After being pressured to share more details about his life, Locke told Boone, "My story would bore you."
I respectfully disagree, John.
The first ten minutes of Deus Ex Machina make it clear that things are about to get very intense. The shattered trebuchet causes Locke to gnash his teeth in frustration and utter certain phrases such as "the island wants". Boone's not sure what to make of it; I suspect most of the audience wasn't either. This was more than just having an affinity for the island or predicting the rain. This guy has some sort of deep connection with it.
It would seem that connection runs both ways, for the island gives Locke a dream filled with bizarre visions. Despite some complications with his legs, Locke ultimately leads Boone to one of those visions: a beechcraft perched on the edge of a cliff. The rest is well-known history, with Boone climbing into the plane and suffering a violent fall.
The early flashbacks were undoubtedly interesting but they initially seemed a bit disjointed from the island storyline, at least compared to what I'd seen in previous episodes. Locke meets his crazy mother Emily, as well as his disgusting father Anthony Cooper, early on in the episode. Cooper develops just enough of a bond with Locke to convince him to donate a kidney, then tosses him to the curb like yesterday's garbage.
Ah hah! Suddenly the flashbacks are mirroring what I'm witnessing on the island. Locke is now a broken and betrayed man in both storylines, desperate to overcome the barrier which separates him from a sense of purpose.
But alas, on the island a ray of hope appears. A light shines through the Hatch door and onto Locke's tear-soaked face. As promised, things just got very intense.
I didn't think Terry O'Quinn could surpass his own performance in Walkabout but I was dead wrong.
In the last flashback scene, Locke is denied entry to Cooper's house. He reluctantly drives away, struggling to suppress the anger coursing through his veins. It's only a matter of time before he's overcome by a sense of betrayal. The meltdown that follows is one of O'Quinn's most impressive performances in the season, if not the series.
Ian Somerhalder turns in yet another solid performance as Locke's protégé, giving us one last glimpse of the Locke-Boone chemistry we'd come to miss so much.
Bonus points go to Kevin Tighe (Anthony Cooper), and it almost pains me to say that as his character is so repulsive. I just need to remind myself that if a character makes my stomach turn the actor's doing a hell of a job.
This was Robert Mandel's sole directing effort on LOST, a bit surprising since the episode is considered a classic by so many.
Locke's dream sequence is executed perfectly, with Locke initially looking at a non-bloodied Boone who just seems to be in a daze. Then... what? What was that? Did I just see a skeleton? I thi — ack! Another flash of something. It was bloody. Creepy as hell.
Locke banging on the Hatch door is one of the most iconic images in all of LOST, and since it's a safe assumption that Mandel made the decision on how to frame that moment he deserves an enormous amount of credit.
The scene with Sawyer trying on prescription glasses has a very nice touch. We look at a notebook from Sawyer's perspective, and all we see are some blurry words Jack scribbled on it. As Sawyer slips on another pair of glasses, the words "better or worse?" come into clear focus. Booyah, bonus points!
This episode earns high marks in Longevity for obvious reasons. The previous few episodes had taken the spotlight away from the Hatch, but Deus Ex Machina brought it back with a vengeance. If you're a big fan of the Swan like I am, it's fun to watch that entire arc in all of its stages.
Boone suffering a vicious fall would obviously have a lasting impact on the series, reminding the audience that characters' lives were indeed at stake and that nothing could be taken for granted.
The introduction of the beechcraft is a relatively big deal considering how many times it's revisited in the first few seasons (even a cameo in Season 5).
Even if you set all those things aside, O'Quinn's performance is so powerful that it's always rewarding just to marvel at his work.
Locke's bizarre dream sequence set the tone as far as atmosphere was concerned. The Hatch was already a burning question that needed an answer, but now we have a beechcraft coming straight out of Locke's dreams and perching itself on a cliff?
The beauty of this episode is that it slowly arcs from mystery and intrigue to shock and sadness. Sandwiched in the middle of all that is some comic relief with Sawyer, Kate, and Jack. When you break it all down, Deus Ex Machina is an emotionally exhausting experience — in the best possible way.
