No show was full of as many compelling mysteries as ABC’s “Lost.” Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had announced the series would end in season 6, and with the finish line on the horizon, the race was on to discover answers to the show’s many, many questions. And yet, even as it approached the end, the series kept throwing new mysteries at us to keep us on our toes. Chief among them in season 4 was the mystery of “who is Jeremy Bentham?” In the third season finale, we discover that Jack and Kate had somehow managed to escape the island, but the discovery of a coffin loaded with an unknown person inside pushes Jack to return, teeing up the final run of the series.

Advertisement

In the season 3 finale, we never get to see who this “Jeremy Bentham” inside the coffin is, and so we spend all of season 4 desperately trying to get a glimpse inside. Speculation over who Jeremy Bentham was became a key part of the season 4 mystery box, and the showrunners knew exactly how to tease the audience with the answer.

There was always intense scrutiny over the show’s secrets, so in order to obscure the true identity of Jeremy Bentham, Lindelof and Cuse filmed three versions of the season 4 finale, just in case there was a leak that would ruin the surprise. We had to wait until the final moments of season 4 to learn that it wasn’t Sawyer or Desmond inside that coffin, but John Locke.

Advertisement

And yet even with that reveal, it wouldn’t be until season 5 that we would learn why John had taken the pseudonym “Jeremy Bentham.”

One of the central questions that drove the “Lost” fandom from the very beginning was if any of the survivors of Oceanic 815 would ever escape the island, and in the season 3 finale, “Through the Looking Glass,” we learned that at least some of them would. Then throughout season 4, we learned that escaping the island was not happy news for the Others who wanted to keep the island’s location a secret, and in season 5, we watch Locke take up the task of bringing them back.

Advertisement

He turns the wheel at the heart of the island, dropping him in the middle of the Tunisian desert, and is visited by one of the series’ most ambiguous antagonists, Charles Widmore. Widmore offers to help Locke bring the Oceanic 6 back to the island, giving him an assistant in the form of Lance Reddick’s Matthew Abaddon and the fake identity of Jeremy Bentham.

The aptly titled episode “The Life and Death of Jeremy Betham” plots out John’s quest to bring the Oceanic 6 back. He visits them each one by one, but he ultimately fails to convince any of them to return. At his lowest moment and in a pit of despair, Locke decides to end his life, tying a noose to hang himself, only to be saved at the last moment by Ben Linus. Locke wants to die until Ben reveals that Jack, of all people, has booked a ticket back to Sydney, a revelation that Jack does indeed want to return to the island. With a glimmer of hope returning, Locke reveals to Ben how he plans to bring everyone back to the island. That’s when Ben makes his most despicable move yet (which is really saying something) and kills Locke and stages the death as a suicide in order to steal his plan for himself.

Advertisement

Locke has always been a larger than life character, and even in death, he succeeds in his goal of bringing Jack and the others back to the island. It’s a tragic, bittersweet end for our favorite character, which is made all the more harrowing when we realize that Locke’s body is stolen by a mysterious shapeshifter for ulterior purposes.

Yes, even in death, John Locke lives on, his body used as a vessel for the mysterious Man in Black in his eternal crusade against his brother-turned-island-protector, Jacob. This revelation is far too much to explain in a couple paragraphs, but the short version is that the Man in Black needed to bring the members of the Oceanic 6 back to the island, because they were all Jacob’s candidates to take over his role as the island’s protector.

Advertisement

The Man in Black needed them back so he could have them all killed, then destroy the heart of the island and escape once and for all. But returning to the island is not easily done: In order to return, Jack and company must recreate the exact circumstances of their initial flight, which requires a dead body to take the place of his father’s coffin. Enter “Jeremy Bentham” as the final piece of the puzzle.

Except, to everyone’s surprise, when they land back on the island, John Locke walks amongst the living. It takes them quite a while to realize this isn’t actually John, but the Man in Black using his body as a shell with which to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob.

By the time they figure out what’s happening, Jacob lies dead with nothing holding the Man in Black back except for Jack and his newfound respect for John Locke. If only he had been humble enough to admit he admired Locke while he was alive, all of this might have been prevented, but now Jack must carry on Locke’s legacy and protect the island from the supernatural being that wears his face like a mask.

Advertisement

Like many other character names on the show, the “Jeremy Bentham” name is a reference to a famous philosopher. The real Jeremy Bentham rose to prominence in the 19th century thanks to his advocacy for utilitarianism, which, simply put, is the belief that the ends justify the means; if the actions you pursue lead to the overall greatest amount of happiness for a group of people, then those actions were morally justified.

Advertisement

It makes sense, then, why Widmore would bestow this name upon John Locke: Widmore himself was exiled by Ben from the island and has been desperate to return for decades. When he crosses paths with Locke, he truly does believe that he must do everything and anything to return and defend the island from Ben, including kidnapping his son-in-law Desmond to bring him back to the island against his will.

This question of if the ends justify the means looms larger over the entire series, and especially the underrated “Lost” series finale. Yes, all our characters have performed horrible deeds, but in the end, they are brought together by their mutual love for one another. So while the life and death of Jeremy Bentham might be a minor mystery in the grand scheme of things, it’s also a microcosm of everything that made “Lost” special.

Advertisement