5.07 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

Welcome to a belated Festivus, the aftermath of a fantastic episode. This particular holiday includes the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. Unfortunately, since I live alone, I plan on finishing this writeup and then giving myself a purple nurple. I got a lot of problems with you LOST people! And now, you're gonna hear about it. With plenty of foul language.

Previously on LOST, the opening of the show, really seemed to emphasize a couple of items for me, specifically Christian’s speech to Locke at the bottom of the well. “Eloise Hawking will tell you how to get back.” and on the topic of Locke needing to die to get the Oceanic 6 to come back, “that is why it is called sacrifice”. That right there made it inevitable that Locke was to die. But he was also destined to meet Hawking. Since he didn’t at the end of this episode, things went a bit wrong going back to the island.

Last week’s “My condolences” plane passenger is snooping through a building. To save time, let’s just refer to them as Caesar and the Hydra station, the small island next to Lost island, as we come to know the name and location later on. Caesar is behaving suspiciously, as instead of looking for supplies, whether medical or food, he is breaking into file cabinets and scouring papers. Why? He is exactly where he wants to be, and it seems more and more likely he is a Widmore employee. Especially if you consider the reference to Julius Caesar, a man that led a revolution to become leader of the Roman Empire, only to be betrayed by his friends and is assassinated at the end of rule. There seems to be some foreshadowing to Widmore’s story about his story on the island, so I have to assume Caesar is his associate. He finds maps of the main island, something that looks like a map of the magnetic portals of Earth, and a gun. He is interrupted by Ilana, the woman transporting Sayid in handcuffs last week. This feels like the Tailies all over again. Ilana reminds me a lot of Ana Lucia, and not just the similarity of the name Ilana with Ana. She is emerging as a leader, and will most likely die at the hands of Caesar. Or they fall in love like Caesar and Cleopatra did. Sigh. This stuff can be confusing. I can say at this early point in their character introduction, I wish they get bitten by spiders and get buried alive. Bring back Nikki and Paulo, as these two fockers are even more annoying. Ilana, who Caesar doesn’t trust about the discovery of a gun, proclaims that they have found a man standing in the water. First of all, this is a reference to a baptism for Locke, the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered. And why not another Christian reference, as Locke has risen from the dead, resurrected most likely in 3 days, considering the time line Hawking set up to get to the island, and this parallels the story of Jesus Christ. But Locke better realize that Christ then ascended up to heaven in 40 days after the Resurrection, so it may be Locke has a limited time to do what he has to do on the island. We quickly gather up the facts of the situation. The plane landed in one piece on the small island next to Lost island, another fantastic job by Frank, the greatest pilot in history this side of the Red Baron. Hear that Sully? You get a spot on Letterman and senile Larry King; big deal. On the other hand, Frank is becoming a regular on LOST. Several passengers disappeared from the plane, as no doubt Jack, Kate, and Hurley are time traveling, or at the very least, island traveling, as they are on the main island. This seems to be the present time, and Locke is trapped in the present. Now, I always have thought that the time of the Oceanic 815 crash is the beginning and end of the time loop I’ve been trumpeting. Well, this particular time loop is now different, with Ajira airlines. But the fact that it was SIMILAR to the Oceanic 815 characters, including some of the actual people, it created the nearly same result, a skipping record if you will, or an alternate timeline. And, it would happen again, and again, and again with the same circumstances, if we stuck the same/similar people on a plane that Eloise Hawking approved. The question here is why Locke is not time traveling, as he was earlier, but is stationary in the present instead. The island clearly has other work for him to do, much like it had people jumping in time earlier to course correct, to have Locke leave the island to fix the Ben damage.

Locke accepts a mango from Ilana. She explains that they found the boats, but there used to be 3, but the pilot and a woman took off in one. Clearly, Frank left, but who else. Kate time jumped. I don’t see Sun around anywhere, nor the stewardesses, and those were the only other women we are sure were on the plane. So, is it Sun that left with Frank? Assuming that why didn’t she jump? The major event for her on the island was that she got pregnant. But she got pregnant on the island, and not before the crash. She left the island pregnant, but no big deal. Is the island punishing her for her willingness to work with Widmore? Again, Locke was too, so is Caesar. So why didn’t Sun time jump? Does Jin have important work left to do, where a Sun jump would have interfered with it? Is this an unpredictable result? Does this mean that Jin and Sun are the new Desmond and Penny, a pair of star crossed people separated by time and space. I’m sorry, but I still don’t like Sun. Locke asks for a passenger list, trying to make sense of what is happening. “I remember dying”. What a perfectly innocent yet creepy comment to make to a perfect stranger. Um, Locke, you might want to keep a few things to yourself, until you figure out who you are beach wrecked with. A quick flashback to Locke turning the frozen donkey wheel, and he is spit out in Tunisia, the same spot as Ben and the polar bear, in the middle of the desert. While Ben came prepared with a weapon, to fight off what now seems to have been Widmore’s men back from last season, Locke is very injured, but is being recorded by a camera. Help arrives to take him to a rickety clinic. As Locke is about to be racked with pain, he sees our buddy Mr Abaddon in the background, and just before Ben passed out, I saw a woman pop up that looked a lot like Nadia, a lot, as I rewound 5 times, who married Sayid, among the doctor’s helpers. Charles Widmore is sitting by Locke’s bed. I don’t know exactly why, but this scene reminded me a lot of the young woman with time travel difficulties from Daniel’s experiments; I suppose it’s because Widmore paid the medical expenses in both cases. Locke doesn’t recognize Widmore, which is odd, since Locke saw photos and a video of him back in the Barracks from Ben, but he simply didn’t recognize him. You know, if there is a guy trying to invade the island with commandos, trying to kill everybody, I might try to get that photo memorized for future reference. I don’t care how much morphine if pumping through Locke’s body, you wake up and see the face of the devil, I fall out of bed and try to drag myself to safety. Widmore says that he met Locke when he was 17, and it struck me how young Widmore was back then. How young was he when he arrived on the island? Or did he grown up on the island. 17, and he was hunting what the Others thought were armed military personnel in the jungle. Impressive. The camera was Widmore’s as he knew it was the exit from the island. Widmore tells a story of Ben tricking him into leaving the island and knew the exit, Widmore was the Others leader for about 30 years, and Widmore didn’t understand why Locke chose to leave the island if Ben was already gone….oh, you need to bring them back. There is no getting around the fact that Widmore is a clever man. He knew right away what Locke’s mission was, right freaking away. The Oceanic 6 have been off the island for 3 years, showing again how time is much different on regular Earth vs. the island. Widmore wants to help Locke, since a war is coming. Um, I don’t know how much of these “facts” from Widmore are true. For now, I accept that Ben tricked him, he was a key Other if not leader for years, and that a war is coming. But I think it’s much more likely he was exiled. But in either case, he is not meant to return to the island.

The passport for Locke says Jeremy Bentham, generally credited as the father of utilitarianism the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons. It is thus a form of consequential meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome: put simply, the ends justify the means. What a beautiful description for Widmore and Ben for that matter, and even Locke at times, “the end justifies the means”. Aside from that, on the passport itself, and many other times this episode, whether license plates, gravestones, phones, etc, the numbers 4-8-15-16-23-42 keep popping up. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I had to look up those numbers to type them up. I think I have them ingrained into my head more than my social security number. It is currently December 2007 in the lost real earth universe. Widmore gives Locke files on the people off the island, as he has been spying on all of them. Locke finally has had enough, and finally starts to bring up Widmore sending a freighter to the island to kill everybody and a boat load of C4. Widmore says it was to eliminate Ben and that Locke is special to the island and it needs you. OK. Hold on. First of all, don’t gloss over the fact that Locke watched young Widmore break the neck of his fellow Other , one of his people. when Locke, Sawyer, Juliet had them at gun point, to protect the location of the camp. He dug up over 300 graves and planted a fake crash in the ocean. This guy is ruthless. The 2nd protocol was capture Ben alive and kill everybody, EVERYBODY else on the island. If Locke was special, why wasn’t he mentioned in the protocol, why was Keamey and others shooting at him. I call bull sh!t. I know the writers are trying very hard to make Ben good one week, bad the next. He bounces between hero and villain more often than a professional wrestler. But one thing I simply cannot accept. Widmore was never a good guy, and never will be. It’s possible Ben AND Widmore are evil, but there is no chance, NONE, that Widmore is a good guy. Sure, as Widmore said, he hasn’t tried to kill Locke yet, but this is the first real chance he’s had, and right now Locke is more valuable to him alive than dead. He needs help to the get access to the island. Locke and at some point Desmond both appear out of nowhere, and Widmore sees that he can exploit somebody/both to smuggle, oh let’s just say Caesar and maybe Ilana, onto the plane. He knows Locke is going back, and he wants to be a part of that mission, hitch a ride. Locke is special because Widmore saw him time travel, not that he knows what the island wants. Widmore just cares about going back. Locke mentions that Richard said Locke has to die. Widmore tells Locke that he doesn’t know why he said that, but he will make sure that doesn’t happen. What? If you were leader of the Others, why would you not do what Richard says. And he doesn’t know why….Widmore isn’t that stupid. I’m sorry, but Widmore is as big of a liar as Ben. Period. Matthew Abaddon is Locke’s driver. This is his fourth episode appearance on Lost. He showed up at Hurley’s nut hut after he left the island, pretending to be with Oceanic, but then asks Hurley in a menacing way, are “they” still alive on the island. He also appeared as an orderly/nurse in the hospital where Locke was rehabbing after being tossed out a window by his father. He told Locke to take a walkabout in Australia. He was also seen with Naomi, organizing her mission to arrive with Daniel, Miles, Charlotte, and Frank on Lost island. He seemed sure they would be fine, and as we have seen, these cast of misfits have connections to the island. When Abaddon brings out a wheelchair for Locke, he starts to feel the same off island anxiety. Here we go again. The guy is Superman on the island, doing amazing things. Off island, the guy is Christopher Reeve, after falling off a horse. This is going to get ugly. It’s off the Santo Domingo to meet Sayid, off the radar, building shelters as part of a charity, no doubt trying to make amends for all the murders he did at Ben’s behest. He tells the story of Nadia’s death. Sayid then pulls out his sucker punch “Why do you need to go back?”. He doesn’t give a sh!t about anybody on the island. Nice guy. Locke’s confidence is wounded. Next up for the Amazing Race is New York City, and a meeting with Walt. Yet another Lost character says that Walt has gotten big. Well, it’s been 5 years into this series, and the kid is now a teenager. If he wasn’t getting taller, he’d have progeria. Now, do not gloss over what Walt says next, about having dreams where Locke is on the island, he sees him in a suit, surrounded by people who want to hurt him. This is very, very important, since we already know the first part came true. This is apparently part of Walt’s special ability. He can see the future in his dreams. So, why did the Others let him go after kidnapping him? Did they see that he was important in future events, and needed to leave the island. And is this how Ben is always one step ahead? The Others can either see into the future while on the island, or they kidnap people who can, so they can use them. Maybe Ben can do what Walt can do? Much like Hurley, Locke can’t bring himself to tell Walt that Michael is dead. So he lies about it. This is actually interesting. Michael told Walt too much truth in how they left the island and how he shot two people. Now, nobody want to tell Walt the truth. Opposites. In the end. Locke decides not to ask Walt to come back, which may be a crime of kidnapping anyway. Locke rebukes Abaddon, and in the distance, Ben, looking very dapper, much like Jeremy Brett’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on the British television series. Which is ironic when you figure Ben has passports with an alias of Moriarty. And also interesting when you consider the name Jeremy Bentham.

Santa Rosa, and Hurley is drawing a picture of the Sphinx from Egypt, possibly a magnetic portal point on the Earth. Apparently, when people die on the island, they form a conga line and dance their way to Hurley’s part of the world. I wonder if Hurley is developing a talent like Miles has. After Locke convinces Hurley he is still alive, Hurley is not excited about going back. Then he spots Abaddon and freaks out, like he freaked out when he saw Ben and turned himself in. Hurley is a big ‘ole scaredy cat. Abaddon keeps needling Locke about his lack of success. They finally have a conversation. Yes, Locke does remember his visit in the hospital. Abaddon finally confirms what I have been saying ad nauseam for years now. “I help people get to where they need to get to.” Yes, this is what Widmore, Hawking, and Ben have been doing for many years. Richard has shown signs of it too, along with the island. Course correction. Now, we finally have people owning up to the manipulation, the puppeteers pulling the marinate strings, a real life Being John Locke Malkovich. That is what Abaddon does for Charles Widmore. On to what is becoming such an important place, Los Angeles. John Locke tells Kate that everybody on the island will die if you do not go back, and Kate emphatically says NO!!!. Huh? What a horrible person. A lot of people will die, including Sawyer, and you don’t give a sh!t. Because Locke had the guts to second guess her with “you don’t care about them?” This hussy proceeds to give Locke the 5th degree about love. “You were desperate to stay on the island because you didn’t love anybody.” Are you kidding? Kate, you were desperate to LEAVE the island because you loved Sawyer. Then you keep playing musical hop in the sack between Sawyer and Jack, playing them against each other, because you can’t decide who you love. “You don’t love anybody.“ What a pretentious comment. Holy self importance. Locke explains how he loved Helen, but lost her because he was angry and obsessed, but he failed to mention how his craved his father’s love and attention, but lost a kidney in that mission. His father tried to kill him, for fock’s sake. Kate digests the angry and obsessed comment, and punches him in the face with “Look how much you’ve changed.” And I pretty much lost it right there. Angry and obsesses. These are two very common words you can use for the hypocritical Kate. I spent a good 30 seconds yelling out “c*nt” at my television, including when I was watching this episode a second time on Saturday. Holy focking hell, what an unfeeling colostomy bag of a human being. Nobody, and I mean nobody, dislikes Locke that watches LOST. Well, maybe somebody does, I just haven’t met one. How can a guy so likable, so compelling, so unselfish be treated like this throughout this whole episode. And the people left behind. But to be so horrible to Locke, mock him like this to his face….Kate is garbage. And who is lining up to proclaim that they are a Kate fan? Now that she is on the island, the next time I see her, I want her nose to gush blood like a fire hydrant from inner city Philadelphia during a hot and humid August day. You want to know what happened to Aaron? I surmise that Kate the Kunt threw him in a dumpster. Then shook up a box of cobras, made them angry, and threw them into the same dumpster. Then nailed the dumpster shut. Then doused it gasoline. Then set it on fire and pushed it down a steeply inclined street. The street ends at the edge of a cliff. 100 feet above the ocean. Right below the cliff are hundreds of jagged rocks sticking out of the water, like a watery Iron Maiden. Kate really, really sucks. She should be chased through a Labyrinth by a bleeding AIDS patient. She…..OK. Deep breath. On the other hand, Locke was given Kate’s file to read by the Others during Season 3. He knew all about her murdering, absconding ways. Yet, he didn’t judge her. He accepted her. Kate took the low road. Locke is getting incredibly dejected at this point, and again demands to see Helen. Santa Monica, and we are at Helen’s grave site, as Peg Bundy died from a brain aneurism. Abaddon tries to explain to Locke that there was nothing he could have done, as he was inevitably going to have to follow a path to the island. An argument of destiny and inevitability is emerging. What if Locke had scored 4 touchdowns in a single game at ‘ole Polk High then went on to be a shoe salesman? Richard told Locke that he will die. Is death a choice? I mean, it’s staring to get complicated, so we have to cling to Daniel’s initial statement early in the season, what happened, happens, I guess, and it’s hard to knock that off it’s path. Some of the details can change along the way, but the key events have to happen. Right? And to make sure, there are people along the way to make sure they get to where they need to get. I suppose different factions could be trying to work in different directions in course correcting. As Abaddon is putting away Locke’s wheelchair, he takes several bullets, and is about to go back to his full time job on Fringe. If you aren’t watching Fringe this year, shame on you. Good bye Abaddon. You were a creep and an assh0le. Locke desperately drives away and becomes a public service announcement when trying to run a red light. Is he dead? Yeah, right. I don’t care how much the LOST writers keep trying to keep us guessing, but Hawking told us that Locke killed himself, and being T-boned in a car isn’t suicide. Too obvious.

Locke wakes up in a hospital bed, and Jacks sitting there, glaring at him. “John, what are you doing here?” Jack didn’t ask that. “John, how are you feeling, you almost died?” Jack didn’t ask that either. Instead, John is confused by Jack being in the room and by Jack’s unforgivable anger. We have to go back. The following is all a part of This is The Biggest Douche Moment in TV History, Jack‘s character flaws on full display, a cavalcade of awfulness….
1. (We have to go back) How many times are you going to say that?
2. It isn’t fate that you are in this hospital.
3. (Somebody is trying to kill me, I’m important.) Have you stopped to think that your delusions about being important aren’t real.
4. And that you aren’t special.
5. You’re a lonely old man that crashed on an island
6. Good bye
7. (You’re father Christian says hello) My father is dead
8. (He didn’t look dead to me, he told me what to do, you’re supposed to help me) We aren’t important. Leave us alone.

Oh, where do I begin. Kate is now the 2nd most despicable person in this episode at this point. In the future, we see Jack a bit more humble, while Kate shows zero remorse, but we have to remain in the moment. Again, I would myself yelling “c*nt” at the TV. Good Lord, Jack is an idiot. Sure, I’ve been making fun of his stupidity and lack of leadership skills for many, many years, But our facsimile of George W Bush just outdid himself. I can’t begin to follow any bit of his logic. He doesn’t want to go back. Well, you don’t have much going for you at this point, but OK. Plus the horrific stimulus bill is going to cause historic inflation, so run while you can JackAss. And buy as much gold as you can along the way. Hell, I’m trying to start up a militia in Montana as I type this out. Does Jack know how many hospitals there are in Los Angeles? Does he know how remote the odds are of Locke being brought into the same hospital as Jack? Locke isn’t important, but you watched him move two islands, dummy. Not special? He just survived a horrible car accident. He warned you about the freighter. He found the hatches. Lonely old man that crashed on island. So? He was the King of the Island. Yeah, Boone died, and the hatch blew up. But Locke was amazing. You were a schmuck. You are a man that made his father lose his medical license, got divorced, and watched your on again and off again girlfriend steal your step nephew and call Aaron as her own. And Kate Yates probably ended up drowning Aaron in a bathtub. You’re a lonely young man that crashed on the rocks of life. Your father says hello. He’s dead. Oh, bullsh!t. You’ve seen him walk around on the island, never found the body, and on a magical island you doubt that he could be alive? Do you ever believe what your eyes are telling you? Ever, you horse’s ass? We aren’t important. Well, you are all seriously flawed people who I’ve grown to despise, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t important. Hey, Jack, how about asking Locke how he got off the island. Oh, it’s all about you, isn’t it? Doesn’t matter about his health or anybody else. Me. Me. Me. Me. This is why Jack and Kate deserve to die in each others arms. They are the same person. Stupid, irrational, selfish, and unlikable. I don’t care if they are attractive people. There is something ugly inside each of them. Now, going forward, I look forward to not ripping Jack so much, as he needs to transform for the sake of the island, his family, the universe. Kate, you are in my crosshairs more than ever. The real monster of the show isn’t black smoke; it goes by the nickname of Freckles.

John Locke is finishing up writing his suicide note. I guess working in a box company trains you in beautiful penmanship. As Locke is preparing his gallows of an extension cord, a radiator, and a ceiling beam, I was reminded so much of the suicide from Shawshank Redemption. All Locke had to do was carve “Brooks Was Here” into the ceiling. The enormous question here is the mindset of John Locke. Is he killing himself as a sacrifice, a beaten physically and emotionally person, ready to die for the plight of the people on and off the island, a Christ like action. Or is he killing himself because he is too miserable to go on, missing the paradise that was the island for him, a selfish reason. And I strongly feel this difference is the key to whether Locke would have woke up back on the island or not. The sacrifice leads to Resurrection. The selfish suicide leads to death. So it was actually a good thing that Ben burst into the room at that time, at the last second. It’s possible in an alternate timeline, Ben knew when Locke killed himself based on a coroner report, so in this time line, he burst in just before it happened so he could course correct. Ben’s lies and truths start to pop out of his mouth, and we scramble to figure out which is which, and I think there were a number of truths. He’s been watching all of them, he’s been trying to protect Locke, he killed Abaddon, Widmore used you, Widmore is really evil, Locke has no idea how important he is. Locke responds with a moving, heartfelt, truthful self examination. There’s no helping me, I’m a failure, I couldn’t get any of them to come back, I can’t lead anyone. I mean that was a very nice acting job, and a great summary of the John Locke character as Locke looking at himself from the outside. Interesting and very humble. Jack apparently bought a ticket to Sydney. Ben gets on his knees, which I’ve never seen him do, except for maybe when he was a prisoner in the Swan hatch back in Season 2, and most of us didn’t trust him then, much less now. You can’t die, you have too much work to do, back on the island. Ben the negotiator is making headway in talking John off the ledge, but this is the second time that somebody directly refutes the need for John to die, in direct opposition of what Richard and Christian both said. Ben and Widmore say that Locke can’t die. Holy hell, what is going on here? But then everything changes. No, don’t skip ahead to the Hawking lines. Pay attention. Locke tells Ben that he can’t visit Sun, because he promised Jin he wouldn’t and has his wedding ring. Ben’s expression complete changes. He stops looking at Locke, and stares off into space, his mind racing at the speed of light. THIS is where the decision is made. He quickly takes off his jacket, giving his arms more flexibility and freedom to move. He helps John to a seat, and then winds the orange extension cord up. He is already plotting murder, no doubt in my mind. But he needs a bit more information. Ben, we need to see Eloise Hawking in LA. And that was that. Ben had what he needed, and choked the life out of Locke in a gripping, powerful scene. Locke went through his tribulation, his injuries, the mocking, the disbelief, only to die in the end like he was supposed to, as a sacrifice. Why did Ben do this? We can only speculate at this point. No, I don’t think it was jealousy this time. If he needed to return to the island, Locke needed to be dead, like Richard said, like Ben might know somehow, but Locke had to die the right way, with the right “faith” mindset. In a series where one, maybe THE primary focus is Science vs. Faith, that mindset is crucial in moments like that. The island asks for sacrifice; just ask Boone, Mr Eko, Michael, etc. You have to listen to it.

In what feels like the epilogue of the episode, Ben stages the murder scene, cleans it up so the boys in CSI Los Angeles have nothing to go on, and tells a swinging in the breeze Locke that he will miss him, he really will. Yeah, until they meet again. By the way, remember when last week on the Ajira plane, Jack asked Ben if he knew that Locke committed suicide. Ben looked so somber “No, I didn’t” The man has ice water in his veins. And I made a point of saying this was a lie last week. On the island with the Hydra station, Caesar continues to do research for his senior term paper. Locke walks in and tells him that he was on the island before, 100 days, which is completely untrue, since he never set foot on the smaller island. Caesar is fishing for answers, as he describes Hurley to a tee, and Hurley and several passengers disappeared from the plane. The pilot took the manifest with him as he fled. Locke is realizing what happened. Everybody else is accounted for, so no Ethan shenanigans this time. But why did Frank take the manifest, or is Caesar hiding it, like the gun. Caesar takes Locke to the sick bay, where we find Ben, or as Locke describes him, the man who killed me.

Well, I had my say about Jack and Kate, again. Ben, well, I don’t mind that he killed Locke; it had to be done. All of the Oceanic 6 annoyed me again. Charles Widmore is an ass. Caesar is a sneaky ass. I’m already annoyed with Ilana. Abaddon is dead. Walt, if you are reading this, your father’s dead, deal with it. I suppose the only character the whole episode that was fine was Locke. The rest can go pound sand. The sand in a litterbox.