Lost Episode 3.20 - In Depth Analysis

"The Man Behind the Curtain" - Take 2

Ok this post is going to be a long one I think so after I'm done breaking it down I look forward to your comments, thoughts, and predicitons.

"The Man Behind the Curtain" is a phrase from the "Wizard of Oz" it refered to a little old man who used trickery to control a whole country of people, Sound like anyone we know? I have spent the last few days thinking over the fairy tale connection to the Wizard of Oz and have found a few references that were dropped along the way.

1.) The man crushed by the scaffolding in Desmonds first "flash" had his feet sticking out from under the rubble. Similar to the wicked witch who was crushed by Dorothy's house when she landed in OZ. Both wore red shoes.

2.) Vincent = Toto?

3.) Dorthoy got the ruby slippers after the witch died. Those same shoes allowed her to get home in the end. Does this mean that Desmonds flashes became something he could change when he recieved the knowledge of his power after seeing the guy crushed? Can he save Charlie in the end? or will he be able to get home by using his power and changing the past?

4.) Ben used the name Henry Gale when he was captured by Sayid and Rousseau and held in the hatch. Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy's uncle in the movie. Also on LOST the real Henry Gale came to the island in a hot air balloon, this is the same mode of transportaion the wizard himself used to get home from OZ.

5.) Lastly the Wizard of OZ appeared to each person who saw him in a different form much like Ben manipluates each person masterfully using different techniques.

Ok well enough with that for now. Let me know if you find any other references.

Dharma Initiative 101:

The Dharma Initiative was a group of people that seemed to be striving together for a greater goal. As a whole they were assigned jobs, gave up their last names, and seemed to share everything. So why did it fail? I think it failed because Ben betrayed them all to "The Others" I believe that he probably turned the fence off and let the hostiles in to take care of Dharma.

We found out this week that Ben was not born on this island as he claimed in fact he's not even one of our "Others". Ben was brought to the Island as a small boy because his dad had been given a job by a friend in Dharma.

It seems that Dharma was not very welcome on this Island because they were constantly fight back the "Hostiles" and in the end they lost. However if this is the case how could they have been left alone long enough to build all of the many bases and camps on the island we have seen them have? The Hostiles could have easily wiped them out as they arrived if they wanted to but it seems that what Ben said was true. He survived because he was one of the few who saw the value of getting along with their neighbors, the natives on the island.

Ok now I'm very doubtful here, how could all of these hostiles be "native" to the island yet speak perfect english? Alpert is even so well integrated into society he can freely travel off the island and back with no problems. My thought is this there are two companies who found the island Dharma was faster and built defenses first and the "Hostile" takeover couldn't succeed without inside help.

What could possibly cause two companies of big business to kill each other? Well here's my idea.

Forever Young:

Richard Alpert, we first meet him when Ben is roughly ten years old.

he definitley uses Ben for his own means and succeeds in wiping out Dharma but not until years later.

He sure doesn't look like a man who has aged twenty years does he? How can that be? At first I thought the island keeps people young but then I realized Ben aged from a boy to a man and has seemed to get even older since the purge. Richard Alpert has not aged in the eleven years since the purge either.

He should be at least FIFTY years old by now if he was only twenty when he met Young Ben in the woods. Odds are he was already older than twenty anyway so why is it some people don't age and some do? Maybe there is the Fountain of Youth on the island. That would be something people would kill for no doubt.

Now Alpert definitely seemed to be the leader of his people during the purge so why does he now follow Ben and his decisions? The whole group has reminded me many times of a cult of some type. The only explanation I can find in this change of leadership is that Ben told Alpert he saw his dead mother in the forest. This fact seemed to make Alpert's ears perk up a bit but at the same time when questioning young Ben he seemed to hold back so as not to betray his true purpose in the questions.

The Chosen One:

What if these "Hostiles" have a belief that a chosen one will come to lead them to the true meaning of the island? Ben's visions of his mother may have led Alpert and his people to the wrong decision that Ben was this person. Now there is an intersting fact hidden in this whole vision Ben had os his mom. Check out these two pictures.

Do you notice anything odd? The first picture is the only picture we ever seen of Ben's mother after her death. This picture is the only Ben will ever remember his mom but now look closely at the second picture. Ben's mom Emily is wearing the same clothes in both pictures. It appears the island did not show Ben a vision of his mom to lead him on his path through life it showed him what he wanted to see. It took his only picture and made it a reality for him. I'm not sure if that means he was chosen by the island or not but his followers seem to be waivering.

As we discussed last week Alpert seemed to be leading Locke to believe that he thinks Ben is wasting their time with his own pursuits. I believe that Alpert thinks he found that person in Locke. However there have been others along the way. Walt appeared many times where he was not supposed to be, also many other odd occurences happened when Walt was around. Jack has seen his dead Father many times too, also just as he remembered him last in his funeral suit. They tried to take Claires baby Aaron, was that for research as Juliet says or was there another reason also?

Either way Ben certainly is in danger of losing the power he loves so much. However, I think he realized just how close this danger was when he called out for help to get Locke to stop beating Mikhail and no one moved not even Richard Alpert or Big Tom.

This has to be the reason he shot Locke and left him to die, he wants to make sure Locke can't have a chance of being the "Chosen One".I don't think this is the first time Ben made a decision to remove a competitor. One of the bodies in the pit with Locke had a bullet hole in it's skull and since we know the Dharmaites were gassed to death it probably means Ben took out someone else along the way. Plus this gun shot victim didn't seem to be as decomposed as the other bodies in the pit.

Alex probably knew that something had happened to someone else who had challenged Ben in the past because she gave Locke a gun. Now we all know that a gun would have done no good against Jacob but I think she meant for Locke to use it on Ben.

Ben certainly seemed shocked by it.

Ashes to Ashes:

We learned that the island contains a volcano that has been dormant a long time. If a volcano were to have erupted then it might have destroyed much of any civilization that was on the island. This may be why we only have part of the four toed statue.

Also when Ben took Locke to Jacob's house they crossed some sort of line made of sand, Locke picked it up and sniffed it. It was probably just volcanic ash since they made a point of bringing it up but a few friends of mine have brought up some other options.

1.) Jacob may represent the soul of the island and he might use the volcanic ash to form smokey which he controls.

2.) Whatever the sand/ash was is it possible it caused Locke to hallucinate? What if Ben made a point of making sure Locke noticed the sand so that everything Locke saw about "Jacob" was fake?

I'm personally sticking with the it's simply volcanic ash but the other ideas are intriguing.

Now as I mentioned in my instant thoughts post, I honestly thought Ben was crazy for a little while. Well at least right until things went nuts and I saw the mysterious third person.

I'm pretty sure though either way that Ben was putting on a show for Locke. He never really thought Locke would hear or see Jacob so he tried to remove Locke as competition by trying to con him into believing that there were no island secrets, just a crazy little man making them up. But then Locke heard something Ben never thought possible, "Help Me".

I was more than a little creeped out by the voice Locke heard and I'm not sure why so many people I know have come to the conclusion that Jacon is a prisoner of Ben's. While that maybe exactly what has happened and maybe Jacob is calling for help and rescue, I was struck more by it as an invitation to join Jacob and help him in his work whatever that may be.

Cause and Effect:

It would be such a vicious turn of events to find out that Ben being on the Island is somehow the reason that women can't carry babies to full term and still live. I was so sure that when we saw Ben's mom giving birth that it was on the island and that the sickness had existed for much longer than we have expected but then we stumble out of the bushes onto an Oregon freeway right outside Portland.

Poor Emily only made it to her seventh month of pregnancy with little Benjamin Linus. I find it interesting though that Ben was born in the same general area as Richard's Corporation is based. One think that didn't match up though was if it was Ben's birthday and in the show they are in december then it would have been much colder in portland and the surrounding area. I grew up there and no one would have been out hiking with jackets and scarfs and such. However this might explain Ben's comment about being born on island. He might count time from when he started his new secret life helping Alpert and the Others. In a sense he may have been reborn.

Odds and Ends:

- The Dharmaites must have died much faster than Ben's dad did. After all this guy below didn't even drop his watering hose.

- I did not see annie anywhere in the purge and since she seemed to be Ben's only friend I'm sure he would have saved her. Maybe we haven't seen it yet but I suppose it's possible they got married when they grew up and she died trying to have a baby. That might explain Ben's zeal for finding a cure.

- Some have speculated that Annie is actually Danielle all grown up but the french accent kind of ruins that theory for me.

- I find it interesting that despite Ben's obvious hate for his father he went into the family business as a Work Man.

How did a Janitor get to be the leader of "The Others"?

Ok guys well that's all I have for this week. I look forward to reading your comments and theories. Have a good week.

-Jason