As long as the dead guy says there's a reason…

Quick Hits

• Let’s get some shots of that chamber up here.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  We also get to see what lies behind that mysterious door hidden behind Ben’s suits in his Otherville home. Behind that heavy stone door, bearing the same type of hieroglyphics we see in the Smoke Chamber, is a cave with a small pool. Ben uncorks the hole and down goes the water to reveal…a hole.

  

  Ben tells the hole, “I’ll be outside,” and leaves. That’s all it takes to summon Smokey? No ancient incantations or complex, choreographed dance moves?

• Speaking of that Faraday rule about not changing the future, what seemed to be a breakable one when Sayid shot Ben two weeks ago is proven to be anything but. Whatever happened to Ben in the Temple (he wasn’t taken to the Smoke Basement, remember; Alpert took him through a door in the wall), he’s forgotten all about the shooting, and along with it the 815 castaways living among the Initiative.

  

  Now, something must happen to get the castaways back to 2007 before young Ben rejoins Dharma (working for the Others from within), so that his older self would not recognize them when they crash on the Island in 2004.

• We get the skinny on just how Ben came to be bloodied prior to visiting Eloise Hawking on the mainland. As we’d guessed, he went after Penny Widmore to avenge Alex’s death. But, just as he with Rousseau years earlier, he couldn’t pull the trigger when he saw a child (young Charlie Hume, in this instance). Desmond didn’t take too kindly to being shot and having his family threatened, so a pummelin’ he did distribute to Ben’s face.
• Battle of the Horrendous Toupees

  

  

  I’m not sure there are any winners here. On second though, America wins. Yeah, I don’t know what that means, either.

• Some nice scenery shots tonight (notice I don’t have much left to talk about after the excitement of the Smoke Chamber).

  

  

  Location shooting, folks. Learn it, love it, live it. Ban green screens.

• Ben knocks over Danielle’s music box when he’s startled by Alex crying. You’ll remember this is the box Sayid fixes for Rousseau years later.

  

• Just before departing with baby Alex, Ben tells Rousseau that if she wants to live, she’ll run the opposite direction whenever she hears the “whispers.” We’ve experienced the whispering since this show started, and I’ll find it hilarious if the explanation behind them turns out to be the Others traipsing through the bushes and communicating by whispering through giant megaphones. Just picture that in your heads. Yes. Now laugh.
• I found it interesting that Ben told Locke and Sun that the walls around the Temple were to prevent them from “seeing” it. Odd choice of words. I’d expect he’d define their purpose as barrier to physical entry rather than visibility. I don’t have a complete thought on this just yet; file it away for later.
• A young Ethan Rom seems to be Ben’s protege, accompanying him on the extermination mission.

  

  He escaped the Purge unscathed, clearly, but was he taken from his parents beforehand? Did Horace and Amy give him up for some reason?

• Caesar, we hardly knew ye. Who knows if he’s really dead, with all the crap that’s occurred on these islands, but a shotgun blast to the chest will usually do the trick.

  

• What’s up with Ilana and her new companion? They’re hoarding guns and knock Frank out when he’s unable to answer their riddle-like question: “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”

  

  I think we can all answer that question, at least literally: The Temple and/or Smokey. Perhaps there’s some other figurative answer with a deeper meaning. But regardless, Ilana’s behavior struck me as almost cult-like. An Anubis worshiper out to destroy those who’ve defiled the Egyptian god’s temple? Probably just an agent of Widmore. The answer to that question is their secret passcode.

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