Season 1, Episode 4: Walkabout

A Locke episode. Still unsure what to make of the mysterious John Locke, his predicament and reverence for the island begin to come into focus. He wakes up wiggling his toes in astonishment. It's easy to assume that his awe is simply at being alive, but we quickly learn there is a great deal more to John Locke, who initiates the boar hunts to feed the survivors.

Locke represents many things, notably a longing for something better. The soul's endless journey for peace.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

In a flashback, we see Locke as a disrespected middle management type, who plays Risk on his lunch break. Moving forward we find an increasingly distraught Locke, who seems obsessed with a women we only know as Helen. He also comes to believe that a Walkabout is his destiny.

The Walkabout is a Journey of Spiritual Renewal to make peace with the earth that he intends to take in Australia. Only one problem: Locke is confined to a wheelchair, so the organizers of the Walkabout refuse to let him participate. Ironically, of course, his faculties are restored (even heightened it would seem) and he finds his spiritual journey on the island. It's a journey that culminates in his encounter with the Smoke Monster, which curiously doesn't devour Locke as it did previous survivors it came across.

Helen we eventually learn is ... what? a phone-sex operator, who Locke tries to invite to Australia with him. She refuses, but we learn that Locke vehemently protests people placing limits on him: "Don't tell me what I can't do," he says, a refrain that will cycle back around.

We also are introduced again to Rose, whose behavior has worried Boone and others. Jack is asked to make sure she's OK. She tells Jack he has a good soul and also offers the first hint at the tailies, telling Jack that her husband Bernard isn't dead. She seems quite confident, but we're initially unsure if she's merely looney tunes.

Seeking closure and something familiar, the survivors have a memorial for those who did die. Jack, who has seen (halucinated?) his father at the jungle's edge, refuses to participate, yet another peek into the stubborn and borderline petulant side Jack often displays.