Spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes of Lost.
A man introducing himself as John Locke appears among the Ajira survivors on the Hydra island. Ilana and Caesar do not remember him boarding their plane, and Locke says his last memory is dying. The episode then follows his earlier journey off the island, beginning when he emerges in the Tunisian desert with a broken leg after turning the wheel. Widmore arranges treatment and offers to help him bring the Oceanic Six back.
Using the name Jeremy Bentham, Locke travels with Matthew Abaddon to visit the people who left. Sayid, Hurley and Kate refuse his request, and Locke decides against asking Walt to return after seeing that he has a life of his own. He also learns that Helen has died. Abaddon is shot near her grave, and Locke crashes his car while fleeing. At the hospital, Jack rejects Locke's appeal, even after Locke says he met Christian on the island.
Despairing after the failed visits, Locke prepares to hang himself in his hotel room. Ben arrives and persuades him to step down, claiming Jack's renewed flights suggest Locke has already changed his mind. Locke mentions Jin's survival and his instructions to find Eloise Hawking. Ben then strangles him, takes Jin's ring and arranges the room to make the death appear a suicide. Returning to the Ajira survivors' island, the man calling himself Locke finds Ben unconscious among the injured passengers.