A Home on HUH?! Island: Dr. Linus, I Presume

What the what!?

Our regular LOST recapper/theorist, Summer Finck, is visiting her own tropical Island this week, so I will be taking her place. I’m sorry.

This week we took a look at the man we all love (to hate), Benjamin Linus. Ben Linus has become a broken man, betrayed by a man he served blindly for years and left with no place or person to call home following the preventable death of his beloved daughter Alex. It’s tough to know whether the Ben we’ve come to know is worthy of anything but scorn and pity as the once powerful manipulator has fallen on tough times at the hands of his god, Jacob. Recap time! I think I’m going to do this just as the show did flipping between Island and Sideworld. Here goes nothing, prepare to be confused:

We open up on Ben escaping the Smokey temple in the jungle where he shows his grace by faceplanting into the jungle floor. He looks up and sees a group of folks rocking some torches and runs to them. When he bursts through the brush, Lapidus almost takes him out with a rifle, but pulls back just in time. After a quick catchup, the gang (Ilana, Lapidus, Miles, Sun, and now Ben) make tracks for the old beach camp.

Sideways Ben is in class now, teaching his students about another famous island, Elba. More on that significance later! After the bell rings, Ben is confronted by the principal of his school, that jerk reporter from Die Hard. Principal Die Hard tells Ben he has to cancel his history club to watch over detention. Ben is none too pleased. At lunch, Leslie Arzt of “Dude, you’ve got some Arzt on you” fame is in one piece and eating with Ben. While discussing the demerits of Principal Die Hard, Locke (“the substitute”) butts in and implores Ben to take the principal’s spot.

Back on the island, the gang trudges toward the beach camp and Ilana, who apparently knows EVERYONE, tells Miles to talk to Jacob via the bag of ashes she picked up back at Old $ Toes. Miles tells her he might not be able to get anything, but she presses him. After some stupid camera work to illustrate talking to a bag of ash, Miles reveals that it was in fact Ben who killed Jacob. Ben rapidly denies it, but you can see Ilana buys it wholesale and she lets Ben know that “Jacob was the closest thing I ever had to a father.” Miles interjects in classic Miles fashion, “Uh oh!” And then it’s on to beach camp, sweet beach camp. Ilana takes control and sets everyone to work except Ben who she has a special job, err scary job for later.

We flash to Sideworld and find Ben heating up two DELECTABLE looking tv dinners, one for him, one for dad. Good ole Roger Workman is alive and… well, he’s alive and breathing with the help of a tank. Roger brings up a regret he has. No biggie, just that he regrets leaving the Dharma Initiative on the Island, “if we’d stayed, who knows what you would’ve become.” And then a knock on the door and we meet none other than Alex Rousseau who begs for some tutoring from her FAVORITE teacher.

Now settling into the beach camp, Sun asks Ilana how long they will be staying there (Umm however long you want, you are a grown-ass woman Sun) because she needs to find her husband. Ilana also wants to find her Jin because she’s not sure which of them is the candidate listed as Kwon. And given that there are only 6 remaining candidates, she has to be careful. Over at the Lighthouse, Hurley wakes up in the middle of the field. Personally, this is one island living skill I would find it hard to actually get used to. Jack presses Hurley to head out for the temple, but Hurley is clearly trying to stall. No worries, the great eye shadowed one appears in the jungle with appropriate directions for the temple seekers. Back at camp, Ben looks over some books including Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (interesting title to sit directly below Mr. Linus). Right about this time Ilana starts wielding her big stick and forces ben over to the gravesite for his job to begin. His job is digging his own grave while tied up to a tree thanks to Ilana’s MacGyver tendencies.

In Sideworld, Ben tutors Alex who in turn teaches him a little something. That sounded gross. What she apprises him of, is that the principal has been getting some full physicals from the nurse if you catch my drift. We also learn of Alex’s deep desire to attend Yale and that “Principal Pervert” is an alum who could help her out in the process.

After that quick glance sideways, Miles approaches gravedigger Ben (sounds like a terrible action figure “Now with extra shovel power!”) with some grub and Ben tries to coax Miles into helping him. Miles doesn’t take the bait also casting a ncie shoutout to Nikki and Paulo at the same time. In the middle of the jungle, Hurley asks a question on every Lost fan’s tongue, WHY DON’T YOU AGE RICHARD? Richard gives us one of the biggest answers of the last 3 seasons, saying that since Jacob touched him he was given a “gift.” That gift is why Richard never ages, but the gift was really more like a curse he tells us. Richard tells Hurley not to trust dead Jacob and bolts off to take his own life. WHAT!? Thought you couldn’t die?

Back in Sideworld, Ben is pulling together his coup for the principalship. He pulls Doc Arzt into his confidence and asks him to access the nurse’s email account to see if there are any tawdry emails. We are starting to see hints of the Ben we know and love/hate and Arzt is too, “You fooled me with that sweater vest. You’re a real killer Linus.” Once successful with gathering the emails, Dr. Linus heads to th principal’s office and demands that the principal resign while handpicking him as successor. And at this point the worm turns as the principal has his own email to read Ben, one from Alex Rousseau, asking the principal for a letter of recommendation to Yale. This is a familiar, yet much less dramatic, allusion to Ben’s choice between Island and daughter, in which he chose the Island. Again a choice, power or his daughter? CLIFFHANGER TIME!

Now, we’re at the Black Rock and Richard clues us in to how he came to the island, saying this is the first time he’s ever come back in all his time on the island. Jack and Hurley have followed him here. Richard goes straight for the crate of dynamite we all remember, especially Doc Arzt. Jack and Hurley attempt to find out why Richard is going to kill himself. Richard then tells us about his life’s work for Jacob and that Jacob promised him all of this, that there would be a place for him, that he would be set up. But now Jacob is dead, so Richard feels his entire life was meaningless. He says he can’t kill himself, but if Jack or Hurley lit the dynamite, he COULD die. Jack agrees to. Hurley wants no part of it and the fuse is lit. And Jack comes cool as a cucumber with “Now let’s talk.” Hurley is all whatttttttttt!? I’m outta here. So we’re with Jack and Richard as the fuse burns rapidly toward the explosive. Richard implores Jack to save himself and Jack is eerily calm, saying he knows that he won’t die because his name was written in wood on the dial back in the lighthouse. And POOF! the fuse goes out.

Poof!

Cause guess what guys, Richard and Jack have the same “gift.” Neither of them can kill themselves. This was a GREAT scene for Jack and Richard, loved Jack’s steely resolve and did I see a little bit of “Man of Faith” in him? I think I did, especially once the fuse failed and he said “Wanna try another stick?”

Ben’s grave nears completion when we hear the taxi cab receipt monster and Smocke appears. Ben explains his situation to Smocke who in turn says he’s trying to gather folks to leave the island. But with everyone gone, he’ll need someone to protect it. Ben looked super earnest/pathetic at the idea that he was the man for the job. However, his current situation precluded him from anything but certain doom. That is until Smocke told him to meet his gang at the Hydra Station on the other island and Alohomoras the lock on his manacle. Smocke reminds him not to hesitate. Ya know “He who hesitates is LOST.” (JOKES!) So what do you think Ben does? HE BOLTS and Ilana right after him. Ben stumbles upon a rifle and get s a leg up on Ilana. He says he just wants to explain and launches into the story of Alex’s death and how he chose the island over his daughter in the name of Jacob and Jacob didn’t even blink. They have similar feelings! He says he will put down his gun if Ilana lets him just go meet Smocke at the Hydra. “Why?” she asks. And honestly I felt bad for the guy when he replied, “He’s the only one who’ll have me.” But Ilana turns the other cheek and says “I will have you.” So two people want Ben on their team? Who saw THAT coming.

In sideworld, we see Ben waiting in Principal Die Hard Pervert’s office and then Alex pops in. She had just stopped by to thank the principal for her SHINING letter of recommendation and wondered if Ben had anything to do with it. Nothing at all he claims, but we know different. At this moment the principal barges and upon seeing Ben gets a little testy and asks him WTF he is doing in his office. Just dropping off the detention list because it’s History Club Time BOZO. No more detention duty for Dr. Linus. So in sideworld, Ben chooses the daughter!

Back to the beach, as Ilana and Ben return, Ben walks into camp brandishing his gun and lays it down once “home.” He goes up to Sun who is working on a shanty and asks to help and she obliges. Jack, Hurley, and Richard return to the beach as well. Ben still looks like he is left out. WAH WAH. And we see a wide shot of the beach from the water. And I’m like who is seeing THIS? Right then, we go eagle’s eye over an emerging periscope. And a sub comes into view, captained by none other than CHARLES WIDMORE. UH OH is right Miles.

Periscope of Doom?!

Ok, breakdown time.

1. Twilost?- Last week we saw the thundercloud of Smocke gathering his minions and minionettes. This week we saw Team Jacob assemble. This leads me to believe we may have a Twilight link. Team Jacob vs. Team Edward (potentially Smocke/MIB’s real name?!?!!?). You cannot escape the clutches of Twilight. No, but seriously, looks like this week was supposed to show us what the teams will look like moving forward and it did reveal one VERY unexpected result: Ben is a good guy? If he keeps that allegiance, remains to be seen, but pretty interesting twist as he has been completely broken down.

2. The Island of Elba- This is the island Napoleon was exiled to after he was forced to leave France. Interesting story though that could parallel Ben’s future on the island. As we know Ben was kind of a four letter word (choose your own adventure four letter word!) and Napoleon was as well. But once Napoleon was exiled to Elba, he found a people in need and passed several reforms to improve the lives of these people (Wikipedia!). So maybe Ben has a future as a noble leader? I really liked this parallel.

3. What has happened to Sun? While watching with my LOST viewing buddy Kaitlyn, she made the excellent point that Sun kinda sucks now. She’s all “I need to find my husband” like a badly programmed robot. Sun used to have so many layers/dimensions, what happened to that? I’m hoping the writers will make her into the strong woman we all have grown to love on this show very soon again.

4. I personally was wondering what forced Roger to leave the island with young Ben and to leave the Dharma Initiative behind. SideBen in a stance completely opposite RegularBen scoffed at the idea of the island being some sort of savior. Really interesting point there.

5. You’ve all heard of the Midas Touch right? That guy could touch anything and turn it to gold. Pretty cool! Well Jacob has THE TOUCH as well. Which reminds me of another Touch. The Transformers movie song “The Touch” by Stan Bush, Rock Legend, Esq., which features these lyrics “You’re at your best when when the goin’ gets rough, You’ve been put to the test, but it’s never enough.” Sound like anyone we know? Jacob! That’s who, as far as Ben feels anyways. Ok, so Jacob can grant the ability to NOT age with the restriction that you can’t kill yourself, too bad he didn’t touch Walt so we could find out what HIS deal was.

6. I already mentioned it, but I was thinking to myself again, man that scene with Jack and Richard in the Black Rock was just excellent. Jack’s frantic, angry mood of late turned into this strange, eerie, almost cavalier attitude, with that “Wanna try another stick?” line. But we also saw him start to believe in Jacob or in something bigger and that, ramblers, is what we call FAITH.

7. Chaim Potok’s The Chosen was featured last night and I can’t for the life of me gather the reference. Granted I read The Chosen in middle school, maybe early high school and “read it” means the Cliff Notes, so any well-read teens out there want to enlighten us? Also featured was Benjamin Disraeli’s Truth and Justice In Action and an issue of Booty Babes. I couldn’t make out what issue #. Sorry!

8. And finally, Widmore’s back! What does this mean for the Island? Our castaways? How did he get there? I’d imagine that Ben and Richard will have some issues with ole Chuck coming back. Can’t wait to find out. It looks like we are posturing for a grand showdown.

So now I think we are beginning to see where exactly this season is headed. It should be very interesting to see where Widmore lines up and what he thinks about the death of Jacob. But it looks like battle lines are drawn and one can only hope we get some more Dharma Shark action soon. From here on out, I am expecting a white knuckle ride to the finish, so strap in folks. And to steal a line from our regular writer:

See ya in another week, brotha!

1 Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

Categories

Tags

Blogroll

RSS Syndication