I Am DB

MYSTERY GUEST
We begin with our new characters, Caesar and Ilana. The former is looking around in a cluttered office. What’s he looking for? Is he familiar with this place, or did he just find it? He seems to be looking for something specific. He finds a folder with a Dharma logo on the front. There are maps, and a sheet covered in geometric sketches – circles and lines, along which are written the following: space time, real time, imaginary time and imaginary space. He also finds a shotgun, which he tucks in his bag just as Ilana enters…and which he keeps hidden from her.

She says they found a man standing in the water, wearing a suit. She says no one recognizes him from the plane; in fact, she is positive he was not onboard, and says with certainty that he was not among those who disappeared in the white light. They’re outside at this point, walking along a broad gravel road, and the plane rests right alongside them, apparently in one piece (from what we can see of it). I guess that means it never got to Guam.  They arrive on the beach, where several people are gathered around a fire. The mystery man sits, concealed by a shroud. Caesar introduces himself, and John Locke removes his hood and reciprocates.

It would appear that the theory I included last week from Entertainment Weekly‘s Doc Jensen was correct: Ajira Airways Flight 316 landed on the island that houses Dharma Initiative’s Hydra station, where polar bears once toiled and where Jack, Kate and Sawyer were kept prisoner. Locke stands in the surf the next morning, staring out at the big island. When Ilana approaches, Locke asks if she has a passenger list, but she says he’ll have to ask Caesar. Locke also points toward two outrigger canoes on the beach, which Ilana says were already there. She says there was a third, but the pilot and a woman took it during the night, without telling anybody. (This makes me happy, because it means we’ll be seeing Lapidus again soon!) But who is the woman that Ilana references? Something tells me it’s not Sun…

Ilana wants to know who Locke is and how he got there. She’s friendly, but firm. He doesn’t know how to answer her, but wagers a guess that he’s dressed in the clothes he was supposed to be buried in. (This is probably way too observant, but the shirt Locke is wearing in these scenes does not look like the white shirt he was buried in. Significant? I doubt it.) He says the last thing he remembers is dying.

BENEATH THE SHELTERING SKY
We revisit Locke’s final moments on the island, turning the wheel under Christian Shephard’s watchful eye, and the next thing he knows, he’s laying on the desert floor. Just like Ben before him, he has materialized in Tunisia, and promptly vomits. But something is different this time. There are poles strung all around, with wires and surveillance cameras pointed toward him. Is he in the same exact spot where Ben appeared earlier?  If so, the poles and cameras are a new addition. Or is he in a different spot? (Ben turned the wheel in late December 2004/early January 2005, but it was October 2005 when he arrived in the desert and checked into a hotel. So what accounts for the difference in time from island departure to desert arrival? And how do those who instruct Locke to leave the island know what time he’ll end up in?)

Locke’s leg is still badly injured and he can’t move. Come nighttime, he’s still lying there, shivering, when a group of Arabs speeds over in a pick-up truck, throws him in back and brings him to a village hospital. Doctors chattering in a foreign language rush to treat him. He’s disoriented…but not so much that he doesn’t notice the familiar figure of Matthew Abaddon peering at him from behind a thin curtain!!

Locke wakes up the next morning to find Charles Widmore sitting by his bed. Widmore introduces himself, seeing as he was 17 when they last met. He asks Locke how long it’s been for him since that encounter on the island, when John walked into the Others’ camp looking for Richard Alpert. Four days, Locke answers. Widmore says the cameras in the desert are his.

Widmore: I was afraid Benjamin might fool you into leaving the island, as he did with me. I was their leader.

Locke: The Others?

Widmore: They’re not The Others to me, they’re my people. We protected the island, peacefully, for more than three decades. And then I was exiled, by him. Just as you were.

Is this true? Because in Widmore’s younger days, when we met him previously, Richard seemed to be in charge of the Others. So did Widmore succeed him? And if so, was that transfer of power peaceful? Because Richard remains on the island during Widmore’s alleged rule, yet when he meets young Ben, his hair is long and he looks more ragged than when we met him in the 1950’s. Has he been cast out of his own group by Widmore?

Locke says he wasn’t exiled; that he left on his own and Ben is already gone. Widmore first asks why he’d do that, but quickly surmises that he’s trying to bring his people back. He says that three years have passed for the Oceanic Six, and that they haven’t spoken a word of truth about where they were or what happened to them. Locke says he has to bring them back, and Widmore says he’ll do everything he can to help, “because there’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.” Widmore’s behavior with Locke is the most benevolent we’ve ever seen from him, but a dark undercurrent reveals itself when Ben is mentioned.

When Locke’s compound fracture is healed enough for him to begin his mission, Widmore gives him the Jeremy Bentham passport, funds, a cell phone for reaching him anytime and folders with info on the whereabouts of the Oceanic Six.

Locke: You’ve been watching them?

Widmore: I’m deeply invested in the future of the island, John, so yes I’ve been watching them. I wouldn’t mention I’m involved in this. I can’t imagine what they think of me, having listened to Benjamin’s lies.

Locke: How do I know that you’re not the one who’s lying?

Widmore: I haven’t tried to kill you. Can you say the same for him? You still don’t trust me.

Locke: You sent a team of killers and a boatload of C4 to the island. That doesn’t exactly scream trust.

Widmore: I needed Linus removed, so it could be your time. The island needs you, John. It has for a long time.

Locke: What makes you think I’m so special?

Widmore: Because you are.

Couple of things about this exchange before we move on. Widmore says he’s been watching the Oceanic Six because he is invested in the future of the island. So he obviously knows that they need to go back there. But how does their return serve his interests?

Also, Widmore’s response to Locke’s remark about the freighter is hardly sufficient. Did he really intend to have Keamy kill everyone on the island? It was Ben who kept insisting that; unfortunately we never know if we can believe Ben. Was the C4 truly just supposed to be insurance that Ben wouldn’t try anything, only to have him call their bluff? Would the island really have been torched? If Widmore’s goal is to get back there, how does destroying the place achieve that? Keamy told Captain Gault on the freighter that, according to “the secondary protocol” The Orchid was the one place Ben would go if he thought the island was to be torched. But was this idea of destroying the island just a ruse to tempt Ben to go to there? When Faraday realized that the mercenaries were going to apprehend Ben at The Orchid, he realized this meant danger for everyone on the island. Was that because he assumed that the truth behind the secondary protocol was that the island would be destroyed, when in fact it was always meant to be an empty threat?

I’m losing my thread here. The main points are that a) Widmore’s interests would not seem to be served by destroying the island, and b) the excuse he gives to Locke about sending the freighter full of mercenaries and C4 leaves an awful lot of unanswered questions.

Getting back to the scene, Locke tells Widmore that Richard said he’d have to die in order to bring the others back to the island. “I don’t know why he said that,” Widmore says, “but I’m not going to let that happen.”

A car pulls up and Widmore introduces its driver to Locke: Matthew Abaddon. There’s a moment between them, but neither acknowledges their past meeting…not even when Abaddon echoes that occurrence by setting up a wheelchair for Locke to sit in. Widmore says Abaddon is there to transport Locke wherever he needs to go, and to protect him from those who mean to do him harm.

SIX VISITS
Locke travels to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where Sayid is doing humanitarian work with a Peace Corps-like group called Build Our World. Sayid says he has no intention of returning with Locke. “For two years I was manipulated into thinking I was protecting everyone on the island,” he says, adding that he did so in service of Ben. “So who is manipulating you, John?” he asks.  He also questions why Locke really wants to go back. “Is it just because you’ve got nowhere else to go?”

After parting with Sayid, Locke travels to New York. While parked outside of a prep school, he asks Abaddon to look up his old flame Helen. Then the school begins to empty, and out comes Walt, who sees Locke and crosses the street. Locke remarks that Walt doesn’t look surprised to see him. Walt says he’s been having dreams about John, wearing a suit, on the island, surrounded by people trying to hurt him. So I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before we see that prophecy fulfilled.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, including Locke reporting that to his knowledge, Michael is on a freighter near the island, Walt goes on his way. Locke says to Abaddon that the boy has been through enough.

The meeting between Walt and Locke made me wonder why such a big deal had been made a while back about Locke traveling under the name Jeremy Bentham. It occurs to me now that the only reason this name was used repeatedly in last season’s finale was so the characters could talk about him without revealing until the end of the episode that it was Locke in the coffin. In that episode, Walt goes to see Hurley in the mental institution, and says that “Jeremy Bentham” had visited him. But during their interaction on the street, Locke never refers to himself by the name Bentham or tells Walt to call him that. In that episode, everybody kept using the name Bentham: Kate, Jack, Sayid, Hurley – they were all so committed to it. I can understand that the writers evoked the name so pointedly last year in order to maintain the surprise of Bentham’s identity, but seeing as that’s how they played it, a bigger deal should have been made in this episode of Locke being careful by asking everyone to use that name if referring to him. Now it’s just hanging out there as sloppy continuity, and if you’ve been reading these messages for a while, you probably know that stuff like that bugs me.

But I digress. Next stop is Santa Rosa, where Locke visits Hurley just feet away from the place where the big dude once conversed with a deceased Charlie. (Awwww, Charlieeeeee!!!) Hurley assumes Locke is an apparition as well, but he quickly realizes the truth. He doesn’t see how Locke is going to get everyone to go back to the island, and then he becomes distressed when he sees Abaddon hanging out by the car, watching them. Locke says they’re together, which alarms Hurley even more given his own earlier encounter with Abaddon. He freaks out and retreats inside.

Back in car, Abaddon points out that Locke is zero for three. Locke asks Abaddon what he does for Mr. Widmore. And then it comes: “You’re not really going to pretend you don’t remember that I was an orderly in the hospital right after your accident? That I was the one who told you to go on a walkabout? The same walkabout that put you on the plane that crashed on that island? I help people get to where they need to get to, John. That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore.”

Okay, at this point we have to stop again. Last year, before the two part season finale aired, I sent out one of these messages that was not tied to a specific episode, in which I threw out some shaky theories I was working on. Part of those theories have since been debunked, but some pieces are still in play. If Abaddon encouraged Locke to go on his walkabout, that means even at that point in time, Widmore knew about Locke and wanted to get him to the island. Which is one of those strange time travel conundrums – at that time, Locke had not yet been to the island, and therefore had not met 17 year-old Widmore. Unless the time travel rules on Lost don’t work that way. They must not work that way, because Widmore must have known that Locke would wind up on Flight 815, and that Flight 815 would crash on the island. So Abaddon merely had to plant the walkabout seed in Locke’s head, and then destiny would take care of the rest…right down to Locke’s trip being timed correctly so that he’d be on Flight 815. Maybe?

This also makes it feel likely that Ben was being truthful when he told Locke, way back in Season Two while he was captive in the hatch, that he – Locke – was the reason Ben was crossing the island. When he got caught in Rousseau’s net – the first time we met him and he was claiming to be Henry Gale, a balloon traveler from Minnesota – he was actually coming to find Locke. But why exactly? Because he somehow knew that Widmore wanted him, prompting him to try and beat Widmore to it? Or maybe because Richard Alpert had already been trying to recruit Locke to the island? Again, it must not matter that Locke hadn’t yet told Richard where and when he’d be born. GRRRRRRRR, TIME TRAVEL!!!!! MESSING WITH MY MIND!!!!!

Abaddon’s explanation that he gets people where they need to go also finally clarifies that Widmore was ultimately responsible for putting Naomi, Faraday, Charlotte, Miles and Lapidus together and sending them to the island. We know how Faraday and Widmore are connected, and we know how Charlotte and the island are connected (though not what Widmore has to do with her). So what about Naomi, Miles and Lapidus? Why did Widmore want them?

Abaddon’s explanation does not explain why he tried to have Hurley moved to another facility. Was he trying to entice him back to the island without using Locke?

Alright, so back to Locke’s faltering quest. He moves on to Los Angeles, visiting Kate at her house. This is a short but terrific scene, well written and beautifully acted by Terry O’Quinn and Evangeline Lilly. In fact, this whole episode is excellent in its writing, directing and acting. This was some of Terry O’Quinn’s best work ever as Locke, and that’s saying something. He might be looking at another Emmy nomination for this one. And in this scene, he does some outstanding, subtle work – his reaction to Kate’s biting remarks, his openness in telling her about Helen and the anger that drove her away…great stuff. She rejects his proposal, of course, and with each successive person refusing him, you feel worse for him.

That feeling isn’t helped when Abaddon takes Locke to Helen – at a cemetery. He informs Locke that she died of a brain aneurysm. Locke muses that she loved him and that they could have been together, but Abaddon says it wouldn’t have changed anything. “Helen’s where she’s supposed to be. Sad as it is, her path led here. Your path, no matter what you did or what you do, your path leads back to the island.” If that’s true, why does he need the Oceanic Six at all? Won’t he wind up back on the island through some stroke of circumstance? Locke must feel the same, remarking, “You say that like it’s all inevitable.”

Locke gets back in the car, but as Abaddon closes the trunk on the wheelchair, he is suddenly gunned down by an unseen attacker. Locke, still injured, maneuvers into the front and speeds off, leaving a dead and chillingly wide-eyed Abaddon on the road. But he doesn’t really have control of the car, and in the panic of his flight, he gets into a major crash. He wakes up in the hospital…with Jack sitting bedside, staring at him. It’s a brilliant reveal, and the look on Jack’s face couldn’t be more perfect. He immediately asks what Locke is doing there.

Locke knows that convincing Jack to return is the key to getting the others. He explains the accident was caused because someone was trying to kill him; someone who doesn’t want him to succeed, because he’s important. Jack can’t stomach it. “Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you’re special aren’t real? That maybe there’s nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an island. That’s it.”

As he’s about to walk out, Locke plays his last card.

Locke: Your father says hello.

Jack: What?

Locke: The man who told me to move the island, the man who told me how to bring you all back, he said to tell his son hello. It couldn’t have been Sayid’s father and it wasn’t Hurley’s. That leaves you. He said his name was Christian.

Jack: My father is dead.

Locke: He didn’t look dead to me.

Jack can’t listen to anymore, and despite Locke’s cries that he is supposed to help, Jack storms out, yelling to Locke, “It’s over!”

And so it is. Over. The look of disappointment, anger and frustration on Locke’s face is heartbreaking. Despite blowing up submarines and satellites, killing people, lying…you just want to give the poor guy a hug. And it’s about to get worse.

SUICIDE IS PAINLESS
Next we see Locke in a cheap hotel room, writing his suicide note to Jack. As he prepares a power cord so he can hang himself, I wondered: has he really given up, or is he testing himself, as he has in the past? Testing his destiny, this idea that he’s going back to the island and he has to die…

He slips the noose around his neck and is just about to step off the table when there’s a knock on door and Ben bursts in. Locke seems bewildered.  Ben explains that he had a man watching Sayid, and was informed when Locke showed up. He says he’s been watching all of them, making sure they’re safe, just as he’s doing now. He admits to killing Abaddon, claiming it was only a matter of time before Abaddon killed Locke. Ben explains that Abaddon works for Widmore and is extremely dangerous.

When Locke, still with the noose around his neck, says that Widmore saved him, Ben pushes back that Widmore is just using him to try and get back to the island. “Charles Widmore is the reason I moved the island. So that he could never find it again; to keep him away, so that you could lead. You can’t do this. If anything happens to you…John, you have no idea how important you are.”

Both Widmore and Ben are telling Locke that he is meant to lead, that the island needs him, that he’s is special and important…and once again you just feel such pity for Locke and the way he’s being manipulated and pulled in both directions by people who seem to undermine him at the same time that they build him up. Locke says he’s a failure, not a leader; that he couldn’t convince Jack or any of them to go back with him. But Ben says Jack bought a ticket to Sydney: flying at night, returning the next morning. Apparently Locke’s description of Christian motivated Jack’s desire to return to the island…contrary to what he told Kate on the night they met in a parking lot next to the airport. At that meeting, Jack told her that he believed what “Bentham” had said because it was the only way to keep Kate and Aaron safe. But Locke never said anything about Kate, so Jack was either lying to her in the hope she would agree to come, or once again the writing is inconsistent.

“John you can’t die,” Ben pleads. “You’ve got too much work to do. We’ve got to get you back to that island so you can do it.” Locke agrees to come down, and sits on the table crying. I’m tellin’ ya, the whole thing done broke my heart. He’s a wreck. Ben seems to be genuinely concerned for him, talking him through what the next steps might be in trying to get the others back to the island.

And then it happens. Locke says that Jin is alive, but that he did not want Sun to come back to the island; that he wanted Locke to say his body washed up on the beach, and that he gave Locke his wedding ring for proof. As soon as John starts talking about this, Ben’s expression changes. A lightbulb goes off, an opportunity presents itself….something happens. Ben is now playing along with Locke, who adds that he knows what to do once they have everyone together: they need to find a woman named Eloise Hawking. The look on Ben’s face seems to say, “If you know about Eloise then you know too much.” Locke can’t see this look, but can tell from Ben’s voice that he recognizes the name, and asks if he knows her. Ben says he does…then grabs the power chord and chokes Locke with all his strength. The struggle is brief. Locke is dead.

The last time Ben tried to kill Locke, it didn’t work. He would later tell Hurley, “I should have realized at the time that it was pointless, but I really wasn’t thinking clearly.” So does he think it will be different this time? After he stages Locke’s body to look like he did hang himself, tidies up to remove evidence that he’d been there, takes Jin’s ring and gives a last look around, he says, “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.” The tone of his voice doesn’t suggest that he expects to see Locke again. Yet why does he want to bring Locke back to the island? Will he be surprised to see him apparently resurrected?

DEAD ALIVE
Back on the island, Locke goes into the room where we saw Caesar at the beginning. Caesar is there again, sitting and reading from a Dharma file. Locke asks for a passenger list, but Caesar says the pilot took it. He then asks if Locke can shed any light on the mystery of several passengers on their plane disappearing into thin air when they flew through that blinding white light. He describes the passenger across from him – clearly Hurley – and a slight smile appears on Locke’s face. Locke realizes how he might have got there (though why did he end up on the small island, while Jack, Kate and Hurley are on the main island? And where are Sun and Sayid?) Caesar says all the passengers are accounted for, except for those who disappeared or got hurt. He brings Locke into a room of injured, and there, unconscious, bruised even worse than before, is Ben.

That should be interesting.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-This episode left me completely befuddled about who to trust in the Widmore/Linus battle. I’ve always come down on Ben’s side, but for the first time that choice seems less obvious. I don’t know if I believe Ben about Widmore’s intentions toward Locke; I don’t believe that Abaddon would have tried to kill him; but I do believe Ben was sincere in not wanting Locke to kill himself and in believing that he is vital to whatever Ben wants to happen on the island.

But I don’t know how to reconcile that with his sudden decision to kill Locke. I suggested in a recent write-up that Ben seems to be doing all the things that Locke was supposed to do: Ben moves the island instead of Locke, and Ben tries to reconvene the Oceanic Six and get them to return to the island. But that is something we witness him doing after he’s killed Locke, and given the look that comes over him when Locke starts talking about Jin, it seems that the decision to try reuniting them himself may have been born in that moment. It’s like learning about Jin and the ring provides him a way to convince them all himself, without Locke. Does he think that if he gets the Six back to the island, then whatever powerful destiny awaits Locke could instead become his?

-Let me tell you what Locke needs to do to Benjamin Linus. Sit him up in a chair, tie him down with his arms and hands flat out in front of him, palms flat, fingers spread. Then start asking him questions. If he thinks Ben’s lying, cut off a finger. Ask again. If he lies or tries to change the subject by offering “answers”…cut off a finger. Hell Locke, cut it off even if you think he’s telling the truth. And then cut off his hands at the wrists. And maybe an arm at the elbow or shoulder. Just start goddamn mutilating the son of a bitch. Maybe it will finally get some truth out of him, and even if not, I’ll bet it would feel great to just hack off some of that asshole’s appendages.

But that’s just me.

-I was definitely disappointed by the fate of Abaddon. He’s such a great, intriguing character. I hoped he would have a bigger role to play in the ultimate gameplan, and in fact I expected lots of him in Season Six. I wonder if that had been the original intention, and if they had to alter their plans because the actor, Lance Reddick, is now a regular cast member on Fringe, and therefore wouldn’t be available to shoot Lost more regularly. Either way, his demise sucks. I hope we will at least see him in more flashbacks.

-My old friend and current reader Dimitris S. and I were e-mailing last week and he offered a smart take on potential future developments that I admit had not occurred to me. Sorry to call you out, D, but I wanted to share your insight: “My undeveloped theory on this all getting religious was triggered by Widmore’s admission that he was ‘exiled’ from the island despite once being the leader of its inhabitants.  This conjured up thoughts of fallen angels, which naturally made me think that the ‘war is coming’ phrase meant the apocalypse.”

Maybe some of you had picked up on that too, but I hadn’t…possibly because I’m a Jew. The only apocalypse I really know is the one in which Martin Sheen motors upriver to assassinate Marlon Brando. Anyway, this theory scores points with me. And makes me wonder further if I’m right about the show having to curtail its Abaddon intentions; among the several approximate translations of “Abaddon” is “Satan.”

-While I’m sharing others’ theories, there are two brief thoughts from Doc Jensen that I wanted to include this week. The first involves Walt, and a cool theory about how he has appeared on the island even after leaving it: “The kid’s got The Shining times 10, and he can use his scary=psychic powers to astral project himself to the Island — most likely unknowingly, perhaps only in his dreams.” Who knows what the truth is, but I like the sound of that.

The second theory involves the fate of Locke’s ex, Helen: “Locke was told that Helen had died. Brain aneurysm. Or so Abaddon said. Do you believe him? Consider: What if Team Widmore faked that grave and fabricated that story to keep Locke on task and make sure he had no possible motivation for wanting to back out and not go back to the Island? Regardless, like some time traveling Scrooge confronted with an awful future, Locke grieved and owned his stuff: ‘She loved me. If I had just…’ Locke left the thought hang, then finished: ‘We could have been together.’ I’d like to think they could still be.”

If Widmore is the one who faked the wreckage of Flight 815, surely he could conjure up a solitary headstone. I think Helen probably is dead, but again, I like the idea that it’s just a Widmore ruse.

-The man Sayid killed outside of Hurley’s mental hospital – was it one of Widmore’s men, or one of Ben’s? What about the guys with the tranquilizer guns? Who are they working for?

-When Richard told Locke he’d have to die in order to bring the others back, did he already know how Locke would die? That it would be at Ben’s hands? That he would come back to life?

-Oh yeah – what the hell is up with Locke coming back to life??!!??

Tonight’s Episode: LaFleur