Who is telling the truth?  Who is right?  Who do you trust?  Is it Benjamin Linus or is it Charles Widmore?  That’s that question I came away with from this week’s episode.  Both men have an obsession with the island and both believe that what they are doing is what’s right.

This week’s episode is entitled “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” and focuses on Mr. Jeremy Bentham aka John Locke.  We know that Locke has left the island in order to bring Jack and the remaining Oceanic survivors back to the island.  We also know at some point when John is off the island, he dies.  This episode shows from beginning to end his trip and how he ended up dead.

Spoilers…...........................

We saw in last week’s episode that Jack, Ben, and other island alumni board Flight 316 along with some other non-island people as well. At some point during the flight, the plane flies through a portal that transports everyone to the island. An interesting twist is that some of the people not associated with the island prior to boarding Flight 316 have also survived the crash. Two of them are a man by the name of Caesar and a woman named Ilana. Ilana is the woman who may or may not be a cop or a federal agent as she was escorting Sayid onto the plane. Someone who also survived and is now alive is John Locke.

We flashback to John just after he left the island. He has “landed” in the desert. It seems he’s in same desert spot that Ben ended up when he left the island and the same place where Charlotte found the polar bear. I guess this area is the exit portal when you leave the island.

He’s hurt and is picked up by some men in a truck who take him to a hospital. There his leg is set and he’s given drugs to sleep. He wakes up to find Charles Widmore sitting next to him. A juicy piece of information is given here as we find out that it was Ben who ended up kicking Widmore off the island and assuming command of the Others. I guess that’s why they hate each other. It’s Widmore who gives John his new identity of Jeremy Bentham as he aids John in getting back to the U.S. in order to get everyone back to the island. John’s companion is the mysterious Matthew Abaddon who we have seen in previous episodes with John and the freighter people. Abaddon works for Widmore - until he’s killed at a cemetery where John found out that his lost love Helen had died.

John goes to the states and of course fails to get everyone to go back with him. Feeling lost and useless, John decides to end his own life. Before he hangs himself, Ben shows up and talks him down. Ben convinces John to continue and that he will help him. As they discuss a plan of action, John mentions seeking out Elouise Hawking, Ben then takes the cord that John was about to use to hang himself and chokes him to death. That shocked the hell out of me. The writers of this show do a great job of making you have sympathy for Ben and think that he maybe one of the good guys after all - then they pull the rug out from you and have him do something like kill John. I think Ben hates John and that’s why he killed him. John knew about Elouise because of Christian and Christian is or is associated with Jacob. Jacob seems to have chosen John for something special and I think Ben hates that. He probably feels abandoned; tossed away or betrayed by a father figure the same way his real father was such a bastard to him.

The episode ends with Ilana showing John all of the other survivors of the plane crash.  Jack and the others are not part of the group, but one person is - Ben and we end there for this week’s episode.

I’m curious about these two characters of Caesar and Ilana.  I’m assuming they work for Widmore.  I said last week that maybe Ben set up Ilana to capture Sayid and have him bought to the plane, but maybe it was Widmore.  There must be something between the two as we saw in the opening scene where Caesar put the gun in his bag and didn’t tell Ilana.  Is it for protection because he’s on the island and he knows strange things happen here or is he planning on killing her.

Other things I’m interested in seeing are how Widmore became the leader of the Others over Richard.  How did Ben get him off the island?  Kudos to Micahel Emerson and and Terrry O’Quinn.  The two of them are great actors and the suicide scene was well acted.

Next week’s episode in entitled “LaFleur”.  See you then.