This episode was fantastic. It features Dr. Linus teaching his class about Napoleon (conjuring up ideas of Ben-as-Napoleon…or is it Widmore-as-Napoleon?), on-island/flash-sideways symmetry and synchronicity as well as the first real OMGWTF ending to an episode this season.
We open with Ben Linus frantically running through the jungle with a look of sheer terror on his face. He catches up to Miles, Sun, Frank and Ilana, who wants to know where Sayid is. Ben informs them that he killed both Dogen and Lennon. They decide to head to the beach camp because they have no other place to go.
Class time! Here we have Dr. Benjamin Linus, professor of European history. Today’s lesson: Napoleon. He writes the name of the Tuscan island Elba on the board. Napoleon was exiled here after he was forced to give up his power in 1814. Per Wikipedia, “During the months Napoleon stayed on the island, he carried out a series of economic and social reforms to improve the quality of life, partly to pass the time and partly out of a genuine concern for the well-being of the islanders.” This all does sound like island-Ben (he was always some kind of leader for the Others, but in reality, he wasn’t. He was always taking orders from above, and it was always frustrating to him that he wasn’t fully in charge) but then again, it sounds like Charles Widmore as well. Ben usurped power from Widmore and had him exiled back to the mainland, where he still fought to try to get back to the island, and possibly had the genuine concern for the well-being of the island that Napoleon cared for the people of Elba. However, when Dr. Linus talks about how Napoleon was truly devastated by the loss of his power and how “he might just as well have been dead” you can almost feel that island-Ben felt the same way.
Class ends, and Principal Reynolds informs Dr. Linus that he’ll need to supervise detention instead of history club that afternoon, and he is disappointed. He then meets Dr. Artz in the break room, and they discuss how Principal Reynolds doesn’t seem to care about the children, when “the substitute” John Locke chimes in: “maybe you should be the principal…it sounds like you care about this place. If the man in charge doesn’t, then maybe it’s time for a change.” You have to tip your cap to the writers here with this clever dialogue about the school that’s supposed to make you think about the island. Should we believe that Jacob doesn’t care anymore, or is it the Man in Black?
The island crew continue their walk to the beach, when Ilana hands Miles a bag of Jacob’s ashes and asks him to find out how Jacob died. “Linus killed him,” he says. Ben protests, but Miles says it’s true. “Jacob was the closest thing to a father I ever had,” she replies. As Miles says: “uh oh.”
They arrive at the beach camp, and Ilana decides to look for tools and work on making some shelter. Ben tries to tell her that psychic’s are unreliable, but she ignores him.
Dr. Linus is looking at his reflection in his microwave, waiting for his dinner to be ready. So, the trend continues; every single episode up to this point has had the centric character peering at themselves in some reflective surface. He takes a TV dinner out and serves it to…his father. Welcome back, Roger Linus! “It’s organic, I’m trying to keep you healthy!” he tells him, just before complaining that he has a doctorate and is stuck babysitting burnouts in detention, and questioning if he’s more of a loser than they are. Then, he changes the tank on Roger’s machine. Great irony here; on the island, Ben killed his father with gas, and now here he is keeping him alive with a tank of it. A very interesting point is brought up here by Roger when he tells Ben that this isn’t what he wanted for him, and that’s why he signed up for the Dharma Initiative. “Imagine how much different our lives would have been if we’d stayed…who knows what you would have become.” Ding dong. Who’s there? Alex, asking about history club, referring to him as “Dr. Linus.” He agrees to meet her in the library in the morning to help her study. It seems the two have a close relationship.
Continued belowOn the island, Sun asks Ilana how long they are going to stay there, because she wants to find her husband. Ilana responds that if anyone wants to find him, it’s her, and then she explains that one or both of them are candidates to replace Jacob.
Jack wakes Hurley up and wants to head back to the Temple. Hurley tries his hardest to stall, knowing that Jacob told him they can’t go back there, but Jack leaves anyway. Hurley then tries to say he knows a shortcut, but Jack doesn’t believe him and remembers which way they came. Then, Richard Alpert pops out and says they’re both wrong. Hurley asks where he came from, to which he says “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Interesting. They follow him.
Back at the beach, Ben is digging through Sawyer’s old tent, and he finds a magazine called Booty Babes, which I don’t think requires any further discussion, as well as The Chosen by Chaim Potok, and a book about Benjamin Disraeli. Let’s talk about those instead. Wikipedia says that “The Chosen tells the story of the friendship between two Jewish boys growing up in 1940’s Brooklyn. Reuven Malter, who has a mind for mathematics,wants to become a rabbi and follows modern methods of studying Judiasm. Danny is a genius son of a Hasidiac Rabbi, Reb Saunders, who expects him to take over his position as tzaddik eventually.” The two first meet as rivals on opposite baseball teams, and Danny puts Reuven in the hospital with a line drive to the face. They struggle, but a friendship is born between the two. Danny admits later that he wanted to kill Reuven when they played baseball but he didn’t know why. He later realizes he was jealous of Reuven’s more conventional lifestyle. Danny does not want to inherit his father’s position as leader of their sect, and his father doesn’t speak to him except for when they study Jewish law together. I’m not sure what all that means, but there are some themes that fit in on the show; we’ve heard characters talk about wanting to kill others, and all the best cowboys have daddy issues, and this season/episode in particular deals with candidates to take over a position that has become available and how they may have been groomed to take it over. Benjamin Disraeli was, accoring to Wikipedia, “a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure.” After some extensive reading on the man, there’s one thing that stuck out to me that may relate to this season/episode: “Although a major figure in the protectionist wing of the Conservative Party after 1844, Disraeli’s relations with the other leading figures in the party, particularly Lord Derby, the overall leader, were often strained. Not until the 1860s would Derby and Disraeli be on easy terms, and the latter’s succession of the former assured. From 1852 onwards, Disraeli’s career would also be marked by his often intense rivalry with William Ewart Gladstone, who eventually rose to become leader of the Liberal Party.” A “major figure” having strained relationships with the leaders; sounds a bit like Ben and Jacob doesn’t it?
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Lapidus tells Ben he was supposed to be flying Flight 815, and Ben immediately stiffens up, before pointing out that the island still got him in the end. Ilana then points a gun at Ben and gives him a one word command: “walk.” She ties one of his legs to a tree and then commands him to start digging a grave. She then informs him that it will be his own grave. Uh oh!
Back in school, Ben is with Alex in the library as they’d planned. The first image we see is a ship that looks very much like the Black Rock, and the book says “Chapter 19: East India Trading Company.” We learn that her mother works two jobs just to pay rent, and she wonders how she’ll afford college, especially Yale. She needs someone who went to Yale to write her a letter of recommendation, and she says that unfortunately the only Yale alum she knows is “that pervert Principal Reynolds.” Dr. Linus asks why she’d call him that, and after he promises not to tell anyone, she informs him that she was in the nurses office and heard the nurse and the Principal were “you know, doing it.” Dr. Linus sees his chance to do to Reynolds what he did to Widmore: take over.
Continued belowBen continues to dig his own grave when Miles comes over and offers him some food. Ben isn’t hungry, but he has an offer. Ben brings up Miles’ request for $3.2 million, and says that if he can get him out of the foot restraint, he has a vast network of people off the island who can hook him up with that money no problem. Miles, however, knows that Nikki and Paulo are buried right there with $8 million in diamonds, so he knows that if he needed some big money he could just dig for the diamonds. Ben says that he’s going to die for killing Jacob who didn’t care about being killed, but Miles says that he did care, and that “right up until the second the knife went through his heart, he was hoping he was wrong about you. I guess he wasn’t.”
Richard, Hurley and Jack are walking and Hurley has some questions for Richard. He asks if he’s time-traveling or a cyborg or a vampire. “Jacob gave me a gift,” he says. Jack asks what he knows about Jacob, and he simply says “I know he’s dead.” Then, they arrive at the Black Rock, and Richard informs them that everyone at the Temple is dead and whatever they’re looking for there, it isn’t there. Hurley says that he spoke to Jacob, and Richard tells him not to believe whatever he said, and then heads into the Black Rock, and says “there’s something I need to do…die.” Richard has lost all the faith he had in Jacob now that he’s dead, it seems.
Dr. Linus goes to Artz to find out if it’s possible for him to access faculty email accounts without them knowing about it. Ben reveals what he believes to be going on with her, and Artz says he’s in if he gets the parking spot he wants and some new lab equipment and aprons. It’s a deal. “Linus, you’re a real killer.” Oh, the irony.
Inside the Black Rock, Richard inspects some chains, presumably the ones he was held by, since when Jack asks him if he’s been here before and he says “yes…and in all the time I’ve spent on this island, today is the first time I’ve ever come back.” I think now we can safely confirm that Richard was a slave on the ship when it somehow ended up in the middle of the island. Richard opens the crate of dynamite, and reveals that he can’t kill himself, which is why he wants them to do it for him. Richard truly has lost is faith, and we see a new side of him here. “Jacob touched me, and when Jacob touches you, it’s considered a gift, except it’s not a gift at all, it’s a curse…I devoted my life, longer than you can possibly imagine, in service of a man who told me that everything was happening for a reason, that he had a plan, a plan that I was a part of and when the time was right he’d share it with me, and now that man is gone, so why do I wanna die? I just found out my entire life had no purpose.” He says that if he lights the fuse, it won’t explode, so he asks Jack to. Jack obliges, sits down and says “now, let’s talk.” What?
Hurley leaves, and Richard says Jack should go too, but Jack doesn’t believe either of them is going to die. He explains the lighthouse to Richard, and says that he was here for a reason, and that reason wasn’t blowing up with him there in the ship. Jacob’s plan to convince Jack he was important worked, and Jack was right; the fuse went out before the dynamite could blow up. Ben told him “we’re all convinced sooner or later, Jack” and what he saw at the lighthouse seems to have finally done it for him. Jack then says they should go back to where they started, presumably the beach camp. This gives more credence to things we’ve seen in the past. Michael tried to kill himself, but failed twice. Jack stood on the bridge and was ready to jump when a crash led him to step down. Locke was about to hang himself when Ben busted in and killed him instead. You really can’t die unless the island is done with you, or in Locke’s case, if the island needs you to die so your body can be reanimated upon it’s return.
Continued belowAs Ben is almost finished digging, the monster is heard in the distance, and then there’s Locke standing there to pay a visit. Locke has a speech prepared. He says that he doesn’t want Ben to die, and explains that he’s gathering a group to leave, but when they leave someone needs to be in charge, and he wants Ben for that position. Magically, he breaks Ben’s foot restraint, and Locke says that 200 yards inland there’s a rifle up against a tree for him. “Don’t hesitate. She won’t. See you soon Ben.” Locke disappears, Ben glances over at Ilana and takes off for the rifle.
Dr. Linus knocks on Principal Reynolds door. He hands him a folder with the emails, and says that he wants the job. Reynolds has an email of his own for Ben to read. It’s from Alexandra Rousseau, asking for a recommendation. Ben is now faced with choosing the job or Alex’s future, just like he had to choose between the island and Alex’s future when Keamy shot and killed her.
Ben reaches the rifle, turns around and has Ilana drop her gun. In a show that has been blessed with five years of phenomenal acting from Michael Emerson, this scene is easily one of his best. He explains that Alex died because of him. He had a chance to save her but chose the island, in the name of Jacob. “I sacrificed everything for him, and he didn’t even care.” He said he was confused, angry and terrified when he stabbed Jacob, and he was about to lose the only thing that ever mattered to him: his power. “But the thing that really mattered was already gone.” He apologizes for killing Jacob and says he will never forgive himself. He says he wants her to let him leave to go with Locke, “because he’s the only one that’ll have me.” She says “I’ll have you” before turning around and heading back to the beach. After this moment of clarity and realization, the once power-hungry and power-addicted Benjamin Linus slowly walks back toward the beach after her.
Dr. Linus enters Principal Reynolds’ office, closes the door and inspects his nameplate (fact: Donald Lawrence Reynolds is an anagram for ‘a cloned world nearly ends’) before Alex comes in to thank Reynolds for writing her such a great letter of recommendation. The man himself shows up and asks what Ben is doing there, and he says he’s just dropping off the detention list for the week. We then learn that history club is back on and has their old slot back. Dr. Linus actually chose the future of one student over his own power. Both on the island and in the flash-sideways, it seems he’s overcome his power addiction. This is the first time this season for me that the flash-sideways really worked. The symmetry and synchronicity just felt right.
Ben returns to the beach and offers to help Sun build one of the shelters back up. Cue the piano and the slow motion montage of the beach dwellers. Frank is building a fire, Ilana sits teary-eyed holding what’s left of Jacob in her hand, and Miles inspects a diamond that we can assume he yoinked from Nikki and Paulo. Just then, Jack, Hurley and Richard come from behind the trees and Jack and Hurley are greeted with hugs and handshakes while Richard stands behind and watches. This scene is a direct reference/mirror to the scene in the episode “One of Us” (3×16) where Juliet was brought to the beach for the first time, and the LOSTies were so glad to see each other, and she just stood behind and watched them greet each other. It’s a bit different though, because her presence there caused great concern, while I don’t think anyone will mind that Richard is there.
Now, just when you thought an episode might end on a positive note for once we get a shot of our friends on the beach from out over the water. Then we see a periscope pop up from the water. “Sir, there are people on the beach,” says the man peering into it. “Should we stop?” Then we hear a familiar voice. “No, proceed as planned.” “Yes sir, Mr. Widmore.” Uh oh! I’m not even going to start guessing what his plan is, or how he managed to find the island this time, but I’m sure we’ll find that out soon. I can’t wait.
