Yeah, but the reason they needed Jack instead of Juliet was that the tumor was on Ben’s spinal cord, IIRC.
-Joe
Let me add that Ethan could also have been the last baby conceived and born on the island as because of the island’s paradoxes being corrected, although Aaron (born only), Alex (born only) and Sun’s kid (conceived only) are partial exceptions to the rule…although I’m not sure I remember Alex’s boyfriend’s origins.
I think the implication is that yes, Ben has remembered Sayid this entire time.
This wouldn’t surprise me. Alpert has been shown a few times to be trying to locate and test for a new leader. There are a few similarities between Ben and Locke, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those are the qualities the Others’ leader is supposed to have. Maybe there’s a prophesy somewhere talking about a leader to come who will rise from the dead.
I suspect Ben was “mostly” dead.
I think it is much more likely that he just didn’t die.
Exactly. I think it’s going to boil down to two possible things.
One, is the idea a ways above that this whole paradox that Sayid just created is what has made the island so generally screwy over the last thirty years.
Two, is plastic time and that Ben isn’t dead. He might not even have actually been hit, or there was some odd occurrence (he always carries his lucky hunk of lead in his shirt pocket) that kept him alive. A tiny passing bird actually took the bullet instead, but since it was dark we didn’t see it. SOMETHING.
-Joe
It seems like it was weird before this event. Ben saw his ghost mom. Richard was already ageless. There was a statue of some four toed god.
After this episode, I went on ABC and re-watched “The Man Behind the Curtain” (the purge episode), and something interesting grabbed my attention.
In the class scene when Ben is a boy, they are discussing volcanoes. One girl asks, “Is that what happened to the volcano on this island?” The teacher replies “Yes, but that was a long time ago.” Was this a throwaway line, reassuring the kids that the volcano was dormant? Or was it substantial? One of the Atlantis myths credit a volcano for sinking the island.
Can anyone remember if in the previous episodes did Ben have a bullet scar in him? I feel like we must have seen him with his shirt off when he was captured by the Losties the first time or when Jack was operating on him. If he had a scar then it would explain a lot, though I’m not sure I expect them to get that type of continuity thing correct.
Perhaps it was only the cover, and not the content, of the book that was important. *A Seperate Reality *(?)
I agree that this is a major plothole.
SAYID: I’ve killed a bunch of people for you! Give me more people to kill!
BEN: Sorry, no more people to kill. Have a nice life!
SAYID: Hmph, well, okay.
three years later
BEN: Actually, there is one more person to kill.
SAYID: How DARE you ask me to kill someone! begins plotting revenge
The Castaneda books aren’t about time travel per se, but rather about his introduction to and induction into Yaqui Indian shamanism.
Sayid had been killing all these people thinking that it was leading to some great end and then Ben left him in the lurch. Sayid realized that Ben was just using and tried to go and lead a normal life. Ben then shows up and tells Sayid the only thing that he’s good at is killing people. Which pisses him off because he knows its true.
And Sayid wasn’t actively planning a revenge, he just realized that Ben is a horrible horrible person.
I think he realizes he’s been killing for Ben, and not for a greater good.Given time to think about it he realizes he was manipulated. He eventually goes to see if someone really is threatening Hurley because his conscience will not let him leave Hugo in danger. He still doesn’t trust Ben at this point though, and know Ben only does stuff for Ben’s benefit.
Easter Egg alert: a comment in the lost podcast thingie says that this Russian text translates to “Oldham Pharmaceuticals”.
It’s not a translation though. It’s a phonetic transliteration of the English word.
Yes, a bloody easter egg, Oldham’s the He’s Our You guy (Larry), done just to screw with us.
<hijack>
And what happened to Bernard and Rose and others? They should be in the 70s too, right? Who else was with them when they split up? I can’t remember - any other named characters we were introduced too?
Co-opted by the others?
I’m thinking we haven’t seen nearly enough of Miles, or specifically, any development of his “talking-to-the-dead” powers. He’s been there, but all he’s done since he identified the corpses of Rousseau and her daughter was make snarky comments.
I think it’s been pretty obvious since the episode when Ben got the beat-down that it has something to do with him going on his mission to “keep a promise to an old friend” – i.e. go try to kill Penny, like he told Widmore he was going to do. The first we saw Ben with the beaten-up look was at a phone at a dock. Desmond and Penny live and travel around on their boat.
So I’m thinking – either he managed to kill Penny, and he got beaten up in the process. OR… he didn’t manage to kill Penny, and he got beaten up in the process…
I’m really hoping it’s the latter. I like Desmond and Penny.
Yeah I’m more and more creeped out the longer we go without hearing from Desmond.
There is still a slight chance that Ben is, while an incredible bastard, at least working towards some unknown good end that he at least feels justifies things he’s done. But if he’s killed Penny, I want to see him burn!
Anyone?