Spoilers. After last week's duff firecracker, "The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham" was a far more satisfying episode, even if the only truly rapturous moments bookended the story. The meat in-between was nevertheless very enjoyable, kept on-track by a phenomenal performance from Terry O'Quinn...
Effectively the sequel to episode 5, John Locke (O'Quinn) has turned the frozen donkey wheel beneath the island's well and awakens to find himself in the Tunisian desert, being spied on by a nearby security camera. Due to his broken leg, all Locke can do is lie on the sand until help arrives from a pickup truck full of men, who take him to a nearby field hospital for painful treatment. Recovering from his leg-snapping ordeal, Locke meets the owner of the security camera at his bedside: Charles Widmore (Alan Dale). Widmore persuades Locke that Ben (Michael Emerson) is the villain in the age-old struggle for control of the island, and wants him to talk the Oceanic Six into returning to the island because "there's a war coming" and Locke needs to be on the island, lest the "wrong side" win.The majority of the episode charts the attempts by Locke (given the pseudonym Jeremy Bentham by Widmore) to persuade each of his island friends to come back with him, aided by facilitator/chauffeur Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick), the enigmatic Widmore employee who first talked Locke into boarding Flight 815. As expected, the wheelchair-bound Locke (how fitting that he's again crippled off-island), has no luck luring the Oceanic Six back...
Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is happy building a school in the Dominican Republic for a charity, having spent years working as Ben's hitman; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) takes Locke to be a hallucination at first, then panics when he spots "evil" Abaddon lurking close by; Kate (Evangeline Lilly) makes Locke consider his real motivation for returning, suspecting it's because he doesn't have anyone to love; and Jack (Matthew Fox) is totally against ever returning, even when Locke correctly deduces that island avatar Christian (John Terry) is Jack's dead father and wants his son back.What could have become a boring episode, with a parade of people all saying "no" to Locke's pleas, is given a boost by the wonderful Terry O'Quinn -- again proving he's the best actor on the show. Here is a fragile, broken, world-weary Locke -- particularly once he discovers that his soul mate, Helen, died of a brain aneurism while he was on the island and visits her grave. And, of course, the whole episode has a pervasive solemnity, as we're aware that Locke's ultimate fate is to hang himself -- assumedly as a final attempt to coerce the O6 into reconsidering their decisions. An act of suicide that Richard Alpert planted in his head as his inescapable destiny.
By far the best scene of the episode was that attempted suicide in a motel room, with Locke fastening a cord to the ceiling to hang himself, before being interrupted by Ben -- who, true to form, manages to cloud Locke's mind and make him wonder if he's become Widmore's brainwashed puppet. Interestingly, both Widmore and Ben want to unite the Oceanic Six back on the island, possibly for the same reason. After talking Locke out of suicide (by pretending the O6 have agreed to go back to the island), there's a literally killer twist when Ben (having learned Locke intends to go see Ms. Hawking) strangles Locke to death and stages his suicide. Weirdly though, I'm still not sure if Ben's actions weren't a twisted way to achieve the greater good, considering the scenes that bookend this episode...
In an initially mind-spinning teaser and intriguing epilogue, we discover that Flight 316 has crashed on the ancillary island where DHARMA's Hydra station is located (last seen in season 3.) Mysterious passengers Caesar (Said Taghmaoui) and Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) are amongst the survivors, intrigued to find a stranger in their midst -- Locke, miraculously resurrected from his coffin and staring wistfully across the ocean at the beloved main island. The Locke as Christ metaphor is now incontrovertible -- well, unless he's the Lazarus figure and there's a greater power behind his rebirth. Either way, let's see Jack try to explain this away with common-sense and science!
Generally, this episode did a solid job of smoothing a few bumps in last week's episode (although I still find the O6's return too premature and rather silly) and the decision to resurrect Locke takes Lost into the realms of pure "magic" now -- unless the writers have a particularly convincing sci-fi reason for Locke's restoration. I certainly can't think of one that can bring people back to life! Still, it was nice to see that Flight 316 physically crashed, and the characters of Caesar and Ilana clearly know more about this place than they're letting on. We catch Caesar scouring through DHARMA paperwork in the Hydra station in his first scene, when any normal person would be more concerned with calling for help or assisting the injured, surely!Interesting to note that Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) and "a woman" (Sun?) left the Hydra for the main island in canoes shortly after the crash -- and will surely be taking potshots at Sawyer's canoe, as the unseen pursuers from earlier in the season. A really lovely climax, too, with Locke finding the unconscious, battered body of Ben with other wounded survivors, identifying him as his killer.
Overall, an excellent episode and a brilliant showcase for Terry O'Quinn (a charismatic actor who grips the screen and makes everyone raise their game around him.) The only moment that was a definite dud was the weak scene with Locke meeting a teenage Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). It offered nothing beyond a vague hint that Walt still has a psychic ability (a precognitive nightmare involving Locke), and was particularly frustrating to find that Walt seems so uninterested in Locke, the island or his father's safety (whom he still thinks is alive on the offshore freighter.) I guess he's discovered girls, eh?
Questions!
- What was Caesar looking for in the Hydra office? Did he know Flight 316 would crash on the island, and was likewise trying to get back there?
- How did Rousseau and Daniel's island maps end up at the Hydra station? And who wrote the hieroglyphs on Daniel's map, and why?
- Why were there canoes on Hydra island, and who owns them?
- Why did Lapidus leave with a woman in one of the outriggers? Who was that woman? Sun, trying to reach Jin?
- Was Charles Widmore telling the truth about his past leadership of The Others, and how did Ben manage to exile Widmore? Why cant Widmore just return, as Locke and the others have done?
- Why didn't Locke try to bring Desmond back to the island?
- Why did Locke, Frank, and Ben end up with the 316's regular passengers on the Hydra island, instead of with the Oceanic 6 on the main island?
- What is "the war" that Widmore says is coming? Who is it between?
- How did Locke come back to life? The regenerative powers of the island, or something more complex? Does this mean other dead characters could come back to life? Is Christian already an example of that?
1 March 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Director: Jack Bender
Cast: Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Michael Emerson (Ben), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Said Taghmaoui (Caesar), Alan Dale (Charles Widmore), Lance Reddick (Matthew Abaddon), William Blanchette (Aaron), Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana), John Terry (Christian), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Ammar Daraiseh (Hajer), Grisel Toledo (Susie), Stephen Scibetta (Foreman) & John Jamal Bradley (Kid)
