Lost... In Translation pt. 6

Hey folks, sorry that this post is late. Last night, after watching the episode, I barely got to start writing about it before Nick and a friend of ours screech into the yard like bats out of hell, and we spend the entire night talking about the finer points of bosses in the Metal Gear Solid games, one of which I'll post here. Keep in mind when watching this video, that this is all BEFORE the fight actually begins.



We also talked about how shitty the new video game movies coming out look, and capped the evening off by watching Exitspeed, which if you don't know (how could you not?) is about a group of people on a bus getting attacked by a gang of bikers... er, rather, Nomads, and trying to defend themselves. Of course, there's not too much defending going on, because all the bikers do is funny tricks on their crotch rockets and smoke a shit ton of crystal meth, while the heroes slowly pick them off while 'holding their position'. This is one of those flicks where you almost feel bad for the villains because the heroes are just so much more equipped to deal with the situation. In this case, it's a bunch of meth-heads getting their asses kicked by an AWOL soldier, A level something or other Dark-Elf Archer, The dude from tremors who wasn't Kevin Bacon, a mexican laborer who can build a gun for shooting molotov cocktails, and a single mom who not only runs marathons for breast cancer, but also strangles bitches with barbed wire BEFORE smothering them with a plastic bag. After the initial scare of the Nomad attack, the rest of the movie is pretty much just seeing our cast of heroes 'surviving' by brutally and efficiently dispatching the drugged out psychopaths. It's a pretty fun little flick, and very well done for what it is.



Anyways, this is a Lost post, so let's talk about THAT.

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. I really dug this episode, and it focused on John Locke, of course, who is one of my favorite characters in the show who's still alive, next to Jack and Jin. From what I've read since watching it, this episode had a lot of hype behind it, so of course, some people were very disappointed with it, but since I don't read about episodes before I watch them, I found the episode quite fulfilling, though it did seem a bit rushed. The writing in certain scenes was magnificent, with great delivery from a lot of the characters, most notably Jack, Kate, Ben, and of course, Locke. Even if this episode wasn't all it was apparently hyped up to be, watching it with fresh eyes, it's pretty much top-form for Lost. It didn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but I thought it did what it did very well.

The episode kick off by formally introducing the Hispanic character seen in the last episode, who as it turns out, is named Caesar. He is played by Said Taghmaoui, who was in Vantage Point with Matthew Fox, and will be playing 'Breaker' in the new G.I. Joe film, pictured below.

Caesar starts the episode in an as-of-yet unknown location, where we see him discover several items of interest, including an awesome sawed-off shotgun and more info about the island. A fellow survivor of 316, who's name is later revealed to be Alanna, walks in just as Caesar is putting all of the stuff into his bag. When she asks what it is, he lies, of course. No one on Lost can just be honest. She tells Caesar that they found a man in a suit, standing in the water completely still, and have taken him ashore. They run out of the building, and discover that the man in question is Locke, alive and well. They chat for a while, and Alanna reveal to John that they are the survivors of Ajira 316, and that the pilot and one woman (Lapidus and Sun, presumably.) stole one of the three longboats and headed away. This suggests that 316 actually crashed on the other island (the one with the Hydra station on it), so Frank and Sun were trying to get back to theirs. Throughout this scene, we see other survivors of 316, but no one who really stands out.

Following this, the flashback scene starts, and it takes up pretty much the rest of the whole episode. We go back to the point at which Locke turned the donkey wheel, and was transported off of the island. Like Ben, Locke wakes up in Tunisia, still with a broken leg. This time, unlike Ben, there is a camera on a post, watching him. He notices the camera, and when he calls for help, a team of armed men in a pick-up truck squeal up and take him away. He is rushed to a make-shift hospital, where the food sucks and a team of doctors try to fix his broken leg by snapping it into place. Locke sees a familiar face just before he passes out.

When Locke wakes up, Charles Widmore is in his room, watching him sleep, all creepy-like. He explains to Locke that these are his people, that it was his camera, and talks to Locke about meeting him when Widmore was only 17. He also tells Locke that he was the leader of his people for more than thirty years, until Ben tricked him into leaving. He wants to help Locke take his rightful place, by offering assistance in getting the others to come back. He claims there's a war coming, and if Locke doesn't play his part, it will be lost. Before Locke leaves, Widmore gives him a new I.D./passport, with the name Jeremy Bentham (He also makes a joke about Locke's original name. if you didn't get that, read about John Locke, or Jeremy Bentham here.) a new cellphone, and a folder with the locations of the Oceanic Six in it. He also tells Locke that he's special, yadda yadda yadda, and that Abaddon will be his escort and bodyguard. If you don't remember Abaddon, he is the tall black man who assembled Widmore's team who went to the island, including Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, and most notably Keamy. He also told Locke to go on a walkabout right after he broke his back, and Abaddon also visited Hurley in the psych ward, claiming to be a rep. of Oceanic, and asking about the others. Abaddon, very interestingly, is a name from the bible, and could mean the devil, or a place of death. Read about Abaddon here.

A lot of the rest of the episode is just Locke visiting people, asking them to come back, and them kindly telling him to go fuck himself. Sayid is apparently doing relief work in Santo Domingo in the Dominican republic, and refuses. Kate refuses, Hurley thinks Locke's dead, then when Hurley realizes he's not, he refuses. Then flips out about Abaddon. Basically, John just gets dead-ended everywhere he goes for most of the episode.

However, in the midst of all this, a few interesting things happen. First off, Locke talks to Walt again, and the suggestion is that this might be the last time we see Walt, as Locke doesn't even ask him to come back. However, this seems very unlikely, and the fact that Abaddon excuses himself before Walt can see him kind of makes me think he might be an older version of Walt... Hmm, worth thinking about. At the end of this scene, we also see that Ben is following them, which, of course, is important later.

Locke also 'reunites' with Helen, who died of a brain aneurism in '06. Not a huge reveal, but important nonetheless. More importantly, as they are leaving the cemetery, while Locke is in the car, Abaddon is assassinated right behind him, shot dead in the middle of the street.

So much for Abaddon.

Locke leaps into the driver's seat and squeals away into mid-day Ca. traffic, and promptly gets involved in a vehicular accident, once AGAIN hospitalizing Locke. This guy gets put into the hospital a lot, but twice in one episode might be a new record. This time Locke wakes up with Jack (right now he's kind of stubbly. Not clean shaven, but not quite a beard.) glaring at him all creepy-like while he sleeps, and when Locke wakes up, he asks Jack to go back too, of course. Jack reacts rather predictably, by telling him he's a loser. That is until Locke tells Jack that dad say's 'Hi'. Jack flips out, and storms off to grow a real beard.

The strain of not being liked by Jack Shephard does what it would do to any normal man or woman, and drives Locke to kill himself. He writes a note to Jack, and proceeds to begin hanging himself with an electrical cord from the roof of a hotel. Then...

Knock Knock, Ben's there! Like an exciteable little opossum Ben bursts into the room and tries to save John. He tells him that he's been watching all of the Oceanic Six and keeping them safe and that Widmore is an evil liar. He also reveals that he was the gunslinger who took out Abaddon. Locke starts crying about being a failure, and Ben reassures him that he loves him, and they spend the rest of the night holding each other, until John tells him about the promise he made to Jin about not bringing Sun back, and about the ring. Then eerie music starts to play, and when Locke tells Ben about Eloise Hawking, Ben strangles him with the cord that he just kept John from hanging himself with. They make a nice couple. Ben goes through the motions of making Locke's death look like a suicide, instead of an attempted suicide followed by a homicide. Ben takes the ring, and seems to feel honestly sorry for John before he leaves.

Back on the island for the end of the episode, we once again see Caesar checking out Dharma documents, this one with the Hydra logo on it, pretty much proving that the 316 guys crashed on the second island. Locke gives a confusing explanation of his history with the island, and Caesar tells him that Hurley literally disappeared out of the plane. He also mentions that some people are injured, and being kept in the other room.Locke walks in, and guess who he finds among the injured?


Yeppers, it's Ben. The man who killed Locke is now lying injured in a hospital bed just waiting for his come-uppance. Hmm... this could end violently.

Well, that's the end of the episode. Aside from a few small gripes, like the fact that I really liked Abaddon and now he's dead, and the fact that since we knew Locke was alive on the island at the very beginning of the episode, it took the weight off of his death when Ben killed him, I liked this episode a lot. Of course, I've gotten used to Lost death's being more or less empty at this point, but still. It's freaking Locke. His death should have at least seemed bad. Anyways, enough complaining. See you next week.