About Locke
- "Don't tell me what I can't do"
- Man of Faith
- Had seat 24D on flight 815
- Is fond of games, perhaps due to his time working at a toy store
- Extremely knowledgeable on any literary or cultural subject
- Is apparently a fan of the Godfather movies, in particular the character Vito Corleone
- In the Pilot episode we see him do the orange peel trick that Vito (played by Marlon Brando) uses with his grandson.
- In a flashback in the episode Lockdown, he tells Helen that he'll "take care of everything" with the same distinct inflection used by a young Vito (played by Robert de Niro).
- Can speak Italian, as seen in the episode Hearts and Minds.
- Is easily manipulated
- Has survival expertise; hunting, tracking, knowledge
- Very well-educated (probably self-taught, not 'formally' educated)
- Is not working for the government or The Others as confirmed in the May 8, 2006 podcast
Before The Crash (General)
- Mother is Emily Annabeth Locke, divorced.
- Father is Anthony Cooper.
- Was abandoned by his parents as a baby and grew up in various foster homes.
- Had a (presumably) foster sister, Jeannie, who died when he was young.
- Had a (presumably) foster brother with whom he played Mouse Trap.
5-10 Years before the Crash
- Assistant Manager in a large toy store.
- Was found by his mother who told him that he was always "kind of special."
- Was tricked by his father into donating his kidney to him.
- Met Helen at an anger management support group. Began a relationship with her, and eventually asked her to marry him. She turned him down and left him after discovering he had been lying to her about being in contact with his father.
- Wasn't handicapped when his father betrayed him and when he met Helen
- Owned a home inspection company called Welcome Home.
John Locke after proposing to Helen and being rejected
- Assisted his father in collecting money from a bank that his father had conned out of some thugs.
- His father left him $200,000 of the money. It is unknown whether or not he kept it.
- Asked Helen to marry him.
- She refused because she felt he had lied to her and that he would always care more for his father than for her.
1-5 years before the Crash
- Was handicapped for four years prior to flying on Flight 815.
- Involved with a phone sex operator (or someone similar) going by the name of Helen in an attempt to re-enact his previous relationship with Helen.
- John invited her to go on his trip with him, she refused
- Regional Collections Supervisor at a box company, owned by Hurley.
- Played Risk with co-workers.
- Is called "Colonel" or "The Colonel" by co-workers, but his boss Randy says Locke was not in the military.
- Received a cryptic phone call to the box company office: "Colonel Locke, is this line secure?" Locke looks around and says, "Line secure." "The target area is secure and maneuvers are a go for 1300 hours."
In Australia
- Was preparing to go on a Walkabout in the outback in Australia as a challenge. He wasn't allowed to participate due to being paralyzed.
- Encountered Rose at the airport in Sydney before boarding the flight; he stopped to pick up a medicine bottle that she had dropped. As he was still in a wheelchair at this point, we can assume that Rose is the only person who knows of Locke's paralysis before the crash, and subsequent healing.
- Was seated in 24D on the plane.
On The Island
- Regained his ability to walk after the plane crash.
- Thinks that it is his destiny to be on the island.
- He prepared for years for a survive-or-die situation and has a lot of faith that everything is happening for a reason.
- Attacked Sayid from behind and destroyed the makeshift radio equipment to prevent discovery of the distress signal.
- Found the Swan while trying to track Ethan Rom.
- Drugged Boone in an attempt to get him to let go of Shannon emotionally.
- Helps Charlie to beat his drug addiction.
- Appeared in Claire's dream in "Raised By Another", with one black eye and one white eye.
- He and Boone find Claire after her escape from the Staff.
- He and Boone build a trebuchet and use it in an attempt to break the window on the hatch door, its likely that he got this idea from the game Mouse Trap which is featured in one of his flashbacks.
- Had a vision of the Beechcraft and possibly Boone's death before they happened.
- By not telling Jack the complete truth of Boone's leg injury, he became indirectly responsible for Boone's death.
- Had a collection of knives on the airplane, along with other survival gear (compasses).
- Confronts Walt about the burning of the first raft, and keeps Walt's involvement a secret.
- Led Kate and Michael in a hunt for boar.
- May have seen the monster face to face
- Was almost pulled into a pit by the monster, but was saved by Kate, Jack, and the timely intervention of Dynamite.
- Built a cradle for Aaron with Claire.
- Beat up Charlie for stealing Aaron.
- Is becoming closer to Claire.
- His rivalry for leadership with Jack seems to be heating up.
- Has said that Hurley gave him the manifest for the plane.
- This led to a scene where he confronted Sawyer about his real name.
- Was duped into trusting Sawyer with the hatch while he moved the guns that Jack was coming to take, only to be followed by Charlie, who later showed Sawyer the hiding place.
- Enlisted the imprisoned Gale's help during Lockdown.
- Made a promise to protect the imprisoned Gale from the other survivors 'no matter what'.
- Had his leg broken by a door spike during the Lockdown Incident.
- Declares the button is not his in S.O.S., possibly indicating that he is no longer going to Push_the_Button.
- Shares a moment on the beach with Rose in S.O.S. where she indicates to him that she shares his knowledge of the island's healing power when she says(referring to Locke's injured leg taking weeks to heal) "You and I both know it won't take that long."
- Is making a map of what he saw on the Blast Door.
- Is losing faith inthe hatch when Henry Gale tells him he didn't enter the numbers.
- According to Henry Gale, Locke was meant to be taken to The Others
- Stopped the fake Henry Gale from strangling Ana Lucia
- Joined Mr. Eko on his quest to find the ? on his map. Together they discover the Pearl hatch.
- Saw Charlie throw the Virgin Mary statues into the sea but didn't comment on it.
- At the end of the episode "Three Minutes", Locke is shown removing his splints and walking down the beach away from the group, his leg apparently healed.
- May have been killed in the Episode "Live Together, Die Alone". After losing his faith in the button, moments before he dies he admits he "was wrong."
Theories
- In Deus Ex Machina there is indication that his paralyzed condition may be psychosomatic, and strongly tied to his personal feelings of self-confidence and self-worth.
- In Walkabout we are led to believe that Locke had an early encounter with The Security System. Is it possible he had a similar experience at that time to the one had by Mr. Eko in The 23rd Psalm? Perhaps The Security System did not hurt him because he is "one of the good ones." Goodwin also implied that Eko was "one of the good ones."
- Is one of two involuntary replacements for Desmond. He thinks he was chosen for that assignment, which he actually was - by the creators of the experiment. (See "Desmond: Theories")
- Was cured from his handicap by the same miracle that saved Jack's patient and bride-to-be Sarah from being paralyzed
- John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher, who believed in the "State of Nature" - how people would live together without any laws or government. He also fully developed the idea of Tabula rasa, which incidentally is the name of an episode.
- May be planning to join the Others
"For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them." - this philosophy is the same as Locke's on the island. For example, when he made Boone realize the truth behind his and Shannon's relationship
- It's interesting that his name is LOCKE and he has placed himself in control of the vault, even to the extent he is changing the combination lock on it. Beginning with S.O.S., however, this control is in the hands of others, including Ana Lucia
- While the episode title Lockdown was likely a double entendre for the events occurring in the hatch as well as "Locke" physically being brought "down", it may also have been a bit of foreshadowing regarding Locke's eventual fall from faith.
- Is there a link between the Golden Retreiver who showed up after his sister Jeannie's death and Sawyer's boar and Kate's Horse?
- Locke is rather unique. when discovering the Swan, he seemingly was expected. He took his shoes off, which is what Zeke said in The Hunting Party. He can walk since he is on the island and he insisted on pushing the button. Maybe he knows something we don't or he is just not only a man of faith but also a man of intuition...
- Regarding John's paralysis;
- Locke became paralyzed by the men that his father stole money from, and Locke helped get.
- Locke becomes paralyzed in a surgery gone bad performed by Jack's father.
- Locke becomes paralyzed when the deck that collapsed under Hurley's weight crushes his legs.
- Seems to share some beliefs with the English philosopher, John Locke. In that state all people were equal and independent, and none had a right to harm another’s “life, health, liberty, or possessions.” The state was formed by social contract because in the state of nature each was his own judge, and there was no protection against those who lived outside the law of nature. The state should be guided by natural law. Rights of property are very important, because each person has a right to the product of his or her labour.
- Locke may have been trying to see Isaac of Uluru when he unsuccessfully tried to have a trip into the Australian outback in Walkabout.
- Interesting to note that there are two men of faith on the island, Locke, and Eko. One white, and one black, just like the stones found with Adam and Eve. Which are much like the stones that Israeli priests use in determining the will of God, (called Urim and Thummim) . Also interesting to note that Locke seems to love backgammon, a game of black and white stones. In "Raised by Another" Locke appears in Claire's dream with one black eye and one white eye.
- Locke seems like he's hiding something big. Maybe he killed his father.
- When Locke ties up Kate, he tricks Desmond to trust him, and gives Kate a knife. Maybe he will play The Others to get in with them like a spy.
- It was Locke's father Anthony Cooper who conned Sawyer's family.
- Locke is mistaken when he thinks that the Others tell the good ones from the bad ones in a religious or moral way, it is all about genetic value. In order, to achieve cloning and Eternal Life the DHARMA Initiative needs the genes from the so-called good ones.
- Gained his survivalist knowledge by extension to the war role-playing games. Perhaps a means of escapism, because he was handicapped, that turned into obsession (brought more knives in the case than one man needed).
- John's namesake, British philosopher 1632-1704, is an odd choice given the characters qualities. John Locke the philosopher was a vehement anti-authoritarian, who would prefer people to rely on reason rather than blind faith or superstition. This seems to fly in the face of his status as a "man of faith".
Bad Twin Reference
- John Locke, the British philosopher, is discussed in Bad Twin. Locke argues that the highest goal of our intelligence is the careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness...the thrust of his argument is that the best use of our reason is in learning to be content, and to be happy.
External Links
- The name of a 17th century philosopher and political theorist.
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