Season 5, Episode 11: "Dead is Dead"

Sorry sorry sorry! I know it has been a week and I still have not had time to write last week's episode. I will write this one quickly and then will get to last night's episode as well. Here goes:

The title of this episode is "Dead is Dead." This was Ben's remark after explaining to Sun that he didn't know that Locke would return from the dead. He said the island does miraculous things, but has never done anything like this before. This implies that Locke truly is SPECIAL and that the island truly did choose him to be its leader.

We also learned that the island saved Ben as a boy. The Hostiles told him that he should be dead, but that the island saved him. We also learn that the island chooses it's leaders. And apparently it chose Ben. Ironically, we learn that Charles Widmore is the one who comes and helps Ben after his gunshot wound. Ben tells him he wants to stay with them, but Widmore tells him he has to go back - and that even if he lives elsewhere, he will still be one of them. So I guess this means that things will still play out as we have seen (fate). Meaning that Ben will continue to grow up in the Dharma Initiative, and when he is older he will carry out the purge which is when he'll "officially" join the Hostiles and become their leader. So I guess he is going to go back to Dharma?

I am glad that we got to see a lot of flashbacks which answered a lot of questions about the past. For example, we learn how Ben "took" Alex. I had always assumed that he kidnapped her because he was just an evil person. But we learn that he was actually sent (under Widmore's orders) to kill Danielle, but he couldn't do it. It seems that back then, Ben actually had a conscience. And he couldn't kill a baby or it's mother. So instead he warned Danielle to always stay away if she wanted to live, and took Alex to try and save her. Then we learn that Widmore actually wanted to kill the baby - he was the one who seemed to have no conscience. We later learn, after Widmore is banished from the island (for having a child with an outsider and therefore "breaking the rules") that he told Ben that Alex was supposed to be a sacrifice. Ben said that he would do anything to protect the island and Widmore responds that he didn't sacrifice Alex. He also tells him that if the island wants Alex dead, she will be dead. So we learn this was all what sparked the feud between Ben and Widmore...it all started over Alex.

Furthermore, this explains how Ben went to kill Penny and got beat up by Desmond (which answers our question as to why he was beaten and bloodied when he got on the plane). Although, he didn't actually do it. Once he saw that Penny had a little boy, I think he remembered how he saved Alex as a child, and he couldn't kill an innocent child's mother. Remember though that he told Widmore that he was going to kill Penny as "punishment" for him being responsible for Alex's death. Although we know that deep down, Ben blames himself for Alex's death, not Widmore, which is why he had to come back to the island - to pay for his sins and be "judged" by the smoke monster.

When he actually goes down under the temple for his Judgement Day, we see that the smoke monster takes the form of his daughter Alex. It seems that when a person is "judged," the person who they are most guilty about takes the form of the black smoke (remember when Eko's brother came to "judge" him)? Anyway, the monster seemed to know that Ben truly did feel guilty for Alex's death. That despite all the other bad things he has done, the one person that mattered the most to him, he truly was sorry about. However, Alex tells him that she knows he is already planning to kill Locke and that he better do anything that Locke tells him to. It seems that Ben knows that the monster ain't messing around - as it knows his innermost thoughts - and he better listen.

At the end of the episode, we are left with the mysterious new people from the flight 316 crash, who are being very secretive. We already saw they had some locked trunk and they wouldn't tell Ben what was inside. They seem to know a lot about the island already as we saw in past episodes they were fishing around in the old Dharma stations and looking at paperwork in the "office." Ben has already killed Cesar. Anyway, after the pilot Frank Lapidus returns to the beach, Lana asks him "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" This seems to be some kind of "riddle" that she is testing him to see if he knows anything. He does not. They knock him out and tie him up, and she says "It's time." Obviously these people were not just random passengers on the plane. They knew where they were going. Interesting because this woman (Lana) was the "agent" who captured Sayid and brought him on the plane. Who are these people and what are their intentions on the island? Are they old Dharma people, were they sent by Widmore? Obviously there is more to the story.....