Lost 507: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

[vilakins]

I know I said I wasn't going to post about Lost any more because hardly anyone reads, but dude, this is a Locke ep, and it rocked.

I knew the guy in the suit was going to be Locke, but what surprised me was that he was corporeal, a solid and very Lockey Locke. He even ate a mango later. I wonder why he's himself, and Christian Shephard seems to be incorporeal. And just how did the Island revive him, or more accurately, recreate him, given the lack of blood and internal organs, brain damage, and embalming? Is there still a Locke corpse (and a Christian one) decaying somewhere?

But still: LOCKE IS BACK!

And every time the word "special" or "important" was used about him, I laughed, thinking of astrogirl2's Locke icon: "NO! I'm specialer!". Because he is!

This is going to be a bit scattershot, but here goes.

Observations

The exit point from the Island remains fixed in Tunisia despite the Island moving.

I still don't trust Widmore, even if he seems to be helping Locke. After all, he sent Keamy to kill everyone on the Island. I liked that he chose Locke's alias for those reasons--another philosopher--and it wasn't just the writers playing around with names. Speaking of which, why doesn't Cesar pronounce his name the proper Spanish way? Surely it's not really Caesar?

So now we know why Abaddon turned up at the hospital as an orderly and told Locke to go walkabout--Widmore sent him because, yep time loop, he knew he'd eventually be on the Island and I suppose he was making sure. Time travel explains a lot on the show.

Locke has a really lovely and infectious smile which made me realise how seldom we've seen it.

Walt is still connected to the Island, having prescient dreams about Locke. He had such an large role in S1, I wouldn't mind betting he'll be back.

Hurley is painting a picture of the Sphinx, and we know there's an Egyptian connection from all the hieroglyphs, esp on the temple. Interesting.

There's a lot of religious imagery in this ep and the last one which mentioned Doubting Thomas and having faith. In this one, Ben even kneels at Locke's feet. I really hope they're not taking that one too far.

I'm very happy that Locke didn't hang himself as 1) I have issues with showing that as a solution to anything (see LoM) and 2) it just seemed wrong for Locke's character, and 3) I felt it was the wrong way for Locke to die as a "sacrifice". It looks as if Ben only decided to kill Locke when he mentioned Eloise Hawking, but it can't have been to prevent them meeting as he wanted to take the Six to her. I think selenak has a good idea: that Ben knew that suicide wasn't the death the Island needed. It still seems odd that both Alpert and Christian told Locke he had to die. Abaddon too, I think. Actually, thinking about it, I believe Ben genuinely didn't want Locke to die--until he realised that Locke would be able to get back to the Island via Hawking, and he didn't want him to. Christian did warn Locke about Ben, and he already usurped Locke's role with the Wheel, and possibly Widmore's role as leader. OTOH he told Locke he was leader of the Others before he left.

Hurley and others were seen to disappear during the flash of light, so I assume the remaining Ajira lot are in the "present". In fact they have to be--or the future--as the Losties would have found the wreckage.

Lapidus did a good job of landing the plane as it seems fairly intact and there weren't many hurt.

From the Lostpedia: Abaddon is the angel of the abyss in Revelation, and the places he and Locke visit are all saint or angel names: Santos Domingo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles. I have no idea what this means but it's interesting.

Questions

So Sayid left Ben's employment a while back and went to the Dominican Republic. I wonder how and why he ended up breaking Hurley out. I'm sure we'll get these bits filled in.

There seems to be a timing problem. When Jack tells Kate about Locke's death a while back, he was a drunk and spending his time flying hoping to get back to the Island. But when he sees Locke in hospital, he's sober and doesn't seem at all receptive. When did he do all the flying? There doesn't seem to be much time between that and Locke's death.

Who disappeared from the plane in the flash? Did Sun and Sayid, being the ones the Island wanted, (I assume Sayid did or Ilana would still have him) and are they in the same time as Hurley, Jack, and Kate? I hope so, as I would like Sun to find Jin again, and not as an old man?

If the Island has remade Locke (and it has to have physically), will he now be unaging like Alpert?

Who is the woman with Frank Lapidus (the pilot)? I'm betting Sun as they were both connected with Jin and the freighter and they've gone to look for him.

A really excellent ep, and I can't wait for more.