LOST: I Want You to Want Me

Ben Linus, you knew you would get us eventually, didn’t you?

I have always loved Ben because he is such a good character and knows how to do crazy eyes like nobody’s business. But of course, no one actually likes Ben, unless you are into the whole manipulator-power hungry-monster kind of person (to each his own). But last week, we got to see what Ben could have been. I’m still not getting the whole alternate reality Universe X thing, because there were a bunch of other factors that were different in this world (a good relationship with his father just to name a huge one). Before we get to good Ben, lets look back at bad Ben in Oceanic 815 Universe.

On the island, Ben comes racing through the jungle after just seeing a psycho Sayid in the Temple. In one of the best exchanges on the show, it quickly comes to light that Ben actually killed Jacob, not Flocke, since Miles was able to have a little chat with Jacob’s ashes, and knew that Ben was standing over his body with a bloody dagger (love love love Miles). Even more Daddy issues are reveled, as Ilana is pissed/heartbroken since Jacob was the closest thing she ever had to a father (how did they meet? why was he like a father? where was her father? does she age? why was she bandaged in the hospital? ahhhhhhhhhh). Our A Team makes it back to the beach where some of the 815 wreckage is still salvageable and they begin anew. Again.

While the Losties and Freighter(ies) are cleaning house, Ilana takes Ben to Boone Hill for him to dig his own grave. Guess he isn’t a candidate? Miles tries to make nice and bring Ben some food, which he rejects and tries to justify his killing Jacob (kind of) by telling Miles that he wanted to die, which Miles quickly points out wasn’t true. He says that up until Ben stabbed him, he was hoping he was wrong about Ben, but he guesses he wasn’t. Snap. Ben gets another visitor when Flocke pops up and tells Ben that he can escape. He just has to run to the clearing in the woods and there will be a rifle there so he can “get the drop” (is that a phrase?) on Ilana. Flocke also tells Ben that he can be in charge of the island once he and the rest of the Temple people jump ship, or island rather.

Okay hang on. I know that the writers weren’t necessarily always working for consistency in the very very beginning of this show, but I want to know more about the limits and rules with this monster masher. He couldn’t kill Jacob himself, he can’t kill “him” according to some creepy blond child, and I want to say that he can’t be in the daylight, but I think that’s wrong. Is it just for effect that many times when smokey makes an appearance it’s raining out? Does he need the cloud coverage? He definitely has been in the sun before (back in the season 5 finale on the beach with Jacob when he just ate…people?), but who knows. Also, what’s his mode of transportation? Nowadays he always seems to pop up through his tika tika action, but is he just showing off? Why is he all over the place now when he has been so MIA before, and never ever on the beach? Is it island apocalypse? Why couldn’t he get through the Dharma fence? How was Ben able to call on him to kill Widmore’s mercenaries in Dharmaville in season 4? Ok, sorry gotta pump the brakes.

Back on track! Ben seems to accept Flocke’s offer of relative freedom and power in his jail break, as he runs into the woods and grabs a gun, getting the drop (?) on Ilana. And while the die-hard LOST fan in me wants to say that what happened next was just another long con, I think Ben actually turned a corner. He confessed to Ilana about how he killed his daughter. He admitted to killing Jacob because he was so angry and confused, how a man that he sacrificed everything in the name of didn’t care about him. Then he (looking like Linus from Charlie Brown), told Ilana that he was going with Locke because he was the only one that would have him after all the terrible things that he had done in the name of Jacob, the Island, and his own power.

Then Ilana said the sweetest words ever uttered on this show. Knowing who Ben was and all the evil he was capable of, she told him that she would have him. Tears on my pillow. So what’s the lesson here? That free will wins out? That even the people who seem the furthest past redemption are able to do the right thing? My heart just broke for Ben, up to his sad/confused little fawn trot back to the beach. So Ben has a heart after all, who knew?

Let’s make a quick jump to Universe X Ben, who I am going to just call Linus since he reminds me of Charlie’s pal and it makes him all the more endearing. In Oceanic 815 Universe, we saw him looking for power and purpose his whole life and saw that he was, in short, a monster. Off island in Universe X, Dr. Linus is a committed teacher who refuses to give up on his students, and seems to genuinely care for them — especially the smarties like Alex Rousseau. I miss her. Anyway, Linus is frustrated with the administration at his public high school, and wants a change. Thanks to a little chiming in from the substitute teacher Mr. Locke, Linus thinks that perhaps he should be the one in charge if he cares the most (island parallel anyone?). So Linus does what Ben does best: he tries to manipulate the principal in a power play to get what he wants, for the ultimate overall good of the school (TBD). The deciding moment for where Linus’s priorities lie (like on-island): Alex. A gifted student wanting to go to Yale, Ms. Rousseau needs a letter of recommendation from the pervy principal to get in, but he says he will torch her if Ben exposes his extramarital affair with the school nurse. What’s Linus to do? Well we all know what Ben would (and did do) on-island: he would torch Ms. Rousseau too if it was to secure his power. What’s a little collateral damage? But, Linus makes his choice based on the little guy (gal). He has this moral fiber that I don’t know what to do with, and seems exceedingly kind.

What happened in Linus’s life that makes his choices so different from Ben’s? We know that Dr. Linus and Mr. Linus went to that damn Dharma Initiative, but Mr. Linus says they left, and who knows what could have happened if they stayed (they would have ended up under water from an H bomb?). Ok, hang on. I’m confused. If my theory holds, little Ben got shot by Sayid in 1970s Dharmaville of Universe X and was taken to the Temple where he was saved, but his innocence was gone or something ridiculous according to Richard (omg we still need to talk about Richard ahhhhhhh). So, when/how did Mr. Linus and baby Ben leave the island to continue living on the mainland when the bomb seems to have been dropped so quickly after all those events? When did Benny leave the Temple? Is my theory off? Nooooooooooooooo.

Another biggie this week was Richard. He found Hurley and Jack in the jungle and told them to follow him to the Temple, but lied and took them to the Black Rock instead. He went there to die, but needed someone else to kill him (Jacob style?). He said he couldn’t die because Jacob touched him and gave him a gift, and that he spent his whole life doing what Jacob said because he told him he was special and there was a plan for him. Then he died and Richard felt he had no purpose. Crazy Jack sat down with Richard after lighting his dynamite for him, and told Richard a little story called Jacob had Hurley bring me to the lighthouse just to know that Jacob had been watching me his entire life, so I’m was positive I’m not going to die now with you. WTF, Jack? I don’t know how I feel about this fatalistic/ man of faith Jack. He seems a little cracked out. So hopefully Richard will now tell Jack (slash US) all about his back-story. Please please please please please.

And finally, the best part of this episode may have been in the last 15 seconds. From Oceanic 815 beach, I thought another Dharma animal was emerging, but no! It was a periscope with Benjamin Linus in its crosshairs (do periscopes have cross hairs? Its viewfinder). The periscope operator (?) tells his boss that there are people on the beach and asks if they should proceed, to which Mr. Widmore replies, hell yes! (more or less).

Mother of pearl, Widmore is back!!!! So, if anyone else watched the “enhanced” version of Sayid’s episode before the new one, you know that one of the little tidbits was to remind us that Widmore told Locke that a war was coming to the island, and unless Locke went back, the wrong side was going to win. Thanks enhanced versions of episodes! So, I guess this establishes Ben, Ilana, Sun, Jack, Hurley, Lapidus, Miles, who am I missing, as the “wrong” side, which is actually the good side? Since it has been Ben vs. Widmore for so long, has Ben really always been on the good side, even though he was terrible? I’m still having trouble getting over the whole Dharma Initiative purge here. They were just hippies, why did Jacob want them gone (if Ben and Richard were acting on Jacob’s orders)? It’s not hard to believe that Widmore is bad news. He was a brat kid when we first met him in the 1950s, and he got Eloise knocked up and never helped raise Faraday. And then that whole freighter incident…

It looks like Widmore:Ben/everyone on the beach :: Flocke:Jacob. Is this reflected in good:bad? Why aren’t all the Losties, good, whyyyyyyy?! I miss Sayid already and I’m holding out for Sawyer. Flocke can keep crazy Claire, I was never much of a fan of the Australian accent. Next episode, looks like Kate is having a breakdown. Sawyer or Jack? Good or evil? Run away or hang tight? TBD.

For another opinion on this episode, read Bilal Mian’s review here.

Season 6 Episode 7: Dr. Linus (Originally Aired March 9, 2010)

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Tuesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC and Mario Perez.