The Others Follow the Leader in Lost…

So, following Daniel’s death Jack swaps roles with John Locke and  becomes the man of Faith, while Locke takes on the role of Sayid as the man of Action and poor old Richard gets stuck between them both.

Down on the beach in 2007 Richard Alpert is finishing construction on a ship in a bottle. I’m assuming its a model of the Black Rock, possibly a hint to Richard’s own origins? Locke comes down the beach, a boar slung over his shoulders and tells Richard they have an errand to run. This is new for Locke, the new spiritually enlightened Locke is telling Richard what to do, where as the old Locke looked to him for answers. Richard comments on the change in Locke and John replies “I have a purpose now!”

John has a purpose? In 2007? Doesn’t that suggest that whatever Jack Kate and Sawyer are doing back in 1977 has no purpose?

Sun and Ben approach keeping their distance and proceeding to give a little exposition for the benefit of those who haven’t quite been keeping up. “His name is Richard Alpert, he’s a kind of advisor…  and he has had that job for a very very long time.” Realising what he means Sun dashes up to Richard hoping that he has seen her husband. “Yes I was here 30 years ago and yes I remember meeting these people because I watched them all die!”

Really? All of them? Well as we will see later in this episode at least three of the people in the photo get off the island before the incident, however I can’t think, offhand, when Richard has ever been anything but truthful, so why would he lie now? Also having recently re-watched season 4, in particular “Cabin Fever” where Horace admits to having been dead for 12 years in 2004, we can safely assume that the purge didn’t happen until 1992, so did Richard see them all die in 1977 or 1992 as he was likely present at both events?

Anyway, Locke asks Richard for his compass back and then Richard and Ben head off into the jungle. However not before Locke promises Sun he will help find a way to save Jin. The problem I have here is why Sun stayed in 2007? Why was she not dragged back in time like everyone else? Is it because she was not supposed to be on flight 815? Was she supposed to leave Jin because their destinies lay apart from one another?

Jack and Kate are brought before Ellie, who, having read the message future Ellie wrote, realises that Daniel is telling the truth and that he is her son. I’m also thinking that either Ellie is pregnant with or has already given birth to baby Daniel by this point. Before Ellie questions them, Jack and Kate discuss just exact what will happen if they put things right. “Our plane never crashes, flight 815 lands in Los Angeles” Jack says. “And everyone we lost since we got here, they’d all be alive.” (That’s the self sacrificing Jack we all know and love.) “And what about us?” Kate responds, selfishly. “We just go on, living our lives, because we’ve never met.” Jack has just told her they can save the lives of everyone, all three hundred and odd people and all Kate can say is “What about us?” The same Kate who told Jack she didn’t want to see him again?

Ellie enters and demands to know what Daniel planned to do with the H-bomb, codename “Jughead”. Jack tells her that Daniel had figured out a way to change things and that if she helps him she wont have killed Daniel, that she can take it all back. Ellie turns to Kate and asks “Does he know what he’s taking about?” Kate replies “He thinks he does.” And with a season to go and the need for a finale I'm inclined to agree with Kate, Jack is wrong. Daniel has always insisted that you cannot change the past, but he has realised that they are an integral part of it, that in order to  preserve things everything must happen as it did before, including his own death and to ensure that happened after he died he gave Jack hope that he could change things. Thus I think that Jack will echo John Locke’s words at the end of season 2 “What have I done?”

Back at the Dharma security station Sawyer and Juliet are being interrogated by Radzinsky, Horace and Phil. Sawyer refuses to talk and Radzinsky beats him. Horace tries to stop him but Radzinsky has taken charge and refuses to acknowledge Horace’s authority.

Hugo, Miles and Jin are making their plans to escape when Chang  catches them. Troubled by Faraday’s “We’re from the future” talk he confronts Miles and Hurley and quickly breaks down Hurley’s alibi “Who is the president of the united states?” “Alright dude, we’re from the future.” Chang inquires about the incident and Miles tells him that if Daniel warned him he should listen.

Meanwhile back in 2007 Locke and Richard prepare for Locke’s jump forward in time when Richard will give him the compass and tells him he needs to bring everyone back to the island. They arrive at almost the exact moment, a point which is commented on by Ben. “Your timing is impeccable John, how did you know when to be here?” Locke replies “The Island told me.” Something it had never done with Ben, maybe because Ben was never meant to be in charge and that his usurpation of Charles’ position was in someway against the island’s wishes, which brings into question Richard and if he really has the islands best interests at heart. After all it was he who healed Ben and he who instated Ben as leader.

Chang comes into the security station and tells them to evacuate, but he stops in his tracks when he sees Sawyer and Juliet. Stuart Radzinsky turns on Chang and asks him why he isn't at the Swan. Chang replies that he believes there will be a cataclysmic event  should they continue drilling. Stuart replies they will drill and on schedule. Chang turns to Horace “You’re in charge.” but Stuart cuts him off “He’s not in charge anymore!” Is that why Radzinsky ends up in the swan, his penance for ignoring the warning is to push the button? Is it because he feels guilty for all the lives lost that he blows the back of his head off all over the ceiling of the Swan?

Sawyer realises the danger they are all in, and unable to save anyone else, he chooses to save himself and Juliet by turning the Others in for a place on the Sub. A tactic he had admonished Michael for only last season.

Richard and Ellie have brought Jack and Kate to the river where Sayid meets up with them. Kate is appalled by the two men and there way of dealing with things and so once again she storms off into the jungle. Does that girl ever stick with anything? She spends more time traipsing across the island from one group to the other than she ever does actually in the group.

Hurley, Jin and Miles spy on Chang as he demands his wife gets on the sub with baby Miles, yelling at her so that she will leave, giving Miles closure, letting him know that his father really did love his mother and that he made her leave to save her. Juliet and Sawyer are loaded into the sub as well and before climbing down inside Sawyer turns around long enough to mutter “Good riddance.” Is it really though? Is that it for Sawyer and Juliet? If  they are off the island in 1977 can they make it back to 2007? Sawyer and Juliet have a touching moment where each says “I love you” only for it to ruined moments later as Kate is thrown in as well and the sub sets off in some of the worst CG on Lost to date.

Jack, Richard, Ellie and Sayid swim under the river to the tunnels where the bomb is. Sayid points out that Ellie is only helping them because she wants to wipe out the Dharma Initiative and Jack replies he knows, but still trusts her… I wonder if Ellie gets herself kicked off the island before Charles, for helping Jack and Sayid maybe, because right now it looks like she is charge not Charles yet later on he definitely is. That make me wonder if she is Penny’s mother, that it was her that Charles left the island so frequently for, that eventually got him kicked out too?

Back on the beach John has rounded up the Others and is taking them to see Jacob. Richard is not happy about this, remarking to Ben “I think John Locke is gonna be trouble.” Ben replies “Why do you think I tried to kill him?” As they march off down the beach Ben lets Locke know Richard’s reservations, maybe because Smokey-Alex has told Ben to side with Locke or maybe because Ben is playing Richard and Locke off against each other in the hope of regaining power. Ben tells Locke that he is here to help and if Jacob can help Locke get back to his people then… but Locke replies, a mite too quickly. “I’m not interested in being reunited with my people. That’s not why we’re going to Jacob. “ “Then why?” replies Ben. “So i can kill him!” Wyyyyoooo Doof “LOST”

So that’s it for another week. Richard really has “Lost” control  hasn’t he? I’m guessing he couldn’t stop Jack back in 1977 and now he has Locke to contend with in 2007. Of course there are other questions to contend with too. Is there really a Jacob or is Richard the man behind the mask? Is the concept of Jacob just a way to keep the Others in line or is there really a greater power on the island? And if there is, can it be killed?

And what about this for a theory? I think that it may have all happened before. Jack’s dad, Christian Shepherd, was responsible for Jack and Anna being on the plane and in a lesser way for Claire too, all of whom have had a major influence on events on the island. He, like John, was dead and like John is now walking about  the island. So I pose the question, did Christian have to die to return to the island, like John too? Was Christian Shepherd a part of the Dharma Initiative or an Other?

I just thought I'd throw it out there. Anyhow, that’s my Two Cents until next time when I will bring you my take on Heroes Volume 4: Fugitives.  

Dead is Dead for John Locke

So, the mystery revealed, the title of this weeks episode of Lost is about not Ben, but Locke (shoulda seen that one coming I guess), however it really answers another, maybe more important question, while posing a whole host of others.

This week’s episode was by far and away the best episode so far this season. Although the title might be about Locke it is Ben who gets centre stage. So far in Lost history I can only think of two Ben central episodes and only one of those is a Flashback episode. In Season 3’s “Man Behind the Curtain” we learn that Ben hates his father and will eventually grow up to kill him, in this episode we see how he gets there.

As with a lot of this series’ flashbacks, some of what we learn here is already assumed and in most cases assumed correctly. For example we already knew that Ben stole Alex as a baby (it was even in the ‘Previously on Lost’ for this episode.). Another problem I have with Flashbacks in this series is the inclusion of Characters as exposition. What I mean by this is that characters are put into scenes where they don’t necessarily fit because it saves time on explaining their back story. For example why would Ben take Ethan with him when Charles sent him to assassinate Rousseau? Ethan is a child and certainly shouldn’t be killing anyone. Therefore i can only conclude he was there so we could see he had joined the others as a child (and as yet another echo of seasons past, when Ethan will lead the hunt for Claire’s baby). What isn’t explained is how or why. Did Ben bring him over? Or is he still living in Dharmaville like Ben but moonlighting as an Other? Has Amy died and so young Ethan has been orphaned and taken by the Others? Or is he one of those “the Island chose”?

Twice during this episode Charles Widmore’s authority is undermined. Firstly Richard is admonished for saving Ben, however Richard simply tells Charles, “The Island chooses who the Island chooses” and then later Ben defies him by not killing baby Alex. So did the Island choose Alex too? Did it appoint Ben Linus as her protector? And if Alex and Ethan were chosen then why did the island allow them to be killed? Is the answer in the title? Dead is Dead? As Ben will later reveal, ”Dead is Dead and there is no coming back from that, even here.”

And of course, Ben’s baby snatching habits continued long into adulthood and maybe we should ask the question what were his true intentions with Aaron? After all, Charles doesn’t answer the question “Is killing this baby what Jacob wants?”… What if it is? We certainly couldn’t be sure if there are any child births after this point on the island. After all Charlotte/Miles/Daniel and Ethan (all possible island births i can think of) were all born before baby Alex and assuming no pregnant ladies crashed on the island in the intervening sixteen years then Aaron would be the first baby since Alex and if Jacob wants no new human life on the island, then maybe Ben was really trying to kill Aaron, on Jacob’s orders.

And no Ben-centric episode would be complete without a mention of the Rules. The rules, the glue that holds the very fabric of time (and the show) together. We learn how Charles gets exiled. It couldn’t be all that long before the 815 plane crash. Alex is maybe six, so ten years (although Charles claims its nearly twenty) and Desmond crashed there three years before that. (Side note: I wonder, i can’t remember, but if Widmore’s yacht race was an annual thing he could have been using it to find the island. I wonder if he knew what had happened when Des didn’t return? Did he even know that Des would go, after all he seems to have foresight and is Libby in anyway connected to Widmore, as it was her boat?)

Anyway, Charles is kicked off the island because he left it often and had a child with an outsider. Personally i can’t blame him, the choice of Others is quite slim. Now if this was ten years before the 815 crash and we trust IMDB to tell us Sonya Walger (Penny Widmore) ‘s true age then that would mean it took the Others 24 years to realise this… (23 years would be a nicer number, lets pick that, then people can read additional meaning into it.) Seriously? Banishing him for a crime he committed 24 years previous?

And once again, as he is being banished Charles brings up Alex. Ben says “I will sacrifice everything for the good of the Island.” to which Charles replies “You wouldn’t sacrifice Alex.” Ben refutes this saying “It was you who wanted her dead, not the island.” bringing us to the crux of the matter “I hope you’re right Benjamin, because if it is the island who wants her dead, she’ll be dead… and you’ll finally realise you cannot fight the inevitable.”

Well Charles was right, but what is the inevitable? Is it that Ben is to be replaced, that he is not the messiah the Others believe in? After all we have to assume that both Ben and Charles were fed the same story about being chosen that Locke was, it would be the only way to explain why Richard would be so subservient to them.

In Ben’s final flashback he goes after Penny Widmore, just as he promised Charles he would. Just before we get this flash Ben asks Sun to find Des and tell him he’s sorry, leading us to believe that he killed Pen and that Des survived the attack. Somewhat wishful thinking on Ben’s part because he shot Des in the abdomen where he could puncture any number of vital organs, that wouldn’t necessarily kill the Scotsman out right . Ben however cannot kill Penny when he sees young Charlie and Desmond flies into an adrenaline fuelled rage and pommels Ben into the beaten and blooded fellow we see boarding the plane.

So Penny and Desmond(?) survive, hopefully to return in season six, maybe with young Charlie in tow. Meanwhile in Island time, Locke and Ben flee back to the main island, after Ben kills Caesar with a shotgun, who he had befriended mere moments earlier. I wonder if the name Benjamin can trace its roots from Brutus? After all Lost is not afraid to draw on mythology for it muse. In fact, Lost is menagerie of influence, which has caused it to become aimless in theological comparisons. I digress.

Ben is returning to the Island to be judged and Locke it seems has been chosen as his spirit guide, somewhat akin to Eko and Yemi. They meet up with Frank and Sun and Frank abandons them and returns to Ilana only for her to pull a gun on him. Poor Old Frank, glad to see the beard returning, he looks so odd clean shaven. So have the 316er’s already turned all Lord of the Flies, or is there a dark mystery at work here? My vote, dark mystery!

Returning to Ben, he and Sun have a heart to heart where Ben mutters the immortal words “Dead is dead, you don’t get to come back from that, not even here. So the fact that John Locke is walking around this island scares the living hell out of me.” So Dead is Dead? Well that certainly puts the kibosh on so many theories, that for example Jin, Locke and Rose are all dead, which is why they appeared cured. It also supports Lindelof and Cuse’s insistence that Christian Shepherd is dead and therefore by extension so too is Locke, so who the hell is walking about the island? Is Christian really just Christian, as Locke is Locke? Have we therefore not actually met Jacob? How is the Island able to manifest corporeal bodies such as Locke, Christian, Dave, Kate’s Horse, Horace and now in this episode Alex? And why can it only become dead people? Even worse why can it’s reach extend off the Island in the case of Hurley (who has seen Anna Lucia, Charlie, Eko and others)?

One thing is certain now that Locke is dead, he wont be leaving the Island. His death has certainly given him fresh insight into the Island, as he leads Ben all the way to the Temple without aid and he even knows that Smokey lives beneath it. But if Locke is dead (avoiding the obvious Jesus Christ metaphor) can he still be the messiah the Others have been waiting for? Has the Island brought John back because it still has a purpose for him?

Finally Ben enters the Temple, which is covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics (and I’m not about to translate it all to look for hidden meaning) where Ben is to be judged, by none other than Alex. Somehow he passes and his penance is to follow John Locke. However, other than the counter in the swan hatch (which was Dharma and not Other in nature) I honestly don’t see the Egyptian influence in the show. In fact it draws more parallels with Christian mythology than it does with Egyptian and the two hardly go hand in hand. For example the presence of a single omnipresent god-creature (like Jacob) is opposed to the pantheon of gods in the Egyptian mythology. I’m just not sure I’m convinced…

Anyway, its been a long rant this week and think i missed out half of my questions, but this has been My Two Cents.