LOST Season Finale - So Who is JEREMY BENTHAM

Moving islands, marching armies of mercenaries and even a freighter loaded with explosives weighed heavily on the minds of Lost fans anticipating Thursday’s two-hour season finale. But they all became secondary concerns as a new question twisted its way into the foreground: Who is Jeremy Bentham?

We knew from past flash forwards that the Oceanic Six escape. But at the end of the last episode they were spread across the island, the beach and the freighter off shore and outside whatever dome of solitude surrounds the island.

Sun and baby Aaron had just reached the freighter with Jin, when Michael and Desmond discover a room full of explosives. The popular consensus is that the object baddie Keamy wears on his arm will trigger the explosives if he dies.

Jack, with Sawyer in tow, tracked down the chopper to find Lapidus tied up. He says the bad guys have gone to The Orchid to capture Ben. Archie and Reggie launch back into the woods to find Ben’s running mate, the much-loved Hurley.

The last we saw of Hurley, he was hiding with Locke in the woods near The Orchid when Ben revealed himself to Keamy and crew as a diversion.

While Faraday continued to funnel people off the island on a tiny boat, Sayid and Kate charge into the woods in search of Jack and Sawyer - who they’ve learned are heading into trouble. They manage to find their own problems, however, when the ageless Richard Alpert and his gang of Others capture them and lead them into the woods.

The rest of the characters were left waiting on the beach for their turn to leave the island, save for Clair, who was last seen chilling out with her dead father in Jacob’s mystic cabin.

This episode starts where Season Three ends: With a drunk jack screaming at Kate outside the airport, demanding that they go back to the island. This time, she stops the car. She gets out and laces into Jack for tormenting her and demanding she go to “Jeremy Bentham’s” funeral. She hints that something this unknown person said made Jack realize they had to return to the island, although at this point what that was remains as mysterious as his identity.

Back on the island, we join Jack and Sawyer heading for The Orchid. They find Hurly urinating in the woods and, after brief awkwardness between Hurley and Jack, they join Locke and The Orchid station. Jack and Locke bicker until Jack realizes all he came for was Hurley and tries to leave, but curiosity gets the better of him and stays to see what Locke is up to.

Meanwhile, Keamy and his mercenary crew are leading Ben back to the chopper, when Kate comes running out of the woods, claiming to be chased by Ben’s friends. The troops get their weapons ready. A mysterious whispering engulfs the group before the Others attack them from the woods like a pack of Ewoks. Kate gets Ben to safety, while Sayid tackles Keamy and the two trained fighters battle. Keamy is about to kill him when Alpert shoots Keamy in the back. To thank them for saving him, Ben gives Kate and Sayid the chopper and says they can leave the island.

In the next flash forward, Hurley is visited in his psych ward by a much older Walt. It has only been three years since he left the island, but the kid can now grow a better moustache than Sidney Crosby. Walt is upset that the Oceanic Six didn’t come and visit him. But he says Jeremy Bentham did visit and left him angry that the survivors are lying about what happened. Hurley says they have to lie to keep people on the island safe. “Like my dad?” Walt asks. Hurley hesitantly says yes.

Back on the island, Hurley and Sawyer eat 15-year-old crackers while Locke and Jack take up their age-old debate on destiny. Locke says Jack knows he’s supposed to be on the island, and will be consumed with guilt if he leaves (score one for Locke). Locke says it’s not an island, it’s a place where miracles happen. Jacks says there is no such thing as miracles. Locke: “Just wait until you see what I’m going to do,” meaning his intentions to move the island to keep it safe. Ben joins them and dismisses Jack, telling him he, Hurley and Sawyer should leave the island, then leads Locke into the underground.

On the boat, Michael is still battling the explosives, which haven’t exploded. The plan is to freeze the battery with liquid nitrogen. In conversation, Sun tells him that she’s pregnant, which he seems sad about, likely because the boat is about to explode.

Meanwhile, Faraday has returned to the beach and tells his friends Miles and Charlotte that they have to be on the next trip, because there won’t be another. Miles says he’s not going to leave, and sits happily eating nuts. Miles then says to Charlotte that he’s surprised she wants to leave, considering how hard she worked to get back “here.” What do you mean, she asks nervously, and Miles acts coyly. Charlotte decides to stay, telling Faraday that she “was still looking for where she was born.”

In The Orchid, Locke finds a vault that opens into a mystical bubble. An orientation video Ben makes him watch says a “Casimir effect” lets the Dharma Initiative do experiments on space and time. It’s a time machine, but not “the magic box,” Ben says. The orientation video says its important not to put metal into the vault, but Ben is frantically loading everything he can into the small room. A living, but angry, Keamy arrives and tells a hiding Ben about the bomb trigger that will go off if he dies. Locke appears and tries to talk him into putting down his knife. Ben uses the distraction to attack him, stabbing him several times.
Locke: “You just killed everyone on that boat.”
Ben: “So?”

Jack, Hurley and Sawyer get to the chopper and join Lapidus, Sayid and Kate. They get into the chopper and take off, all excited to get off the island, including Sawyer it seems. As they head for the freighter, they run out of gas. They start jettisoning things to reduce weight, but it’s not enough. Sawyer gets that “reluctant hero” look in his eye, and whispers some directions to Kate (likely something about visiting his daughter, Clementine) before kissing her and diving off the chopper. He swims back to the island.

In the next flash forward, Sayid sneaks up and kills a guy stalking Hurley’s mental institution, before going inside and asking Hurley to come with him. He’s sitting at a chess board alone. Sayid says things haven’t been safe since Bentham’s death and wants to take him to safety. Hurley lets it slip that Bentham is a fake name. He makes Sayid swear they’re not going back to the island. As he gets up, he makes one more chess move. “Checkmate, Mr. Eko,” he says. Apparently, Charlie isn’t the only dead island-dweller that has been visiting Hurley.

Locke fights to keep Keamy alive, but he’s fading fast. “Wherever you go, Widmore will find you,” he tells Ben. “Not if I find him first,” he says. Keamy dies, and the red lights start flashing. On the boat, Michael and Jin stay to keep the bomb’s battery frozen and inactive, while Desmond runs to evacuate the ship. “Bloody Hell,” he says as the chopper approaches. Lapidus has to land. They quickly refill the tank and get ready to relaunch. Sun says she won’t leave without Jin, but Kate gets her on the chopper and says she’ll find him. Jack intercepts her and forces her onto the chopper as well. Michael, meanwhile, gives Jin the “you are a father” speech to get him to leave, but he gets to the deck after the chopper has taken off.

Below, Michael hears the mystic whispers, before Jack’s dead father Christian appears and tells him he can “go now,” meaning (most likely) that he’s free to die. Moments later the ship blows with Michael, Jin and others still on board.

Sun breaks down after watching her husband blow up, ultimately blaming Jack for his death. In a flash forward, we find her in London, approaching Widmore. “Are you going to pretend you don’t know who I am?” she asks, before offering him her business card and telling him they have lots to talk about. She subtly offers to help him find Ben, and she seems just angry enough about Jin’s death to do it.

Inside the Orchid station, Ben starts the magic vault overloaded with metal, and it explodes. It seems to be part of the process, because Ben puts on his parka and climbs in. First, he tells Locke that he has to go, because whoever moves the island can never come back. Locke has been chosen to lead the Others and care for the island. Ben climbs through the vault and into an icy tunnel. Finally, he climbs down a ladder into an anti-chamber, where he slips and cuts his arm. There’s a huge lever, which Ben works to turn. As he does, things get very bright and a loud humming engulfs the island. The chopper crew, on their way back to the island, watches it seemingly sink into the ocean. The chopper runs out of gas and crashes. Everyone survives and loads into an emergency raft.

In the next flash forward, Kate wakes up in her home and hears someone in Aaron’s room. She loads her gun and jumps into the room, to find Claire sitting over her child’s bed. It turns out to be a dream, but Kate still seems shaken by Claire’s demand that Aaron never return to the island.

On the raft, Hurley tells everyone that Locke moved the island. Despite his own eyes, Jack refuses to believe that it happened, but he does tell everyone that they have to make up a story to protect the remaining island dwellers. They see a rescue boat, which turns out to belong to Penny, Desmond’s girlfriend. They run to each other, and he promises never to leave her again. Jack ruins a pleasant round of introductions by telling them that they all have to talk.

In the end, he convinces the Oceanic Six that they have to leave the boat and stage a rescue at a nearby island, in order to keep their cover story legitimate. Desmond and Lapidus remain on Penny’s boat. The Oceanic Six paddle to a village, where the residents rush to help them. At this point, the storyline catches up to the flash forward from Episode 12, as the survivors are led into a press conference, before going their separate ways.

The final flash forward finds a wasted, bearded Jack driving to the funeral hall where Jeremy Bentham remains. It’s midnight, so he breaks in, crying, pacing and reluctantly opens the coffin. Before he can reveal who is inside, Ben appears. “Did he tell you I was off the island?” he asks. Apparently he did. Bentham is actually someone who escaped the island to visit Jack and Kate, telling them both that terrible things had happened since they left and blaming them all on Jack.

Ben says Jack has to come back to the island, and has to bring everyone with him. Jack says no one will want to, but Ben says he’ll help convince them. They have to take Bentham’s body as well. Finally, after two hours of wondering who Jeremy Bentham is, the truth is revealed. John Locke lies inside the coffin, far from the island he was destined to find.