Televisionary editor Jace offers his take on this week's intense episode of Lost: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."
NOTE: This article goes into great detail about this episode. If you haven't seen this episode yet, STOP HERE NOW! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
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I don't know about you but I couldn't sleep last night as my mind is still reeling after yet another neck-snapping plot twist from Team Darlton.
I'm speaking, of course, of the newest episode of Lost ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, which filled in a lot of the blanks about just what happened to John Locke between his leaving the island and his corpse's return trip.
Bookended by scenes of Locke with the survivors of Ajira Airways Flight 316 on the Hydra Island, this week's episode delves into several ongoing mysteries and answers some lingering questions about Locke's choice of pseudonym, the exit strategy from the island, Matthew Abaddon, Walt, and more.
Let's discuss.
The Plane. I was glad that we did learn this episode that the Ajira Airways flight carrying the Oceanic Six and Benjamin Linus DID crash, after all. While the members of the Oceanic Six were seemingly pulled from the timestream and dumped on the island in the same 1970s period as Jin and the other castaways, the rest of the passengers didn't fare so well as the plane crashes on Hydra Island... which explains why Juliet and the castaways didn't see another signs of a crash on the island itself. (Sneaky, Darlton!)
As Caesar (Sleeper Cell's Saïd Taghmaoui) and Ilana (Rome's Zuleikha Robinson) rifle through the contents of the Hydra Station--including finding a 1954 Time magazine about the Hydrogen tests in the South Pacific (the same date as the US military photograph that Eloise Hawking has in the Lamp Post) and a secreted gunshot under the desk, Locke sits on the beach in a black cloak. I'm glad to see that John was resurrected once he returned to the island; apparently, the island still does have a plan for him and it needs him alive... if the Ajira survivors keep him that way for long. After all, having a creepy bald man tell you that he died and knows who killed him (and that he's been to this island before) doesn't engender a lot of sympathy from a group of people desperate for escape from this accursed place.
Frank. Just how coincidental is it that the plane just happens to crash on a section of Hydra Island where there are a bunch of boats just waiting for them. (Hmmm.) Even more curious: that Frank Lapidus doesn't travel back in time with the members of the Oceanic Six but remains in the present-day time frame and manages to land the plane with a minimum of casualties.
The Woman. Which brings me to my next question: just why does Frank immediately take the passenger manifest list and head out in one of said boats with a mysterious woman? And, even more intriguingly (and this is what kept me up half the night): just who is The Woman? Theories off the top of my head include the mysterious woman glimpsed in the scenes for next week's episode ("LaFleur") who held at gunpoint with a sack over her head, Sun (who has yet to be seen in either timeframe), or someone who wasn't even on the plane altogether. If the boats had been placed in the right location for the crash, who's to say that there wasn't someone waiting to greet the plane, who has need of both Frank Lapidus and the passenger manifest? After all, the Others don't like uninvited guests on the island and we've seen that their modus operandi involves getting detailed lists of passengers straightaway.
Exit Route. Very interesting that Locke's donkey-wheel trip from the island involves the exact same trajectory as Ben's, depositing him in the middle of the Tunisian desert. The fact that the exit route isn't random explains quite a lot about this particular section of the world... and why Charlotte Staples Lewis would have encountered the remains of a Dharma-branded polar bear in the middle of the desert. Which leads me to wonder: did someone previously need to turn the wheel in order to move the island but opt not to take the escape route themselves? Did they instead hook up the bear to the donkey wheel and stand back in order to remain on the island? If so, who was smart enough to employ that trickery and why?
Knowing just where Locke would appear, Widmore was clever enough to employ cameras so he would get a heads up about whoever left the island and was therefore able to save Locke's life after he appeared in the desert and was immobilized. Widmore claims that he was "exiled" from the island so either took the same route himself off the island or knows that it is the exit point from the cavern underneath the Orchid Station. (The dichotomy of someone entering a well--representing water--and exiting through a desert isn't lost on me.)
Jeremy Bentham. How fantastic was the scene between Charles Widmore and Locke when Widmore gives him the Canadian passport for Jeremy Bentham and says that since Locke's parents clearly had a sense of humor about his name, he'll have one as well and give him the name of another British philosopher? It's the first time that Darlton are so precisely tongue-in-cheek about the fanciful names on the series and state outright that the choice of pseudonym was intentional rather than accidental. Brilliant.
Locke. As predicted, Locke does spring back to life once he returns to the island... and is once again able to walk. The shot of him cloaked in black, staring out into the night sky, filled me with dread for a second, until he pulled back the hood... and then ate a mango the following morning. I loved the fact that back in the "real world," Locke was again confined to a wheelchair and forced to suffer the pity and contempt of everyone around him.
So sure of his mission and purpose, Locke encounters nothing but scorn and derision from the members of the Oceanic Six whom he encounters. And yet after everything--including the murder of Naomi at the end of Season Three--would you really blame the Six for denying his purpose? Kate is particularly cruel to Locke, throwing his obsession back in his face, while Jack doesn't want to have anything to do with Locke... who is again spouting lines about fate when he ends up in Jack's hospital after a car accident that should have killed him (yet doesn't as the island still needs him). Locke does figure out that Christian is Jack's father and sends him a message, a fact that rattles Jack immensely (and could explain his confusion about his father being upstairs in "Through the Looking Glass"). I also loved that Hurley thinks Locke is nothing more than a ghost and freaks out when he realizes that Locke is actually alive and talking to him about going back to the island.
The scorn of the castaways? Yet another trial for Locke, who faces the doubting Saint Thomas everywhere he turns. Locke was mocked and humiliated and told he's no one before the island and even after returning to the mainland, he's told it again: that he's not special, no matter what he might think. He's a crazy, lonely old man who has nothing to live for. It's clear now why the castaways stay away from John's funeral, especially when the newspaper report states that the cause of death was suicide... except it wasn't.
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