John Locke

“You’re not John Locke. You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you’re nothing like him. Turns out he was right about most everything.”

Those words from Jack to the MIB in the finale episode of the Lost series pay fitting tribute to this fascinating character. When Locke was introduced, people on the show as well as real people watching the show couldn’t make up their mind about whether Locke was a good guy or a bad guy. The main reason for thinking the latter was because Locke was so mysterious and spiritual and that’s outside most Americans’ comfort zone. It creeps people out. But he turned out to be an excellent mentor for Charlie, Claire and Boone (yes, even though Boone died working with Locke...I’ll get to that). Even to Jack: think of the scene in “White Rabbit” when Locke explains to Jack why he (Jack) is not crazy and encourages him in his role as a leader. Sometimes people were skeptical of Locke’s advice, but he always turned out to be right.

Probably the most remarkable thing about Locke as mentor, though was the contant thread running through all his counsel: Let go. Claire letting go of her fear, Charlie letting go of his addiction to heroin, Boone letting go of his infatuation with Shannon, and even Jack letting go of his father; with the exception of Jack, Locke not only advised, he literally trained these people to let go. Long before the series end, letting go was clearly an important theme. By the end of the finally, it was the central message of the whole show. And the central purpose of each of the characters lives.

Christian Shepherd: You needed them just like they all needed you.
Jack: For what?
Christian: To Remember. And to let go.

The central purpose. The central message. And John Locke was the first to bring that message to the castaways. My conclusion: John Locke was the prophet of Lost.

But how, you ask, could that be when Locke was so wrong about so many things? Wrong about what?

The hatch? Locke’s pursuit of the hatch saved Desmond’s life, which was not only good in its own right, but central to saving the island and the world from the MIB.

The computer that saves the world? Locke was right about that, too. It was Jack who was wrong. Locke was only wrong when he became convinced that Jack was right (more on that later, too).

Ben? Locke’s initial mercy on Ben was indeed due to Ben’s manipulation; but it also was what kept the island from blowing up. Locke’s temporary alliance with Ben in the hatch allowed Ben to put the numbers into the computer when Locke couldn’t get to it in time. (Ben said he never touched the computer. He lied.)

The Others? Locke seemed to go over to the others. But he believed the others were originally good (demonstrated by his pursuit of, and alliance with Richard Alpert) and as he revealed to Ben, was disgusted with how Ben had corrupted them. All correct.

The freighter? Locke looked like a madman when he knifed Naomi and said the team on the freighter would kill them all. Whoops, he was right about that, too. After most of the castaways had been killed by Keamy and his gang, Jack blamed Locke for their deaths. But they were killed because Ben was with Locke’s group (admittedly a mistake on Locke’s part). Who was it that contacted the ship and let the freighter crew get to the island in the first place. That’s right: Jack.

But telling Jack and the castaways not to get rescued? that they should stay on the island? Well, they all had to come back to save the island and the world. Locke was right again.

I refer again to the quote above from Jack: “Turns out he was right about most everything.”

Most everything. Two glaring points where John was wrong need to be addressed.


One of the few times Locke was wrong was when he took on Jack’s position about the hatch, that the whole business of entering numbers into the computer was a mind game. He came to this conclusion by watching the orientation film in the Pearl station. At that time Eko had a vision of (by then dead) Ana Lucia telling him that he needed to help John. Later he saw his dead brother Yemi telling him the same thing, adding that John had lost his way. Eko maintained the mission of pushing the button and helping John uncover other mysteries of the island. Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have gone on record as saying that Mr. Eko was originally supposed to be a major character through the arc of the whole Lost saga, but was killed off early in Season 3 at actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s request because he has a personal and professional rule of not playing the same character for very long. Mr. Eko was indeed the other prophetic character on Lost and I believe Mr. Eko’s originally intended role in Lost was to be John Locke’s partner in the prophetic office of the island. When Eko was attacked fatally by the smoke monster, his last words to Locke were, “You’re next.” The MIB wanted to destroy the partner prophets Eko and Locke and this work was finally completed when the MIB’s unwitting accomplice Ben murdered Locke in Los Angeles. It’s no accident that when Mr. Eko was killed, John Locke buried him and gave the eulogy at his funeral. And as he used Eko’s staff as inspiration for where to go next, Locke essentially combined Eko’s prophetic office with his own as he continued his work.

And now let’s talk about Boone—especially Boone getting killed. First of all, Locke didn’t get Boone killed. He was hesitant about Boone going alone into the plane, but had no choice, since his own legs became suddenly, mysteriously useless. In fact, Locke shouted to Boone repeatedly to get out of the plane before it fell. If Boone had listened to Locke, he wouldn’t have been killed.

But Locke was responsible for Boone’s death. Why? Because he lied to Jack about what happened to Boone and because he was alone with Boone in the first place. If someone other than the two of them had been at that plane, things would likely have turned out very differently. And Jack himself said that his medical treatment was based on false information from Locke. Locke had lied to Jack for the same reason that he had been alone with Boone: he didn’t want anyone to know what they were doing. He wanted to uncover and open the hatch alone, apart from the rest of the castaways. This is a violation of the only principle as central to Lost as letting go. Recall again those words of Christian Shepherd: “No one does it alone. You needed them just like they all needed you.” Locke isolated himself from community, and the resulting death of Boone led the rest of the community to isolate him further. This was what changed Locke from the strong prophetic leader he was in most of season 1 to the scared, insecure prophet that he was until his death in season 5.

At that point Jack finally became a believer. When the two met again, in the sideways world, the two reconciled and paid their restitutions: Jack discovered what it felt like not to be believed, and helped Locke with his surgical skills. I loved watching the warmth and joy in John Locke’s eyes when he realized who he was, where he was, and who Jack was. At the church, as the two met, John Locke greeted Jack with a handshake and the most appropriate greeting from a prophet to a leader, and from friend to friend: “I’ve been waiting for you to come.”