Jacob gives young James a pen to write his letter to Mr. Sawyer

In 1976, a young James Ford (Sawyer) watches his mother and father carried out of a church in coffins after their funeral. He sees them put into a hearse.

Later he is sitting on the steps of the church trying to write his infamous letter to Mr. Sawyer (aka Anthony Cooper). He is having trouble with his pen when Jacob walks up and asks him if he needs a pen. As Jacob hand James the pen, their hands touch lightly. Jacob tells him that he's sorry about his mother and father and James just looks up at him, not saying a word. Jacob walks away as James' uncle Doug walks up.

Doug tells him that they have to get to the cemetery and then asks him what he's writing. Uncle Doug reads the first line of the letter and then tells James that he has every right to be angry at the man who did this to his parents. Doug tells him that he has to move on and "What's done is done." Doug asks him him to promise not to finish that letter and James promises not to. We know that he obviously did finish the letter. James then leaves with his uncle to go to the cemetery.

If you look closely at the second picture of his letter, there are some impressions of something presumably written on the previous page or pages. The first word looks like "You" but that's all I can extract. It's probably not important, but I though it was worth pointing out.

Here we have Jacob crossing paths with a Lostie at a pivotal moment in his life. He helps nudge James in the direction that will eventually bring him to the island. Very interesting and very cool.

Locke meets Abbadon in rehabilitation

While John Locke is in rehabilitation after Anthony Cooper pushes him out of the window, he meets a shockingly philosophical orderly, but he's more than just an orderly. Matthew Abbadon is revealed to be pushing John in his wheelchair. Abbadon tells him that surviving an 8-story fall is a miracle and he should go on a walkabout to learn who he truly is. Abbadon tells Locke that when they meet again that he'll "owe him one."

What miracle happened to Matthew Abbadon? What exactly are his ties to the island, because they seem stronger than ever? What did he find out he was after his walkabout?

Teenage Locke gets offer to attend Mittelos summer camp

16-year old John Locke gets beaten up and stuffed into a locker at his high school. The school's team is the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifCowin Heights Knights. His science teacher, Gellert, helps him out of the locker and they go to his office to talk. Before he closes the locker door we can see the Geronimo Jackson album cover as well as a photo of Sir Richard Francis Burton, an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat (for more info, check out the wiki page).

Gellert tells John that Mittelos Bioscience is interested in him coming to their summer camp. He gives John a brochure but John doesn't want to go. He says that things like science camp is why he gets stuffed in lockers. When Gellert tells him he'll never be a superhero, John replies with his catch phrase, "Don't tell me what I can't do!."

Why did Mittelos want John to come to his camp? Was this another test to see if he was ready for his destiny?

Locke chooses the wrong item, Richard Alpert disappointed

When Richard Alpert shows up at Locke's home, he sits him down and pulls some items out of a bag. They include:

• a baseball glove
• Book of Laws (the Torah)
  
• a container of granules (maybe sand)
• a compass
• a Mystery Tales comic book (one of the stories is, "What was the secret of the mysterious "Hidden Land!"")
• a knife

Alpert asks John, "Which one of these things belong to you already?" After picking up the compass and the container of granules, then he briefly looks at the Book of Laws and Richard looks hopeful. He then chooses the knife though. Richard looks incredibly disappointed and quickly packs up the items and leaves.

Was the Book of Laws the right choice? Also, what was the point of this exercise? Was it to see if John was prepared for his destiny?

5 year old Locke meets Alpert, draws smoke monster?

Here we see John Locke when he is five years old. He is living in a foster home with his foster mother Florence, his foster sister Melissa and a foster brother (this is all we see, there could be more people/children living with them). We see John playing backgammon (a game he played with Walt in season 1) before Melissa knocks the pieces off of the board.

Richard Alpert shows up again to see if John is suited for his school for gifted children. He notices a drawing that John did and seems intrigued by it. It seems like it could be a drawing of the smoke monster with a person, much like what happened to Locke in season 1 ("Exodus" part 2) when the monster tried to drag him down a hole (there's the original shot and an enhanced shot below). If it is the smoke monster, how is John drawing it at age five?