Lost: The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham
By fred | February 26, 2009
(S05E07) As hinted buy the title of this episode, after looking at how the O6 came to the decision of going back to the Island – or, at least, how they all eventually got on another plane together – this week we had a look at what one Jeremy Bentham did during his time on the mainland, and how he tried to convince everyone to come back to the Island.
And if we knew most of what actually took place, because it’s been talked about in past episodes by many of the other player, this still managed to be a really good episode, and a major reason for that has to fall back on the shoulder of the amazing Terry O’Quinn, once again brilliant all along. There’s no question that he can convey emotions like no other, and that was probably this season’s episode that will get him an award or two.
But Jeremy Bentham is not John Locke. At first one might have thought it was just a name, a fake name provided to Locke for his time in a world where he is officially dead, but there’s a lot more than that. John Locke is a man of faith, a leader who knows what he has to do, believes that he is all kinds of special, that it is his destiny to save everyone, and nothing can stop him.
Jeremy Bentham on the other hand, is a man of doubt. He wants to believe, he badly wants to believe that he is special, too, that he has a destiny, but Jeremy Bentham doubts. And maybe that is why he appeared to be such a failure, because John Locke never had any problem putting all of his heart and soul into what he believed he had to do. Maybe in the end he couldn’t convince Jack not to make the call, but he tried, he relentlessly tried.
The same cannot be said for Jeremy Bentham. No, back on the mainland – and in his wheelchair, even though the Island power was still kicking in, so John could feel and use his legs, only he broke one before leaving – this John was uncertain, and he barely tried to get anyone to come back. Sayid refused to come back, and he did not insist more than that. Hurley panicked once he realized John wasn’t an hallucination from his dead friend, and freak out when he caught Abaddon, and John left it at that.
I was thrilled that he did took the time to go see Walt, but extremely disappointed by that scene. Because Walt didn’t seem to care that much or be curious, about all those people who were left behind, and about his father. And it didn’t seem as if, after the O6 became superstars, Walt had a chat with them and knew about his father. Nope, he hadn’t heard of him on years, and yet didn’t care much. I was also disappointed that John didn’t even try to get him back on the Island, now that we finally can have an older Walt, why not use him?? After all the powers he had, and his connection with the Island, why not jump on the occasion??
And what to say about the final face off between John and Jack? It didn’t seem as if Locke was trying hard to convince Jack to come back, but his doubts were there. He was probably trying to convince himself first, that he really was special, or not crazy. Neither seemed convinced, and yet in the end, both Jack managed to convince Locke he was a failure, and Locke convinced Jack he had to go back. (Although it might have taken some time to sink in, given Jack’s beard wasn’t really there yet.)
What was most shocking though, was that we had been told (by Jack) that when Locke visited him, he told him that Ben was off the Island, that bad things happened on the Island and that it was Jack’s fault, for allowing everyone to leave. But that was a lie it seems? Or was there another conversation between Locke and Jack that we didn’t get to see, between what we saw here at the hospital, and Locke’s “suicide.”
Now, there’s still plenty more to discuss, and that mostly involves questions. So many questions.
