Lost episode recap – “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” (S5E7) airdate 2/25/09

A man – the man sitting across the aisle from Hurley on flight 316 – walks into what looks like an anthropology lab. He’s looking for something and breaks into a wooden file cabinet. He finds maps and charts, and then he finds a sawed off shotgun under the desk. He stuffs the gun in his bag. “Caesar!” It’s the woman who I thought was a TSA agent escorting Sayid onto the plane. Ah – they’re on the Island: she’s come to fetch Caesar because a new man, dressed in a suit, has arrived on the beach. They go out to the beach where a number of folks are gathered. There’s wreckage from a plane, and bonfires. Caesar goes to the new man and introduces himself. The new man turns his face into the firelight: it’s John Locke.

Is this like Lost 2.0? Where are my familiar Losties?

Daytime. Locke stands on the beach – looking across the strait at the Island. Ooh! Caesar et al. did not crash on our Island, but on the little one near it (where Sawyer had his rabbit issues?). The woman who escorted Sayid introduces herself to Locke: she’s Alana. There are a couple of dugout canoes behind them on the beach. Alana tells Locke that there used to be three canoes, but the pilot and a woman took the third and took off. Locke asks for a passenger manifest and Alana says he’ll have to ask Caesar about that. She asks why Locke is wearing a suit. “[It’s] what they were going to bury me in … I remember dying.”

Flashback to Locke turning the Island’s wheel and disappearing into a flash of light. When the light fades, he’s lying in the Tunisia desert, leg still compoundly fractured (yuck), vomiting nastily. He comes to enough to notice surveillance cameras nearby and shouts for help. But he’s pretty much unable to move and, come nightfall, just lies there shaking. Then, a truck approaches quickly and a bunch of Tunisians toss him into the back and drive off.

They take him to a hospital. A doctor forces some pills down his throat. Locke looks around and Matthew Abaddon (!!!) is there (apparently on leave from Fringe). With lots of screaming and nasty noises from the patient, the doctor re-sets Locke’s leg and he passes out from the pain. When he comes to, Charles Widmore is there at his bedside. Locke doesn’t remember meeting him from the Island flash-arounds and Widmore asks him how long it’s been since Locke left the camp: four days. Widmore is impressed.

He has been looking for Locke, hence the surveillance cameras in Tunisia. Widmore says that he led the Others until Ben exiled him from the Island. Locke protests that he wasn’t exiled – he left voluntarily. Then Widmore pulls out a tabloid with an Oceanic Six story on the front page and tells Locke that the O6 have been off the Island for three years now and have not spoken a word of truth about their experiences there. Locke’s mind reels but he sticks to his mission: “I have to bring them back.” Widmore says he’ll help – “…because there’s a war coming, and if [Locke is] not back on the Island when it happens, the wrong side is going to win.”

Later, Widmore gives Locke a new Canadian passport, “Jeremy Bentham,” some money and a phone. There’s also a dossier containing information on all the O6’s whereabouts. Locke is a little suspicious of Widmore’s motivations, but Widmore insists that he’s really only trying to get rid of Ben so that Locke can take his place. An SUV arrives, driven by Abaddon, to take Locke wherever he needs to go. Locke asks if Widmore knows why Richard told him he’d have to die to bring the O6 back but Widmore professes not to know. As Locke lurches towards the car, Abaddon brings out a wheelchair for him and Locke gives the chair the stinkeye. Abaddon drives them to the airport and Locke says they’re going to Santo Domingo first.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Locke (in his wheelchair) finds Sayid there, building houses for some Habitat for Humanity-esque organization. They talk, and Sayid is outraged that Locke is asking him to return to the Island. He says that Ben manipulated him for two years after he got off the Island, thinking that he was helping the folks still stranded there; he asks who is manipulating Locke. Locke doesn’t push too much and gives him his contact information in case Sayid changes his mind.

New York, New York. Locke asks Abaddon to see if he can find Helen Norwood, formerly of Los Angeles, formerly the one woman he ever loved. A bell rings and Locke asks for help getting out of the car. They watch some kids getting out of school: there’s Walt. “He’s gotten big,” notes Abaddon. Heh - he’s like nine feet tall and 30 years old now. Locke waves and Walt comes over. He’s not surprised to see Locke as he’s been having dreams about him lately. Walt asks if there’s anything Locke needs from him but Locke says no, he just wanted to see if Walt was okay. They shake hands and Walt leaves. Bye, Walt! Abaddon gives Locke some static about his 0 for 2 record on getting Losties to go back to the Island. Locke’s like, I only need one and if I get him, the rest will come. They get back in the car and leave. And the camera pulls back to reveal Ben, standing near a subway entrance, glaring daggers at them.

WATCHMEN IS COMING!

Santa Rosa, California. Locke rolls up to Hurley, who is hanging out on the asylum lawn and who immediately assumes Locke’s dead. “Hugo, I’m not dead.” When Hurley realizes that Locke is real, he jumps up – whoa! Locke asks him to come back to the Island with him but Hurley tells him that everyone has moved on with their lives. Then he notices Abaddon leaning on the car and freaks out some more, saying that Abaddon is evil and not to be trusted. Locke tries to calm him down but Hurley runs up to an orderly and insists on being taken back to his room. Locke disgruntledly rolls back to the car for still more static from Abaddon (0 for 3). He asks Abaddon just what exactly it is that he does for Widmore that gets people so agitated. Abaddon reminds him that he was the orderly in the hospital that told Locke to go on the walkabout that got him to Australia – and then the Island – in the first place. I totally forgot that. Abaddon says that he gets people to the places they need to be – that’s what he does for Widmore.

Los Angeles. Locke is at Kate’s house and she flat-out tells him that no, she will not go back to the Island, even if it means that all the stranded Losties still there will die. Blah blah blah, have you ever been in love, John? Locke rolls back to the car, asking if Abaddon was able to find his Helen Norwood. No. But Locke thinks he’s just not trying hard enough.

Santa Monica, California. Helen is dead (brain aneurysm) and Abaddon takes Locke to her grave. There’s some talk about fate and inevitability, blah blah blah. As Abaddon loads the wheelchair into the trunk of the car, there’s a sudden gunshot and splatter of blood on the rear window. Locke lunges into the front seat of the car, leg cast hindering him somewhat, as Abaddon gets shot again and again. Locke finally takes off, leaving Abaddon’s body in the street and driving like a crazy person until he runs a red light and gets crushed in the intersection. The aftermath of the accident seems eerily familiar – didn’t he get in a car crash in his little red Beetle in S1?

Locke wakes up in a hospital. Poor guy – things sure went better for him back on the Island. Jack is sitting at his bedside: he wants to know what Locke is doing here in L.A. He’s bearded, by the way, but it’s short – so before the drinking and drugging really kicked in. Locke immediately launches into the “we need to go back/it’s fate that I’m here in your hospital.” Plus, he thinks someone is trying to kill him, to keep him from going back to the Island because he’s special to it. Jack is terribly nasty to him, telling him that he’s lonely and delusional and not special at all. As Jack gets up to leave, Locke snottily tells him that Christian said to tell him hello, right after he told Locke to move the Island. Jack freaks out: “My father died in Australia! It’s over! We were never important, you leave me alone and you leave the rest of them alone!”

Later, in a dreary hotel room, Locke writes his one-line suicide note to Jack. Using his crutches, he hobbles around the room, stringing up enough electrical cord to make a noose. He’s pretty matter-of-fact about it and I guess that he thinks he has no other choice since all his attempts to talk the O6 into returning have failed so he’s clearly not the Chosen One he thought he was. He puts the noose around his neck and is just about to hop off the table when there’s a knock on the door – and then Ben bursts in. “John – stop!”

Ben says that he’s been watching all the O6 and is here right now to protect Locke. He’s the one who shot Abaddon because Widmore is extremely dangerous. Ben reiterates that Widmore is the reason that Ben moved the Island, to protect it. He pleads with Locke, saying that he can help, Locke is important. Locke is a little sniffly and self-pities that he failed to get any of the O6 to agree to go back. Ben lies to cheer him up, saying that Jack booked a ticket to Sydney already. Locke pauses, hopeful that he wasn’t a complete failure, and Ben unties the cord from the radiator and offers Locke his hand, helping him off the table he was standing on.

Locke comes down, sobbing. Ben says they can go talk to Sun next but Locke says he promised Jin he wouldn’t bring her back. Ben is surprised that Jin is still alive and says, “A promise is a promise.” I’m betting he lifts Jin’s wedding ring off Locke’s body after he kills himself. Locke is starting to get more hopeful now, musing that they should go see Eloise Hawking (as Christian told him to do) who can help them. Ben finds this interesting and, moving quickly behind Locke, wraps the electrical cord around his neck. Locke struggles but is not match for evil little Ben: at the end of it, Ben has strangled Locke to death. Damn.

Before Ben leaves, he straightens the room, wiping it down and stringing Locke up to look like suicide – he brought gloves and everything. And yes, he takes Jin’s ring, just like I thought he would. “I’ll miss you, John. I really will,” he says before leaving and locking the door. He almost sounds sincere.

Back to the island next to the Island. Locke finds Caesar poring over some Dharma Initiative files. Caesar asks some questions about how Locke got here, and when was he here before, etc., but Locke says that the timeline would just confuse him. Caesar wants to know why some of the passengers on Flight 316 just disappeared in a flash of light when the turbulence got rough. Locke, wondering just who got on the plane, asks again for a passenger list but Frank Lapidus took it with him when he ran off. Caesar says that everyone is accounted for, however, except for the people who got hurt. Locke wants to see who got hurt.

In the infirmary there are several people lying on cots with various injuries. Locke is only interested in one of them: “He’s the man who killed me.” I hope Ben is a light sleeper!

Previously on Lost / next time on Lost