Whew, what a ride. According to the preview trailer for episode 4, called “The Substitute,” this episode will focus heavily on Jacob’s nemesis, as John Locke, on the island.

From the look of things, it’s going to be a very good episode. We see John and Sawyer, never the best of friends, interacting in the jungle; Sawyer with a gun pointed at John’s back, at one point. We see Richard, in the jungle, warning the Survivors that John wants to kill all of them, every last one. It looks like high stakes, and it looks like they’re focusing on what I had hoped they would last week: John and Richard.

Ever since Fake John dragged Richard into the jungle after killing Jacob and Ilana’s men I’ve been wondering what’s up, and waiting to find out. It looks like we’ll finally know.

First of all, it looks like Jacob’s nemesis either doesn’t have a chance to kill Richard, or decides not to, because Richard gets away long enough to warn the Survivors of the nemesis’ evil plan (which apparently is to kill everyone). How Richard gets away, or why he’s let go is still a subject of mystery, as is Jacob’s nemesis’ rationale for killing all of the Survivors. What exactly is his game? I have a thesis going that the entire premise of the show has been Jacob’s nemesis trying to have him killed, but why, after Jacob is dead, would he need all the other residents of the island killed? I have no idea. Obviously that’s his plan, because as soon as Jacob was killed, the Others at the temple began their fortification, but exactly what vendetta the nemesis has to settled, we don’t know.

I’m very interested in seeing how the whole Sawyer/John thing plays out. Remember, Sawyer doesn’t know that John isn’t actually John but he seems to figure it out, judging by the promo trailer. I’m frustrated by Sawyer, post-Juliet’s dead, and I hope a confrontation with John will shake him back into character. I understand he’s upset and brooding over Juliet, but all the tired mopping around and angst—I want to see the strong, tough, and tender-hearted Sawyer again! I want to see him kick John’s ass, too.

While last week’s episode was good, I really hope this episode moves the plot along a lot more, and answers any of the burning questions we’ve had for years. It looks like it might, so here’s hoping.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.