5.7 “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”
I wonder if Helen is actually buried under that tombstone. Courtesy nj.com.
I actually don’t have much to say about this episode—partly because not much happened except for, you know, death and resurrection (which we already knew about, thanks to last week’s preview) and all that stuff about an impending war, but mostly because I just don’t have the patience to pick apart Locke’s almost farcical lack of faith in himself. I mean, how bizarre is it that a man so deeply rooted in the idea that he is “special” and has a “destiny” to fulfill can simply crumble at the first sign of failure (well, technically fifth, although it would have been sixth had he gotten around to Sun)?
I suppose it doesn’t help matters that his more immediate “destiny,” according to Richard Alpert, actually was to die. But then one has to scratch one’s head about why Locke is so willing to believe what other people tell him in the first place. Think about it. Matthew Abaddon (who actually reminds me a lot of the Hatian from Heroes, except slightly chattier and, well, kind of dead now) is the one who convinced him to go on that darn Walkabout. Ben is the one who told him it was his destiny to succeed his position as leader of the Others. Alpert, of course, is the one who told him he had to die in order to bring back the others, lowercase.
(Speaking of which, are we going to get a more compelling explanation other than that his funeral served as a catalyst for that heartfelt reunion on the docks? Is it because he had to serve as Christian Shephard’s proxy on the Ajira flight, or was it just convenient that Jack happened to have the dead body of somebody he really didn’t get along with lying around in a coffin at the time, and that said body happened to be the same shoe size as his father?)
And now Charles Widmore is telling Locke that he is actually there to help, that he was once the leader of the Others, that Ben duped him out of power and sent him off the island, and that he cares very deeply about its future! (I actually got caught up in this maelstrom of dubious statements, proving that I am just as gullible as I am paranoid. Which is completely counterintuitive, but that’s just how I roll. Like an oblong. So anyway.) Then Ben has to interrupt him mid-suicide and refute everything Widmore just claimed, and tell Locke a few more times that he is indeed “special,” since he obviously forgot, in order to convince the man not to off himself. And then he turns around and does it for him. (By the way, WHO THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE WHEN WE CAN’T EVEN TRUST EITHER OF THESE DIABOLICAL MASTERMINDS?) Poor Locke. Can the guy catch a break already, or is he destined to be everyone else’s patsy?
(Also, you want to know why Locke failed in his pathetically desperate attempts to convince Jack and the rest of them to go back with him? Because he was too damn vague, that’s why. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to agree with Kate’s “you were desperate to stay on the island because you didn’t love anyone” by saying, “yes, Kate, you obviously don’t love Sawyer if you’re willing to twiddle your thumbs while he bleeds his brains out through is nose”? I mean, come on.)
And finally…
- Are Caesar and Ilana the new Jack and Kate?
- Why did Ben exile Widmore from the island?
- Who’s telling Locke more lies/less of the truth—Ben, or Widmore?
- Did Ben always intend to kill Locke himself, or was that information about Jin being alive and an Eloise Hawking namedrop what inspired him?
- Who is Ms. Hawking really working for—Ben, Widmore… or both?
- Since when did this become the Ben & Widmore show?
- Where on the !@#$% island are Sun and Sayid? And now that they’re all back (somewhere), are the white flashes actually going to stop? If so, then is everyone now stuck in Dharma time? Is that why we saw Faraday lurking around the Orchid in the season premiere?
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