This episode was crazy!! I don't even know what to say about it, so I'm just going to begin!
On the Beach
1. Jack is popping antibiotics when Kate comes up to express her concern over the fact that their friends haven't returned from the freighter yet. In true Jack fashion, he's not worried. A moment later Bernard is yelling from the beach for help as the dead body of the freighter's doctor washes up on shore with a slit throat. (Yeah Jack, nothing to worry about here. I'm SURE that the freighter people are going to save you all.)
2. With some gagets from the plane wreckage, the beach folks fashion a telegraph machine out of their broken walkie talkie and radio the freighter with a message asking about what happened to the doctor. (Of course, Faraday knows morse code and so does the person who seems to be sitting on the other end just waiting for such a message to come through so they can immediately respond. What did the responder, who messaged back 30 seconds after the first message was sent, use to send that message back?? Did he or she just happened to be sitting next to a telegraph machine as well and know morse code off the top of their head??? Nothing is more irritating in television than the random knowledge of mores code among people who would have absolutely no reason to know it. Maybe if they were all in the Navy, but come on.) Good thing Bernard also knows it, because he's able to thwart Faraday's deception that everything is fine and their friends are on their way back, by telling the crew that the return message actually said, "What are you talking about, the doctor is fine." (Why would they say that? Why would they think the doctor is fine? Where they lying, do they not know that the doctor is dead, or is this a time travel scenario?")
3. Jack grabs Faraday and asks if they were ever planning on taking them off the island, to which Faraday replies, "No." (Big surprise, Jack. Get with the program.)
At the Barracks
1. While Hurley, Sawyer, and Locke play Risk, Alex is being blindfolded and dragged up the the security fence by a bunch of guys in military camo. At gun point she is forced to turn off the fence. Upon doing this, a phone up at the house rings and plays the message "Code 14J."
2. Sawyer and Locke go find Ben, who is playing the piano (in excellent Ben creepiness), and tell him what happened. "They're here," he says, and whips his gun out from the piano bench. (I love Ben.) He gathers everyone and brings them to the other house, which is apparently easier to secure. Ben tells Locke that it's very important that he survives what is about to happen so he should stay close by him. (I think he says that Locke needs to survive so they can go to Jacob's cabin together.)
3. As people are getting shot left and right, Sawyer makes it to Claire's house just as it's hit by a missile. He finds her still alive and brings her back to the house.
4. Miles then appears at the door with a walkie talkie for Ben to use to communicate with the people outside. He tells Ben that they've got Alex hostage, which makes Ben look even crazier than usual. Ben begins to talk to Keamy, who he of course knows everything about, and Keamy tells Ben to come outside or he'll kill Alex. Trying to buy time and save Alex (I think) Ben tells Keamy that Alex isn't his daughter, that he stole her from an insane woman when she was a baby, that she is just a pawn, and that he is not going to come out of the house. With that, Keamy shoots Alex in the head!!! (Ok, this was horrible, but the one reason I liked it is because it is what would have actually happened. Keamy is a lunatic and there is no way that he would have spared Alex, so in a way, I'm glad he killed her to preserve the reality [yes, i understand how crazy that sounds, but you know it's true] of the story line.)
4. Ben: He changed the rules.
5. Ben disappears into his secret room and emerges a few minutes later, covered in dirt. "Excuse me, James." (classic) He tells everyone the plan to escape as the house begins to shake. Then, out of the jungle emerges the SMOKE MONSTER! (What? Does Ben control this??) The smoke monster annihilates all of the scary men in the jungle and then group gets away as Ben goes over and says goodbye to Alex.
6. After an armed confrontation, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, and Miles go back to the beach and Locke, Ben, and Hurley head into the jungle to find Jacob's cabin so that Jacob can tell them what to do next. (I cannot wait until we see Jacob again and find out what the heck is going on!!)
Ben's Flashforeword (or whatever it was!)
Part I - The Sahara Desert
1. In one of the most dramatic and confusing openings to a flash scene, Ben wakes up in the middle of the Sahara Desert, wearing a winter jacket with a never before seen Dharma station logo and the name Hallowax on it, and with steam rising off of his body. (My first thought is this is time travel, but one never knows.) Two guys arrive riding horses and carrying guns. They ask each other, in their language, why there are no tracks (i confirmed this on Lostpedia). Ben kicks the crap out of the two guys and delivers one of my fave lines ever.
Guy Number 1: Surrender!
Ben: Oh, so you do speak English (clobber)
Part II - Some town in Tunisia
2. Ben arrives at a hotel and asks for a room. He tells the woman at the desk that his name is Dean Moriarty and he is a preferred guest. She looks scared (this seems to be a common reaction to Ben's arrival anywhere) He asks her what the date is and she says October 24 . He asks if it's 2005 and she confusedly says yes. (So, time travel?? If so, I would love to know what time he is coming from. Or - is there a way for him to travel to and from the island within the same time period, but sometimes it messes up and skips through time?? Is Tunisia one of the dumping grounds for travel from the island? Is that why there was a Dharma polar bear there? Did they send him there during experiments and he died because he was a polar bear in the desert?? Also, while we're on that subject, I think that Charlotte is one of the worst of the freighter people because I think she actually works for Dharma since she uncovered that polar bear. So far the others don't have any real connection to Dharma other than the fact that they were picked by Abbadon's people, who I guess we're assuming are Widmore's people, to be part of the freighter team.)
3. As he's walking away, Ben sees Sayid on TV saying, "I just want to bury my wife." The news caster refers to Sayid as one of the Oceanic 6. (Based on the date, this is only about 10 months ahead of the time on the island, so Sayid has to have gotten back, married Nadia, and had her die. Crazy.)
Part III - Takrit, Iraq
4. Ben is following Sayid. He takes pictures of some guy and then some of Sayid carrying Nadia's coffin. Sayid looks up and sees him and Ben runs away, but is not fast enough. (Of course because Sayid is awesome.) Sayid knocks him down and asks him why he followed him to Iraq, why he is spying on him. Then he realizes it's Ben. Ben tells Sayid that he got off the island using Desmond's boat to reach Fiji and then by chartering a plane. (This is obviously a lie. Why did he lie to Sayid? I feel from this exchange that now that Sayid is on the freighter in real time that he is not going to get back to the beach before reaching home. He seems to be more out of the loop about who Ben is, etc... than some of the folks still on the island with him.)
5. Ben tells Sayid that Widmore's people killed Nadia and that he is here to find the man who did it.
6. As Ben's chase of this man ends and they meet face to face, he tells him who he is (this shocks the supposed killer) and that he has a message for Widmore. Before he can deliver that message though, Sayid shoots the man repeatedly. Ben begins to walk away, but Sayid stops him. Ben tells Sayid not to let his grief turn into anger and that this is his war, not Sayid's. Sayid tells Ben that he has no life now that Nadia is dead and says to him, "Benjamin, who's next?" To this Ben says, "I'll be in touch," and walks away grinning. (Ok, my first thought is that Ben had Nadia killed so that he could recruit Sayid as his assassin.)
Part IV - London, England
7. One of the best Lost scenes ever. Ben arrives at an apartment building looking more like a serial killer than ever. He talks his way past the door man and jimmies the penthouse lock in the elevator. He walks into Widmore's bedroom and says, "Wake up, Charles."
8. (Ok, I had not realized what a kick ass character Charles Widmore is. This was his shining scene of badass-ness, even though I still think he's a bad guy. His voice, his face, everything. Ben vs. Widmore is unreal.)
9. Widmore asks Ben if he's come to kill him to which he replies, "We both know I can't do that." (After thinking about this for a while, I've come to the idea that perhaps Widmore actually can't die. We know that there are certain people who the island won't let die and I'm almost certain now that Widmore must be one of those people. Does this mean that Widmore is really a good guy and Ben is the bad one? Or, is there just more for Widmore to do before he dies? Or, does the island keep people alive as punishment for their sins? Can the island keep people alive indefinitely and prevent them from aging - like Richard Alpert who seems not to age? Is Jacob keeping Widmore alive because he is, in fact, the good guy??)
10. Widmore: I know who you are, boy, what you are. (wow.) Widmore also tells Ben that everything he has he took from him. (During the purge?)
11. Then Ben tells Widmore that he's come to tell him that he is going to kill his daughter since Widmore killed Alex. Widmore tells Ben that he'll never find her. He tells him that the island was his and that it will be his again. (So, if Widmore can't die, and if perhaps he doesn't age??? has he been around for a really long time? Was he actually ON the Black Rock?? Is that why he payed all that money to get the captain's log in that auction - because HE was the captain??? My mind is being blown.)
12. Ben says, "You'll never find it." And Widmore says that the hunt is on for both of them. (Where is Penny? Could she be on the island? If the island was Widmore's before why can't he get back to it? Where is Desmond? Does he have some kind of important connection to the island even beyond what we've seen, and is that why Widmore didn't want Penny to be with him?? YIKES!)
This episode was insane. I cannot wait for next week. Let me know your thoughts!
There are 5 more hours of show left. I think we'll have to get flashes from Locke, Jack, and Sawyer for sure... And I don't know who else. Ah.
Some interesting references:
1. The title is an H.G. Wells book, The Shape of Things to Come
2. Ben's alias was Dean Moriarty, a reference to Professor Moriarty of Sherlock Homles. According to Lostpedia, In the story "The Final Problem", Moriarty pays a surprise visit to Holmes to confront him and both issue ultimatums to the other regarding their continued pursuit of each other in much the same way Ben visits Widmore and they issue threats about their respective searches.
