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The many lives of John Locke in sharper focus.

What a long, strange trip it’s  been for John Locke. He was abandoned at birth, raised in a series of foster homes, literally broken by his father, then risen anew on the mysterious island that Lost fans have come to know and love. At some point in his future, the alleged “chosen one” wound up dead in a coffin in a lonely Los Angeles funeral parlor. But with notions of resurrection hinted throughout the show’s fifth season — and because no one is ever really dead on Lost – many fans began to wonder if we’d actually seen the last of John.

After last night’s episode, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” we have the answer and there is finally no doubt about it — John Locke is very special indeed.

Winning the Game

After spinning the frozen donkey wheel, John Locke awakens in Tunisia, just as Ben Linus did years before him. Unlike Ben, however, John is recovered by Charles Widmore — an extremely powerful man who, apparently, has a lot invested in John’s future. “There’s a war coming,” he tells Locke. “If you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side will win.”

We’ve known for some time now that there’s a rivalry between Linus and Widmore, but the word “war” really underlines that friction. John’s season one explanation of backgammon to Walt is becoming prophetic — “Two sides… one is light, the other is dark.” While Lost‘s character pool tends to dip more in the gray zone, this latest episode indicates that Widmore might ultimately be the lesser of two evils.

If Charles is to be believed — he hasn’t quite earned unconditional trust, though he is a convincing speaker — then he was once the leader of the Others (a group of “peaceful” protectors for three decades, he says) until Ben tricked him into leaving the island. Whether that means spinning the donkey wheel or some other means of evacuation is unclear, but it certainly goes with what we know about Ben. He’s a master of trickery, and his deception to Widmore would be just one more notch in his bad guy belt. But even if Ben didn’t trick Charles, don’t worry — there’s still one big reason to think that Ben’s side is the wrong one.

The Saint’s Departure

In order to return to the island, John has to convince the Oceanic Six to return with him. To do this, he travels to a variety of locales — Santo Domingo, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara — all places with the word “saint” in them. If you hadn’t noticed the Christ imagery yet, then that should be a big hint. Of course, John is unsuccessful in his attempt, although he does inspire Jack’s desire to return to the island. But before John can reach out to Jack again, he’s tangled up with another problem — namely, a long red wire that Ben chokes him to death with.

Locke was prepared to kill himself. Ben talked him off the ledge only to murder him moments later. Why? There are some obvious answers. For one, Ben has always been jealous of John’s apparent importance. This isn’t the first time he’s tried killing Locke. A season three bullet to the gut didn’t quite do the trick, and even Ben’s most recent attempt at strangling him only sort of worked. Also, Ben can manipulate a dead Locke easier than he could a living Locke. He literally has mastery over John’s inanimate corpse and can use the body as a bargaining chip against Widmore, who himself has a lot of chips stacked in Locke’s favor.

But there might be another, less selfish reason that Ben killed Locke. Both Richard Alpert and Christian Shephard warned Locke that he’d have to die in order to get the Oceanic Six to return. We’ve seen that Ben and Richard shared a lengthy alliance in the past, and Christian represents Jacob, who Ben has allegedly taken orders from during his leadership of the Others. Given all of that, perhaps Ben, too, knew that Locke had to die. Sure, he stopped John from killing himself because he needed to find out the information about Eloise Hawking — but maybe he also killed John because it was written. Just as it was foretold that John had to die, so it may have been that Ben would be the one to do the deed. When Ben says “I’ll miss you” to a deceased John, is that a sarcastic, bitter remark? Or is it genuine, since resurrection will inevitably change Locke from the man he once was in his previous life?

Nothing is black and white on Lost — not even murder.

Starting Over

Ultimately, the resurrection theories came true. John Locke is alive and well after his corpse crash landed on the island along with Ajira Airways Flight 316. He remembers his life prior to his death, even identifying Benjamin Linus as his murderer. He remembers his “friends,” constantly asking new castaways Caesar and Ilana for a copy of the passenger manifest. Death certainly hasn’t slowed John down one iota. If anything, it’s completely reinvigorated him — he’s eating well, he’s moving fine, he’s speaking clearly. All things considered, death wasn’t so bad for our bald-headed friend.

The question is, what happens next? Locke is back and so are the Oceanic Six (minus Aaron), but they’ve all “vanished.” Caesar recalls a big bright light that caused Hurley and others to disappear in mid-air. We can assume that Jack and Kate vanished as well, since the three of them are together. How about Frank, Sayid and Sun? We still haven’t seen any of them, though we’ve heard that the pilot and a woman stole away with one of the catamarans. We can assume that Frank is the pilot in question — is Sun the woman with him? If so, why didn’t she vanish with the rest of her friends? Is it because she wasn’t with Jin on the airplane? And where the heck is Sayid?

We’ve also got a whole slew of new characters to consider, though we’ve only met Caesar and Ilana so far. The 316ers are the new 815ers — totally clueless individuals in for a very rude awakening. But you can’t feel too badly for them when you consider their current whereabouts. If you look closely, you can see that the folder Casear is reading from bears the Dharma Initiative’s “Hydra” insignia, so our new castaways are at least a few miles away from the big scary island. Further, the plane looks mostly intact. You can chalk that up to expert pilot Frank Lapidus, but don’t forget that Kate and Sawyer helped the Others to build a runway on the mini-island back in season three. So not only do the 316ers have a smaller, less dangerous island as their home, but they also have immediate access to a substantial Dharma station and the luxury of a mostly undamaged plane. I’m not feeling too bad for these guys.

It’s also important to consider that Ilana escorted a handcuffed Sayid onto Ajira 316. Either she is a law enforcement official of some kind, or perhaps she’s one of Widmore’s people, ensuring that all of the Oceanic Six (again, sans Aaron) made their way onto Ajira. Ilana and Caesar were also the only two people we’ve never met before that were in the first class cabin of Ajira 316. Even if these two aren’t somehow connected to the island, they’re still a threat — Walt foretold of a dream in which a mob of people were trying to hurt a suited John Locke. Since nothing on Lost is mere coincidence, and since Walt is eerily connected to the island, our recently revived hero might want to proceed cautiously around his new roommates.

Bonus Points

Plenty of easter eggs on the latest Lost. When Caesar is perusing the Hydra station for valuable information, he uncovers a copy of “Life Magazine,” a subtle reference to Locke’s impending reincarnation. Caesar’s name, too, is hardly coincidental. He has taken on a leadership role in the 316 group, just as Julius Caesar ruled over Rome. Whether or not the newly landed Caesar will meet the same fate as his namesake remains to be seen.

The numbers were in full play as well. The license plate on the car in Tunisia contains the number 42. Locke tells Widmore that he left the island 4 days prior. Widmore later tells John to contact him by dialing an international calling code plus the number 23.

Also, a couple of bloopers. Widmore shows Locke a picture of Sayid building a house in Santo Domingo. When Locke goes to see Sayid, he’s in the exact same pose as he was in the picture — coincidence, fate, or just a continuity gaffe? Later in the episode, Ben is tidying up John’s hotel room after the murder. He takes off one glove, wipes the doorknob clean of fingerprints, then closes the door with his exposed hand. The real Ben Linus wouldn’t make that error — just a case of the actor breaking character and the editors not catching it.

Come back every Thursday for an all-new edition of Lost: Island Fever!