Season 5, Episode 7:
The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
After the crash of Ajira 316, Caesar gathers supplies from the Hydra, while Ilana, the woman who brought Sayid on the plane, tells him they've found a man who wasn't on the plane: a very much alive John Locke. He tells Ilana that he remembers dying, but she is skeptical.
After turning the wheel, Locke wakes up in the Sahara Desert. He is found and brought to a nearby medical camp, where he meets Charles Widmore, who tells him it has been three years since the Oceanic Six left the Island. Widmore promises to help Locke in his mission to get them to return, and assigns Matthew Abaddon to accompany him. Locke is confined to a wheelchair due to his broken leg. Locke visits Sayid, Hurley and Kate, and fails to convince any of them to go back to the Island. He also visits Walt, but does not ask him to return, and discovers that his ex-girlfriend Helen has died. Abaddon is shot and killed, and Locke crashes his car escaping from the scene. He is brought to Jack's hospital, where Jack angrily refuses to come back. Locke plans to hang himself, but is stopped by Ben, who encourages him not to give up. Locke tells Ben that Jin is alive, and that Eloise Hawking can help him find the Island, at which point Ben murders him, and stages his suicide.
Caesar brings Locke to see the wounded passengers from the plane, where he finds an unconscious Ben. He tells Caesar that he's the man who killed him.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Beard of Sorrow: We see Jack having the beginning of his infamous beard when he meets Locke at his hospital.
- Bus Crash: Locke's ex-girlfriend Helen Norwood is revealed to have died of a brain aneurysm in the three years since the Oceanic Six left the Island.
- Call-Back:
- Widmore references his meeting with Locke as a teenager in "Jughead", which only ocurred four days earlier from Locke's perspective.
- Hurley freaks out when he discovers that Locke is working with Abaddon, remembering their encounter in "The Beginning of the End".
- Locke recognizes Abaddon as the orderly who told him to go on a walkabout.
- Chekhov's Gun: Subverted. Widmore gives Locke a phone that will reach him at any time if he needs something. Locke ends up not using it, and throws it away right before his suicide attempt.
- Interquel: This episode fills in the gaps between the two storylines shown in the season so far, taking place before and after the three year gap between the Oceanic Six leaving the Island and their reactions to the news of Locke's death.
- Irony: Jack is the most aggressive Oceanic Six member in refusing to return to the Island with Locke, yet he is the only one who Locke actually ends up convincing.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Lampshaded. Widmore notes that Locke shares his name with the English philosopher
, before giving him the alias of another English philosopher. - Refusal of the Call: Everyone who Locke visits refuses to return to the island, but Locke never talks to Sun, and he doesn’t ask Walt as he’s been through enough. It won’t matter in the long run. However, the one who was the most resistant to his destiny is the one who decides to answer the call on his own.
- The Reveal: Charles Widmore tells Locke that he was the leader of the Others before Ben exiled him.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode begins and ends shortly after the Ajira flight landed on Hydra Island, and everything in between is Locke's flashback in trying to convince the Oceanic Six to return.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Ben talks Locke out of committing suicide by convincing him that his mission to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island could still succeed, then kills him himself after he's got the information he needed from him.
