Lost, Season 5, Episode 7

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Ummm….WICKED AWESOME!!

Locke: Reports of his suicide have been greatly exaggerated. After leaving the Island, he is convinced by Charles Widmore to get all of the off-Island Losties to go back. Widmore tells Locke that it’s been three years since the O6 returned. Assisted by Matthew Abaddon, Locke is unsuccessful in convincing any of them to return. He also learns of Helen Norwood's death by a brain aneurism in 2006...Helen having been the one person who Locke loved and who loved him back. Feeling like a failure, he opts to commit suicide by hanging himself, but is stopped by Ben. After telling Ben that Jin is alive (and he has his wedding band to use to convince Sun that he is dead so she won't return) they need to go see a woman named Eloise Hawking, Ben strangles him to death. On the Island, post-Ajira 316 crash in 2008, Locke is alive again, having been resurrected somehow and he knows it. Addressing Caesar, Locke tells him about Dharma and having been on the Island for over 100 days previously.

Ben: Like Charles Widmore, Ben has been keeping track of the O6 and the other Losties, including Walt, since they left the Island. Seeing Locke being influenced by Widmore and Abaddon, Ben shoots Abaddon. Ben says he moved the Island to keep it away from Widmore. After convincing Locke that he needs to stay alive so he can become leader, he kills Locke when he learns that Locke is aware of Eloise Hawking. Later, Ben is seen by Locke as one of the injured survivors of the Ajira crash. It’s interesting that Ben does not seem to know as much as he would like. Case in point: seems surprised to learn of Jin being alive; seems surprised to learn that Locke knows of Eloise Hawking. Ben is likely still stinging from the fact that Jacob has talked to Locke and not to Ben. We’ll see. I know this: Ben is a liar. And a manipulator. And the evilest villain on TV!

Charles Widmore: Reveals to Locke that he remembers when Locke was first brought into the Others camp, when Widmore was only 17 (from the Jughead episode this season). Locke, however, was the same age he is now because in Locke's timeline, he was only introduced to the Others 4 days ago. He tells Locke that The Others were his people for three decades before he was banished from the Island by Ben. Widmore explains that he’s kept track of the Losties since they returned (the same way Ben has), and tells Locke he has to convince them all to go back. Widmore had the camera mounted in the Tunisian desert where both Locke and Ben came back, and this must be related somehow to the research that Charlotte had been doing there. It’s likely that Widmore did indeed set up the passengers to be on Oceanic 816 as indicated by Abaddon. Widmore tells Locke that the reason he needs him back on the Island is that a war is coming and if Locke is not there, the wrong side will win.

Matthew Abaddon: Widmore’s flunky the whole time. He originally set Locke’s journey in motion as he was recovering from the back injury that left him paralyzed when he told Locke to take the walkabout, which put Locke in Australia to eventually board Oceanic 816. Tells Locke that he “helps people to where they need to get to”. Shot and killed by Ben, he’ll be out of the story (unless flashbacks occur). (Note: The actor who plays Matthew Abaddon, Lance Reddick, is a main character in a show that JJ Abrams also produces called Fringe. It too is a friggin awesome show.)

Sayid: Despites Locke’s pleas, Sayid says he doesn’t want to return to the Island, something we know will change in the coming episodes. For now, he tells Locke the 9 months he had with Nadia before her murder were the happiest of his life. But that happiness was ended because of the Island (she was killed by Widmore’s people as you remember) and he says everything he ever cared for has been destroyed by the Island.

Walt: Tells Locke he’s been having dreams of him. Locke does not tell him about his father (Michael) being dead from the freighter explosion. Walt doesn’t know of Locke wanting him to go back because Locke can’t bring himself to disrupt Walt’s life, saying he’s been through enough. My guess is we’re not through with Walt yet.

Hurley: At this point he’s still in the Santa Clara Asylum. At first not believing it’s really Locke visiting him (probably because of all the visits by Charlie and Mr Eko), he realizes it’s really him. However, with the sight of Abaddon (“He’s EVIL!” haha), he knows that Locke is being used by not only Ben, but also by Widmore. Again, at this point in time, Hurley has no thoughts of returning.

Kate: It’s Kate who points out Locke’s ongoing obsession with the Island implying that his crazy notion to return comes from the fact he’s never loved anyone and the Island is all he has. After telling Kate that he did indeed love someone at one time (Helen), he reveals that it was his anger and obsession that drove her away…the anger coming from his father’s betrayal and causing the back injury that had paralyzed him previously, most likely. Kate is not interested in going back. Also, it’s this visit from Locke that Kate had referenced in last season’s finale when she told Jack “he came to visit me, you know”, in the rain right before Jack also started to convince her that they did indeed need to return to the Island.

Jack: Coincidence or arranged that Locke would end up at Jack’s hospital after the car accident? Again, this timeline has Jack before he has been convinced that he needs to go back. This is the time when Jack was likely still drinking, or right before he started the abuse of the pain meds since coming back to the mainland with the O6. Still , at this point, Jack believes John to be delusional about his “importance”, and walks away. Locke sees this as another failure in convincing one of the Losties to return, and he had hoped that with Jack on board, the others would then follow.

Caesar and Ilana: What is there importance? They were obviously planted on the Ajira flight. Ilana was the 'agent' who 'escorted' Sayid onto the plane. Who put them there?

Widmore? Ben? Is there a third party involved that hasn’t been exposed yet?

Numbers:
1. Helen Norwood died on April 8…..4/8.
2. Locke walked into Richard’s camp to meet the Others 4 days ago (per his timeline)
3. To reach Widmore on the phone he received from Widmore, Locke was told to press 2-3. (23)

Funny:
--Hurley jamming his fingers in his ears and screaming “LA LA LA LA….” when Locke was trying to convince him why he needs to go back to the Island.
--Locke pulls the extension cord out of a bag from Angels Hardware.
--Widmore giving Locke the pseudonym of Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher. “Your parents had a sense of humor naming you, so why can’t I?” (This was a nice nod to the Lost-fans from the writers as Lost fans quickly picked up the John Locke name way back in Season One.)

Double-take:
--Copy of Life Magazine from April 1954 with headline "Pictures from Hydrogen Test". The Jughead bomb is a hydrogen bomb with a leak that Daniel encounters in a 1954 time-hop.
--A return of the Beige sedan, this time it’s involved when it crashes into John Locke…again. (As you’ll all remember, a beige sedan hit Michael in Season One, bumped into Locke in a parking lot after he had met up with Helen in another season, and has appeared a few other times.)
--So, with Locke’s return via the Ajira crash…Richard Alpert is still protecting the remaining Others, who don’t trust the Oceanic tribe members, and will all now be could be considered “Others” by the survivors of the Ajira crash. And around and around and around and around we go…and go…and go…
--Locke again in a wheelchair being pushed around by Matthew Abaddon.

Questions Answered:
1. Locke did not commit suicide.
2. Locke does indeed resurrect upon his return to the Island in the Ajira crash.
3. Charles Widmore set up the people to be on the Oceanic 816 Flight.

Questions:
1. How does Locke resurrect? He seems to be John Locke, and by that I mean it doesn’t seem like he’s a vision/image of John Locke in the same way that Christian has been, or Claire of late. Whomever, or whatever (SMonster?) is able to make Christian's and Claire’s images appear, it doesn’t seem that it is involved here.

2. Wonder if there’s any significance of Hurley painting a watercolor picture of the Sphinx/Egypt?
3. Why did Ben decide it was necessary to kill Locke instead of just letting him go on with the suicide? Did it have something to do with Richard having told Locke previously that he would have to die? Did Ben just correct his own mistake of saving Locke? That would be kind of ridiculous since those events happened within minutes of each other.
4. Did Sun and Frank Lapidus take off in the boat chasing what ends up being Sawyer and Juliet et al (from The Little Prince)? If so, HOW COOL IS THAT??
5. How did Ben get Widmore booted from the Island?
6. If Locke’s sacrifice was to die, what was Ben’s sacrifice? What was Widmore’s sacrifice? What was Richard Alpert's sacrifice?

7. Are we supposed to now believe that Widmore is the good guy? Or is Ben the good guy? Locke will have to decide soon which side he's on.
8. After all this time, what are the numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42)? Are the numbers the location of the Island when it was first crashed-on by Oceanic 816? I seem to remember that when the numbers are put together in a longitude/latitude format, they land on a point just North-East of Australia. It doesn’t explain how they would’ve been on the side of the Hatch, though.
9. Does Walt have to return to the Island? Now that Christian AND Widmore have said that this is the case (and with Widmore having been following Walt), it seems this is the case. Why?
10. What is the coming war that Widmore mentions? And at this point, who is fighting for the right side and the wrong side?

Tune in next week for “La Fleur” (episode 8 of Season 5). Comments welcome.

Until then, you may want to get that bone sticking out of your leg looked at.