Lost: Did We Forgot That Ben Used To Be A Mastermind ?
By fred | March 28, 2008
No new episodes of Lost this week, not for a few weeks, but that doesn’t mean we will just stop obsessing about the show or trying to figure out what the Hell is going on on that mysterious Island. And thinking about the latest episode we saw, Meet Kevin Johnson, and what we learned then, I suddenly found myself asking this question: did we forgot that Ben used to be a mastermind ?
During the end of last season, and the beginning of this new season, Ben appeared in a much different light than he used to before, it looked like he wasn’t the one he used to be, like he was lost. Or was he?
There was a time Ben used to be obviously playing on a higher level, he was always thinking with two or three moves ahead of everyone else, no one and nothing could really surprise him, get him in trouble. And recently it felt like he was going back to being his old self, his evil mastermind self. We all felt it when we saw him going from being tied up, beaten up, and a gun to his head, to walking free in Otherville and already plotting things to come and sending away a few people to a certain death.
But were you shocked to be asked whether or not you forgot if Ben used to be a mastermind ? I mean, when did he stopped being one, or did he even stopped at all ? I think we may have lost faith in Benjamin Linus, and that’s actually all to its credit, but these days I’m getting the feeling that maybe Ben was always exactly where he wanted to be, all the time.
I may be giving him too much credit, but there are a few things that I could never accept. For instance, I am still convinced that Juliet’s trial was completely bogus, that she was never in danger and that is was part of Ben’s plan. I know it appeared that she was going to be killed, I know she got marked, but I think this was only Ben’s evil plan, because he wanted Jack to care for her, he wanted Jack to want to save her. (Side note: he wanted Juliet to be his, marking her might also be a really sick way for him to show that she “belongs” to him.)
Of course it’s not that he was over Juliet and wanted to throw her into another man’s arms, but when Ben needed Jack, he didn’t want Jack to save him, but to want to save him. It certainly has to do with free will and how the Island regards it, but Ben isn’t happy getting people to do what he wants them to, he wants them to want to do so. And he wanted Jack to care about the Others, to want to save him, of course, but also to (want to) save Juliet.
I can’t believe that while on the Island the Others could manage to only appear to the Losties’ eyes when they wanted to and the way they wanted to, that they managed to have control over everything for so long in such a vast area, but that while within their headquarters, they couldn’t avoid to have Jack walk out of his cell when Juliet, handcuffs on, was walking in. This was no coincidence, this was planned, this had a meaning, a purpose.
That was my first instinct at the time, and I just can’t accept it wasn’t the case. To tell you the truth, I still wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Juliet would actually still be working for Ben. It is very unlikely and I don’t really think this is the case, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. After all, it was part of Ben’s plan to have her infiltrate the Losties, and to bound with Jack.
And ever since she joined, she never told anyone all she knew about Ben and/or the Island. She never confessed about Claire’s sickness until she had to, she didn’t tell about her mission to find out which of the women was pregnant until she had no other choice, she never told about the Looking Glass or the Tempest until she was forced to, and God knows what else she hasn’t told us about Ben, and about the Island. Not to mention that when Harper showed up – and I don’t think she knew it was the Smoke Monster, but I’m pretty sure it was – she didn’t really questioned anything, but followed “Ben”’s orders.
So let’s come back to Ben : we know Ben wanted to get some of the Losties, and wanted to use Michael to do so. And in the end, that’s exactly what he did. Just like he had planned. And if you believe that Ben actually needed Michael to know who was on the boat, then it means it worked, Ben fooled you, too !
