Lost: Season 4, Episode 11 "Cabin Fever" Review

 "He wants us to move the Island."

-John Locke

"Cabin Fever" kicks off with a flashback to the night of Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) birth, where he barely survives being born three months early.  Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) interacts with John over the course of the flashbacks.  He visits baby John, at the hospital before visiting him again as a young boy.  He shows Locke a series of objects and asks him to pick the one that belongs to him already.  Locke selects a knife, which is the wrong answer, and Richard leaves.  Finally, Richard tries to recruit a teenage Locke to a summer camp, Locke rejects it.

In the final flashback, while in the hospital recovering from being pushed out the window, Locke is met by Matthew Abandon (Lance Reddick) who encourages him to go on a walkabout.

On the island, Locke, Ben (Michael Emerson) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) struggle to find the cabin.  Locke is visited in a dream by Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchinson), who tells him to find his body.  Locke takes the group to the mass grave of the Dharma Initiative and finds a map to the cabin.  Locke enters the cabin alone and meets with someone who appears to be Christian Shephard (John Terry) and discovers Claire (Emilie de Ravin) inside as well.  Christian tells Locke he needs to move the Island.

On the freighter, Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) flies the mercenary team back, where one of them quickly dies from his injuries.  Keamy (Kevin Durand) forces Captain Gault (Grant Bowler) to open the safe that has the secondary protocol inside, which tells Keamy where Ben is heading.  Gault and Lapiuds both realize that Keamy is planning to kill everyone on the Island.  The Captain helps Sayid (Naveen Andrews) take the ship's Zodiac raft to begin ferrying survivors to the freighter.  

That night, both Frank and Gault attempt to stop Keamy from returning to the Island, but this results in the deaths of Gault and Dr. Ray (Marc Vann).  Lapidus agrees to fly them, but secretly drops a bag with a satellite phone inside onto the beach camp as they fly overhead.  Jack (Matthew Fox) can now track the team and wants to follow them.

What Works:

One of the best parts of this episode is the grouping of Locke, Ben, and Hurley.  We already know what a wonderful dynamic Locke and Ben have, and that stays true here, but adding Hurley to the mix is a lot of fun giving us some fantastic dialogue.  The best part is watching Ben and Hurley split a candy bar.  This scene never fails to crack me up.

This is an episode that improves in hindsight.  The final scenes with Locke visiting the cabin have a lot more impact now, knowing what the Man in Black is really up to.  It's great seeing him at work manipulating John from the dream sequence all the way to the end of the episode.

This also makes the flashbacks a lot more interesting knowing that Locke never really was all that special. It's part of the time travel paradox between Locke and Richard and that makes it fascinating to watch after sitting through season 5.

The freighter storyline really ramps up in this episode.  We already knew Keamy was a big bad, but we get even more evidence with his murders of Ray and Gault.  I really liked Gault and I loved seeing him and Lapidus stand up to Keamy.  It's an exciting climax that perfectly sets up the finale.

Finally, this is another fantastic episode for Frank, the greatest character on Lost.  I already mentioned his attempt to stop Keamy and getting the satellite phone to Jack, but I also really enjoyed his interactions with Michael (Harold Perrineau) after finding out he is an Oceanic 815 survivor.  I'm a simple man and if Lapidus gets stuff to do, I'm happy.

What Sucks:

The on-island Locke story is pretty slow, especially considering this is the last episode before the finale starts.  I don't know if we needed a whole episode looking for this cabin.  The dialogue between the characters is great, but it doesn't feel very consequential until the final act.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "Cabin Fever", this award goes to Frank Lapidus for attempting to stand up to Keamy and for dropping the phone at the beach camp.  Lapidus is the man and this is his 2nd time winning this award, which ties him for 13th place with Rose, Ana Lucia, and Ben.

Verdict:

While the main story is on the slow side, it's saved by some awesome character interactions and some excellent rewatchabillity, as are the flashbacks.  The freighter storyline is great and gives us some awesome moments from characters I really enjoy.  This episode has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good