“Legally he’s right, ethically he’s an ass.”

John Locke was a douchebag even on Alias.

Here’s my theory: Agent Kendall was paralyzed following a botched mission to recover an important Rambaldi artifact. The government wiped his memory and gave him a new identity as John Locke who works at a box factory. The memory wipe didn’t take completely and Locke was left searching for something he couldn’t quite describe. This draw put him on Oceanic Flight 815.