LOST: Episode 3-20 (SPOILERS!!)

OK, I have no idea where to begin! Do I drop my jaw at the revelations in Benry's backstory? Do I applaud the way the folks at the beach have finally started to communicate with each other? Or do I gasp in shock and horror at the ending? How about all of the above?!



The Man Behind the Curtain

I know that some of you are chomping at the bit, wanting to talk about the episode, so I'll just make a few observations and open up the floor for discussion.

Benry - So Benry was NOT born on the island! Was I the only one who thought when Horace (Tooms!) drove up in the red car, that he was Jacob and he was going to adopt Benry and raise him on the island? No? Anyway, Benry's backstory was amazing. We found out that he came to the island as a part of DHARMA, when he was about 12 years old and was not always an "Other". He killed his father (Roger Work Man!), and he aided and abetted the "Purge" of the DHARMA group. Do you think he killed his father as a sort of initiation into the Others, the way he wanted Locke to kill his father?

It was made clear that Benry is not as much of an omniscient leader as he would have us think. He did not plant the tape recorder for Locke to find and I don't think he intended for it to be given to Sawyer, et al. From what we saw of his backstory last night, he's clearly a bit of a psychopath and the people who "follow" him are quite aware of that fact (see Richard's talk with Locke last week, Tom's refusal to help Mikhail when Benry ordered him to this week, Alex's rebellion against him and Juliet's betrayal).

Richard - If that was the same man that Benry enountered in the jungle as a boy, he doesn't seem to have aged at all! The effect of some temporal weirdness, perhaps? Why was it significant to Richard that Benry saw his dead mother and especially that she spoke to him? Did this make Benry special to the Others, the way Locke is "special" to them? Why did Richard tell him he would have to wait to join them? Why wouldn't he always wear his hair long since it makes him look like Aragorn?

Purge - I'm assuming that this is different from the DHARMA "incident" that was referred to in the LOST Experience and on the blast door map. I believe the Purge is what we saw last night and that it occurred after the "incident" (which took place in 1986, I think). What happened in the time between Richard and Benry's first meeting and the Purge? Why did Benry think it was necessary to obliterate the entire DHARMA group? Did he blame them for something that happened in the intervening years? Am I assuming too much?

Annie - Do you think Annie died in the Purge? Or was she dead already? From a pregnancy, maybe?

Jacob - Do not even ask me to theorize about what the heck happened in that cabin! God that was freaky! And thank God for the internet because check this out: Right after "Jacob" throws Benry to the wall, there's a quick flash of a man in the chair:


(I brightened the screencap up a bit, thank you lost-media.com)

I thought at first that Benry was just a lunatic, but then things started flying around the place, and then Locke heard Jacob saying "Help me" (creepy!). Why does he need help? Is Benry keeping him captive in some way? Is that line of ash on the ground around the cabin what's keeping him in place? Who is he???

Locke - Whoa!! Obviously, Alex gave Locke that gun so he could protect himself from Benry, not from Jacob. There is no way he is dead. He's just mostly dead, like Mikhail. The island fixed his paralysis, it can repair him again. I would bet money, though, that we won't be seeing him again until February. Well, just a little bit of money. Benry must have shot him because Locke was able to hear Jacob, and thus presents a threat to his authority. Maybe?

Naomi - According to Mikhail, the Others had no knowledge of the parachutist and he did stumble upon her by mistake. There goes that conspiracy.

More Questions - I still have no idea who the Others are: Are they descendants of the shipwreck? Did they always have the ability to travel between the island and the rest of the world, or did that only come after DHARMA arrived? Speaking of which, how did DHARMA find the island, if no one else can?

Oh, so many questions!

I love not being spoiled. I can only imagine how much less of an impact this episode had on people who can't help themselves. It was so good that I didn't even notice that there was no Desmond until I started looking for a picture of him for this post! He did, however, make a brief, yet sexy and mysterious appearance in the scene on the beach:



(So much for just a "few observations"!)

Namaste!