5.12 Dead Is Dead

Dead is dead. The name says it all. The writers are mocking me. First, the ridiculous magical moving bullet wound from the last two weeks that kept Ben alive, and coincidentally we get an episode title of Whatever Happened, Happened. That means the future can’t change. But, just one week later, we get Dead is Dead. Is this a reference to Locke like most assume, or about Ben, which would make for a sarcastic jab by the powers that be at people that are trying to pay attention to the details of the show? OK, writers, you win. I tried to take the analytical approach to your show, thinking inconsistencies between the present/future meant that the actions of the past had a huge influence on the upcoming events. And I’m not even talking about nit picking on details of Season 1 to Season 5. I get it, that was a lot of plot development ago. Then, the rug gets pulled out from under me with Ben’s gun shoot wound that won‘t stay still. Maybe that is my Waterloo. The writers are focking with all of us. Whatever Happened, Happened. Dead is Dead. Come on, they are purposely leaving clues for both sides of the debate; alternate timelines AND nothing has changed. I refuse to get caught up in it again. The writers proved their point. They would rather screw with the audience than be consistent with the show. Well, fine. I will try to avoid their little games, and focus on the episodes as they happen. But it doesn’t make me any happier knowing they are writing scripts to screw with the heads of the internet obsessed fans, while confusing the hell out of the mainstream audience. Oh. Was that the sound of Lost’s ratings dropping again? Maybe if the writers didn’t fock around so much, they could hold on to casual fans watching this show instead of a group of long suffering obsessed douche heads like me being the victims of their practical jokes. April 1st comes around just once a year, for fock‘s sake. I love this show. But I can’t fathom how the writers will pull off resolving all these inconsistencies from this year. I defended their ability to tie up all details for years. Now, not so much. I am being forced to suspend my meticulous attention to detail.

But let‘s not take away from what was a terrific episode, arguable the best one of Season 5. While I enjoyed the hell out of the time traveling episodes, we then settled into a morass of boring Dharma crap the past few weeks. This episode featured the wonderful characters of Ben and Locke playing off each other all episode long, with some questions answered, a couple of new mysteries, and a reappearance of my favorite character on the show, the Monster. It doesn’t get much better than flashback filled The Curious Case of Benjamin Linus.

The Others are roughing it in the jungle as a traveler arrives by horse. This is at least the second time we have seen a horse on the island, as Kate saw a black horse outside the Swan hatch in Season Two, possibly a manifestation of Smoke Monster. But we haven’t seen people, namely the Others, traveling on them lately. The very usual power structure is referenced yet again, as Richard reminds Charles how the island and Jacob make decisions regardless of who the leader of the Others happens to be. Which makes me wonder if the leader of the Others can hear Jacob at all, and Richard is the only one that can interpret. This could very well be the reason Charles is so frustrated with Richard. I know I’ve speculated about this in the past, Ben only pretending to hear Jacob, but I would like proof somebody outside of Richard (who could also be faking) and some of the Oceanic 815 being able to see Christian. Now, Locke may have arguably seen the real Jacob, but he was still in semi-faith mode, so it’s hard to tell if “help me” came from Christian or Jacob, but I think it was the latter. Ben is told he will return to his father soon enough, which means the purge is still scheduled. However, how in the world will Ben be able to explain his actions and reappearance to the satisfaction of Dharma to allow him to remain one of them for the next dozen years or so for the time of the Purge? Would you trust the kid after he stole the keys and set the bus on fire. Is this one of those “my daddy mentally abused me and I didn’t know what I was doing” line of defenses that could work in today’s blame everybody else society? Well, this was 1977 after all, so I doubt that line of reasoning would work. Yeah, we get it, the island saved Ben’s life. We also get to meet Charles Widmore as the leader of the Others, proving he was telling the truth, once and for all, about that topic. The writers yet again are setting up the seesaw of Ben and Charles, one is good, one is bad. Depending on the episode, they keep swaping those roles. I’ve gotten to the point where I just don’t care. I hope they are both evil. As Ben wakes up to watch Locke watching him sleeping like some kind of drunk uncle with creepy thoughts, we get the set up of the episode. Seeing is believing. I broke the rules, so I’m here to be judged. And the Monster. OK. I’m intrigued, especially after what happened to Mr Eko.

At Ajira camp, Ilana and a couple of castaways are moving a big metal crate, but don’t want Ben’s help. Ben convinces Caesar that Locke is nutty as a fruitcake. Ben went so far as to introduce the Ethan story, saying Locke might have already been on the island when the plane crashed. Never, ever play poker with Ben . As we see him skulking in the bushes with a young Ethan years earlier, he is still a bit twitchy. We are finally going to see how Alex was kidnapped. A lot of interesting tidbits here, and not just Ben showing a modicum of compassion for not shooting Rousseau, as he heard a baby crying. Clearly, he was relating to growing up without a mother, much like he did. Somewhere in his heartless body, well he has a heart, but it seems to limbo around bullets like a drop of mercury on a flat surface. But somewhere in that egotistical body is a soft spot, which will betray him many years later with Penny. Next, Rousseau is still camped on the beach, so it’s probably safe to assume that she soon finds and moves into the bunker where she remained until Sayid found her in Season 1. Ethan is an other and looks awfully young. I suppose this is post purge, and he is a part of the Others, an unexplained survivor from Dharmaville. Ben tells her to never try to find Alex and when she hears whispers to run the other way. I’ve mentioned a few times that the Whispers have occurred when there was zero chance the Others were around, for example when Hurley first saw Jacob’s cabin. So I will not concede the point that the Others create the Whispers. Just not enough evidence yet. But my biggest issue with this scene is that Rousseau captured Ben in Season 2, and Ben looked pretty close to the same with a bit less hair. Rousseau did not kill him. She simply turned him over to the Oceanic 815s and told them that he was definitely an Other. And didn’t mention that this was the man who kidnapped her baby. After 16 years or so, don’t you think you might be able to build up more anger towards someone for stealing your child. Was she really that afraid even then of Ben’s threat of Alex being harmed. I guess Danielle was a troubled woman on some many different levels, killing her brainwashed colleagues and baby‘s father before they killed her, left alone in a jungle for 16 years, having her daughter stolen, and being paranoid of whispers in a jungle. What kind of life is that? Then a couple of days after you are reunited with your long lost daughter, you are killed by commandos. Of course, she would have been so much better off if she was still hiding in that bunker. I would argue that of the entire series cast, her Lost character is the most deserving of our sympathy. And whoever sleeps with Kate. Ok, ok, but I had to keep my streak going this week. Enough about Kate. On Hydra hatch island, Ben looks for and finds a picture of Alex. Locke strolls in and makes himself comfortable. Ben goes off in a speech about how Locke had to die, Ben needed vital information from him (Jin was alive, meant to visit Hawking in Los Angeles), then killed Locke himself. Ben pulls out his old “did it in the best interests of the island” phrase. At this point, I’m convinced that Locke is not his usual self. Since being brought back to life, he seems more…confident. On the island in the past, he seemed hesitant, not sure what to do, befuddled at times. Now, it’s as if the island saved him and yet took his innocence away. Not that it’s a bad thing. Locke’s innocence has been an Achilles’ Heel for him all his life. But now you can argue that Locke received a healing by the island much like Ben, but Locke is more special since he came back from the dead. Locke suddenly carries himself like he is omniscient. “I’m going to help you, Ben”. This is quite the role reversal, as Locke and Ben were on opposite sides of lines like that for the last two seasons or so. Caesar interrupts Ben and Locke at the canoe, and gets a shot at close range for his trouble. Well, it’s been nice knowing you Paulo II, but your time is up. He seemed destined for a bigger role, after his airport and subsequent airplane appearances. Guess not. He seemed to have a logical mind, in that he was demanding answers from Locke about the island before Ben plugs him as an apology to Locke. As least we still have Nikki/Illana still around.

Ben and Locke arrive at the Others’ pier. Again, it is dilapidated, falling apart, dense and overgrown with trees that didn’t exist 3 years ago, and Ben spent 10 seconds staring at his surroundings as if he didn’t recognize the place. But NOOOOOO, there are no changes to the future. Score one for “change”. After Ben tosses around a few meaningless clichés, Locke startles him by accusing Ben of coming back to the island not because of breaking the rules, but because of the death of Alex. Locke again seems to know exactly what is going on. However, I think Ben breaking the rules is a more serious problem, like moving the donkey wheel instead of Locke, than the death of Alex. How was that in the best interests of the island, Ben? Blowing up the freighter and the purge can be debated from the island point of view. But the donkey wheel? Even Christian rebuked Ben. Which brings up another point. Does Smokey work with the island all the time, or are they independent entities. I mean, the island certainly has issues with Ben. The tumor, Christian telling Locke not to listen to Ben, children dying, etc. I‘m sure the children dying is due to Ben, possibly because Alex lived. But Ben is coming to be judged for just one indiscretion? Given the island’s anger at Ben, it’s a slam dunk, right? Or not. It’s a detail that has never been fully explained to my satisfaction, that Smoke Monster and island are one and the same. The same way that Jacob’s relationship to the island and Monster have never been completely linked. I hope we get more concrete definitions in the future. Off they go to summon Monster from Ben’s old home in the Barracks. Back in time, Ben brings the child to the Other’s campfire. Ben directly disobeyed Charles’ order to exterminate Rousseau, kidnapped the child, and dared Charles to kill “it” himself. “Is this what Jacob wants?” Seems that whenever somebody in the Others world does something naughty, all they have to do it say “Jacob” and everybody backs off. It’s apparently the most powerful word in the world. They next time somebody cuts me off in traffic, they are going to get an earful of “You stupid Jacob.” Charles walks away. Very odd behavior for the leader of the Others, giving in like that. Is it already clearly defined that Ben will take over someday, and Charles can’t challenge the soon to be authority figure? As Ben and Locke wander around Ground Zero at the Barracks, Ben accused Locke of “you have no idea what the island wants” while Locke counters with “are you sure about that” which is yet another hint at Locke’s new reborn identity of all knowing warrior. Rambo, with brains. Before Ben enters Alex’s old room, he wanders by a game board of Risk, which is something Hurley, Sawyer, and John were playing back in Season 4 before Keamy and his men attacked the camp. So, score one “for happened, happened”. Can you get the sense that I am grinding my teeth right now. Ben walks in on Sun. To be fair, when you walk in on a woman in a bedroom like that, you really have to have some stage of undressing going on. The fact that she was fully clothed …Booooooo. Frank shows Ben the 1977 photo, mentions Christian, and waiting for Locke to come back to life, who waves to them outside the window. Ben really seemed more surprised by the mention of Christian than anything else. Does he know that Christian is Jack’s father? Maybe. The Others had files on all the passengers from Oceanic 815.

Frank is creeped out by Zombie Locke, and wants to go back to the Hydra station island. Locke claims that he has a few ideas on how to find Jin, which is a few more than he would have had last season. After Frank skedaddles, Ben heads inside his secret tunnel behind his closet. I found it odd that this house was allowed to be built over the top of/next to this secret structure, including ancient stairs, as Dharma had some really prime real estate on the island. Of course, Charles was in charge of the Others, and allowed this group to co-exist on the island with the Others. Many years ago, the Others killed military that come onto the island, but now Dharma is allowed to co-exist and even build on the island. What exactly happened to change the Other’s philosophy, what‘s different? Sure, Charles is in charge now. But he seemed awfully uncooperative when he met Locke, Juliet, and Sawyer. How did Dharma gain such a control over Charles Widmore? Ben bends down, reaches into some murky water, pulls a plug, and seemingly flushes a toilet. “I’ll be outside”. You might want to wash your hands first, Ben. You just snaked a clogged bowl with your fingers. I can’t help but wonder if Ben just stumbled out of Green Acres fashion and wig show as he confronts handcuffed Charles on the pier. “You brought it upon yourself, leaving the island, having a child with an outside woman.” If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Ben was talking to Tom. Except for the child part, of course. And the woman part. And, um, what exactly was the awful crime of Widmore? Taking a couple of vacations and forgetting to pack a condom? As Ben and Charles argued the merits of Alex dying, I was left pondering who was right. Charles was vehement that the island will kill Alex sooner or later. Ben said the island didn’t want her dead and was protecting the best interest of the island. So let’s flash forward a number of years. Keamy and his men are acting on secondary protocol, which means everybody on the island must die except for Ben. This includes island resident Alex. Were Keamy’s orders to kill Alex, as specifically stated in that protocol? Keamy pulled the trigger awfully fast when confronting Ben. After getting past that shocking moment, we need to focus on did Widmore “break the rules” like Ben uttered at the time. Was the safety of Alex a rule? Sun is trying to puzzle out why Locke is alive and that Jack lied about his death. Ben’s eyeballs pop out of his skull, puts them back in, and strongly insists that Locke was dead. “Dead is dead; you don‘t get out of that“. Yeah, except on this island as we all know. “Locke walking around alive scares the hell out of me“. As he should, with all the times you tried to kill him. It has to be like waving a torch at Frankenstein‘s monster. Sooner or later, he is going to get pissed and tear your head off. “What is about to come out of jungle is something that I can’t control.” Ben is startling by Locke walking out of the jungle. Mysterious as his disappearance and reappearance was, this might be the first time we almost saw a Lost character going to the bathroom. Simply put, Locke was taking a piss or a dump. Or maybe not. But I haven’t seen most of characters eating or sleeping this season. Isn’t it great that the most blatant filler episode have disappeared? Otherwise it would be Season Five, and we would be getting 40 minutes of watching Jack take a nap in the Swan hatch while for 2 minutes something happens in the jungle. Locke tells Ben he knows where the Monster’s home is, so let’s go.

Ben calls up Charles to gloat. I’m going back to the island and you aren’t. I’m going to kill Penny and you can’t save her. When I run up a hill, I move my hips like a girl. I can summon the monster any time I want; wanna smell my fingers?
Locke leads on, and gets Ben to confess that he doesn’t really know where they are going anymore. Blah. Blah, blah. Let’s get back to putting a bullet in Penny’s head. Ben recognizes the place where he was healed, even though he has no memory of it. Contradiction? I don’t care anymore. La, la, la. I’m not listening. It’s the wall around the Temple, which is apparently half a mile inside the perimeter, built to keep the riff raff like Sun and Locke out. Outside of Ben’s snobby attitude, this information interested me quite a bit. It’s a wall that we have been seeing this season. This is a sanctuary that Ben has sent the Others to in the past. Is this where the Others keep the children? After all, when we see the Other’s camps, do we ever see any children around. Is the outside Temple a day care center? Locke tells Ben that they are going UNDER it. And speaking of under, when Locke was being dragged by the Monster in Season 1, was the destination underground, to be judged under the Temple for the death of Boone? Ben mumbles to Sun about apologizing to Desmond. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Penny is still alive. Dammit. The writes using the swerve again. And for all the horrible things Ben has done in his life, he feels bad for Desmond. Oh, boo friggin’ hoo. That seemed so unnatural, as if the writers were setting up the next scene in the show with some unrealistic dialogue. Oh, yeah…

At the pier, Ben swivels and shoots Desmond holding a bag of groceries. I rewound countless times and did not see a bullet hole anywhere on Desmond. Of course, Hawking told us the island wasn’t through with Desmond yet, so it’s protecting Desmond by having the bullet be stopped by a bottle of ranch dressing or something. Think Michael post island and pre freighter.. Ben is waving his gun at Penny, making a speech about justice and how much he hates Penny’s accent. Young Charlie runs up on deck and Ben hesitates, setting up the whole Rousseau tent on the beach scenario all over again. And again, despite all that Ben has done, the purge, the blowing up the freighter, killing off Widmore’s henchmen, plotting and executing of the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people, he could not pull the trigger, much to my disappointment. For fock’s sake, what, did the writers get cold feet? You killed off popular Charlie. Hell, you kill somebody every week. But you can’t kill off a minor character like Penelope Widmore? Who exactly is watching this show for a nice love story anymore? If I was standing next to Ben, I would have taken the gun out of his hand and emptied the whole clip into Penny’s torso. Then ran over and kicked her for good measure. When exactly did one single bullet kill a person on this show lately. Long gone are the days of Ana Lucia and Libby and Shannon being one and done. We kept seeing Sayid pumping bullets into people. Hell, Ben you just killed Abaddon a few days ago, and you shot him at least 3 times. You shot Desmond once. ONCE. You heard Hawking say the island wasn’t through with Desmond yet. Then again, Caesar got shot only once. Maybe Caesar is still alive. But you get as brave in confronting Penny as a turtle that hears a scary noise and get tackled by Desmond, punched a bit, and thrown into the water. Was the moment of hesitation the exact point in time you decided that it was your fault that Alex died? Which of course I don’t buy for one second. Ben was not responsible for Alex’s death at all. Keamy would have killed Ben the second he came out of the house, along with Alex. No win situation. Ben acted according to what any intelligent person would do. But Ben lost his killer instinct for that moment, and reconsidered his reasons for going back to the island. To be judged, rather than be selfish.

Like a short sited retard, Frank does return to the small island. We see Ilana and some helpers armed with guns similar to what the Others use, and trying to move a shiny facsimile to the Ark of the Covenant. How fascinating would it be if is was Jughead. It won’t be, but it sure would put a Jack Bauer twist to this season, wouldn’t it? “What lies in the shadow of the statue”? Frank is bewildered. Here is a theory. Sun is still evil. Don’t buy her “I’ll do whatever you say Locke and Ben” act. When Hawking told the group how they were to return to the island via a specific Ajira airplane, she contacted Widmore with the plan. Widmore then filled the plane with as many people as possible for the trip. Hurly threw in a curveball with buying the 1st class tickets, but there were plenty of people in coach. Ilana is somewhat connected to Widmore as she claims to be a bounty hunter hired by the family of a murdered Widmore associate. So these armed folks on the beach questioning Frank are Widmore’s Plan B, with Sun’s help. Don’t forget Walt’s comments from earlier this season about his dreams, when I stressed how important it was. He talked about John standing in water, like he was on the small island, and surrounded by people that were trying to hurt him. Wave hello to them. No doubt, these folks are the ones that chased the time travelers in the canoe earlier this season too, shooting at them. So when Ilana asks Frank the statue question, it’s NOT a reference to the actual statue on the main island. Is a code phrase so that the passengers can recognize each other for Widmore’s plants. Remember Desmond from Season 2? What did one snowman say to the other snowman? This was the phrase Desmond’s replacement was supposed to know the answer to. If Frank answers correctly, they give him a gun, and he joins the group. Frank goes “d’uh” and gets a pistol whipping. As Ben and Locke go under the Temple, Sun stays outside, much like Rousseau did many years ago. And that is another thing that bothers me. The Frenchmen went under the Temple, got brainwashed, and tried to kill Danielle. They were not there for judgment, yet they got lobotomized. So what exactly is the purpose of the Monster. One minute it’s supposed to dish out righteous judgment. The next minute it’s ordering the execution of a pregnant woman? This is in the best interests of the island? Huh? Anyway, Ben explains that it’s his fault that Alex died; he could have left the island and she would have lived. Except that this is completely untrue. Keamy’s orders where to kill everybody on the island except for Ben. He would have killed Alex anyway. Again, Ben is wrong about it being his fault. Ben falls through the floor like Locke fell down the well. Which brings up the next question. How deep does the Temple go? How many layers? Hieroglyphics are everywhere. Most likely they are of some Egyptian or Egyptian-like origins, but many different cultures used this form of communication for many centuries, including inhabitants of the Oceania area and of Polynesian descent, so let’s not go crazy in calling this island Little Egypt. Sure, we have a statue that looks Egyptian. By the way, I was watching The Mummy this weekend. For those still holding out hope it’s Anubis, I’m here to chuckle. The island statue looks so much different than any single sculpture, picture, or structure of Anubis that I’ve ever seen. But to be fair, I am fairly certain we will never see a frontal shot of the statue, so let the debate continue. Ben takes a long gander at a depiction of something looking like Anubis, the Egyptian god of afterlife, mummification, and one of the gods of the dead and the underworld. Anubis is seen in a pose as if he is kneeling at the presence of the Smoke Monster, which is really odd since you would expect just the opposite. So on this island, Smokey is more important. Ben stops at the foot of what took me some time to recognize as a sewer grate, because for some reason it did not have a homeless man sleeping atop of it. These writers have no imagination. And an obvious obsession with toilets and sewers this week. Monster comes out to play, and shows Ben a series of images of his life and times with Alex. While this is similar to the judgment of Mr Eko, where both he and Ben lost their innocence when they where children, Ben seemed to be somewhat sorry and willing to face judgment, Mr Eko was defiant to the end and was killed for his lack of apology. Don’t forget, Sayid is running around the island in 1977, but is another one that lost his innocence early on, and is going to be judged at some point I would expect for shooting Ben, as it‘s becoming more clear that this would not be in the best interests of the island, for which I can‘t give a reasonable answer to other than a possible rip in space and time and the destruction of the universe. He is going to get a good smashing. Ben is forgiven by accosted by manifestation Alex, telling him that he is already planning on killing Locke again (again? Hilarious!!) and don’t hurt a hair on his chinny chin chin. Locke is a made man, and follow his orders. Ben goes back and tells Locke that it let me live.

Well, it was a hell of an episode. Ben and Locke are terrific characters, performed with great aplomb by two underappreciated actors in the TV world. We saw some interesting developments, but we also have to face the reality of most likely going back to Dharma next week. Well, at least I can get back to ranting about characters again. Stupid Kate.