We begin with Locke laying prone in the jungle,  he sees a naked Desmond run by, tries to hail him, but the words will not come out, he is mute.  He looks up and Eko’s stick falls the canopy.  At this point, if you're like me, you're wondering where they are in relation to the Swan Station and just what the hell happened to it.  But in typical LOST fashion,  you're not going to find out… not yet anyways.

Locke rushes back to the beach and begin tearing down his shelter.  He takes the remnants to the center of the church and begins to build something.  Claire urges Charlie to check out what is going on.  Locke is still unable to speak but through a comical bit of charades we find out that he needs to speak to the island.  The structure he is building is a sweat lodge.  He conscripts Charlie to stand watch while prepares for a drug induced vision using some of the home-made LSD from season one.

The flashback belongs to Locke and it is an interesting one right from the beginning.  We see a very different John Locke here, a sixth Locke if you will.  So far we have met the cripple with delusions of grandeur,  the naïve middle aged toy store clerk,  the somewhat successful yet anger afflicted home inspector, the mystical bushman of season one, and of course the whiney button pusher of season two.  Locke 6.0 is a scruffy redneck who picks up a young hitch-hiker named Eddie on a country road.  When a cop pulls him over we find out Locke has a serious cache of weapons in the back of his truck.

Locke has a very interesting vision in the sweat lodge.  Boone visits him and guides him through the Oceanic terminal where he sees his friends in various activities.  Boone ticks through them basically saying that they are not his concern for now,  he must save Mr. Eko.  Locke emerges from the vision and takes off into the jungle, voice restored, in pursuit of Mr. Eko.  The polar bears have him.

In flashback land we find Locke was living in a commune, complete with sweat lodge.    He’s very mystical here, talking about meditation and finding your fate, he leads his young guest to the dinner table and it becomes obvious he is interested in joining .  Locke mentions that the place helped him get rid of his anger, which dates the flashback post Helen.

Back in real time island, we finally see what happened to the Swan Station.  Locke uses the term “imploded”, but it looked more like it got sucked out of the ground to me.  He detects the presence of the polar bear and sure enough, one shows up sending Charlie and Locke barreling through the jungle.  Things quiet down and they hold their ground for a moment.  Something approaches and Locke hurls his knife and it lands in a very surprised Hurley’s canteen.

In the flashback we see that besides having a couple of peach orchards,  the commune also has a mysterious  green house which has captured the imagination of young Eddie.

In the flashback we learn that the mysterious green house was indeed a marijuana grow room, and young Eddie was an undercover cop.   The founders of the commune, Mike and Jan, are in a tizzy with Locke for bringing him here.  Their advantage is, that Eddie doesn’t know they are on to him.  So Locke takes Eddie to the woods to remedy the problem.  When Eddie reveals that they had targeted and profiled Locke as someone who could be easily coerced, he finds he cannot off the young cop and Eddie flees through the woods.  It’s sort an anticlimactic end to the flashback.

On the island,  Eko awakens dazed and tells Locke that he will save Kate, Sawyer, and Jack before passing out again.  Back at the beach Locke gives the typical speech that he will find their friends and bring them home.

In terms of pace and excitement, Further Instructions was, in my opinion, the BEST episode of this season.  Of course this could also just be a sense of elation that the Swan survivors were FINALLY addressed  (or in Desmond’s case, undressed, which I've gotta say really didn’t do much for me.)