Walt & Locke, late season 1...and Walt in general (spoilers)

[D Man]

Spoilers for everything so far, as usual.

This is basically the same thing as my "Whispers" thread from last week. Re-watching season one is really, really fun, but it exposes in a big way the fact that they didn't have it all planned out way back then.

I've just been watching "Born to Run," which is pretty fun ep other than the fact that the flashbacks are typical of the dull S1 Kate episodes that didn't inform us at all about the character . My point is that in the on-island story, Locke just touched Walt's arm, and Walt told Locke "Don't open it! Don't open it, Mr. Locke!" Locke does the standard S1 Lockemode thing of feigning that he doesn't know what Walt is talking about, but the very clear implication is that it's the Hatch.

I guess this all ties into the very nature of Walt, and if they're actually going to revisit his character and his story in the remaining weeks of the last season. Is this a matter of Walt portending doom about the hatch, before the writers really knew what was in there, or is it something else? What are Walt's powers, and will we ever find out? We last saw him in the Bentham episode last year, where his appearance wasn't at all related to his big significance during the first few seasons.

If you look at "Exodus" and a bunch of the season 2 events, a hell of a lot of it is driven by Walt and his "specialness" to the Others. These days, Walt has basically no relevance at all to the main story. I get that the actor has aged, but the 3-year gap in everyone's tale was and is a brilliant way of explaining that away. Obviously he can't appear in a flashsideways, but I have to really wonder if the writers are going to let this once supremely important storyline (Mr. Friendly taking him off the raft, Michael selling out his friends to the Others and killing two main characters for Walt, "Meet Kevin Johnson," etc.) fall completely by the wayside.

I figure at this point that this is just another season 1 anomaly that they didn't really think through...but I'm sure hoping we see some resolution. Thoughts?

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I think I've heard Damon & Carlton will get to it, although maybe not with Walt perse. I really think they should implement him somehow though. I didn't really care for how they resolved Walts storyline or even Michael's for that matter. Harold Perinau will be back so maybe they will tie it up properly (hopefully) then. Hopefully he's not relegated strictly to a flashforward cameo, same with Ana Lucia, Libby and Shannon (they're all dead, dead is dead, but still) I wouldn't mind seeing Mr Eko again in some form or another either

 

[Mojochi]

I agree that Walt should not be left unresolved, nor Aaron for that matter. I'm hoping for a potent reveal about them. One of the most impacting techniques that the writers have used throughout the entire series, is prolonged absence. The general theory being "Out of sight, out of mind". There's a kind of useful misdirection in that technique

We get so wrapped up with what's going on, that we forget about the someone who has been missing for a while, like Desmond & Penny, this season. No doubt they'll be back, & likely soon. Claire's disappearance in season one, revealed many grand circumstances, as did her complete absence from season 5

There's only one other reason to go silent on seemingly useful characters, like that. That reason is that the writers have reached a wall on their story, & just hope to leave it behind. Geez, I hope that isn't the case, because the characters I've mentioned & additionally Rose & Bernard, are all characters that I'm interested in getting resolution on, even if they aren't necessarily integral to the overall story

But honestly, I really hope they are, somehow

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Honestly, every time I expect a storyline to be abandoned, they find a way of bringing it back. I assumed the infection was not real and just part of Rousseau's crazy mind. This was especially true after seeing what Jin saw. Then they bring it back this season with an interesting twist.

The last time we saw Walt, they implied he had some kind of prophetic power through dreams. Before that, they took the time to show his specialness in a mobisode to help explain why Ben was willing to get rid of him. By now, I think they'll explain it. Worst case scenario, they'll explain their ideas after the show and say they didn't have time to fit them in. But I'm hoping that's not the case.