Happy Lost Day! How Dead Is Locke?

I don’t imagine that Locke is parrot-dead, and will only show up in flashbacks – maybe if this was the final season it *maybe* could work, but it’s not, and it won’t. So that leaves whether his ressurection is Christian-esque (pseudo-alive or some sort of a manifestation), or Lazarus-esque. My money’s on the latter, but I have no idea how the in-show rationale will go. If everyone/thing on the plane did indeed get flashed to the 70s, maybe it’s some time-warp thing where because John Locke wasn’t dead in the 70s, his body won’t be dead in the 70s? I don’t like that logic at all, but it’s all I could think of. (On a related note, does Charlotte’s body move with the Leftbehinds after Locke turned the wheel? Or is it, as Miles would say, just “meat”?)

I dunno about the “state” that Locke will be in, but I’m betting that Jack & co will find the coffin after a bit of wandering, and that it will be empty, just like when Jack found Christian’s body back in S1.
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If I had to bet, I’d say that his rising will be Lazarus-esque.
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@Matt – good question about Charlotte, I’ve got nuthin’. I still want to know where Rose and Bernard went to. Does anyone remember if we saw Rose and Bernard actually make a jump AFTER they reunited? Because the episode seemed to make a big deal of them “finding” each other, and I don’t remember if we saw much more of them after that. I just keep wondering if they stopped flashing after finding each other (which constantized them), or if we actually saw them make the next jump. I guess I need to go back and rewatch that episode.

I think the plane landed in 2008 on the Hydra island, and when they get off the plane and set up camp, Locke will show up. (And for the record, I think it’ll be Christian-esque) :)
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It’s hard for me to get a lot of steam built up for this episode. I expect it to be a good one, but I’m not sure how much it’s going to tell us other than Bentham backstory. /shrug

@Dave – Apart from my standard excitement that its Lost Day, this is the episode that I’ve been looking forward to the least. We’ve known for a long time that this episode is “in the mail”, as my dad would say, and I guess I’ve just been expecting something really painful and depressing. Locke is a great character, but whenever there’s a Locke-centric episode its full of pain and anguish and tragedy. When I’m rewatching old episodes, I often have an urge to skip the Locke-centric ones just because they’re so painful to watch – even when they’re telling great/important parts of the story. However, with my expectations being lowered, the episode is probably gonna blow my mind. . .

I’d like to think they won’t go for the full on Lazarus resurrection; it just seems like that would be asking too much, even for die-hard fans. They asked for a lot last week, and seeing Locke just pop back up seems like a stretch.
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My guess is he comes back in Chistian-esque/Jacob/Island spokesman way, as that’s about all I can figure would work for the established framework (Might also help give a reason for replicating the original flight conditions last week). That still leaves the question (in my mind anyway) of how much of him would be Locke or if he’d just be a new vehicle for whatever entity is controlling Christian.
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Of course, if he does come back this way, does he show up in the ’70s with the rest or replace Christian in the future? And if it’s the 70s, does the arrival of 815/Christian somehow replace “Locke” at that point? Ugh, maybe it is going to be Lazarus-esque…

@Dave and Shara – We’ve discussed before how this episode is basically “Meet Kevin Johnson” (and, kinda, “The Other 48 Days”) and, as such, is a different sort of episode. We know how the story ends – Locke, dead(“?”), in a coffin, after having visited the O6, Ben and Waaaaaaalt. Last week, by contrast, we couldn’t be certain that they’d make it back to the island in that particular episode. So yes, I agree that some of the lustre is gone. BUT seeing Locke in the real world – which he hated, by the way – should be pretty great.

@Matt – that’s true. I’m hoping this episode rekindles the questions that came up at the end of S4 and beginning of S5 of, “What exactly did Locke say to them? What happened to him?” Or maybe I’m not too pumped up for the episode because today’s been a crazy day at work, and I haven’t had time to think about it :-p
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(BSG catchup update: 2 weeks down, 2 seasons watched… I started S3 last night, but I’ve got a potential trip to my mother-in-law’s, so I may lose a lot of valuable catchup time this weekend)

@Dave – hang in there! Sounds like you’re making major progress (insult obnoxious salute and a cry of “Major Progress”!).

You’d kind of like to see Locke walk up to his old boss, no? Emphasis on WALK.

@James – YES! The return of Randy Nations!

This season: “visions” and flashbacks.
Next season (or possibly the season finale): Lazarus-like (someone else will be along for the ride though).

Forget Randy Nations, bring back PEG BUNDY!!!

I’d love to see a Randy Nations or Peg Bundy cameo, but if we see a Tricia Tanaka appearance, I’m going to be weirded out (unless, of course, we see Tricia Tanaka pre-meteorite).

@natego – I’m in complete agreement with the Peg Bundy thing. I adore that actress and would LOVE for her to come back for a guest spot.

Something we haven’t discussed yet (today) – WHEN does Locke come back? Only days after Ben? 9-10 months from whenever he moved the wheel? A couple of months before S5 begins? Early 2005, right when the 06 return?
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Also where? Tunisia again?

I won’t say anything too specific, but if you read Doc Jensen’s column on EW and watch his series with Dan Snierson “Totally Lost”, there are some spoilers that answer questions that commenters have posted so far (or, at least, some STRONG hints) about this episode.
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I don’t get the Lazurus-parrot distinction, but I do have an interesting theory: what if this week’s episode’s title — The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham — is transposed? In other words, what if we spend most of the time seeing his DEATH (off island), but much more time seeing him “alive” ON THE ISLAND?
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Or, to put it more plainly — are we going to get a ton of backstory on Locke/Bentham’s visits to the Oceanic 6 off-island, or will those stories (or many of them) wait, with us seeing more about Bentham/Locke being ALIVE with, say, the other passengers on Ajira 316? And where/when did they end up?

I think Locke comes shows up in Tunesia around the year 2000. He established a life of his own in Jeremy Bentham, because John Locke was still alive and kicking (term used very loosely).

I accidentally submitted before my last comment was done. Anyway, I’m curious if we’re going to see Locke do any traveling. Like, to Australia. Where he might cross paths with a certain psychic’s daughter. /shrug

@Chad – “Parrot” refers to the Monty Python sketch about the very, very dead, aforementioned bird. “Lazarus” is from the New Testament, Jesus raised him from the dead, but he wasn’t a smoke monster manifestation – he was alive.

Yeah, but Locke could be both — dead as the parrot on the plane, and then Lazarus-like walking around alive on the island.
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The better question is whether he is Lazurus (actually resurrected) or “Charlie Pace/Eko visiting Hurley” (actually dead, but appears VERY alive to the people who see him).

@chaddog – that would be WAY more interesting than just a collection of futile meetings with the off-island O6. Here’s hoping. . .

@ Chad, Shara -I have a feeling it’ll be something in between. I mean, there has to be a frame for this story. They can’t just plop down a huge ol’ flashback without any context – so is it Locke, ressurected, telling someone about what happened? My money’s on that.

I was thinking that maybe Locke continues to time flash when he is off the Island. The writers seemed to allude to the fact that maybe instead of the Island traveling through time the Losties are, so would that stop if they left the Island like Locke did? The preview for this episode showed after last week’s episode showed Locke in front of a swerving car. If Locke is traveling through time still, that could have been the car that his mother was in right before giving birth to him. Locke could be traveling through time influencing his past life. Either way I figure I will know the answer in the first 5 min of tonite’s episode, which is good because my mind has been slowly melting as I have been thinking about this.

First off, arguably the thing that made me happiest about last week was that we were finally in “new” territory- it wasn’t “We know Daniel gets to the DI era, so just get on with it until he’s there”, it was “Finally, a blank slate”! Why would you ruin that by viewing as many previews as possible?
(Yes, I highly suspect that the predestination is far from over, and that O6 was maneuvered to get on that plane because people from one or more sides of the conflict all knew they would be on that plane 5/10/20/50 years from then. And yes, given that we are almost positive the Ajirans end up post 2008, we know that someone (and probably the whole cast, given the number of kids left behind) will end up there. Leave me my illusion of suspense, would you?)
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And there could be any number of framing mechanisms. The first scene could be Ben showing up at Bentham’s door, saying “Ms. Hawking says its time”, and then Bentham relates Ben everything that’s happened since The Wheel in flashbacks. There is no reason why the framing sequence needs to be in a previously undescribed time period.

Lazarus it is!
This episode seems, so far, well-crafted – some answers (the coming war) and less rushed than”316″ was, of necessity …

Waiting for more …

As Christian said, since when did listening to Ben do Locke any good …

[...] of what was going to happen–minus the little bit about Locke coming back to life, which answers our question from the last LDG–and partly because we can speculate on that in the comments. But mostly because I want to talk [...]