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LOST with my Left Foot On Red

By John Cabrera on Feb 27 2009

My thoughts on this week’s Lost? Not many. But I did enjoy the episode much more than last week. That’s largely because Terry O’Quinn is amazing and Locke episodes are solid as a rock… especially when he has an emotional meltdown. Makes me wanna give him one of my kidneys.

INTERESTING BIT OF TRIVIA I GOT FROM ONE OF HIS OLD COLLEGE BUDS: Terry O’Quinn can improvise in iambic pentameter. That’s not a joke.

I was disappointed with the lack of Island stuff this week, but the little we did see was really cool… although Locke’s Grim Reaper costume at the beginning was a bit strange. Right?

I really liked that they explained the “plane flash” from the previous episode. It actually helped me swallow that. They seem to be suggesting that as the plane flew over the island (or some magnetic energy field), Jack, Kate, and Hurley (and presumably Sayid and Sun) teleported in time… similar to what was happening to Faraday and the others a few episodes back.

Then the rest of the plane crashed on the island present day…………. actually what am I talking about? There is no present day on this show anymore.

The plane crashed on the Island during the same time period as when it departed… no time traveling. So for the Island it’s been three years since the Oceanic 6 left.

And if you assume EVERYONE else who stayed on the Island 3 years back began “time jumping” when Ben turned that “Big Wheel”… then these new plane crash survivors (and this reborn version of Locke) are totally alone on the island…. at least until a time looping Sawyer & Co. arrive for a few minutes and steal their canoes.

And now with the “Big Wheel” back in place, everyone who started time looping on the island 3 years prior (including our returning survivors Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, and Sun) is stuck in the 60s-70s with the original Dharma initiative.

Okay, so… I get why Faraday and those cats are stuck there. Locke “locked” the wheel while they happened to be in that time period so… that’s where the flashes stopped.

But I don’t really get why the Oceanic 6 (5) were also flashed to that time period. Unless, of course, you buy the idea that “the Island has a master place for everyone”. But you know me, I want the science to make sense, and in this case it just doesn’t yet. So until it does, I consider this just another “Lighthouse Station Pendulum”.

And another big question. Why didn’t Ben flash back to the 60s-70s? Is it because there’s already a younger version of him there, and the Island doesn’t like that paradox? Is it because he left the Island the proper way (using the wheel)? Or does it have something to do with why he got that tumor on his spine? Everyone else on this Island gets healed.

Does the Island just hate Ben Linus?

Well I know some of you hate Ben Linus (Viv). But I’m gonna leave that topic for a future post.

I am still excited about the mystery of those canoes on shore. I feel like after this episode we may have enough information to crack that puzzle.

What do you guys think?

Who’s the bad guy on Lost – Ben Linus or Charles Widmore? (tvsquad.com)
Lost Season 5 Episode 7 “The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham” Observations (connectwithyourteens.blogspot.com)
Lost Round-Table: Episode 7, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” (tor.com)

7 Responses to “LOST with my Left Foot On Red”

Manos Torgo on 28 Feb 2009 at 12:20 am #

I want to know what is up with Ben and Mother Goose. As soon as Locke mentioned Eloise Hawking, Ben flipped a switch and did what he did to Locke. Its similar to the way Ben sorta freaked when Desmond revealed that Hawking *might* be Faraday’s mother….which was NOT confirmed by Mother Goose when mentioned. She never did gasp and ask how her *son* was…sooo that leaves doubt for me.

Hmm, canoes? Yah I just figured that there were 3 canoes, now 2…and then Sawyer & co. steal #2 and are chased by Ceasar & co. Also, I’ve never seen that actor play a good guy. He’s like the “Middle Eastern” Henry Silva. (yah I went there)

At least we know that both Islands are moving as we saw a shot of both islands. Which explains the canoes, which monkey boy used to help Sawyer & Kate escape a while back.

I think Ben can and will travel back in time. Sawyer & the gang have gone back to times and placed where they existed, creating the paradox. Locke purposefully avoided the hatch so he wouldn’t see himself, but it was the same time/space….er my head hurts now.

And completely agree, O’Quinn is great to watch. I always see him as Howard Hughes from “The Rocketeer” though, even when he was on Alias.
Vanessa N. on 28 Feb 2009 at 12:35 am #

Terry O’Quinn is an amazing actor and I am now in AWE of him with that iambic pentameter tidbit. It’s hard enough to write in iambic pentameter, let alone verbally improvise it!

I may be one of the few people who really liked last week’s episode, but I guess I just enjoy more questions. Must be a little crazy!

As far as the issue of time goes with the 3 years, I could be completely wrong, but I assumed (from Widmore’s conversation with Locke about how it had only been a few days for him and 3 years for the Oceanic 6, along with the fact that we already know there is some sort of discrepancy between Island time and outside world time because of the Faraday and the freighter) that time moves at a much slower rate on the Island than it does in the outside world.

I think Locke and Ben are in “present” Island time because of your question #3 – they left the “right” way. At least, that’s the explanation that makes the most sense in my head anyway.
Pauline on 28 Feb 2009 at 10:52 am #

This post is hurting my head. Gonna think on this stuff and might come back later because all of you three (jc, mt & v) have thoughts that I both agree and disagree with.

This is just some character stuff:

Anyone else dying for Locke to just spill the beans with Kate when she asked him about if he had ever loved? I just wanted him to be like ‘Kate! Dude! I lost my woman because I was bitter that my father lied to me, shot me and stole my kidney! Yes Katie. STOLE! MY! KIDNEY!’ But of course Locke is too cool and mysterious for that. I love seeing him off the island where he is more vulnerable and we get to see his squishy insides and what makes him tick as a man. O’Quinn is amazing with this sort of material. Loved him in the Stepfather movies… LOVED him as Reilly on Earth 2 and of course as Peter Watts on Millennium (I’m still bummed those two shows got cancelled) But it is the squishy bits of Locke that make Locke my favorite of all O’Quinn’s rolls. Where is his Emmy? Sheesh already. And if O’Quinn had lived in the 1600′s he would have been it to iambic pentameter what 2pac was to Rap.

And man am I pissed that Linus killed Abaddon… it’s cool because even though we may have not seen the last of of Lance Reddick on lost (because face it… who knows who we’ll see in the time loopy extravaganza that Lost has become) but it gives gives me hope that maybe Massive Dynamic won’t murder his special agent Broyles on Fringe.

Oh… and it was nice to see Walt.
leah on 28 Feb 2009 at 9:01 pm #

I am a little disappointed that you didn’t even touch on the fact that Ben choked the snot out of John.
And yes, the island hates Ben.
Johnny Hugel on 01 Mar 2009 at 5:21 pm #

I think you’re right about all the time periods, but I’m interested to see how it’s all explained.

My lingering questions are about Ben and Ms. Hawkings. This is the second time Ben has been caught off guard about her (Desmond calling her Daniel’s mother, and now Locke knowing about her existance). I’m very interested to see who Ben really reports to, and why off the island, he suddenly has such little power over everything going on. The news about Jin being alive was also a surprise to him.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see what comes next.
John Cabrera on 01 Mar 2009 at 5:54 pm #

Hawking and Widmore have a very important relationship with each other… I just have a feeling about that. They were both a part of that original group of Others.

The strange thing is since they left the Island, Widmore has been trying desperately to return, while Hawking doesn’t seem to have a need to go back. And on top of it, Richard has been back and forth from the Island many times (to recruit Juliet and to see Locke as a kid just to name two)… why doesn’t he try to contact Widmore or Hawking while he’s there?

I think Ben being surprised about Jin and Hawking isn’t really as important as it seems. I think we’ve built up this image of Ben as being all knowing and powerful… so now when he doesn’t seem to know something we’re like, “Whoa! What does that mean?”

But with all the time jumping going on now, Ben likely learned everything he knew on the Island years earlier from time traveling survivors. If I traveled back to the 60s, I could give the dumbest dude in the world enough information about the future to make people think he was a genius.

But now that Ben is in an uncertain future he’s learning stuff the same way we the audience is. And some of it is naturally surprising.

Yeah, I can’t wait to see what’s coming up.

Black Rock!! Black Rock!! We Want Black Rock!!!
Vanessa N. on 05 Mar 2009 at 11:17 am #

Ha! Well, I was totally wrong about timing!