Season 5; Episode 7: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”
Greetings from 30,000 feet…I’m obviously a bit late with this week’s post, but think of it as a nice primer for tonight’s episode. “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” gave us quite a bit to chew on, so let’s get right to it….
I must admit, I was a bit confused at the show’s opening as I initially thought that we’d be getting some background info on Caesar and Ilana, but low and behold the crash landed Ajira #316 loomed in the background as they walked out to the beach. I’m not exactly thrilled about the prospect of even more characters to deal with, but as long as this doesn’t turn into another Paulo and Nikki situation, I’ll allow it. Getting back to the opening scene, Caesar is told that a man that no one remembers to be on the plane has been found dressed to the nines standing in the ocean water. And for once we get a reveal at the beginning of an episode, as we see that Jeremy Bentham did in fact die, only to give birth to a newly baptized John Locke.
But no matter how good the mangos are and how relieved John seems to be now that he’s alive and back “home,” there are some issues to be dealt with. First off, they are not on the Island, they are on “Othertraz,” home of the Hydra station where Kate, Jack and Sawyer were being held in Season 3 (and also being forced to build that runway…is that what Frank landed on?). Also, Frank and “some woman” have taken one of the canoes and headed off to the Island already. Is it Sun that is with Frank? At this point she seems to be the most likely candidate, but why did she not jump in time with the others? Locke’s final problem is that he’s in the sticky situation of trying to explain his sudden resurrection to a fresh crop of skeptical survivors. Good luck with that.
But first let’s look at Locke’s all but failed mission to convince the O6 to return to the Island. Once he turns that Donkey Wheel he immediately transforms from “I am their Leader” badass Other-King to a broken, old man lying helplessly in the desert. And as the episode progresses, it is not only his physical state that is broken, he slowly but surely loses the confidence and faith that he so strongly commands when on the Island. He simply cannot sustain himself in the real world and turns into the self-doubting bumbling man that we’ve seen so often in the past. And one by one, the O6 let him know it; Sayid condescendingly shrugs him off and suggests that he should forget about the Island and “do some real good for a chance”; Kate accuses him of being a loveless obsessive, Hurley simply assumes he’s dead (is there any bigger insult than that??); and Jack basically calls him a delusional old man in need of some serious mental help. Ouch. And even Abaddon gets in on the fun by chiding him after each successive failure (“you know you are supposed to bring them back with you, right Mr. Locke?”).
And let’s not forget the two puppet masters that pull his strings the hardest: Widmore and Ben. Now, I’ve been stating on this here blog that I figured that Widmore has been shadowing Ben’s every off Island move so that he can somehow piggy back a ride back to the Island, but in this episode we learn that it may be the other way around. Clearly Widmore is on the ball and has been tracking the O6 ever since their return, and seemingly had the Eloise Hawking card in his pocket before Ben did (how surprised did he look when John mentioned her name?). But regardless of who’s tagging along with who, both Ben and Widmore are manipulating John to do their bidding…and we have to assume that one is good, and that the other is bad…right? While I initially came away with the thought that Ben really is and always has been the bad guy (you know, with the strangling and all), I’m not so sure that’s entirely correct. And when you look at both Ben and Widmore’s intentions, they are roughly the same: protect the Island, get Locke and the rest back to the Island, and prevent and/or get ready for the “war” that is inevitably coming. Is it possible that they are on the same overall side come wartime, but simply work in different ways to achieve their goals? I mean, I don’t blame Widmore for hating Ben after he got exiled, but at the same time you can’t really blame Ben for hating Widmore since he killed his daughter and a number of other Others with the whole Freighter incident. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I guess the final thought is that it’s still really hard to trust anything either of them say. So I guess it’s back to square one with these two.
But a little more on Ben. Yes, he brutally murdered John. Like, big time. Not cool. BUT, what he did before the murder was restore John’s faith. After all of his failed attempts, it seemed as if John didn’t even believe in his own ranting by the time he set his mind to suicide. And if he were successful in off-ing himself in such a delicate state, would the Island accept him back as its “chosen one?” So with his little pep talk to John (no, no, you ARE really special, blah blah) Ben was simply making John believe again so that when he did die, the Island would welcome his return? Remember his rant from last week when he almost turned the car around: “You have no idea what I’ve done to help you, all of you!” Simply said, it could be argued that he did what was necessary to ultimately protect the Island and its inhabitants. Conversely, the argument that Ben’s just a cold hard manipulating murderer that will do anything to get his way is more than valid, but we have a season and a half to go, so don’t get too comfortable with any theory at this point.
Let’s move on to Abaddon. I don’t have much to say, other than he’s still awesome and I was upset to see him get killed (wow, that makes TWO murders for Ben in one episode…shit, maybe he really is an asshole). (By the way, how awesome was that entire scene? Abaddon gets whacked totally out of the blue and then Locke gets into a crazy car wreck on in the span of a breathless 30 seconds…pure Lost). But one interesting thought regarding Abaddon is that he really might be future Walt. Explanation: I was a little confused with Walt’s appearance in this episode, cause really, abruptly taking a parent-less teenager back to a remote Island in the South Pacific with a mysterious old man is more commonly referred to as “kidnapping” than anything else. But I think the writers wanted us to hear Walt’s dream: he mentioned that he had been dreaming that Locke was on the Island, dressed in a suit and surrounded by a group of angry people (likely a soon to be seen future scenario once people start questioning the whole “I was dead but now I’m alive…isn’t that awesome?!” alibi). Now, we know that Walt has always had “special” abilities, and if those abilities center around seeing visions of the future, wouldn’t he then be perfectly suited for a job that’s description focused on “getting people to where they need to be?” Couple that with the fact that Abaddon conveniently left the scene right before Walt strolled up to Locke and the fact that Abaddon keeps calling John “Mr. Locke” ala Walt from season 1 and you may have yourself a crackpot theory. Regardless of its validity (likely low), I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Walt or Abaddon in Lost….I hope not anyways.
A couple more thoughts that I can’t fit into some sort of narrative cause I’m lazy and/or tired:
-Now that we know that Widmore was on the Island for “three decades”, I think it’s safe to say that Penny was born there. And I still think that she could be the daughter of Eloise Hawking which would make her the brother of Faraday. Therefore I think Penny will be very important in future episodes…that is if Ben didn’t kill her of course.
-I loved seeing the beginning of Jack’s “WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” beard in the scene he shared with Locke. While I mentioned above that Jack laid into Locke pretty hard at the hospital, don’t forget that Locke got the last comeback: “your father says hello.” Cue pills, booze, doubt, confusion, depression and a big ole hairy beard. In the end, it was that line that really started snowball effect of getting them all to get back to the Island.
-“The boy’s gotten big.” – Abaddon…classic.
-Oh, forgot to mention that it’s entirely possible that Christian is actually alive versus being some sort of Island ghost/Jacob’s secretary. I mean, if Locke resurrected, then I suppose Christian could have as well, right? Of course, that would probably imply that Christian had been to the Island before, but as out there as it sounds, it’s not impossible.
-So if John is Jesus, and Jack is St. Thomas, and Ben is Judas, and Sun is Mary (immaculate conception…remember that Jin’s boys don’t swim well), which I guess makes Jin Joseph, ect, ect,….is the Island God? I suck at the religious stuff.
Biggest Questions: if Sun went with Frank on the canoe, why didn’t she time jump with the rest of them? Along the same lines, why didn’t John jump as well? What’s the deal with Caesar and Ilana? Will Widmore be on the Island in the Dharma time that the others are in now? If so, will we see a little Penny running around? And finally, WHERE THE HELL ARE BERNARD AND ROSE?
OK, that’ll do it for this week. I’m already psyched for tonight, and since I’ve been off the grid for a bit I have no idea what it will be about, which is even more exciting. As usual chime in below, especially since I know I’m leaving some stuff out. Till next time…
Greetings from 30,000 feet…I’m obviously a bit late with this week’s post, but think of it as a nice primer for tonight’s episode. “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” gave us quite a bit to chew on, so let’s get right to it….
I must admit, I was a bit confused at the show’s opening as I initially thought that we’d be getting some background info on Caesar and Ilana, but low and behold the crash landed Ajira #316 loomed in the background as they walked out to the beach. I’m not exactly thrilled about the prospect of even more characters to deal with, but as long as this doesn’t turn into another Paulo and Nikki situation, I’ll allow it. Getting back to the opening scene, Caesar is told that a man that no one remembers to be on the plane has been found dressed to the nines standing in the ocean water. And for once we get a reveal at the beginning of an episode, as we see that Jeremy Bentham did in fact die, only to give birth to a newly baptized John Locke.
But no matter how good the mangos are and how relieved John seems to be now that he’s alive and back “home,” there are some issues to be dealt with. First off, they are not on the Island, they are on “Othertraz,” home of the Hydra station where Kate, Jack and Sawyer were being held in Season 3 (and also being forced to build that runway…is that what Frank landed on?). Also, Frank and “some woman” have taken one of the canoes and headed off to the Island already. Is it Sun that is with Frank? At this point she seems to be the most likely candidate, but why did she not jump in time with the others? Locke’s final problem is that he’s in the sticky situation of trying to explain his sudden resurrection to a fresh crop of skeptical survivors. Good luck with that.
But first let’s look at Locke’s all but failed mission to convince the O6 to return to the Island. Once he turns that Donkey Wheel he immediately transforms from “I am their Leader” badass Other-King to a broken, old man lying helplessly in the desert. And as the episode progresses, it is not only his physical state that is broken, he slowly but surely loses the confidence and faith that he so strongly commands when on the Island. He simply cannot sustain himself in the real world and turns into the self-doubting bumbling man that we’ve seen so often in the past. And one by one, the O6 let him know it; Sayid condescendingly shrugs him off and suggests that he should forget about the Island and “do some real good for a chance”; Kate accuses him of being a loveless obsessive, Hurley simply assumes he’s dead (is there any bigger insult than that??); and Jack basically calls him a delusional old man in need of some serious mental help. Ouch. And even Abaddon gets in on the fun by chiding him after each successive failure (“you know you are supposed to bring them back with you, right Mr. Locke?”).
And let’s not forget the two puppet masters that pull his strings the hardest: Widmore and Ben. Now, I’ve been stating on this here blog that I figured that Widmore has been shadowing Ben’s every off Island move so that he can somehow piggy back a ride back to the Island, but in this episode we learn that it may be the other way around. Clearly Widmore is on the ball and has been tracking the O6 ever since their return, and seemingly had the Eloise Hawking card in his pocket before Ben did (how surprised did he look when John mentioned her name?). But regardless of who’s tagging along with who, both Ben and Widmore are manipulating John to do their bidding…and we have to assume that one is good, and that the other is bad…right? While I initially came away with the thought that Ben really is and always has been the bad guy (you know, with the strangling and all), I’m not so sure that’s entirely correct. And when you look at both Ben and Widmore’s intentions, they are roughly the same: protect the Island, get Locke and the rest back to the Island, and prevent and/or get ready for the “war” that is inevitably coming. Is it possible that they are on the same overall side come wartime, but simply work in different ways to achieve their goals? I mean, I don’t blame Widmore for hating Ben after he got exiled, but at the same time you can’t really blame Ben for hating Widmore since he killed his daughter and a number of other Others with the whole Freighter incident. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I guess the final thought is that it’s still really hard to trust anything either of them say. So I guess it’s back to square one with these two.
But a little more on Ben. Yes, he brutally murdered John. Like, big time. Not cool. BUT, what he did before the murder was restore John’s faith. After all of his failed attempts, it seemed as if John didn’t even believe in his own ranting by the time he set his mind to suicide. And if he were successful in off-ing himself in such a delicate state, would the Island accept him back as its “chosen one?” So with his little pep talk to John (no, no, you ARE really special, blah blah) Ben was simply making John believe again so that when he did die, the Island would welcome his return? Remember his rant from last week when he almost turned the car around: “You have no idea what I’ve done to help you, all of you!” Simply said, it could be argued that he did what was necessary to ultimately protect the Island and its inhabitants. Conversely, the argument that Ben’s just a cold hard manipulating murderer that will do anything to get his way is more than valid, but we have a season and a half to go, so don’t get too comfortable with any theory at this point.
Let’s move on to Abaddon. I don’t have much to say, other than he’s still awesome and I was upset to see him get killed (wow, that makes TWO murders for Ben in one episode…shit, maybe he really is an asshole). (By the way, how awesome was that entire scene? Abaddon gets whacked totally out of the blue and then Locke gets into a crazy car wreck on in the span of a breathless 30 seconds…pure Lost). But one interesting thought regarding Abaddon is that he really might be future Walt. Explanation: I was a little confused with Walt’s appearance in this episode, cause really, abruptly taking a parent-less teenager back to a remote Island in the South Pacific with a mysterious old man is more commonly referred to as “kidnapping” than anything else. But I think the writers wanted us to hear Walt’s dream: he mentioned that he had been dreaming that Locke was on the Island, dressed in a suit and surrounded by a group of angry people (likely a soon to be seen future scenario once people start questioning the whole “I was dead but now I’m alive…isn’t that awesome?!” alibi). Now, we know that Walt has always had “special” abilities, and if those abilities center around seeing visions of the future, wouldn’t he then be perfectly suited for a job that’s description focused on “getting people to where they need to be?” Couple that with the fact that Abaddon conveniently left the scene right before Walt strolled up to Locke and the fact that Abaddon keeps calling John “Mr. Locke” ala Walt from season 1 and you may have yourself a crackpot theory. Regardless of its validity (likely low), I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Walt or Abaddon in Lost….I hope not anyways.
A couple more thoughts that I can’t fit into some sort of narrative cause I’m lazy and/or tired:
-Now that we know that Widmore was on the Island for “three decades”, I think it’s safe to say that Penny was born there. And I still think that she could be the daughter of Eloise Hawking which would make her the brother of Faraday. Therefore I think Penny will be very important in future episodes…that is if Ben didn’t kill her of course.
-I loved seeing the beginning of Jack’s “WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” beard in the scene he shared with Locke. While I mentioned above that Jack laid into Locke pretty hard at the hospital, don’t forget that Locke got the last comeback: “your father says hello.” Cue pills, booze, doubt, confusion, depression and a big ole hairy beard. In the end, it was that line that really started snowball effect of getting them all to get back to the Island.
-“The boy’s gotten big.” – Abaddon…classic.
-Oh, forgot to mention that it’s entirely possible that Christian is actually alive versus being some sort of Island ghost/Jacob’s secretary. I mean, if Locke resurrected, then I suppose Christian could have as well, right? Of course, that would probably imply that Christian had been to the Island before, but as out there as it sounds, it’s not impossible.
-So if John is Jesus, and Jack is St. Thomas, and Ben is Judas, and Sun is Mary (immaculate conception…remember that Jin’s boys don’t swim well), which I guess makes Jin Joseph, ect, ect,….is the Island God? I suck at the religious stuff.
Biggest Questions: if Sun went with Frank on the canoe, why didn’t she time jump with the rest of them? Along the same lines, why didn’t John jump as well? What’s the deal with Caesar and Ilana? Will Widmore be on the Island in the Dharma time that the others are in now? If so, will we see a little Penny running around? And finally, WHERE THE HELL ARE BERNARD AND ROSE?
OK, that’ll do it for this week. I’m already psyched for tonight, and since I’ve been off the grid for a bit I have no idea what it will be about, which is even more exciting. As usual chime in below, especially since I know I’m leaving some stuff out. Till next time…
posted by Rutherford at
8:24 AM
8 Comments:
I think Locke didn't flash with the others because he was not in their 'category', as it were. He is the shepherd, they are the sheep. Sun must have flashed with the rest of them - it's just too messy and assymetrical if she didn't.
Perhaps this crash gives us some clues about the original one. Was there a flash on the original one? Maybe on the original one, the losties didn't flash, but Christian did? Maybe, uneknownst to everyone, Christian somehow coordinated their presence on Oceanic 815, just as Locke did, and then came back to life on the island, like Locke (all other things aside, I would say that Christian did definitely come back to life).
I think everyone agrees and has agreed on this for some time - Christian is the center of the Lost mystery.
I was also wrestling with the good vs. evil question when it comes to Ben and Widmore. We want Ben to be bad, and he seemed bad, but a part of me thought that maybe him murdering John was actually good.
Why? Well, Christian was murdered, as was Jesus (as if the allusion to Jesus wasn't already pounded home). Maybe Ben knew that Locke HAD to be murdered - if he committed suicide, the rest of the plan would somehow be ruined. So by killing John, he was actually doing good, and would fit in with his "you have no idea how much I've done for you" rant.
i don't think Sun, Sayid or Locke flashed with them. Mostly from the preview for tonight's episode, which shows Sun and Ben together. So Sun must be in the same time that Ben is in, which is the present, with Locke. Cesar also mentioned people disappearing, but didn't say that Ilana saw the guy sitting next to her, who was in handcuffs, disappear. i would think that would've freaked her out quite a bit and would've been brought up. why they're in different time periods, i don't know. perhaps the island needed jack, kate and hurley to go meet up with the castaways for some reason.
Abaddon is Walt, Walt is Abaddon. I LOVE IT!
wow...great thoughts everyone...but Vin, I'm going to have to hurt you for spoiling with a preview of tonight!
I definitely like the thought that Christian flashed on the original flight, which would possibly take him to a time before his own death, which would explain the fact that he is seemingly alive.
And Kate, that does seem to fit with the "I'm doing right, even if it seems so wrong" theme that Ben loves so much. It wouldn't hurt the guy to actually EXPLAIN himself every once in a while, huh?
my bad. it's hard to avoid the commercials for new episodes though.
just kidding vin, I off the grid for most of the week so that's the only reason I didn't see any. That and I don't watch Grey's Anatomy ;)
whyioughta...okay you got me.
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