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AIR-DATE: 29/03/06

Written by:
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

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In flashback
Locke - now living with girlfriend, Helen, and ready to propose to her - learns that his father has died. Helen hopes that this will stop Locke obsessing about his past. It turns out, though, that Locke's dad faked his death to escape from some villains he's swindled. He gets Locke to recover some money for him, which Locke does, still hoping he can find a bond with his dad. Unfortunately, Helen finds out and dumps him, while dad takes the money and jets off.

On the island
Locke is locked in the hatch with Gale when something causes the place's blast doors to descend. Locke frees Gale from the armoury, and together they prise up one of the doors high enough for Locke to squeeze under, but he only gets part way through when the blast door comes back down, pinning his legs. Then the countdown begins. Locke orders Gale to use the ventilation shafts to get to the control room to stop the countdown. While he waits, the lights go out, then diagrams and maps are projected onto the walls. After a while the blast doors lift up again freeing him. Gale appears and said he stopped the countdown like Locke asked but did not know what caused the projections.

Review
Get ready with that VCR and the pause button to get the most out of the projections! This is a real crowdpleaser of an episode, that good old stand-by of two people who don't trust each other being forced into a situation where they have to. The link to the flashback is also better employed than usual of late, so that we really empathise with Locke's plea for Gale not to leave him, even while we - as an audience - still do not trust the slimy git (quite rightly, it would seem). But did Gale create the projections for Locke to witness on purpose? Or did something else trigger them? The old "ventilation shaft" cliche, though, is simply unforgivable.

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