Locke has returned to the Center of the Storyline at the end of Season 5. He appears to have been in control of his own free will for the first time in his life. But was he?
From "Walkabout" in Season 1, Flashback:
RANDY: Well, tell me, what's a Walkabout? [reading from a brochure]: "Experience the dream journeys of the fabled Australian Outback."
LOCKE: You have no right taking that off my desk.
RANDY: So, you wander around hunting and gathering food, right? On foot?
LOCKE: Not that you would understand, but a Walkabout is a journey of spiritual renewal, where one derives strength from the earth. And becomes inseparable from it. I have vacation days, I'm going, Randy. I've already made a reservation.
GL12: Wow. John you're really doing it, huh? You tell Helen yet?
RANDY: Helen? Well, what's this Locke, you've actually got a woman in your life.
LOCKE: That's none of your business.
RANDY: What is it with you Locke? Why do you torture yourself? I mean, imagining you're some hunter? Walkabouts? Wake up, you can't do any of that.
LOCKE: Norman Croucher.
RANDY: What? Norman what?
LOCKE: Norman Croucher. Norman Croucher, double amputee, no legs. He climbed to the top of Mt. Everest. Why? It was his destiny.
RANDY: That's what you think you've got, old man? Destiny?
LOCKE: JUST DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DO.
End of Flashback, Back to the Island:
KATE: [off camera at first] He's hurt. John? Can you hear me? Locke?
[Locke is still lying there.]
KATE: John you okay?
[Shot from the foot angle again.]
KATE: Locke?
LOCKE: [moving] I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine, Helen, I just got the wind knocked out of me is all.
KATE: Helen?
LOCKE: What?
KATE: YOU CALLED ME HELEN.
LOCKE: Did I?
[Kate is tending to Michael, making a tourniquet.]
LOCKE: Which way did that boar go?
KATE: Michael's hurt. We have to get him back to camp.
LOCKE: Yeah, you take him back to camp. I'm going to get that boar.
[Kate looks shocked.]
KATE: What are you talking about?
LOCKE: I'm fine. I can do this.
KATE: John, you can't.
LOCKE: Don't tell me what I can't do.
Another Flashback, to travel agent in Sydney:
AGENT: The Walkabouts we arrange here are not just some stroll through the park. It's trekking across vast stretches of desert, rafting bloody treacherous waters.
LOCKE: Look, you've got no idea who you're talking to. I'm well aware of what's involved, believe me. I probably know more than you on the subject.
AGENT: In any case, it's a trying ordeal for someone in peak physical condition, let alone …
LOCKE: Look, I booked this tour a month ago, you've already got my money. Now, I demand a place on that bus.
AGENT: You misrepresented yourself …
LOCKE: I never lied.
AGENT: By omission, Mr. Locke. You neglected to tell us about your condition.
LOCKE: My condition is not an issue. I've lived with it for 4 years. It's never kept me from doing anything.
AGENT: Look, unfortunately it is an issue for our insurance company. I can't keep the bus waiting any longer. It isn't fair to the other people.
LOCKE: Hey, don't talk to me about fair.
AGENT: I can get you on a plane back to Sydney on our dime. That's the best I can do.
LOCKE: No. I don't want to go back to Sydney. Look I've been preparing for this for years. Just put me on the bus, right now, I can do this.
AGENT: No, you can't.
LOCKE: Hey, hey, don't you walk away from me. [The wheelchair reveal]. You don't know who you're dealing with. Don't ever tell me what I can't do, ever. This is destiny. This is destiny. This is my destiny. (yelling) I'm supposed to do this, dammit. DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DO. DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T . . . .
His whole life was defined by what other people were telling him what he had to do. Like a volcano, there was inner anger building up inside of him. In the end, there was nothing he could do. He was merely a pawn, magnified to the fullest when Anthony Cooper, his father, conned him out of a kidney, and tossed him through a window to his paralyzed state, both mentally and physically. The shocking plot twist was that Locke was once in a wheelchair but now "cured" on the Island.The oddest part of this Locke-centric episode was his comment to Kate when he was awakening: he called her "Helen," his former girlfriend. With all the theories of time resets, that the time line could be rewritten, or destiny changed; is it possible that Locke was re-living a memory of a Walkabout with Helen?
