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Post by jeff on May 10, 2007 20:59:38 GMT -5
They looked like ashes to me. So, maybe Jacob fell into a burning ring of fire? I wonder if he went down down down as the flames leapt higher? Kind of like on Angel and Buffy, you had to pour a circle with something to help contain the spirit or whatever you were conjuring. So Ben has Jacob held hostage inside the shack. Why?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 7:38:05 GMT -5
IT'S A BEN-CENTRIC EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been waiting for this since forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 7:46:37 GMT -5
Teaser
What a way to start the episode.
No one knows we're out here.
So they're not on the island!
Near Portland? What lovely tropical foliage Oregon (or Maine) has.
They went hiking when she was that far along? And if they weren't hiking, why the hell were they giving birth in the woods?
Roger. Benjamin. So this is Ben's birth story. And he wasn't actually born on the island. Unless the island's actually in Oregon.
I really thought Ben was sincere about being born on the island. That means that everything else he said with his sincere face is suspect as well. Dammit. Unless he actually was told he was born on the island, cause if he was brought there as a baby, how would he know?
A doll. A birthday present.
Today's is Ben's birthday, if we can believe him.
You do remember birthdays, don't you Richard? What does that mean?
The missing tape recorder.
Locke returns. Ben's not happy about that.
Start at the beginning.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 8:13:43 GMT -5
Part I
Ben promises to tell everything. Deep sigh. Settle down for the ride. Wonder if you can believe anything Ben says.
We all answer to some one, John.
Jacob. Ben's the only one who talks to him and knows where he is.
Locke's provides a reality check this time, instead of being the is-he-delusional one. Interesting.
The Man Behind the Curtain. Episode title!
The Wizard of Oz. Connecting back to the Henry Gale story.
If you were telling the truth, your hand wouldn't be shaking. Hmm...
the dock and the submarine. Blue VW vans. DHARMA supplies. Sort of tour of duty in Vietnam feel.
If this is Ben's first time on the island, then he's definitely lying about being born there. Why? For mystique?
Is he the only child?
Namaste. Namaste. This seems like a commune.
Horace Goodspeed.
Ah, this is the guy who pulled over on the road.
Gave him a job. That sounds so common for the effort of coming to the island and joining the DHARMA initiative.
Ben doesn't say much, but he will when he has something to say.
Processing.
Another orientation video.
High frequency sonic fence. I'm not sure what that means.
Injections.
Oh, no. I guess not the only child.
Annie. Have we met her before?
Roger Work Man. So he's the guy Hurley found!
Sayid's the definite go to guy.
Ben and The Other's thought Mikail was dead too. Why would they think that? Did the Losties tell them that, or did they see his body somehow?
The fence was not set to a lethal level. I'm not sure whether that's funny or a storytelling cop-out.
Mikail tells Ben about Naomi. Ben is surprised by this. Helo, instead of helicopter.
Locke blurts out about Jacob. Ben is not amused.
I'm really enjoying seeing Ben being attacked on all sides and being so unnerved.
Damn! I wasn't expecting Locke to beat Mikail up.
None of The Others make a move to stop Locke. Interesting.
So when do we leave?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 8:34:08 GMT -5
Part II
Alex.
Why is it necessary to have a gun to see Jacob.
DHARMA school.
Volcano on the island.
They're coming. The Hostiles.
A rabbit.
Driving back from the plane?
Roger's disillusioned and angry. And Ben hears.
Ben has an opportunity to escape into a fantasy world. Was the woman real or a figment?
So I guess Emily did die in childbirth.
Juliet and Jack left the camp.
Interesting Sawyer, Sayid, and Kate confrontation.
I believe that Locke called *you* the Wizard of Oz, not Jacob. Unless you're saying that you are the illusion, not Jacob. Although they're going to see Jacob, just like Dorothy goes to see the wizard. Who's pulling whose strings?
This is not a man you go to see; this is a man who summons you. Well, there's a first time for everything.
Love Locke being so confident and Ben being so upset.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 8:47:44 GMT -5
Part III
Ah, the dolls. That's real sweet. I bet Annie's going to die soon.
So is Roger an alcoholic? Certainly being coded that way.
Roger blames Ben for Emily's death! Evil!
Born premature. So I guess Roger and Emily really were just innocently hiking. 7 months pregnant. I'm not sure if that's a bad idea or not.
The whispers.
Ooooh, the woman was his mother. duh.
She speaks! Jack's dad didn't speak.
It's not time yet. WTF?
What's with the dirt?
The Losties finally have a powwow and it's awesome. Squee!
But it's Jack. That's not enough.
Nobody knew Sun and Jin's last name?
Sawyer plays the tape. Interestingly enough, he stops it before the "I hate you" part.
Jack and Juliet return.
The other side of the tape.
So that was the message that was supposed to get back to Juliet, except Locke intercepted it, and it got back to Juliet anyway.
So Juliet told Jack about The Others' plans.
Jack was taking it upon himself to figure this out, without bringing any one else into it.
What I don't understand that if Juliet told Jack and was trying to evade Ben's plans, why she left the report in the first place. He wouldn't have known unless Juliet told him, right? Couldn't she have just said, "I ran samples on all the women and none of them are pregnant?"
I think we got some catching up to do. You don't say.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 8:58:55 GMT -5
Part IV So Ben goes in search of his mom. Paralleling Jack in the White Rabbit. He must really love that rabbit. Except that he's using it to test the fence. Old habits die hard, I guess. Whispers again. Richard!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!! And he looks exactly the same as he does today. Are you one of them? Do you even know what [hostile] means? I don't think it's too hard to figure out. Take me with you. Faustian bargain. Beginning of a fairytale. You're going to have to be patient. What? A temple? An abandoned shack? Jacob feels the same way about technology as you do. Jacob is Ben's Harvey? Where did this shack come from, with all this western fixtures. Did they come from a shipwreck? Jacob speaks! WTF? ?? The shack is very angry with you, Locke. There he was! A brief flash of Jacob!
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 9:15:02 GMT -5
Coda Locke doesn't believe. For once Locke doesn't believe. They're going back a different way. Ben admits that he lies, great. But anything he says from now on can't be believed. Ben grown up. So I guess he went back to the DHARMA initiative. Has he been going back and forth between the two all this time? The doll again. So did Ben and Annie get together or anything? Ben's also a work man. stratification of the DHARMA initiative society. Or is it like the Inner Party and the Outer Party? Only a select few know what DHARMA's really about and the rest just keep it running? Roger's beer run. Ben's planning to betray him. Making a run to the Pearl. The mesa. 4 pm. Patience. Again. Gas mask. and a smoke bomb. So that's how Roger died. They're all dead. So... the whole island was gassed. So this is what happened to DHARMA. But is this the "Incident" Because if it is, how could anybody from DHARMA know about it? Mass grave. Cree pee. This is where I came from. Yikes! One side had to be purged. OMG!!!!!!!!!!! Locke wasn't supposed to hear Jacob? Or Jacob doesn't talk to Ben but he talked to Locke? Or Ben just doesn't want Locke passing on anything he heard? WTF? ?? Jacob said "help me." Help free him from Ben? So is Locke going to die or not?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 9:16:02 GMT -5
And the WoO connections continue. Ben's mother was named Emily—as was Dorothy's aunt, wife to Henry Gale. Oh, yeah.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 9:50:40 GMT -5
Man, that is the island of the damned. Poor Locke. How the hell did Benry get his gun? Hey, that's a good point! Must have been when their love shack was a-rockin'.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 9:55:04 GMT -5
Benry is Psycho!! That was a damn good creepy scene. Creepy creepy creepy. Creepy!!!! It was like Psycho. If Norman's mom was a monstrous destructive invisible emotional force.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 10:01:09 GMT -5
So, here's what I've been wondering in regards to what we learned and the baby thing: 1. Is Ben somehow the reason women on the island can't carry to term? If the island does respond to people's desires, perhaps subconsciously Ben's unresolved issues over feeling he's the cause of his mother's death are affecting every pregnancy that takes place. After all, his dad made him feel like he was this thing, this intruder who took his wife away—and that's what's literally happening to the women: their body sees the fetus as foreign to them, rather than a part of them. 2. Perhaps the island is punishing Ben and the Others for slaughtering the Dharma people: they took all those lives, and now they're unable to create lives of their own. Oh, and for those of you playing the "he seemed really familiar" game at home, Horace, the man who stopped to help Roger, Emily and baby Ben and later got Ben's dad his job and place with the DI, was played by Doug Hutchison—he also portrayed the weaselly guard Percy in The Green Mile, but is probably better known to us scifi geeks as the extremely flexible, liver-loving Eugene Victor Tooms in two memorable episodes of The X-Files. Interesting... Oh, and that was Eugene Tooms? I totally didn't recognize him.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 10:19:17 GMT -5
I could spend all day thinking and posting about this episode, but I must study. But a view brief thoughts.
I guess I was wrong about The Others having mommy issues to balance the Losties Daddy issues. Unless the rest of The Others have mommy issues, save Ben. Actually, the whole thing is an oversimplification. The cast of characters has a variety of issues.
The show may still be generating questions, but we're seeing definite patterns that are consistently being reinforced. It's like learning a new language, you can understand the structure well before you become fluent.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 11:15:45 GMT -5
OK:
Ben's rabbit.
Jacob being Ben's Harvey.
The White Rabbit (episode title) from Alice in Wonderland.
Watership down.
Am I missing anything?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on May 11, 2007 11:25:20 GMT -5
Fun Fact: Carrie Preston, who played Emily, Ben's mom, is the wife of Michael Emerson, who plays Ben.
Is even weirder when you factor in the Emily/Henry Gale thing.
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