Jeremy Bentham on Lost Season 4 Finale

This will take some processing. But here are a few immediate thoughts following the big Season Four finale tonight of "Lost":Namely — the name Jeremy Bentham. It's yet another moniker on this show borrowed from real life. Bentham was a philosopher (a contemporary of the real John Locke...yikes) who, according to this early but dead-on "Lost" theory, proposed the idea for the Panopticon, a type of prison:

"The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell if they are being observed or not, thus conveying a 'sentiment of an invisible omniscience.' In his own words, Bentham described the Panopticon as 'a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.' "

In the continuation of our original flash-forward, when Kate backs up the car, they speak of Bentham. Kate says to Jack, "You believed him." Which implies that the impossible must come true in our bleak "Lost" future — empirical Jack comes around to spiritual Locke's way of thinking. It also is further proof that Locke somehow gets off the island. You know, proof other than his corpse...Lots of spooky whispering tonight. Whispers in the jungle before the Others appear and slaughter the remaining mercenaries. Whispers before Christian appears to dismiss Michael from his duties, and his life. Penance paid, buh-bye!

Like the island where so much of the action takes place, "Lost" giveth and it taketh away. Flashes of illumination for its viewers are routinely undone the next moment by bewilderment.This is a game "Lost" devotees are happy to play — albeit fewer of them lately than there used to be. Four seasons in, the show demands even more of the viewer than it used to. But those who have stuck around know that rewards richly outweigh the frustration.This was never more so than on Thursday's two-hour season finale. It might be the most rewarding, deliciously challenging episode in the history of this mystical ABC serial.