Episode 3.18: The Brig

Episode Title: The Brig

Welcome home Brian. I trust that you made it home without shifing into multiple timelines or crashing on any islands with strange smoke monsters. I hope you had a great time in Europe. Thank you for the opportunity to write this preview.

This episode has the potential to be one of the best of this season. It's both an honor and a lot of pressure! What's worse is that I've had three weeks to think and obsess about this episode. Lets see how I do...


Steve's Deeper Meaning Guess:

This is the long awaited episode that picked up the Locke/Daddy cliffhanger from "The Man From Tallahassee". In case you forgot.

Check out Lockes expression.... Mine wasn't much different.

We also get to follow Desmond and Company as they try to bring Naomi he parachutist back to the beach. We'll also see the tension building between Jack and the rest of our beach residents.

I started my research with a simple goggle search for 'The Brig'. The results were interesting:


Movie 'The Brig'(1964): Marine prisoners are awakened and put through work details for the course of a single day, submitting in the course of it to extremely harsh and shocking physical and mental degradation and abuse."


Definition 'Brig': Nautical. a. a two-masted vessel square-rigged on both masts.
b. the compartment of a ship where prisoners are confined.

Whether it was intentional or not, we have serveral possible meanings. The obvious would be a prison cell where Locke's prisoner is being held. This is usually on a ship, and the only ship we know of would be the Black Rock, which may or may not be a ‘Brig’ itself. Then we have the the 1964 movie ‘The Brig’ that sounds a lot like what Ben put Sawyer through on Alcatraz.

This is a Locke centric episode, but the flashbacks will probably be on the island from the time we left Locke stunned at the site of his father bound and gagged in Otherville. We should find out how Anthony Cooper(Locke’s dad) got to the island, and where the others went off to, why, and how. The guest list is mostly a cast of others, including Tom, Alpert and Cindy (who I consider an 'other' now), and of course we'll see Ben and Anthony Cooper. The notable exceptions are CFL (Danielle Rousseau), who will likely show could show up with either Locke or Desmond's group, and Naomi the parachutist.

Lets look at this weeks Promo:

OK, we see that Locke has snuck into Ben's tent and kidnapped a man, and asks Sawyer to Kill him. We hear Desmond saying that "if we keep her safe, she's the way off thsi island" and also questioning whether Jack can be trusted. We also get someetty angry shots of Sawyer attacking Locke screaming "Why Me"... and a hooded man bound to a chair.

EPSIDODE DESCRIPTION:The Brig

A newly focused Locke breaks away from "The Others" in an attempt to persuade Sawyer to help rid them of a great nemesis that has caused nothing but pain in both of their lives. Guest starring are M.C. Gainey as Mr. Friendly/Tom, Kevin Tighe as Anthony Cooper, Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Kimberly Joseph as Cindy and Marsha Thomason as Naomi.


The wording "Breaks Away" and "Newly Focused" really stands out to me. Obviously he's done with the others, or at least with Ben. Locke's agenda may not be in the best interest of the the 815 survivors, but Locke is no Other either... well, he doesn't answer to Ben. Locke's 'focus' is not compatible with Ben. His bond with the island makes him a wild card, if not a threat, but Ben needs him right now. Ben would love to have control over Locke like he does Juliet. Is Ben using Anthony Cooper as a way to control Locke? or is he stringing him along with promised of the islands secrets?

We should find out more of the mystery about the 'others' departure from 'Otherville'. A couple weeks ago, the promos showed the 'others' at a large camp, I think we'll see that scene in this episode, and we may find that this is some sort of ancient site/special place. If what we know about the ‘purge’ is accurate, the others moved into the Barracks afterwards. Ben now feels that, at the suggestion of Locke, that getting back to their old ways will bring him in back in touch with the island and possibly even heal him. At the end of last season, we saw a 4-toed foot statue; it's possible that we could see this or some other ancient artifact of the islands past… or maybe not… it just seems that we're long overdue to learn something more about the Islands archeology.

What has brought Locke to the point of Kidnapping and wanting to kill? There has to be a lot of hate there. Could the Island be telling Locke that Ben needs to die? (It did let Ben get Cancer) Or does Ben do something so terrible to him that he sees no other choice, possibly use Anthony Cooper for leverage over Locke?

Speaking of Locke’s dad, the big question is what happened after his reveal at the end of ‘Man from Tallahassee”. It's pointless to speculate on this, that's why we've been waiting for 4 weeks, I have no idea… but I CAN speculate that Anthony Cooper may be more than just Locke's dad.Lets step back a bit to season one, episode 'confidence man' where we find out what's in Sawyers letter, and learn about a man that Con's James Ford (Sawyer)'s family when he was a child, resulting in the murder/suicide of his parents. Lets face it, Cooper and "Real Sawyer" have a lot in common, and Sawyer is not going to resolve this back-story off island. This is lost, everyone seems to have a connection. Shoot...Claire and Jack share the same father, isn't it appropriate Locke and Sawyer could share the same off island nemesis Nemesis? Plus, we have the potential to put all Sawyer, Ben and Anthony Cooper in the same place... That's a lot of Con and Manipulation.. a real Con-vention(Sorry).

Since Locke can't bring himself to Kill either one (would this somehow damage his connection with the Island?), who better to recruit than Sawyer, who both hates Ben and would surely kill the man who destroyed his family (as he did the man he thought was this 'Real Sawyer' in the season one’s 'Outlaws'). So, we've established that we have a prisoner, and the previews suggest is Ben, but we also know that the figure that we see is hooded so we won't know for sure. I can't see Ben being killed this week, if nothing else, he'll save himself by dangling Anthony Cooper for Sawyer to get his revenge. It would not surprise me to see Anthony Cooper dead by the end of this episode, and I anticipate that the last few minutes of this episode could be one of the most intense scenes that we've seen.

Meanwhile, Desmond, Jin, Charlie and Hurley are bringing Naomi the parachutists back to Camp. This is after her big reveal last week that they found Flight 815 and there were no survivors. (I could speculate on multiple timeline theories and Hanso conspiracies, but I'll leave that for the Blog comments and Forums). We’ll likely learn more of Naomi’s mission, but she’ll probably be in and out of consciousness preventing her from telling us everything… in typical Lost fashion.


We see from the preview that Desmond is debating with Charlie over whether Jack should be told and questioning whether Jack can be trusted. Thinks aren't looking good for Jack back at the beach. There's the smell of a coup d'État. A couple weeks ago, we had Sayid and Sawyer working together. SAYID AND SAWYER! (Sayid once tortured Sawyer)

Oh, and I almost forgot about CFL. Where does she fit in this episode? Desmond and company are traveling through her domain, but I think she’s more likely following around the Others to keep an eye on Alex. She could be another ally of Locke, after all… someone will need to keep an eye on his prisoner while Locke fetches Sawyer.

OK, that's it. I've rambled enough. This should be great episode... I'm psyched...