That’s more like it. It’s much better to raise my expectations before I watch Lost, then my mind isn’t blown on a weekly basis.
Locke took the tour of the off-island world in this episode. It turns out that from his perspective… things suck. No one listened to what he said, and most of them seemed to have quite awful things to say back. Locke did talk to two possibly empathetic people Charles Widmore and Ben Linus. Of course they could both be evil and in the end Ben did kill Locke, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Widmore and Ben had more important things to say than any of the Oceanic 6.
On the island, in ‘modern time’ Locke, Ilana, Caesar and Ben landed the plane on Alcatraz (it turns out that airstrip did have a use). Caesar is collecting guns and info from Dharma and Ilana is being suspicious. Ben is injured and healing, and most importantly Locke is “alive”. Ms. Widmore’s plan worked and Locke was successfully resurrected.
This episode was satisfying. At the last finale we were told all about Jeremy Bentham, almost all the Oceanic 6 characters had something to say about him, mostly bad things. The mystery surrounding Locke off the island was intense. We finally found out what happened. I can’t say that it was thrilling, not a 10. It was definitely satisfying and very necessary but it wasn’t exciting. It might just be that I like new mysteries more than old ones.
8.0/10.0
Continue reading ‘507 – The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham’
It’s pretty well known that the upcoming episode of Lost is called "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", so I’m looking forward to a fun little episode where we get to see exactly what Locke did after he turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel. For the last two episodes my expectations have been unnecessarily low. For some reason I haven’t been expecting the volume of info and story that they’ve been throwing into the show. So this is how I’m trying ot combat that, I’m going to try to raise my expectations extremely high by guessing what’s going to happen in this episode.
There are some known adventures that Locke has to go on, I would be surprised if Locke visits all of these people, but I’ll hope that he does.
Out of all of these people, Locke’s visit to Jack was the most successful. In the last episode we saw Jack completely turn into a Man of Faith. That was due to a visit from Locke. What confuses me is Locke’s suicide note. When we see Jack after his visit from Locke he is suicidal himself, and he’s very intent on returning to the island. But in his note Locke says, "Jack, I wish you had believed me." That must be a reference to their last meeting. So what was Jack’s reaction to Locke? It’s not hard to believe that Jack had a less than friendly reaction to Locke’s idea, but then what changed his mind? It will be interesting to find out.
After Locke visited Kate she believed that he was crazy. She heard that he wanted them all to go back and she dismissed it as insanity. That is a very harsh reaction from Kate. Something must have spooked her. Did Locke, perhaps, tell Kate that Claire was still alive on the island? Did Kate want to avoid the island so that she didn’t have to give Aaron away (I sound like Rosie)? It’s possible.
On the other hand, couldn’t Locke have just told her that Sawyer was there, and then she’s have a motivation to get back. I’d say that piece of info would have a 50/50 chance of swaying her.
We’ll see what he tells her, and what state he’s in when he does meet with her. There must have been other factors (besides the usual) which motivated her to say that he’s insane.
SunHe kept his promise to Jin and didn’t tell Sun that he was alive, but he also didn’t give her Jin’s ring. Something odd happened there.
Also, I’m going to assume that he tells her what Ben did down in the Orchid, when he stabbed Keamy and allowed the Freighter to blow up.
HurleyI could see how Hurley’s visit might be the most interesting. Depending on his mental state, Hurley might assume that Locke is nothing more than an illusion or a ghost. Either way Locke’s visit didn’t seem to effect Hurley much. He didn’t seem to want to go back to the island before or after the visit.
I kinda thought that Ben killed Locke. When he showed up at the funeral home it just seemed too convenient. But now we hear that it was a suicide… hmm, more on that later.
I really want Locke to talk to Ben about Jacob and Christian. I still believe that Ben knows nothing about Christian and his plans might change drastically if he did know. Then again, Ms. Hawking knows about Christian, perhaps she’s keeping it from Ben. Either way I’m especially looking forward to that meeting.
WaltMost importantly, I want to see Walt. I was so sure that this jump forward in time was just a clever way to bring Walt back into the show and back to the Island. But unless he was in the Tail Section he probably wasn’t on the plane (I might turn that into a theory, just to keep my hope alive).
We know for sure that Locke went to see Walt. Was that just to be nice? Or did he give him some instructions? I hope that Locke wanted Walt to go back to the island. Locke did probably tell Walt that people were left behind on the island. He might have told him that Michael was still alive, or he might not have. During Walt’s scene in the finale of season 4 he talks about his dad as if he’s alive, but that could have been a test to see if Hurley was lying.
There’s a chance that Locke didn’t even talk to Sayid. I’d like to think that he did though, it would explain Sayid’s sudden mistrust of Ben.
There’s no proof of this, I’m just extrapolating. Perhaps Locke met them on his adventures and told them of the wonderful world of… The Island (I suddenly realized how odd it is that The Island doesn’t have a name). Maybe they were agents of his, I don’t believe that they are on Ben’s side. I also want to see more of these characters.
Emily (Locke’s Mom)It would be great to see Swoosie Kurtz again. I’m always torn between disgust and intrigue when she’s onscreen, it’s kinda like when Bilbo hisses at Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, you can’t look away from his face, but you don’t really enjoy it. I would be surprised if she was still alive though.
Again this is almost more for the actress than the character, less so this time. I loved it when Locke was with Helen, they were perfect together (except for the lies). We know that she must have read his obituary, that was her favorite part of the paper. But the odds that she recognized that Jeremy Bentham was Locke is highly unlikely. I kinda want them together, but it would have a sad ending, so maybe not.
She seemed very well acquainted with him when she told Jack to get him some new shoes, perhaps they had a relationship. She might have given him a plan to tell to the Oceanic 6 (not likely).
Widmore might have tried to get to Locke, perhaps to align him against Ben. That wouldn’t be the worst plan in the world. Other than that I can’t imagine what they’d talk about. Maybe they’d reminisce about how Locke didn’t shoot him, ah the good ol’ days.
Matthew AbaddonAh yes, Lost’s second infinitely mysterious black character. It would be great to see Locke pay Mr. Abaddon back for that advice he gave him so many years ago. But I doubt that the actor would be able to come on the show, he’s got a full time job now on Fringe.
This doesn’t really fit in with this list but I wanted to talk about it. Locke supposedly commits suicide, so here’s the question of the day, why?
The most obvious reason, to me, would be because he’s depressed that he can’t convince the Oceanic 6 to go back to the island. Another reason for that kind of depression would be that he can’t get back either. The Island was the only place on the Earth where Locke was happy, and he had to leave. That would have been saddening.
But I don’t think that’s the real reason. I think the reason why he killed himself was to speed things along. Richard told him that he had to die, Christian told him the same thing. Those two are Locke’s most trusted advisor (right up there with everyone else in the world). He knew it had to happen, he wasn’t getting killed, so he decided to hurry things along. And it worked. It was Locke’s obituary that pushed Jack into his present course as a Man of Faith.
Well we’ll see.
– izi
Here’s the list of the Oscar nominations for tomorrow night. I’m bolding the winners that I would like to see. In case you don’t want to read it all, here’s a overview: I want The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to win everything, I know it won’t (it might not win anything) but that’s what I want.
Why are my expectations so low these days? The most I hoped to get from this episode was a cryptic speech from Ms. Hawking. Then that “46 hours earlier” thing blew my mind. Suddenly things really sped up.
OK, I need to calm down a little. First I should say, I haven’t been enjoying the Oceanic 6 this year. It looked like they were going to drag out their deliberations for ever. Will they go to the island? Will they change their mind? It was maddening. I was slightly wary of Ms. Hawking getting involved, I figures she wouldn’t actually be able to do anything to fix things. And after last weeks fast-pace rollercoaster I couldn’t imagine that they’d be able to match that kind of craziness. But I was wrong.
They went back. Just like that, they’re (almost) all back. And they brought some new friends! I love new characters, and one these characters is especially welcome. The only people missing were the children. Aaron and Ji Yeon were left behind. I’m unhappy that Walt was left behind too, but I still hold out hope that that may be amended.
This episode was jam packed full of info from Ms. Hawking, she explained some basic island functions and we got to see a new Dharma station, possibly the original Dharma station.
Aaand we saw Jack fully change from a “man of science” into a “man of faith”. I actually found that very interesting, here’s hoping that Jack manages to hold my attention.
The only real problem that I had with the episode was Jack’s grandpa, I don’t know why we cared about that. It really stalled the episode. But I can overlook that.
9.0/10.0 for blowing me away again, I’ll try to raise my expectations for upcoming episodes.
(This episode’s name could easily confuse me.)
Apparently I had very low and narrow expectations for this episode. I expected to get Rousseau’s story, so when I got that before the second commercial break I was a little surprised. This episode had it all. I still can’t even believe it. Smokey, Christian, The Frozen Donkey Wheel, The Temple, Charlotte’s death, Charlotte’s backstory, Mrs. Hawking, Desmond. All I wanted was Rousseau, this is like buying a bag of chips and finding money inside (whoa, that was a weak simile, I really shouldn’t write these things so late.)
So we got to see what happened to Rousseau, it was surprising, and satisfying. I expected to see more, but I can fill all the blanks in. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ben take Alex, but that was hinted at in this episode so I guess that’s enough. Did anyone see Smokey coming? I never factored him (it?) into her story at all. And the Temple! Really shocking and interesting developments.
Charlotte dying was unfortunate. Ironically I am accepting this death well. I don’t even know if it’s definite, but it really felt that way. The recurring guest star thing was way too much of a tip-off. But I’m glad she told us her true backstory. It’s something that we can guess about for a long time now. I doubt we’ll be getting many answers, but it’s fun to have these guessing games. (Why am I so OK with her death, I held out hope that Rousseau was alive for a long time, I even came up with many theories to keep Nikki and Paulo alive. And now Charlotte dies and I don’t even care, I really liked Charlotte too. I’m weird.)
The Sun and Jin jazz was pretty good too. I actually felt bad for Jin, he just got back to the land of the living and he already laid his own life aside to protect Sun’s. Sad.
And suddenly Mrs. Hawking is the last hope for mankind, everyone converges on her at once.
This episode was intense, and I won’t be forgetting it soon. I’d have given it a high score for the first 15 minutes, but it just kept going and going. And a huge improvement from the last episode. 10.0/10.0
(Note: This is one of those prolific episodes that you can base a lot of theories on, not unlike “The Man Behind the Curtain” or “Cabin Fever”. If you have any theories about this episode, or if you know of any good theories about this episode on other sites please tell me about them in the comments.)
I wanted to collect some of the info and suspicions I have regard Rousseau before we find out everything in the next episode. I have always found Rousseau to be terribly interesting, and tomorrow’s episode is a dream come true for me (hopefully).
So here’s where I got all my info, I looked at all the posts I have about Rousseau, and then I went to Lostpedia.
Rousseau’s back story is one of the most enduring mysteries of Lost. It was introduced in the pilot episode and we still only have tiny hints as to what happened.
Montand
The Crew
We know that they followed a transmission from the radio tower in. The transmission was nothing more that The Numbers being repeated over and over. This was hinted at before and confirmed in 504 – The Little Prince. While we’re talking about that, here’s the full translation of what Rousseau and her crew were saying in that episode:
Storm scene
Robert: I told you! We should have never followed those damn numbers.
Montand: It’s not my fault, Robert. Brennan was the one in charge of the sonar.
Brennan: I was watching, Montand! I told you already, the instruments malfunctioned.
Rousseau: There’s a man in the water!
?: What?
?: I thought we were all here!
?: We are all here. He’s not one of us. So, who is he?
Robert: Paddle!
Montand: Paddle! Go!
?: Point the flashlight on him!
?: We must hold the light! Brennan, help us paddling!
?: Come on, hurry up! The stream is moving us!
?: No! It’s just him! There’s no boat, nothing!
?: Leave him! The waves will bring us to the coast.
Brennan: The wind will pass through here!
Female voice: For God’s sake, Brennan, shut up!
?: Come on, take him into the raft.
?: Help me!
?: He’s still breathing!
Robert
Beach scene
Montand: Robert, look. The signal comes from the island!
Robert: Can you find the source?
Montand: Of course I can. Look.
Robert: Do you think the island is inhabited?
Rousseau: Are you OK? How are you feeling?
…
Robert: Who is he?
Montand: Who cares. What is he doing here?
Rousseau: He said he came by boat.
…
Rousseau: Montand, leave him alone! He’s in shock. Do we have water for him?
Robert: Yeah. Here.
Rousseau: Thanks, Robert.
From sl-lost.com
We now have faces for all those names that Rousseau talked about.
After landing on the beach the crew went exploring. At some point they stumbled in the the Dark Territory and the Black Rock. In the Dark Territory Montand loses his arm. Soon after this the rest of the crew starts getting sick. In the end she has to shoot her husband/boyfriend Robert.
At some point she started hearing The Whispers on the island. If my new Whispers theory is true then that could mean that she gets near the other survivors. According to that theory, if she was near them she wouldn’t see them she’d only hear the Whispers.
Brennan
After hearing the Whispers, watching her crew die and killing Robert Rousseau goes to the transmission tower to record her own message. While trying to find exactly what she was saying I stumbled onto this page on Lostpedia. Apparently Rousseau recorded multiple messages. I don’t know if this is all canon, but it’s very interesting either way:
Iteration 17294530 : “If anybody can hear this, they are dead. Please help us. I’ll try to make it to the Black Rock. It [or he] killed them. It [or he] killed them all.”
Iteration 17294531 : “It [or he] is outside. It [or he] is outside and Brennan took the keys. Please help us. They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead.”
Iteration 17294532 : “It [or he] is outside. It [or he] is outside and Brennan took the keys. Please help us. They are dead. They are all dead. Help us. They are dead.”
Iteration 17294533 : “They are all dead. Help us. They are dead. If anybody can hear this-”
Iteration 17294534 : “It [or he] is outside. Please help us. Please help us !”
Iteration 17294535 : “If anybody can hear this, I’ll try to make it to the Black Rock. Please help us ! They are all dead. They are dead. It [or he] killed them. It [or he] killed them all. I’ll try to make it to the Black Rock.”
This was on the season 1 DVDs, and since there is a Brennan with the crew in season 5 I tend to believe that it’s real.
The OthersSo that’s about it for her crew. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was all we saw in this next episode. That is a lot of stuff to happen. But it isn’t the end of Rousseau’s story. If we are lucky we’ll get to see what happens when The Others, Ben in particular, kidnap Alex.
Also it would be nice to see how Rousseau survives The Purge. She lands on the island in 1988, and The Purge happens in 1992. Kinda strange.
JinOne of the biggest questions from that last episode was, how could Rousseau meet Jin way back in the day and not recognize him later. I think the answer is quite simple, she went crazy. After watching all the episodes again I really noticed how insane she really was, I used to hope that it was just the trauma getting to her, but that can’t explain all of her crazy actions.
-Montand losing his arm
-Whispers (or our survivors)
-Danielle removing the firing pin from Robert’s gun
-Brennan getting some keys
-The Black Rock
-Others (I still find it hard to believe that she didn’t see them)
-Mikhail (Rousseau insisted that she hadn’t met him, but I don’t believe her)
-Smokey (Rousseau said she doesn’t believe in monsters)
– izi
It might be a stretch to call this a theory. Doc Arzt has created a little list of some of the fun historical moments of the islan that he looks forward to seeing this season. It’s something that I was thinking about recently but I didn’t want to blog about. He gets all the important points and I encourage you to check it out here. Although if it was my list I’d put Rousseau first, and I wouldn’t list the Real Henry Gale, I couldn’t care less about him.
– izi
Not Confused Just Lost 