Last week’s episode, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” was another great one. We saw the return (and surprising death) of Matthew Abaddon and learned what kind of scumbag Benjamin Linus really is. What we still don’t know is who is the real bad guy: Ben or Charles Widmore. It was cool to see Lost return to the use of Flashbacks and find out what Locke did once he got off the island. But was anyone else surprised to find out he wasn’t off the island for very long before “committing suicide?”
It was also surprising to learn that all of Ben’s knowledge concerning how to return to the island actually came from his one brief conversation Locke. Since all of Locke’s information came from Widmore, I guess Ben needs Charles and his information a lot more than he realized. Now I am wondering if Ben even knew who Ms. Hawking was before speaking with Locke, and is there any chance Widmore has more than just one daughter? He seems to have a long history with Eloise Hawking, could he also be Daniel Faraday’s father? Speaking of Widmore, after last week’s episode I have a new found respect for him. I don’t necessarily trust him, but I don’t hate him as much as I used to either. I still can’t tell if his helping Locke was really for the island’s benefit or for his own end game.
And lastly, was anyone else pissed at how they wrote Walt off of the show!?! They better be planning to bring him back at some point before the show ends. There is just too much built up mythology centering around Walt, his visions and whatever special powers he has to end the story the way that they have. I can’t wait to find out what happens tonight between Ben and Locke. Their eventual showdown is going to be epic. On a side note, if Michael Emerson doesn’t win a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for his portrayal of Ben Linus before Lost ends it is going to be a real shame. Emerson has done an amazing job as Ben and his addition to the cast has really changed the show’s dynamic for the better!
Potential *SPOILER* Ahead: I have no idea if this is legit or not, but one theory I read the other day makes some really interesting points about the crash of Ajira Airways flight 316. It goes a little something like this: those characters who mysteriously vanished in the bright light as the plane was going down (Kate, Jack, Hurley) are now in the past with the rest of the original Losties. But, the remaining passengers of the Ajira flight 316 (including Locke, Frank, Caesar and Ben) and the plane itself are in the island’s present. This explains why the second island’s Dharma station has been abandoned and how Caesar found Daniel Faraday’s map/journal pages. If they had crash landed in the past then those journal pages wouldn’t have been created yet and Dharma Initiative members would be everywhere….just some food for thought. We’ll see if any of this rings true tonight and in the weeks to come!