Ben isn’t dead

Ok, not surprised at all. Miles said that he wouldn’t die, and Faraday said you can’t change the future so unless Sayid unlocked some magic puzzle allowing him to change the future Ben was never actually going to die.

Kate visits Cassidy

Couple of points here, first up why does Kate so openly tell Cassidy that they’ve been lying about everything? Probably because it was the only way that she would have believed that Sawyer had asked her to find her. And why was Cassidy not more shocked to find out that the random woman who helped her with a small con at a service station way back when just happened to be on the same plane with the guy that is the father of her daughter, and that they would both survive the plane crash and he would then tell Kate to go and visit her to take care of his daughter. Come on, seriously, tell me that you wouldn’t be asking a hell of a lot of questions.

Back to the Future

Hurley sitting at the dining table starring at his hands, waiting for them to disappear Back to the Future style because he think that if Ben dies then he’ll cease to exist. Awesome.

Hurley and Miles discuss time travel

In the absence of Faraday (why on Earth is he?) Mile attempts to explain the complexities of time to Hurley, with quite entertaining results. I’m going to search for a transcript of their discussion because it worth trying to understand, but the general idea is that for the Losties the 1977 they are in is their present its occurring after their previous time on the island, for Ben and the Dharma folk this 1977 is their present. Miles explains that Ben can’t die because he’s still alive in 2004, but the Losties can die because this is happening after 2004 for them… you got that?

After Miles explains all this, Hurley asks why it is then that if this is Ben’s past that he doesn’t remember that Sayid shot him when he was a kid, when they meet again after Oceanic 815 crashes in 2004. We get his answer from Alpert.

Kate leaves Aaron with Claire’s Mother

They teased a couple of different outcomes, Kate losing Aaron at the supermarket, and then visiting Cassidy, but the final move to leave him with Claire’s Mother was pretty predictable. Kate tells her that Claire is still alive on the island, how can she say this and then tell her that she disappeared into the jungle never to be seen again? And is Kate really going back to find Claire or is that what she’s telling herself to justify going back to the place that she vowed never to return to.

Kate and Sawyer take Ben to the Others

After Juliet suggested that “they” might be able to save Ben, Kate and Sawyer take him across ‘the line’ to meet with the Others. When they find Alpert he takes Ben but warns them that he’ll never be the same again, he will forget this ever happened, his innocence will be gone and he will become one of them.

The fact that he’s going to forget everything explains why he wouldn’t remember Sayid shooting him. We also now have a better idea of what turned young Ben into the evil Ben we know now.

The Temple

After they hand Ben over to the Others Alpert takes him into the Temple, hopefully we find out what lurks behind the big stone door in the next episode. Whats going to happen in there? Is there some magic healing “fountain of youth” (which could explain why Alpert never ages), or perhaps Smokey the monster is going to play a part in healing Ben, maybe its Jacob’s 1977 hideout, maybe its none of those.

Welcome to the land of the living

Locke made sure he’d be sitting by Ben’s bedside when he woke up, I guess this is because the last thing Ben would be expecting is to see the man that he killed sitting in front of him. And with the next episode’s title being “Dead is dead” is this going to apply to Locke or Ben, or someone else…