Posted by Mike and johnnysweeptheleg
If we had told you before last night’s Season 4 finale aired that Jeremy Bentham was dead, would you have cared? Probably not, unless you were a philosophy major in college. Now, John Locke would have been another question entirely. As it turns out, they’re the same guy — and they’re both dead. Or are they? As Lost fans, we’ve been conditioned to question just about everything we see. As such, we’ve been trying to think of reasons Locke might still be alive. Here’s what we’ve come up with:
1. Locke may have staged his own death. Why remains a question, but Bentham’s obituary seemed to indicate a suicide. Even if Locke wanted to kill himself, would the island have allowed it? It didn’t let Michael off himself, and Locke and the island seem to be on better terms.
2. Could there be more than one Locke? This Orchid orientation video — a version of which Locke just happened to watch during last night’s episode — opens up the possibility. If there can be two No. 15 rabbits, why not two (or more) Lockes?
3. Perhaps taking Locke back to the island, as Ben instructs Jack to do along with the rest of the Oceanic 6, could somehow save him. The island has displayed miraculous healing powers that have helped Locke on multiple occasions …
That’s all we’ve got for now, but we’ve got several months to come up with more theories. Now, heeeeere’s johnnysweeptheleg.
johnnysweeptheleg’s Lost In A Moment:
You think moving an entire island is difficult? Try succinctly recapping a two-hour episode of Lost. You know it’s a full episode when there isn’t enough time to explore the revelation that Charlotte has been to the island before or that we see the return of WAAAAAAALT looking about 7’1” and possibly playing center for the New York Knicks now.
Season finales are all about monumental moments. And we had our share of those. Who hasn’t been waiting to see a Sayid/Keamy knockdown, drag-out fight? Only to have it ruined by Alpert shooting Keamy in the back three times. Guess you can’t expect a fella wearing guyliner to play fair.
But Keamy’s built Ford tough, and a few shots to his bulletproof attire isn’t enough to kill him. He crashes Ben and Locke’s Orchid party, flaunting the fact that if they kill him, it will detonate loads of C4 back on the freighter. Come on. Ben plucked the wings off butterflies as a kid. This isn’t much of a deterrent, and Ben finishes the job that Alpert started. Using a knife. And I’m classier than to make my 16th O.J. reference here.
Meanwhile, a punctured gas tank causes Frank to do all he can to keep Airwolf midflight with Jack and crew. Sawyer whispers a secret to Kate and then jumps off, in order to free up some weight. But it isn’t enough, and an emergency freighter landing is in order. It’s a real hit-n-run job, though, once they hear there’s a bomb onboard. So much so that they can’t wait for Jin to join Sun on the helicopter, and as they fly away, Sun is forced to watch her husband get blow’d up with the rest of the freighter, thanks to Ben the butterfly plucker.
There still isn’t enough gas to get back to the mainland, though, so Airwolf is about to make another emergency landing — this time back on the island.
But there’s just one problem. Ben has handed Locke the keys to the kingdom. And in so doing, Locke will lead Alpert and the Others, while Ben will move the island, and then move from it. Talk about a power shift in the West. Locke brings the (Bermuda) triangle offense to a team that’s used to just watching Ben the Superstar run the show.
Ben successfully moves the island, and right before everyone’s eyes, the island disappears before they’re able to land. Crash landing is nothing new for the people aboard the helicopter, though. They hang tight on their inflatable raft, until they meet up with another boat. And guess what? It’s Not-Not Penny’s boat.
It’s another of those aforementioned monumental moments as Penny and Desmond are finally reunited. The last time Penny saw Desmond was well before he began moonlighting as a Barry Gibb tribute artist. Let’s hope she allows him to keep the beard once they move in together.
The episode is really about Jeremy Bentham, though. Who is he? Or more appropriately now that he’s lying in a coffin – who was he? He visited Future Jack. Future Kate. Even Future WAAAAAAAAALT! A very metro-looking Future Ben emerges from the shadows of the funeral parlor to tell Bearded Angry Music Listening Jack (who opts to soundtrack his angst with the Pixies’ “Gouge Away” instead of Nirvana this time) that they all have to go back to the island to make things right. Everyone, including the corpse of Jeremy Bentham, a.k.a. John Locke. Looks like Jack will once again be hopping a trans-Atlantic flight with a coffin, only to crash land on an island. Anyone else seeing the parallels going on here?
It’s about time Future Jack switches the CD in his six-disc-changer. I’m thinking Eddie Money’ s “I Wanna Go Back” is more appropriate.
Questions Answered
Why did Ben allow himself to be captured? Because he had Richard Alpert and the Guyliner brigade waiting to bail him out. Ben would have made a hell of a Boy Scout, because he is always prepared.
Other than Sun’s dad, who is the other man responsible for Jin’s death? Jack seems to think it’s him, although he thinks he’s responsible for the fates of everyone on the island. Ben seems most responsible, having killed Keamy. Perhaps that’s why Sun seems to have aligned herself with Charles Widmore.
Who put all those explosives on the freighter? Keamy. It was a good plan … in theory.
How is Locke supposed to move the island? Technically, he wasn’t supposed to move it. Ben was, because Jacob wanted him to suffer the consequence of not being allowed back on the island. But the actual means of doing it was simply turning a wheel. Somehow we were expecting more.
Why did Sawyer decide to stay on the island? He sacrificed his spot on the helicopter to save the rest of the Oceanic 6 — or, more specifically, Kate.
Does Jin really die? We still don’t know for sure. The general rule regarding Lost deaths is, if you don’t see a body, they’re not dead. And we didn’t see Jin’s body — or bits and pieces of it — after the explosion.
Why is Kate raising Aaron off the island? Because Claire didn’t make it off the island, unless you count appearing in Kate’s dreams.
Once off the island, why does Jack need to go back? Because he was never supposed to leave, and bad things happened after he left. Jack feels responsible for everyone and everything, and his guilt over leaving has been eating away at him.
Who was in the coffin during Jacks flash-forward? Jeremy Bentham, a.k.a. John Locke
New Questions To Be Asked
Jeremy Bentham is dead. Is John Locke?
What are the “bad things” that happened after the Oceanic 6 left the island?
Did Jin die in the freighter explosion?
What happened to Faraday and the others on the raft?
Where is the island now?
Is Sun really working with Widmore, and why?
When, how and why was Charlotte previously on the island?
Is Claire dead? If not, how is she communicating with Kate off the island?
Why doesn’t Claire want Aaron to go back to the island?
Where is the “safe” place that Sayid is taking Hurley?
What is Octagon Global Recruiting (octagonglobalrecruiting.com)?
Photo: Copyright 2008 ABC, Inc./Mario Perez
Sawyer must have asked Kate to do the favor she was working on when Jack caught her in “Something Nice Back Home.”
As for Aaron, I’m pretty sure the island has plans for him — which means he can’t die right now.
And, yes, that’s a microwave in the Orchid. Who wants popcorn?
What did Sawyer tell Kate to do?
Is Aaron invincible?
Is that thing in the Orchid just a big microwave oven?