PREVIOUSLY ON LOST

Another great episode, filling in some more missing pieces, opening up a few more questions. This one was big on the mythology side of things, and the only thing we saw from the 1970’s Dharma storyline was a healed Ben still in the hostiles camp.

Ben healed by the temple

It would appear that he’s all healed, and with no memory of what happened, but we still don’t know how exactly the temple healed him, or what the temple is. Ben tells Charles that he doesn’t want to go back to Dharmaville, but Charles says that he can go back and still be “one of them” (the hostiles).

Ben awakes to the ‘land of the living’

He tells Locke that he knew that he’d be alive. When Locke asks him why he’s so surprised if he knew, Ben says its because he could really believe it until he actually saw it for himself.

Why did Ben come back to the island?

Ben claims that he came back to be judged by “smokey” for the things that he’s done. I’m not sure I totally buy this, I think he has other reasons, which is probably why he probably wasn’t expecting Locke to ‘help’ him achieve it, and why he was rather nervous about the whole thing.

The French Acquisition

Ben was sent (along with young Ethan) to kill Rousseau, however Ben wasn’t aware she had a baby, so he kidnapped Alex and threatened, but didn’t kill, Rousseau. When Ben got back to camp, Widmore told him he should have killed the baby. So it appear Widmore wanted Alex dead from the beginning, guess he got his way in the end.

Why did Ben kill Locke, after stopping him from killing himself?

Ben says that it was the only way to convince everyone to go back to the island, especially since Locke had failed to convince any of them with his visits. He tells Locke that the reason he talked him out of hanging himself was that he had vital information that would have died with him (I assume that this information was related to Eloise Hawking), he then killed him because it was easier than talking John back into committing suicide.

Summoning the monster

Why is the summoning point for smokey located under Ben’s Dharmaville house (and which Dharma member did this house belong to pre-purge? Horace? Pierre Chang?). The reason this seems odd to me is that smokey appears to have more of a “connection” to the hostiles than with the Dharma folk. For example smokey hangs out in/under/around the hostiles temple, and Dharma have built a sonic fence which possibly has the main purpose of keeping smokey away from the village. And when Ben summons smokey (just as he did when the freighter folk came to get him) why doesn’t it show up?

Widmore was banished because…

Widmore was banished because he left the island repeatedly, had a daughter (Penny) with an outsider, basically he broke the rules. Prior to Ben seeing Charles off at the wharf, he’s playing with Alex on the swings in Dharmaville, so would seem that Widmore was banished sometime after the hostiles relocated to the Dharmaville post-purge.

In 2004 Miles mentions something about Widmore trying to get back to the island for almost 20 years, which places his banishment in the mid 1980’s, making the purge in the early to mid 1980’s which doesn’t entirely fit with the 1992 date that’s been semi-revealed as the date of the purge previously. However Ben’s stealing of Alex, which given Alex is about 16 in 2004, would have taken place around 1989 or so which fits much more logically with the 1992 purge date. If Widmore was in fact actually banished around 1992, then I guess its fair that in 2007 he saying that he being trying to get back to the island “for almost 20 years”… its only 15 but, close enough I guess.

Dead is, apparently not, Dead

Ben tells Sun that he’s seen the island heal people but never bring them back from the dead. Has Ben not had any encounter with Christian? Or is Christian really actually dead dead? One thing that possibly confirms either/or both those points is that if Ben knew about Christian then he wouldn’t have necessarily needed Jack to perform his spinal surgery, he could have just gotten Christian to do it, couldn’t he?

How does Locke know where smokey lives?

He just knows. Ok.

Ben kills Penny

Oh, wait, no he doesn’t. He rings Charles Widmore to tell him that he’s going to repay the favor for Alex’s death, and that he’s going to kill Penny. When he goes to kill Penny, but sees their child and hesitates long enough for Desmond (who he’d already shot) to attack him, so in the end he doesn’t kill Penny but does shoot Desmond. I suspect that’s not the last we see of him.

Would be interested to see how many people spotted this, but as Ben is threatening Penny she say that she has no relationship to Charles Widmore

Dammit, I just wanna see the Temple

What we’ve seen previously doesn’t even appear to be the temple, but just the wall around it. Ben say the wall was built by the hostile to keep people away from their temple, which is located about half a mile beyond the wall.

Can’t go through it, gotta go under it

So we still haven’t seen the actual temple, but Locke and Ben do venture under the wall on their quest to make sure Ben faces his judgment.

“What lies in the shadow of the statue”

When Lapidus get back to the Hydra island he finds that Ilana and some of the other Ajira passengers have found guns, Ilana asks him “what lies in the shadow of the statue”? Understandable, Frank has no idea what she’s talking about. Thing is does Ilana know what she’s talking about, and if so why/how. She says get the others, its time to go. Ok, where are they going? to the main island? to the statue? Wherever it is Caesar won’t be joining them,since he because the first of the Ajira crew to meet their demise thanks to a close range shotgun blast to the chest courtesy of Ben, who was “apologising” for killing Locke.

Under the temple wall all is forgiven

The room/chamber that Ben falls into has columns like those seen in the donkey wheel room, lots or hieroglyphics everywhere. The main hieroglyphic depicting Smokey and Anubis (which is one possibly identity for the four-toed statue) sits above a vent. Smokey emerges out of the vent and surrounds Ben showing him flashes of his life before retracting back where it came from. Ben tells Locke that “it let him live”, and he almost seemed disappointed about it.

Wait, I thought Alex was dead?

Still pretty sure that she is, I think this was probably a reanimation much like when Eko saw his brother Yemi, ie. it was a manifestation of the island. When Alex tells Ben that he must do what Locke tells him and that if he doesn’t “I will hunt you down and make you suffer”, the ‘I’ is not Alex but the island/smokey/Jacob etc.