John Locke after proposing to Helen and gotten rejected
- Played by Terry O'Quinn
- Also the name of a 17th century philosopher and political theorist.
Character Traits
- He is known to get irritated if anyone tells him what he can and cannot do
- Man of Faith
- Is fond of games, perhaps due to his time working at a toy store
- Extremely knowledgeable on any literary or cultural subject
- Is apparently a fan of the Godfather movies, in particular the character Vito Corleone
Before The Crash
- Was seated in 24D on the plane
- Was abandoned by his parents as a baby and grew up in various foster homes
- Was found by his mother who told him that he was always "kind of special"
- Was tricked by his father into donating his kidney to him
- Met Helen at an (anger management) support group. Began a relationship with her, and eventually asked her to marry him. She turned him down and left him after discovering he had been lying to her about being in contact with his father.
- Wasn't handicapped when his father betrayed him and when he met Helen
- Owned a home inspection company called Welcome Home
- Was handicapped for four years prior to flying on Flight 815
- Involved with a phone sex operator (or someone similar) named/called Helen (not the same as above), whom he invited to go on his trip with him
- Has survival expertise; hunting, tracking, knowledge
- Was preparing to go on a Walkabout in the outback in Australia as a challenge. He wasn't allowed to participate due to being paralyzed
- Worked in the toy department of a department store
- Worked at a box company, owned by Hurley
- Very well-educated
- Had a (presumably) foster sister, Jeannie, who died when he was young
- Had a (presumably) foster brother he played Mouse Trap with.
On The Island
- Regained his ability to walk after the plane crash
- Thinks that it is his destiny to be on the island
- He prepared for years for a survive-or-die situation and has a lot of faith that everything is happening for a reason
- Attacked Sayid from behind and destroyed the makeshift radio equipment to prevent discovery of the the distress signal
- Found the hatch while trying to track Ethan Rom
- Drugged Boone in an attempt to get him to let go of Shannon emotionally
- Helps Charlie to beat his drug addiction
- He and Boone build a trebuchet and use it in an attempt to break the window on the hatch door, its likely that he got this idea from the game Mouse Trap which is featured in one of his flashbacks
- Had a vision of the Beechcraft and possibly Boone's death before they happened
- By not telling Jack the complete truth of Boone's leg injury, he became indirectly responsible for Boone's death
- Had a collection of knives on the airplane, along with other survival gear (compasses)
- Confronts Walt about the burning of the first raft, and keeps Walt's involvement a secret
- Hunts boar
- May have seen the monster face to face
- Was almost pulled into a pit by the monster, but was saved by Kate, Jack, and the timely intervention of Dynamite
- Built a cradle for Aaron with Claire
- Beat up Charlie for stealing Aaron
- Is becoming closer to Claire
- His rivalry for leadership with Jack seems to be heating up.
- Was duped into trusting Sawyer with the hatch while he moved the guns that Jack was coming to take, only to be followed by Charlie, who later showed Sawyer the hiding place.
- Enlisted the imprisoned Gale's help during Lockdown.
- Made a promise to protect the imprisoned Gale from the other survivors 'no matter what'.
- Had his leg impaled by a door spike.
Theories
- In Deus Ex Machina there is indication that his paralyzed condition may be psychosomatic, and strongly tied to his personal feelings of self-confidence and self-worth
- In Walkabout we are led to believe that Locke had an early encounter with The Security System. Is it possible he had a similar experience at that time to the one had by Mr. Eko in The 23rd Psalm?
- Is one of two involuntary replacements for Desmond. He thinks he was chosen for that assignment, which he actually was - by the creators of the experiment. (See "Desmond: Theories")
- Was cured from his handicap by the same miracle that saved Jack's patient and bride-to-be Sarah from being paralyzed
- John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher, who believed in the "State of Nature" - how people would live together without any laws or government. He also fully developed the idea of Tabula rasa, which incidentally is the name of an episode
- May be planning to join the Others
"For the individual, Locke wants each of us to use reason to search after truth rather than simply accept the opinion of authorities or be subject to superstition. He wants us to proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them." - this philosophy is the same as Locke's on the island. For example, when he made Boone realise the truth behind his and Shannons' relationship
- It's interesting that his name is LOCKE and he has kind of placed himself in control of the vault, even to the extent he is changing the combination lock on it
- Is there a link between the Golden Retreiver who showed up after his sister Jeannie's death and Sawyer's boar and Kate's horse?
- Locke is rather unique. when discovering the hatch, he seemingly was expected. He took his shoes off, which is what Zeke said in The Hunting Party. He can walk since he is on the island and he insisted on pushing the button. Maybe he knows something we don't or he is just not only a man of faith but also a man of intuition...
- Locke became paralized by the men that his father stole money from, and locke helped get.
- Locke becomes paralized in a surgery gone bad performed by Jacks father