“The Life & Death of Jeremy Bentham” Recap, Analysis & Theories!
Posted in Episodes, Theories
After a rough couple of episodes, Lost is really back! The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham was an awesome episode! Really, anything with Locke, Ben, Widmore AND Abaddon is great! The episode really got me back in a positive mindset for the direction that Lost is heading.
So on that note, lets take a look at Lost, Episode 7, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”!
The First 4 Minutes: He’s ALIVE!
The episode opens on new character, Caesar (Saïd Taghmaoui). We find out that he is in a Dharma station. Have we seen this station before? It looks like it could be the medical station since there are anatomical diagrams and a skull on the desk.
A LIFE magazine on the desk from April 19, 1954 features “color pictures of hydrogen test”, the cover image captioned with “the awesome fireball”.
Caesar breaks into some file cabinets and pulls out various maps and diagrams concerning the island and time. They look like drawings and diagrams in Faraday’s notebook to me…
There is a gun secured under the desk and Caesar grabs it.
Ilana comes in. Asks if he has found anything good. He gives her a flashlight. Ilana tells him that they have found a man in a suit that was standing in the water. He wasn’t on the plane. At this point I was thinking that it was Christian Shephard. It’s revealed that John Locke is back on the Island and…. ALIVE!!!
What’s Going On?
Well, Ilanna and John will let you know.
Ilanna tells us:
- The outrigger boats don’t belong to them. There were 3 but Lapidus and another woman took one. My guess is that Sun went with good ole’ Frank, although they don’t tell us who it was that went with him.
- Ceasar has the passenger list.
- She might as well have said that Locke is crazy cause you know she’s thinking it.
John tells us:
- He likes Island mangoes.
- He doesn’t remember being on the plane.
- He thinks the suit he’s wearing is what he was to be buried in.
- He remembers dying.
A Tunesian Landing
Flashback to episode “316″, when Locke turns the wheel. John wakes up in the desert of Tunesia, just like Ben did after he turned the wheel. There’s a camera pointed in the exact location that he landed in.
Locke lays there with a broken leg until nightfall. Then we see the sneak peek scene I covered earlier – click here to watch the video of this scene and read it’s transcript.
John is taken to a hospital. He doesn’t know who anyone is or where he is. No one speaks English.
Creepy dude is back. Standing behind a curtain is Matthew Abaddon, watching Locke get his broken leg pushed back into his body. GROSS! haha
Widmore Chats
Locke wakes up from having passed out in the hospital. He’s in a hospital bed and Widmore is sitting beside him.
How did Widmore get there so fast? How long was Locke out? Better yet, why was Abaddon at the hospital?
Widmore and John have quite an information-revealing conversation.
Widmore tells us:
- Locke had a compound fracture in his leg. Widmore had a specialist work on it. Locke doesn’t know who Widmore is.
- He met John when he was 17… and Locke looks exactly the same. Because its been FOUR DAYS in Locke’s life.
- The spot in the Tunesian desert is the exit. Yeah, John, you just went on a crazy, f’ed up ride at Disney and finally got off. I’m surprized the exit wasn’t the Lost giftstore!
- Widmore was the leader of The Others for 30 years. He was exiled by Ben.
- The O6 have been back for 3 years and have lied about the Island. He convieniently has a 3 year old newspaper handy for proof.
- There’s a war coming! And the wrong side will win if Locke isn’t on the Island when the war starts.
Widmore doesn’t tell us whether he’s on the good side or bad side. Do bad people know they’re bad or do they think they’re the good guys?
The Real Jeremy Bentham
Locke looks at his fake passport provided by Widmore. He’s a Canadian Jeremy Bentham. Widmore tells him that he was a British philosopher.
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was a political radical, and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism, for the concept of animal rights,and his opposition to the idea of natural rights, with his oft-quoted statement that the idea of such rights is “nonsense upon stilts.” He also influenced the development of welfarism. He is probably best known in popular society as the originator of the concept of the panopticon.
Bentham’s position included arguments in favour of individual and economic freedom, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the end of slavery, the abolition of physical punishment (including that of children), the right to divorce, free trade, usury, and the decriminalization of homosexual acts. He also made two distinct attempts during his life to critique the death penalty. [Wikipedia]
EW’s Jeff Jensen writes about how Bentham and Locke are complete opposites in The Keys to Locke: The Curious Case of Jeremy Bentham.
Another Widmore-Locke Chat
John gets an opportunity to question Widmore:
- Widmore realizes that John Locke is the name of a philosopher.
- To reach Widmore on the phone, dial 23.
- He’s been watching the O6 because he is deeply invested in the future of the Island.
- Ben has given us a false image of Widmore and his intentions.
- He says he’s the good guy because he hasn’t tried to kill Locke.
- He sent the freighter to rid the Island of Ben to promote Locke to leader.
- The Island needs John and has for a long time.
- John Locke IS special.
- He doesn’t want Locke to die.
- Godspeed.
And so “Jeremy Bentham” begins his tour.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – Sayid Jarrah
Volunteers in yellow shirts for “Build Our World” are constructing a school. Sayid is working on the roof. He speaks Spanish, too, apparently.
Someone tells him (in Spanish) that he has a visitor. He looks over and is surprised to see Locke.
Sayid catches John up on the death of Nadia. Sayid feels manipulated by Ben and doesn’t want to go back.
New York, NY – Walt Lloyd
This scene was probably more for hype of “oh! we’re going to see Walt!” than it was for actual importance of the show.
Best line of information from Walt: “I’ve been having dreams about you. You were on an island, wearing a suit, and there were people all around you. They wanted to hurt you, John.”
Locke decides not to ask Walt to come back to the Island.
It was an awkward conversation.
Santa Rosa, California – Hugo Reyes
Hurley is painting a picture of the Sphynx.
He sees John and assumes that he’s dead.
Hurley freaks out at the sight of Abaddon.
We see a sneak peek scene with Abaddon & Locke in the car. Watch this video and read the transcript.
Los Angeles, California – Kate Austen
Kate is a real biotch. She tells John that the only reason he likes the Island is because he loves no one.
Like when has Kate ever sat down with John and asked about his life? Kate is very self-absorbed.
And even though John told Kate that everyone on the Island will die if she doesn’t return, she still won’t go.
Santa Monica, California – Helen Norwood
John’s dear Helen Norwood is dead from a brain aneurysm.
Her gravestone reads:
In memory of Helen Norwood
June 30, 1957 – April 8, 2006
I’m still wondering if Helen is really dead. Seems like a good trick to pull so John isn’t tied to anything back in “the real world”, keeping him from returning to the Island.
The Death of Matthew Abaddon
Loading John’s wheelchair into the trunk of the car at the cemetery, Abaddon is gunned down.
I was pissed. He was one of my favorite characters!
John jumps into the drivers seat and takes off!
Out of control, John runs a red light and causes a 3-car crash. Maybe this is the beginning of John’s suicidal intentions?
After the Crash – Jack Shepherd
Again, John wakes up in the hospital. This time Jack is staring at Locke in his sleep.
Jack is bitter and angry at John and isn’t really listening to anything Locke has to say.
Jack: “Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you’re special aren’t real. That maybe there is nothing special about you at all? That maybe you’re just a lonely old man that crashed on an island?”
Maybe.
Locke tells Jack that his father says hi. Jack really loses it at this point.
I think that Christian Shepherd IS alive. Since we saw Locke return to life after landing on the Island in a coffin, I’m 99.9% positive that the exact same thing happened to Christian. Jack did find his father’s empty coffin after all. Or did he find Locke’s empty coffin? Oh, the possibilities…
The Westerfield Hotel – John Locke & The Death of Jeremy Bentham
John is writing his suicide note to Jack. He throws away his cell phone. He riggs up an extention cord noose through the rafters of his hotel room. He puts the cord around his neck and has one moment of sadness come over him. Preparing to jump, theres a knock at the door. It’s Ben. He stops Locke.
Ben is watching everyone too. Just like Widmore.
Ben admits to killing Abaddon.
John is upset because he’s a failure as a leader. This was his destiny and he failed at recruiting any of them to come back to the Island.
Ben tells him he can’t die because he has too much work to do. This sounds like how Ben and Michael couldn’t die either.
At the mention of Eloise Hawking, Ben’s mind gears start turning. You can literally see the deception and planning wash over his facial expressions. Pretending to help John down, Ben strangles Locke to death with the cord meant for his suicide.
Ben stages a suicide and takes Jin’s wedding ring. He tells John he’ll miss him.
Wow. Best scene of the episode right. there.
Back on the Island
Caesar is looking at a blue folder with the Dharma Hydra Station logo on it (this is the station that Jack, Sawyer and Kate were kept in for the majority of Season 3).
John tells him that it belonged to the Dharma Initiative and that he had spent more than 100 days on the Island.
We found out that Lapidus has the passeger list.
There is a room of people that were hurt on the plane. One of them is our very own, Ben Linus.
Locke tells Caesar that Ben is the one who killed him.
