Lost Series 4 Episode 11 - Cabin Fever

We finally learn about the adolescent John Locke in ‘Cabin Fever’, as flashbacks reveal that he did have a full head of hair!

His mother was 16 years-old when she had him but the little lad had to come through many illnesses, which surprised the doctors, as they where sure he would die. However, his mother just couldn’t handle it and ran off leaving a run-of-the-mil nasty, yank, Mother-in-Law to give John up for adoption.

Later, we see John as a young boy in his adoptive parent’s home. He is visited by none other than Richard Alpert, one of the Island ‘Others’. With Richard looking exactly the same as he does in the present day, something is up! Richard went on to test the young Locke for a ‘special school’ of his. But after the young boy failed his bizarre test (choosing some objects, ranging from a comic to a knife!) Alpert looks quite disappointed and takes off. Later we learn that Alpert and Matthew Abaddon (the man who visited Hurley in the mental hospital) have been monitoring Locke’s life. Abaddon moonlighted as a hospital porter whilst Locke was trying to recover from his accident, which left him paralysed. He suggested that Locke should take a ‘walkabout’ in Australia and you know what happened next…

On the Island, Locke, Hurley and Ben are still trying to find Jacob’s cabin. They are having no luck but after a rough night’s sleep, Locke sees an apparition of a deceased DHARMA operative who shows him the way to a mass grave, in which most of the DHARMA operatives where buried during ‘The Purge’ (shown in series 3). Locke searches and finds blueprints which will lead them to the cabin.

Meanwhile, on the freighter, Keamy returns from his murderous mission but he becomes more pissed off when the Captain tells him that Michael is a spy. Keamy immediately tries to kill him but as we saw in ‘Meet Kevin Johnson’ Michael can’t be killed, without ‘completing his mission’ so Keamy’s gun jams. The Captain persuades Keamy to keep him alive, as he is the only one who knows how to fix the boat’s engines. Sayid, in fear of what Keamy is going to do with the Islanders, takes a smaller boat and heads to the Island.

Later, Keamy would lose his temper for the last time and as he hears that the doctor’s body has been found on the beach - which is impossible as he is standing on the freighter! Keamy orders Frank to take them back to Island but he refuses, so Keamy killed the doctor – and had his body thrown overboard. Frank is still in a refusal mood, so the Captain is killed as well and Frank finally submits to the Marine’s wishes. But when they fly over the Island, Frank drops a satellite phone, for the Islanders to use…

With the episode coming to an end, we needed our cliffhanger! It didn’t disappoint, as Locke enters Jacob’s cabin alone, he is met by Christian Shepard and quite creepily, Claire who is stood in the corner. Claire does seem a little odd and dismisses her abandonment of her baby son as ‘its all in the plan’. Christian tells Locke that Keamy is on his way back and that the only way to keep the Island safe from them (meaning Widmore, probably) was to ‘move it’….

It was rather a ‘jumpy’ episode but for all the right reasons! I was a bit surprised that Keamy killed the ship’s Captain, as I thought he was an interesting character that could have been given a larger role. However it was finally satisfying to finally know that the Island DOES exist in its own ‘bubble of time’, as the Doctor washed up on the beach BEFORE he was killed! But I’m stumped on what the hell is going on with Christian and Claire. And where, or more importantly - who is Jacob?

But for me, the best parts of the episode where the flashbacks to a young Locke. I thought his story was done very well and surely we are going to learn more about Richard’s role in his life?

8/10

Next Time: It’s the final episode of the series (but really its in three parts!), as we are treated to the best part of three hours! Is ‘There No Place Like Home’ – lets find out!