Quick Hits
- So young Ben’s not dead but he’s well on his way to the grave by the time he’s brought before Richard and the Hostiles/Others. Most intriguing is Richard’s pronouncement that Ben will never be the same after he does whatever he’s going to do to him. He even asks Sawyer and Kate if they’re sure they really want to give Ben over to him.
If they do give him over and Richard does his black magic voodoo to heal the boy, Ben’s “innocence will be gone” and “he’ll always be one of [the Others],” having forgotten how he came to be there with the them. What the frick does that mean? Young Ben’s already shown some manipulative tendencies, but had he not been shot by Sayid, is it possible he would’ve grown up to be a normal, non-ruthless, non-sadistic, well-adjusted man?
Presumably, Richard takes Ben to see Smokey inside The Temple. We’ve seen Cerberus scan thoughts and memories before (Eko, for example). What if Cerberus isn’t “scanning” but actually taking a piece of the person psyche or even soul in some way? Whatever it does, Richard seems to infer that all of the Others/Hostiles have had the same thing done to them. Maybe it’s as simple as whoever Smokey (or even Jacob) saves has to pledge their undying loyalty to the Island, and protect it at all costs, no matter what that means in the way of deceit, treachery, murder and manipulation.
- A quick line from one of the Others to Richard seems to indicate Charles Widmore is indeed the leader of the band of roving misfits. The Other asks Richard if he shouldn’t run this all by “Ellie” (Eloise Hawking) first, lest “Charles” find out. Richard replies by saying he doesn’t answer to either of them. Alpert’s always appeared to march to his own tune, always functioning more as a consiglieri to the leader of the Others, but never giving the impression he’s under any obligation to follow orders that leader may give.
- Roger Linus seems awfully concerned about a son he’d grown increasingly resentful of and abusive to.
Perhaps Ben still could’ve turned out okay had Jack become his old self and operated on the boy at Juliet’s urging. So, despite Jack’s new laid-back, “what, me worry?” approach, he may have been indirectly responsible for turning Ben into the monster he becomes (by way of whatever’s being done to take the kid’s innocence in The Temple).
- Speaking of Jack, more proof of his new Man of Faith stature, telling Kate he came back to the Island “because [he] was supposed to,” and that he no longer wants to be the one to “fix” things. He has faith that the Island will do whatever it has to in order to fix everything. More like the old Locke all the time.
- We do indeed have a logo for the Dharma “station” I christened “The Wafflehouse” last week. Hurley’s grease-smeared jumpsuit, signifying his position as Chef, is adorned with the hat and utensils befitting a man of his station.
- We get an answer to one of the show’s more minor but still lingering questions: what did Sawyer ask Kate to do before he jumped out of the helicopter last season? He asked her to take care of his daughter, Clementine.
Kate, fittingly enough, already knew the mother, Cassidy, having worked together on a con job or two while she was on the run from the law.
I’m still not sure why Kate couldn’t just tell Jack why she was hanging out with Cassidy back when he was a drunken mess. Oh, I know, there weren’t enough boring subplots.
- Another question answered is what became of Aaron. Kate gives him up to Claire’s mother, which was probably the right thing to do all along.
I still keep coming back to the what the psychic told Claire in season 1, though, that she must be the one to raise Aaron. Perhaps Grandma Littleton will make a visit to the Island by way of a third plane crash.
- I may have missed this, but who turned off the sonic fence?
- Juliet mentions the doctor (Chang, I presume?) is at The Looking Glass until Friday. Not sure if that’ll have any significance down the road, but this mention will serve as proof I knew it was an ominous portent of climactic and amazing things to come.
- Speaking of things I knew, I called that Back to the Future reference Hurley made last week, thank you. The Lost writers are stealing from me.
Alas, Hurley does not disappear a la Marty McFly.
Seems I remember Sawyer punching in the code to disable the fence.