Locke, John

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AKA: Colonel Locke
Resided in: Tustin, CA
Occupation: Regional Collections Supervisor for a Box Company
Reason for Travel: Returning home from trip to Australia for walkabout tour
Flight Seat #: 24D

Locke grew up in various foster homes and didn't know his real father and mother until he was an adult.

One day, while working in a toy store, his mother approached him and told Locke he was immaculately conceived. This prompted Locke to hire a PI named Frainey and take a look into the background of his real parents.

The PI discovered that Emily Annabeth Locke was born in 1940, and had been in and out of Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute several times for schizophrenia. In addition, the PI discovered that Locke's father was Anthony Cooper. Locke visited his father, and the two formed a bond. Locke discovered that his father was in need of a kidney, and agreed to donate one of his own kidneys to save him.

After the surgery, Locke discovered that his father didn't really care about him, but just used Locke in order to get the kidney he needed. Once he had what he wanted, he cut off his relationship with Locke.

He had a relationship with a woman he met in a support group named Helen and fell in love with her, eventually moving in together.  She convinced him to give up on his obsession with his uncaring father.  However, later on, Anthony Cooper faked his own death as part of an insurance scam and now wanted Locke's help with the con.  Locke and Helen are accosted in their home by Jimmy Bane and another mafia-looking associate, who were owed money by Cooper and suspected he was still alive.  Locke helped his father retrieve the money he had scammed from a lockbox in a bank, but didn't want any of it.  When Helen followed them and found out Locke's involvement, she left him, rejecting his marriage proposal.

At some point in his life, Locke lived on a hippie-type commune, where marijuana was grown, run by Mike and Jan.  It was at this point that he met a young man named Eddie, who turned out to be an undercover police detective.  Even after he made up his mind to shoot him, Locke couldn't go through with this.  A few years later, Locke owned and worked for a California home inspection agency called Welcome Home, through which he examined Nadia's home for mold. 

After that, Locke was working for a Box Company in Tustin for a boss named Randy (who was also Hurley's boss).  He worked with a man nicknamed GL-12, from the Risk-like war game they liked to play together; Locke was a "Colonel" in this game.

Locke was confined to a wheelchair for unknown reasons.  He booked a walkabout tour in Australia for himself and a 900 number woman he was imagining to be the real Helen, but she declined to go. Locke took the trip alone, but wasn't allowed to go on the tour due to his physical condition.

Locke was returning home when Flight 815 breaks up and crashes. Miraculously, Locke regains the use of his legs on the island, and becomes a survival leader amongst the group, showing that he has great skill at hunting and tracking boar.  He finds a connection with young Walt, who he believes is special.  He teaches him to play backgammon and hunt, much to Michael's dismay.

Locke has what he feels is a connection with the island, an almost religious devotion since he believes it healed his paralysis. He survives an encounter with the Monster, and believes that it will not harm him, even when it later tries to drag him into the ground. 

Locke at one point even secretly destroys the transceiver that Sayid  fixed, saying that it was dangerous to go to a place where they were broadcasting about death.

While searching for Claire, Locke and Boone discover a hatch buried in the jungle. Keeping it a secret, they work on uncovering the hatch, and try to open it. Unable to open it, Locke and Boone follow a vision Locke had of his mother pointing at a plane crashing on the island. They find a Beechcraft plane perched on a cliff, but Locke temporarily loses the use of his legs. Boone has to go into the plane alone, where he discovers a working radio. As Boone makes brief radio contact with someone (later found to be just Bernard), the plane falls off the cliff, fatally injuring Boone.

Locke carries Boone back to camp, where he dies despite Jack's best efforts.  Shannon blames Locke for the death, and tries to shoot him to get revenge, but Sayid intervenes.  Eventually, Locke is forced to show the hatch to Sayid and Jack. Together, they decide to open the hatch using dynamite from the Black Rock.

After Jack, Kate and Locke climb down, they meet Desmond.  Desmond is initially hostile, but then frantic after the computer in the Swan gets shot; he hurriedly explains the protocol of pushing the button, before fleeing.

Locke decides that they must set up shifts to enter the Numbers in the computer every 108 minutes, following the direction of the orientation film.  He becomes obsessed with being in the hatch and pushing the button.  Locke and Ben (then still lying and known as "Henry Gale") are alone in the hatch at the time of the food drop, and the blast doors close on them.  In an effort to escape, Locke pries open the door with Ben's help, but gets trapped under it/injured as it collapses on his legs.  Locke is the first to see the blast door map when the black lights come on, but doesn't tell anyone when The Prisoner returns to help him out.  After it is discovered that he is lying about his identity, Ben tells Locke that he saved him because he is different from the other survivors; he also tells him he never entered the Numbers during the lockdown. 

After Ben escapes, Mr. Eko coerces Locke to go with him into the jungle, telling the other survivors that they will track The Prisoner.  Under the direction of Locke's prophetic dream (in which he believes he is Mr. Eko, and sees Yemi), Mr. Eko climbs atop the cliff from which the Beechcraft plane had once fallen.  He sees nothing on the other side, but finds a large mark in the earth when looking down the cliff.  They realize that the ? mark in the ground is marking the entrance to another hatch (partly obscured by the now burnt Beechcraft), and underneath, find the Pearl Station.  Learning that the purpose of the Pearl is observation (of the Swan Station) affirms Eko's faith that what they are doing ("pushing the button") is of great importance, but has the opposite effect on Locke's faith.

When Desmond returns, Locke tells him of the new finding of the Pearl, and with his help, locks Eko out of the Swan.  Locke is so determined to see what happens when the countdown runs down that he smashes the computer screen.  During the final moments of the EMP, Locke and Desmond are caught in the Swan.  The hatch implodes, but both make it out alive, and Locke goes on to save Eko, who was dragged off by a polar bear, after a 'vision quest' gave him ideas of where to find him.