Thursday, February 26, 2009

LOST: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

I thought last night's episode of LOST was one of the most disturbing, thought-provoking, shocking episodes I had seen in a while.

While it did answer some questions, I would say it raised even more questions.

Let's start with why it disturbed Benjamin Linus so much when John mentioned the name of Eloise Hawking that it caused him to kill Locke. I have speculated before that perhaps Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore had been married (remember seeing the young Charles and Ellie together on the island?).

According to Charles, he and Ben got into a power struggle over who was the leader. Perhaps that is also when the young Ellie switched sides and went with Ben. Whatever the case, Eloise is pretty much running the show with Ben and he didn't want Locke making any attempts to find her.

Ben also seemed really freaked when he heard Jin was alive. Why?!?

The symbolism of Locke as the Christ certainly continued last night.

When I first saw that Locke chose hanging as his chosen form of suicide I was thinking WHY?!?! Aren't there better ways to kill yourself?

But then the hanging took on another meaning. Locke has been portrayed as the sacrifice that had to be made to bring the other O6ers back to the island. Once he was murdered by Linus, I thought the hanging was sort of like the hanging on the cross.

After the plane crashed, Locke was "resurrected". PLEASE tell me that it had NOT only been three days since his death?!? I really can't handle that much of a comparison to Christ, especially not on Ash Wednesday.

But anyway.... Then we see Locke sitting on the ground with his head covered with a cloak. Again, kind of reminded me of Christ coming out of the tomb and revealing himself.

So, if Locke is the sacrifice, what does that make Richard?

Matthew certainly stressed the point that if Richard told you you were going to die, there was no avoiding it!

OK... onto another big question. The O6ers were taken from the plane in a flash of light. Does this mean they were transported back in time to the day of the Dharma initiative while the ones who weren't "chosen" landed in current time? And how interesting that Locke wasn't taken with them.

This part was so strange, confusing and mind-bending for me that I can hardly wrap my little brain around it. How will they all be reunited in the same place in time??

Just when we were ready to wrap things up, we have two new characters on the scene: Caesar and Ilana.

Ilana was the one guarding Sayid when they got on the plane. We don't know much about Caesar yet, but it seems certain that he will have a major role in all of this. Could it be that those two were planted on the plane by Widmore or perhaps Ben? They seem to be working closely together. And they don't seem too alarmed about being stranded on an island after their plane crashed.

And finally, we come to the ending scene with Ben, lying on the bed all battered and bruised from the crash. I loved it when Locke described him as the man "who killed me."

There was so much more to discuss in this episode...
  • The mysterious Matthew Abaddon: who is he and is he really dead? I thought he had a really sneaky look after he was shot.
  • Widmore versus Linus: Who is good? Who is bad? Or are they both bad?
  • Does the island bring people back to life? And will everyone who died on the island come back to life? Or is John truly special and that is why he came back to life?
  • Was Ben sincere when he came and rescued John? Or was he planning to kill him all along?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on all of this!


8 comments:

  1. “I thought he had a really sneaky look after he was shot.” At first that line made me laugh, b/c on what other show would you possibly say that a dead guy looks sneaky? But then I realized that you’re right, and that I had notice them same thing. Hmm, is HE coming back from the dead too? It’s highly likely … no one seems to stay dead on LOST.

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  2. I also forgot to mention in my recap the significance of Matthew's role in getting Locke to get on the plane initially. Did Matthew also orchestrate EVERYONE getting on the plane?!? And if he did, how were they chosen?!?

    Of course, this question is really what the whole show is about, now, isn't it??

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  3. Hello fellow Lostaholic!

    My brain (and heart) hurts after last night's episode...I am still trying to gather my thoughts...

    you can pop on over to my blog to see what I've come up with so far. I think you are right by questioning if Matthew really did die.

    eek!

    *~Michelle~*

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  4. Great recap! My head hurts so bad, I'm going to re-watch the episode tonight.

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  5. Great recap!

    "Matthew certainly stressed the point that if Richard told you you were going to die, there was no avoiding it!"---Yes! I forgot about that. WHAT is Richard's role?! Why isn't HE the leader of The Others?

    And I *do* think Matthew got everyone on the plane. I remember that being a question during the first season, but now that we got it straight from his mouth, it would seem everyone (at least almost everyone) was "herded" onto the plane!

    a

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  6. Emily....loved last night's episode, and enjoyed your analysis...oh, I need a big sigh after all of that! Holy cow!

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  7. I am not sure what I think about the Christ imagery surrounding Locke but I think it was significant that he was standing on the beach eating after his resurrection.

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