What Was Plan A?

As we head into the hiatus homestretch OM IT'S ONLY 2 WEEEKS! there will probably be days I have multiple posts in my effort to blog my way through Seasons 1-3. So if you aren't subscribed to the feed, you may want to check and make sure you haven't missed a post. Now with no more further ado, What Was Plan A?

Watching the commentary to Expose I heard something interesting. During the scene with Juliet, Ben and Paolo in the Pearl the writers say that we get to see the way Ben's mind works when he explains to Juliet that he can convince Jack to operate on him:

Same way I get anybody to do anything. I find out what he's emotionally invested in...and I exploit it.

Further Ben rejects the notion of grabbing Shephard, Austen and Ford as The Others call them and says that they need to come to them, and that Michael is how that will happen. The writers go on to say that the timing of this is concurrent with Ep. 2.09, What Kate Did. I guess this explains in part why The Others didn't take Jack, Kate and Sawyer at the line in Episode 2.10, The Hunting Party because it violates Ben's notion of them coming to him.

But the writers also go on to point out that this is before Ben's Henry Gale ruse. After Ben gets caught as we've seen both on the show and in the Missing Moments other Others, namely Klugh and Juliet have to implement a Plan B. Plan B required Michael to bring Austen, Shephard and Ford as Ben still needed the surgery, but also required freeing Ben as well.

I can't wait to see what Ben was up to when Danielle caught him. You'd have to assume it was important given how close Ben came to dying either by Sayid's hand or someone else's. I also wish we'd gotten to see Ben's Plan A for manipulating Jack, both in terms of getting him to the Others and the two week "you want to operate on me" plan that was also foiled. Oh well. Despite all the intervening circumstances the universe course corrected and Ben got healed.

I also wonder if in hindsight Ben doesn't wish that on September 23, 2004 he'd taken the large boat the Others used to leave Falcatraz, loaded all the 815ers on it and pointed them to heading 325. A completely different show I know, but given the losses he and his people have sustained after 815 crashed, he might have been better off.