Lost: Season 5, Episode 7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Lost

Season 5, Episode 7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Grade: A-

Another stunning installment into the world of Lost. Since this is the first episode that I posted a youtube reaction post to it ill be much easier to write the review for since I can essentially just take from that.

This episode also followed the pattern of the previous episode with its frame story (in this case Locke being back on the island and ressurected) and than flashing back to see how we got from him leaving the island to him getting back onto the island.

This is the first episode of Lost that I have cried during in a while. Why did I cry? Simple: because John Locke makes me cry. I cannot handle how fundamentally depressing his character is to me. I just feel lonliness when I look at him sometimes.

SOMEONE GIVE TERRY O'QUINN AND MICHAEL EMERSON A FUCKING EMMY ALREADY!! Honestly its just ridiculous how continually their work is looked over on the show and this episode should win Terry O Quinn an Emmy. It just should.

Anyways, what we learned:

1. LOCKE IS ALIVE!!! He has been resurrected and is on the island. But not the main island but on the Hydra Island with new characters Caesar and Ilena. He appears as a Christ like figure with his ressurection and the hooded cloak and the awesomeness. Honestly I did not expect his resurrection to be automatic. I thought their would have to be some sort of ceremony honestly. But this way is better. Not a sign of hokiness at all as usual.

2. Locke and Widmore hung out for a bit!!! Locke's leg being reset was gross. Locke and Widmore had an interesting conversation where we learned...

3. Ben exiled Charles from the island. I believe everything that was said by Charles but I do not know if he is good. They are yanking us every which way in terms of whether or not Charles is good or bad and if Ben is good or bad. I'd like to put forth this theory: Both are bad. This is my theory and I am sticking with it. Whoever said that either of them had to be good in the first place? I'm not suggesting they are working together; they hate each other. But they are both using the Losties for their own gains and both are fucking with them. Eventually they will all learn that they have just been pawns.

4. Abbadon dies. Well that sucks. I liked him. He brought a new level of creepiness to the show. I love how cryptic he is. That came out of nowhere. And now we know that Ben killed him. Okay so my new strategy is that if anything mysterious is happening (i.e someone is trying to take Aaron away, someone kills Abbadon, etc) Ben did it.

5. We learned that Jack, Kate and Sayid are huge schmucks to Locke. Okay so while I can understand where they are all coming from given their history with him, seriously way to take someone down a few pegs unneccesarily and eventually lead to his attempted suicide. I felt so bad for him. Kate was the biggest prick of them all. Her assumptions about him were cruel and after Locke opens up about Helen to her and says he was obsessed with something else and it ruined the relationship she goes ahead and comments on how he is still the same. What a bitch.

6. Walt did not go on the plane because Locke never asked him too. This makes perfect sense. Why put him through more? Will Walt be the only character on this show to walk away with a chance at a normal life?

7.Helen is dead. Is she really though? If a plane crash can be fakes surely one death can. Charles does not want Locke to be given a purpose on the island so to make sure all ties have been cut between Locke and off-island they lie and say Helen died. Now she could very well be dead. But I don't know. She could be dead of a brain aneurysm just like Abbadon said. She could be dead but not of a brain aneurysm or she might not be dead. I do not know if this will be answered or not or if it is just to be assumed she is but I found it a little fishy.

8. Locke intended to commit suicide not to get back to the island, but simply to end his life. So this disturbed me so greatly I cannot even explain how much this effected me. I cannot handle John Locke as a character. I just can't And this is why. By the end of the episode he considers himself to be a failure and he sees himself the way everyone else sees him and wants to end his life... as he sobs...and as I sob.

9. Ben killed Locke. In the best scene of the season thus far Ben comes in at the last second and manages to stop Locke from killing himself but afterwards gets a little info from him and then kills Locke himself. I saw this coming half way through the scene but holy crap that did not make it any less effective. Seriously...show this scene and I guarentee an Emmy for either Michael Emerson or Terry O' Quinn.

10. Hurley, Sun, Jack, Kate and Sayid vanished before the plane crashed. WTF? I have no theories on this.

11. Ben is on the Hydra Island and is injured and he is where Locke is.

Questions:

1. Do Caesar and Ilana not trust each other?

2. What of the war that Widmore says is coming?

3. Is Widmore or Ben evil? Or both as my theory suggests?

4. WHy did Ben exile Widmore from the island?

5. Clearly both Widmore and Ben want everyone back on the island but why? Do they have different reasons or the same reason but they want to use that same reason for their own gains or what?

6. Obviously the dream Walt had will come true but what will it entail?

7. Is Helen really dead?

8. Why did Ben kill Locke?

Other Observations/Thoughts:

-The scene between Locke and Walt was very satisfying to see since it harks back to the important relationship between Locke and Walt going back to Season 1. It was rewarding to see them speak again, to know that Locke cared enough about Walt not to drag him back into everything again and that Locke was the only one that visited Walt.

- As I said the scene between Locke and Ben was the best of the season so far.

- Locke sobbing = me sobbing.

- Overall this was an incredible character study on John Locke, one that reminds us how incredibly constructed his character is and how remarkably performed it is by Terry O' Quinn. This was a disturbing and heart breaking episode that showed us a lot of things we already knew but gave us some new information and questions to ponder over and also gave us a really incredible psychological insight into Locke that we have not gotten in a while.