Lockes Destiny and Richards Intervention
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By KevinJohnson
- Lockes Destiny and Richards Intervention
- Created: Jul 12, 2008
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 4.13: There’s No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
I know a lots been said on which object ‘belonged’ to the young Locke when Richard asked him to identify the item that ‘belongs to him already’ but I’m not sure if anybody has said this:
I think the knife ‘belonged’ to Locke.
My reasoning for this is because in Season 3 after Ben embarrasses Locke by telling him to kill his father in front of the whole Others camp, Richard tells Locke that Ben was deliberately trying to embarrass him and had set him up to fail. Richard then tells Locke that he wants him to ‘find his purpose’ but that in order for that to happen, his father has to die.
Now, I’m not sure why Locke killing his father is important, but it clearly is. After Locke fails, Ben turns to everybody and says “I’m sorry, he’s not who we thought he was” which says to me that there is some kind of belief or prophecy in the Others society that their new leader will kill his own father.
So here is what I think happened in Lockes past:
Richard went to see the young Locke and had him choose the object, at that moment Richard show’s him his disaproval of this choice. As we know Locke’s motto has always been “don’t tell me what I can’t do”. When he chose the knife he was showing his preference for the ‘Hunter’ persona and Richard knew that his disaproval would only reinforce Lockes desire to be the hunter.
I believe that just as Richard tried to influence Lockes development, so too did Ben. I read a lot into Ben’s farewell to Locke “Goodbye John. I’m sorry I made your life so miserable”
He surely couldn’t just have meant Locke’s life on the island, because as Ben knows everything about Locke he must also know that Lockes been having one of the best times of his life on the island, where as most his misery occurred in his past.
I think that Ben had secretly tried to throw a spanner in works of Locke’s development by engineering all the disasters in his life such as meeting his father, losing Helen, being thrown out of the commune, and finally being paralysed.
But the island had chosen Locke and no matter what Ben did, the island could undo it all and even make it so that tragic things of the past served a greater purpose, such as Locke losing a kidney which made him survive Bens attempt to kill him and even Sawyer’s quest to find his namesake and exact revenge served to ensure that Locke could kill his father by-proxy and satisfy the condition of being the Others leader.
Hope I made sense.
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard | Richard Alpert | 313 |
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.11 | Cabin Fever | 5-8-2008 | John | 220 |
Key locations
| Theme | Relevant Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|
| The Orchid Station | & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 139 |
That is very interesting that you bring up Ben having a Hand in the miserable life that Locke had before he came to the island. In the season 3 deleted scenes, Locke is asking Ben why he didn’t let rouseeau raise Alex and Ben says because she is crazy.. basically. Then Ben says something along the lines of ” Just think about how great your life would have been if you didn’t know your parents” or something strange like that.. I think Ben had a hand in how Locke’s life went
I thought the same thing about Richard’s disapproval of the knife. It did belong to Locke. As far as Ben intervening on Locke’s pre-island life, how is that possible when ben came to the island as a boy in the early 80s. When Ben apologized for making his life miserable, I think it only pertains to the island, i.e. the hatch, shooting him, humiliating him, the mind games. Richard had the hand in his life and Abaddon as well. Ben really isn’t in control of anything, especially not anymore.
Also if Cooper was being conned by lets say Alpert and co. the whole time. It makes sense to see Richard show up, after Locke couldn’t get rid of Cooper with the nessesary info on how he can get him killed. Without the blood being on Lockes hands….. I’m betting there’s prolly a connection between the 2 (Cooper/Alpert). That’s why he gave Locke the file on Sawyer
QC - I am assuming the involvement of time travel i.e. in cabin fever we were seeing a modern/recent Richard travelling back to the 1950s to influence Locke, and I am assuming that Ben was able to do the same, his motivation being to screw Locke up so that he wouldn’t be fit to be his successor.
JC - I understand your point and I had considered it myself, but I think that the file was used as a last resort. Richard knew that his people would never accept Locke if he couldn’t kill his father so he had to make them believe that Locke had done it (as we’ve not seen either Locke or RIchard discuss the file or what happened when they left him with his father, I am guessing that the file was a secret between Locke and RIchard) and so he provided Locke with a simple means of getting it done.
I think Locke had to kill his father because his father was the source of all his pain and problems. His father was holding him back and Locke needed to be set free in order to fulfill his destiny. So I don’t think it had to be a father,it just had to be whatever it is in life that is holding you back has to be destroyed before you can go further.
The theme of ‘rules’ on Lost has become more pronounced since Widmore ‘changed’ them. If killing the father to become island leader is indeed an island rule, and rules should not be broken, then Richard seems totally fine with John bending the rules to paint a similar outcome - John ruling the others, protector of the island. Nice post Mr Johnson, now can you please clear that mess up on deck! LOL. +1
If the time traveling is real, how do Ben and Richard “set the time machine” to appear at a certain point in time?
Interesting theory on fathers and the leader of the island— did Ben kill his father in the purge? Did Jack kill his father by outing his drinking problem?
Ben did kill his father in the purge, and Jack seems to blame himself for his dads death I’m not sure if thats related though.
I don’t think the knife belonged to John.
This makes me think of the line “God loves you as He loved Jacob” - the biblical reference being along the lines of “God chooses people for certain purposes, not according to what those people have done, but because it is His will.” John WANTS to be a hunter, he WANTS to be the guy who likes football and racecars, but that is not his purpose. I think Richard was looking for self-knowledge in John, not manipulating him into wanting to be a hunter. He wants John to understand his own purpose.
piratefalcon325 - I do see your point, but my point is Locke doesn’t like being told what to do, and would he still want to be the guy who likes football, fishing, and cars if he hadn’t been told that he can’t?
H there, i’m just new to the site so tryin to read as many posts as I can! Especially liked this one! But its too difficult to be totally convinced by one theory. Particularly where Ben is invloved! When he apologises to Locke for having made his life miserable, couldn’t that be a reference to the bad things that allegedly occured after the departure of the O6, which Ben perhaps anticipated and /or orchestrated? Also the statement is something you could say to someone you know will shortly “die”? I do think that Richard’s dissapproval at John choosing the knife is genuine. He doesn’t want him to be set up for failure, which may mean, that he musn’t be the one to actually kill his father at all and everything happened as it was supposed to up until then. I hope I’ve made a bit of sense and this doesn’t seem like mad babbling. I know what I mean anyway! I’m just hoping I avoid being called a moron. I’ve read some pretty harsh comments on this site dissing others’ opinions!