OK, let's get this out of the way: if you haven't seen the season finale of Lost yet, stop reading this immediately. Not only will you be spoiled, but you'll be confused as hell. Get it? Got it? Good. Fun starts after the jump.
We've all been wondering who was in that damned coffin we saw in last season's finale and now we know. Island loving John Locke is Jeremy Bentham, the mysterious figure who came around harassing The Oceanic Six over two (or is it three?) years after they left the island... but what if he wasn't? Apparently Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse planned for the unexpected and put two other people in that coffin for good measure. And by unexpected I assume these alternate endings were shot in case footage of the finale somehow got leaked.
That being said, it seems pretty clear to me that both endings were given some thought because either could have been used and I would have been equally shocked -- assuming adequate explanation was in the works for next season. Watch the video clip from today's Good Morning America. What does everyone else think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
Toby Obie3 said...
If they had to use Sawyer, he probably got off the island the same way Richard seems to do it. The death of Desmond would have had larger ramifications - did Widmore's people do it? Did he commit suicide because Penny had been killed by Ben?
And if they were forced to use either of those two scenes, were they already prepared with script outlines to reflect such a major adjustment?
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5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
LOs said...
I don't know that it would have been anybody other than John Locke. I think the shear fact that there were three convoluted things enough. Especially with the name Jeremy Bentham, seems they have somewhere specific they want to go with all of this.
5-31-2008 @ 8:57AM
Tamara said...
Toby Obie3 -They were never going to use those scripts. They just filmed them so that the cast & crew didn't know which one was being used. So they couldn't leak information. It's very common. Almost every show has 2-3 endings at the end of every season so it's employees can't spoil the show.
5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
chris said...
What a lame excuse for an alternate ending. In fact, seeing that kind of ruins things. To know that it didn't really matter who it was in the coffin sucks because apartment the "death" wouldn't have affected the story line. So John probably isn't dead.
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5-30-2008 @ 12:24PM
Keith McDuffee said...
chris -- I think the real point of this was to throw off the cast and crew as to who was *really* going to be shown to be in the coffin during the final print. Alternate endings are shot all the time for this purpose.
5-30-2008 @ 3:00PM
Jeffy said...
it could just mean that all three of those people are dead but john locke would be the most important one that we saw so they used that one
5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
chris said...
sorry thats supposed to say apparently not apartment.
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5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
chris said...
The name Jeremy Bentham comes from a british philosopher, economist, and jurist, who founded the doctrine of utilitarianism.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571045/Jeremy_Bentham.html
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5-30-2008 @ 12:23PM
Grover said...
Pretty sure they filmed the other two just to throw people off, if anything did happen to get leaked, and were always planning on using Locke. Or maybe I just have too much faith in Darlton in believing they have everything mapped out.
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5-30-2008 @ 1:45PM
The Pepto Pimp said...
Keep the faith, it's highly unlikely they would get an ABC contract without a moderately detailed outline and treatments for each episode of each season. They made the broad strokes of the plot long ago...
5-30-2008 @ 12:24PM
oceancitygirl said...
If it were Desmond, I would have been among the mob that no doubt would have amassed to torch the set of Lost.
Sawyer would have been an interesting/clever choice too because of all questions like: how did he leave the island, what errand did he send Kate on that she wouldn't tell Jack, how can they convince Kate to go back with them while they tote around Sawyer's body and gather the rest of Oceanic 6 group.
My reaction to Locke was mild. Mainly because I haven't been loving his character for a long time. He was my favorite long ago, but this past season he's gone to the darkside a bit too much.
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5-30-2008 @ 12:24PM
Michael said...
I'm pretty sure neither of these two endings were EVER intended to be used. These were just decoy endings that were shot to avoid spoilers from leaking onto the net. So, if these did somehow get leaked before airing, you couldn't be sure which one was the real one.
Though, after seeing the episode in its entirety, in context, it's pretty clear John Locke was always going to be the one in the coffin.
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5-30-2008 @ 12:24PM
Paul said...
Yeah, I'm pretty confident they had Locke planned for the coffin (with no other legitimate options) from the moment we saw the coffin in the Season 3 finale (if not beforehand). It just fits too perfectly, given who Bentham visited this episode, where they had Locke's character headed with the Others, and why nobody would show up at the viewing/funeral.
As if Kate wouldn't go if it was Sawyer! And certainly neither she nor Jack had any ill will towards Desmond (plus Desmond wouldn't even know Walt to visit him).
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5-30-2008 @ 1:44PM
Nick said...
Before I got a chance to see these clips, my guesses were that the oter two were Sawyer (no surprise if you read Jorge Fox's note a few posts back) and Desmond, who would probably be the only other person that could be there, especially after Ben's comment of how he's going to kill Penny and all of that destiny/time loop stuff that we watched in earlier episodes involving him. I think I would have been more surprised if it was someone like Bernard.
I guess the dead giveaway should have been that John is also named after the philosopher, John Locke. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke)
I would also like to say that Locke's John Waters mustache has never looked creepier.
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6-01-2008 @ 9:11AM
hmm said...
Well, it's not as though Locke is the only one with a famous name. We also have Hume (Desmond), Burke (Juliet), Faraday, Austen, Richard Alpert, as well as Rousseau and Cortez, even if they are no longer on the show. Am I forgetting anyone?
5-30-2008 @ 1:44PM
jimxfitz said...
Going back to the island could bring them back to life, so it doesn't really matter who's in the coffin.
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5-30-2008 @ 1:44PM
Jake said...
You have to hand it to Lost writers/producers for always delivering a cliffhanger ending -- unlike the annoying 5 year jump that Desperate Housewives attempted and just made me think of never watching that show again. I truly gasped at the end -- like all good shockers. Great!
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5-30-2008 @ 1:45PM
Joe Brooks said...
I guess Lost's 3 year jump is better?
5-30-2008 @ 1:45PM
mjp said...
Bernard would have been great... and giving him a front and center storyline to work with would have been a good turn.
Sawyer makes no sense because Kate couldn't have used the "why would I go to the funeral" line.
Locke is the right choice, because it makes us ask questions. Why did he change his mind about the lie? How did he get off the island- did he have to move it again, like Ben, and then kill himself because it not only kicked him off the island, but re-paralyzed him as well?
Further- why would Locke need the Oceanic 6 to come clean about the lie, couldn't he just go to the media and "out" them? He was on the plane after all. Maybe the story is too fantastic and they'd just think he was nuts.
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5-30-2008 @ 1:45PM
ryan said...
I was actually hoping that the person in the casket would be Ben, meaning that there was both a dead an alive version of Ben in the same room. Now *that* would have been a great cliffhanger for the season!
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