LOST - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

So...do we want to lay odds on who the real bad guy is? Widmore says it's Ben, Ben says it's Widmore. Sayid says Ben's a baddie, Hurley claims Matthew Abbadon, one of Widmore's minions, is evil.

I'm pretty sure they're both nasty pieces of work.

Poor Locke, caught in a power struggle between the two!

Looks like the Marshall Ilana and condolence guy Caesar are going to the integral characters in upcoming episodes. Walt told Locke he dreamt about him on the island wearing a suit with people around him. "They wanted to hurt you, John," he warns.

That's exactly how last night's episode opened: Ilana approaches Caesar who is rummaging through a Dharma station. He thrusts something into a bag, but when Ilana asks him about it, he lies. Hmm...wonder who Caesar's aligned with? Ben or Widmore?

Ilana takes him to see Locke. No-one remembers him being on the plane. This is because he was in a coffin in the cargo hold. Ilana asks Locke if he remembers why he is so dressed up--or anything for that matter. "I remember dying," Locke replies.

(Interesting aside about the boats: Ilana tells Locke that Lapidus and some woman took one of them. That would mean that it was Lapidus and that said woman who were shooting at Sawyer, Juliet and (mind-trip!) Locke when they were heading to the Orchid. But who was the woman? The flight attendant? I could understand if it were Ilana the Marshall seeking the missing Sayid...)

Then we get the familiar flashback: Locke turning the donkey wheel, Christian telling him to say hello to his son, Locke waking up flat on his back in the desert.

Yup, Tunisia. Location of wayward polar bears, anthropological explorers and lying Linuses. Apparently Tunisia is "the exit." At least that's how Charles Widmore explains it to Locke. Widmore remembers meeting Locke over 50 years ago when he was 17. He's pretty tripped out that the length of time between their meeting has been only 4 days for John.

As most of us suspected, Widmore was the former leader of the Others and Ben exiled him. He tells Locke that he (John) is special and needs to get back to the island. "There's a war coming, John--and if you're not back there when that happens, the wrong side will win."

It was Widmore who created the Jeremy Bentham identity for Locke. Apparently Widmore shares the LOST writers penchant for using philosopher names. He gives Locke files on the Oceanic Six, the name of Eloise Hawking and sets him up with Matthew Abbadon as his driver/escort.

The first stop is Sayid who is working in Santo Domingo for Habitat for Humanity. Was the carpentry work symbolically significant--or just a way to demonstrate Sayid's attempt to atone for the two years he spent working for Ben? Maybe a bit of both...

Sayid's a no-go so Locke moves on. He tells Abbadon to find Helen Norwood for him. But before tracking down more of the O6, he stops off to say hi to Walt. "Boy's gotten big," Abbadon says. Yup, tall "non-ghost" Walt. Funny that Locke lies about Michael when Walt asks about his father. Later Hurley will repeat the same lie when Walt comes to visit him.

Speaking of Hurley, Santa Rosa is the next stop on Locke's list. Hurley is completely unsurprised to see Locke in a wheelchair. Having been visited by Charlie and Mr. Eko (and later, Ana Lucia), Hurley assumes Locke is yet another ghost. Locke tells him that he's not dead and Hurley asks a nurse, "Excuse me, am I talking to a dude in a wheelchair right now?" When she confirms that Locke is indeed real, Hurley freaks out.

He really loses it when he spies Abbadon, who visited him when he first came back to Santa Rosa, waiting by the car. Locke tries to persuade him that Abbadon is okay, but Hurley demands to go back into the hospital. And to be fair, Abbadon IS kind of menacing looking.

Abbadon is more than a little dismayed at Locke's lack of progress in convinving the O6 to return. "You may want to step up your game," he tell John. Locke asks him what exactly is it he does for Mr. Widmore. Abbadon reminds him that he was the orderly in the hospital who convinced him to go on the walkabout which led him to be on Oceanic 815 when it crashed on the island. "I help people get to where they need to get to, John. That's what I do for Mr. Widmore."

Locke has no luck convincing Kate, either. She asks him if he's ever been in love, theorizing that Locke is so obsessed with the island because he didn't love anybody. Locke told her he was in love once. "What happened?" Kate asks. "I was angry. I was obsessed," John replies. "And look how far you've come..." Kate muses ironically.

Locke presses Abbadon to find Helen and Abbadon takes him to a cemetery in Santa Monica. Poor Katey Sagal. Her character died of a brain aneurysm so no more appearances on LOST! (Katey delivered one of my all-time favorite lines on LOST when she told Locke she had a thing for bald guys and a peeved Locke replies that he's not bald. "I can wait," Helen demurely answers.)

As they are leaving the cemetery, someone shoots Abbadon. Locke jumps into the driver's seat and races off, ending up in a major car accident which sends him to the hospital. When he regains consciousness, he finds Jack sitting at his bedside.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asks Locke, the old antagonism between the two rearing its ugly head. Locke babbles about destiny and going back to the island. Reaching his limit, Jack lashes out saying, "Maybe you're just a lonely old man who crashed on an island." "Your father says Hello," Locke responds.

He tells Jack that a man named Christian was the one who told him to move the island and that he needed to bring the O6 back. This completely unhinged Jack who storms out.

This puts Locke at the end of his end--literally. He writes a suicide note and prepares to hang himself. Right before he's about to step off, there's a knock on the door and Ben's voice calling his name. Locke asks how he found him. "I have a man watching Sayid. I'm watching all of them. I'm keeping them safe," Ben explains.

Locke accuses Ben of killing Abbadon and Ben admits, "Yes. Yes, I did." He reminds Locke that he was keeping Widmore away from the island so that John could lead. "John, you have no idea how important you are," he pleads. He tells Locke that what he said to Jack affected him--that he booked a ticket to Sydney. He gets down on his knees and beseeches, "You can't die--you've got too much work to do!" (Which was reminiscent of Tall Ghost Walt's command when Locke lay bleeding in the mass Dharma grave...)

The whole bit with Locke on the table with the rope around his neck and Ben kneeling before him definitely had a heavy-handed crucifixion motif to it. Much more so than the previous motif of John attempting to round up his "followers." But Ben eventually talks Locke down. At the mention of Sun, Locke tells Ben that he promised Jin he wouldn't bring her back. Ben seems surprised to find out that Jin's alive, but soothes Locke telling him "A promise is a promise." He also seems surprised to hear about Eloise Hawking when Locke tells him that she's the one that will help them return to the island.

After hearing this news, Ben strangles Locke. So it wasn't the spider venom after all! Was Ben just waiting to get the info about Eloise from Locke? Or did he need Locke out of the way so he could get Sun back to the island? Or was he killing his rival so he could regain his leadership status? Or was he just following protocol as Richard Alpert instructed that John was going to have to die in order to bring the others (Not to be confused with the "Others"...) back to the island.

He wipes down Locke's place and arranges his body so that it looks like a suicide and takes Jin's ring. As he leaves he says, "I'll miss you, John. I really will."

Back on the island, Caesar tells Locke that he's dealing with a mystery. That several people on the plane just disappeared while the plane was crashing. Locke asks if everyone else is accounted for other than those who disappeared. "Except for the people who got hurt," Caesar responds and takes Locke to where the injured are being housed. Locke stops in front of one of the injured. "You know him?" Caesar asks. "Yeah," Locke responds, "He's the one who killed me."

Ooohhh--I think Ben's gonna have some 'splaining to do when he regains consciousness!

Catch up with the recaps at Lostpedia, screencaps at Dark UFO and Liz Kelly and Jen Chaney's Dueling Analyses at washingtonpost.com.