Locke mentions 'the button' & the words from his suicide note in his sleep

Jack is standing over Locke, who is asleep in his hospital bed. Locke groans and Jack asks if he's awake. Without opening his eyes or seeming to wake up at all, Locke says "push the button." Then he says "I wish you had believed me," the words from the suicide note he wrote to Jack. Jack looks completely stunned by what Locke says.

So Locke is clearly remembering things from the original timeline, at least in his subconscious. The question is, how much has he already remembered up to now?

Ben saves Locke from suicide, then chokes him with the cord

John Locke has returned to the Westerfield Hotel where he has been staying. We see him in a dank room writing his suicide note to Jack. He then throws the phone Charles Widmore gave him in the trash. He looks and the hole in the ceiling and grabs a crutch so he can stand. He pulls the desk over below the hole and pulls an extension cord from a bag with the logo Angels Hardware. He ties one end to the radiator and throws the other end over a pipe in the ceiling, cuts it and ties it into a noose. He slowly pulls the noose around his neck and steps to the edge of the desk. At that moment, there is a knock on the door and it's Ben. Locke looks startled when he hears Ben's voice and before he can do anything, Ben has broken through the door.

Locke asks Ben how he found him and Ben tells him that he has someone watching Sayid and all of them, who he claims he is protecting. Locke suddenly realizes that it was Ben who shot Matthew Abbadon in the cemetery. Locke tells Ben that Charles Widmore saved him and Ben's rebuts that saying that Widmore was just using him to get back to the island. Ben tells him that he can't commit suicide because he is incredibly important. Locke begins to cry a little and says "There is no helping me. I'm a failure." Locke then says that he couldn't convince any of his "friends" to come back to the island and Ben interrupts saying that Jack booked a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney tonight with a return flight the next morning. Ben tells him that whatever he said to Jack worked and that he can convince the rest of them too. Ben drops to his knees telling telling Locke that he has to get back to the island because he has a lot of work to do. Ben then unties the cord from the radiator and helps Locke down from the desk. Once Locke gets down he is weeping profusely. Ben tells them that they should talk to Sun first but Locke tells Ben that he promised not to bring her back and about Jin still being alive. With that bit of information, Ben seems to have quickly formulated a plan in his head. Locke removes the noose from his neck and thanks Ben for his help. Ben says that they can figure something out once they get the entire group together and that's when Locke spills the beans. He tells Ben that they will need to find Eloise Hawking and she can help them get back to the island. Once Ben has this information and confirms that he knows Eloise, he puts the cord around Locke's neck, pulls him to the floor and strangles him. It's hard to tell, but it seems that Ben is actually saddened by killing Locke as opposed to being his usual cold, callous self.

This was probably the darkest scene of the show thus far. It was also probably the most brilliantly acted scene of the show. I just wanted to get that in there.

So why did Ben kill Locke? The possible reasons are many. Did Ben really not know that Eloise was the one who could help them get back to the island? Does these firmly establish Ben as they bad guy in the Ben Linus vs. Charles Widmore feud? I'm guessing it's still going to remain unclear who is bad and who is good or if either are truly good or bad.

Jack reads Locke suicide note, Ben reads Ulysses

As the plane continues flying through the night, Ben sits across the isle from Jack reading Ulysses. Jack asks he how he can read and Ben replies "My mother taught me." It's a funny little line but also not true seeing as Ben's mother died shortly after he was born. He continues by saying he can read because it beats what Jack is doing which is "waiting for something to happen." Later, Jack asks Ben if he knew Locke killed himself and be replies "No, no I didn't." That's when Jack pulls Locke's suicide note from his jacket and says that he's been trying to get rid of it, "but it's like it's following me." He then says "I know it seems crazy, but it feels like John needs me to read it." Ben asks him why he doesn't read it then. He then asks Jack if he's afraid that John blames him for what happened and that it's his fault he killed himself. Jack asks Ben if it was his fault and Ben tells him it was not. Ben then gets up to give Jack some privacy.

Jack then looks an the envelope for a moment and then tears it open. The piece of notebook paper simply says "Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL." Jack is taken aback by the note. Right after he lowers the note, the plane starts to experience turbulence. More on that in the next post.

Jack goes to Simon's Butcher Shop, meets Jill, gives Locke Christian's shoes

Jack goes to Simon's Butcher Shop where Jill is keeping Locke's body. Jack finds the shop closed and the doors locked but Jill lets him in. He knows who Jill is and we already knew that Jill knew about Jack. It seems odd that Jack knew who Jill was because Ben didn't mention her during their brief phone conversation. I think it may have been a bit of a slip up. Moving on, Jill leads Jack to the back of the shop where Locke's body is and leaves him while she pulls the van around.

Jack takes this opportunity alone with Locke to give him Christian's shoes and to share a few thoughts with him. Jack says "Wherever you are John, you must be laughing your ass off that I'm actually doing this. Cause this, this is even crazier than you are." He then puts Locke's sucide note to him in Locke's jacket and says "I've already heard everything you had to say John. You wanted me to go back and I'm going back." Jack then starts to close the coffin and tells Locke to "Rest in peace" before closing it up.

Was this the moment that Jack finally takes the leap of faith or is he just hedging his bet in order to get back to the island? Either way, it was a heavy scene.

You'll notice that the the butcher shop in this scene is a different location than the one we saw in "The Lie." Also, this time the shop is know as Simon's Butcher Shop as opposed to just "Butcher Shop." It's worth noting that Charlie Pace's father was named Simon and he was a butcher.