Season 4, Episode 11:
Cabin Fever
In flashbacks, a six-months pregnant Emily Locke is hit by a car while on her way to meet Anthony Cooper. She prematurely gives birth to her son, John. She decides to give him up for adoption. Locke is visited twice by Richard Alpert, first as a baby, then as a child. Richard gives Locke a test to see if he is "special", but is disappointed by the results. A teenage Locke refuses to join a science camp run by Mittelos Bioscience. After Locke's paralysis, Matthew Abaddon, working as an orderly at his hospital, suggests that he go on a walkabout.
On the freighter, Keamy confronts Michael over giving his name to Ben, but is prevented from killing him by his gun jamming and Captain Gault saying they need him to fix the engine. Keamy finds a secondary protocol from Widmore, indicating Ben's next move. Gault gives Sayid the freighter's Zodiac raft, in order to ferry people from the Island to the freighter. Keamy has a strange device attached to his arm. At Michael's urging, Lapidus refuses to bring Keamy back to the Island, so he kills Gault and Ray, dumping the latter's body in the ocean, and threatens to kill other if Lapidus does not bring him to the Island, which he reluctantly agrees to do. Lapidus drops a satellite phone out of the helicopter, to warn the survivors on the beach of Keamy's location, which they interpret as a signal to follow them.
In the jungle, Locke sees a vision of Horace Goodspeed in a dream, telling him to find him in order to find Jacob. He finds Horace's body in the mass DHARMA grave, and retrieves a map to the cabin from his pocket. Locke finds Christian and Claire inside the cabin, with Christian claiming to speak on Jacob's behalf. Locke tells Ben and Hurley that Jacob wants them to move the Island.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
- After Keamy's first attempt to kill Michael fails when his gun jams, Gault persuades him that they need Michael alive to fix the engines, since he's the one who broke them.
- When Keamy threatens to kill Lapidus if he doesn't fly him back to the Island, Lapidus is unfazed, knowing that this is an empty threat, because he is the only pilot on the freighter, and Keamy will be stuck there if he kills him.
- Determinator: It turns out Locke was this even as a baby, as he is born three months premature, and has to overcome all manner of complications and infections to stay alive.Nurse: He's amazing. He's the youngest preemie to ever survive in this hospital. He's had infections, pneumonia, you name it. And every time, he knocked them out. He is a fighter, your little John.
- Foreshadowing: Young John shows Richard his drawing of a person overlaid with a smoke-monster-like cloud; much as John will eventually be taken over by the smoke monster/Man in Black.
- Not Me This Time: At the DHARMA mass grave, Hugo asked why Ben killed the DHARMA Initiative. This is how he answers.Ben: I didn't kill them.Hurley: Well, if the Others didn't wipe out the DHARMA Initiative—Ben: They did wipe them out, Hugo, but it wasn't my decision.Hurley: Then whose was it?Ben: Their leader's.Hurley: But I thought you were their leader.Ben: Not always.
- Pet the Dog: While waiting for Locke, Hurley pulls out a candy bar and gives half to Ben.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
- After hearing about Keamy's true plans for the Island, Gault decides to ignore Widmore's orders and helps Sayid to ferry survivors to and from the Island to save them from Keamy.
- Lapidus attempts this by refusing to fly Keamy back to the Island, but is forced to relent when Keamy threatens to kill everyone on the freighter if he doesn't.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon seeing baby Locke in the NICU, Emily immediately leaves.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Keamy effectively appoints himself captain of the freighter with his murder of Gault.
- Wham Line: Locke's instruction?"He wants us to move the Island."
- Wham Shot:
- Richard Alpert appears at the hospital to visit Locke as a baby, looking exactly as he does in the present.
- As Locke is being wheeled through the hospital in a flashback, the camera pans up to reveal that the orderly wheeling him is Matthew Abaddon.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Locke is disturbed when Ben congratulates him on manipulating Hurley into staying with them, which Locke claims was not his intention.
