Lost : The Man Behind the Curtain

Lost. 3.20. Flashback to Emily and Roger out for a hike just outside Portland. Emily enters early labour and gives birth. Her dying words, “Call him Benjamin.” So Ben wasn’t born on the island after all. His father, Roger, brought him there as a boy. Roger signed up to work for the Dharma Initiative sometime in the 1960s, it seems from the “Welcome to the island, man.” He’s none too pleased to be a janitor, as he didn’t come there to clean up after them. The DI group skirmishes with the natives and Roger really didn’t sign up for that. He demands more money. The child Ben, who Roger blames for killing Emily, sees her several times, once on the opposite side of the sonar fence. She warns him it’s “not time yet.” Ben uses the code to get past the sonar. After voices start whispering, Richard, who appears the same age as the present, appears. When Ben is maybe ten years older, he accompanies his father on a run to the Pearl Station. They decide to drive the hippy van to the mesa for some father-son time. Cue “Shambala.” Ben feels he’s put up with Roger long enough and gasses him to death. When he returns to the village, everyone there has met the same fate. Ben, Richard and the hostiles have purged the DI.

Real time: Ben’s concerned the tape he recorded for Juliet is missing, so Locke must have stolen it. Locke returns with Cooper and demands to know everything about the island. They all answer to Jacob but only Ben has seen and talks to him. Locke’s sure Ben is the man behind the curtain and a liar and the Others are idiots. Patch races in. Guess the sonar fence wasn’t set on lethal. The Lostaways have an injured parachutist and the Others need to go to the Beach Camp now. Locke would rather go see Jacob and beats up Patch to accomplish that. Ben warns him that Jacob will be angry. “This is not a man you go and see.” Nor does he like technology. Whey they enter his cabin, Ben has a one sided conversation with an empty chair. Locke actually asks, “Are you crazy?” Uh, yeah. Ben thinks Locke’s too limited to see Jacob. When Locke starts to leave, he hears Jacob say, “Help me,” suggesting Ben has him captive. Turning on a flashlight makes everything in the cabin freak out and there’s a brief glimpse of Jacob that Locke denies seeing, saying he’s sure Ben set everything up ahead of time. Ben takes Locke back via a different route to show him the mass grave of the DI who couldn’t co-exist with the natives. One side had to be purged. When Ben demands Locke tell him what he heard Jacob say and Locke refuses, Ben shoots him. He tumbles into the grave and Ben walks away.

At the Beach Camp, Sawyer plays Sayid the tape. When they confront Juliet, she has them flip the cassette over and play Ben’s response which states that he’s sending three teams to get Sun. Juliet is to mark the tents of any pregnant women and they’ll take them too. Juliet already informed Jack what Ben was forcing her to do. Jack hadn’t decided what to do yet. Hadn’t? Has he decided now? Quote of the episode that all fans have asked themselves since the end of Season 1: “So when do we leave?”