Why Locke Is the Most Tragic Character in 'Lost' History

May 29 2019, Updated 12:34 p.m. ET

Great heroes regularly come with tragic backstories, but few origin stories are moderately as unhappy as that of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 passenger John Locke. Unfortunately, the tale did not get much much less tragic over six seasons of Lost. In case you have got forgotten within the 9 years because the show wrapped up, here is every terrible misfortune that befell Locke (in any timeline).

Locke just about died at start.

John couldn't catch a destroy just about since he left the womb. His mom used to be a pregnant teen in a bad coincidence that led to her to go into labor upfront on May 30, 1956. Against all odds, John pulled through, but his biological mom, Emily, decided she wasn't up to the duty and gave him as much as the state. 

And he used to be continuously bullied in class and at house.

Most of what we find out about Locke's formative years comes in bits and items, however we do know he was no stranger to bullying, In one among his early foster houses, he was tormented by a foster sister named Melissa, and he was once no longer popular with his fellow Boy Scouts. Also, at one level he recalls being rescued from a locker via a trainer — presumably after fellow classmates trapped him there.

His foster sister and mom died.

It seems like John was once in a just right house at one cut-off date, nevertheless it resulted in tragedy. As he informed Sawyer and Kate in Season 1, Locke's foster sister Jeannie fell off the monkey bars when he was very younger and broke her neck. Locke's foster mom blamed herself for Jeannie's dying and fell into a deep despair. A mysterious canine his mentally sick mum or dad believed used to be her daughter reincarnated got here to stick with the circle of relatives till the foster mom kicked the bucket herself five years later. Sadly, things didn't get much better for John as he got older.

Locke's organic parents have been terrible.

As a grown up, Locke meets his mom when he notices her looking at him from afar on the toy retailer where he worked. Emily Locke is a schizophrenic and drug addict who tells her son he was once conceived immaculately, however he in the end tracks down his father, Anthony Cooper, with the assistance of a non-public detective. 

Father and son bond and Locke in any case has the loving parental dating he all the time sought after... simplest it is all one giant lengthy con. Cooper needs a kidney and orchestrates this family reunion simply to control Locke out of one of his kidneys, then disappears after he gets what he wishes. And Emily helped in alternate for money.

And his dad will get worse, if you'll consider.

Understandably, Locke has some anger about Cooper's betrayal and enrolls in some anger control lessons, the place he meets Helen and finally has a shot at happiness. That is, till Cooper fakes his demise. Locke discovers his dad is still alive and hiding out from two mysterious males Locke noticed at the funeral, from whom Cooper stole a large amount of money. Despite what a complete jerk Cooper was once to John, he consents to lend a hand him retrieve the safe deposit cash he stole from the men from the funeral.

And that just about reasons Locke to lose the love of his lifestyles.

Helen unearths out Locke lied to her when she requested if Cooper faked his loss of life and in truth Locke helped his awful thief of a father get his cash despite everything. So even supposing Locke used to be getting ready to propose and spend his existence along with her, Helen leaves him. Sure, he wouldn't have lied, however I still blame Cooper.

And then he paralyzes him!

Plenty of tragic heroes have evil dads, however I truthfully assume Anthony Cooper takes the cake for most Psychopathic Dad in TV. He is going on to modify his identify and con a girl into agreeing to marry him. When Locke meets the unassuming bride's son, Peter, and realizes his dad used to be on no account reforming his tactics, he demands Cooper go away this woman alone. 

Good ol' Coop responds by killing Peter and then paralyzing Locke when he confronts him about Peter's loss of life. Cooper simply pushes his son — who gave him his kidney and masses of thousands of greenbacks in stolen cash — out an eight-story window, rendering him a paraplegic. That's cold.

And that's all ahead of Locke gets to the island.

After Locke discovers the hatch, he encounters Henry Gale, AKA Ben Linus, who spends a pair seasons mentally tormenting Locke. A lot goes down — the island strikes, time gets very weird, etc. — and then, cut to Season 5, and Ben Linus stops an overly suicidal John from killing himself only to murder him once you have knowledge from him. OK, sure, we later learn Ben did this knowing he may just resurrect Locke later, but it didn't save you him from experiencing but some other devastating betrayal all the way through an overly inclined moment.

Not to mention, that resurrection used to be a lie.

After every terrible fate that meets John Locke, we be told the Smoke Monster took his shape and that he truly used to be dead that entire time. I guess in some way that's a small mercy, since after his "resurrection," Locke did some very un-Locke issues. 

Surviving all that tragedy is what makes us love Locke.

For a character with any such unhappy backstory, John could have grown as much as be evil and cold but as a substitute he grew one of the biggest hearts. And regardless that his life before the crash and his injuries made him meek and helpless, as soon as he got here to the island he turned into its best survivalist. 

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