My Serious, Logical Thoughts on the Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

TITLE

Jeremy Bentham was the name of an English philosopher as is the name John Locke. This is the alias of Locke given to him by Widmore.

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE SNUGGLY

So who is the good guy here? Ben or Charles Widmore? Although Ben has lied about a lot of stuff I vote for Ben and here is why. Ben and his people know more about the island than Widmore. This is evident when Widmore admits he has no idea why Richard Alpert told John he must die. Also Widmore sent the freighter to the island to kill everyone on it. Do not be fooled by the statement of Widmore when he says he just wanted Ben. If that is all it was then why did the mercenaries kill Karl and Rousseau? And then there is the C4. I believe Ben when he says that Widmore planned to kill everyone on the island. I also believe Ben when he says that Widmore wants to use John to get back to the island. According to Ben on a previous episode, Widmore wants to turn the island into some kind of business venture to make money. He wants to charge admission for people to come to the island and be healed. For example, how much would a crippled man pay to walk again? Probably a lot. Now you start to understand why Widmore wants the island so desperately. It is all about greed.

I KNOW WHO KILLED ME

The big question that is on the mind of everybody is why Ben killed Locke. After all, he was about to commit suicide. If you wanted him dead why not just let him kill himself? It certainly would be easier. There are two possible reasons for this.

One: Ben knows that in order to get back to the island they must recreate the original Oceanic flight as much as possible. John plays an integral part in this recreation stepping in for the dead father of Jack. Now how did the father of Jack die? Well he did not hang himself. Perhaps Ben felt that if he killed Locke that that would be closer to the circumstances surrounding the death of the father of Jack than how Locke wanted to die. This would improve their chances of returning to the island which is what Ben cares about deeply.

Two: Ben kills Locke only after Locke admits to knowing about Eloise Hawking. Did that trigger something in Ben to make him want to kill Locke? Was Locke the man who knew too much?

Locke points out Ben to Caesar and tells him this is the man who killed me. Not many people can say that eh?

SO DID THEY OR DID THEY NOT?

Now that Locke has been brought back to life by the island does that mean that the father of Jack is also alive? We have seen him several times on the island dating back to season one. I have two ideas about this. Either the father of Jack has been brought back from the dead but not in physical form, or the island or monster is impersonating him. We have already seen at least one impersonization when the supposed brother of Eko admitted that he was not really him. But before that he looked and acted like the brother of Eko. Is the island impersonating Christian or is it really him? It could go either way, but as for now it seems that it really is Christian but in a ghostly form. That is why Christian could not help Locke in the cave when Locke was wounded and why Christian could appear standing next to the C4 just before it blew up and yet appear in a later episode.

Also when Locke tells Jack that his father says hello, that gets an immediate reaction from Jack who shortly thereafter buys a ticket to Sydney and right back in the hopes that the plane will crash on the island. We know this from previous episodes. One thing I did notice is that Jack stated in one episode that Locke told him some really bad things happened on the island after Jack and the rest left. But in the conversation Jack and Locke had that is not discussed. Is this a mistake by the writers or did they actually talk about it but not on camera or was there a second visit by Locke not shown? Does anyone else have a comment on that?

FATE VERSUS PROBABILITY

Jack and Locke have an awesome debate when they discuss how Locke ended up at that particular hospital. Locke says it was fate, and Jack says it was probability. We are reminded of the title of the one episode: Man of Science Man of Faith. The classic debate is shown here perhaps more overtly than ever. Later when Locke writes the note to Jack saying “I wish you had believed me” we get a better idea of what he meant. He wanted Jack to believe in fate – the idea that we all have a destiny. Helen had a destiny. Locke wanted to see Helen and is even more goaded into searching for Helen by the remarks of Kate who asks him if he had ever been in love. This is also referred to amazingly by Abbadon when he says “the path of Helen led her here” referring to the grave and that the “path of Locke will lead him back to the island”. This is extraordinary since Abbadon has never really been tagged as a man of faith. Now about the reference of Abbadon to himself being an orderly and referring the Walkabout for John which eventually led him to the island. This was not faith. Widmore encountered John in the past when John was time flashing around. Widmore knew John was destined to go to the island and just helped him get there. That was the job of Abbadon to get people where they needed to be. How he knew that sending John to a Walkabout would lead him to the island is unclear. Perhaps there will be more time flashes where Widmore finds out it was flight 815 and the date of the crash. Or perhaps Widmore knew eventually that some plane John was on would crash there.

IT IS A FAR GREATER THING THAN I HAVE EVER DONE BEFORE. A FAR BETTER RESTING PLACE I GO TO

Locke coming back from the dead is eerily similar to a movie called Star Trek III the Search for Spock. In this movie the Genesis planet is life from death as captain Kirk mentioned at the end of Star Trek II the Wrath of Kahn. Spock is literally brought back to life by the planet. In the same way the island also seems to be life from death bringing back Locke. This despite the warning of Charlotte that this place is death. Well, Charlotte it also seems that this place is life too. Locke coming back from the dead also nails home the idea that Locke has a very special relationship to the island. We have already seen that the father of Locke was somehow magically transported to the island after a car accident and of course how Locke was healed right after the plane crash. Does that mean if Locke was killed on the island he would have been brought back to life immediately? Count on it! The proof is in Mikail. Mikail has been killed at least twice in the show - once by a sonic weapon and once by a spear gun. Both times he came back. Mikail must have the same kind of special relation to the island that Locke has. Sadly not everyone has this relationship or else Boone, Shannon, Charlie, Scott, Neal, Charlotte, Danielle, Karl, Michael, Alex and others might still be alive. This idea has already been explored on the Deep Space Nine episode Battle Lines where Sisko and others land on a planet ravaged by war but where no one can die. So they keep fighting and everyone keeps dying and coming back to life over and over. That episode killed me! J

THE GHOST AND MISTER LOCKE

When we first learned of the visits by Locke to the Oceanic Six I thought they would be more ghostly. At the time we learned about the visits we did not yet know Locke would be leaving the island. But in this episode we see that the visits were actually quite normal. Notice that Locke is in a wheelchair again after being severely wounded when falling on the island after a time flash. Locke has returned to the horrible chair that once vexed him. However he handles it very well. When people ask him “what is with the chair “ we are reminded of the earlier Locke who was confined to a wheelchair. But notice on the island, in addition to being alive again, Locke no longer needs the chair and seems to walk perfectly fine. The healing power of the island is instantaneous. That is probably why Locke is not that disturbed about the chair this second time.

ODDS AND ENDS

Walt does not know that his father was killed when the freighter exploded. Locke probably knows Michael is dead or at least suspects. Now the question is will Michael appear as a ghostly figure?

Note the specialness of Walt in this episode when he says he has dreams about Locke on the island. These dreams no doubt refer to Locke in the future being on the island with the survivors of flight 316. We should take note that Walt says that these people want to harm Locke. But why would survivors of the plane crash want to harm Locke? Well, since nobody saw Locke on the plane that makes him kind of an outsider. Just who is this guy? Also Locke says some pretty strange stuff to them like “this is the man who killed me” and “I have already spent over 100 days on this island”. If they find the Others on the island they may think Locke is one of them as a spy. We saw this when Ethan Rom was a spy for the Others. Notice how Locke asks for the manifest. That is how Hurley discovered Ethan was a spy and why Locke wants it now. History almost repeats itself in this second plane crash, but the manifest is not available.

Where did the boats come from? Who do they belong to? Whoever they are they have guns. We know that the survivors of flight 316 will leave the area they are in now perhaps fleeing for their lives.

Why did Lepidus and a woman take one of the boats? Were they coerced to do it or did they do it willingly?

Note that Abbadon mentions that Walt should need to go back to the island too. In fact that is why Locke is supposedly there to convince Walt to come back. But Locke says that Walt has been through enough. So it is more than just the Oceanic six it is everyone. Apparently they can get by without Walt since they did make it back to the island.

We now know that Tunisia is the exit point for anyone leaving the island after turning the wheel. That is why the camera is there and why Ben ended up there after he left the island. When Ben did it he encountered two men who he ended up killing. Did these men work for Widmore? Ben mentions that he has been there before so does this mean Ben has turned the wheel before?

Who created the wheel room?

The ghosts seem to have visited Hurley many times. That is why he is not surprised to see Locke who he thinks is a ghost. Again are these ghostly visitations the real people or the island impersonating them?

Sayid used to work for Ben as a hitman. Sayid would kill people at the order of Ben. Ben somehow convinced Sayid it was for the defense of the island. But now Sayid has turned against Ben. What happened to turn Sayid? Why did someone murder the wife of Sayid? Ben says Widmore killed her but what possible motive would Widmore have to do this? Is it not just as plausible that Ben killed the wife of Sayid in order to recruit Sayid through lies?

What DHARMA hatch were the plane crash survivors using in this episode? Notice it still has electricity. I thought the barracks were destroyed? Any thoughts on this anybody?

Q