Walkabout (Lost)

"Walkabout"
Lost episode
John Locke is revealed to be paralyzed before crashing into the island. This plot twist is considered a defining moment of the show.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 4
Directed by	Jack Bender
Written by	David Fury
Production code	102
Original air date	October 13, 2004
Guest stars
L. Scott Caldwell as Rose Nadler John Simon Jones as Travel agent Billy Ray Gallion as Randy Nations Stephen J. Rafferty as Warren Bryan Sato as Richard
Episode chronology
← Previous "Tabula Rasa" Next → "White Rabbit"
Lost (season 1) List of Lost episodes

"Walkabout" is the fourth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Jack Bender and written by David Fury. It first aired on October 13, 2004, on ABC. In the episode, flashbacks reveal John Locke's plans to get to Australia and participate in a walkabout tour. In realtime, the shortening of food supplies causes Locke to lead a hunting mission after the wild boar in the jungle, while the castaways decide to burn the Oceanic 815 fuselage.

John Locke's backstory was conceived during the writing of the previous episode, "Tabula Rasa", and the director of "Walkabout" decided to shoot the flashbacks in a way it enhanced the contrast between Locke's life before and after the crash. Problems involving the usage of real boar caused the producers to use computer-generated replacements and shots that suggested the animals' presence. "Walkabout" was watched by 18.16 million people and was reviewed positively, later being considered one of the show's best episodes.

Plot

Flashbacks

John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is shown working in an office building for a box company. He has a cruel manager named Randy Nations (Billy Ray Gallion) who is constantly taunting and demeaning Locke. At one point Locke tells Randy off and feels great about it. He tells a woman on the phone about it, but it is revealed that she charges by the hour to talk with Locke, and that they have been conversing for eight months.

Locke is then shown in Australia talking to one of the leaders of a walkabout. He refuses to let Locke come because of his condition, saying it is too big of a risk for the insurance company. As the man gets up to leave, Locke is shown to be using a wheelchair. Later, in the aftermath of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash, Locke wakes up on the beach, and notices that his toes wiggle, making him realize that he is no longer paralyzed.

On the Island

Four days have passed since the crash. Boars raid the body-filled fuselage, causing Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) to decide it should be burned. The survivors discover that their food is exhausted, and wonder what to do. Locke reveals to hold many hunting knives, and suggests to go after the boar in the jungle. On his hunting mission, Locke is accompanied by Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) – who was given by Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) an antenna, which after being set will help triangulate the signal of the French transmission heard two days before – and Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau).

While hunting the boar, Michael is attacked by one of the animals, and gets his leg hurt. Kate starts leading Michael back to the beach, while Locke goes on his own into the jungle. As Kate and Michael head back, she climbs up a tree to attach the antenna. However, before she can finish, she hears the sounds of the monster, causing her to drop and break the equipment. The Monster heads straight for Locke, who stares straight at it.

Michael and Kate return to camp, and when she goes to tell Jack about Locke, Jack sees a man in a suit walk into the jungle. Jack chases after him and Kate follows, but instead of the mysterious figure, they find Locke, who brings with him a dead boar. That night, the fuselage is burned while Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) holds a memorial service for the dead passengers using information she found in their passports, wallets, and luggage. Michael thanks Locke for hunting the boar and then asks Locke about the Monster, but Locke says that he did not see anything. Looking towards the fire, Locke sees his wheelchair against the flame and smiles.

Production

While writing "Tabula Rasa", Damon Lindelof suggested that John Locke was in a wheelchair before going to the island, and while the rest of the writing team initially reacted with shock, they embraced the idea. To enhance the plot twist, all the flashbacks were shot in a way that disguised the presence of a wheelchair. In the scene where Locke is sitting in his bed, the paralysis is alluded by the electromedical nerve stimulation machine on his nightstand. Lindelof also created a title for the episode, "Lord of the Files", a pun on Lord of the Flies and Locke's off-island occupation, but the writers had already settled on "Walkabout".

To enhance the contrast between Locke's pre and post-crash life, director Jack Bender decided to put very few green and blue imagery in the flashbacks since the two colors are the most present in the island – being the jungle and the sea, respectively. The flashbacks were also shot with fixed cameras and wider lenses, "Godfather-style", to display the bleakness and sterility of Locke's world, and objects such as vending machines were put to remind of the "things taken for granted" that the castaways lack on the island. The scenes featuring the day of the crash were shot in a way that looked similar to the ones from the pilot episode, with the only shot from the pilot being the one where Jack requests Locke's assistance.

The scenes featuring boar were originally planned to use actual, domesticated animals. Since bringing domesticated boar from continental United States was expensive, and the animals available in Hawaii did not look like wild boar and rarely moved (the script required them to run in most scenes), the producers decided to use computer-generated boar instead, along with reaction shots from the actors and first-person sequences from the animals' point of view.

The episode is the first to feature Christian Shephard, but he is not portrayed by John Terry, who had not been cast yet. Late into writing, the producers decided to start setting up Sayid's backstory by introducing the pictures of Nadia. The scenes where Sayid looks at the photos were reshot when production of "Solitary" begun and Andrea Gabriel was selected for the role, as the original pictures depicted a different actress.

Reception

"Walkabout" received a 6.5 in the ages 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen ratings. The episode was watched by 18.16 million viewers, an improvement of 1.6 million over the previous episode, "Tabula Rasa".

Reviews for the episode were positive. Chris Carabott of IGN gave to "Walkabout" 9.5/10, stating that "Terry O'Quinn puts in an exceptional performance", and commenting that showing Locke, who "seemed like a confident and resourceful man with a mysterious and intriguing past", to be a "shell of a human being that is trying desperately to find his place in the world." was "a perfect juxtaposition of the differences between Locke off and on the island". He also praised the supporting stories, claiming that "Matthew Fox does a great job of playing the uneasy leader" as Jack Shephard and that the Shannon-Charlie storyline "does supply a little comic relief". Ryan Mcgee of Zap2it described the revelation that Locke was a paraplegic as being "one of the show's signature moments", and commented that the episode "cemented the show as 'Must-See TV'" and was "a five-star effort."

David Fury was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series" for writing this episode. Entertainment Weekly considered "Walkabout" to be the best episode of Season 1. IGN ranked "Walkabout" as the fifth best Lost episode ever, behind "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", the pilot, "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Constant". The episode was also featured in similar lists by Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, National Post, and ABC2.

External links

• Walkabout at the Internet Movie Database