The Kellehers

May 8, 2008
10:00 pm	to	11:00 pm

“Cabin Fever” is the eleventh episode of Season 4 of Lost, and originally aired on May 8, 2008. Locke, Hurley, and Ben trek through the jungle in search of Jacob’s cabin and answers, while tensions run high aboard the Kahana as Keamy prepares to return to the island.

Synopsis

Flashback

A record playing “Everyday” by Buddy Holly is started up as a girl dances around her room. She is putting lipstick on in the mirror when her mother walks in. They talk about the fact that the girl is going out for the night. Her mother asks if she is going out with “him” and mentions that he is twice her age and she doesn’t approve. The girl, identified as Emily, says that she is in love with the man. Emily runs out into the rain trying to escape her mother and meet the mysterious “him” when she runs out into the road and is hit by a car. Emily wakes up in the hospital being rushed through a hall on a gurney. She tells a nurse that she is almost six months pregnant. After giving birth to her child, the nurse tells her that it is a boy and rushes him away saying that he is too young to be held. Before being wheeled out, Emily tells the nurse to name him John.

Later, Emily and her mother are standing over an incubator with John inside. The nurse enters and seems overjoyed at the fact that John is the youngest premature baby to survive at the hospital. He suffered from infections and pneumonia among other things, but successfully fought them off. Emily’s mother, Mrs. Locke, seems less than thrilled at this information. At mention of taking John out and having Emily hold him, Emily becomes upset by the idea. She runs out of the room crying, saying that she cannot do it. Mrs. Locke is left in the room with the nurse and unemotionally asks who she should speak to about adoption. Before getting an answer, she sees a man standing behind the viewing window. Mrs. Locke looks disturbed to see him there. The nurse asks if he is the father of the baby, and she responds by saying that she doesn’t know who he is. The man’s face is shown to reveal that it is Richard Alpert.

A young John is playing backgammon in a living room when his foster sister Melissa knocks the pieces off the board. His foster mother scolds her before telling John that there is a man there to see him and that he should be on his best behavior. Richard Alpert walks in the house and sits down at the table across from him. He introduces himself as Richard and tells John that he runs a school for special children and has reason to believe that he is one of them. Richard asks John if he minds if he shows him a couple of neat things and John shakes his head. Richard sees a drawing on the wall of the room of a man lying on the ground while a mass of black springs from the ground and hangs over him, resembling an attack by the smoke monster. When asked if he drew the picture, John nods his head. The two walk to another table and sit down. Richard tells John that he wants him to look at a few objects, think about them, and tell him which of them are his. The boy thinks Richard means “to keep” but Alpert clarifies: “Which of these things belong to you already?” He lays out on the table a baseball mitt, a book entitled “Book of Laws” (the holy book of the Bahá’í Faith), a small container of granules resembling the ash in the channel near Jacob’s Cabin ((The Man Behind the Curtain)), a compass, a comic book entitled “Mystery Tales“, and a knife. John inspects the container of the granules and the compass. John starts towards the “Book of Laws”, at which point Richard looks hopeful, but finally he picks up the knife, instead. Richard seems disappointed and angry. He asks John if he is sure, and after he nods, Richard snatches the knife, and the other items on the table, away. He puts these back into his bag and stands up quickly. The foster mothers enters the room and asks how John did. Richard responds that John is not quite ready for his school and walks out of the house. The woman scolds John asking what he did and he looks down dejectedly.

Teenage Locke, now a high school student, bangs on the door from the inside of a locker calling to be let out. A teacher opens the door and John finds everyone laughing when he exits. The teacher suggests that he come to the nurse’s office with him because his lip is bleeding. Soon after, the two sit in an office where John says that he does not want to talk about what just happened despite the man’s prodding. The teacher tells John that he got a call from Portland on behalf of Mittelos Laboratories who work with chemistry and new technologies. When he mentions speaking with a Dr. Alpert John looks up. The teacher tells him that Mittelos is looking for young, bright minds and they want John to go to their summer camp. When Locke asks how they knew about him, the teacher suggests that they sent a representative to a science fair where John had presented a model of an island. John gets upset and tells the teacher that he is not a scientist, but the type of person who is interested in sports and cars. The teacher kindly tells him that even if he wants to be more like the popular boys at school, it is just not who he is. He says that John simply can’t be a super-hero, to which he responds, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” He hands him back the pamphlet and walks out.

Adult Locke struggles to walk while undergoing physical therapy at a rehabilitative center. The trainer gives praise to Locke’s good work and tells him enough for the day, waving an orderly to bring over a wheelchair. The orderly helps Locke into the chair and pushes him towards the elevator, talking with him and being revealed as Matthew Abaddon. He tells John that surviving an 8-story fall was a miracle and suggests John take an Australian walkabout and learn who he truly is. Abaddon tells Locke that he’s “much more than an orderly,” and again urges him to go on the walkabout, saying purposefully that when they met again Locke would “owe him one.”

In the jungle

Hurley, Locke and Ben make camp in the jungle overnight. The next morning, Locke awakens to the sound of an axe. He follows the sound and finds a man in a DHARMA jumpsuit cutting down trees. Locke asks him who he is, and he informally answers that his name is Horace and that he is building a getaway for his wife, and that he needs a break from the DHARMA Initiative. Seeing the confused look on Locke’s face, Horace asks if he makes sense, to which Locke replies that he does not. Smiling, Horace turns to Locke, bleeding from his nose, and replies that it is probably because he’s been dead for twelve years. John is told that he needs to find Horace in order to find Jacob. Strangely, Horace begins cutting down the same tree he just toppled, which has reappeared. Horace repeats several previous sentences, and cuts down the tree for a third time, reminiscent of residual hauntings, in which memories of events play themselves over and over in a specific place. John then awakens, revealing that he was simply dreaming, to find Ben awake and looking at him. Ben seems to know what has happened, and says only “I used to have dreams,” before Locke orders camp to break.

Locke leads Hurley to the Mass Grave, revealing that Ben killed off approximately 100 people of the DHARMA Initiative, to which Ben makes no comment. Locke rummages through the bodies, reading the names on the jumpsuits until he finds Horace’s decaying body. He opens the pocket on the jumpsuit and finds blueprints to a cabin and a map to it. Locke offers Hurley a chance to return to the beach, though it would be at night and alone. Instead, Hurley remains with them and Ben commends Locke’s ability to force Hurley’s choice. Locke denies being manipulative, “I’m not like you, Ben.”

Though Ben is doubtful of their ability to locate the cabin, Hurley finds it. Locke lights a lamp and enters alone, leaving Ben and Hurley to wait outside. Inside Locke sees the shadowy figure of Christian Shephard seated in the corner, who introduces himself as Christian and says he speaks for Jacob. Christian reaffirms Locke’s notion that he found the cabin because he was “chosen,” and tells Locke not to worry about Claire, who is found to be reclining in a chair in a corner of the cabin without Aaron but nevertheless appearing relaxed and nonchalant. Christian says that the people from the freighter are returning and tells Locke to ask the one question that really matters. Locke asks how he can save the island.

Hurley and Ben split an Apollo bar outside before Locke emerges from the cabin. Ben asks if he knows what they’re supposed to do next, and Locke replies, “He wants us to move the island.”

On the Kahana

Keamy and his team arrive on the Freighter. Desmond notices that their wounds are not caused by gunshots and wonders what has happened. Sayid is sure they won’t let it happen again, the next time they go back.

Captain Gault takes Keamy to the brig, where Michael is handcuffed to a pipe on the wall. Keamy kicks the legs out from an adjoining bed so that it falls on Michael’s leg, causing him to scream in pain. He asks Michael if he knows his name, and when Michael indicates that he does, Keamy asks if it was Micheal who told Ben his name. When Michael says yes, Keamy pulls out his gun, holds it to Michael’s head, and pulls the trigger. The gun does not fire. He pulls again, and still nothing. Keamy checks the gun’s cartridge and sees that it is still loaded. The captain tells him that he can’t kill Micheal because Michael is the only one who can fix the engines, since he is the one who sabotaged them in the first place. Frustrated, Keamy strikes Michael in the face.

A little after this, Keamy goes to Captain Gault and asks for the key. When Gault refuses, Keamy steals the key and runs to a filing cabinet and opens a safe. When Gault asks what he is getting, Keamy responds by saying “Secondary Protocol.” He says it’s how they are going to find Ben, indicating that Charles Widmore knew where Ben would be going and now so does he.

Captain Gault walks to Desmond and Sayid and tells Omar, who stands guard, that Keamy wants him in the armory. Omar says he isn’t supposed to let them out of his sight, to which the captain replies that “he’ll watch them.” Omar leaves, while grabbing his phone, after hearing sets of beeps come over it. The Captain then tells Desmond and Sayid to hide in a pantry under the gully. Sayid asks if Michael is dead, to which the captain answers no, but not through lack of trying - and that is exactly the reason they have to hide. Doc Ray can be seen in the background. Sayid asks for the ship’s “Zodiac raft,” saying the only way to save their lives is to get their people off the island and on to the boat.

Michael is lying on the floor of a room on the freighter with a bloody lip. Frank helps him up, asking why Michael hadn’t told him he was a survivor of Flight 815, citing the fact that he was one of the few people who would have believed him. Michael tells Frank it was because his boss had staged the wreckage, which Frank dismisses as a conspiracy. He begs Frank not to bring Keamy back to the island, saying “He’s going to kill everyone…everyone.” As Michael and Frank leave the room, they notice Keamy at the end of the hall, having a device attached to his arm by Omar. Keamy notices them and Omar slams the door shut.

Gault meets Sayid and Desmond at the ship’s tender, but Desmond tells Sayid that, after three years of being stranded, he will not set foot on that Island again. Sayid departs alone, and Desmond remains in hiding on the Kahana.

Later, Keamy and the troops start boarding the helicopter. Omar tells Doc Ray that they received a message from the island and it said the Doc was dead, which greatly confuses Ray. Frank refuses to take Keamy and his team to the island. Keamy responds by slitting Doc Ray’s throat and throwing him overboard. Keamy asks Frank again and he still refuses. A gunshot rings out and it’s Gault, stating that he has “fixed” Keamy’s gun. Gault tells Keamy to stand down or he will shoot. Keamy then shows Gault the device on his arm, and when Gault turns his head to ask what the device is, Keamy shoots him through the heart. Gault falls dead and Desmond scurries away from his hiding spot. Keamy asks Frank again and this time Frank concedes. As Keamy and his men prepare to board the copter they do not see Frank hastily adjust his satellite phone, wrap it in clothing, and stow it in canvas bag.

At the beach

Back at the beach camp, Jack is searching and indulging in food in the kitchen when Juliet appears and scolds Jack for being out and walking around so soon after his surgery. Jack grins and says he’s hungry. Juliet exclaims lightheartedly that doctors are always the hardest patients. The noise of a helicopter is heard. The entire camp runs to the shore to watch the Freighter’s chopper pass directly overhead. As they watch stunned and shocked, a package is dropped from the chopper as it flies above. Jack runs over, opens the bundle and finds a new satellite phone, it appears to be tracking the helicopter. Jack states, “I think they want us to follow them.”

Trivia

General

• Not including “Ji Yeon” (in which the flashback runs alongside the flashforward), this is the first episode since “D.O.C.” (16 episodes earlier) to feature conventional pre-crash flashbacks of an Oceanic 815 survivor.
• A Geronimo Jackson poster and photograph of Sir Richard Burton, explorer are visible in teenage Locke’s locker.
• Horace Goodspeed, in Locke’s dream, mentions that he has been dead for 12 years. This places the date of the Purge on December 19, 1992 (December 19 being Ben’s birthday).
• Ben and Hurley share what appears to be an Apollo Bar while they wait for Locke to come out of the cabin.
• Christian, who usually appears in a suit, wears clothes that look more like what The Others and Jacob might wear, as he wore when he first appeared to Claire in “Something Nice Back Home“.
  • He is also not wearing his usual white shoes.
• The second protocol Keamy grabs from the safe has the same Dharma symbol that Ben’s parka had in “The Shape of Things to Come“.
• A solid black centered logo appears in this episode on a corpse in the pit.
• The closed captioning incorrectly stated the song playing at the beginning was “Everyday” by Don McLean, instead of Buddy Holly, which would have put the time frame circa 1974.

Continuity Errors

• The single of “Everyday” by Buddy Holly was released in July of 1957, over one year after Locke’s birthdate of May 30, 1956. It would be impossible for Emily to have been playing this record the night of John’s birth. (source: [1])

Production notes

• Charlotte, Daniel, Miles and Sawyer do not appear in this episode. Jin, Kate, and Sun appear but have no lines.
• The device strapped to Keamy’s arm appears to be a modified Korg MA-30 metronome.

Recurring themes

Recurring themes in Lost
Black and white • Car accidents • Character connections • Deceptions and cons • Dreams • Eyes • Fate versus free will • Good and bad people • Imprisonment • Isolation • Life and death • Missing body parts • Nicknames • The Numbers • Parent issues • Pregnancies • Rain • Rebirth • Redemption • Relationships • Sacrifice • Secrets • Time

• Locke’s eye is shown twice. (Eyes)
• Keamy kills Captain Gault and Ray. (Life and Death)
• Keamy tries to kill Michael but the gun jams. (Fate versus free will)
• Locke’s mother gives birth prematurely. (Pregnancies) (Children)
• Locke survives many illnesses as an infant. (Life and Death)
• Locke shows an aptitude for backgammon as a child. (Games)
• Locke’s adoptive mother bears some resemblance to Helen. (Parental Issues)
• Locke’s mother has issues with her mother. (Parent Issues)
• It is raining when Emily rushes out of her house and has a car accident. (Rain) (Car accidents)
• The men on the freighter hear the survivor’s transmission informing them that they have found the doctor’s corpse before he is killed on the ship. (Time)
• Michael is being held in a room somewhere on the boat. (Imprisonment) (Isolation)
• Captain Gault says that he will tell Keamy that Sayid stole the boat. (Deceptions and cons)
• Young Locke argues that science can’t solve everything. (Science versus faith)
• Locke meets Goodspeed in a dream. (Dreams)
• Locke is given reincarnation/rebirth test by Richard. (Rebirth)
• Ben tells Locke that he used to find answers in dreams. (Dreams)
• Richard Alpert watches John and makes contact with him at different stages of John’s life. Even so, he does not appear to age. (Time)
• Locke is placed in an incubator after his birth. (Imprisonment) (Isolation)
• Locke is closed up in his locker as a teenager. (Imprisonment) (Isolation)

Cultural references

Cultural references in Lost (direct references only)
Art • Books • Cars • Games • Movies and TV • Music • Philosophy • Religion and ideologies • Science

• The test given to young Locke by Richard Alpert strongly resembles the Tibetan Buddhist ritual used to confirm a reincarnated tulku (the Dalai Lama being the most widely known). (Religion and ideologies)
• The Bible: As the nurses wheel out Emily’s premature baby, she yells out, “His name is John!”, a direct quote from Luke 1:63, when Zechariah and Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. Also, Michael’s suffering at the hands of Keamy is similar to the story of Jesus. (Religion and ideologies)
• The comic book Richard Alpert shows young Locke is “Mystery Tales” issue #40, which was published in April of 1956 by Atlas Comics. The cover contains the text “What was the Secret of the Mysterious Hidden Land?” and “Does it Pay to Ignore the Voice of Warning?”
• Buddy Holly’s song “Everyday” is heard in the first flashback. Buddy Holly was a famous victim of a plane crash.
• The Myth Of Sisyphus - Horace Goodspeed is seen cutting down a tree, only to have that tree reappear uncut, which he then cuts down again in a seemingly repetitive loop. This is an apparent reference to the myth of Sisyphus, whom the gods punish by forcing him to push a boulder up a hill, only to have the boulder roll back down for him to push again in a eternally repeating loop. (Philosophy)
• The X-Men: Richard Alpert’s line “I’m Richard, John. I run a school for kids who are… extremely special, and I have reason to believe that you might be one them.” is almost word for word a very common line spoken by Charles Xavier (Professor X) in the various incarnations of “X-Men” when recruiting young mutants. (Movies and TV) (Books)
• Half-Life: Richard Alpert is first shown in a suit through a window, much like the G-Man from the Half-Life video game series.
• Miracle on Ice: During the 1980 Winter Olympics, the underdog US Hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet team. Sportscaster Al Michaels delivered his famous line “Do you believe in miracles?” in the last seconds of the game, as it was clear the United States had secured a victory. Matthew Abaddon asks Locke the same question.

Literary techniques

Literary techniques in Lost
Comparative: Irony • Juxtaposition • Plotting: Cliffhanger • Plot twist • Stock Characters:  Archetype • Redshirt • Unseen character• Story:  Flashbacks • Flashforwards • Foreshadowing • Regularly spoken phrases • Symbolism • Unreliable narrator

• Richard Alpert is present during Locke’s infancy, and later attempts to recruit him into the Others. (Plot twist) (Mindf*ck)
• Locke tells Hurley that they will make a pit stop, and then literally stops at a pit. (Irony)
• Locke says “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” (Regularly spoken phrases)
• Locke wants to be a superhero and chooses the knife. (Foreshadowing)

Storyline analysis

Storyline analysis in Lost
A-Missions • Crimes • Economics • Leadership • O-Missions • Relationships • F-Missions • Rivalries

• Hurley says, “I thought you were the leader,” to Ben, and Ben says, “Not always.” (Leadership)
• Keamy takes over as de facto leader of the Kahana when he shoots Captain Gault. (Leadership)

Episode references

• Keamy’s gun jams when he tries to shoot Michael. (Meet Kevin Johnson)
• Omar tells Ray about the Morse Code transmission that Daniel sent regarding Ray’s apparent death. (The Shape of Things to Come)
• Matthew Abaddon tells Locke he should go on a walkabout. (Walkabout)
• An unfamiliar character puts music on. (Man of Science, Man of Faith) (A Tale of Two Cities)
• The true story of Locke’s birth is revealed. Emily is going on a date with an unidentified older man, whom she says she is in love with. Emily once told her son that he was very special, and that he had no father because he was “immaculately conceived.” (”Deus Ex Machina“)
• John is recruited by Richard Alpert to come join Mittelos. (”Not in Portland“)
• Like Juliet, John does not understand why Mittelos is interested in him. (”Not in Portland“)
• The mass grave is revisited. (”The Man Behind the Curtain“)
• One of the items Richard shows Locke is a compass, much like the one Locke gave Sayid in Season 1.
• One of the items Richard shows Locke is the Book of Laws. In “What Kate Did“, Eko tells Locke a story about a King who rebuilt the Church using the Book of Laws, and then reveals part of the Orientation tape hidden inside a book.
• One of the items Richard shows Locke is a knife, much like the one Ben gave to Locke in “The Brig“.
• After a car accident, Emily Locke (”Emily L.”) gives birth to John 3 months premature. As newborn Locke is removed from the hospital room, Emily calls out, “His name is John! Call him John!” Later in the episode John meets Horace Goodspeed in a dream, who directs John how to find the cabin. This mirrors Ben’s birth story from “The Man Behind the Curtain“: On the side of a road in Portland, Emily Linus (”Emily L.”) gives birth to Ben 2 months premature. As Emily dies from a hemorrhage, her last words are, “Call him Benjamin.” Roger Linus had flagged down a car driven by Horace Goodspeed, who several years later takes Roger and a young Ben to the Island. (”The Man Behind the Curtain“)
• Alpert has in the flashbacks the same bag he has on the Island in the present. (”The Brig“)
• The DHARMA logo on the handbook Keamy takes from the safe is the same one on the chest of the jacket Ben was wearing in Tunisia. (”The Shape of Things to Come“)

Unanswered questions

Unanswered questions
Do not answer the questions here. Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer. More details…

For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Cabin Fever/Theories

Flashback

• Why did Richard think Locke was special?
  • Which were the items that belonged to John already?
  • Why was he disappointed in Locke’s choice?
  • Why did they want to recruit Locke for Mittelos Bioscience Science Camp?
• Why is Abaddon interested in Locke?
  • What happened during his walkabout?
• Who was the leader of the Others before Ben?

On the Island

• What is the device strapped to Keamy’s arm?
• How is Locke supposed to move the island?
• Where is Jacob, and why are Christian and Claire in his cabin?
  • Why was Claire so calm and nonchalant?
• Where is the “one place” that Ben would go to hide, as stated by Keamy on the ship?
• Why is Ben no longer the “chosen” one?
• How did Doc Ray’s body wash up on the island before he had been killed off the island?