The War is Coming

LOST loves to make us wait for answers, and this year, it took 7 excruciating episodes for the show to answer the biggest question raised by last season’s finale: “What happened to John Locke?”

And it was worth the wait. Let’s recap…

Season 5—Episode 7: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”

This episode begins on the sidekick island. Caesar—quickly emerging as a new leader—is rifling through things when Ilana finds him and shares this disturbing news:

“We found a man who wasn’t on the plane.” And then she adds, “He was wearing a suit and standing in the water.”

For a moment, silly me, I thought she was talking about Christian Shephard. But no, this is John Locke’s episode, and sure enough, it’s Locke staring wistfully across the water at the island (his island, perhaps).

Almost in passing, Locke and Ilana talk about the outrigger canoes. Ilana tells him there were three of them, but the pilot and a woman took off in one of them. (Lapidus and Sun, I presume—instead of “I presume,” I wanted to say “methinks,” but a certain woman pointed out that I’ve used this Shakespearean word in a couple of my recent posts, and shethinks I’ve taken a liking to it. Even though she’s right, I don’t want to admit it…so methinks I will “presume” from now on.)

(Twenty-Second Timeout: So if Frank and Sun took one of the outriggers, we haven’t seen that one yet this season. But we did see the other two outriggers at the old camp (safe to assume Locke led this crew there, no?), where Sawyer, Juliet, and the others stole one of them…so, if we want to try to keep things straight, I think we can assume Sawyer’s crew has one of the outriggers, Frank and Sun have one, and other is with Locke, or maybe Caesar…)

It’s interesting to note that Caesar and Ilana seem to have immediately taken charge. Then again, what else should we expect from a “Caesar”? I still contend that Caesar is working for Widmore (but if that were true, I’d think he would know what Benjamin Linus looks like…and at the end of this episode, I’m not sure he did). When Caesar came to meet John Locke, I thought I noticed Sayid in the background. If that’s true, then I’m wondering why he’s letting these two newcomers (are they newcomers to the island, or homecomers?) take command. Sayid seems like the natural leader (well, and Locke, of course)…but then again, we still don’t know how Sayid ended up in Ilana’s custody or why he ended up getting on that plane in the first place. So I’ll hold off on any Sayid-related assumptions until those questions are answered.

Like most of this season’s episodes, this one was rife with significant conversations, starting with this one:

Ilana: Nobody remembers you being on the plane.
Locke: I don’t remember it either.
Ilana: What do you remember?
Locke: I remember a lot.
Ilana: Like why you’re dressed up so nice?
Locke: No, I don’t remember that. But I can guess.
Ilana: So what do you remember.
Locke (pauses): I remember dying.

And then we flash back (not one of the island’s time flashes, but a typical LOST-storytelling flashback) back to the moment when Locke turned that underground wheel, back—finally—to the storyline we’ve been waiting for all season.

And right away, a question is answered for us: after turning the wheel Locke ends up on his back in the Tunisian desert—in a place very similar to the place (if not the exact location) where Ben landed after turning the wheel, and in the same country where Charlotte once found the skeleton of a polar bear wearing a Dharma tag.

John sees a camera watching him, but he lies unmoving in the desert until four men come and procure him, hauling him away in their pickup. The men take him to a doctor, and just before the doctor breaks (or sets) Locke’s leg, Locke notices Abaddon standing in the background.

After Locke regains consciousness, we see someone new sitting by his side:

Widmore: It’s nice to see you again, John.
John: Do I know you?
Widmore: I met you when I was 17, now all these years later, here we are. You look exactly the same…My name is Charles Widmore.

Widmore: Tell me, John, how long has it been since we met, since you walked into our camp and talked to Richard.
John: 4 days.
Widmore: Incredible.

(Note: This conversation moved much too fast for me to capture everything, but what follows are the snippets I managed to record.)

Widmore: I was afraid Benjamin might fool you into leaving the island like he did with me.

Widmore: I was their leader.
John: The Others?
Widmore: They’re not “The Others” to me.

--Widmore claims that Ben “exiled” him.
--We learn that it’s Widmore’s camera monitoring the spot where John appeared in the desert. And Widmore refers to this location as “the exit.”

John: Ben was already gone when I left. I chose to leave.
Widmore: So you came to bring them back. Those who left?
John: No.
Widmore: I understand you’re lying to me, but there’s something you should know. Your friends who left the island have been back for 3 years, and none of them have spoken a word of truth about where they’ve been.

John: I have to bring them back.
Widmore: And I’m going to do everything in my power to help you do that.
John: Why?
Widmore: Because there’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win. (Note: So there’s a war a-coming, eh? I’ll have more to say on that later…)

Other notes on the fundamental (or so it seemed) exchange between Widmore and Locke:

Widmore gives Locke the whereabouts of the O6.
Locke: You’ve been watching them?
Widmore: I’m very invested in the future of the island.

Widmore: I wouldn’t mention that I’m involved in this. No doubt your people won’t think very much of me after listening to Benjamin Linus’ lies?
Locke: How do I know you’re not the one who’s lying.
Widmore: I haven’t tried to kill you. Can you say the same for him?
Locke: No, you’re the one who sent a freighter to the island…something—they were talking too fast—something…C4…
Widmore: I needed Linus removed so you could replace him.
John: What makes you think I’m so special?
Widmore: Because you are.

Locke: He said I would die.
Widmore: I beg your pardon?
Locke: Richard said the only way I could get them to come back would be if I died.
Widmore: I don’t know why he said that. I’m not going to let that happen. (Note: Do we believe him? My gut tells me yes, but my gut might really be telling me to go get a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It can be really tough to interpret at times…)

--Abaddon is definitely working with/for Widmore (Let me pat myself on the back for a moment—ah, it feels good to be right every now and then)
--Abaddon is going to be Locke’s driver, and once again, Locke must allow Abaddon to push him in a wheelchair


Abaddon: The whole world thinks you’re dead. There must be someone who’d be happy to see you.
Locke: Please don’t talk to me. (Note: This was an odd response, I thought.)

With Abaddon escorting him, Locke visits Sayid, Walt, Hurley, Kate, and eventually a grave where his old girlfriend, Helen, is buried. Locke asked each of them (Walt being the exception...well, and Helen too, I suppose) to come back to the island. They all said no. Adamantly. Here’s the brief overview of each exchange.

Sayid—Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sayid is building houses—or, in his words, doing “some real good.”

Sayid: You actually want me to go back?
Sayid: I’m not going back.
Sayid: For two years I was manipulated into thinking I was protecting everyone on the island. So who’s manipulating you, John? (Note: That question might be worth remembering.)

Sayid: Why do you really need to go back? Is it just because you have nowhere else to go?
Sayid: And if you change your mind, you’re welcome to come back here and do some real good.

Walt—New York City

Locke: You don’t look surprised to see me.
Walt: I’ve been having dreams about you. You’re on the island wearing a suit, and there are a lot of people around you. And they’re trying to hurt you, Mr. Locke.
Locke: Then it’s a good thing they’re just dreams.

Walt: So why’d you come to see me?
Locke: I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay.

Ah, and here we have our brief feel-good moment from tonight’s episode. I think this was our official goodbye to Walt Lloyd. I don’t think he really fits into the storyline (not to mention the fact that he no longer looks like his part in the storyline), but the show couldn’t leave him dangling like a loose end (not to be confused with the “loose end” that Ben took care of in last week’s episode). So they showed us a happy Walt—which is more than I had expected from a boy who lost his mother, then lost his father (but not until after his father revealed that he killed a couple people to help his son escape from some crazy “others” on an uncharted and magical island where monsters and polar bears exist…yeah, I’d say a smiling and seemingly well-adjusted Walt ain’t too shabby, all things considered.) And the writers did a nice job throwing in that bit about how Walt is having dreams of Locke on a beach, wearing a suit, while people want to kill him. Not only does that foreshadow the “coming war” we just learned about, but it also reminds us that Walt does have some special powers. It’s as if the show said, “Oh yeah, Walt still has unique abilities, and he always will…but it’s really not that relevant anymore….so just enjoy the fact that he’s growing up like a normal kid (somehow) and then turn your attention back to the story at hand.” And I was okay with that.

Then, as Locke prepared to leave:

Abaddon: I take it you didn’t invite him along.
Locke: He’s been through enough.
Abaddon: That’s 0 for 2, Mr. Locke. I might be mistaken, but I was under the impression that you had to bring them all back.
Locke: I only have to convince one. And the rest will follow. And I was under the impression that you were just my driver.

Oh, and if you were still picturing Walt’s smiling face and harboring those happy thoughts, go ahead and kiss those good vibes goodbye. Because as Abaddon and Locke get back in the car, we see Ben standing in the street watching them. And he isn’t smiling.

Hurley—Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute

Oh, Hurley. You never fail to make me laugh.

Hurley, not surprisingly, thinks Locke is dead. He has to ask a nurse, “Excuse me, am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair right now?” When the nurse casually responds, “Yep,” then good old Hurley freaks out. But it’s just a mini freak out, for now.

Hurley starts telling Locke that he doesn’t think any of the Oceanic 6 will want to go back. He says they have lives now. Jack’s a doctor. Sun has her kid. Kate has Aaron…and then he notices Abaddon standing across the way:

Hurley: Uh-oh, don’t look. We’re being watched.
Locke (looks): Oh, it’s fine. He’s with me. He’s okay.
Hurley: That dude is far from okay. That dude showed up saying he worked for Oceanic Air. He’s evil.

And with that, Hurley freaks out. But this time it’s a full-sized freak out. He screams for the nurse and says he doesn’t want to talk anymore, leaving Locke alone on the lawn, sitting helplessly in his wheelchair.

Abaddon didn’t have any words of encouragement for Locke, either: “That’s three visits now. You might want to step up your game, or we’re all in serious trouble.”

Kate—Los Angeles

What a strange exchange between Kate and Locke…

Kate: Have you ever been in love, John? I think about you sometimes. I think about how desperate you were to stay on that island. And I think that’s because you don’t love anybody, John.
Locke says he did love someone…talks about Helen…”it just didn’t work out.”
Kate: Why not John?
John: I was angry. I was obsessed.
Kate: Look how far you’ve come. (Note: If this comment was supposed to be sincere, it didn’t sound that way to me. It sounded like Kate was putting Locke in his place—whatever place that might be—and it just seemed, I don’t know, cold. Ruthless.)

I definitely think it’s odd that Kate was so quick to talk to Locke about being in love. It made me wonder whom Kate loves. Jack? Sawyer? That guy she killed a long time ago, the one whose airplane was in the safety deposit box? I wonder if this exchange wasn’t inserted to help reestablish the love triangle between Jack and Kate and Sawyer. The preview for next week’s episode also gave me that idea.

As they’re leaving Kate’s place, Locke confronts Abaddon about his inability to find Helen Norwood. Locke finds it hard to believe that Abaddon is truly unable to find her, and then we learn why he’s been unsuccessful…

Helen—Santa Monica, CA

Locke (reads her tombstone): What happened to her?
Abaddon: She died of a brain aneurysm. I’m very sorry, Mr. Locke.

Abaddon: Helen is where she’s supposed to be. As sad as it is, her path led her here. And your path…leads back to the island.
Locke: You make it sound like it’s inevitable.
Abaddon refers to the Locke’s death and asks if that’s inevitable…
Locke: You think I want to die? How could you think that’s a choice?
Abaddon: I’m just a driver…

Locke gets in the car, and then blood spatters the rear window behind his head.

The camera cuts to a different angle, and we see Abaddon take a slug in the chest. As Abaddon is collapsing on the back of the car, obviously dying, Locke climbs into the front seat and drives away…but he drives like a maniac (as if someone is trying to kill him, or something) and as he flies through an intersection, he gets blasted by a car.


In the next scene, Locke is back in a familiar location: yet another hospital bed. (If Locke believed in luck, I’m sure he’d swear he had the worst luck in the world.)

And just like earlier in this episode, when Locke comes to, he finds someone sitting beside him. Instead of Widmore, this time it’s Jack.

Jack: What are you doing here?
Locke: Jack, how’d you find me?
Jack: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
Locke: We have to go back.
Jack: Of course we do.
Jack: Because it’s our destiny. How many times are you going to tell me that?
Locke: Somebody is trying to kill me. They don’t want me to get back, because I’m important.
Jack: Have you ever stopped to think that maybe these delusions that you’re special aren’t real? Maybe there’s nothing important about you at all. Maybe you’re just a lonely old man who crashed on an island. That’s it. Goodbye, John.

But before Jack walks out of the hospital room:

Locke: Your father says hello…
Jack: My father is dead.
Locke: He didn’t look dead to me. (Note: This made me wonder if Christian knew this is what it would take to convince Jack.)

Locke: You have to convince the others to go back. You’re the only one who can help me. You’re supposed to help me.
Jack: We left. We were never important. You leave me alone. (Note: “We were never important”? What an odd thing for Jack to say…unless he knows it’s not true. Unless he feels like they are important, and he’s trying to deny that impulse.)

After Jack refused to go with him, in the next scene, Locke is stringing up a noose for himself.

But in his darkest hour...bursting through the door like a superhero, never fear yada yada yada, Benjamin Linus is here!

Locke is standing on a table with an electrical wire noose looped around his bald noggin, and he can only stare googly-eyed at Ben and his equally googly eyes.

Ben: What are you doing? John, please, stop!
Locke: How did you find me?
Ben: I had a man watching Sayid. I’m watching all of them. Keeping them safe. (Note: Really?)
Locke: Get away from me!
Ben: I’m trying to protect you.
Locke: Protect me? …You shot him. You killed Abaddon.
Ben: Yes, I did. (he goes on to claim that Abaddon would have killed Locke…but I don’t believe this)
Ben: He’s working for Widmore, and he’s extremely dangerous.
Locke: No, he helped me.
Ben: No, he used you. (Note: At this point, I didn’t know who to believe. I still don’t.)
Ben: You can’t do this. If anything happens to you…you have no idea how important you are. Let me help you.
Locke: There’s no helping me. I’m a failure.
Ben: No, John. You’re not.
Locke: I am! I couldn’t get any of them. I couldn’t get a single one to go back with me.
Ben: Jack booked a ticket…to Sydney tonight….whatever you said to him, it worked. If you can get Jack, you can get the rest of them…John, you can’t die. You’ve got too much work to do. And we’ve got to get you back to the island so you can do it…
Ben: Please, John. Come down… (Note: Wow, Ben seems so caring. Well, almost.)

Ben: You haven’t even been to Sun yet. Let’s start with her.
Locke: No, I promised Jin I wouldn’t bring her back.
Ben: Jin’s alive? (He looks genuinely shocked.) (Note: Does this change anything for Ben?)

Ben: Once we can get them all in the same place, I don’t know where we can go from there, but we’ll figure something out.
Locke: There’s a woman here in Los Angeles. She shouldn’t be that hard to find. Her name is Eloise Hawking.
Ben: Eloise Hawking?
Locke: Yes, Eloise Hawking. Why, you know her?
Ben: Yes, John. …and then, as if Ben only needed John to live long enough to spill Ms. Hawking’s name and whereabouts, Ben grabs the electrical wire and brutally strangles Locke. (Note: Remember when Ben shot Locke, but Locke didn’t die? Remember when Michael tried to kill himself, but “the island wasn’t done with him yet”? Well, apparently, this time, the island was okay with Locke’s demise.)

Ben strung Locke up to make it look like a suicide…and then he noticed Jin’s ring, and he pocketed it for later use.

But before he shut the door on Locke, Ben uttered these bizarre words: “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.”

(Note: I was so convinced that Ben was lying when he told Jack that he didn’t know that Locke had killed himself. But apparently, he wasn’t lying. He didn’t know that Locke killed himself because he knew that Locke hadn’t.)

The episode ends back on the sidekick island (I think I might try to coin that phrase, too). Caesar is reading something in a Dharma notebook, and John walks into the building (whatever building it is) and starts telling him a little bit about the Dharma Initiative. This conversation follows:

Locke: I spent more than 100 days on this island; I know a lot.
Caesar: So when we crashed, you were already here?
Locke: No
Caesar: When did you leave?
Locke: To be honest, the timing would confuse you.

Caesar talks about Hurley, the “really big guy with curly hair," disappearing during the flight. Caesar mentions the bright light, and says, “and that big guy was gone.” Then he asks, “So, Mr. John Locke, do you have any idea about what happened?
John: I think I might have an idea about how I came to be here.

Then Caesar refers to others who disappeared and mentions “those who got hurt.”

John, obviously, wants to see those who were hurt during the flight. So Caesar takes him to what appears to be a makeshift infirmary, and lying asleep on a cot, his arms wrapped around his chest and vivid cuts still apparent on his face, is Benjamin Linus.

Summary:

Locke:
This episode was good. But it was a mess. I can’t help but feel sorry for John Locke. He’s definitely being manipulated, by either Ben or Widmore. My guess is both. And Locke has to wonder if there might be some truth to the scathing comments from Kate (“I think about how desperate you were to stay on that island. And I think that’s because you don’t love anybody, John.”), Sayid (“Why do you really need to go back? Is it just because you have nowhere else to go?”), and Jack (“Maybe there’s nothing important about you at all. Maybe you’re just a lonely old man who crashed on an island.”). As viewers, I think we have to wonder about these statments, too.

Sure, Richard Alpert, Benjamin Linus, and Charles Widmore have all told Locke that he’s special. But is he special, or do they know he’s just gullible enough, hopeful enough, and maybe even crazy enough to do whatever they need him to do. Maybe what Desmond said last week is right after all; maybe they (we’ll leave this “they” ambiguous for now, since that’s less confusing than trying to define who the players are at this point) are playing some kind of game and they’re using our characters—Locke included—as the pieces.

Widmore:
After Locke arrives in Tunisia, Widmore offers him a brief synopsis of Island History 101, which was just great. I’ve been dying to know those things: Widmore was the leader of the hostiles/others, Ben tricked him, Ben exiled him…yada, yada…so that’s what happened!

But there’s a problem. We have no idea if any word of this is true. My suspicion: Widmore’s lying. This is just a hunch, but I think Widmore wanted control of the island, but I don’t think he ever had it. Maybe he and Ben were in a power struggle, and maybe Ben tricked him into exile. So maybe he thinks everything Ben has is rightfully his, maybe he believes Ben “took it from him” (which he said in a previous episode), but I have a feeling that’s debatable.

Ben:
So now that we know Ben killed Locke, we can assume he’s the evil one, right? Widmore is the good guy, and Ben is the bad guy. (I know at least one viewer—not me—who is trying very hard to draw clear-cut lines of right vs. wrong…) So is Ben clearly a bad guy?

My thoughts: No, not anymore than he was before. Sure, he killed Abaddon. But maybe Abaddon really is evil (as Hurley said, by the way). And yeah, he killed Locke. But Ben’s also the one who made sure Locke’s body made it back to the island. Ben was the one who met Jack at the Funeral Parlor, and he was the one who insisted that they “bring him, too.”

So even though the strangling seems pretty brutal, Ben’s motives could conceivably be decent this time. (Oh, probably not…but they could be.) When he shot Locke in his kidney hole and left him to die in the Dharma Death Pit…that was cold-blooded.

Right vs. Wrong
I mentioned the viewer, who will remain anonymous, who seems to want things to fit nicely into categories of good/evil and right/wrong. One aspect of LOST that has been fascinating to me is the ambiguous source of evil. A lot of people have died. And traced to the root, those deaths must surely stem from evil, right? Somewhere, there is a bad guy. Bad guys, probably. But that’s so open to interpretation right now. We think the survivors of Oceanic 815 are “good guys,” but that’s only because we watched their stories unfold first. Half of them killed people before coming to the island, and now, they’re all killing people. Every person on the island has adopted an “Us vs. Them” mentality, and on that island, no one preaches love or forgiveness. Instead, it’s “We were here first!” and “They took my boy!” and “This is our island!” and “You changed the rules!” and “it was a sacrifice the island demanded” and it never ends.

Ben and Widmore are certainly opposing forces. But that doesn’t mean either one of them is a “good guy.” And it’s this ambiguity, the unanswered “who is justified in all this?” question, that makes this show complex…and, well, good.

But eventually, as we have a little over a season and a half to go, we’re going to need a clear-cut “bad guy,” so to speak. Regardless of whether or not they’re “good guys,” we’ll always cheer for our Oceanic Survivors (most of them, anyway), but eventually we’ll need to know who their opposition is…and now that they’re back on the island, they’re going to need some clear objectives, too. In the past, they were focused on getting off the island. Now, Jack and friends are going to need a new mission…

Now if only there were a war to fight, or something…

“There’s a war coming, John…”
Widmore says a war is coming, but I think he’s wrong. I think the war’s already begun. The opposing forces are murky, but it certainly felt like this episode was a war for John Locke. A war between Widmore and Ben. A war between Locke’s faith and the doubts of others. A war between Locke’s belief that he’s special and his insecurities. And, just below the surface, where it has been for five seasons now, bubbling up and into view often enough, is an ongoing war between fate and free will.

Does free will exist? Does fate exist? Can one defeat the other? Does it matter? Not without stakes, and there are certainly stakes here. We don’t know what they are yet, but we will. Before this war is over, we’ll know.

May the good guys win…whoever they might be.

Notable Quotes:

1) Abaddon: I help people get to where they need to get to, John. That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore.

2) Abaddon: So that’s Michael Dawson’s son, huh? Boy’s gotten big. (Note: Ha.)

3) Locke: Jeremy Bentham?
Widmore: He was a British philosopher. Your parents had a sense of humor when they named you; why can’t I?

4) Caesar: You know him?
Locke: Yeah. He’s the man who killed me.

Prevailing Questions:

1) Do we care that Abaddon died? (Note: I didn’t, but Barbie did. I didn’t trust him, so I didn’t mind having him eliminated. But Barbie liked his character, so she was sad to see him go. I’m curious about how others felt.)

2) Ben has mentioned a couple of times now that he’s been doing everything he can to keep those on the island—and the Oceanic 6 back home—safe. Sayid just mentioned that he had been manipulated into thinking his work (presumably the murders he committed) had been done to protect his friends. So has Ben really helped keep them safe? Was that why he gave Sayid a hit-list? (My guess is no, but if the answer is yes, then why does Sayid think he’s been manipulated?)

3) Has Caesar been to the island before? What about Ilana? Why was Caesar on the flight?

4) It seemed like Ben was surprised to learn that Eloise Hawking was in L.A. If he didn’t know she was there, then does that mean that Ms. Hawking might be better-connected to Widmore? After all, Widmore gave Desmond her address…but then again, I suppose Widmore could have just had her followed. He seems to enjoy doing that.

5) How did Christian Shephard know to tell Locke to find Eloise Hawking?

6) Was Locke unconscious for a long time after the doctor fixed his leg? If not, then how did Widmore get to Tunisia so quickly? More importantly, how did Abaddon know to be there when Locke was carried to the doctor’s? (Note: I suppose they left Locke lying in the desert for awhile, so I guess that gave them some time to get there.)

7) When Ben arrived in Tunisia, he fought off a couple guys (with that handy telescopic steel baton—which is much more sinister than it sounds) who approached him with guns. At the time, I thought these were just your run-of-the-mill desert mercenaries who happened to find a stranger on their turf, but since we know that Widmore has a camera trained on that “exit,” does that mean those gun-toting men were Widmore’s guys?

Oh, there are still so many other questions, but I’ll go ahead and quit now.


—Thanks for Reading