Who Ordered This?



I'm up to Cabin Fever in my re-watch and this exchange occurs at the Dharma open grave.

HURLEY: What's he doing down there?
(Ben shrugs)
HURLEY: So... This is where you shot Locke and left him for dead, huh?
BEN: Yes, Hugo, I was standing right where you are now when I pulled the trigger. Should have realized at the time that it was pointless, but... I really wasn't thinking clearly.
(Hurley steps back a little)
HURLEY: Is that why you killed all these people, too?
BEN: I didn't kill them.
HURLEY: Well, if the Others didn't wipe out the DHARMA Initiative--
BEN: They did wipe them out, Hugo, but it wasn't my decision.
HURLEY: Then whose was it?
BEN: Their leader's.
HURLEY:But I thought you were their leader.
BEN: Not always.

So who was the leader when the Purge was ordered? Was it Widmore? Was it not the case that Ben stole from Widmore when the DI was purged, but rather that Widmore purged the DI and Ben took over later? Oooh. Interesting.

How Was Alex's Death Ben's Fault?



I was listening to the showdown between Ben and Widmore in Widmore's bedroom and Widmore claimed Alex's death was Ben's fault.

WIDMORE: Don't stand there, looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the blame for the death of that poor girl on me, when we both know very well I didn't murder her at all, Benjamin. You did.

How's that? One argument is Ben's disavowal of Alex led to Keamy killing her, but how would Widmore know about that given the death of everyone who witnessed that?

Here's my new argument. I think Ben taking Alex from Rousseau was his attempt to course correct. Ben had been pulling a Desmond thwarting Alex's death right and left for 16 years. And the universe finally caught up with him. Alex's death at age 16 is Ben's fault because she was supposed to die as an infant when Rousseau went nuts again. I further predict we'll see this during Rousseau's story in Season 5.

Ben's Motivation



Do you think Ben is motivated more by the Island and it's long-term goals or his own?

At the end of Season 3 Ben insists to Alex that he can't let anyone leave the Island. I guess in large part this is so no one will tell the rest of the world about the Island. By the end of Season 4 he seems completely fine with letting Kate and Sayid leave given their role in freeing him from Keamy and the rest of the Freighter Merc Crew. What's changed? Once he realizes he has to leave is he not concerned with who else leaves? Is he confident that no one on the Freighter will survive? His "So?," one of the most chilling lines of the entire series, brings his entire no one leaves plan to fruition. Another case of the Island taking care of its own.

As we enter Season 5 and the quest for the return to the Island, I still wonder what motivates Ben. Revenge? Power? Mere self-preservation?  Or is it whatever is motivating The Island?

And what the heck does The Island want?

Who Decided Alex Could Die?

Another idea from Lost Unlocked -- did Widmore specifically tell Keamy that he could kill Alex (or any child of Ben's) or was it Keamy's brilliant idea to kill Alex as leverage? In other words, was it Widmore who really changed the rules, or Keamy?

Another Thought About Claire



So I really hate the idea that Claire died in the rocket blast on her house and has been a walking zombie ever since. So I have another idea. What if the shots given to Claire first by Ethan and then Juliet have heightened Claire's "specialness" which allows her to see Christian? I'd also argue that in the cabin Claire has been given more Ethan style happy juice, possibly as an additional accompaniment to more of these shots.

Now who else do we know has had similar shots? Well, a young Dharma Initiative child named Ben who just happens to see his dead mother on the Island. I'd argue that whatever is in these shots heightened Ben's specialness as well. Did the Dharma Initiative know what it was up to with these shots? Much as in the case of time traveling bunnies perhaps they had a rudimentary understanding, but were incapable of conceiving of such grand results in a certain chosen few.

And who else had those shots? Desmond -- a guy who kept seeing a dead Charlie before he was dead. Maybe in Desmond's case the combined effect of the shots and turning the failsafe key crossed his wires so that he also saw dead people only future, not current dead people.

Is Ben Using The O6 To Kill Penny?



I guess Ben wouldn't really need all the O6 per se to find Penny, but could Ben's game plan be merely using the O6 to get his Widmore revenge and even possibly eliminate the O6 themselves in the process? After all none of them were on "the list." If you turn the wheel, you can't go back (and why would Ben have lied to Locke at that point?), does Ben have a different plan altogether?

Are There 2 Bens Like There Are 2 Bunnies?

Another Jay and Jack caller theory. This caller speculated that Ben can't return to the Island because turning the wheel produced two of him, one on and one off Island. Ben off Island can't return because of the possibility of colliding with Ben on Island. I personally am not a great fan of this theory, but what does everyone else think?

Whoever moves the island can never come back.



Why? My favorite theory, and I've heard this a couple of places is that turning the wheel has exposed Ben to such a high level of radiation/magnetism/other that trying to return to the Island would lead to death a la Minkowski and Eloise, constant or no constant. Why do you think Ben can't return to the Island? Or do you think he can?

And here's a corollary to the question. There are those who speculate that Widmore turned the wheel in the past. Do you think he did? And if he did, why was he looking for the Island again if Island movers can't come back. And what about Christian Shephard and Locke? Did they move the Island too?

Locke, Leader or Ultimate Scapegoat?



Jeremy Bentham shows up in the real world and tells Jack that "after I left the island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my [Jack's] fault for leaving. And he said that I had to come back. But I'm thinking the bad things may come from Locke's presence more than Jack's absence or possibly even from Ben's absence. After all who did Christian Shephard and Claire tell to move the Island -- Locke. But Locke didn't move the Island, Ben did.

It reminds me of how Locke was supposed to take care of Sheriff's Deputy Eddie, but didn't. How little Locke was supposed to pick the things that belonged to him, but didn't. How he was supposed to kill his dad, but didn't. How Locke was supposed to push the button, but didn't. Once again, Locke is given a task, and he can't even find the flowers.

Now arguably, Locke didn't have the know how had he gotten into the Orchid to move the Island, but maybe the Island would have given him further instructions. But if Locke had been able to get into the Orchid in a timely manner and moved the Island (never to return) he would have trapped Jack on it. So whose fault is it John?

Monday Morning Rewatch --
Confirmed Dead













More question and notes from episode 4.2, Confirmed Dead.

1. Where do you think Dan's egg-cooking lady friend thinks he is now? He seems to be the only one of the Freighter Four (FF) with a close, personal friend. Will any of them missed if they don't return?

2. Why don't all the FF think they need to have kevlar vests on? If I was heading to the island after Naomi's signal, I would have had my vest on and my gas mask handy. And do you think Dan really knows how to use that gun?

3. Sawyer's finally learned some tracking skills. He realizes Locke is heading in the wrong direction.

4. Did Ben shoot Locke in the missing kidney to test Locke and the Island or is he just getting sloppy? And why is Ben trying to talk Sawyer into staying on the Island? Will anyone do in this pinch?

5. What do you think Mrs. Gardner had been hearing or seeing in her Inglewood home to make her call Miles in the first place?

6. What does Charlotte know about The Dharma Initiative and how does she know it? I want to think she's a DI offspring, but Ben's details of her life, mom and dad, birthplace, etc. make me much less confident in that hope. BTW, her dad's name is David Lewis. The name David has been used repeatedly on the show.

7. Why didn't Charlotte try to sell the "we're here for Desmond" story to Locke's group?

8. One of my favorite scenes in the episode is when Jack, Kate, Sayid and Juliet first see the helicopter. The hope on their faces is both heart-warming and heart-breaking given our Flash Forward info.

9. So if Ben is the FF's objective why send anyone other than Naomi? How many other objectives do they have? And why does Abaddon trust the FF to be able to leave the Island after each has fulfilled their specific purpose? Won't they talk? Especially about the existence of 815 survivors? Frank at least seems to think his only purpose on the Island is to run a ferry service from it to the freighter.

10. Can Smokey/Jacob/the Island make Christian Shephard and Yemi appear because they're "just meat?" If so, they better get Naomi off the Island quickly before her body disappears and shows up in Jacob's cabin.

11. Does Ben know what the monster is, but he's still unwilling to tell Locke? To tell Charlotte?

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.

But For This













Would Ben Have Left The Island To Get Surgery?

In Not in Portland Jack asks Tom why Ben didn't go have surgery if they can leave the Island? Tom starts to answer "Since the sky turned purple," and I assume he was going to say that since Desmond turned the key they had lost the ability to get back because the sonar buoy was no longer working. But I figure Ben is the one responsible for that with Greta and Bonnie in The Looking Glass.

So if two days after he was diagnosed with a spinal tumor a spinal surgeon hadn't fallen out of the sky, would he have sought treatment in the real world (like Canada maybe?) Or was he just screwed? I'm choosing screwed.

Who's Coercing You Now John?













In one of my least favorite LOST episodes ever, young cop Eddie tells Locke that he was targeted to take down the pot farm because Locke would be "amenable for coercion." I'm still wondering if this is why the Island/Jacob has chosen Locke as well. Is Locke going to turn out to be the mere puppet as he feared in "?" or will he ever be the master of his fate, the captain of his soul?

Similarly, is this why Jacob/Ben should not have chosen Walt? Mobisode 6 shows Walt isn't very amenable at least to the Others' methods.

Finally, would a guy who lived on a pot farm be on your "good" list if you were Jacob? I guess the answer is yes if good means amenable for coercion. Was young Ben similarly amenable? How about Rose who was also healed?

Does Ben Even Know The Truth Anymore?













What is with this "I've lived on this island all my life" crap Ben peddles over and over in Season 3? I think Ben may have lost his grip on the truth. He plays so many games with so many people, he's doesn't know what is and isn't true anymore. Seriously Ben, you show Jack the World Series and say :

That's home, Jack. Right there, on the other side of that glass. And if you listen to me, if you trust me, if you do what I tell you when the time comes, I'll take you there. I will take you home.

Yes, you can argue that home is where Ben's house is, but this is more truthiness* than truth. I guess Ben watches the Colbert Report as well as baseball.

* Truthiness - The quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.

More on Michael's Deal

1. Why Hurley? If you need Jack it makes sense to bring Kate because she would go looking for him in the first place. It makes sense to bring Sawyer because she would talk Sawyer into coming with her or he'd follow her later. But why Hurley? Because he's easily scared? Why not Sayid? Isn't he just as likely as Kate to form a rescue party? I guess Locke and Eko aren't on the list because the Island is distracting them with the issue of the Swan.

2. Who came up with this plan to free Ben? Did one of the remaining Others talk to Jacob? If Ethan could infiltrate the camp, why couldn't they send someone in to get Ben, not that freeing him from the Swan would have been easy?

3. This has nothing to do with the deal, but it's bothering me. If you're Ben and you need Jack to do surgery on you, why do you spend half a week lying to him about your identity and then another three days antagonizing him with your hunger strike and silence not to mention attack on Ana Lucia? I think it would have taken longer than 2 weeks to get Jack to want to operate on Ben.

Benry Confuses the H*&# Out Of Me!













I shouldn't believe anything he says right? In the last few episodes "Henry Gale" is being kept in the Swan this man in his torn orange shirt confuses Locke and me too.

In SOS he tells Jack that "they'll never give you Walt." But at the same time Mrs. Klugh is making that exact deal for Walt with Michael. Granted they get Kate, Sawyer and Jack in the deal as well, so I guess they did indeed get the better deal. Nevertheless they did give up Walt, even if they didn't give him to Jack.

This line continues in Two For the Road when the fake Henry Gale tells Locke after he's tried to kill Ana Lucia for killing two Others who were "leaving her alone" (huh?) that:

I'm dead anyway. Doctor's gone to make a trade and we both know hell come back empty handed and then I've lost my value. So either Jack comes back and kills me or my people find out where I'm being held and they do it. . . . Because the man in charge... he's a great man, John... a brilliant man... but he is not a forgiving man. He'll kill me because I failed, John. I failed my mission.

Now first off, Ben is clearly delusional (like Tom in Season 3) if he thinks Ana was unjustified in killing 2 Others who raided and infiltrated their ranks in order to kidnap people. Then again this is a man who managed to justify in his own mind personally gassing his father.

But what about this "I'm already dead" talk? He said something similar to Ana before he drew her the map to the balloon. Is this a true reflection of The Others justice system which seems to have little leeway for failure? I guess not because it seems clear that Ben's mission, whatever it was, did indeed fail and he wasn't killed by any "great man."

So why is he painting this picture of his society for Locke? I can't figure out why he would both try to keep Locke from pushing the button and sell his society as being insanely unreasonable and place where failure is punished with death if he was "coming for him." Knowing what we know now about Locke's threat to Ben's position why wouldn't Ben try to convince Locke to keep pushing the button in the Swan for the rest of his life? Because The Others were clearly monitoring The Swan and would have heard him doing that to the man whose legs were restored?

Sorry for all the rambling, but trying to put together what we know about the Others given the evil mastermind that is Ben drives me in circles.

Lockdown Questions













1. Was the lockdown really related to the food drop?
2. If it was, why lockdown the Station to drop the food?
3. Why seal off the computer room from the living area
when it is so vital to enter the numbers every 108 minutes?
4. Why isn't there a food drop manual in the Swan like
there is in the Flame?
5. Why isn't this procedure mentioned in the Orientation
film?
6. Was the food drop automatic or initiated by someone
like drops at the Flame?
7. What is up with the blacklights? Where did they come
from? What made them turn on? (And why didn't Locke
pursue this line of questioning with Desmond?)
8. Where did the food come from? Who sent it? And
why can't those looking for the Island such as the
freighter people and Penny follow the food?

I can live with a "Missing Moment" or even discussion of
these issues on an official podcast, but I would like at
least some of these answers.

Watching Lockdown and Dave which followed it
I also wonder what Ben did when he went through the
vents to the computer.

Could it have been the case that in the event of a lockdown,
the computer enters the numbers itself meaning that Henry's
story that he did nothing to the computer is true? Or could
it be the case that Henry entered a different sequence of
numbers, numbers that reset the clock, but also turned on
the blacklights and possibly sent a signal back to
Mrs. Klugh?

We never saw our LOSTies enter the wrong numbers. I wonder
what would have happened in that event. Maybe that new
video game will let me try it.

Oh Dear!



I've reached that part in Season 2 where the LOST writing team
felt the need to start making like these penguins, tap dancing
to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out the story. The Whole Truth is one
of those episodes (along with SOS, Two For the Road and
arguably others) where the first 38 minutes sort of drug by only
to get a great whammy in the last 5 minutes.













Ben's musings in the breakfast nook of the Swan certainly
qualifies as one of those endings that saved an otherwise
less than scintillating episode. "Now if I were one of
them . . ." You know the rest. And he finishes it all
up with "You got any milk?"

I guess Ben was trying to bolster his Henry Gale story
with this game of "what if." Knowing that there was no
trap at the balloon that should have boosted "Henry's"
credibility upon Sayid's return. It also helps to build
the tension heading into the next episode as we were left
to worry about Charlie and Sayid (while rooting that the
Others would get Ana Lucia. You know you did.)

But The Whole Truth was not totally without merit
other than this scene. Re-watching the episode after
Season 3 gives it whole new meaning when it comes to Jin
and that lying liar he married. And this is why I love
LOST and love re-watching LOST. Each time there's something
different and something has changed. What's more the
thing that has changed is ME and how I now view the
situation and characters. BRAVO LOST!

I Can't Wait To Get The Rest Of
This Story!













Danielle returns and so do the questions. For example,
why doesn't she just tell Sayid I have a guy in a net instead
of the rifle trust exercise? Why doesn't she just question
Ben herself? She managed torture Sayid just fine. Granted
that torture pad is now Kablooey, but she's creative.
How does Danielle know Sayid is a torturer? I couldn't find
it, but I didn't look very hard.

And what about Ben? Why did he run when Sayid released
him from the net? Afraid Danielle would recognize him kind
of like Claire's flashes in the next episode?

More Ben -- his cover story is that he crashed 4 months ago.
Do you think the real Henry Gale crashed then, a mere
2 months before Flight 815? And then the story of his wife's
death--sick and 2 days later dead. I guess that wasn't based
on Danielle's team's "sickness" or she wouldn't have needed
to shoot them.

Can anyone remember whether or not they thought the man in
the orange polo was telling the truth or lying? Michael Emerson
was so good I'm pretty sure I changed my mind each and every
scene he was in. We've been promised more information on what
Ben was up to when he was trapped, accidentally. I hope
it's soon.

Hero or Villain?
























While listening to the Michael Emerson interview in
Episode 93 of Comic News Insider Emerson said he's
always assumed despite all evidence to the contrary that
Ben is going to turn out to be a hero. What do you think?
Are the following Heroes or Villains?

• Benjamin Linus
• Jack Shephard
• John Locke
• Kate Austen
• James "Sawyer" Ford
• Juliet Burke
• The Island
• Jacob
• Smokey