Lost: Season 3, Episode 3 "Further Instructions" Review

 "I wouldn't want you to have to start punching yourself in the face."

-Charlie Pace

The 3rd episode of season 3 of Lost kicks of with Locke (Terry O'Quinn) waking up in the jungle after the implosion of the hatch.  Locke is unable to speak and builds a sweat lodge to communicate with the island and figure out what to do next.  He has a hallucination of Boone (Ian Somerhalder) who tells him he needs to rescue Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) from a polar bear.

Locke and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) go off on their quest and run into Hurley (Jorge Grace) and they fill each other in on what has happened.  Locke goes into the bear cave and fights off the bear with hairspray and a torch and saves Mr. Eko.  

Hurley runs into a naked Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) who tells Hurley not to worry about his captured friends because Locke gave a speech about rescuing them.  Hurley is confused by this as Locke hasn't given any speech.  However, when Locke and Charlie return with Mr. Eko, Locke does give a speech about rescuing the others, which makes Hurley suspicious of Desmond.

In flashbacks, we see that Locke has joined a hippie commune.  He picks up a hitchhiker, Eddie (Justin Chatwin), who decides to join the commune.  It turns out the commune is actually growing marijuana and Eddie is an undercover cop.  Locke decides to take Eddie out into the woods and kill him, but is unable to and lets the cop leave.

What Works:

The best part of the episode is the wacky vision quest Locke goes on with Boone.  It takes place in an airport and it's bizarre.  The editing is all over the place.  It might be the weirdest scene in all of Lost and I really dig it.  Plus it's fun to have Ian Somerhalder back.

I have some issues with some of the early scenes with Locke and Charlie, but once they actually get out into the jungle, it feels like their season 1 relationship, which I always loved.  We get some fun banter between them and Charlie's joke about Locke being bald is one of his funniest moments.

It's also fun to see Locke being a badass again.  It's been awhile since he's been cooped up in the hatch for a whole season.  Seeing him take down a polar bear with hairspray and a torch was awesome and gave us the John Locke of a bygone era.

Finally, I really liked the scene between Locke and Eko as Locke apologizes for the hatch incident.  It's a nice moment and I love remorseful John Locke.  He makes a ton of mistakes and seeing him feel bad about it is satisfying from a character perspective.

What Sucks:

I mentioned I didn't care for the early scenes with Locke and Charlie.  It really doesn't make sense that Locke would be asking Charlie for help or that Charlie would agree to help.  These two do not get along and they are back on the same page way too quickly.

I also don't love that Locke is mute for part of the episode.  It doesn't amount to anything really and it's over quickly enough that I have to wonder why they bothered doing it in the first place.  A better route would have been to make him mute until the very end of the episode.  That would have been more satisfying and interesting.

The flashbacks don't do anything for me.  They add basically nothing to the show besides giving us an origin for Locke's drug he used on Boone, but I didn't need to know where that came from.  

The main plot of episode feels a little pointless in hindsight.  Mr. Eko is going to die in two episodes from unrelated injuries, but we spent the entire episode looking for him.  It's entertaining enough, especially on the first watch, but on the rewatch it feels like filler.

This is the episode that introduces us to Nikki and Paulo and it's jarring.  They just suddenly show up.  They aren't introduced, they're just there.  These characters suck and their introduction doesn't do them any favors.

Finally, the CGI of the polar bear hasn't improved.  You barely see it and it still looks terrible, especially as it runs away deeper into the cave.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in an episode.  For "Further Instructions," this award goes to John Locke for defeating a polar bear with hairspray, rescuing Mr. Eko, and giving an inspiring speech to calm the camp down.  This is Locke's 8th time winning the award, which puts him in the lead.

Verdict:

"Further Instructions" is a mildly entertaining episode with some nice moments from Locke and Charlie and that weird hallucination.  This episode is a lot of filler with some pointless flashbacks, terrible CGI, and a strange mute plot development that goes away just as quickly as it comes, plus the introduction of Nikki and Paulo.  It's not a good episode, but it's watchable.

 6/10: Okay