"You Have No Idea How Important You Are" The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham Recap

"And stooping down and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he went not in. Then came Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher and saw the linen cloths as they lay and the napkin that had been about His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came first to the sepulcher, went in also; and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."

- John 20:2-10 (21st Century King James Version)

I guess at this rate, this won’t be the last time I’ll apologize for giving you guys such a late recap. Thank goodness for snow days is all I can say. As much as I hate, hate, hate snow at this point, it at least is letting me catch up on things. My recap is based on seeing it once, so I definitely missed some things, and despite the fact that I’ve seen the episode again in the meantime, I have largely left my initial reaction untouched. I’ll have more to say about my second viewing at the end. But for now, let’s finally get into it!
…..Ah, but not so fast! I just wanted to again quickly thank those of you who posted comments on previous posts. I’m thinking I might change things up a bit in the next few weeks and do a more brief, basic recap, but add some questions for discussion and some “things I noticed.” Maybe this will encourage more people to comment (and let me know that more than five of you are reading this!).

Here's one to start with: what is the war that is coming? Who are the players? What do you see as the outcome?

Okay, really this time, here we go (and as always, screencaps are courtesy of GetLostPodcastMedia.com , where you can find many, many more!)

In the opening scene, the “my condolences” man in line behind Jack at the Ajira ticket counter, whose name is Cesar, is in a building which at first I thought resembled Ms. Hawking’s desk in the Lamp Post station. This is where I thought he was until a few minutes later. Anyways, there is a variety of items on a desk, including an animal skull (a pretty strong hint about where he really was) and a Life magazine (I didn’t catch the date) with a cover story about a hydrogen test and a cover photo of a fireball. (The headline said something like “Magnificent Fireball” or something like that.)

Great Balls of Fire!

He’s looking for something as he rummages through everything he can see. He finally breaks into a file cabinet and finds papers, including at least one map of the island, and even a diagram identical to a page in Faraday’s notebook.

Here's a better shot of the map than my last post - click on it, and you can clearly see the Tempest station logo. You can also see a "C" marked, which might mean "camp." And in the bottom left corner - are those hieroglyphics?

Then he notices a gun taped underneath the desk. He rips it out and puts it along with the maps and papers in a satchel. Then someone comes to the door, and it’s the officer that was with Sayid on the plane. She comes into the office and asks what he put into his bag. He tells her it’s just a flashlight. She tells Cesar that they found someone, a man, in the water, and he’s wearing a suit. We then see them walking outside; it is night, and they are walking alongside the fuselage of an airplane!

You missed the Others Hydra island runway by thiiiiis much

We now know that they are on the island (well…sort of…) They get to the beach, where a campfire is burning. A figure is sitting in the sand wearing a dark cloak or hood. Cesar and the woman ask the person who they are, and the person removes their hood as the camera swings around: it’s John Locke! Alive! “My name is John Locke,” he tells them.

"These are not the droids you're looking for"

After the first commercial, we return to see a shot of Locke’s folded up suit and his shoes, and then the camera pans to show us Locke standing at the edge of the water. He is looking out across the ocean, and we see that he is actually looking at the island. So we now know that Ajira 316 landed on the small island where the Hydra station is located. The Hydra is where the woman found Cesar searching around. The woman comes over to Locke with breakfast – a mango. She introduces herself to him as Alana. Locke asks her if the outriggers were already there, as we see the 316 survivors around two outriggers on the beach. She says no – the pilot and “some woman” took one. Then he asks her if she has a passenger list. She tells him, “You’ll have to talk to Cesar.” Locke takes a big bite of the mango. “This is the best mango I’ve ever eaten,” he says.

Nothing like a mango to start your day after your resurrection

She then points out that she doesn’t remember seeing him on the plane. He says that he doesn’t remember being on it, either. She asks what he does remember, and he tells her that he remembers a lot. For example, “I think this suit is what they were going to bury me in. I remember dying.” At this, she gives him a strange look and just walks away.

We then flash back to the moment when John turns the frozen donkey wheel. After the flash, he wakes up in the dessert in a very similar way to when Ben turned the wheel.

One of many great shots in this episode

Except Locke’s leg has a compound fracture, and he vomits from the pain. The helpful LOST post-production crew inform us through a word on the screen that he is in Tunisia. He then notices that he is surrounded by metal poles sticking out of the ground, and at least one of them has a close-circuit-type camera mounted on the top. Wires from the poles stretch off into the distance. He yells for help at the cameras. We then see a night sky, and he is still lying on the ground, and it looks like he is starting to convulse. A group of men in a pickup truck then drive up, and it looks like they have guns. The truck almost drives over Locke, but stops right in front of him.

Another appearance of 3's amongst the numbers: 42, and 6+4+6=16

They pick him up, put him in the bed of the truck, and take off. We briefly see the truck’s license plate but I couldn’t make it out fast enough. Locke then finds himself in a hospital, and it’s no St. Rafael’s. It looks like a military hospital at a war front. Locke is yelling, “Where is this? Where are we? Do you speak English? Who are you?” A doctor forces him to swallow some pills and then calls for someone else. Suddenly, Locke looks behind the curtain surrounding his bed, and he sees Matthew Abaddon standing there!

Creepy!

The doctor puts a thick dowel of wood in his mouth, ties it to his head, pours something on his wound, and proceeds to pushes the bone in his leg back in place.

The horror...the horror...

John is in unimaginable pain, and he either passes out from the pain, or the pills begin working, and Locke is asleep.
Next we see a man standing over Locke. “John, wake up,” he says. It’s Widmore!

He's only smiling because he thinks that filthy water is McCutcheon's

He tells John that he had a specialist brought in to set his leg properly. “Nice to see you again,” he continues. Locke asks if they have met before. “I met you when I was 17,” Widmore tells him. “Now all these years later, here we are. And you look exactly the same.” Then he asks Locke, “Tell me: how long has it been for you since you first walking into our camp and spoke to Richard?” Locke replies, “Four days.” Widmore is amazed to hear this. Locke asks him about the cameras. “How did you know I’d be there?” he asks. Widmore tells him, “That’s the exit. I was afraid Ben would mislead you.” I think I missed a part of their conversation here, but Widmore does say that “I was their leader. We protected the island in peace for more than three decades. Then I was exiled by him, just as you were.” Locke protests, “No – I chose to leave.” Widmore asks him why, and then realizes: “You’ve come to bring them back.” Locke denies this, but Widmore knows he’s lying. He says, “there’s something you should know. All your friends? They’ve been back for three years, and not one of them have spoken a word of truth about where they were.” He shows Locke a copy of a newspaper from when the O6 returned. “I’ll do everything in my power to help you do that,” referring to bringing them back to the island. Locke asks him why, and Widmore says, “Because there’s a war coming, and if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.”

After another commercial, it appears that Locke is still in Tunisia, and is sitting outside on a patio with Widmore.

Tea in the Sahara...or pretty close to it

John is holding a passport for Jeremy Bentham with his picture in it. Locke questions his new identity, and Widmore tells him that Bentham was a British philosopher; “Your parents had a sense of humor when they named you, and so should I.” He gives Locke a cell phone and tells him that if he ever needs to reach him, Locke should dial 23. He also gives Locke a spy photo of Sayid, who appears to be building a house. “I’m deeply invested in the future of island, so yes, I’ve been watching them,” he tells Locke. He says he can only imagine what they think after listening to Ben’s lies. Locke then calls him on this and says, “How do I know that you’re not the one who is lying?” Widmore comes back with, “I haven’t tried to kill you. Can you say the same for Ben?” He sees that Locke still doesn’t trust him. Locke reminds him that he sent a freighter full of people who were trying to kill everyone on the island. Widmore defends himself by saying that he needed Linus removed “so it could be your time.” Locke looks doubtful and asks, “What makes me so special?” Widmore replies, “Because you are.” An SUV then pulls up. Locke tells Widmore that Richard told him he’d have to die, and that this was the only way to get them to come back to the island. Mysteriously, Widmore tells John that he doesn’t know why Richard told him that, and adds, “I’ll do everything in my power to keep that from happening.” Then the man in the SUV gets out - it’s Abaddon. Widmore says that Abaddon will take him where he needs to go. Abaddon then takes something out of the back of the SUV: a wheelchair. (Déjà vu.)

Abaddon and Locke are driving in the SUV. Abaddon says, “Anything you need Mr. Locke, just let me know. Is there anyone from your past you’d like me to look up for you?” Locke doesn’t seem to be a big fan of this idea and says, “Please don’t talk to me.” Abaddon says that the least Locke could do is tell him why they’re going to the airport. Locke tells him that they are going to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Next, we are shown a construction site. We see Sayid in a yellow t-shirt that has a Habitat for Humanity-type logo on the back, which I think said “Build Our World,” on the top of a half-constructed roof.

Hey, I was right!

He is speaking Spanish and directing other workers to get materials. He sees Locke down below in his wheelchair, and they have a conversation.

"La Escuela de isla"? Hmm...

He says, “You want me to go back? I’m not going back. For 2 years I was manipulated. So who is manipulating you?” Sayid asks who this message is coming from, and Locke says that it’s only coming from him. Sayid tells him that he spent nine months with Nadia, the best nine months of his life. Locke asks where Nadia is now, and Sayid tells him that she was murdered. Locke looks genuinely upset at hearing this. Sayid asks him, “Why do you really need to go back? Because you have no where else to go?” Locke tells Sayid that if he changes his mind, he’ll be staying in L.A. at the Westerfield Hotel. Sayid replies by saying that if Locke changes his mind, he knows where to find Sayid, in a place where he could do some real good.

We knew how this, and the other visits Locke would make, would turn out, since none of the O6 seemed particularly keen on returning to the island, even three years later. But Locke’s next visit was a bit of a surprise, since Walt is not a member of the O6. We knew that Locke had visited Walt from Walt’s visit to Hurley at Santa Rosa in the Season 4 premiere, but I was still surprised to see in this episode that he was trying to get Walt to come back. As the title card tells us, Locke travels to New York, NY to see Walt, who is attending the Fieldcroft School.

School's out...forever?

While Locke and Abaddon wait outside, Locke tells his driver to look up Helen Norwood, who he knew was living in L.A. “An old girlfriend of yours?” Abaddon asks Locke, who gives no reply. As students leave the school, Locke sees Walt appear. Abaddon notes that the “boy’s gotten big.” Walt sees Locke, who gives him a little wave and a smile, in his wheelchair across the street. Walt tells his friends to go on ahead and crosses the street to see Locke. Abaddon decides to leave them alone, which leads to speculation amongst the LOST community about a possible connection between Abaddon and Walt, which I’ll get to in a moment.

"Boy's gotten big."

Walt shakes John’s hand, and John mentions how Walt doesn’t seem to be surprised to see him. “I’ve been having dreams about you, John. You’re wearing a suit, and there are people all around you, trying to hurt you.” Locke says something like “good thing I’m here, then.” I don’t remember if Walt says that he sees John on the island in a suit, but that might have been part of their conversation. Walt asks about his father. Locke pauses for a moment, thinking of what to say (because no one wants to be the one to tell a kid that his father died), and tells him, “Last I heard, he was on a freighter near the island.” Walt finally asks, “Why’d you come to see me?” which is the opposite of what he asked Hurley at Santa Rosa: “Why didn’t any of you come to see me?” Interesting. Locke replies that he wanted to make sure he was okay. Then Walt says he has go. “Good seeing you, John.” As Walt walks away and John wheels back to the car, Abaddon says, “I assume you didn’t ask him to come with you.” Locke responds, “Boy’s been through enough.” I guess Locke somehow knew that Walt really wasn’t needed after all, again giving us a clue that it’s only the O6 that need to come back. Abaddon helpfully points out, “0 for 2, Mr. Locke. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought you were supposed to convince them to come with you.” Locke tells Abaddon, “I only need to convince one, the rest will follow.” He then adds angrily, “And maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought you were supposed to be my driver.” Touché! As Locke gets into the car, we see a shot of a crowd on the sidewalk, and through the people walking by, we see that Ben is watching them.

There has been a theory going around that Abaddon is really Walt as an adult. I personally think it’s crazy and falls under the “Oh, so since they’re both black, they must be related?” category, but here are the tenets of the theory (besides that they’re both black): Why did Abaddon suddenly have to leave them alone? Is it because he and Walt can't be in the same place at the same time, or the very fabric of time will be destroyed? Walt is special, and we’ve been told this time and time again, including this episode. So how could he be so marginalized now? Shouldn’t he have a bigger part to play? Abaddon is an important character, who as he says himself, leads John where he needs to go. He seems to have special knowledge of how things are going to, or least how they are meant to, happen. Ms. Clue in Season 2 asked Michael if Walt had ever appeared “in a place he wasn’t supposed to.” Walt appeared to Locke when he was lying in the dead Dharma pit in Season 3 and told him to “get up. You have work to do.” Abaddon was Locke’s orderly in his rehab place after Cooper pushed him out of the window, and told him to go on the walkabout. They have both been in Locke’s life at pivotal moments when he needed a little push in the right direction. So could they be the same person? Could Walt grow up to be a time-traveling Abaddon?

After a commercial, a title card says “Santa Rosa, CA.” Someone is painting a desert scene with the Spinx in the center.

Walk like an Egyption, dude

It’s Hurley, who is sitting in his usual spot outside the institution. Locke rolls up to him, and Hurley gives him a casual glance and then continues painting. “So you didn’t make it, huh? It’s cool, no biggee.” Obviously, he isn’t surprised to see him, since he thinks Locke is a ghost. “But what’s up with the wheelchair?” Locke catches on to Hurley’s confusion and says, “Hugo, I’m not dead.” Hurley replies, “Sure you’re not,” and calls out to the nurse behind him, “Am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair right now?” “Yep,” she replies. Hurley jumps up – “Dude! Dude!” Locke tells Hurley that he needs him to come back, and he seems willing to at least think about it, but then he suddenly whispers to Locke, “Don’t look now, but we’re being watched.” He sees Abaddon. Locke tells Hurley that he is his driver, and Hurley freaks.

La la la la, dude!

“That dude’s evil! I’m not going anywhere with you!” and calls for the nurse to take him back inside.
Back in the car, Abaddon starts the engine and tells John, “You may want to step up your game, Mr. Locke.” Locke is getting frustrated with all of Abaddon’s egging, and asks, “What is it that you do for Mr. Widmore, Matthew?” Abaddon kills the engine and says, “You want to talk about this now? You don’t really pretend that you don’t remember that I was an orderly in the rehabilitation center? That I told you to go on the walkabout that led you to the plane that got you on the island?” Locke says, “No, I remember.” Abaddon says, “I help people get to where they need to get to. That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore.”

The next title card says “Los Angeles, CA.” Locke is in Kate’s house, and Kate is standing by the kitchen sink, thinking. “The answer is no.”

Cold!

Locke starts to remind her what’s at stake for the people on the island if she doesn’t come back, and Kate says, “I know that the others on the island will die if I don’t go back, and the answer is no.” Cold! Kate continues. “Have you ever been in love, John? I think about you sometimes, about how desperate you were to stay on that island. And I figured it out: it’s all because you didn’t love anybody.” Cold! Locke corrects her. “That’s not true, Kate. I loved someone once. Her name was Helen.” Kate asks him what happened. Locke thinks of a way to explain, and goes with the old, “It just didn’t work out.” “Why not?” she asks. “I was angry. Obsessed.” Then Kate says, “And look how far you’ve come.” Cold!

Locke wheels back out to the car. Abaddon begins to, as always, point out that Locke lost another one, but Locke asks him, “Did you find Helen?” Abaddon says he hasn’t – she might have gotten married and changed her name, or she might have moved. Locke says, “You found everyone else, you found Sayid in the middle of nowhere, but you can’t find Helen because she moved?! You asked me if there was anyone from my past that I needed to get to. I need to get to her.”
Which takes us to the next location, Santa Monica, CA. Sadly, Locke and Abaddon are at a cemetery, standing in front of a gravestone which reads “Helen Norwood. June 30, 1957 – April 8, 2006.”

The man cannot get a break...well, except for his leg...

Poor Helen...but do we think she's really dead?

Abaddon tells John that she died of a brain aneurysm. “She loved me,” Locke says, almost to himself. But Abaddon says, “She may have, but it wouldn’t change anything. She’d still be gone. Helen is where she’s supposed to be. Her path led her here. And your path, no matter what happens, leads back to the island. “You say that as if it’s all been d--“ Locke stops, then says, “like it’s inevitable.” (It seemed like John was going to say “determined” instead of “inevitable” at first, but decided against it, as if it was too strong or crazy of a word. Nice job by the writers and Terry O’Quinn for that little nuance.) Abaddon then says something that I missed, which John replies to with, “How could you think that dying is possibly a choice?” Abaddon says, “I’m just your driver.” Abaddon walks to the trunk of the car to put Locke’s wheelchair away, and suddenly we hear a shot, and blood splatters across the rear windshield.

Gross!

Abaddon has been shot! He is shot again, which shatters the rear windshield. Locke shouts, “Matthew!” and struggles his way, casted leg and all, from the backseat into the driver’s seat. He drives off, leaving Abaddon’s apparently lifeless body behind. (I have my doubts, of course…) As Locke drives in a panic through the streets of Santa Monica, he is hit by one car, then another.

Owie!

As his car comes to a stop, we see him passed out against the door.

We come back from a commercial break to see Locke waking up in the hospital. He turns to see Jack sitting in a chair to the side of the bed. Jack, in a desperate, tired voice, greets him with a “What are you doing here?” Locke asks how Jack found him. “You were brought to my hospital. There was a car accident.” He again asks him, “What are you doing here?” Jack is not happy to see him. Of course, Locke starts in with, “We have to go back,” to which Jack smiles and shakes his head in disbelief. Locke continues: “The people we left behind need our help.” Jack is still not willing to listen. Locke points out how, of all the places they could’ve brought him to, they brought him to Jack’s hospital. “How can you not see it? It’s fate!” Jack points out that he was brought there because his car accident happened close by, and that’s it. I think Jack then asks why the accident happened. Locke tells him, “Someone is trying to kill me. They don’t want me to get back because I’m important.” Jack, taking this at face value, and, as always, ignoring everything else that happened on the island, says, “John, do you ever stop to think that these delusions that you’re special are not real? Maybe you’re just a lonely old man that crashed on an island.”

Jackface!

And with that, he starts for the door. “Goodbye, John.” But then Locke plays his wild card. “Your father says hello.” Jack stops and says, “What?!” Locke explains. “The man who told me to move the island, who told me to bring you back – he said to say hello to his son. And it wasn’t Sayid’s father, and it wasn’t Hugo’s. That leaves you. He said his name was Christian.” Jack starts tearing up. “My father is dead.” Locke counters, “Well he didn’t look dead to me.” Jack yells, “I put him in a coffin!” Locke tells Jack that he’s supposed to help him. Jack replies, “It’s over. We left. It’s done. And we were never important. Leave me alone, you leave the rest of them alone.” Jack walks out.

We then see the outside of the Westerfield Hotel.

Can you make anything from the letters that are lit/not lit?

Some of the lights in the vertical marquee-style sign are blinking out. So this is where it happens. Inside, John is sitting at a table in his sparse hotel room, writing the note that we saw last week: Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL.” He puts it in an envelope, and puts the envelope in his pocket. He takes out the phone that Widmore gave him and throws it in the trash can. He looks up and sees a rotted hole in a ceiling tile. We then see a shot of his toes as he gets up, which I found a little strange. I realized that maybe they were trying to show that he only had four toes! But they show his foot again later, and you can see that he has all five. So I’m not sure what that shot was there for. He takes a roll of extension cord out of a shopping bag and ties one end to the leg of a radiator.

"Angels Hardware"! Nice touch.

He climbs up on the table, and rips out the rest of the rotted tile from the ceiling so that he can loop the other end of the cord over a beam. He ties a noose and puts his head in.

"It's sad, so sad. It's a sad, sad situation. And it's getting more and more absurd..."

The look on his face is extremely sad (again, well done, Mr. O’Quinn.) He shuffles his feet to the edge of the table. He is about to fall, but suddenly there’s a knock at the door.

Who can it be now?

It’s Ben, who breaks the door down. “John, what are you doing? Stop,” he says. Locke asks Ben how he found him. “I’m watching Sayid. I’m watching all of them. Sayid called me.” Ben tells Locke that he’s been trying to protect him. “Protect me?” Locke asks incredulously. He then realizes. “You shot him. You killed Abaddon.” Ben admits it, but because it was “only a matter of time before he killed you,” pointing out that Abaddon worked for Widmore. “Widmore saved me,” Locke protests. Ben says, “No, he used you so he could get back to island. He’s the reason I moved the island - so you could lead. If anything happens to you…you have no idea how important you are. Let me help you.” Locke refuses. “There is no helping me. I’m a failure. I couldn’t get any of them to come back with me. I can’t lead anyone!” He has completely given up. But Ben says, “Jack booked a ticket. L.A. to Sydney, with a return trip.” We know this is true because of what Jack told Kate in the Season 3 finale about flying every weekend, hoping the plane would crash. “Whatever you said to him, it worked. And if you got Jack, you got the rest of them,” he adds. And then we hear that famous line again. “John, you’ve got too much work to do.” Ben unties the cord from the radiator. “Please, come down,” he says.

Kneel before your master

Locke comes down from the table, puts his head in his hands, and is crying. “I know we can do this,” Ben says in an effort to comfort him. Locke gets off of the table and sits in a chair. Ben tells Locke that they can go to Sun next, but Locke tells him,“I promised Jin I wouldn’t bring her back.” This stops Ben. “Jin is alive?” He seems to be processing this unexpected bit of news as he leads John to the bed. Locke continues to spill the beans. “I know where we need to go: there’s a woman here in L.A. She shouldn’t be that hard to find. Eloise Hawking.” Ben is really surprised to here this, and Locke notices. “You know her?” he asks. “Yes. I know her.” Ben then, without warning, wraps the cord around Locke’s neck and chokes him to death.

WTF?!?!

Shocking!
Why did he do it? I can think of several reasons. First and foremost, he’s evil. He was planning this all along. Or maybe he needed the information about Hawking and Jin before Locke killed himself, only to do the job himself once he got it. Or maybe he simply wanted the satisfaction of killing Locke. But another possibility is that Ben knew it had to happen this way. Maybe he knew that Locke had to be killed instead of committing suicide. Maybe when Locke told him about Jin and Hawking, this changed the way things would happen, and Ben knew it, and instead of Locke killing himself, Ben knew that he had to be killed instead. There are so many possibilities. The tell-tale sign should have been when, in the next scene, Ben leaves after cleaning and setting up the room to make it look like a suicide. Ben says, “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.” But is he being sincere, or sarcastic? Because of how the character of Ben has been developed, we just don’t know.

After the last commercial break, we see the shadow of Locke’s hanging body cast against the wall.

A shadow of his former self

Ben is cleaning up what now is a crime scene and making it look like John committed suicide. He sees Jin’s ring and “Jeremy’s” passport on a side table. He takes the ring and leaves the passport. “I’ll miss you, John,” he says. “I really will.”

In the next scene, we see the moon glowing over the island. Cesar is reading through a folder marked with the Hydra station logo in the office we saw at the start of the episode.

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Isn't that what Daniel Faraday told Desmond to tell him at Oxford when he flashed back in time?

Locke walks in and tells Cesar that the symbol belongs to an organization called the Dharma Initiative, who were conducting experiments on the island long ago. Cesar asks him how he knows this, and Locke tells him, “I spent 100 days on this island.” “So you were already here when the plane crashed?” Cesar asks. Locke says no, he left. “How long ago were you here?” he asks. Locke tells him that that’s a mystery that he can’t begin to explain. Cesar replies, “Well I have a mystery, too. On the plane, I was sitting across from a big guy with curly hair. The plane started shaking, and then there was a bright light. And then the guy was gone. Other people, too, were gone. So, Mr. John Locke, do you have an idea about what happened?” Locke says, “I think I know how I got here. Do you have a passenget list?” Cesar says no, but they do have the people who got hurt. Locke is very interested in this. Cesar takes him to a room with several people who were injured in the “crash.” Locke looks from person to person, until he stops at a man lying on his side. It’s Ben.

You killed Locke! You bastard!

Cesar asks John if he knows this man. Locke says, “He’s the man who killed me.”

LOST

Another great one. I have to admit that this wasn’t one of my favorites after watching it the first time. I loved the fast pace of the other episodes this season, and this one slowed things down, I thought. I also felt that the meetings John had with the O6 were pretty pointless (well, except for when he met with Hurley, which is always classic to see). To paraphrase something I saw on a message board, the meetings all went like this:

John: We have to go back to the island.
O6 Member: No.
John: Okay.

But when I watched it a second time (no thanks to my DVR, which mysteriously failed to record it – damn you, Ben Linus! I watched at my parents’ house), I liked it much better. I caught a lot of subtle things, and I found meaning in all of the conversations Locke had. They all revealed something about the people he was talking to, and planted a seed in their hearts and minds. Sayid’s meeting was probably the weakest – it didn’t really tell us much, other than Sayid was trying to make amends for the terrible things he had done for Ben. But maybe it is this fact that is important: if you’re making the effort to improve your karma, what better way to make amends than to help those on the island? Kate, along with being a cold-hearted, childish bitch (sorry, but she was), was really revealing that she was still struggling mightily with being away from Sawyer. I think she is with Jack because he’s there, and having a family with him and Aaron just distracts her from her feelings for Sawyer. I think that’s why she was being so brutal with John – it’s a defense mechanism. She knows that Sawyer could be alive on the island, and deep down she wants to return to see him, but she is tricking herself into believing that she is in a comfort zone. She finally has a reason not to run. Locke’s meeting with Walt revealed that Walt is still connected to the island, or at least John. I really wonder if we will see him again. There was a finality to that scene, but I really hope we see him again, especially since so much was made of Walt’s special qualities. They’ve never really paid off that storyline. The meeting with Hurley, besides being comic relief, was interesting because I thought it actually moved Hurley in the wrong direction. I think Hurley could have easily been convinced, but once he saw Abaddon, he turned away from going back. If Abaddon was in on it, then it must be bad. But I think that seeing Locke, not dead, but truly living and breathing, trumped anything else. He hadn’t seen a ghost this time, and that must have meant something to him. Locke’s meeting with Jack was what finally turned Jack. You could tell that he was already on his way to becoming a complete mess because of everything that happened, and was just holding it together. Once Locke mentioned Christian, Jack knew, despite wanting to doubt everything about John Locke, that John was right. Jack had seen his father on the island, and also at the hospital once he returned from the island, but he never told a soul. For Locke to know about his father was the last straw. It made Jack start to believe. In his life-long, core need to fix things, beyond fixing the problem of leaving the others on the island, maybe he realized that the ultimate fix was to finally make peace with his father. He couldn’t do it by bringing his father’s body back from Sydney, and he couldn’t do it at the service once he returned from the island (especially since his body was “lost” in the crash of 815). This is his chance. As Ben said about the doubting Thomas story, one way or another, everyone is convinced.

Here's a closeup of "Jeremy's" passport, which contains some of the numbers: 15, 4, and 8.

Locke was born in 1956, so this makes him 8 years younger. This also confirms that "current time" is 2008. His passport was issued in December of '07 (well, it's fake, but...).

Here’s a question I have: how does Ben returning to the island alter what the island needs? I don’t think Ben is supposed to return. We’re given clues that it’s only the Oceanic 6 that need to return, but Ben slithers his way back. Just like when Ben turned the wheel and caused it to slip off its axis, is his return to the island a mistake? Like giving the wheel a little push, will Locke have to again fix what Ben breaks on the island once and for all by killing him? Was the testing of Locke by the Others, or by Ben at least, when Locke was told that he had to kill Anthony Cooper, his father, and didn’t, really to prepare him for having to kill someone that ruined the island’s “life” – namely Ben? Was the reason Locke couldn’t kill his father because he wasn’t meant to, but he is meant to kill Ben?
On the other hand, if the island can affect people off the island, like Michael not being able to kill himself because the island wasn’t done with him yet, why couldn’t it stop Ben? Is Ben untouchable? Is he special, too? We know he’s seen the ghost of his mother on the island. He’s always made himself out to be the island’s protector by killing off the Dharma Initiative, who he felt was exploiting the island. We know he’s talked to Jacob. But we also know how devious and manipulative he is. So is this all B.S.? We know he can interact with Jacob, but has he really done what Jacob asked? Is this why only Locke heard Jacob say “Help me” – because he needed John’s help against Ben? And then Ben shoots Locke when they leave; could it be because he knew Jacob was really against him? But then why would he have brought John to the cabin in the first place? Maybe because he didn’t really think that Locke was special. He didn’t think anything would happen, and he brought John there to prove that he wasn’t special at all. He was shocked when Jacob actually responded to Locke, and even more so when Locke heard Jacob speak. He instantly saw John as a threat at that moment, and that’s when he shot him.
Does any of that make any sense?

I love this show!!!

Enjoy “LaFleur.”

Until then, Namaste, and Good Luck,