cryptic order: bring him the man from Tallahassee. Once alone, Locke wants to know if that was a code. Ben assures him it is not. Locke needs Sayid's pack and tells Alex to go get it.
In a flashback, Locke is in a florist shop where he watches his father, Anthony Cooper, with Peter's mother — a kind, older woman. Cooper notices Locke and slips over to him. Locke knows Cooper is conning the woman for her money. Even her son knows something is wrong. He won't let Cooper ruin another family's life. He warns Cooper to call off the wedding and end it or he'll tell the woman the truth. Cooper reluctantly agrees.
On the island, Kate is held in a recreation room. Tom lets Jack in to talk with Kate and warns him that the room is bugged. Kate asks if Jack is one of them now. He denies it, then he reminds her that he told her not to come back for him. She asks what they did to him. Jack is silent for a while struggling to find words before telling her that he made a deal with them; they're letting him go home. Kate is stunned. Jack says it was the best chance to bring back help for everyone. Kate asks him how he could trust the Others; Jack replies it's because she told him to when she asked him to save Sawyer's life. Kate finally realizes that Jack was heartbroken by her 'decision'. Before leaving, he whispers to her that he will come back for her.
Ben asks for Locke's help getting out of bed and into his wheelchair. Ben says that if Locke killed Mikhail, it means he found the communications station. And that means he also found the explosives. Ben guesses that Locke isn't going to leave in the submarine, he's going to destroy it.
Locke tells Ben he knows nothing about him. But then Ben rattles off facts about Locke's life: raised in foster care, wasted away most of his life in Tustin at a box company, and spent four years in a wheelchair before crashing on the island. Locke is taken aback. Ben says he even knows how Locke ended up in the wheelchair, and asks how it felt. Locke coldly replies: "I felt my back break. What do you think?"
In a flashback, Locke walks through his apartment building's parking lot. Two detectives approach him and tell him Peter Talbot is dead and ask him if he as any knowledge concerning the situation.
On the island, Ben asks Locke if he regained his ability to walk immediately after the plane crash. Locke says yes. Ben asks if Locke is afraid it will go away if he leaves. That's why he wants to destroy the submarine.
Ben tells Locke that if he blows it up, he'll have a big problem with his people. They need to know they can leave if they want to, and the submarine maintains "that illusion." And if Locke stops and thinks, Ben can show him things he wants to see very badly.
Then Ben offers to explain it in a way Locke will understand. He tells Locke to picture a box. Locke knows something about boxes, doesn't he? Somewhere on the island is a large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted, would be inside that box, marginally similar to the Michael Crichton novel Sphere and the movie Forbidden Planet. Locke makes a joke about it, and calls Ben a hypocrite, a pharisee. If Ben knew what the island really was, he'd have more respect for it.
When Alex goes to get Sayid's pack, Sayid tells her that she looks like her mother. Alex tells him her mother is dead, to which he replies "I'm sure that's what they told you." His captor then assaults him, and Alex runs away. She returns to Ben's room with Sayid's pack and Locke makes her take him to the sub.
On the way, Alex tells Locke that Ben is manipulating him. Locke answers, "I'll keep that in mind." Locke apologies to Alex for involving her. Rousseau spots Alex from a hidden location, and her eyes fill with tears. She says nothing to either of them. Locke descends into the submarine.
Jack and Juliet approach Ben in his home. Jack requests that Ben let his friends go. Ben gives his word to do so "just as soon as you've left the island." Jack and Juliet are escorted to the dock so they can leave in the sub. They run into Locke as he's walking back up the dock. His clothes are soaking wet. Jack ask what he's doing there; Locke simply replies, "I'm sorry" — the submarine then explodes.
In a flashback, Locke goes to Cooper's condo and confronts him, but Cooper denies any involvement. He's a con man, not a murderer, he claims. He says Peter's mother was devastated and called off the wedding. During Cooper and Locke's converstation, Cooper pours them both MacCutcheon 60 whiskey, the same whiskey from "Flashes Before Your Eyes." Locke doesn't believe that Peter's mother called off the wedding. His father shrugs it off and says to call Ms. Talbot himself if he wants proof. Locke picks up the phone to call her when Cooper suddenly charges him and shoves him through the window. Locke plummets eight stories to the ground.
As Locke lies in a hospital bed, the two detectives inform him that his father has fled to Mexico and then disappeared. They leave as a physical therapist, Kincaid, brings Locke his wheelchair. Locke says he doesn't want to go into it. Kincaid lifts Locke out of bed and places him in his wheelchair for the first time, saying, "You fell eight stories and survived--don't tell me what you can't do." A look of despair crosses Locke's face and he breaks into tears.
On the island, Locke is handcuffed in a room. Ben and Richard open the door. Locke reveals that he knows Ben wanted him to blow up the sub. Ben reveals that he wanted to find a way to keep Jack from leaving The Island, but didn't know how to, so he was in a bind. Then Locke came into the Barracks and solved Ben's problem for him.
Ben and Richard lead Locke down a hallway, and Ben tells him that, for whatever reason, Locke's "in communion" with the island; and that makes Locke "very, very important." They stop at a door, and Richard opens it. Locke peers in and the man from Tallahassee is revealed - Anthony Cooper, tied to a chair and looking roughed-up & terrified.
Echoing the cryptic message that Michael thought was sent to him in the Swan by his kidnapped son, Walt, Locke's final word is, "Dad?"
[edit] See also
- Tallahassee in pop culture for Lost references to Tallahassee.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode added further evidence to the speculation that Ben and The Others no longer have any communications with the outside world.
- This episode also reveals that the The Others had a submarine.
- Danielle Rousseau finally sees her daughter (Alex) after being separated for more than 16 years.
- The man (Richard) that takes off Locke's handcuffs at the end of this episode is Mr. Alpert from the genetics company called Mittelos Bioscience; he interviewed Juliet Burke in "Not in Portland".
- The idea of a box which can produce anything the user can wish is also a concept in "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien, the book which Desmond packed when fleeing the hatch in "Orientation." Craig Wright, who co-wrote the episode, told the Chicago Tribune that, "Whoever goes out and buys the book will have a lot more ammunition in their back pocket as they theorize about the show. They will have a lot more to speculate about — and, no small thing, they will have read a really great book."
- John's father is seen pouring a glass of Whiskey for himself and John, the brand of this whiskey is the very expensive MacCutcheon that was seen in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".
- Kate was supposed to go to to Tallahasse before she was caught by the marshall in the bus station in "What Kate Did".
- Adam Seward, Anthony Cooper is an anagram for "Sawyer the con man, a poor dad".
- The television show Locke is watching in his apartment is an episode of "Exposé", the fictional Charlie's Angels type show that Nikki worked as an actress on, opposite Billy Dee Williams.
[edit] References
| Lost | |
|---|---|
| Production: | DVD releases | Episode list | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Soundtrack |
| Main characters: |
Ana Lucia | Ben | Boone | Charlie | Claire | Desmond | Hurley | Jack | Jin | Juliet | Kate Libby | Locke | Michael | Mr. Eko | Nikki | Paulo | Sawyer | Sayid | Shannon | Sun | Walt |
| Supporting characters: |
Alex | Bernard | Christian | Cindy | Ethan | The Others | Pickett | Rose | Rousseau | Tom |
| Organizations: | DHARMA Initiative | Hanso Foundation | Oceanic Airlines |
| Elements: | Crossover list | DHARMA Initiative stations | Flight 815 | Mythology | Thematic motifs |
| Miscellaneous: | Gary Troup | In popular culture | Lost Experience | Rachel Blake | Video game |
| Lost Season Three | |
|---|---|
| A Tale of Two Cities • The Glass Ballerina • Further Instructions • Every Man for Himself • The Cost of Living • I Do • Not in Portland • Flashes Before Your Eyes • Stranger in a Strange Land • Tricia Tanaka Is Dead • Enter 77 • Par Avion • The Man from Tallahassee • Exposé • Left Behind • One of Us • Catch-22 • D.O.C. | |
