Dead Is Dead

I really enjoyed tonight's installment of Lost. I was looking for the inevitable Ben-centric installment to paint in his "what happened before the return" story, but we ended up with a lot more to his story even than that.

We learned that Ben's refusal to kill Rousseau, and kidnapping of Alex, was a major point where the relationship between Ben and Widmore began to sour. We learned that Widmore was ultimately expelled by the Others and banished from the Island, (in whole or in part) for fathering Penny out in the rest of the world. And yes, we also learned that indeed Ben tried to kill Penny... but more importantly that he wasn't able to go through with it upon seeing her son Charlie.

So an interesting episode that gave Ben more humanity than he's had lately, or perhaps even ever. It takes a young child to bring it out in him, but he does let down his cold, calculating guard.

Also interesting that even as we were seeing Ben's softer side, we were seeing him in full, manipulative mode too. We're often meant to suspect Ben of lying, but this was a rare episode in which we actually catch him in the lie right then -- he tells John that he knew the Island would bring him back to life, but he not long after tells Sun this was a total surprise and it "scares the hell out of him."

And then, in the final act, there was the tearing down of Ben. Seeing inside the "monster" wasn't such a big moment for it showing us a little more of what the monster's about than we've seen in past confrontations with it. Rather, it was big that we saw it putting Ben through the wringer. And then, just as Eko saw someone from his past in proximity to the monster, so Ben saw Alex.

...who bitch-slapped him around and tore him down another level. Ben is now supposed to do everything Locke says. If he respects that demand, then it will be him at his weakest, finally and totally out of control for the first time we've known him. And if he doesn't -- well, that promises some interesting consequences too. Either way, fantastic stuff for one of the most interesting characters on the show.

In any other episode, the revelation that there seems to be a "cult of the statue" that possesses people and makes them turn on their friends might be more important. (It's likely what happened to the French expedition in between the two times Jin saw them.) Perhaps when that story is pursued farther with the captive Lapedis, it will indeed be more interesting. But here it was only background noise in a great Ben episode.