We open up right where we left off (I think, anyway; maybe Adelphia could let me know for sure), with Sawyer, Michael and Jin on the beach panicking. And rightly so, I guess, since some guy walks up and starts beating the living crap out of them. And I must say, this is an interesting choice of an actor for this character. Are they doing some sort of noble savage thing? They get the darkest skinned guy they can find and take his shirt off and put armbands on him instead? Is he a warrior from Deepest Darkest Africa? Everyone else in his group was wearing western clothing, so why would he go all native? Also, he hardly has any, which makes him an “other” like the anthropologist Edward Said talked about occurring in books like “Heart of Darkness” – ooo, I think I just made up a new Lost theory. “The Others” as a manifestation of our fears and stereotypes of the unknown. I’m gonna pat myself on the back for remembering that from high school.

We can’t know for sure yet whether he’s a fellow passenger or one of The Others, but either way he’s obviously nutso and violent. But I know the people behind this show are too smart not to have thought about their casting choices, so I have to think they know what they’re doing…Or maybe I’m just overthinking it. Too many years on the West Coast.

Back down in the hatch, we get the same scene they’ve aired twice already, where Desmond threatens to kill Locke and Jack gets all pissy about it. I guess it’s a good way to segue into our first flashback – Locke with hair! He’s in a therapy group and some girl is complaining about her mom stealing her money for alcohol. Locke has no patience for everyone else’s sob stories, and really, he’s right – his long lost father steals his kidney and disappears again? Locke wins, hands down. His outburst here has a pleasing side effect, though. Katey Sagal wants to jump him now. Hi, Mrs. Bundy!

She pretty much lays it all out there, telling him that she can’t tell off people like he did because “once I get all hot and bothered there’s no stopping me.” Woo hoo! What would Al say? Looks like she wasn’t lying, either. In the next flashback, they’ve already bumped uglies. And oh yeah, her name is Helen, which is a sneaky trick the writers pulled on us, since Helen was also the name of the phone-sex operator Locke tried to go to Australia with last season. I watched that old episode again to listen to that Helen’s voice and compare. Definitely a different Helen. Did he happen to get two Helens in his life? Did he tell the phone sex chick that he wanted to call her Helen? Who knows.