The Mud

Seeing as Locke rubbed himself with dirt before going in to the cave is this a metaphore for the island to protect him?
Or is it against the polar bear to see him (why would he use a torch then) or smell him?

War Paint??

Ermmm...actually that was bear s*** he was wiping himself with, so the bear wouldn't smell Locke, and think nothing was amiss.

Until the flame thrower hit him...

Well, the only other reasons other then the ones you all have said is that he looked very cool with the camoflauge type look.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediToad

Well, the only other reasons other then the ones you all have said is that he looked very cool with the camoflauge type look.

Your damn straight he did, especially with the torch near his face.

I thought he said it was so the bear couldn't smell him?

He did say it was so the bear wouldn't smell him. I hate to break it to him but, a polar bear can smell a seal hiding in a hole through a few feet of snow. I think he would be able to smell a man who just hicked all the way out there even with the mud. Maybe if he had used it like deoderant.

As easy as it is to say that polar bears can infact smell like no ones business...i don't think the producers really took that into consideration. I agree that Locke did it to just hide or mask his smell to give him an edge. Even though it really wouldnt work for a real polar bear, i believe it did in the show. At least he didn't roll around in the bears urine too.....lol

Perhaps Locke believed that he wouldn't be smelled. He's not a zoologist (or so we think...) and a lot of people don't know about the polar bear's sense of smell, which is freakin' awesome.

It would have been a lot funnier if he started rolling around in bear excretements, though. Scat, poo, feces, whatever you wanna call it, it would have been funny as crap (HA! It's a pun!). lol.