"The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham" was an interesting episode of Lost. It did very little to advance the plot, but it did fill us in on Locke's journey from the Island to the casket. More than that, episode 7 gave us a lot to think about and opened up many more questions. "The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham" gave us a deep look into the characters' psyches.
My observations, analysis and question of season 5, episode 7 of Lost:
1. The biggest question brought up in this episode is who do we believe: Ben or Widmore? This question isn't new, but this is the first time we have heard Widmore's story. They could actually both be lying and they both may have purely selfish reasons for using the survivors. Ben, as we saw more than ever in this episode, is a master liar and we can't believe anything he says. We don't have any evidence of Widmore ever lying.
2. We now know that Abaddon worked for Widmore. I'd be surprised if we don't see him again.
3. Both Widmore and Ben told Locke that he was special and the Island needed him. That was in stark contrast to what Kate and Jack told him. After everyone refusing to go back to the Island with him, Kate telling him he was still angry and obsessed and Jack telling him he wasn't special, John got depressed enough to try to commit suicide.
4. It was interesting to see that Walt still had his gift. Walt told Locke that he had dreams of him on an Island in a suit surrounded by people that wanted to hurt him. This was exactly how the episode began. However, Walt doesn't seem to have any visions of what happens to his father.
5. It was nice to see that Sayid had stopped killing and was doing charitable work in Santo Domingo.
6. When Hurley saw Locke, and assumed he was a ghost, he just accepted it and was very calm. When he found out Locke was alive he got scared. Then when he saw Abaddon, he panicked and ran.
7. Locke figured out that Christian must be Jack's father. Jack wasn't buying anything Locke said until he heard Christian's name. That changed his thinking enough that he started flying overseas that night in hopes of crashing on the Island again.
8. When Ben talked Locke out of hanging himself, and Locke mentioned that Jin was alive, Ben said they should go to convince Sun to go back. Locke told Ben that he made a promise to Jin that he wouldn't do that. Ben replied, "alright, a promise is a promise". We already know what he did with that promise. Then when Locke mentioned he was supposed to find Eloise Hawking, Ben got murderous. I'm not sure if he was planning on killing Locke all along, or if he had a jealous fit because he knew that meant that Locke really was picked to be in charge.
9. On the Island - Locke is alive at the new plane crash site, surrounded by the other people that were on the plane, but nobody that he knows. The first time he crashed he got the use of his legs back; this time he rose from the dead. I would say that the Island does treat Locke as special.
10. We meet 2 new survivors from this crash, Caesar and Ilana. Ilana was the marshall that was with Sayid on the plane. Caesar found a Dharma building and stashed a gun and maps in his bag. Ilana told Locke that the pilot and a woman (had to have been Sun) went off in one of the boats. She was very wary of Locke's story that he died and was now alive again
11. Caesar told Locke that some of the people on the plane, specifically the fat, curly haired guy next to him, disappeared before the plane crashed.
12. It is interesting that in order to get the Oceanic 6 back to the Island, all these other people had to wind up here also. Will we find out that Oceanic flight 815 crashed because certain people needed to be on the Island (Christian, Jack, Claire, and I assume most of the regulars that are left) and that all of the others on the plane were just collateral damage?
13. Are Locke and the people at the crash site in the same time as Kate, Jack and Hurley? And if Sun and Lapidus went off on the boat, and Ben is with the injured, that still leaves Sayid unaccounted for.
14. Now that they are all back, will they stop time jumping?
15. What will Locke do to Ben?
Please add any other observations or questions you have from this episode. I always love to hear as many theories and people's take on Lost as I can.
Lost Season 5 Episode 9 Namaste Highlights
Lost season 5 episode 8 "LaFleur" Highlights
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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i came across this link through twitter.
LOST is amazing. There is so many ways they can go with the information given.
its too late for me to throw in my 2 cents..maybe i will tomorow.
i think ben is totally jealous of locke, especially if you remind yourself how he was with goodwin and juliet because he wanted her, and also when he had the surgery he was really grumpy he wasnt healing fast enough compared to locke.
Also I dont think kate,hurley and jack are in the same time as locke especially with jin's super clean dharma jumpsuit and van, I did have a thought that maybe jin was the only one left out of their little group and that sawyer,juliet etc died from all the time jumping and nosebleeds. but i don't really want to think of that possibility especially with the whole kate, jack, sawyer and juliet potential love square showdown. But if the time jumps do stop now they're all back and jack etc are in the past then hmmm...
Once again, hats off to you for tying up the loose ends of the various story lines.
I found this episode to be especially poignant and evoking stronger emotions than others. For example, I felt a sad sympathy for John Locke when he started to take his own life, knowing that his true love had died before he had the chance to admit to his contribution to their relationship troubles.
Another example was the pure selflessness of Locke who left Walt to live a life uncomplicated by the tangled time travel of the Island.
On a surprising note I found Widmore genuine, believable and gentle.
I agree with you about Sayid; he also seemed to be more at peace with himself, and reflective of his chance at knowing his true love.
All in all, I was moved emotionally by this episode.
Linda, Thank you for such a well written comment.
hey, thank u sweetie... i really liked the way u mentioned the most important points plus ur interpretations :D i am not an english speaker but i did understand every single word. ur writing is awesome. i always read whatever u have written.
regarding this eposide, it is very touching. i started hate Ben and the truth started to be revealed. i am so sorry 4 lock. i luv u lock i always do since i have seen u in the 1st season. i was pretty sure that he would be so special.
i wanna take revenge agaist anyone trys to hurt him lol hhh.
widmore seemed to be more believable than this bloody guy Ben.
widmore, when he was 16 and met lock, he was so caring of the island and he really loved it when he refused to tell locke about the place of thier camp.
all in all, i loved this esposide.
thank u darling .. i appreciate ur efforts
waiting ur perspective around eps.8
i am waiting u
...
once again.. don't u think that Aron and walt would be an obstcle??
the time traveling won't stop because of that.
we need to know wt is up to Aron
snother thing,
may be chritian is not working for Jacaob, may be he is working for widmore.
i got confused
i wanna the truth who is the good and who is the bad??!!
widmore might destroy the island by reaching locke
i don't know it is tooo complicated
thankx Jennifer
salam
Yes we saw Sayid making houses and probably doing good stuff... but isn't that before Sayid and Ben 'worked' together? and at the plane before they got back to the island.. i think Sayid is a prisoner or something, just like Kate on the first season...
Elizar, Sayid began working for Ben right after Nadia was killed, which was less than a year after he got back. When Locke got off the Island, the Oceanic 6 had already been off for almost 3 years.
I love your comments it has given me more to think about than i already had. How can a programme confuse so many people (us) for so many years. Well done to the writers is all i can say, i never want it to end but i need the truth!! lol
x
there are actually loads of simalaries between Iago from Shakespeare's Othello and Ben. He's soo manipulative!
Why did Ben kill Locke? My guess is that it was because of the promise Locke made to Jin about not bringing Sun back to the island. Ben knew that if they had any chance of returning to the island they had to recreate the conditions of the original crash. Sun HAD to be on the plane, and they needed a body in a coffin. Once he learned about the ring, he realised he could kill 2 birds with one stone. The fact that Ben killed him after he mentionned Ms Hawkins is probably just a trick by the writers to confuse us because I cannot imagine why that would be a problem as Ben would eventually bring all the other survivors to her place. I'm pretty sure that Ben also arranged for Sayid to be caught and transported on the plane.