Lockdown (Lost)

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“Lockdown”
Lost (TV series) episode
Locke slides in front of the blast door
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 17
Guest stars	Theo Coumbis (Jimmy Bane) Geoffrey Rivas (Father Chuck) Andrea Gabriel (Nadia) Michael Emerson (Henry Gale) Katey Sagal (Helen) Kevin Tighe (Cooper)
Written by	Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Directed by	Stephen Williams
Production no.	217
Original airdate	March 29, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"The Whole Truth"	"Dave"
List of Lost episodes

"Lockdown" is the 41st episode of Lost. It is the seventeenth episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It first aired on March 29, 2006 on ABC. The character of John Locke is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

Henry Gale tries to convince Locke and a suspicious Jack that he was making a bad joke about leading Sayid’s group into a trap. Jack and Locke argue about what to do next, Jack storms off, leaving Locke to put Henry back in the armory. Jack challenges Sawyer to a poker game to win back the medicine that Sawyer has been hoarding.

In the flashback, Locke is preparing to propose to his girlfriend Helen at a picnic, but while he is preparing the lunch, she notices Locke’s father’s name in the obituaries,

Locke and Helen arrive at Locke's father's funeral

so they postpone the picnic to attend the funeral. No one else is there, except two mysterious men standing in the distance, and a silver Mercedes with a driver who keeps glaring at Locke. At the conclusion of the funeral, Locke stands next to the coffin and says, "I forgive you." Later, he sees the same silver car near his house, and finds that it contains his father, who had faked his own death to escape from the two men who are looking to kill him because of his "retirement con". He wants Locke to go to the bank to get the money for him from a safety deposit box, and keep $200,000 as payment. When Helen asks Locke about the situation, he lies to her and says that he hasn't seen his father. When Locke meets up with his father at the motel, he tells his father that he’s planning on marrying Helen. But when he leaves, he sees Helen has followed him, and she is hurt by all the lies. She breaks things off with Locke, accusing him of choosing his father's love over hers. Locke gets down on one knee and proposes, but Helen shakes her head and drives away, leaving Locke to stare at his father getting into a taxi cab to drive away as well. In the hatch, while Locke is pedaling on the stationary bike, he suddenly hears static noise coming from the speakers throughout the hatch, even though there are still 47 minutes left. A few seconds later, a female voice announces "5...4...3...2...1", and the blast doors quickly begin to shut, but Locke wedges one open with a crowbar to keep it from closing completely. He then enlists Henry Gale’s help to further open the doors, prying one up a couple feet and then sliding a toolbox underneath to prop it open. Locke tries to slide through the gap, but the door crushes the toolbox and his legs, trapping him. Since the timer is still counting down, Locke tells Henry how to get into the computer room through the vents to input the numbers, and Henry sets off on that mission.

The mysterious map on the blast door, revealed by blacklight.

While Gale is gone, the timer begins to beep rapidly, signaling the beginning of the 1-minute countdown, then the alarm stops, there is a whirring noise similar to the jet engine-like sound in "One of Them" and the lights go out. Seconds later, blacklights come on and for a few seconds a diagram is revealed on the blast door that Locke is trapped under. It appears to be a multi-layered map of the island, but it is only shown briefly before the ordinary lights turn back on and the blast doors retract to their normal positions. There were at least two types of notations on the map: printed notes in English, which were very factual and seemingly informed; and Latin-language notes in a cursive hand, which were more observational and speculative — even philosophical. Beneath the writings and drawings was a topographical map. The hidden map shows the location of six stations (with a seventh scratched out), all "pointing" to the center of the Island, represented on the map by a large question mark. Four of the bunkers have both graphics and text identifiers, apparently their respective names and logos; the two remaining have no titles, and their icons are difficult to decipher. The named stations listed on the hidden map are, counter-clockwise: the Arrow, the scratched out station, the Staff, the Flame, the Swan, unknown and unknown. The central location, indicated by the question mark was revealed to be the Pearl in episode "?". This is a viewing station to view those in action at the Swan, and possibly other stations around the Island. There are numerous handwritten notations on the blast door map. They are written in several scripts, suggesting multiple contributors. The notes can be grouped into four general categories, English commentary, Latin Commentary, Mathematical Equations, and single object labels (the Swan, the Flame, CVIII, ect). The Latin phrases appear to be more of a running commentary than insightful notations about the map. By contrast, the majority of the notations written in English address the various stations, a cryptic incident, possible shutdowns, a Cerberus system, a DharmaTel network, scientific equations, and zoological research. Found on the blast door map are several equations, both mathematical and scientific, written as additional notations to the diagram. Three trigonometric equations are located in the top left-hand corner of the blast door map, two calculus problems appear to be engineering/physics equations related to magnetics, two derived values are found at the far right of the map, and other various mathematical equations are spread throughout it. There are several notations on the hidden map that appear to be dates which use a month/day/year format. Some appear to indicate a "shutdown" occurred. What was shut down and why it was shutdown are unknown. There is another date reference to a zoological research facility and a reference to something called an AH/MDG incident of 1985. Henry steps out of the computer room and tells Locke that he did what Locke asked him to do.

On the beach, Kate sees a flashing light in the jungle, and when she and Jack investigate, they find an enormous package of food attached to a parachute.

The photo ID of the real Henry Gale.

When Jack enters the hatch, he grabs Henry off of the injured Locke, though Locke tries to defend Henry, saying that he was helping him after the blast doors came down. Sayid confirms that they found the balloon and the grave and they were exactly where Henry had said they were. However, Sayid adds that he was still skeptical as to the validity of Henry's story, so he dug up the grave to verify it was his wife's, and found a man's body instead--a body with the photo ID of a man named "Henry Gale".

[edit] Trivia

The safe deposit box Locke takes his father's money from is numbered 1516, two of the numbers in the 'Lost numbers' sequence.
The woman whose home Locke examines is Nadia from Sayid's past.

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Lockdown (Lost)

Lost
Production:	DVD releases \| Episode list \| Season 1 \| Season 2 \| Season 3 \| Soundtrack
Main characters:	Ana Lucia \| Ben \| Boone \| Charlie \| Claire \| Desmond \| Hurley \| Jack \| Jin \| Juliet \| Kate Libby \| Locke \| Michael \| Mr. Eko \| Nikki \| Paulo \| Sawyer \| Sayid \| Shannon \| Sun \| Walt
Supporting characters:	Alex \| Bernard \| Christian \| Cindy \| Ethan \| The Others \| Pickett \| Rose \| Rousseau \| Tom
Organizations:	DHARMA Initiative \| Hanso Foundation \| Oceanic Airlines
Elements:	Crossover list \| DHARMA Initiative stations \| Flight 815 \| Mythology \| Thematic motifs
Miscellaneous:	Gary Troup \| In popular culture \| Lost Experience \| Rachel Blake \| Video game