In 2007, The Man in Black, while impersonating John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), attempts to recruit James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) and reveals the survivors' purpose on the Island.
Meanwhile, Jacob's (Mark Pellegrino) bodyguards, led by Ilana Verdansky (Zuleikha Robinson), decide to bury the corpse of the real John Locke.
He is greeted by his fiancée, Helen Norwood (Katey Sagal), whom he is set to marry shortly, in a wedding also apparently to be attended by his father.
The Man in Black, in the form of Locke, attempts to recruit both Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) and James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) for his quest to leave the island.
Meanwhile, Richard speaks with Sawyer, claiming that the Man in Black's true intention is to kill everyone on the island, but runs away before he can explain further after seeing "Locke" returning.
"Locke" leads Sawyer to a cave, after descending via a ladder made of rope and bamboo, inside of which there are scales holding one black and one white stone.
Upset, Ilana takes ashes of Jacob's body and informs Ben that the Man in Black is now "stuck" in the form of Locke.
Outside, she tells the remaining group, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) and Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) that they must travel to the temple for protection.
[3] Chris Carbot of IGN gave the episode a highly positive review, stating that "Early on it's clear that Lindelof and Cuse are determined to reinvigorate some of the strong character work the show was known for during the first couple of seasons.
[5][full citation needed] Emily VanDerWerff of Los Angeles Times also gave the episode a positive review, stating "There may not have been enough answers for the hyper-mythological crowd (though we got a good deal of interesting conjecture), but it was a great showcase for the finest character "Lost" ever cooked up.