How fast did he digest these tasty morsels? Well if this answers your question, he was able to join me on tonight’s episode. This was my intention all along, since I wasn’t motivated solely by the moral duty to spread the gospel according to LOST. Basically I missed interacting with someone throughout the episodes and in the aftermath, which I had been able to do last year with my roommate Casey. (Sometimes we even got the musings of a drugged out Hobbit who didn’t watch the show and still found it fascinating.)
LOST is made for group viewing, because it’s reassuring to have someone to turn to during the WTF moments and know that you’re not the only one without a clue. Plus, it’s nice to have a Dan Snierson to my Doc Jensen, a Miles to my Faraday or a left ball to my lone right ball.
The recent episode, “Dr. Linus,” picked up directly after “Sundown,” with our heroes frantically fleeing the temple of death. We got a few answers right away, which included learning that Ben knew Doggen and Lennon and that Ilana had been assured the temple was a safe zone. First of all, I would pay money to watch a flashback of Doggen and Ben talk, with each scheming all the while. The latter reveal was more informative, since it implies that there’s more to Ilana’s talk with Jacob during the season five finale than originally was revealed.
It seems that Ilana has pretty detailed instructions from Jacob, which include protecting six people. Most likely that means Sawyer, Hurley, Jack, Jin, Sun and Sayid. I know she wasn’t sure which Kwan fell under her purview, but I remain confident that they’re both essential to Jacob’s plan. (Wouldn’t be surprised if they were Adam and Eve).
Ilana also revealed that the Oceanic castaways are candidates. This confirmed a reveal from Man In Locke (MiL) that I had believed, but still wanted reassurance about. Assuming that they are candidates, I wonder who does the choosing. It seems doubtful that it’s Jacob, since he’s dead, even though he can communicate through Hurley. Most likely people need to just assume their role. Granted, there is a chance that a higher power exists, who is responsible for enforcing the rules that Ben and the ghost child have referred to.
But it wasn’t all grave digging and remorse on the island, with Jack and Richard bonding over the issue of destiny.
Richard stumbled on Hurley and Jack while they were debating which way to go. Hurley did his best to stall Jack’s return to the temple, but ultimately failed to con him and gave up his briefly held mantle as leader that he’d been carrying this season. (I like Hurley as the reluctant leader, but this familiar capacity allows him to hone his comedy routine.)
So a disenchanted Richard reveals that Jacob gave him a “gift” and ridiculed Hurley’s faith in Jacob’s directions. We learn that Richard feels his time on the island has been a fruitless endeavor, with his faith shaken in the wake of Jacob’s death. Jacob was, in his estimation, an infallible leader that would get results and providing meaning to Richard’s existence. Since Jacob is dead, Richard now has reason to believe he was right in devoting his life to Jacob.
Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to create his own destiny, Richard has given up on life and is hoping Jack will kill him. Apparently he can’t kill himself, which he learned from previous attempts. He arrived at this state because Jacob touched him and gave him a gift. (The idea that Richard can’t kill himself would seem to indicate that Locke would have failed in his endeavor to hang himself, and that Ghost Christian/Man In Black anticipated Ben would kill him.)
At first it appears that Jack is willing to oblige Richard’s death wish, even though Alex doubted it from the onset. “That’s not like Jack. Jacks saves people,” Alex assured me.
Sure enough he was right, with Jack lighting the fuse on a piece of dynamite with the understanding that he’s too important to die this way. This was a watershed moment for me in my relationship with Jack, which could be characterized as tumultuous at best. Basically I hate Jack, since he’s a whiny leader who is well intentioned and constantly discovering new ways to be terribly terribly wrong. I was really encouraged by his WTF attitude earlier in this season and I was finally won over by his logical breakdown of the lighthouse. Finally he gave himself over to the idea of a higher power, and in the process cemented himself as the island’s current Man of Faith.
I love this dynamic, especially since it seems so natural for Jack. I almost died when he suggested to Richard that they try another piece of dynamite in the wake of the first piece’s inability to explode.
We don’t really learn anything from Richard’s daytrip with Jack and Hurley, except that we can confirm our suspicion that Richard came over on the Black Rock. I’m fine that there wasn’t much of a reveal, since the March 23rd episode (“AB AETERNO” which means “Since the Beginning of Time”) is supposed to provide us answers about Richard. I’m just glad that Richard has walked back from the brink and return to his role as Tom the consigliore. (GODFATHER fans should get that.) Although I was annoyed by the fact they returned to the beach and prompted a slow-mo reunion. Those things are so awkward and terrible.
Not quite as terrible as a world where Ben Linus is just an insignificant player in a bigger scheme, which was the case on and off the island. On the island Ben was a flawed liar and a beaten man who was looking for any salvation. In his current state he was left to merely reminisce about the good old days when planes were crashing onto his island and he had a huge crop of people to manipulate and torture. Ultimately he repented for his sin and accepted Ilana’s invitation, avoiding the easy temptation offered by MiL, who said he could take over for him when he left (more later).
Beaten Ben did serve to remind us that fate finds away. In conversing with everyone’s favorite pilot, Ben commented that “the island still got you in the end.”
For me, though, this version of Ben wasn’t nearly as depressing as the one who left the island with his dad and became a high school teacher. This reveal by Mr. Workman, that they had in fact been on the island provided fascinating insight into the flashsideways world. It leads us to believe that it really is merely a deviation from the regular timeline starting at the Incident, except for one major thing: Roger Linus wasn’t a huge dick to his son.
He implied that he joined the Dharma initiative to give his son a chance at a better life and give him opportunities he wouldn’t have gotten on non-magical land. If we believe his description of his motives then we’re left to assume that the flashsideways deviation begins before 1977. What does that mean? NO idea. Just something to chew on.
Apparently this parental sentimentality rubbed off, and was responsible for the softer and cuddlier version of Ben Linus that we were graced with. His story seemed to mirror his time on the island, as he had an opportunity to seize power in the school in a manner akin to his displacement of Widmore on the island. Everything Locke said about the principal sounds like the accusations Ben leveled against Widmore on the island as to why he was an unfit leader. In both cases Ben felt like he cared enough to be the leader and this mandated a change, except in his flashsideways he demonstrated a different set of priorities.
I was 100% confident that Ben would use the knowledge he gleaned from Alex to rise to power, in much the same way he used his saving of Alex’s life on the island to call into question Widmore’s priorities. In his flashsideways he started scheming and appeared to have seized the upperhand when he was undone by his heart, which led him to sacrifice his own agenda for Alex’s goals.
Leslie thinks he’s found a real “killer” in Dr. Linus, but he isn’t as selfish as his normal version. The flashsideways version of Linus is what Jacob hoped Linus would be on the island, where he ultimately let him down, according to Miles.
Ben’s achieved redemption off the island is in keeping with a developing trend in the flashsideways, which has included better choices from Jack and Locke. I refuse to believe that Kate applies to this theory (since she is a flaming tard of anomaly all to herself), but I’ll yield that Sayid contradicts the theory that the flashsideways represent a chance for our heroes to overcome their frailties. I’m still holding out hope that Sayid can break from his history, and it’s possible to argue that everyone he’s killed was in self-defense. The next episode is probably about Sawyer, so I think he’ll tip the scales one way or another concerning this hypothesis.
This post and the episode ended with the discovery that a submarine carrying Charles Widmore is off the island and is heading to the Hydra station.
I’m relatively confident that Widmore has come to the island to relieve the MiL. Widmore was the one who said a war was coming, and said that “There’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.” I think that proves, or at least hints at the idea that Widmore is an agent for MiB. If that’s the case, though, it leaves in doubt the identity of who Jacob is waiting for on the island. Desmond? Has to be, right?
Well that’s it. I’m happy with this episode, except for the fact there was no Annie. Oh well.
What did you think????
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