S6 E4 "The Substitute"

"This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to." -Frank

This episode was simply amazing. You have to say that of any episode that has you pausing the TV to study it frame by frame! Terry O'Quinn, as usual, did such a great job playing two characters who are so extremely different. I chose the quote above not just because it was the funniest. But I wanted to start with John's funeral for several reasons. It was beautiful to finally see Ben acknowledge that John was a good man, and what he did to him was murder. And I really loved how the writers brought us all the way back to the original graveyard. They wanted to remind us of all the people who have died there, as a foreshadowing of the names James would read in the cave.

Connect The Dots
If you have not already, you really should scroll down and read my post from earlier today entitled "In Preparation of Tonight's Episode." I gave a little background information on who called whom a "substitute" last season. Maybe it is to show that in John's new reality he's a much more normal substitute.

John's fiance in this episode is the same woman, Helen, who he was engaged to in his original story line. She ended up leaving him because he was obsessed with his con-man of a father. Last season, Abbadon told John Helen had died and took him to her grave. ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham.")

In this new story line John also works at the same box company in Tustin. This is a picture from "Walkabout." It has long been assumed that it was the same box company Hurley owned. John also has the same boss, Randy Nations. Randy called him "Colonel" because John played a war game with another employee on his break. Randy also used to be Hurley's boss at Mr. Cluck's before he won the lottery. That's why he didn't think too highly of Randy.

It was fun to hear James recount all his failed attempts to get off the island: "I'm on this island because my plane crashed, because my raft blew up, because the helicopter I was on was riding one too many." How about the time he was on the sub but followed "Freckles" back to the island?

James talked about "Of Mice And Men" before. It was with Ben when he was being held hostage on Hydra Island.

In Jacob's cave we saw a scale with equal-sized black and white rocks. The colors black and white have always been a theme on the show. But we have even seen black and white rocks before. When Jack and Kate first found "Adam and Eve" the skeletons each had black and white rocks in their pockets.

Details and Easter Eggs
This is probably just a prop coincidence, but when John was in the bath tub, he drank out of the same mug Cassidy did in "Whatever Happened, Happened." It is half black, half white, with a green stripe down the middle.

Did you see The Smoke Monster's reflection in the window? Very cool.


James was listening to Iggy Pop's 1997 rendition of The Stooge's "Search and Destroy." We heard the lyrics "I am the world's forgotten boy; the one who searches, searches to destroy." It seems to fit his current state but where would he have found that album, on a LP?!

We know that Un-Locke has John's memories but James pointed out that he doesn't act like John. So it really seems odd that he would shout the line John coined "Don't tell me what I can't do!"

Hurley was driving the same yellow Hummer we saw him own in many of his flashbacks.

The lady at the temp agency is Lynn Karnoff. She was also the fake psychic Hurley's dad took him to in "Trisha Tanaka Is Dead."

It was really sad to hear that Rose still has terminal cancer in this new storyline. I guess it's not a perfect new world.



Helen is wearing a shirt with the words "Peace and Karma" "Joy and Tranquility."

I need to point out that the ladder to the cave could be called Jacob's Ladder. In the Bible, Jacob's ladder was a passage which led to heaven for the angels to travel on. So it seems more symbolic that it collapsed TWICE when James, a mere mortal, tried to climb it. Given this religious reference, it is ironic that this episode aired the night before Lent.

An analysis of Jacob's wall
Ok here's the part you probably wanted to scroll down to. (Thank goodness I have HD!)
The names not crossed out were all assigned one of "The Numbers."
4 Locke
8 Reyes (Hurley)
15-Ford (James)
16-Jarrah (Sayid)
23-Shephard (Jack)
42-Kwon (Jin or Sun)

The crossed-out names were a mix of familiar names, unfamiliar names, and unreadable names! Here is a list from Lostpedia with numbers if it was legible and what I can tell you about those names.
10 Mattingley :One of the 1954 Others was wearing an army uniform with this name
20 Roup
64 Goldstein
75 Costa
90 Troup (Gary): He was the first man to die on the island. He was sucked up into the plane's engine in the pilot episode.
14X Lewis (Charlotte)
195 Pace (Charlie)
222 O'Toole
233 Jones: The name on Widmore's army uniform in 1954
291 Domingo
313 Littleton (Claire)
317 Cunningham: Another name from the 1954 army uniforms.
346 Grant
? Goodspeed (Horace or Amy)
? Reynolds
? Almeda
? Sullivan: annoying guy who developed a rash he kept bugging Jack about. Probably died during the flaming arrows attack.
? Pickett: Mean Other who almost beat Sawyer to death.
? Farraday (Daniel)

Questions
It seems odd that Helen told John they should get her parents and his dad and get married in Vegas. Does that mean that in this new story line he is still friends with Anthony Cooper? If so, then how did he become paralyzed?

What kind of "home" does James have to go home to?

And the big question everyone will be debating this week: We saw Jacob touch Kate on the nose when she was a kid. Why didn't we see her name on the wall?

Namaste!