Good Cop / Bad Cop

10:24 PM

Did anyone else think that Ben Linus and Richard Alpert were playing Good Cop/Bad Cop on Locke? Ben was the bad cop - Ben was unusually agressive and wanting to embarrass Locke. Then Good Cop Richard Alpert comes in with his smooth voice and gets Locke to accomplish what Ben wanted (just like Alex told Locke Ben does).

Btw - did anyone else think that Ben's conversation with Locke about letting his dad go was very similar to the conversation Locke had with Boone about letting Shannon go? Shannon died; Anthony died. Hmmm....

Nice catch I didn't really notice about the conversation about Shannon being similar to Cooper..
I do think that they were playing a bit of good cop/ bad cop totally!!

Yea def. I am almost more afraid of the "good" cop than Ben because we don't really know much about him or what he is capable of.

I do know one thing about richard, he has to shave his face 5 times a day. geez the stubble on that guy.

^^ True you can never trust a man with too much stubble unless they are Sawyer lol

I think there's definitely a good cop- bad cop game going on with Richard's and Ben's interaction with Locke, but not necessarily because Ben holds an evil plan about bringing Locke down. I think that was the impression needed to be given to Locke and that's where Richard kicked in.

Locke's a character striving for inner will to realize his metamorphosis and moves only when confronted by other people's patronizing. That's the kick Locke needs to move, some sweet dose of 'positive' stress (depending on what you understand from 'positive')- otherwise his all-too-human fears and self-doubt gets him quickly (I'm a farmer Locke once said but hanging on to his fears means in a sense that he refuses to clear the land before cultivating it). Had Ben accepted Locke's failure to kill his father and let him come along anyways, Locke would have become only weaker, more angry and useless for himself, or for Others.

From the earliest flashbacks on, Locke showed that he's a guy that is desperate for approval and recognition from outside- not necessarily in a 'vain' sense but due to the lack of what would be his primary experience of bonding and approval: father-son relation. For the same reason lack of that approval and humiliation is often a better fuel for him than his own will. That's where Richard comes: if Locke can't bring himself to thinking that he's special enough to make the 'gesture', let's put him in a situation where he'll realize he's being told what he can't do ("he is not who we thought he was", "everyone makes mistakes" after Locke says that he thought he was special).

I am not sure whether it would mean anything to Ben if he were to find out that James killed Cooper-Sawyer and not Locke himself. Most likely he'll find out about it but he said "unless you carry your father's body on your back, don't bother" instead of saying "unless you kill your father..." What matters is that Locke saw that his torturer can be gotten rid of, one can and has to let go of old baggage, or come to terms with realizing how much it holds one down etc.. I think this was a lesson to be learned from James, or rather a rare gift exchanged between James and Locke. Something I'll post more about in a more fitting thread later.

I'm not surprised that it was Richard Alpert playing the good cop here. I am a kind of viewer not always quick with details but rather into the allegories of the narrative. That's why I think there would no better character than a doctor named Richard Alpert who approaches a character like Locke in the midst of his most inner confusion and starts an eye-opening dialog about the truth at the heart of things. What's with the name? Richard in the show is a medical expert of some kind (psych?) that's curiously around with tranquilizers or drugs of similar kind when Juliette's about to leave the Herarat building for her new job, Sawyer's being tricked with the Bunny Number 8 or when Cooper-Sawyer mentions his arrival in the Magic Box. The real Richard Alpert is one of the three researches involved in controversial LSD experiments that US military had great interest during the 1970s. I am neither suggesting that the two are the same Alpert, nor that there's governments' involved, nor that Locke's been given acid

Seriously.. It just grabbed my attention that the character sharing the name with a researcher of a psychedelic drug that's known to cause highly personal experiences and awakenings about one's depth, happens to be the same guy who gives the same kind of 'mind-altering' talk to Locke. Considering Locke's searching and finding a direction included digesting magical herbs in the sweat lounge earlier, I see his conversation with Alpert as another sign of the psychedelic kind of wisdom and inner-knowledge that Locke sometimes needs to find his purpose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaneuse

The real Richard Alpert is one of the three researches involved in controversial LSD experiments that US military had great interest during the 1970s. I am neither suggesting that the two are the same Alpert, nor that there's governments' involved, nor that Locke's been given acid Seriously.. It just grabbed my attention that the character sharing the name with a researcher of a psychedelic drug that's known to cause highly personal experiences and awakenings about one's depth, happens to be the same guy who gives the same kind of 'mind-altering' talk to Locke. Considering Locke's searching and finding a direction included digesting magical herbs in the sweat lounge earlier, I see his conversation with Alpert as another sign of the psychedelic kind of wisdom and inner-knowledge that Locke sometimes needs to find his purpose

I agree with you, I thought it was intresting the real Alpart and the character in the show, seem to both be good at mind games & manulipation at the very least..

Great post Flanuse.... and better observation of what Locke's character breaks down to. It's funny how Locke tells James (can't really call him sawyer anymore) that he's on his own journey now, but if you ask me, he has been influenced onto this journey by Ben and Others the entire time.

Ben is the greatest of cons, and like he told Locke, "don't worry, we've done this before" and I believe that it's not just the baby taking, but all of it. I wouldn't be suprised if the whole dharma initiatinve is a setup by ben, and Jacob, to use people with high morals and /or a sense of duty to 'save the world" to build the tools that Ben and co. use to do what they will with the world.

I believe Ben sees the whole crew of 815 as tools, to be used, sharpened, broken, hammered and screwed as he sees fit.

And I love him for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CableRunner

I believe Ben sees the whole crew of 815 as tools, to be used, sharpened, broken, hammered and screwed as he sees fit.

And I love him for it.

I love it how he and Richard can pull it all with a soft voice and a smile on their face. Ben can talk you into wanting to blow up a submarine and Richard would serve you a cocktail of tranquilizers while telling how special you are