Unseen Frozen Character

Ok. Its Season 5 and Ben and Jack drag frozen Locke out of Flash Forward Funeral Parlor. Ding Dong...a doorbell rings. "Kate we have to go back ! "....And after a long convincing speech, Jack says...oh yeah...dead Locke is the back of my truck. And Hurley's crazy?

Please God, let Episode One begin with that. Put some fun back into this grim tale.

Let me qualify a few things about the Finale's themes. When the writers started this thing they thought they had one less hour and with the strike they literally were patching scenes up till the last minute. As viewers, we must understand the task at hand. Yes, they could have hit it out of the park. But 99 times out of a hundred, if your show is as complicated as Lost, your gonna fail if you dont have enough time. I dont believe they failed though. I thought the first hour was better than any episode this year. However I do believe they fell victim to their own literary devices. The once hailed FlashForward trick came back to bite them and took away the suspense but I'd say that even with this failure in execution, the Finale was great TV.

Now, the Theme.
Unseen Frozen Character.
Unlike last season finale, which had a sneaky theme hidden underneath almost every scene(see my blog). This was more overt.

It begins with unseen Jeremy Bentham being introduced by Kate. We find out he's in the coffin. In the next flashforward we hear his name again used by Walt. We then move to Sayid. Sayid tells Hugo that Benthem died 2 days ago. But then comes the curious flashforward. Sun.

Sun's flashforward also has unseen character but she doesn't mention him, or them, by name. According to the rules of the theme--Sun must be talking about Bentham right? Yes, at this point we are suppose to conclude BENtham is Ben. Widmore's common interest is finding Ben. Bentham has been mentioned in every Flashfoward up until now --and now an unseen character is targeted by Sun and Widmore. So its settled right? No, because in a mystery its common to introduce a Red Herring and this is one. Specifically designed to have us jump as much as Jack did in the funeral parlor at the sound of Bens voice.

Note something else.... it was Ben who killed Keamy. Locke may have visited Sun, as well, on his O6 rounds and explained what Ben did. But don't be so quick to think that Sun has gone rogue. Lost is about deceiving the viewer. So it's more likely that Sun has already joined up with Ben and Sayid in order to trap Widmore. After all, it was Widmore who was, first and foremost, responsible for Jins death.

There is one other possible twist though. Ben may have told Sun that it was Locke who killed Keamy--thus destroying the freighter. Ben might have even killed Locke himself.. but its possible that this scene was showing us that Sun killed Locke.

Now, my point here is the unseen character theme is being expanded to keep people guessing. Another example is when Keamy comes down the Elevator. The audience is suppose to ponder if this is the mysterious Bentham--if just for a split second. All sorts of people are hidden in this episode. We hear noises in the jungle and Kate comes out of nowhere. The Others, Sayid attacking Keamy. Richard shooting Keamy. Ben stabbing Keamy. :) Did you notice they knew the audience wanted Keamy killed more than once !

In the Orchid we continue with this idea when Halliwax says the bunny will disappear which ultimately leads to Lost's biggest character becoming unseen. The Island. Poof.

In the end we find that the unseen character is not real. Jeremy Bentham does not exist and neither does John Locke anymore. He is frozen like all dead bodies. I say frozen because it was a not so subtle Motif. The standing joke at Dharma must have been--who needs a greenhouse on a tropical island? Except this greenhouse is green on the outside and Arctic on the inside. It strikes me that Ben's little cave needs to be cold or else. But something else needed to be frozen in No Place like Home...Michael's battery.

When Micheal cant keep the battery frozen he hears this line---"You can go now". Which is the last theme I'll mention, which is the title of the finale. Very few main characters on Lost actually did not go home. Home is where the heart is and Rose, Charlotte, Miles, Sawyer and Locke wound up where they wanted. So did the Oceanic 6, Desmond and Frank --and this is where I thought the season could have improved.

Lost only left one main character that truly wanted to get off the Island. Juliet. It also so utterly destroyed any of the peaceful sentiment many character's felt as they contemplated if living on the Island was actually preferable to our stressful world. Say that 3 times fast.

I also want you to consider the utter shock you would have felt if you didn't know the Island was going to disappear. The supposed loss of Jin. The confirmed Oceanic 6. That's the price you pay for the narrative they chose. It can be done but you have to be careful about what you reveal ahead of time. What is really puzzling to me is it looks like it will continue. Instead of coloring in the timeline from the rescue to the coffin--they left out much of what led to Jack's insanity. The fact that Bentham was unseen throughout the flashforward scenes requires flashbacks of what he told the O6, how he really died, and all the other mayhem on the Island. Personally, I think it will be a mistake to reveal anymore future events and plan carefully how you setup big events like the Island moving.