Spoilers.
Lost Official Site
The Time: Wednesdays, 9:00 PM, ABC
The Show:
When
Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to London went down somewhere over the
Pacific, the survivors of the crash found themselves marooned on a
tropical island. But this is no ordinary island; it has
unusual magnetic, temporal, healing and seemingly supernatural
properties, and is fraught with constant danger. There are
mysterious black smoke-like creatures, polar bears, and even
apparitions of the dead roaming the forest. The island is
also the former secret haven of a group called the Dharma Initiative,
who were running experiments utilizing the unique properties of the
island via research stations that dot the landscape. Now the
Oceanic survivors, led by Dr. Jack Sheppard, Kate Austen, James
“Sawyer” Ford, John Locke, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Sayid Jarrah and
others, seek a way to escape the island and its many dangers.
But there are people, both living on the island and seeking the island
from outside, who are at war for control of it, and the Oceanic
survivors find themselves caught in the middle. Told via
nonlinear fashion that incorporates flashbacks and flash forwards, Lost is one of the most unique and densely mythological shows on television.
The Stars:
• Matthew Fox – Dr. Jack Sheppard
• Evangeline Lilly – Kate Austen
• Josh Holloway – James “Sawyer” Ford
• Naveen Andrews – Sayid Jarrah
• Terry O’Quinn – John Locke
• Jorge Garcia – Hugo “Hurley” Reyes
• Daniel Dae Kim – Jin Kwon
• Yunjin Kim – Sun Kwon
• Michael Emerson – Benjamin Linus
• Henry Ian Cusick – Desmond Hume
• Elizabeth Mitchell – Juliet Burke
• Jeremy Davies – Daniel Faraday
• Nestor Carbonell – Richard Alpert
• Alan Dale – Charles Widmore
The Episode: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”
The story of Jeremy Bentham, otherwise known as John Locke, once he left the island and how he ended up in the coffin at the end of Season 4 is revealed. It involves run-ins with both Widmore and Ben, pleas to most of the Oceanic Six to return to the island with him, and a death or two.
The Lowdown:
This was a bit of a lame duck of an episode in that we already know the story of Locke as Jeremy Bentham, just not much of the details. Leave us recap: Locke has to get the O6 to come back with him, except for Sun because he promised Jin that he wouldn’t bring her back. They need to see Eloise Hawking in L.A., who is the only one who can tell them how to get back onto the island. Oh, and Locke had to end up dead. And he did, until he arrived back on the island, which ABC was kind enough to spoil for us last week. Because if you think about it, we had seen Locke only up until his coffin was taken onto the plane that took the O6 back to the island.
Now of course there was never really any doubt that Locke would pull a Jesus, but still, this is Lost and anything can happen. But they didn’t waste any time letting you know that Locke was back among the living from the get go this episode. There are also a few surprises too. That crazy time travel has Locke seemingly in the present, while Jack, Hurley and Kate are back in the ’70s. Furthermore, Locke is on Hydra Island and not the main island. We haven’t heard where Sun is yet, but they dropped hints. My thinking is that she’s the one who went with Frank in the canoe, probably toward the main island.
I was expecting Locke’s quest to get the O6 back onto the island to be this mysterious, convoluted affair, with twists and turns, considering how Jack and the others made it seem before when alluding to Locke in previous episodes. Turns out, that it’s anything but. The interesting parts were peripheral to Locke, rather than because of him (except for the ending with Ben). First of all, we now know that the Tunisian spot where Ben ended up is the regular exit point for the island. Widmore knew it, which is how he meets up with Locke. We also know that the time elapsed for Locke since he ran into Widmore back in the ’50s was about four days. We know it’s Widmore who sets up Locke with the info to find the O6 and the Bentham ID.
We also learn that it’s becoming damn near impossible to tell who the bigger conniving bastard is between Widmore and Ben. They both feed Locke the same kind of bull about wanting to protect the island. Though doubtless Widmore was using him to find the way back to the island. Anyway, Locke making his house calls to the O6 are the slow parts of the episode. It’s basically, “We have to go back.” “Thanks but no thanks.” Then Locke is prepared to off himself before Ben intervenes…which is where the episode picks up dramatically. What I’m not sure on was whether or not Locke was going to kill himself because he was told that he had to die by Richard or whether he felt he had nothing else to live for, especially with the death of Helen.
A couple of final tidbits to consider are that apparently Kate and Sawyer were clearing the boulders back on Hydra Island during their captivity to create what looked to be a runway for the plane that landed there. So who was it that knew about it? Ben? Another is that it looks like Locke’s revelation about Christian to Jack is what sent him over the edge, although Jack wasn’t looking so hot even when he met up with Locke. And Ben didn’t have some grand plan about getting everyone back to the island. He very quickly put two and two together once he found out about Eloise Hawking and Jin from Locke. And hey, we got to see Waaaaaalt again. Whoopee. It would be lovely if that were the last time, but considering that he was tuned into the future on the island and his “astral projecting” or whatever it was on the island are as yet unexplained, I wouldn’t count on it. Shame about Abaddon. Did Widmore have him point Locke to the walkabout and thus get on the plane because he knew since the ’50s that Locke had to be on it? And does Widmore actually think that Locke is special, or is it just another line? Probably the latter.
The density of the mythology on this show is crazy, there’s no
doubt about that. I’ve seen all of the episodes within the last four months and
I’m damned if I can keep it all straight anymore. The causalities, actual or hypothesized, are becoming a bit much. If they do manage to wrap up every story thread they unraveled during the course of this show, they’ll deserve the Nobel for physics…or at the very least a special Emmy. Anyway, this wasn’t the big grand revelatory episode I was thinking it would be concerning Locke’s mission. But it did shed light on a few other interesting things that I wasn’t expecting.