6.7 Dr. Linus

After repeated viewings, I simply did not like this filler episode. I thought it was the second worst episode of the season, being a little better than the Kate debacle. Granted, this was a transitional episode, as we leave the Temple arc behind us. But I’m in a sour mood this week, being a bit ill. No, I’m not dying, so stop rejoicing. Add in the fact that I look at the world differently than most people. I fear that I will be even more boring than usual, with very few humorous moments, if any. Well that part isn’t anything different. Playing to my worst fears, we just witnessed the downfall of one the best characters in LOST. The legendary character of Ben is besmirched forever in my eyes. What happened to the bad ass that purged a whole damn initiative? The guy that yelled at Juliet “You’re Mine!!!” The man that taunted Widmore that he was about to kill his daughter a few seconds before shooting Desmond? A guy that sent a freighter full of people to their demise. The man that stabbed God, well, a guy with special powers that is getting away with kid touching, but LOST probably doesn’t want us to mention that. The man that saved a paralyzed man from suicide, only to strangle him 2 minutes later. Ben was digging a grave because Ilana made him. Ben was also digging symbolically so that we the viewers can lay to rest the memories we had of a master manipulator who tormented Jack and Locke and the rest of the gang for season after season. Let’s see if I can do the eulogy thing better than Linus did at Locke’s island funeral. Here lies Benjamin Linus. Kidnapper. Master of Genocide. Crybaby. A man that sank an island with his river of tears. Amen. So many, many illogical bullsh!t character responses and behaviors in situations this week. I understand that you need to suspend belief at times for certain island activity, time travel and homicidal puffs of smoke among them. But if this show is supposedly about characters, how about we have them act rational once in a while, other than bizarreness needed to advance certain storylines.

Remember when Ben sashayed up the hill, away from Juliet weeping at Goodwin’s dead body, after yelling with spittle at her “You’re mine”, we’ve been quite consistent in pointing out that Ben is a hip swiveling maniac, a male version of Beyonce. He ran effeminately away from Keamy when Kate and Sayid and the Others took out his men back in Season 4. Ben runs a bit like a girl in high heels. I’m not saying a very young Ben put on dresses and lipstick and accessorized, but Roger sure did drink a hell of a lot for one reason or another. So, Ben is sashaying as if he just the Costume Design Oscar at the Academy Awards and doesn’t want to trip on his lovely flowery Versace custom made flowingly long speckled gown at a rapid pace in the jungle, and runs into Ilana, Frank, Sun, and Miles. Ilana wants to know where he bought those lovely shoes. Instead, Ben shares intel that Sayid killed Dogen and his interpreter. Lennon was important enough that Ben doesn’t remember his name roughly 10 minutes after he died. Since Sayid was standing over their dead bodies with a bloody dagger, so Ben is quite sure they are dead. Dead is not necessarily dead when it comes to the pool, as Sayid showed us, but we are moving along after I wasted several sentences talking about fashion. Stupid Oscars. Inglorious Basterds was robbed. I hope a really heavy chandelier drops on Sandra Bullock’s head. I think they forgot to show Boner in the death montage. Sun opens her mouth and I groan. Here it comes. She can’t help herself. Where is Jin? Have you seen Jin? Jin, come ou,t come out, where ever you are. Being Jin Malkovich. Jin Jin JIN. Jin? Jin. Jin. To my complete disbelief, she says: You mean the Temple is not safe? Ben is reporting deaths at the Temple. You mean the Temple is not safe? In the annuls of brilliant statements, this ranks with “How much does this cost?” when you are shopping at the Dollar Store, or asking “Would you like another free drink?” to me, or saying “I’m going to spend all day trying to lick my elbow”. But I am so baffled that Sun didn’t use the J word, I’m going to leave her alone. After all, in case you didn’t know it, she is distraught over Jin. What’s the plan boys? Hey, I know, let’s head to the Losties Beach. It’s one of the worst strategic locations on the island, despite what Ben said. You have a multitude of hatches and stations you could head to, maybe go to the tunnels, or even the Barracks. Strategically, at least you are not in the wide open. But that’s what Sawyer wanted to do during the time travel episodes, that’s what Rose and Bernard did. The old reliable fall back plan. These people are homing pigeons. Doesn’t this show reek of repetition and familiarity? As this episode progresses, it has the feel of a Season 2 or 3 episode. You remember, the seasons with all those fillers?. Take note that there was great effort on eveybody’s part to try to refer to Michael Emerson as “Linus”, and purposeful avoidance of the word “Ben”. Dr Linus is lecturing about a man he greatly resembles right now on the island. Napoleon was exiled from France to the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. Napoleon was the sovereign ruler of Elba, but was still under the thumb of British rule. Ben explains that everything changed, Napoleon was devastated by his loss of power, kept his title on an island, but it was meaningless, he might as well have been dead. Napoleon had fallen from French Emperor to tiny island rock star. Ben has gone from leader of the Others to just another island guy. I felt there really was a major, major push to parallel concepts from island to LAX this week more than previous weeks. Maybe because the writers are sensing how much we find the LAX stuff borderline boring, uninteresting, and uninspired. Although, this week, I actually thought the LAX was better than the island, and that is a recipe for disaster. Ben is approached by Principal Reynolds. Yes, the name Reynolds appears on Jacob’s list. It’s a name found in the cave, but as of yet, no number has been linked to the name. If you look at the list I posted in 6.5 Lighthouse, Reynolds is all the way at the end of the list. Same guy? Possibly. He’s the only Reynolds in the Lost series so far. Ben is now supreme ruler of detention and has been blocked from running his History Club with a whopping membership of 5 students. History Club is so dreadful, the Chess Club takes their lunch money every day. The principal claims that Ben is only running it for his own sense of being needed. While island Ben always has an answer, LAX Ben is a mugger threatening to pistol whip a potential victim with a wet sock. He practically whimpers, its Dr Linus, actually. His lips were moving, but all I heard was “It’s Ted, actually. You can’t do this to me, Dr Kelso. Random student: Hey, Ted, you have egg salad and flop sweat on your tie. Ted: What? Again? Ooooh. Ted slaps the top of his bald spot with the palm of his hand. In the lunchroom, there is no sign of Janitor, but Dr Arzt is still the same blathering ass. I hope they keep his character around as much as possible. He has been pouring formaldehyde all over his shirt because he has been carrying around hard boiled eggs in his front pocket, and who doesn’t like a nice picked egg for a snack? He needs some aprons and new equipment and someone that can stand there for 5 minutes in silence while Arzt finishes a sentence. He buys his shirts from Marshalls, which is actually a classier place than I frequent. Sure Arzt might get summers off and a crappy pension, but that snob doesn’t have to rub it in. Ben seems to think that schools and teachers should be about helping children. Spoken like someone that doesn’t spend 4 hours every day on public transportation with teenage monsters that reek of pot, menthol, and failure. Locke has a bit part this week, but it packs a wallop. Maybe you should be principal. Ambition, thy name is Bennifer. Locke: it sounds like you care about this place, and if the man in charge doesn’t, maybe it’s time for a change. That sentence seemed just as appropriate for the island, as we see a constant battle for power. Miles asks Ben about the Temple, and “what was that thing back there”? Well, this isn’t the first time Miles has seen it. He was in the Barracks house when Keamy shot Alex, as he was the one that brought the walkie talkie to Ben. He saw the monster be “summoned” and attack. He saw it drag one of Keamy’s men into the jungle. He seems to be asking the question as if it’s the first time he has seen it, but it’s the way the writers chose to introduce the ploy to get the truth of Jacob’s death into the open. Very clumsily done. Ben says that it killed Ilana’s friends at the statue and killed Jacob. Ilana confronts Ben about Jacob, as if Jacob told her ahead of time what Ben was going to do. Ilana gathered up some of Jacob’s ashes in the foot a few episodes ago. She somehow knows all about Miles’ ability. With all this information in her head, somebody must have spent a lot of time tutoring her in a library. How did he die? Miles confirms that Linus killed him. Ben counters with: Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! Linus was standing over Jacob’s dead body with a bloody dagger, so Miles is quite sure he is dead, mimicking Ben’s exact words from moments ago. Repetition. Ilana says Jacob was like a father to her. I don’t know where they are going with the Ilana story line, but I’m getting tired of her. She’s a character I just don’t care about in a positive or negative way. I just don’t care. Do something or die.

Setting up the Losties camp. Ben claims that Miles is lying because of the bribe attempt, when Ben was a prisoner of Locke’s at the Barracks in Season 4 for 3.2 million dollars. Ben looks at a microwave reflection, like it was a mirror, a running theme on LAX episodes this season. He is living with his sickly father, who ironically is getting an oxygen tank changed by Ben, who gassed him during the Dharma purge in the other timeline. Ben is sad that he is a loser. Roger had envisioned a better life for them in the Dharma Initiative on an island. He called them decent people. They had left the island at some point. Roger and Ben came to the island around the time Ben was ten in the not-boring-as-sh!t time line. Ben’s mother died in child birth, causing Roger to blame Ben for Emily’s death. Roger hated the island and being a workman. Now, in the sh!!ty timeline, Roger and Ben are pals. But Dharma was a commonality. When did they leave? Why? Ben was in the Temple during the Incident last season, shot by Sayid. Then the bomb went off. They left after the bomb? Another time line, somehow? A third one? At least. Right now, the island is under water, right? So, when does the island get submerged? My head hurts. Alex rings the door bell and needs tutoring. Holy hell, they tried to make her look really, really young. On the beach, uh oh, Sun is on screen. “I need to find my husband.” There it is. They fooled me this week. It was the second time Sun talked. She had more than one line, so they diversified. Ilana explains that she or Jin is a candidate to replace Jacob and she needs to protect them. There are 6 candidates left. (Hurley, Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Kate, Jin/Sun) Hurley wakes up in the jungle and yells Cheese Curds. I have no idea what this means, but can you imagine that these could possibly be the last words that you speak before dying. How embarrassing. Must be nice to be the only one on the island that we know has gotten some sleep since Season 6 has began. Jack wants to head back to the Temple, but Hurley keeps stalling with all the subtlety of a Borat at a tea party asking where to dispose his little baggie of poo. Hey, there’s Richard popping out of the jungle. No, I didn’t say ”pooing”. This is the first time Jack has seen Richard since they were working together to get Jughead to where it needed to go, and this is the very first time Hurley has met Richard. Ben searches Sawyer’s old tent, and discovers a video of “Booty Babes” and he is probably thinking about the VCR on the island. New plan people. We have to go back to the Barracks. A book is lying about, The Chosen, a probable reference to Jacob and MIB. Ben tells Frank that he remembers the Oceanic breaking up over the island like it was yesterday, when it broke in half. Wrong. Try again. Ben saw the plane break into THREE parts, the tail section, the fuselage, and the cockpit. It was very clear from his vantage point, the start of the Season 3. Why did Ben say 2? Maybe it broke in half in other loops. Yes, I am still clinging to the Groundhog Day, Matrix, Loops Theory. How does Ben make this kind of obvious mistake, for no purpose? Frank explains that he was supposed to be the original pilot of that plane, but he overslept. Ben is shocked by this tidbit. Why? He knew everything about everybody on the freighter. He recited back the resumes to Charlotte and Keamy. He was getting intel from Michael. Ben never made the connection that Frank was to be the original pilot. Really? Mikhail pulled up profiles on all of passengers on the original Oceanic 815 in the Flame hatch, but the pilot switch never came up in the research. Very, very odd. Or just sloppy writing. I guess it didn’t matter, since the island got Frank anyway. Ilana puts a gun to Ben’s neck and marches him into the Losties beach graveyard. Ilana was somehow able to defy all reasonable expectations and built shackles out of spare parts lying on the beach. She’s a witch. Ben is told to start digging. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. What, you expected a Casino reference with Joe Pesci in the desert? Go screw. Why doesn’t Ilana just shoot Ben? Why go to the trouble of him burying himself. Afraid the boars will get him? Afraid MIB will claim him? Build tension in the plot? The MIB can certainly appear as somebody buried, for example Libby. So it’s a lame plot device.

Ben’s book in the school library is open to a page on the East India Trading Company. We learn that Widmore was buying the journal of the first mate of the Black Rock at the auction that Desmond caught up with him in the episode the Constant where Desmond was traveling back and forth between 1996 and 2004. The Black Rock was a British trading vessel that set sail from Portsmouth, England on March 22, 1845, on a trading mission to the Kingdom of Siam. And there’s your tie in, nice and neat. Alex is unable to answer a question about India and finds herself frustrated. Ben tells her it’s only a test. It’s completely surreal watching Alex and Ben sharing some nice moments off island, in a comfortable relationship of mentor and student, while on island it was a tempestuous caldron of emotion between kidnapper and Stockholm Syndrome victim. Hey, did anybody see Karl in this episode? I didn’t. My mother works two jobs, I’ve just got to get into Yale. Yeah? I worked three jobs and put myself through college. I have no sympathy for Alex. In the real world, not having a degree from Yale isn’t going to destroy your life. You can still be wildly successful. Sigh, kids and their ultimatums. Even Ben gets it, as he says he doesn’t worry about her future at all. Of course, her future got cut short on the island, so I suspect that community college is probably better than getting a bullet in your skull. She needs a letter of recommendation from pervert Reynolds. Ben: did he touch you? There has been way to many uncomfortable kid touching references in this show lately. Eww, yuck. How old they are making Alex out to be? She was 16 on the island. It’s like they are trying hard to make an actress than looks 28 act like a 12 year old. Just creepy, and gets creepier. Can you keep a secret? I’m expecting Chris Hansen to pop out from behind book case and offer Ben some brownies and lemonade. It’s a sting. The principal and the school nurse were playing doctor. And Alex watched them. Ok, I’m checking out here. No comment. Ben swears a promise is a promise, and to be fair, Ben did keep some promises on the island, like letting Michael leave, or letting the Losties take the helicopter to leave the island. Miles offers Ben some green beans and banana, two flavors that go as well together as gasoline and toothpaste. Ben offers the 3.2 million. Miles, and we knew it would happen eventually, brags that he knows that Nikki and Paulo were buried with 8 million in diamonds on top of them. Ben says Jacob didn’t care about getting killed. Miles corrects him, and says Jacob cared, and right up until the second the knife went through his heart, he hoped he was wrong about Ben. Leads me to a few thoughts. First, Jacob knew all about Ben from the pool. What if Jacob could scan a person’s thoughts like MIB, but needed the pool to do it. Once he scanned Ben in the water when young Ben was shot and needed to be healed, he made a judgment. Maybe. But even though Jacob knew that he would be killed, he was hoping Ben wouldn’t do it. Strange plan for ending the game with MIB. You have to wonder if Jacob could have died at the hands of someone else. We just don’t know for a fact what the loophole is, just speculation. Ilana takes an irrational gun shot at the ground. Dig. Hurley begins a conversation, making me wonder if the LOST writers are 8 years old. So, we are not time traveling? Richard: No. H: You look the same as you did 30 years ago. (You’ve never met him in any scene in Season 5 during the Dharma 1977 year you were on the island.) Sloppy writing, or evidence of a previous loop? You decide. What are you? Cyborg? Vampire? Aqua Teen Hunger Force? R: Jacob gave me a gift. Is this like a gift that MIB has been giving out like candy at Halloween? Or Jacob gave to Dogen? A deal? Such as, Richard asking to be immortal, or did he get locked into a bad deal? They arrive at the Black Rock. Everybody at the Temple is dead. So, Richard finally got there, way after MIB did, although Richard had a huge head start. Remember, MIB took Sawyer out to the caves. Richard took the scenic route. I don’t care how fast MIB can travel in Smokie form. Richard should have got there first. Richard didn’t see Sayid or Kate but “everybody” is dead. Come on, now you’re just focking with us. Sure, you can create a drinking game out of how many times Jack cries in an episode, but this is just blatant attempts to make us drunk and wobbly. Jack confronts Hurley about the stalling, and Hurley admits that Jacob hinted at bad stuff. Richard tells Hurley not to believe anything Jacob tells him and that it’s time to die. So, Hurley is afraid to tell Jack important information because Jack either becomes a destructive, violent, reactive, unthinking rage-aholic or cries when you give him unexpected information, and Hurley can’t take the chance of Jack crying again. Richard is a disillusioned disciple lashing out at his previous messiah, or thinks the MIB could appear as Jacob since much like Locke, Jacob is dead. At least Richard has a plan, albeit a short term plan.

Dr Arzt is flunking kids with panache. You can see why he never was allowed to hang out with the cool kids, as he lamented about some of the Losties going on adventures while he and the other muckity mucks stayed behind to do chores. Ben: You’re good with computers, right? What an odd way to phrase, “hey, you want to break the law and have the FBI send you to “pound me in the ass prison”?”, but Ben is the linguist, not me. Can you hack into the nurse’s account? When Ben first entered the room, there was a student near the front of the room. What an odd conversation to have when there is the danger of being overheard. The cool thing with Arzt is that he is a direct man. “I don’t have time for 20 questions.” He needed to be killed off early in the show, otherwise we would have had answers much sooner than Season 6. Most of the Losties are moving along on a fluffy cloud on a morphine drip. Kim the nurse if having an inappropriate relationship with Reynolds. Arzt: You’re making a play for the big job. Direct and to the point. Just relish the uniqueness of that quality on this show. The deal is made for a cushy parking spot, aprons, and lab equipment. Not exactly Keamy demanding that somebody better pay him. But Arzt makes pickled eggs, good pickled eggs. Arzt is surprised by and impressed with Ben’s killer instinct. Don’t be, because it is just a temporary mirage. Richard is searching the Black Rock. Yes, he has been here before, but it’s the first time he has returned since he has been on the island. Well, the writers are out of time, so we have to start following their conclusions no matter if the puzzle pieces fit of not. As has been speculated by many, including me for a couple of seasons, Richard was likely a member of the slave ship Black Rock. MIB said it was nice to see him out of his chains. It bothers me that so many people have called Richard ancient, old, etc but the Black Rock arrived around 1845. Ancient to me means maybe a thousand years. Maybe 10 thousand years. 150 years or so is maybe a couple of generations. Not impressive. Unless you’ve been trapped in loops, then 150 x 10 loops, then we are in business. Yes, again, I’m still clinging to the Loop theory. Richard finds dynamite and discovers that he sucks at juggling as the dynamite bounces off tables and things. R: I can’t kill myself, you have to do it, Jacob touched me, it is a gift and a curse. Pause for a second. This is very reminiscent of Michael not being able to kill himself off the island after several suicide attempts. He blew up with the raft season one but survived. He needed to serve his purpose; then was allowed to die. Dawson was candidate #124. There were plenty of candidates on Oceanic 815, and most of them survived the plane crash. Jin survived the freighter explosion against all odds. Seems like the candidates are resilient, until they are crossed off the list and someone else kills them. I wonder what would have happened if Hurley jumped off the cliff at Dave’s (MIB) suggestion during Season 2? Hey, he can’t kill himself, right? We are starting to see how the rules work, but I’m convinced Mr Eko was on the list #49, but MIB killed him. Isn’t that against the rules? Jack was on the bridge ready to jump in the flashforwards, but a convenient car crash made him jump back. It certainly made Sayid a great assassin to go after Widmore’s people, if he couldn’t die. Ben didn’t seem to know or care about candidates because he sure didn’t protect them, like sending #48 Goodwin on a suicide mission or ordering the death of all the male Losties on the beach during Season 3. Oh, yeah. Richard Alpert is not on the list, therefore not a candidate, but was touched by Jacob nonetheless. So, there are different types of touches that Jacob doles out. Back to Richard’s speech. R: I dedicated my life, more time than you can possibly imagine (sounds like more than 150 years) to a man that said everything was happening for a reason, that he had a plan, a plan he would share with me when the time was right, so why do I want to die? I just found out that my entire life has no purpose, you can light it for me Jack. A bit touching, I liked it much more than the Ben speech soon to come. That would be a disappointing life for Richard, but Jacob is a son of a b!tch that drives a hard bargain. I suppose he is testing Richard’s loyalty here, but you would think after all this time, Richard would have earned it. Or at least earned the knowledge of what exactly the outline of the plan was, or at least something. Richard doesn’t even seem to know the word “candidate” here either. He just knows he can’t kill himself. I don’t entirely blame him for feeling betrayed and miserable. Jack decides that if Richard wants to die, we can’t stop him, and lights the fuse. Stop. We are about to be given the obvious Jack is the Man of Faith garbage. Because Locke was the Man of Faith, and Jack the Man of Science, and now Jack is being transitioned. Really? More like into the Man of Dumb. Jack is going to light the fuse. Here is a crazy idea, Nuts. Sh!t my pants crazy. How about before Richard potentially is being picked out of Hurley’s shirt for the next couple of weeks, you ask him to tell you all that he knows. How about some sharing of knowledge? You light the fuse, and THEN want to get some answers? Really? In twenty seconds? I went ballistic every single time I re-watched this lunacy. Let’s talk. I desperately want the explosion that ends the Jack story. I’m willing to sacrifice Richard. For the greater good.

The hissing of a fuse, and Hurley has ants in his pants. Jack proclaims that he will be fine and that neither he nor Richard will die. Jack: I just came from a lighthouse, a mirror reflected the house I grew up in, Jacob wanted me to know this, I have no idea why, he brought me to the island for a reason and not to for me to blow up right now. Richard points out that this is a big risk, Jack closes his eyes, and the fuse burns out. Jack grins. See, I’m not buying this. Locke crashed on the island, a paralyzed man, started walking, and it was clear that he had a connection to the island. He was special. Jacob has been dragging Jack along, kicking and screaming, to become another Locke. Locke is dead. How did that work out? I have no idea why Jack, of everybody on this planet, is the guy Jacob has wasted so much time on. Short sighted, irrational, cry baby, lack of common sense, and that’s just Jacob. Jack decided last season it was his destiny to set off a hydrogen bomb. Why? Because Daniel said it was a good idea. Sawyer was kicking Jack’s head around a bit early this season because “you were wrong”. So, Jack has now wrapped his pea brain around the concept that he is special because Jacob was spying on him when he was a child. Not caring that other people were on that dial in the lighthouse, not caring that Hurley was on that dial, Jack is self absorbed. Jack has become megalomaniacal. And this is now Jacob’s hope. A guy that is taking his and Richard’s and possibly Hurley’s life and putting them in harm’s way. Yeah, that’s a big risk for “I have no idea why”. Well, Locke did feel that way at one point, when he decided not to push the button. That didn’t exactly work out as planned. This whole Jack thing feels wrong. Richard: You seem to have all the answers, now what? Jack: Back to where we started. Another repetition, going to the fall back plan. Re-seting at the beach, again. We hear the MIB sounds, and he stands before Ben, hidden out of Ilana’s sightline by a bush. Ben complains bitterly that he is digging because he was talked into killing Jacob, Ilana is his bodyguard, she knows what Ben did. MIB doesn’t want Ben to die and that he was coming back for him. MIB is going to take people off the island, and someone will have to be in charge of the island. MIB can’t think of a better man for the job. To begin with, is being in charge of the island something that MIB can actually offer to someone, or just lip service? MIB claims that he always does what he says. But he seemed to dance around a concrete offer to Ben of running the island, just a bunch of subtle hints instead. And if it’s legitimate, is this an offer the MIB has been making, if you can have anything you want.? He believes that Ben wants to rule the island more than anything, especially after scanning him in the basement of the Temple. MIB frees Ben and tells him to join him at the Hydra station, he was leaving a gun for him, and don’t hesitate to shoot her. This really shows MIB planning ability, knowing to leave the gun in the jungle even before talking to Ben. This also mirrors Dogen’s scene with Sayid, a warning of not hesitating to shoot. Repetition. Ben takes a look around, and swivel hips makes a gangly dash for the jungle, with Ilana in hot pursuit. Ben confronts Principal Reynolds with the illegally obtained emails. I know that I keep bringing up illegal, but there was a case in Philadelphia between news anchors and a hacked email account. Bad things happened, criminal things happened. Has anybody else notice that this guy playing Reynolds was the corrupt professor in Real Genius and the sleazy reporter in Die Hard and the d!ck EPA representative in Ghostbusters? The shenanigans happened on school property, and then there is the matter of Mrs. Reynolds. Ben is very precise, he wants a resignation, a letter of recommendation, and he principal job. Reynolds sees the full house that Ben is holding. Oh, yeah? Let me show you what I like to call my pair of 3s. Alex Rousseau wants a recommendation. Well, we now know that Danielle is still Alex’s mother, although they don’t seem to be living in France. Anyway, “it works both ways, the ball is in your court”. Now, I’m a Man of Logic. My response to Reynolds would have been along the lines of “I’m going to glue crushed glass to my fists, dip them in AIDS, and punch my way from your assh0le up to the back of your teeth.” Now, let’s consider Ben’s non assault options. He could say “Well, I guess you will just have to write 2 letters of recommendation, as I still have the emails” or wait until Alex goes to Yale, then dust off the emails and confront Reynolds again or “go ahead and try to ruin her chances, I’ll show the emails to Yale” although that is bringing in outsiders which I don’t prefer. Including the AIDS punching, there are 4 options that Ben can take. A couple of them are even logical. Especially the one that asks for 2 letters right away. It’s over. Ben wins. Reynolds can talk about Machiavellian maneuvers and unfortunate side effects and ruining Alex’s future, but he has no leverage. Most importantly, Ben needs to do the greater good. He said earlier that teachers need to take care of the children, and that he was not worried about Alex’s future. So, if you think you will do better at being a principal than the guy currently in charge, the greater good is to allow Alex to be sacrificed and take care of the all the other children in year’s to come. R: Is power that important to you? I think this is the wrong question. Sure, the writers are trying to dumb it down for the audience and make it about the Ben and Alex relationship and Ben’s redemption. But I see this more logically and less emotionally. The right thing for Ben to do is throw Alex under the bus. He did the right thing on the island too. Keamy would have killed everybody on the island including Ben if he came out of the house. Strategically, it would sound for Alex to die. The right question in Reynold’s situation would be Is Alex that important to you, that you are willing to sacrifice everybody other student’s future to save hers? Sigh. I guess I need to leave my thinking hat behind sometimes. I was supposed to approve of Ben’s actions, rather than rebuke them. As I said earlier, I don’t really think like other people. Ilana is chasing Ben, and it’s the world’s slowest and most depressing race. I bet if I put on swimming fins, tied cinderblocks to my ankles, and carried Hurley on my back, I could lap them. Ben grabs the rifle planted by MIB, gets the upper hand, and does what any other villain would do when holding someone at gun point. “I need to explain”. Let’s listen to this mess, a soliloquy that gave me acid reflux . Ben: I need to explain. I know what you are feeling. I watched my daughter Alex die. It was my fault. I had a chance to save her, but I chose the island over her for Jacob. I sacrificed everything for him, and he didn’t even care. I stabbed him. I was angry, confused, terrified that the only thing that mattered to me I was going to lose, my power. But the thing that really mattered to me was already gone. I’m sorry that I killed Jacob, I don’t expect you to forgive me because I don’t forgive myself. Just let me leave. I will go to Locke, he is the only one who will have me. Ilana: I’ll have you. Ben is shocked, follows Ilana. I am cringing so hard, I think I just turned myself inside out. Ew. What a stinkaroonie. Wow, what a disappointing turn of events. Ben is pathetic and wrong on so many levels. Have we all forgotten that Alex isn’t ever related to Ben? If I can give Kate a beating for kidnapping Aaron, then Ben needs to suffer the same beating, not that island Ben isn’t used to getting bruised up and bloody. Kate blubbers when she has to give Aaron to Claire’s mother, Ben is blubbering over losing “his daughter Alex”. But Ben stole her from Danielle. Sure, you can bring up that Ben saved Danielle’s life and Alex’s life by ignoring Widmore’s orders. You can also say he kept a child away from its mother for 16 years and claimed it for yourself. No matter how you slice it, Ben caring about Alex was wrong and selfish. He stole her. So, in reality, Ben’s power should have been the most important thing in his life. Ben then complains that Jacob didn’t even care, which Miles just corrected Ben on while he was digging a grave. If I didn’t know better, Ben is trying to pull one last con with this sappy speech. While I don’t like seeing him weepy, he did do a damn fine job as Henry Gale. So, now that I’ve spent time trashing Ben this week, I will reserve some judgment that he might still be the same Ben he has always been. I hope.

Ben is in the principal’s office, for the most part, snooping. We are meant to think that Ben is now principal for a moment or two, but the writers quickly dispel that twist. Alex wanted to thank Reynolds for the effusive recommendation. Ben denies he had anything to do with it. After an interruption by Principal Reynolds, we discover that Ben no longer has to cover detention and History Club is back. Much like Dr Arzt, when negotiation a huge deal, Ben aims low, and settles for lower. Outside, Ben breaks the news to Arzt that he has no testosterone and that he is willing to trade away his parking spot. Ben’s deal just got even worse. Ben hears a noise above. A pigeon in midflight has just taken a dump. Ben was unlucky to have his mouth open when he looked up. Ilana comes back to the beach with Ben. She points at Ben and yells “Dig”. She then pokes his in the ribs with her elbow and says “I was just joshing. El. Oh. El.”. Ben awkwardly goes to help Sun with her tarp. Slow motion reel again. Miles has gotten a hold of the diamonds. Hurley, Jack, Richard reach the beach, and much like reunion scenes in Season 3 when Jack Kate Sawyer returned from the polar bear escapades, rounding the same beach corner, the cast runs and hugs and shakes hands and does other horrible stuff. There is never an excuse for public displays of affection, people. Ben and Richard are standing off the sides, like the dateless, leering freaks that show up at a high school dance. A sub periscope breaks the surface of the water. They spot the people on the beach. Shall we stop? No, proceed as planned, spoken by Charles Widmore. As I’ve brought up previously, Widmore was being heavily re-introduced into the show, especially last week. He is returning, with an unknown crew. Is he headed to the Hydra island. Sure seems like it. Whose side is he on? Too soon to tell. We can recall that he told Jeremy Bentham and it was very important for Locke to be on the island because a war was coming, and if Locke wasn’t there, the wrong side would win. He truly don’t know the motivations for the actions of Widmore and Hawking, despite them being either leader of the Others, or a high ranking Other. Seems like MIB and Widmore ate headed to the same location. The site of the Ajira survivors.

Let me end with a passage from an article based in the science of brilliant physicist and Science channel superstar, Dr Michio Kaku…
Dead Juliet was right: Faraday's plan did work. And this is where Lost is on solid science ground. Like Fringe, the show is now diving headfirst into multiverse theory, where the river of time forks constantly into different universes. "According to this theory, our universe is a bubble of some sort, which is constantly expanding," explains Michio Kaku, host of the Science Channel's Sci-Fi Science and author of "Physics of the Impossible." "But there are other bubbles out there, floating above us. These other universes are invisible, since light passes below them." Until now, Lost has said that whatever happened, happened. You can't change the past. And that's also right, according to Novikov's self-consistency principle. When the castaways detonated Jughead, they created another universe in which Oceanic 815 never crashed. But they didn't alter their own past—in fact, in some interpretations of quantum theory, they're actually existing in multiple states at the same time. "If time forks into two rivers, then you have two parallel realities, which evolve independently of each other," Kaku says. "Your own past is fixed, but you can meet copies of yourself in parallel universes in different time eras and then change your history. You can chance the past of the alternate reality that split off. It might also be possible that in these other realities, people who are dead in our reality are still alive in other universes—so Elvis might still be alive in another reality." In other words, the castaways simultaneously exist on the island, where they're preparing for an epic battle between good and evil, and in a world where Jacob never touched them. Where they never crashed. Where they don't know each other, as of yet.

And to add to the previous self explanatory passage, I listened to an interview with Dr Kaku recently. I found it fascinating that he said if you travel back in time and kill your mother before you were born, you did not in fact create a paradox. You simply killed somebody that looked like your mother in another universe. Wrap your mind around that one.

I didn’t really feel inspired for this writeup, as is the case when I’m trying to write about an episode that I thought wasn’t very good. Let’s hope for a better effort next week, from LOST and from me. May the worst moments of today be the best parts of your tomorrows.