Spoilers ahead
Another great show, and a few more pieces of the puzzle fall into place!
Nearly the entire show was dedicated to what happened to John Locke after he left the island. Surprisingly enough, it turns out that there’s ONE exit point from the island back to the “regular” world (at least via the wheel) and Widmore was watching it. He even had his man, Abaddon, in place to watch to see who might get through.
After all this time of watching Widmore in other situations, it was really tough to believe that he might be telling Locke the truth. When he said he wanted to help John get back to the island, that threw a lot of my speculation out the window and pointed to one thing:
It’s a really, REALLY bad thing that Locke is back on the island.
The thing that completely iced it is that when Ben heard Locke say the name “Eloise Hawking”, Ben killed Locke after the sudden realization that he had made a pretty big mistake.
What sudden realization?
The only thing I can think of is that Ben someone (probably Hawking) told Ben that Locke had to be stopped from going back to the island, but Ben didn’t believe it. Up until that point, Ben had been going under the assumption that Locke was Jacob’s chosen new leader, and that Locke was very important. He believed this so strongly that he even turned that wheel, and sacrificed himself to keep Locke on the island. (In reality, it was Christian that told Locke that he needed to move the island… Ben wasn’t supposed to leave).
If Hawking told Ben that he wasn’t supposed to be the one that left the island (and Locke was suppoed to leave), that Locke wasn’t supposed to be the leader, and possibly that Locke might even be dangerous to have on the island, Ben’s first reaction to this would be not to believe it. That’s normal human nature – make a big mistake, and not being to admit that you were wrong, until evidence presents itself that shows you were wrong. Ben couldn’t bring himself to believe he had been wrong about Locke.
Ben was probably told something like “if Locke tries to go see Hawking, that will be the proof you’ll need”. So, when Locke finally did say her name, that was the evidence that Ben needed to make him realize he was wrong, and that Locke was as dangerous as Ben had been warned. Ben went back to what he does best… do anything to protect the island, and that’s when he killed Locke.
Now, what the heck has been the deal with Ben getting everyone together, including Locke, to get everyone to go back? If Ben wanted to stop Locke, what possible reason would he have for keeping Locke’s body to go back? Well, I think that’s pretty self-explanatory after last week’s show. Locke went back because they needed to get everyone together as soon as they could. I don’t think Ben was counting out Locke coming back to life though. My question is… was it the island that brought Locke back… Or something else?
I do think it was interesting that the island chose all the Oceanic folks to beam down, while Ben was left to crash with the rest of them. Is he really hurt? Or is he biding his time while he figures out what to do? My guess is the latter.
Oh, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Abaddon. If Widmore was watching all the Oceanic folks, then there’s a pretty good chance that Abaddon’s body was on that plane too. Locke still owes Abaddon a favor, remember?
What did you think of the show? Do you like my theory? Have one (or two) of your own? Let’s hear ’em!