Season 5, Episode 12: "Dead is Dead"
Well then, after a few too many episodes in 70's era Dharmaville, we finally got back to what's going down in good ole 2007, and the action was far from disappointing. OK, so the Smokey Slide Show may have been a little cheesy, but the other 56 minutes were the tops. And since there was plenty to keep track of this week, let's get right to it.
Seeing that the bulk of the episode centered around the adventures of zombie Locke and banged up Ben, their story is as good a place to start as any. Keeping with a major theme of this season, it becomes apparent very early in the episode that the relationship between these to foes (friends? leaders? chosen ones?) has taken a complete 180. Ben is no longer calling the shots. Hell, Ben doesn't even know what the shots are. Locke is so completely in control of his surroundings that it visibly frazzles Ben. Remember, while Locke seemed to be gaining confidence on the Island pre-donkey wheel turn (to gather the O6), he found out soon enough that Ben was still a step ahead of him, as he'd always been. He trailed John's every move, killed Abaddon, and then manipulated "critical information" out of John before murdering him in cold blood. It was the final "failure" of Locke's doomed life...a failure that Ben once again orchestrated from the start. But this time it's different. Ben broke the rules. He's back where he is not supposed to be and Locke is exactly where he should be. When Ben wakes up in that infirmary bed he is truly shocked to see John alive and well before him. He simply doesn't know what to make of it, but he knows one thing: it's f-ing crazy. As he told Sun later in the episode, Ben had "seen the Island do miraculous things, but never this. Dead is dead."
Which brings up a good point. Is Locke alive or is he something....else? Is it presumptuous of us to assume that he just resurrected out of nothing and is now alive and well? I know it was Easter week and all, but let's look at this rationally for a second (well "rationally" in Lost terms). First off, Christian is another dude who came to the Island in a coffin and ended up "alive," but we've never really believed that he is actually alive, right? No...Christian has been referred to as a ghost - or even a guide - that the Island uses to get people on the right track. He's told Jack numerous times that he's "got more work to do" and walked Locke through the whole process of moving the Island to go back and retrieve the O6 ("I said for YOU to move the Island, John, not him"). There are examples of other ghosts helping our characters out as well: Mr. Eko got Yemi, Hurley got Dave, and Kate...well, Kate got a horse (remember that?). In all of these cases the beneficiaries of these visits were given a path to follow, and a push in the right direction. Now, back in 2007 on an Island that may not want him back, Ben is in need of directions...and Locke - whatever he might be - is there to provide them. John is the new zombie Christian.
Some of John's lines and actions illustrate his new role as Island Sherpa. From the get go, in Ben's office, John takes control of the situation. He plops right down into Ben's old desk chair, and demands an explanation for his own death. He gets Ben to actually tell the truth for once, a feat the old John could never seem to master. Next Ben tells him that he must "be judged" by the Island and after a moment of thought John decides that he will help him on his "journey." Along the way he gently reminds Ben of what he is really being judged for: "You're lying...you're not coming back here to be judged for 'breaking the rules,' you're coming back to be judged for killing your daughter." And at that moment, Ben realizes the simple truth in those words, and begins to come to the realization that he must be responsible for his actions in order to be forgiven. Next John stalls on a promise to Sun regarding finding Jin to remind Ben that he's got a monster to summon; "better get to it then," he urges with a knowing smile. And as the show progresses, I think Ben starts to understand what's going on. When he comments to John, "you don't have the first idea of what this Island wants", he sees the crazy look in his eye when John responds, "are you sure about that?" Furthermore, it's no mistake that John is the one to come walking out of the woods after Ben mutters the line, "whatever is about to come out of that jungle, I can't control." Sure he was referring to Smokey, but let's not miss the bigger picture here...John is one with the Island, and Ben knows that he has lost his ability to dictate his actions.
It's probably for this reason that he was going to try and kill him yet again as Alex/Smokey prophesied in the Temple. But that won't happen now. Because of John's helping hand, Ben was led to the Temple, accepted responsibility for the death of his daughter, and was in turn spared by the Island. His punishment however may be as bad as death; he is stripped of all his power and ordered follow the commands of the man that he once owned so completely. But there can be no argument, because as Richard once said in reference to Ben, "the Island chooses who the Island chooses." But this time, it is Ben who is on the outside looking in.
One more note regarding the Island's decision to let Ben live. Sure, he needed to repent and all that stuff (don't forget that Mr. Eko - while "born again" in his faith - never repented for the life he once lived as a thief and a killer...even as Ghost Yemi urged him to do so, he never accepted the responsibility for his past actions...and it could be for this reason that the Island killed him), his salvation could have been helped by the fact that Alex was never supposed to live her life to begin with. In other words, Widmore was right: the Island wanted nothing to do with Alex or Rousseau. Ben's decision to save her got them about an extra 15 years or so, but in the end course correction took over and their lives were eventually taken. "You cannot fight the inevitable," snears Widmore. Ironically, that is all Ben did when in power of the Others. In addition to letting Alex and her mother live, he moved his people to the Dharma camp when they probably should have stayed in the jungle (where they have now presumably ended up again). In addition, he tried to fix the fertility problem which remained un-fixable. In a sense, everything he did on the Island was to fight the ever loosening grip that he had over it until eventually, it pushed him aside to welcome a new leader in Locke. Widmore was right indeed...Ben couldn't fight the inevitable and eventually he ended up just like his enemy, banished from his perch as leader of the Island.
Moving on to other matters, what the hell was in that crate that evil Ilana and crew are toting? They seem to be awfully careful with it, seeing that in the time it took for Locke and Ben to travel to the main Island AND for Lapidus to travel back to Othertraz the crate moved like two feet. And gotta love that code phrase: "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" Ummm...is it Bernard and Rose? Faraday maybe? Cause seriously, where the hell are those clowns? No, but clearly Ilana is the sneaky one with an agenda - and likely an employee of Widmore. My guess is that this crew will be the beginnings of the new "bad guys" for Season 6 when everyone is presumably back to the present. Furthermore, I'm thinking that inside the crate lies an extremely delicate communication device that will allow Widmore to find his way back to the Island.
The only fault with this is as many have pointed out, if Widmore knew that the plane was going to lead Ilana and the O6 back to the Island, why didn't he just buy a ticket and climb aboard? I mean, the dude probably has the miles for a ticket to Guam, right? Widmore mentions to Ben that he's been trying to find the Island for "20 years." Really? It took Ben three! Who knows, maybe if he had boarded the flight the "circumstances" of the original 815 flight would have been altered too much for it to return, but overall I'm just think Widmore isn't trying hard enough.
Another theory is that Ilana is part of a new Dharma crew that has come to take back the Island. One of the ideas supporting this is that her secret handshake question Ilana asked is reminiscent of Desmond's famous riddle, "what did one snowman say to the other snowman?*" which was a code leftover from Dharma times. Not sure if I'm on board with that, but it's intriguing. Regardless, Widmore spoke of a "war" coming, and this new group just might represent the beginnings of the Season 6 war that is no doubt on its way.
Speaking of statues, I'm sure all of you noticed the ancient drawing of our four toed pal Anubis and Smokey on the Temple wall above Smokey's wack-a-mole bed, right? Good. As a reminder, Anubis is the Egyptian god associated with death, mummification, and the afterlife. How appropriate.
And finally, we were all debating here at work why Ben tells Sun to tell Desmond that he was sorry. Seeing that he was unsuccessful in his attempted murder of Penny, what was the point of an apology? I mean, Ben has tried to kill Locke like 25 times and can still barely utter an apology to him (actually, instead of saying the words "I'm sorry" to John this week, Ben shows his remorse by KILLING ANOTHER PERSON in shooting Caesar..."consider that your apology," he says.) All I'm saying is that Ben is not one to be the bigger man. Boss Man Richard W has rightly pointed out that Ben could simply be apologizing for shooting Desmond, which certainly could be the case, but something else seems to be going on. Maybe Ben had someone finish the job? Or maybe he really is turning over a new leaf and is subscribing to the Island's 12 step program to save his soul?
Tidbits:
I don't necessarily have a theory here, but I thought it was important to note that when Ben and Locke took the boat from Othertraz to the Island, Locke was deliberately shown taking off his shoes on the beach for the ride, and then shown putting them back on upon arrival to the dock. Again, this may be nothing, but the writers made a point to show us both mundane tasks. Could this be another shout out to Locke's connection to Christian - a gentle reminder that John may not be as alive as we think he is? Remember, those shoes were put on Locke by Jack at the funeral home and once belonged to Christian...and Lost has a history with the significance of shoes. (I just read that line and realized how ridiculous it sounds - "significance of shoes?" - man I'm in too deep. But as ridiculous as it sounds, I think it's something to keep in mind.)
(Another thought, if Christian and Locke are Island ghosts, could Richard be one as well? I mean, that would explain the ageless thing, right?)
Finally, I've theorized on this blog that the 2007 that Ben, Sun, and others inhabit might be an alternate version of the present based on a change that occurred in the past. This thought is based on how Dharmaville is all beaten up and doesn't look like it was ever lived in by the Others at all. Well, if you notice in this episode a game of Risk that Sawyer and Hurley were playing in 2004 was still set up in Ben's house when Ben and Locke returned. This seems to booster the theory that the past has remained unchanged and that we should still subscribe to the rule that "whatever happened, happened."
Alright, I didn't even cover everything (how/why did the Hostiles recruit Ethan? Did Ben ever go back to Dharma after his healing?), but this is long and I have to get going. For all of you Star Wars fans out there, next week's episode is titled "Some Like it Hoth." Can't wait to see what that's all about. Enjoy it because we are getting a recap show next week (4/22), before returning back live the following week for the finale arc. Till then!
*Smells like carrots.
Well then, after a few too many episodes in 70's era Dharmaville, we finally got back to what's going down in good ole 2007, and the action was far from disappointing. OK, so the Smokey Slide Show may have been a little cheesy, but the other 56 minutes were the tops. And since there was plenty to keep track of this week, let's get right to it.
Seeing that the bulk of the episode centered around the adventures of zombie Locke and banged up Ben, their story is as good a place to start as any. Keeping with a major theme of this season, it becomes apparent very early in the episode that the relationship between these to foes (friends? leaders? chosen ones?) has taken a complete 180. Ben is no longer calling the shots. Hell, Ben doesn't even know what the shots are. Locke is so completely in control of his surroundings that it visibly frazzles Ben. Remember, while Locke seemed to be gaining confidence on the Island pre-donkey wheel turn (to gather the O6), he found out soon enough that Ben was still a step ahead of him, as he'd always been. He trailed John's every move, killed Abaddon, and then manipulated "critical information" out of John before murdering him in cold blood. It was the final "failure" of Locke's doomed life...a failure that Ben once again orchestrated from the start. But this time it's different. Ben broke the rules. He's back where he is not supposed to be and Locke is exactly where he should be. When Ben wakes up in that infirmary bed he is truly shocked to see John alive and well before him. He simply doesn't know what to make of it, but he knows one thing: it's f-ing crazy. As he told Sun later in the episode, Ben had "seen the Island do miraculous things, but never this. Dead is dead."
Which brings up a good point. Is Locke alive or is he something....else? Is it presumptuous of us to assume that he just resurrected out of nothing and is now alive and well? I know it was Easter week and all, but let's look at this rationally for a second (well "rationally" in Lost terms). First off, Christian is another dude who came to the Island in a coffin and ended up "alive," but we've never really believed that he is actually alive, right? No...Christian has been referred to as a ghost - or even a guide - that the Island uses to get people on the right track. He's told Jack numerous times that he's "got more work to do" and walked Locke through the whole process of moving the Island to go back and retrieve the O6 ("I said for YOU to move the Island, John, not him"). There are examples of other ghosts helping our characters out as well: Mr. Eko got Yemi, Hurley got Dave, and Kate...well, Kate got a horse (remember that?). In all of these cases the beneficiaries of these visits were given a path to follow, and a push in the right direction. Now, back in 2007 on an Island that may not want him back, Ben is in need of directions...and Locke - whatever he might be - is there to provide them. John is the new zombie Christian.
Some of John's lines and actions illustrate his new role as Island Sherpa. From the get go, in Ben's office, John takes control of the situation. He plops right down into Ben's old desk chair, and demands an explanation for his own death. He gets Ben to actually tell the truth for once, a feat the old John could never seem to master. Next Ben tells him that he must "be judged" by the Island and after a moment of thought John decides that he will help him on his "journey." Along the way he gently reminds Ben of what he is really being judged for: "You're lying...you're not coming back here to be judged for 'breaking the rules,' you're coming back to be judged for killing your daughter." And at that moment, Ben realizes the simple truth in those words, and begins to come to the realization that he must be responsible for his actions in order to be forgiven. Next John stalls on a promise to Sun regarding finding Jin to remind Ben that he's got a monster to summon; "better get to it then," he urges with a knowing smile. And as the show progresses, I think Ben starts to understand what's going on. When he comments to John, "you don't have the first idea of what this Island wants", he sees the crazy look in his eye when John responds, "are you sure about that?" Furthermore, it's no mistake that John is the one to come walking out of the woods after Ben mutters the line, "whatever is about to come out of that jungle, I can't control." Sure he was referring to Smokey, but let's not miss the bigger picture here...John is one with the Island, and Ben knows that he has lost his ability to dictate his actions.
It's probably for this reason that he was going to try and kill him yet again as Alex/Smokey prophesied in the Temple. But that won't happen now. Because of John's helping hand, Ben was led to the Temple, accepted responsibility for the death of his daughter, and was in turn spared by the Island. His punishment however may be as bad as death; he is stripped of all his power and ordered follow the commands of the man that he once owned so completely. But there can be no argument, because as Richard once said in reference to Ben, "the Island chooses who the Island chooses." But this time, it is Ben who is on the outside looking in.
One more note regarding the Island's decision to let Ben live. Sure, he needed to repent and all that stuff (don't forget that Mr. Eko - while "born again" in his faith - never repented for the life he once lived as a thief and a killer...even as Ghost Yemi urged him to do so, he never accepted the responsibility for his past actions...and it could be for this reason that the Island killed him), his salvation could have been helped by the fact that Alex was never supposed to live her life to begin with. In other words, Widmore was right: the Island wanted nothing to do with Alex or Rousseau. Ben's decision to save her got them about an extra 15 years or so, but in the end course correction took over and their lives were eventually taken. "You cannot fight the inevitable," snears Widmore. Ironically, that is all Ben did when in power of the Others. In addition to letting Alex and her mother live, he moved his people to the Dharma camp when they probably should have stayed in the jungle (where they have now presumably ended up again). In addition, he tried to fix the fertility problem which remained un-fixable. In a sense, everything he did on the Island was to fight the ever loosening grip that he had over it until eventually, it pushed him aside to welcome a new leader in Locke. Widmore was right indeed...Ben couldn't fight the inevitable and eventually he ended up just like his enemy, banished from his perch as leader of the Island.
Moving on to other matters, what the hell was in that crate that evil Ilana and crew are toting? They seem to be awfully careful with it, seeing that in the time it took for Locke and Ben to travel to the main Island AND for Lapidus to travel back to Othertraz the crate moved like two feet. And gotta love that code phrase: "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" Ummm...is it Bernard and Rose? Faraday maybe? Cause seriously, where the hell are those clowns? No, but clearly Ilana is the sneaky one with an agenda - and likely an employee of Widmore. My guess is that this crew will be the beginnings of the new "bad guys" for Season 6 when everyone is presumably back to the present. Furthermore, I'm thinking that inside the crate lies an extremely delicate communication device that will allow Widmore to find his way back to the Island.
The only fault with this is as many have pointed out, if Widmore knew that the plane was going to lead Ilana and the O6 back to the Island, why didn't he just buy a ticket and climb aboard? I mean, the dude probably has the miles for a ticket to Guam, right? Widmore mentions to Ben that he's been trying to find the Island for "20 years." Really? It took Ben three! Who knows, maybe if he had boarded the flight the "circumstances" of the original 815 flight would have been altered too much for it to return, but overall I'm just think Widmore isn't trying hard enough.
Another theory is that Ilana is part of a new Dharma crew that has come to take back the Island. One of the ideas supporting this is that her secret handshake question Ilana asked is reminiscent of Desmond's famous riddle, "what did one snowman say to the other snowman?*" which was a code leftover from Dharma times. Not sure if I'm on board with that, but it's intriguing. Regardless, Widmore spoke of a "war" coming, and this new group just might represent the beginnings of the Season 6 war that is no doubt on its way.
Speaking of statues, I'm sure all of you noticed the ancient drawing of our four toed pal Anubis and Smokey on the Temple wall above Smokey's wack-a-mole bed, right? Good. As a reminder, Anubis is the Egyptian god associated with death, mummification, and the afterlife. How appropriate.
And finally, we were all debating here at work why Ben tells Sun to tell Desmond that he was sorry. Seeing that he was unsuccessful in his attempted murder of Penny, what was the point of an apology? I mean, Ben has tried to kill Locke like 25 times and can still barely utter an apology to him (actually, instead of saying the words "I'm sorry" to John this week, Ben shows his remorse by KILLING ANOTHER PERSON in shooting Caesar..."consider that your apology," he says.) All I'm saying is that Ben is not one to be the bigger man. Boss Man Richard W has rightly pointed out that Ben could simply be apologizing for shooting Desmond, which certainly could be the case, but something else seems to be going on. Maybe Ben had someone finish the job? Or maybe he really is turning over a new leaf and is subscribing to the Island's 12 step program to save his soul?
Tidbits:
I don't necessarily have a theory here, but I thought it was important to note that when Ben and Locke took the boat from Othertraz to the Island, Locke was deliberately shown taking off his shoes on the beach for the ride, and then shown putting them back on upon arrival to the dock. Again, this may be nothing, but the writers made a point to show us both mundane tasks. Could this be another shout out to Locke's connection to Christian - a gentle reminder that John may not be as alive as we think he is? Remember, those shoes were put on Locke by Jack at the funeral home and once belonged to Christian...and Lost has a history with the significance of shoes. (I just read that line and realized how ridiculous it sounds - "significance of shoes?" - man I'm in too deep. But as ridiculous as it sounds, I think it's something to keep in mind.)
(Another thought, if Christian and Locke are Island ghosts, could Richard be one as well? I mean, that would explain the ageless thing, right?)
Finally, I've theorized on this blog that the 2007 that Ben, Sun, and others inhabit might be an alternate version of the present based on a change that occurred in the past. This thought is based on how Dharmaville is all beaten up and doesn't look like it was ever lived in by the Others at all. Well, if you notice in this episode a game of Risk that Sawyer and Hurley were playing in 2004 was still set up in Ben's house when Ben and Locke returned. This seems to booster the theory that the past has remained unchanged and that we should still subscribe to the rule that "whatever happened, happened."
Alright, I didn't even cover everything (how/why did the Hostiles recruit Ethan? Did Ben ever go back to Dharma after his healing?), but this is long and I have to get going. For all of you Star Wars fans out there, next week's episode is titled "Some Like it Hoth." Can't wait to see what that's all about. Enjoy it because we are getting a recap show next week (4/22), before returning back live the following week for the finale arc. Till then!
*Smells like carrots.
posted by Rutherford at
8:36 PM
7 Comments:
okay i've got a confusing question, or point, or whatever:
Ben's old house, which was originally a Dharma house, was seemingly built connected to that secret door (which leads to that drain thing) on purpose. So Dharma must have known about, and perhaps controlled, Smokey as well.
And when Ben summoned Smokey to attack Keamy's soldiers in season 4, that was on the grounds of the Dharma compound. I thought smokey couldn't get past the sonic fence? Perhaps the fence was down at that time.
i'm mostly just curious about dharma's connection to smokey.
It's definitely a good question.
To answer the sonic fence thing: wasn't that down when the soldiers busted into Dharma camp? I think that is what allowed the smoke to bust through as well. But in terms of Dharma's connection to Ben's mystery room, I'm not sure. Assuming Dharma built those houses, they must have known about the access point (as they knew about the Orchid's underground craziness, which included the donkey wheel). However, I'm not sure they knew how to "trigger" smokey via pulling the swamp plug. So while they knew that area existed, they may not have known what it was for?
Good question.
You may want to take a look at Erika Olsen's Blog at www.longlivelocke.com for episode 11. Some of her thoughts are very similar to yours when she says
"1) It was a very bad screw-up on the part of the wardrobe and/or make-up peeps...
2) The Powers That Be wanted a big cliffhanger, and hoped viewers would think -- without a doubt -- that Ben was going to die, so they made the shot closer to his heart in "He's Our You" on purpose. They probably figured that the vast, vast majority of fans weren't going to compare frames after the following episode. (I know this seems hard to believe, but those of us who read Lost blogs, inspect screencaps and over-analyze dialogue are in the minority of the show's multimillion-person fan base.)
or
3) There's some other reason why the hole was in one place but the blood was in another... like "the Island moved the bullet" or "we saw things from Sayid's perspective, and he thought he hit Ben's heart" or "the bullet went in at an angle" or whatnot.
These are the same Ideas that you posted 4 days earlier. They are also in the same order with very similar wording.
Anonymous...I don't agree with your assessment. The theories I put forth in that post are pretty widely known and discussed ideas within the community.
The Lost community often shares ideas, theories, and predictions about each episode but in no way do I think that Erika lifted my words for her own use. I think it's pretty clear that she has her own voice...and a damn good one at that.
"Some like it Hoth" - I can't wait. Lost loves Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back in particular. Who could forget Michael barking to Jin (who had just been christened "Chewie" by Sawyer), "No no no, this one goes there, that one goes there!" while readying the raft to leave, word for word as Han barked it to Chewie in Empire while they were readying the Falcon to leave Hoth. I'll do my best tonight to catch all the subtle references that only the nerdiest of nerds can pick up.
Whatever they are, I don't think Locke and Christian are 'ghosts' for the simple reason that there are no bodies. Well, we don't know that for sure I guess, but Christian's coffin was empty, which is a pretty strong suggestion from the writers.
I agree that maybe Richard, Christian, and Locke are all the same 'category' of being. Maybe Richard arrived in a coffin within the Black Rock?
I think young Ben, after his temple experience, had to go back to Dharma, right? I mean - he was an Other in Dharma clothing, but he did physically return and pose as one of them until the purge.
Hurley, you're killing me. Vader cut Luke's hand off *before* telling him he was his father. C'mon man, pull it together.
Hi Chuck - No need to publish this... I wasn't sure how else to contact you.
Just wanted to apologize for the fact that you were pulled into the plagiarism mess that transpired (and is ongoing) between myself, a few other writers, and Sean Olesiuk (aka "Seanie B"). It seems that some of his "fans" were desperate to argue that *I* was the one stealing from others' work, but they were not quite correct on the definitions of plagiarism, copyright infringement or intellectual property theft.
Anyway, I was alerted that one of them had posted on your site and that you had responded, so I just wanted to reach out to you and apologize that you had to be brought into this.
Wish me luck in getting this thing resolved!
- Erika
e@longlivelocke.com
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