Life and Death and Bentham and Locke

LOSTaways-

Boy, am I just glad Ben didn’t “O.J.” Locke.

A strangling in a seedy L.A. hotel, a celery stalk-like bone-setting in a sleazy Tunisian infirmary, and a reincarnated bald-headed island hero. What more could a blogger ask for?

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham was the seventh episode of the tremendously exciting Fifth Season and offered a sneak-peak into the time between Locke’s donkey wheel turn in the well and his crash (and re-birth) on the smaller island where the Hydra station (think: bear cages from season three) is located. By the way, that mango did look like the best one Locke has ever tasted.

The episode opened ominously in what quickly became apparent was a Dharma office suite, but what might not have been so apparent was that the man searching through that office looked to know exactly what to be looking for. I think that he (Caesar) is an agent of Widmore’s, sent to crash with the plane on the island and report back to his superiors as to its location. Complicating this plan might be the fact that the island, at the time of this second crash, is back in the days of roughly late 1970’s Dharma when Widmore himself would likely have still been on the island as the leader of the others.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here, so to wrap up the opening sequence, Caesar finds a map, a flashlight, a gun, and lies to the woman (Ilana) who had brought Sayid on the plane in handcuffs about what all he found in the Hydra office. The maps he pulled out of the file cabinet included one that Rousseau eventually has in her possession in season one and another that Faraday brought with him to the island last season. In the episode “The Other Woman” Daniel and Charlotte used that same map to find The Tempest station and de-activate its chemical suicide machine. This means that Faraday, who was working for Widmore before coming to the island, must have received the map from Widmore who had received it from his agent on the island: Caesar. How’s that for detective work?

The crescendo of the opening of this week’s episode clearly was the unveiling of a not-dead Locke, sitting under a black hood on the beach minding his own reincarnated business. For those Star Wars or Star Trek fans out there, the allusions to the way in which they shot Locke’s unveiling need not be pointed out, but for the rest of you, in Star Trek: The Search For Spock the previously deceased Spock is brought back to life on a supernatural planet and when Captain Kirk and the gang finally find him he is unveiled from under a dark hood. In the original Star Wars trilogy there are countless instances of important characters under dark hoods.

The obvious question is this: Is Locke really alive or is this an island manifestation? Did the same thing happen to Christian Shepard after the first crash? In Season One Jack found his dad’s coffin empty, and obviously now Locke’s is as well. My money is on the fact that both are alive and well, but part of the deal with reincarnation on the island is that you can never leave. Locke had such a cool/chilling line before we entered the good old flash-back storytelling technique that most of the rest of the episode follows: “I remember dying.” I remember you dying too, Locke. It’s nice to have you back.

And with that we are brought back to the moment Locke left the island and found himself in the desert of Tunisia, with a camera on him. Tunisia we learn is the “exit” according to Charles Widmore. Widmore and his lackey Matthew Abbadon do their darndest to convince Locke that they, echoing what Ben said about The Others, are “the good guys.” The question as to whether it is Ben or Widmore who is the “bad guy” is becoming a front-and-center issue on the show. I’d have to say that after this episode, the advantage goes to Charles for who might end up being the good guy. Or neither are and they’re all crazy. Us too.

Widmore gives Locke a new name, Jeremy Bentham, and has to be convinced by Locke that Ben didn’t “exile” John as he apparently had done to Widmore at some point in the past. It seems that Widmore and Ben, while very well informed as compared to most other characters on this show, still are out of the loop on many big pieces of information. I’ve been saying for some time that there are competing forces on the island and I think my theory, although not entirely clear or fleshed out yet, is starting to come in to focus. More on this later when Ben “off’s” Locke.

Widmore was the one-time leader on the island, was swindled out of his claim to leadership by the conniving Ben Linus, and now has put all of his efforts in to tracking down his former home and current adversary. He tells Locke that John and the Oceanic Six must go back because “a war is coming, and if you aren’t on that island the wrong side will win.” Huh. Not a very cool set-up for future drama on the best show ever made by humans, right?

To prove how serious he is about being the “good guy”, Charles Widmore offers the services of the creepy Abbadon and access to his own personal fortune (including a private jet). One last thing about the interaction between Locke and Widmore: Charles brings up the fact that it has only been four days since Locke saw the then 17 year old Widmore in the Others camp (back in the Jughead episode). Widmore is blown away by this reality, and so was I because it should be obvious that Richard Alpert might no longer be the “never-ending dude in the jungle”, but simply someone who knows how to time travel. This would explain his showing up throughout the history of this show and always looking the same.

Moving right along, Locke’s first stop is to find the best thing out of Iraq since the term “Fertile Crescent”: Sayid Jarrah. My boy. The guy has gone all Jimmy Carter on us and started building homes in the Dominican Republic. He wants nothing to do with Locke’s plea to return to the island, and seems to be content in making up for past sins (i.e. murdering people for Ben) and time by helping out his fellow man. He must not be a liberal because he actually is doing something to help poor people instead of just talking about it with friends at Starbucks. Too soon?

Next is a detour to check in on Walt, the backgammon-playing wonder boy from seasons 1 and 2 who has now become lurchey and awkward. Walt says he’s been dreaming about Locke (take a number, kid) and he has seen John standing in a suit on a beach with angry people around him. Sounds like a Tuesday in the life of Jeremy Bentham-Locke. Locke leaves Walt alone and rightly points out that “the boy’s been through enough.”

“A lot”? You mean like being lied to even further by you just now about his dad possibly being alive when you know full well that man ended up as chum in the water surrounding the freighter, John?

The next two stops were at Hurley’s Nut House and Kate’s regular house. Hurley was not interested in talking to a live human being and freaked out when he saw Abbadon. For some reason Hurley is the one the island has chosen to send most of its deceased all-stars to. Probably because he is weak and stupid.

Kate pulls her usual ‘tude with Locke and even takes a few cheap shots at the obsessive qualities John continues to display. There are few more attractive women on this planet than Freckles, but she can be a real knob-job sometimes, this being one of them. Kate, umm, hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re a lying should-be fugitive whose sole talent is looking cute and forlorn (and making horrible decisions based on emotions). Maybe you should just trust Locke here and avoid whatever sad thing happened when you will later go to Jack’s apartment in tears and demand the Good Doctor never ask you about Aaron? Just a thought, toots.

Getting back to Locke’s Blues Brothers-like attempt to reunite the island band…after a number of setbacks he is ready to see his old flame Helen. Oh, well she’s dead. Bummer. At her gravestone Locke laments leaving her and despite Abbadon’s attempt to remind John that every person’s course and path is the one they were supposed to take, Locke insists that things would have been different had he just listened to Helen and dropped the obsession with his dad and past pain/hurt. This story-line helps us understand even more why it is Locke knows what he speaks of when he pleads with Jack to not go down the same short-sighted paths of avoiding reality when its in front of your face.

And speaking of Jack, after Ben caps Abbadon and Locke fails at escaping, John wakes up in a hospital room with the Bearded Wonder leering at him from the shadows. Here we get another great Locke-Jack scene where Jack has had enough of John and crushes his spirit by ending their brief encounter with, “We were never special.” Ouch. That is the LAST thing Locke wants/needs to hear right now when his spirits are down, his quasi-buddy Abbandon is murdered, and he’s had absolutely no success in convincing anyone to come back to the island.

It is here, at wit and emotion’s end, where Locke decides to call the island’s bluff and end his own life in a lonely hotel room. I can’t say enough about this entire scene, from the time Locke begins to prepare the noose until Ben walks out after strangling him. Powerful. Disturbing. Sad. Masterfully acted. All of the above. You could feel Locke’s pain and disillusionment. He had come so far and it seems that every single time he gets back on the right path he is supposed to be walking (i.e. turning the wheel himself and being willing to give his life) he suffers set-backs. The Man of Faith has his tested constantly and in this scene in that hotel room we see a man at his own breaking point. Ben comes in at “just the right moment” and insists that Locke can’t die, that he has too much work to do, and admits to killing Abbadon because Widmore would have had Locke killed before long any way.

Really the toughest thing to watch in this scene was after Locke was convinced to come down off his death ledge and the reality of what he had been about to do to himself seeps in and he can’t help but cry. So sad.

But as Locke’s spirits began to rise as Ben talks and tells of Jack’s purchasing of an airline ticket, John mentions that he is supposed to find an Eloise Hawking. Something snaps in the bug-eyed former Others leader’s head and he strangles Locke to death. Then he sets up the room as if Locke had in fact committed suicide and takes Jin’s ring with him (to use as leverage to get Sun to come back eventually). As he leaves he says “I’ll miss you John…I really will” as if he really thought Locke was dead and that the two would never see each other again. But a week later (or less) he and Jack are in a funeral parlor and Ben is loading Locke in to the back of a van to take him back to the island with them.

Something happens in that interlude that caused Ben to get on board. Or was he on board all along? Maybe the “rules” that Ben and Widmore referenced last season involve prohibitions against suicide. Maybe Ben head Locke say something about Hawking, knew that she used to work with Widmore, assumed that Widmore had converted Locke to his side, and murdered Locke because he thought he was one of the bad guys now. Then Ben might have gone to Ms. Hawking and realized that she could actually help to get them all back and had to eat some crow and work with her.

In that same vein of hypothesizing, here are some thoughts/theories to wrap up this installment of Pants:

-Another option with Ben killing Locke is that he was told that he had to do that by either the island or Jacob. When Ben left the island last season he said, “I hope you are happy Jacob” and perhaps whatever it was that Jacob had told Ben to do (or that Ben knew Jacob would have him do) involved crazy things like murdering JL.

-In Season Three the Others are having Sawyer and Kate help build a runway, which includes the removal of stones and gravel. That is the same island where Locke’s plane crashed this past week on what appeared to be a gravel path. Then there is another plane to consider and that is the one that was still dropping Dharma food in Season Two. What gives?

-The pilot (Lapidus) and “some woman” took one of the outrigger canoes and bolted the first night. One could assume that the woman is either Sun and the two of them are bolting to go find Jin and whoever else they can…or maybe it was just one of the stewardesses that Lapidus had eyes for and they wanted to go start a Swiss Family Robinson-style brood on the main island. If it was Sun though, why did she not get put back on the island? Could the island be sending a signal to those who weren’t transported via bright white light to the lagoon that they aren’t needed or welcome back on the real island?

-Here is some interesting information about Jeremy Bentham (the real guy).

-Hurley is drawing/coloring a Sphinx when Locke visits him at the loony-bin..."sphinx" is Greek for "strangler". Sound familiar?

-Ben killed Locke in the same way that Sawyer killed John's own father in the Black Rock in season three. It even basically happened in the same surprising, spur of hte moment way. If you remember, Sawyer was gonna try and help Anthony Cooper until something Cooper said triggered a reaction in Sawyer that drove him to strangle the old kidney-stealing jerk.

-Why were those outriggers just sitting on the beach on the island where Locke crashed? Who did they belong to and where did those people go? My bet is that they belong to original Others, including Alpert.

I really have more to say overall about this episode and some theories but I have mid-terms this week and am exhausted and my dog (Rudy the Dog) is about to go to the bathroom on my floor. Please feel free to post any of your own here or email me with them. If you really want more, please also read this article from Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly. The guy's a genius.

God Bless,
Pants-o-Locke