LOST and (not really) Found # 3

Back in business. Finally got around to watching Lost last night….and it was awesome! So if you haven’t watched it yet, keep reading at your own risk

Let me state here that in these articles, I’m not covering everything. Just like Mixed Martial Arts, Lost could (and has) take up an entire blog. So I’m just highlighting some things and choosing to expand on others. If you want the episode summaries and all sorts of other information, I’ll remind you to check out LostPedia.

Let’s start with some obvious things. First, Ben, for all of his dorky exterior, gets more badass every time I see him. The way he took out that guy with the asp (the extendable baton he nailed him in the face with), then shot the other guy – that was just awesome. And he speaks Turkish and Arabic, too – where the hell did that come from? I thought it was Farsi initially, but apparently I was wrong. I think a bigger question here is how he got to Iraq. He claimed he went across the border, but when he arrived at the hotel he asked what the date was, including the year, which tells me that the writers at least want us to consider the possibility that Ben has time traveled. Not to mention, when he woke up in the desert, there was no trail around him showing where he came from.

On a more random note, in case anybody didn’t notice, at the hotel Ben stated his name was Dean Moriarty. Apparently we’ve seen this name before on one of Ben’s fake passports, but I didn’t hear/see it until last night. Initially my thought was of Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories (and League of Extraordinary Gentleman), but then I remembered where else I’ve heard the name – On the Road, by the Jack Kerouac. Dean is one of the main characters in the book. I’m not going to launch into a book report – it’s a good book, check it out. And while it may not be the most fitting name, because Dean lived like a rockstar with the drugs and women and so on, the overarching theme is still about the journey, and I think we can all agree that Ben is on a (really fu**ed up) journey. But….moving on.

The doctor from the boat is dead – got his throat slit – but when the islanders “morse coded” the boat to find out what happened, they said the doctor was fine. Now, since we weren’t shown the doctor walking around on the boat to confirm this, there are obviously two options: (1) the people on the boat are lying, or (2) it’s part of the time flux weirdness and the doctor on the boat may not actually be dead. I really don’t know which one it is. By the way, Kudos to Bernard for knowing morse code – he totally punked out Farraday when Farraday tried to lie about what the people on the boat said.

Back to Ben….and Sayid.

It seems pretty clear that we know how Sayid got hooked up with Ben – Ben pointed out the guy that allegedly killed Sayid’s wife.

Frankly, I don’t think that guy killed Sayid’s wife. I do believe the guy worked for Widmore, and he was probably following Sayid, but I’d bet that Ben actually killed Sayid’s wife and then set everything up because he knew Sayid would go all crazy-assassin on Widmore’s ass and start killing all of his people. Hence, the smile when Ben was walking away from Sayid after Sayid asked “Who’s next?” Also, we learned why Ben is on this quest, too – one of Widmore’s people killed Ben’s daughter. Now, the killing itself wasn’t that crazy, but afterwards is when things got a little crazy….well, a lot crazy.

First, Ben starts talking about how “he changed the rules”. We later learn that “he” is Widmore, and that apparently, Widmore and Ben do know each other, and that Widmore believes that island is his and that everything Ben has, he stole from Widmore. But on to my favorite, and the most confusing, part of the show….Ben summoned the motherfu**ing monster!!! That was awesome. And yes, Ben definitely called it. Now, exactly how he did this, I don’t know. And how much control he can actually exert over this thing, I have no idea….and what the monster even is, I still have no clue – but the point is, Ben called it, and it tore some shit up. FYI, ole LostPedia said the hieroglyphics on the door Ben opened to get back in the second secret room read “to summon protection”. I know I’m a dork, but seriously, how cool is that?

(As far as the levels of dorkness go, though, I’ve got to wonder where some of these LostPedia guys get their info. Obviously they have some inside sources, because seriously, who keeps somebody on staff just for translating hieroglyphics? Having said that, I think it would be awesome to have my only job be to watch lost and just rant and rave about the different parts of it. I mean hey, I do that now for free, I certainly wouldn’t mind to get paid for it.)

So the monster showed up and ripped through the mercs, and also looked a lot bigger than it has in the past. And I think the sound people went farther to really emphasize the mechanical sound of the monster, perhaps to underscore the fact that this isn’t something that is alive so much as something that’s operated or controlled.

Post-attack, Sawyer decides to take Claire, Aaron, Miles and Hurley back to the beach, but Ben had told Locke that they needed Hurley to find Jacob’s cabin, so after a heated debate where guns were pulled, Hurley agreed to go with Locke and Ben.

Then we’re back to Ben’s flash-forward where he’s having a discussion with Widmore about killing his daughter, and Ben says that he’s going to kill Widmore’s daughter, Penelope….for those of you living under a rock….on Mars….Penelope is Desmond’s girl, “Penny”. Widmore claims that Ben will never find her, and Ben claims that Widmore will never find the island, so the hunt is on for both of them.

Remember, this was episode 1 of 5 that are left, and the writers had to cram in 8 episodes worth of material into 5, so I think the last four are going to be just as informative.

Ben and Widmore present an interesting dynamic, sort of dueling psychopaths – they both want something, and they’ll both do anything to get it – but in a situation like this, who is really the good guy? Or is there even a good guy? Honestly, I think they’re just dueling bad guys trying to get the biggest piece of the pie. Ben may seem to be the better man now, because he’s shown that he’ll protect some people on the island, but we really don’t know why Widmore has such a fixation with the island, so who is to say what his motives are? All I know is that I’m liking this season more and more, and I think we’re definitely going to see some more big fights before these last four episodes are finished.

-PreView

p.s. I’m going to devote the next Lost article (hopefully prior to Thursday’s episode) to attempting to answer some questions posed by The Baumer and others, about some prior episodes.