April 12, 2007
During the big reveal at the end of One of Us, Ben concludes his little chat with Juliette with “See you in a week” and then he rolls off. The camera pans a bit to show the gas mask that he has given her.
If you look at her mouth, she mouths something that Ben is clearly incapable of seeing, as he is wheeling away behind her.
What was she mouthing?!? The only logical kind of response that someone could have in a situation like that is something like “yeah right” or “not if you get hit by a bus”–something snarky. Too bad I don’t know any deaf people who enjoy watching Lost and are lipreaders.
Second look
I played the scene over again and again. I think what she says has a similar mouth configuration to “i love you”.
April 10, 2007
Ben manipulates people to accomplish his personal goals. Most recently we see that he plays up the importance of the submarine so that Locke will feel that much more committed to his plans to blow it up. But in the end, we see that Ben wanted the submarine destroyed and just used Locke to further his desire.
In the recent Paulo & Nikki episode, we see that Ben and Juliette visited the Pearl to spy on the Losties in the Swan before Ben is caught by Danielle. We now know that his primary goal in this field trip was to coax Jack into wanting to remove the tumor from his spine.
But what about the bits of dialog exchanged between Ben and Locke after it is revealed that Ben is an Other?
Locke pressed Ben on the question of “did you press the button [during the lockdown]?” Ben’s reply was roughly “no, and the numbers just rewound to 108…nothing happened.” Ben’s intent seems to have been to sow a seed of doubt in Locke. Thus, resulting in Locke want to ignore the button and cause the whole electromagnetic meltdown (that we saw bits of at the end of season 2) to reach their ultimate crescendo. I propose that this was the result that Ben intended…but it is not what he got.
Early in the first pod of season 3, Ben becomes aware of Desmond’s boat. If I recall correctly, he acts as if this were completely new and unplanned-for information. It follows from this reaction that he probably did not factor Desmond into any of his evil evil calculations and manipulations.
Consider how season 2 would’ve ended sans Desmond. In the event that Locke could incapacitate Eko, we would’ve seen the magnetic chaos rise and rise as Locke stood around hopelessly crying “I was wrong” as his world came to an end inside of a huge underground MRI machine.
It is Desmond who introduces a third option (press button, do not press button, abort) to the mix. A third option that I propose that Ben did not consider. When Ben looks to the purple sky at the conclusion of season 2, he does not do so with a smile on his face, but more of a hidden “well crap, that’s not what was supposed to happen” look. The purple sky wreaked havok on the Others’ communications and has other very bad consequences for everybody on the island. For a lifetime-inhabitant of the island, I don’t think that’s what Ben wanted.
So what was the point of Ben’s original plan?
April 5, 2007
Interestingly, as Smokey approaches the fence, there are three large “heads” that are very noticeable. Could this be confirmation that Smokey is indeed the “Cerberus” mentioned on the Blast Door Map? Is it possible that Smokey is comprised of three separate entities that are capable of joining together, or working independently. Could this explain why sometimes we hear the clackety-clak noises of a roller coaster when Smokey appears, and sometimes we don’t?
From: Sledgeweb’s LOST….STUFF
April 4, 2007
So, tonight’s episode raises the interesting question.
How come Kate & Company can go over the wall, but Smokey cannot?
Speaking of which…have we ever even seen Smokey in his entirety more than a few feet off the ground? Maybe the ratchety sound that tried to drag Locke underground in season 1 is more than just sounds. Maybe it implies that there is some sort of system that ties Cerberus (smokey) to the underground like a leash. Like the fields that make the particles behave only work up to a certain height because they attenuate too much.
March 25, 2007
In response to a question about pushing the button:
Not having pushed the button has basically…The character don’t really have any understanding quite yet of how momentous it was not to push the button. Other than the fact of the not-pushing of the button is what crashed Oceanic 815 in the first place and brought them all there, the idea that the sky turned purple and the island shook…Events in the finale last year catastrophically screwed them all in a way that they don’t really appreciate yet.
March 22, 2007
Ben is overly curious about Locke’s use of his legs. I think that Ben may be conning Locke (which is the less obvious deduction from this episode). The man in the supply closet is not actually Locke’s father. Ben does indeed know how that man arrived on the island: it is the same process that makes other ‘visions’ on the island, like Dave and such. It’s the same thing that Walt used to appear places. It lets you hack an image out of someone’s mind and manifest it.
The “man from Tallahassee” is actually code for the adult man who can actually use the same manifesting-device that they tested Walt on. Ben used information from Locke’s file to get Locke to really start thinking about his own dad. Then right before opening the door, Ben really made that image sear into the forefront of Locke’s mind with his line, “I wanted to know what it felt like when your own father tried to kill you.” That was enough for the manifesting device to locke into a strong impression of Daddy Locke.
Update:
After a second watching, and a comment by Matt, I thought again about why Locke was dripping wet just prior to the explosion.
What if Locke knew a bit about cons since his own father jaded him. He knew that Ben was going to manipulate him into doing something…the C4 was way too easy to acquire from The Flame. Locke is playing along with what seems easiest and what is “set out for him” to do. That involved blowing up the sub, but what if he….did something between setting the explosive and being captured?
I am reminded of something I thought about after the episode where we were introduced to The Flame station. I think the video of Marvin told Locke some very important information regarding “the hostiles” after he entered Code 77 into its computer. Since exiting that station Locke has been acting slightly differently than usual. He lied about the explosives, he threw their prisoner into the sonic field without any hesitation, he lied to Kate & Sayid about “I’ll cover the back.” He’s even joking with Ben before and after being captured.
Where is the man who grew frustrated and pushed the dirty dishes to the floor? Where is the man who was crying to the heavens back in season 1, pounding on the hatch door? Where is the man saying, “I was…wrong”? Locke has more cards up his sleeve than Ben knows about, and I think Locke is going to play along with Ben until he can use the rest of the information he learned from the Marvin video at The Flame station.
