So…maybe it’s Hurley in the coffin.
Nah, his funeral would be a well-attended, tear-streaked hair-puller.
Good points. Let me modify my theory a bit. The island protects people from death by natural (as opposed to intentional or accidental means). Meaning the island protects people from dying of old age and disease. However, it wouldn’t protect someone from dying by another’s hands, by a fall (Boone), by being blown to pieces (Arzt) by drowning (drowned chick), or everyone who had life threatening injuries caused by the crash.
As for pregnant women, my thinking is the way the island operates is that it finds a foreign object in a person (cancer, disease) and removies it. Unfortunately, it views a fetus as a foreign object, inadvertently causing the death of the ones it was seeking to protect.
As for Ben, he did believe he was going to die, but he may have been wrong.
Far from a perfect theory, I know, but I believe that Jack’s decision to call for the rescue boat signed the death warrant of more than a few Losties, and that’s why he beleived they were never meant to leave, and why he has such overwhelming guilt.
I predict that this series will end with Jack & Kate strolling on a beach on the Island, possibly with a few of the other survivors.
Ben’s in the coffin. I’m certain of it; you heard it here first.
From the newspaper images, I could swear that the headline reads:
“Man found dead at a downtown Jail”
Someone needs to run that CSI enhancment technology on it!
Here’s what Wiki thinks it says:
Los Angeles
Man found dead in
downtown loft
“The body of Jo…’’[unreadable]’’…ntham of
New York was discovered shortly after 4
a.m. in the…’’[unreadable]’’…of Grand
Avenue. Ted…’’[unreadable]’’…man at The
Tower…’’[unreadable]’’…heard loud
noises…’’[unreadable]’’…antham’s loft.
‘’[unreadable]’’… [sa]fety, he
‘’[unreadable]’’…discovered the
‘’[unreadable]’’…a beam in the
‘’[unreadable]’’…[ac]cordin[g]…’’[unreadable]’’…”
Wiki notes that the words Ted, Tower, and beam feature prominently in Stephen King’s Dark Tower books. King is a huge Lost fan.
I think the thing we have to remember about Ben’s behavior in this episode is that, for what may be the first time in a very long time (if not ever), Ben is not in control of the situation.
Ben starts losing it when Locke turns up in camp with his father’s body. He had not expected John to be able to kill his father. And he was right, actually, John couldn’t. But, Richard was able to manipulate things by giving Locke Sawyer’s dossier. Locke got Sawyer to kill Cooper for him. And, suddenly, Ben has to face a Locke who has apparently done what he was convinced he would never be able to do.
Ben had made several public promises to John that he now had to deliver on. He desperately tries to think of a way out of them and is almost saved by the arrival of Mikhail telling him about Naomi.
Now, Naomi’s presence in and of itself is enough to rattle Ben, but he quickly realizes that he can use it to put off Locke until he can figure out a way out from under his promise. He starts telling Locke he will have to wait, and Locke then beats the crap out of Mikhail. Worse, Richard and Tom, who should have been some of Ben’s most loyal supporters, simply stand by and watch. The situation gets worse when, now forced to follow through on his promise, his own (adopted) daughter turns against him by giving Locke the gun.
And the situation gets worse. Ben has maintained his position by being the only one who can talk to Jacob. But now he discovers that Locke can hear Jacob too and that he is gaining respect among the Others. Locke is now a threat to his position, so he shoots him. Ben leaves him in the pit and assumes that he will die a painful death. Another mistake.
Ben thinks he has things under control again but then his house of cards starts to fall apart. Juliet, who he thought he had under control, betrays him. Alex, who he thought he had put back in her place, defies him again. The Looking Glass, which he had thought was secure, is suddenly invaded by Charlie and he is forced to reveal one of his lies to the Others. Then, his carefully planned attack on the beach goes almost completely wrong and he is faced with the loss of some of his people and another failure.
Ben is now desperate to save face and to get the situation back under control. But now, all of his strengths are working against him. He has all of those detailed files on the survivors. He thinks he knows how all of them will react and thinks he can use that information to manipulate them. But, these are not the same people they were when they crashed on the Island. Too much has happened to them. Too much has changed. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Charlie, and even Juliet are no longer behaving the way he is expecting them to.
He thinks that Jack will back down if he threatens Sayid, Bernard and Jin. Jack from 90 days ago probably would have done so. Jack today won’t.
Ben believed he knew how everyone would behave. He believed that he could continue to be the master manipulator that he used to be. He was wrong.
It was pretty nutty of Ben to go, unarmed, to confront the 40 Losties. He was unarmed, wasn’t he? I don’t remember anyone taking a gun from him. When he first took off with Alex, I felt certain that his plan was to use her as a hostage to get the Losties to do what he wanted: Give me the satellite phone, or I kill the girl!
I’m completely down with the idea that Locke is the new Ben. Next season, it’ll be him setting up the infiltration of any newbies on The Island.
Before the “–tham” it looks pretty clear to me like “–antham”. That looks like an ‘a’ before the n (and also looks the same shape as the ‘a’ between the ‘th’ and the ‘m’) which would mess up the “Bentham” hypothesis.
Actually, I think it’s a pretty good theory. I don’t think the answer to when the island heals you and when it doesn’t is quite as clear cut – but I think the notion that once the survivors were rescued, they started dying back on the mainland (whether due to some sickness returning or whether foul play – whatever the reason) is a good possibility. Would explain why Jack is spiraling downward every time he hears of another survivor dying back in the “real world”. Perhaps that newspaper clipping was just a story of another one of the unnamed ones dying off – and it’s not the first time this has happened. And he’s now feeling responsible for all these delayed deaths – thinking they would have lived if they’d just stayed put on the island.
An interesting notion.
Michael in the coffin makes sense because (1) the funeral home is obviously in a predominantly black neighborhood; (2) Kate would hate him for betraying everyone in exchange for Walt; (3) he appeared to just sail away with Walt at the end of Season 2, making them the only plane crash survivors to leave the island without dying. But is Walt really back and, if so, is Michael with him? Does Michael perhaps sacrifice himself to effect a rescue, a sacrifice only Jack is aware of?
The whole thing with Looking Glass filling up: The blown porthole would be under so much pressure that water would rush in without air escaping. Air inside Looking Glass would be compressed somewhat as it was displaced with water, but water would not come rushing up through the diving port to fill it because air isn’t leaking out. I’m not sure air would have ever leaked out through the blown porthole, but it might, depending on the level and angle of the porthole. At any rate, it was a way to effect Charlie’s demise, and in the end of it all, I don’t think Charlie will stay dead.
Do I remember correctly that Ben used some rather odd phraseology when he told Jack what was at stake? Seems to me he said that the people associated with the boat would kill “every living person” on the island, as if he were making a subtle but definite distinction between different kinds of entities. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems an oddly specific way to put it.
Know what’s nuts? In the age of widescreen, HD, large hard drives and speedy processors, the director has to take a ton of time to make sure that the newspaper clipping is both perfectly unreadable yet readable enough to pique people’s interest and get them talking. Not only that but the maps, the marks on trees, stuff in the background, etc. It all has to be perfectly mysterious.
God, I love TV! 
The mention of the “maps” reminds me; did anybody else think that Ben drawing lines on his map looked a lot like Boris and Natsha plotting how they were going to catch Rocky and Bullwinkle?
I thought that was weird too. First of all, he expects them to walk in a straight line through a jungle. While they have no maps to even know where a straight line to the tower would be, and I would think assuming their speed and his own. Pointless effort, says I.
Yes, he said “every living person”. Are you thinking he was making a distinction between living and non-living people? That might be over analyzing…
Wouldn’t Naomi have to be lying about everything considering she said they found Charlie’s body, and that his band released a greatest hits album? Either that happened or it did not. There isn’t a way she could have misunderstood or misinterpreted anything. So either there is something paranormal going on, or she really is misrepresenting who she is.
Yea, I thought the same thing: “Just because your lines cross doesn’t mean both parties are going to meet there, dude.”
Yes, I realize we’re at page 6. Yes, it’s 3:30am and I’m awake in the middle of the night for no reason.
Here’s my theory about the future…I was thinking, what if it’s like the movie “Final Destination?” Naomi said everyone was dead to the outside world. So maybe fate wants them to stay dead. And now that they are back in the real world, death is coming after them one by one. And that’s why Jack says they never should have left.
</late night musings>
Am I the only one who thinks that really wasn’t Walt that Locke saw? I mean, I know it was the actor, but I still think it was “Jacob”, who will turn out to be all of the phantom people - like Jack’s dad, Hurley’s Dave, Eko’s brother, etc.
I don’t know, I just don’t buy that Walt is making psychic trips to the Island.