Season 5, Episode, 11: "Whatever Happened, Happened"

So the debate continues...can you change the past or is what happened, happened? I know I must sound like a broken record by this point, but unfortunately this week's episode didn't give us much in the way of a concrete answer to the question that will likely plague us until the end of Season 5 (or beyond). But we did learn a bunch of stuff, and were treated to some quality Kate scenes...something I never thought I'd say again. So without further ado, let's get to it.

First off, we have to discuss a hot topic of debate that came out of this week's show: Little Ben's bullet wound. You'll notice from the pictures below that Sayid's shot hit Ben closer to the middle of his body (aka Heart) in "He's Our You," but in the beginning minutes of "Whatever Happened, Happened" Ben's wound clearly resides on the right side of his chest.

The top pic is right after he was shot, and the hole is on the left side of his chest, and the lower pic it's clearly on the right side (I'm using his left and right not yours)

There are a couple possible reasons for this: 1) it's yet another continuity error (it's been all but confirmed that the woman behind Sun in that creepy Christian scene two weeks ago was a crew member...come on Lost, get with the program!); 2) the Island moved the wound shortly after the shot to try and save Ben, or 3) the wound is in two different spots due to a matter of perception. Meaning that Sayid, filled with anger and rage for his nemesis, saw the bullet strike through Ben's heart...a certain kill shot. It's what he wanted to see, and therefore the Island let him perceive it to be so. However, when Jin turns Ben over, he sees it differently...the injury is in a relatively safer place (for a shot to the chest, that is), which leads him to believe that he has a chance to save his life. Jin quickly transports him back to the infirmary, and eventually Ben gets shuttled to the Others and is presumably saved.

There is much more written on the matter of perception in Lost, but all in all I think the point to take home is that the Island shows certain people certain things for a specific purpose. And while all the characters are seemingly going through the same series of events together, they could be perceiving them in a slightly different way so that their reactions create specific results that are in line with the will of the Island. Sayid sees his shot strike Ben through the heart, which makes him run off into the jungle instead of finishing him off with a head shot...in Locke's initial visit to the Cabin he sees a long haired Jacob beckoning for help, but Ben seemingly sees or hears nothing...Desmond sees flashes of the future while no one else can. All of these events (and more) create outcomes that are essential to the development of the Island - Ben lives, Locke becomes the "chosen one," and Desmond is able to find Penny (and these are just a few examples). I'm not sure if this theory is fully fleshed out, but I think it will be interesting to keep in mind as the show progresses.

Let's move on to Kate, Aaron, and Sawyer's abandoned lady friend, Cassidy. For those of you that need a reminder, Cassidy and Sawyer met up a couple of seasons ago when Sawyer tried to con her, but the ever perceptive Cassidy saw through his ruse and asked him to teach her his devious ways. They conned together for a bit, until Sawyer split upon hearing about her pregnancy (or something like that). Sawyer never quite got past the fact that he abandoned his daughter, and whispered into Kate's ear on the chopper last season to check on his Clementine. Kate also crossed paths with Cassidy in her past, as the two of them helped each other out for a brief period (Kate helped her con, and Cassidy helped Kate evade the feds). Upon their renewed friendship in post-Island days, Cassidy sees through Kate’s BS just as she did with Sawyer, and lets her know that she is just using Aaron as a placeholder for her lost love for Sawyer. This realization leads Kate to come to her senses and give Aaron to his rightful blood relative, Grandma Claire, and return to the Island with a clear purpose: to find the lost Claire. I was glad to see that her reason was that and NOT to go back and get all lovey dovey with Sawyer. Kate climbed up a couple of pegs for me in this episode...but I guess that's not too tough when you're already at the bottom (oh snap!).



So now we know the purpose of three of our five returning Losties. Sayid was meant to shoot Ben, Sun was meant to find Jin (I think), and Kate is bent on reuniting Claire with her son. But Jack....well, Jack's still waiting for the light bulb to go off. I've really enjoyed watching his transition from Mr. Fix It to "whatever man...I'll let the Island do its thang." He let go of the reigns and is along for the ride until destiny calls out for him. How Locke-ish of him. My guess is that the reason for his return is to have a final showdown with Christian, and resolve those Daddy issues that essentially got him into this mess to begin with. Only time will tell, but I'm liking the new Jack.

(Oh, and I guess we don’t know Hurley’s purpose yet either...but at this point I’m going with comic relief…more on that later).

And now for the meat of the episode...the showdown between Richard Alpert, Kate, Sawyer, and the hanging by a thread Ben (seriously...did everyone not realize that the kid got shot in the chest and was rapidly losing blood? There was a fair amount of dilly dallying going on in these scenes). Richard meets Kate and crew halfway in Hostile territory, as if he knew they were going to arrive, and makes his point clear: I can save the boy, but if I do, he's not going to remember a thing and he will be altered for life. This, in essence, is the creation of Ben as we know him. The trip to the Temple will change him...it will "take his innocence" and turn him into a conduit for the Island, much in the same way the trip down the Temple tunnel did for Rousseau's crew. They were different afterwards...so different that Rousseau had to take matter in her own hands and kill them. Is it Smokey that changes people? Maybe. Or is it Richard himself? In all honesty, I thought the final scene (where Richard paused with Ben in his arms at the Temple door), was going to end with Richard shape shifting into the Smoke Monster and taking Ben down into the tunnel with him (music swells, cut to black: L O S T ...tell me that wouldn't have been awesome).


While that wasn't in the cards (yet), we have to think that Richard is different from the other Hostiles. He may not be "in charge" (seeing that we learn that the assumed leaders "Ellie and Charles" - Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore - may not agree with his decision to save Ben), but he clearly isn’t afraid of defying orders. In his own words, he "doesn't answer to them" and saves him Ben anyways. Richard has a sense of how things are going to turn out and he concludes that a living Ben Linus is essential the future of the Island. Is it because he knows that the next gen leader - John Locke - must conquer Ben to truly save the Island years later? Ben will have done his dirty work: eliminated Dharma via the Purge, gotten rid of Charles Widmore (and maybe Ellie too), dealt with the Freighter folks, moved the Island, etc. Once his jobs are done, it's Locke's turn to take the Island to the Golden Age. Right? Remember, Locke has already visited Richard in the 50's...so to Richard Locke is the end all be all...the first supernatural "god" type of vision he encountered. So he knows that if Ben dies, Locke never makes it to the Island, and all is truly Lost.

My only problem with the Richard scenes was the "he (Ben) won't remember anything" line. Really? Well, this line would conveniently explain why Ben doesn't recognize the Losties 30 years later; why he claims to have been born on the Island even though we know he wasn't; and even why he told Jack that his mother taught him to read when clearly that's not possible since his mother died in childbirth. What it doesn't explain is why he would retain such hatred to his Father if he doesn't remember how mistreated he was and other little tidbits like his childhood crush on Annie. I don't know...I'm hoping that the writers tie this one up but I'm thinking they instead tried to use the "remember" line as a plot hole filler to make moving forward simpler than it would have been otherwise. I kind of liked the idea that Ben DID know who the Losties were 30 years later, and used that knowledge to his advantage. Let’s hope that we are just reading too much into Richard’s line for the time being.

Regardless, tonight's episode will see the judgement of our frenemy Ben. And I for one, am looking forward to the verdict.

Tidbits:

-Don't think I wasn't going to end this without mentioning the Hurley/Miles debate: classic. Hurley has always been the voice of the fans and Miles joined in on the fun this time. This dialogue was clearly meant to reflect the millions of conversations that we all have Thursday mornings following a new Lost...they even referenced Back to the Future! One important takeaway though: while the debate was mostly unresolved, Miles made it very clear that the time traveling Losties are in their present and that they CAN in fact die. I think that little seed was planted on purpose...and that we may lose a one or two time travelers before this season is over.



-Getting back to the Charles/Ellie comment; it’s now clear that both Eloise Hawking and Charles are still on the Island in 1977, which lends some credence to the story Widmore told Locke in “The Life and Death of Jeremy Benthem” (that he was a leader on the Island for close to three decades). Furthermore, it insinuates some kind of relationship between Ellie and Charles, furthering the theory that Faraday is their child, which would also make him Penny’s sister. Others have posed that instead Ellie and Charles are siblings…so there is that to think about as well.


Ok, well I think that’s it for this week. Tonight’s episode truly looks like a winner so get ready for some reckoning type shit to go down! Till next time….