Lost: Can’t Keep a Good Locke Down

Last week we saw how the Oceanic Six, or at least Jack, Kate, and Hurley, made it back on the Island.  Our story this week connects us with everyone on the rest of the plane, which looks like it crashed on the smaller, Hydra station island about one mile off the coast of the Island. (Query: Are they at the same time as those on the main island?)  The only important thing here is Caesar (who found a shotgun) and Ilana (the agent with Sayid) talk about how six people disappeared off of the plane but there’s a man on the beach in a suit who no one remembers being on the plane.  It’s a resurrected Locke, who remembers not how he got on the plane but how he died.

The facts were these. Locke turns the wheel and vomits in Tunisia.  Someone is remotely monitoring the location and sends a team of people to take Locke to a hospital (or at least something that is supposed to be a hospital, I’d rather take my chances in the desert).  After some hastily delivered treatment, Locke passes out right after seeing Matthew Abaddon watching him from a distance.  He awakes to see his leg in a cast and Charles Widmore sitting at his bedside.  Widmore explains that he met Locke when he was 17, which to Locke was only four days ago.  He was also the one watching the spot in the desert (or “the exit point”) for the Island.  Widmore was on the Island protecting it for three decades until he was exiled by Ben.  He suspects Ben did the same thing to Locke but is pleased to hear that Locke left to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island.  But it won’t be easy for Locke; it’s been three years since they left.  As for Widmore’s motives, he gives a cryptic comment about a coming war and how Locke must be back on the Island for when that happens.  To help Locke in his task, Widmore gives Locke a new identity–Jeremy Bentham, a phone, dossiers on the Oceanic Six, and the assistance of Mr. Abaddon.

Locke is skeptical of it all because of what Ben told him about Widmore and because he does not understand why he’s so special for the future of the Island.  Widmore points out that, unlike Ben, he’s never tried to kill him.  Locke seems convinced and heads off on his world tour.

He finds Sayid in Santo Domingo building houses.  He’s not interested and tells Locke to move on with his life.  For no reason, he goes to New York to see how Waaaaaalt is doing.  He’s fine and a lot older; he wonders about his father and Locke gives a vague answer.  He also says he’s been dreaming about Locke on the Island in a suit and people trying to hurt him.  (See above.)  At this point I wonder if the time traveling on this show is just to explain how Walt grew up so quickly in real life.  As Locke and Abaddon prepare to leave, Abaddon rains on Locke’s parade of failures, but Locke thinks he only needs to convince one person and the rest will go along.  That person is likely not Ben, who’s been watching all of this from a distance.

In Santa Rosa, Hurley thinks Locke is another one of his visions of dead people.  It’s funny in a way that makes me like Hurley as a character.  Hurley seems convinced until he sees Abaddon watching from a distance.  Hurley freaks out and heads back inside.  In the car Abaddon explains that he “helps people get to where they need to be,” just like how he told Locke he originally needed to go on his walkabout in Australia, which in turn led him to the Island.

Kate also rejects Locke and says he’s only concerned about getting back to the Island because he never loved anyone.  But oh no, Freckles, Locke did love someone and her name was Helen, or so he tells Kate.  As he leaves he wants Abaddon to explain how he can’t find Helen but he can find everyone else.  But it seems Abaddon found Helen in Santa Monica, in a cemetery to be precise, dead of a brain aneurysm.  Locke and Abaddon debate whether Helen might still be alive if Locke hadn’t left versus whether Locke really needs to die like Richard Alpert said.  As they pack up, Abaddon gets shot dead and Locke speeds away into a busy intersection.

He wakes up in a hospital.  Jack’s hospital.  It is disconcerting for Jack to see Locke and he is not receptive to Locke’s message.  Through a process of elimination, Locke realizes Christian is Jack’s father and tells Jack that his father says hello.  This is too much for Jack to hear and it is the start of the downward spiral Jack goes on where we find him attempting suicide at the end of Season Three.  (Observant viewers will see the start of Jack’s beard in this episode, suggesting maybe two weeks between this meeting with Jack and Jack seeing Locke’s obituary while flying back from Australia and attempting suicide.)

Having given up on his mission, Locke writes his suicide note to Jack and prepares to hang himself in his hotel.  Before he jumps off the table, Ben breaks the door down and talks Locke down.  Locke figures out that Ben killed Abaddon, and Ben says that Widmore was only using Locke to get back to the Island.  Ben pulls the “you’re special” card with Locke and his trump card is the fact that Jack booked a ticket from Sydney to Los Angeles that night.  Locke thinks he made a difference and comes down from the table.

They talk about how Jin is still alive and that Locke is to contact Eloise Hawking.  This sets something off in Ben, and in that excitement he strangles Locke to death.  Ben cleans up the crime scene and makes it look like a suicide.  He leaves (with Jin’s ring) and the rest of the story you know from earlier this season.

Back on the Hydra station, Locke talks with Caesar about the Dharma Initiative, and Caesar is only interested in why people vanished from the plane after a big flash of light.  There is no passenger list because the pilot (and some woman) ran off with a canoe toward the main Island.  Caesar takes Locke to a triage of injured passengers, and who is in one of the beds, ladies and gentlemen?  An unconscious Benjamin Linus!  And we know from the ancient Klingon proverb, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”  So if the Island is cold enough for polar bears then Locke’s revenge on Ben should be exciting.

Four things made this a great episode: (1) All Locke, all the time but without the preachy Locke acting stupid (e.g., the one where Boone dies), (2) Concise storytelling that moves the story forward, (3) Setting up more of the pieces in the Ben/Widmore showdown, and (4) Ben the badass–we know he’s evil (e.g., the Purge) so we shouldn’t have been surprised when he once again tried to kill Locke.

Season 5, Episode 7: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (originally aired February 25, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out The Curious Case of Jeremy Bentham by Robin Reed.

For more on Lost, click here.

Wednesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC