Feb 26 2009
Locke and Helen
When Locke mentioned in last night’s episode that he had been in love once, that was a bittersweet moment.
It made me wish that I could remember more about the story of Locke and Helen. I did remember, vaguely, that things had ended badly between them, but I couldn’t remember much more than that.
Luckily, YouTube is our friend.
Here is the scene where Locke and Helen first met. It’s from 2×03 Orientation.
Terry O’Quinn gives a great performance in this scene, I think one of his best.
In addition to seeing how Locke and Helen met, something else in this clip struck me, because it seemed to foreshadow a scene in the most recent episode. In the clip, Locke says that his birth mother told him he was special. There was a strong echo of that last night in Jeremy Bentham, when Locke said he was special, and Jack mocked him and said that he wasn’t.
Notice the way that Locke says that line, early in the clip — how important it is to him to have been called “special”:
The banter between Locke and Helen at the end makes their relationship seem so promising, at this point.
And then, what happened? I haven’t been able to find any clips (yet) on YouTube for the rest of their story, but it takes place in Episode 2×17 Lockdown, which you can see in the full episode viewer on ABC.com, or you can read a pretty good summary on Wikipedia. Short answer: Locke’s futile pursuit of his father’s love messed things up for him again.
