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| LOST: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham |
| Monday, 02 March 2009 | |||
In the seventh episode of Season Five, Locke returns to civilization with a mission: get the Oceanic Six to return to the island. Unfortunately, Locke finds out it's not as easy as he thought it would be and Ben once again shows his true colors. Because of my recent lengthy absence (long story, but it involves time travel and bright white flashes of light - thank god for constants!) I haven't been able to review the last few episodes of Lost, but over the course of the previous 6 episodes, Lost has once again cemented it's position as the best show on television. Between the disappointment of the Oceanic Six going their seperate ways, and the bemused excitement of them all ending up on the plane anyway (even Frank!) and returning to the island, Lost has continually rewritten the rules about what is and isn't possible on the show. Last night was no different.The episode opens with "the guy from the plane" (the one that gave Jack his condolences on his dead friend, and was seated next to Hurley) rummaging through an office. He finds old Life magazines, breaks into a file cabinet, finds a map and files about the island, and finally - a shotgun taped under the desk. He stuffs it into his bag when a female enters and asks him what he just put in there, and he hides the truth by pulling out a flashlight. She tells him that they found a man, just standing in the ocean wearing a suit, and that no one recognizes him. As they walk back to the beach (yes, the Ajira plane crashed as well), he asks her if he could have been one of "the ones that disappeared", and she says no, he wasn't on the plane. They get to the beach where a huddled figure is covered in a blanket. The man introduces himself as Cesar and asks him his name, and the camera pans around to reveal that the huddled figure is none other than John Locke - very much alive.  It's official: Locke needs a girlfriend. In a flashback, we see John resetting the donkey wheel, and in a flash of light, he wakes up in the middle of Tunisia, right where Ben appeared when he left the island. With his leg still injured, he looks around and sees that there are cameras focused on his position and he calls out. He lies there until nightfall, when suddenly a truck races up. Men jump out and grab Locke and toss him in the back of the truck. They take him to a hospital where the doctor gives him a stick to bite down on, and then sets his broken leg. Locke passes out from the pain, and when he wakes Charles Widmore is sitting next to him. Widmore marvels at how little John has aged since they met (back on the island in the past when Widmore was 17), and asks him how long it's been for John, who tells him it was 4 days ago for him. John asks about the cameras in the desert, and Widmore tells him that it's the "exit" from the island, and that he was afraid Ben would fool John into leaving the island "as he did with me". He tells him that like Locke, he was the leader of the Others and that they protected it for over three decades before Ben exiled him. He tells Locke that not only is he not the bad guy, that he's going to help Locke get everyone back to the island because "there's a war coming" and if Locke isn't back on the island when that happens, "the wrong side is going to win". Hmmph, no pressure there.  'Let the Battle of the Bald Guys commence!' And the whole plan just falls apart. Locke goes to find Sayid (who is building houses for charity) and, apart from learning that Ben was manipulating Sayid, gets shot down. Sayid tells him about his wife being murdered and that he will not go back. Then Locke goes to NY to see Walt (which is a brilliant move by the writers because even though the actor is older, the character is supposed to be older now), but doesn't have the heart to ask him to come back to the island. Walt does tell him about a dream he's been having where Locke is back on the island surrounded by strangers that want to hurt him. Locke asks Abaddon to find Helen for him, and as they leave NY, they are accidentally spotted by Ben. So you didn't make it, huh? Locke goes to see Kate in L.A. and she flat out says no. Then, Abaddon takes him to "see" Helen - by taking him to the cemetary and revealing that she died of a brain aneurysm years earlier. As they head back to the car, Abaddon is shot and killed, and Locke manages to jump into the car and speed away. Unfortunately, Locke must have studied driving at the Mario Kart School of Road Safety, because he pingpongs around the streets until finally getting into a crash at an intersection. He wakes up in the hospital - Jack's hospital to be exact - and Jack also refuses to go back. He calls Locke delusional, and when Locke tells him about seeing Christian, Jack gets angry and tells Locke to leave him alone.  'P.S. Nyah, nyah, nyah, pffffft!' Locke goes back to his hotel room dejected, writes his suicide note for Jack (which is pretty high up there on the list of "jerkiest suicide notes of all time"), dumps his phone, wraps an extension cord around a ceiling stud, and makes a noose. He stands on a dresser, tightens the noose around him neck, and just when he's about to step off the edge, Ben arrives and asks him to stop. He tells Locke that he found him because he had a man watching Sayid, watching them all, keeping them safe. He pleads with Locke, telling him that he's only been trying to protect them and that he killed Abaddon because he was working for Widmore - and (surprise, surprise) Widmore has been using Locke. Ben hops on the "Locke is so important and special" bandwagon, and tells Locke that Jack booked a ticket to Sydney - and if he can get Jack, he can get the rest of them. He unties the cord and asks Locke to come down, which he does. Ben tells him to go to Sun, but Locke tells him about his promise to Jin not to bring her back. Locke tells Ben about his plans, and tells him that Eloise Hawking knows how to get them back to the island. The look in Ben's eyes tells us that Locke just made a huge, huge mistake, and sure enough Ben tells Locke that he knows her, then wraps the extension cord around Locke's neck and strangles him to death. He hangs Locke up and makes it look like a suicide, erases any evidence of him ever being there, takes Jin's wedding ring, tells Locke that he'll miss him, and then leaves. Back on the Other's Island in the present, Cesar is looking through files with the Hydra Station logo on them, and John arrives and tells him they were from an organization known as the Dharma Initiative. Cesar misunderstands that to mean Locke was already on the island when they crashed, and Locke tells him no - that he was here previously and that "the timing would just confuse you". In turn, Cesar tells him that when the plane was crashing, there was a bright white light and Hurley and several others just disappeared. Locke tells him that he thinks he knows how he got back (meaning dying and being brought over in a casket) and again asks to see a passenger list. Cesar tells him that the pilot (Frank) took it and ran off. He asks if everyone on the flight is accounted for, except for the people who disappeared, and Cesar tells him yes - except for the people that got hurt. Cesar takes him to a room where they've built a kind of temporary triage for the wounded and finds someone unexpected - Ben. Cesar asks if Locke knows him and Locke says "yes, he's the man that killed me". Now for the fun part, the theory/spoiler section:
Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER. So that's it for this week. Stay tuned next week for episode 8: "La Fleur", in which "Sawyer perpetuates a lie with some of the other island survivors in order to protect themselves from mistakes of the past". I have no idea what that means, but I have a feeling we're going to find out exactly why Jin was wearing a Dharma uniform last episode.  Why did some of the Losties arrive in a different time? How is Ben going to try and kill Locke next time? How will Locke ever get Eddie Van Halen on guitar without a triumphant video? Post a comment below and let us know! Comments (2)
  jbsoren wrote...
Glad to have your recaps back. Personally, I thought the best line of the night was Kate's, "Look how far you've come." Ouch! Way to kick a man in the teeth while he's baring his soul to you. And oh yeah -- Ziggy Piggy, Ziggy Piggy, Oink Oink Oink.
|| March 04, 2009
 manzy704 wrote...
Peter, I'm glad to see a Lost review! I did enjoy this episode but the thing that bugged me about it was what we learned about the 06 Walt's encounters with Jeremy Bentham last season and what we actually saw in this episode.
Never once did he tell Jack that they needed to go back or the others would die. He never mentioned his name was "Jeremy Bentham" to anyone but Sayid. Perhaps I'm nitpicking but maybe there was more to his excellent adventure than the bogus journey we saw. At the time of writing this, I've already seen "Le Fleur" so I don't want to bring up anything from that yet until you've posted a review. Until then, be excellent to each other and party on dudes!
|| March 05, 2009
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