Lost: Season 5, Episode 7 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" Review

 "I'll miss you, John."

-Ben Linus

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" focus on John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) after he leaves the Island. Locke wakes up in Tunisia, where he is rescued by men working for Charles Widmore (Alan Dale).  Widmore says he wants to help get Locke and everyone else who left back to the Island as soon as possible and gives Locke a driver, Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick), to help him.

Locke visits Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly).  He does not invite Walt to return to the Island, as he felt Walt had been through too much already.  The others all refuse.

Locke asks Abaddon to track down his ex-girlfriend, Helen (Katey Sagal), who discovers she has since died of a brain aneurysm.  At the graveyard, Abaddon is shot and killed.  Locke escapes, but gets into a car accident.  He wakes up in the hospital where Jack (Matthew Fox) works.  Jack also refuses to return to the Island, even when Locke tells him that his father says hello.

Locke goes to a hotel and decides to kill himself.  Before he can go through with it, Ben (Michael Emerson) barges in.  He reveals he killed Abaddon because he was dangerous.  He talks Locke out of suicide by telling him that Jack bought a plane ticket in the hopes it would crash on the Island and that Locke is needed back on the Island because he is special.  Locke backs down and tells Ben about Jin's survival (Daniel Dae Kim) and that Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan) would help them get back to the Island.  Ben then proceeds to strangle Locke to death and stage it as a suicide before taking Jin's ring and leaving.

In the present, the survivors of Ajira 316 are revealed to have crashed on Hydra Island.  They find a man that none of them recognize from the plane, who appears to be John Locke.  This Locke soon discovers that Ben is on Hydra Island as well and was apparently injured in the crash.

What Works:

Terry O'Quinn gives a tour de force of a performance in this episode.  The massive swing in emotions he goes through throughout the episode is insane.  Paranoid, confident, and distraught.  It may be one of Locke's lowest points, but it's one of O'Quinn's highest.

The climatic scene with Ben talking Locke out of suicide only to murder him is an elite scene of Lost.  As I mentioned above, O'Quinn is incredible, and so is Emerson.  Their relationship is probably the most interesting in the entire run of the show and this is the end of it, at least in this life.  It's heartbreaking and shocking.  It's a scene where you think it's going one way only to completely throw you off.

Another powerful scene is Locke and Jack meeting in the hospital.  Fox does a fantastic job starting with outright fury before we see Locke actually break through to him, even if he doesn't want to admit it.  This moment is the start of Jack's path to redemption and it's really well done, even if it's heartbreaking in the moment.

Finally, this episode was a jaw dropper the first time it aired, but now it's interesting in a wholly different way on the rewatch.  On Hydra Island, this isn't John Locke and never was.  This is the Man in Black and he has succeeded in the first part of his plan.  Knowing that puts the scenes in the present in a very different context.  It's the start of one of the most interesting storylines to rewatch.

What Sucks:

My only real problem with this episode is the motivation of Charles Widmore.  I don't fully understand why he is trying to help Locke.  Why does he care if Locke makes it back to the Island.  I know at some point, Widmore was visited by Jacob which caused a change of heart in Charles.  So he's helping Jacob now.  Fine, but that still doesn't answer my question.  Why does Widmore care if Locke gets back to the Island?  Is he that important among the candidates.  He ends up helping the Man in Black more than anything and in season 6, we're going to see that's not what Widmore wants at all.  It kinda feels like the writers weren't really sure where Widmore's character was going.

Another quick note.  This would have been a great opportunity to bring Walt back into the fold.  Having him go back to the Island now would have interesting.  I think we all could have gotten past his growth spurt.  It's not that big a deal.  It could have been fun is all I'm saying.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," this award goes to the Man in Black for succeeding in taking the form of John Locke by getting his body back to the Island.  This is the Man in Black's 3rd time winning this award, which ties him for 9th place overall with Sun, Charlie, Jin, Juliet, and Michael.

Verdict:

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" gives us another great Locke episode.  Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, and Matthew Fox all do a fantastic job and this is a really fascinating episode to rewatch.  Widmore's motivations may be unclear, but this episode has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great