In case you were wondering, Lost was excellent last night. It's definitely at number one on my List of Things That Are The Shit. As always, Doc Jensen's recap can be found here.
It's become a fairly consistent thing on Lost that the episodes that focus on Ben Linus are some of the best. It's amazing how a character that was supposed to only be on the show for a few episode has become such an important part of the show. It's definitely a testament to Michael Emerson's amazing performance.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Last night we got a good amount of answers (of course more questions were raised but it's Lost - there have to be) about everyone's favorite manipulator.
The flashback scenes showed us some of Ben's time in the others before he was their leader. We also got a view of Widmore at the end of his leadership. Though he claimed to Locke in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" to have been tricked by Ben and forced off the island, this episode showed Widmore as a leader who had become corrupted and was being replaced by the island for no longer doing what was in its best interest. We know the same thing happened to Ben.
One of the focuses that pulled both men's attention away from the island seemed to be family. Widmore had Penny and Ben had Alex. Since Locke is the island's new chosen one is he doomed to repeat this pattern of being corrupted by a position of power within the Others? Or, as I personally believe at this point, has Locke's life off the island been miserable up to this point to make sure he doesn't have the connections to others that the previous leaders did? His only love is dead and his father, the one person he was never able to move past, was brought to him by the island to be killed by Sawyer. It's interesting.
Speaking of Locke, how crazy/awesome was Locke-zarus. Back from the dead with a smile on his face and a plan in his noggin... I don't believe for a second he's the same Locke as he claimed to Sun but I also don't he's an apparition like Christian Shepard or the other island ghosts. We know Ben's rules changed on the island once Alex was shot but even he was unsettled with the fact that for Locke dead just might not be dead. The idea Ben was forced to follow Locke was another in a series of role reversals we've had this season (the other big one being Jack and Sawyer).
So Locke leads, and Ben follows all the way to a cozy little place I like to call Smokey's Hideaway. I don't believe for a second Ben truly came back to be judged but the island forced one of his lies into truth last night and revealed to us more about the smoke monster than we've ever known. In a cave underneath the temple guarding wall Ben came face to face with the smoke monster and it flashed the events in Ben's life that lead to Alex's death. And while it did judged him worthy to continue living (for now), it didn't lead Ben go without a warning delivered by his dearly departed daughter. We know you're planning to kill Locke again. You better listen to him or we'll be back for you. And you wouldn't want that Ben. For you, Dead is Dead.
I could write about this stuff forever so I leave with a few Other Thoughts:
It was interesting seeing Ben's mommy issues come to the surface, and how his father shaped him as a parent....thank God Ben didn't kill Penny....was that picture about Smokey's grate him having the stare down w/ Anubis? because that's how I took it...oh boy! I was hoping we'd end up with another faction on the island! Though my friend Jon pointed out they may be from Widmore....excited for a Miles-centric next week...
And to end things a quote from the show Psych that just seemed to fit last night:
Shawn: Slap a wig on you, you're a dead ringer for when I was a kid.Namaste,
DK
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment