Lost 5x07 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
Just watched this episode, and I have a few thoughts...
First point is that... well, Charles Widmore might not be the bad guy. It's kind of awkward for me to realise that, because I'm a Desmond fan and I've spent quite some time hating Widmore.
But seeing him with Locke... I dunno. He's making me reevaluate my ideas about him.
(It does not help that in the Widmore v. Ben fight.... Ben makes it quite difficult for me to support/like/agree with him, because he lies. About pretty much everything. During a certain fatal encounter between Ben and Locke in this episode, I was actually willing Locke not to listen to him. Really, the fact that BENJAMIN LINUS LIES is, or should be, one of the (few) constants on this show. But then apparently Locke hadn't figured that out yet.)
While I'm on the subject.... when Ben killed Locke I was alll "whoaaaaa...", because he was so... clinical. He's killed before (Keamy), but that was raw and emotional and... justifiable, in a way. This wasn't.
And there's the fact that he didn't need to do any of it - instead of talking Locke out of suicide, killing him, and then staging Locke's suicide, he could have just not gone to the hotel room and let Locke kill himself. (The situation does suggest that as well as being a pathological liar, Ben is also a pathological manipulator.)
Actually... there is another way to see Ben's actions. He may not have intended to kill Locke at all - but made the decision to do so only after Locke mentioned Ms Hawking. That would fit with the "I'm going to miss you", but then if Ben went to that hotel room with no intention of killing anyone, then he was extremely well prepared and (apparently) entirely by accident. Hmm.
Next: After I watched the episode, I made a rough diagram of connections between people, based on what's happened in season Five so far.
The result looks a bit like a spiderweb... and in the middle are Benjamin Linus, John Locke and Eloise Hawking. I'm... not sure what to make of that just yet.
Next: Something Charles Widmore said intrigued me... he said that he was/had been the rightful leader of the Island, until Ben tricked him into exile off-Island.
Which means we appear to have three contenders for Leader of the Island -
Widmore, the Leader-in-Exile.
Ben, the Usurper (probably).
Locke, the... well, I don't know yet. Could be the Second Coming of Christ for all I know.
I must admit though, I'm quite curious as to which one's going to "win", so to speak.
That leads me to my next point (regarding Ben's motive for killing Locke):
My hypothetical idea is like this.
1. Ms Hawking believes, for whatever reason, that Ben is supposed to be the true Leader of the Island.
2. If she met Locke, and heard his story, she might come to believe that Locke was the true Leader of the Island.
3. Locke told Ben that he'd been told to take the Oceanic Sixers to Ms Hawking.
4. Ben thought that if he let Locke and Ms Hawking meet, then he would lose his position to Locke.
5. ....therefore, Ben was acting to protect his own position. Which is in-character for him, you have to admit.
And finally:
The Survivors of the Crash of....
Ajira Airlines Flight 316.
I think I'm going to like these guys. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Caesar and Ilana are about one Smoke Monster encounter away from being the New Jack'n'Kate. Except, y'know, cooler.
(And that would be supremely ironic... given the fact that Kate was being escorted in handcuffs on Flight 815, and Ilana was the one doing the escorting on Flight 316. Incidentally, I'd still like to know WTF was going on there.)
And of course... there's Frank. Who, we're told, paddled away from the Hydra Island (where Flight 316 crashed) in a canoe, accompanied by the passenger manifest and "some woman".
This raises the questions:
Where's he going?
Why?
Why'd he take the manifest?
Who's the woman?
(In my Official Weirdest Thought Of The Day, I briefly considered that "some woman" might be Penny. But that makes no sense, as a) Desmond wasn't on the plane and b) Penny wouldn't leave Des and Charlie.)
I'd also like to know why Ben didn't disappear with the Oceanic Sixers... actually, no, I think I know why. I'd just like confirmation.
Oh, and I have the urge to write fic about the 316ers. Ah well.
First point is that... well, Charles Widmore might not be the bad guy. It's kind of awkward for me to realise that, because I'm a Desmond fan and I've spent quite some time hating Widmore.
But seeing him with Locke... I dunno. He's making me reevaluate my ideas about him.
(It does not help that in the Widmore v. Ben fight.... Ben makes it quite difficult for me to support/like/agree with him, because he lies. About pretty much everything. During a certain fatal encounter between Ben and Locke in this episode, I was actually willing Locke not to listen to him. Really, the fact that BENJAMIN LINUS LIES is, or should be, one of the (few) constants on this show. But then apparently Locke hadn't figured that out yet.)
While I'm on the subject.... when Ben killed Locke I was alll "whoaaaaa...", because he was so... clinical. He's killed before (Keamy), but that was raw and emotional and... justifiable, in a way. This wasn't.
And there's the fact that he didn't need to do any of it - instead of talking Locke out of suicide, killing him, and then staging Locke's suicide, he could have just not gone to the hotel room and let Locke kill himself. (The situation does suggest that as well as being a pathological liar, Ben is also a pathological manipulator.)
Actually... there is another way to see Ben's actions. He may not have intended to kill Locke at all - but made the decision to do so only after Locke mentioned Ms Hawking. That would fit with the "I'm going to miss you", but then if Ben went to that hotel room with no intention of killing anyone, then he was extremely well prepared and (apparently) entirely by accident. Hmm.
Next: After I watched the episode, I made a rough diagram of connections between people, based on what's happened in season Five so far.
The result looks a bit like a spiderweb... and in the middle are Benjamin Linus, John Locke and Eloise Hawking. I'm... not sure what to make of that just yet.
Next: Something Charles Widmore said intrigued me... he said that he was/had been the rightful leader of the Island, until Ben tricked him into exile off-Island.
Which means we appear to have three contenders for Leader of the Island -
Widmore, the Leader-in-Exile.
Ben, the Usurper (probably).
Locke, the... well, I don't know yet. Could be the Second Coming of Christ for all I know.
I must admit though, I'm quite curious as to which one's going to "win", so to speak.
That leads me to my next point (regarding Ben's motive for killing Locke):
My hypothetical idea is like this.
1. Ms Hawking believes, for whatever reason, that Ben is supposed to be the true Leader of the Island.
2. If she met Locke, and heard his story, she might come to believe that Locke was the true Leader of the Island.
3. Locke told Ben that he'd been told to take the Oceanic Sixers to Ms Hawking.
4. Ben thought that if he let Locke and Ms Hawking meet, then he would lose his position to Locke.
5. ....therefore, Ben was acting to protect his own position. Which is in-character for him, you have to admit.
And finally:
The Survivors of the Crash of....
Ajira Airlines Flight 316.
I think I'm going to like these guys. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Caesar and Ilana are about one Smoke Monster encounter away from being the New Jack'n'Kate. Except, y'know, cooler.
(And that would be supremely ironic... given the fact that Kate was being escorted in handcuffs on Flight 815, and Ilana was the one doing the escorting on Flight 316. Incidentally, I'd still like to know WTF was going on there.)
And of course... there's Frank. Who, we're told, paddled away from the Hydra Island (where Flight 316 crashed) in a canoe, accompanied by the passenger manifest and "some woman".
This raises the questions:
Where's he going?
Why?
Why'd he take the manifest?
Who's the woman?
(In my Official Weirdest Thought Of The Day, I briefly considered that "some woman" might be Penny. But that makes no sense, as a) Desmond wasn't on the plane and b) Penny wouldn't leave Des and Charlie.)
I'd also like to know why Ben didn't disappear with the Oceanic Sixers... actually, no, I think I know why. I'd just like confirmation.
Oh, and I have the urge to write fic about the 316ers. Ah well.