Ben is Just Freaky (Lost: Season 4 Episode 9)

It’s been five weeks since Lost. Five longs weeks I’ve been waiting for some answers. And with last night’s Lost episode, I think we got some. Or did we? I completeley enjoyed last night’s episode, but the more I think about it, the more I have no idea what happened. Let’s try to dissect it, shall we? I’m really needing to talk about this one.

Ready? Let’s go…

The Island

Kate is taking her clothes off while sitting next to the beach. Seriously. What was that about? She smiles cheesily at Jack, then follows him into the “medicince cabinet” where he is popping pills. (Where have we seen this before?) He says he’s got a bug of some kind. She asks if the helicopter is coming back. Jack trusts that it will. (Seriously?)

Then we hear Bernard yelling for help while Vincent is barking up a storm. For some unknkown reason, Jack & Kate (who were in a tent talking) are the first ones to arrive. We also see Sun, Jin & Juliet for a minute.  Bernard discovered a dead body floating in the water. *shudder* It turns out to be Ray (Dr. Scary Teeth) from the freighter. Faraday and CS Lewis act all “we have no idea what’s happening” until they are finally asked about the dead man’s identity.

Our Losties want to know what is happening on the freighter. Faraday says they can’t contact the freighter because the sat phone still isn’t working. But, oh, if he had say, some wires, batteries, tin foil and coconuts, he could probably make it work fine for morse code. (Why didn’t he ask this before?) So, this new Beach Trio is listening to Faraday beep & blip the freighter about the doc. Their response? “Oh, the helicopter is coming in the morning.” But Super Bernard says, “THAT IS NOT WHAT THEY SAID” and then gives the true translation, “What are you talking about? The doctor is fine.” Which by the way, he’s not because, oh yeah, HIS THROAT WAS SLIT.

Jack attacks Faraday, “Were you ever going to take us off this island?” After some scary music Faraday breathes what Jack should have known was coming, “No.” Jack suddenly gets a cramp or his stomach bug moves to his kidneys and that’s the end of the beach scene. Stinks when your stomach bug kicks in then, huh?

Locke’s Nouveau Others

Locke, Hurley & Sawyer (and Aaron) are playing Risk in Locke’s house. The phone rings. They are stunned for a minute, then Locke picks it up to hear a recorded voice say, “Code 14J”. They run to Ben’s house where Ben is playing a morbid piece on the piano. (Is he the creepiest thing ever?) Ben is FREAKED when he hears about this phone call. He grabs an enormous gun from the piano bench, pumps it one time and…HANDS IT TO SAWYER. Ben says that one of his people have pressed the emergency code at the fence and “THEY are coming.”

So, they run to Locke’s house and barracade the doors and windows with furniture. Meanwhile, “THEY” have started firing on the Other’s compund. Random Lostie #1 and #2 are shot and Sawyer is dodging bullets as he tries to locate Claire. He finally finds her in the remains of her recently blown-up house. She’s totally fine and her hair and makeup are unscathed. Sawyer and Claire jump through the window of Locke’s house (because Ben won’t let them in).

Soon the air raid ends and Locke’s doorbell rings. They open the door and pull Miles into the house. He has a walkie talkie. “THEY” want to talk to Ben.  Miles says, “They have a prisoner.” Ben doesn’t care because he knows that any of his people would die first. Miles says, “It’s your daughter.”

Yes, young Alex, captured by “THEY” in our last episode is the one that entered the emergency code. Ben looks out the window and sees one of the bad dudes (Keamy) from the freighter decked out in fatigues with a gun to Alex’s head.

Ben is absolutely shocked. If possible, his eyes were double their normal enormous size.

Ben finally says, “Fine. Kill her. She’s not my daughter. I stole her as a baby from a crazy lady. She’s just a pawn.” And Keamy, the for-real bad dude kills her.

Ben’s eyes are now triple their enormous size. He did NOT see that coming. And now he’s ticked. He storms into his secret bat-cave with all his passports, closes the door in Sawyer’s face, then opens a hidden ancient looking carved wooden door. A few seconds later he’s back. He barks orders to the room, “When I say go, everyone run toward the trees.” And for some reason, they obey.

I guess because as soon as they get outside, THE BLACK SMOKE MONSTER rushes into the camp.

THE BLACK SMOKE! Ben can control the black smoke? What is going on? The black smoke sucks up/drags/attacks/kills all the bad dudes in fatigues as Locke’s Ben’s crew makes it to the jungle.

Now, for the part I am still railing against…

Ben runs to Alex first, sobbing & kisses her head.

ARE THEY TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL SORRY FOR BEN? It will NOT work. I will NEVER like Benjamin Linus.

Ok, back to the jungle. Sawyer decides to take Claire & Aaron back to the beach. He wants Hurley to go, too. Locke & Ben disagree. They need Hurley to find Jacob’s cabin. Sawyer and Locke pull guns on each other. Hurley is his usual peacemaker and agrees to go with The Terrible Two. And that’s the end of the Nouveau Others. Literally.

The flashFORWARD.

I could only have been happier if this was a Locke flashFORWARD. Folks, after having nightmares about Ben’s scary veterinarian voice, we finally have a Ben flashFORWARD. It is apparently sometime AFTER the Oceanic Six have arrived in the “real world” and BEFORE Sayid is a cold-blooded assasin. Oh, I’m jumping ahead.

And as a warning, this was confusing, I’ll try to make sense. TRY being the key word.

We see Ben wake up wearing a Dharma parka with a bleeding wound on his arm, in the middle of the Sahara desert. (CS Lewis’ polar bear, anyone?) He is greeted by two turbaned men on horseback, carrying guns. Ben tries to speak to them. They attack him but he turns Jack Bauer on them and kills them both. He rides away on their horse.

Soon, he’s at a hotel in Tunisia. He checks in as Dean Moriarty who is apparently a special guest there. The desk clerk is a little freaked by Ben/Dean but checks him in. Then Ben asks the date and it’s October 24.

Ben: 2005?

Desk Clerk: Yes, 2005.

Ben: (smiles satisfied)

So, Ben is time traveling. Or time and space traveling. Something freaky and weird, whatever the case. OH MY LORD. BEN CAN TRAVEL THROUGH TIME AND SPACE?! Is anyone else afraid?

(I can tell I’m rambling, ok, I’ll try to be more concise…)

Ben sees Sayid on TV. Sayid is trying to get into a car but reporters are hounding him. He yells at them, “Just let me bury my wife!”

Huh? Wife?

Now. We’re in Iraq. Ben is dressed like a member of the press. He’s following a funeral procession. He takes pictures of one of Widmore’s men (just guessing here…) who’s also staking out the funeral. Then he takes a picture of Sayid, one of the pallbearers. Too bad for him, Sayid sees him, too.

Next thing we know, Sayid is attacking Ben thinking he’s paparazzi. When he realizes it’s Ben, he says, “How did you get off the Island?” Ben explains that he used Desmond’s boat and landed in Fuji. (And Sayid accepts this? *sigh*)  Ben then leads Sayid to believe that one of Widmore’s men killed Sayid’s wife (Nadia, whom he apparently married when he returned from the Island).

Now, here’s where it gets freakier.

Ben is following the Widmore guy from Sayid’s funeral. Soon, they are face to face. They begin to talk but Widmore’s guy is shot in the back by our favorite assasin, SAYID. Ben pretends to be surprised and tells Sayid to walk away because “this is my war”! Sayid says he wants to know who’s next on Ben’s list. And here’s where their partnership began. Ben walks away with a smug little grin on his face.

Finally, Ben’s in London. He walks up to Widmore’s penthouse and confronts him about killing Alex. I’m sure there was some great insight and hidden conversation here, but I just didn’t catch it. It all boils down to the fact that Ben is going to kill Penny, Widmore’s daughter, to avenge Alex’s death. They also argue about who owns the Island. Whatever.

In Conclusion

Like I said, I totally liked this episode. But it was weird. I did not get Ben’s flashFORWARD. I’m sure that was the whole point. HOWEVER, I was loving the time travel stuff. I’m hoping this will become a more obvious element of the show. I don’t like wondering about it and I really want the Losties to discover this!

Questions & Weird Things
1. In Ben’s flashFORWARD, he was shown holding a big…uhm…it kinda looked like a large black gun-metal cigar. It obviously opens and at first reminded me of “the flashy thing” on Men in Black. I’m guessing it allows Ben to time/space travel. What is it really? Where did it come from?
2. When are the Losties going to STOP believing they’re getting off the Island? And then, how DO those six do it?
3. Ben accuses Widmore of “changing the rules” several times. What does this mean? What is Ben and Widmore’s previous relationship? How do they both know what the other wants/thinks?

Random Theory
I just don’t have one. I’m stumped. The whole Ben & Widmore conversation was too much for me. I just can’t believe everything will boil down to personal loss: Ben losing Alex, Sayid losing Nadia, Michael losing Walt, Desmond losing Penny, Widmore potentially losing Penny, etc. But, Doc Jensen over at ew.com has got some GREAT theories. Seriously, you have got to read his recap. Excellent stuff. (oh, and lostpedia has a great list of some literary references.)

So what say you, Losties? Were you happy? What did I miss? What are you hoping to see next?

(come rejoice Lost’s return with me at ohamanda.com!)