LostEpisode 512Dead is deadWow, what an episode. It went a long way in providing us so many answers. But I now have so many new questions too!!!
This week episode was a Ben-centric one and focused on his relationship with Alex and his life off and on the island. We’re taken back to when Richard took Ben from Sawyer and Kate. Charles Widmore is now in charge of the Others and doesn’t like that Richard “saved” Ben without consulting him first. Richard tells Widmore that Jacob wanted it done.
Sometime much later, when an adult Ben is living with the Others, he’s dispatched to kill Danielle, but before he does so, he sees Alex and kidnaps her. He tells Danielle that for the sake of her child and for her own sake if she ever hears whispers, she needs to run in the other direction. Back at Other Camp Site, Widmore is incredibly upset that Ben let Danielle and Alex live. Ben hands Alex over telling Widmore that if he wants Alex dead, then he must do it himself.
Years later – when Alex is about 5 years old – Widmore is banished from the island for breaking the rules. Widmore tells Ben that he will have to choose between Alex and the island some day.
Much later, when Ben is off the island, he calls Widmore and tells him that he’s going to kill Penny. He shoots Desmond (but not fatally) and goes to kill Penny, but relents when little Charlie appears. Desmond attacks Ben and beats Ben up.
Back in 2007 (present time in Lost), Ben awakens to find Locke smugly sitting at his bedside. He tells Locke that he knew that this would happen, and is happy about it… but later tells Cesar that he doesn’t remember seeing Locke onboard the flight and further fuels Cesar’s suspicions of Locke.
Ben finds his old office and rummages about until he finds a photograph of himself and Alex. Locke comes into the room and wants to know why Ben killed him. Ben explains that Locke had vital information that would have died with him. Ben tells him that he has to be judged for what he’s done by ole smokey.
When Locke and Ben try leaving with one of the outriggers, they are confronted by Cesar and a few others. Ben kills Cesar and he and Locke leave.
They land on the main island and head for Ben’s old home. Once there, Ben finds Sun in Alex’s old room. She and Frank have been told that if Sun ever wants to find Jin again, she needs to wait for John Locke. Both she and Frank are astonished that Locke’s alive.
Ben goes to a secret room and tries summoning the monster by draining a pit of dirty, muddy water. The monster doesn’t arrive, and Locke claims to know where Ben could find the monster. Frank decides that he’s not following a dead guy and a murderer and heads back to the other island.
Locke leads Sun and Ben to the temple where he and Ben lower themselves into an underground pit. Ben falls through the floor and lands in another chamber. Locke leaves to go get some rope. Ben walks around the chamber and hears the familiar sounds of the monster, which seeps into the chamber via some kind of grate.
It surrounds him and shows him scenes from his and Alex’s life. Eventually it leaves. When he turns around he sees Alex. He immediately tries to apologise but she pins him against a wall and tells him that he needs to follow Locke or else it/she will destroy him. When Ben promises to do so, it/she disappears. He walks back to the spot that he fell through, where Locke has now arrived with rope. He tells Locke that it let him live.
Frank, meanwhile, arrives back at the smaller island where he’s met by a frantic fellow-crash survivor saying that Ilana and three others have found guns and are now in charge. When he goes to question Ilana, she asks him a strange question and then whacks over the head with the butt of her rifle.
Well, like I said… wow.
Key points from this week’s episode:
• I honestly believe that not only was Ben truly remorseful about his role in Alex’s death, but that he genuinely loved her. I felt awful for him – seeing all those moments from Alex’s life and then her death again – I was almost moved to tears. Almost, but not quite. Poor Ben. Poor Alex.
• This episode went a long way in showing us a softer side of Ben. And what is revealed is also very interesting - Ben has a soft spot for children. We can now understand why the children were so important when the Losties first crashed. He couldn’t – or wouldn’t kill Alex and couldn’t kill Penny when young Charlie appeared. When we first saw Ben at a quay-side and looking undeniably worse for the wear (a few episodes ago), I was utterly terrified that Ben had killed Penny and even worse – Charlie.
Thankfully, the man has a heart, and the sight of little Charlie changed his mind. Didn’t prevent him from beaten to a pulp though.
• The smoke monster – where do I even begin??! Interesting way to summon it, I thought. Does it live in the mud? Or does the emptying of the muddy water release it from its prison, or haven, or home or whatever?
How it is connected to all the hieroglyphics? Looking at the image below, we can clearly see that it’s possibly an Egyptian god communicating/summoning the monster. I’m almost 100% sure that it is Anubis, who is the Egyptian God of the Dead. Anubis is responsible for getting souls to the afterlife, including the judgement of these souls. And I am also now more convinced that four-toes is a statue of Anubis.
We know that ole Smokey can do the “
flashes of your life” thing as we’ve seen something similar; I’m not sure if it was during Eko’s judgement or something else. How does it know what to do? Arghhh. Despite getting all these clues (for lack of a better word), we still have no solid answers about Smokey and the mythology surrounding it.
It’s incredibly interesting that it allowed Ben to live and there’s been some discussion around this. My personal opinion is that the island is not done with Mr Linus and he still has an important role to play on the island.
• But now he has to follow Locke’s lead. This will be interesting to watch. The interplay between Locke and Ben was quite fantastic. These two play off each other excellently and seem to know which buttons to press to get the reactions they want.
Ben is a stickler, it seems, for the island’s rules – going so far as to willingly exile himself and allow himself to be judged (let’s not forget murder, mayhem and the such) and the Alex-monster has made it very clear that it will not tolerate any deviation from this rule – Locke is now undisputable the Others leader. Will Ben follow Locke’s lead unerringly?
• Charles Widmore was a bit of a dictator on the island – not surprising considering what he’s like off the island. He was banished for breaking the rules – apparently leaving the island often and having a child with an outsider. Hmmm. Rather anti-climatic, isn’t it. I really rather fancied the idea of this huge power struggle between Ben and Widmore, ending in the dramatic turning of the FDW, thereby sending Widmore off the island for good.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t a power struggle between Widmore and Ben prior to his being banished. I’d like to see how Ben worked his way through the ranks to attain leadership.
And just an observation – Widmore had a child with an outsider, so who is Penny’s mother? And more vitally, is it important?
• We all know that Ben is a liar, but I wonder to whom he is lying now – Sun or Locke. He tells Locke that he knew that he would be somehow miraculously brought back to life, and tells Sun that “
Dead is dead” and not even the island could bring the dead back to life. So, who is he lying to? Well, considering the fact that I believe that Ben did know that Locke would be brought back to life, then I think he’s lying to Sun. Or he could be lying to them both, who knows.
• So Frank decides that he’d rather go back to the other island than traipse about with a murderer and a dead guy. I was disappointed when this first happened. I expected a little more from him; so I was quite excited when he got back to find circumstances had changed.
“
What lies in the shadow of the statue?” is the question that Ilana asks Frank as he rejoined the group. Huh? What? I’m so convinced that Ilana and company are Widmore’s people.
Someone had to get Sayid on that island, and Ben claims not to know how he got there (although we can’t trust him). Also, it seemed as though Widmore was working with Mrs Hawkings… so.. in my opinion, Ilana especially is employed by Widmore.... And what is in that huge metal crate thing?
I know there’s a lot more, but I have to stop at some point or I’ll be typing all day. All I know is that is getting incredibly interesting and just as frustrating!
What we learnt this week:• Ben sought judgement for his actions – specifically regarding Alex and has been allowed to live – for now.
• Ben’s secret room in his Otherville cabin contains the summoning charm for the monster – pulling the plug in a big, muddy puddle.
• The monster is steeped in Egyptology, and if the hieroglyphics can be believed, Smokey’s ancient.
• Ben had every intention of killing Penny in retribution for Alex’s death.
• Ilana has some kind of hidden agenda.
• Widmore is banished from the island for breaking the rules.
• Penny’s mother is an ‘outsider’
• Sun believes that Locke can help get to Jin
New Questions this week• How does the monster judge someone? What are the criteria?
• What does “what lies in the shadow of the statue” mean?
• How does Locke intend to get to 1977 to ‘rescue’ our Losties before the purge?
Interesting Trivia (from
this site)
• When Charles is about to leave the Island, we can see two men in what appears to be bulletproof vests, with the water trigram on their backs. (The same trigram can be found in the DHARMA logo, and on the sub as well)
• Charles Widmore tells Ben that just because he is living with them, it doesn't mean he can't be one of them. This is similar to Isabel telling Jack the meaning of his tattoo: "He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us" in episode "Stranger in a Strange Land".
• The following books can be seen on the bookcase in front of the entrance to the secret tunnel in Ben's house: "Flowers For Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, "Roots" by Alex Haley and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• A deleted scene from the episode "I Do" is shown during the scene in which Ben is judged by the Monster. The scene involved Alex getting into an argument with Ben over Karl and resulted in Alex saying "
I hate your guts," which is shown during this episode.
• Ben's house was in the same state it was in the last time he was inside, when the mercenaries attacked - including the Risk game Sawyer and Hurley were playing left out on the table
Interesting Screencaps (All images in this blog from
this site)
Ben and Ethan just before Ben kidnaps Alex
Shooting Desmond
In the chamber of the temple
Swing time
Outside the temple
Widmore being banished
In Ben's secret room
Richard lookimg all handsome and mysterious