Walkabout (Lost) - Production

Production

While writing "Tabula Rasa", Damon Lindelof suggested that John Locke was in a wheelchair before going to the island, and while the rest of the writing team initially reacted with shock, they embraced the idea. To enhance the plot twist, all the flashbacks were shot in a way that disguised the presence of a wheelchair. In the scene where Locke is sitting in his bed, the paralysis is alluded by the electromedical nerve stimulation machine on his nightstand. Lindelof also created a title for the episode, "Lord of the Files", a pun on Lord of the Flies and Locke's off-island occupation, but the writers had already settled on "Walkabout".

To enhance the contrast between Locke's pre and post-crash life, director Jack Bender decided to put very few green and blue imagery in the flashbacks since the two colors are the most present in the island – being the jungle and the sea, respectively. The flashbacks were also shot with fixed cameras and wider lenses, "Godfather-style", to display the bleakness and sterility of Locke's world, and objects such as vending machines were put to remind of the "things taken for granted" that the castaways lack on the island. The scenes featuring the day of the crash were shot in a way that looked similar to the ones from the pilot episode, with the only shot from the pilot being the one where Jack requests Locke's assistance.

The scenes featuring boar were originally planned to use actual, domesticated animals. Since bringing domesticated boar from continental United States was expensive, and the animals available in Hawaii did not look like wild boar and rarely moved (the script required them to run in most scenes), the producers decided to use computer-generated boar instead, along with reaction shots from the actors and first-person sequences from the animals' point of view.

The episode is the first to feature Christian Shephard, but he is not portrayed by John Terry, who had not been cast yet. Late into writing, the producers decided to start setting up Sayid's backstory by introducing the pictures of Nadia. The scenes where Sayid looks at the photos were reshot when production of "Solitary" begun and Andrea Gabriel was selected for the role, as the original pictures depicted a different actress.