LOST Rewatch: Dead is Dead

Last updated on: April 2, 2015 at 9:10 am by James F. McGrath

LOST Rewatch: Dead is Dead 2015-04-02T09:10:36-04:00 James F. McGrath

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The episode begins with Charles Widmore as a younger man complaining that Richard had brought one of the Dharma Initiative people there. Richard says that Jacob wanted it, and the island chooses whom it chooses. Charles then introduces himself to young Ben. Ben says he doesn’t wantto go back, but wants to stay and become one of them. Charles says that living among the Dharma people doesn’t mean that he can’t be one them. When he is somewhat older, we see Ben and Ethan steal baby Alex from Danielle. When he returns to the camp, Charles tells him off for not killing Danielle and Alex. Ben asks if that is what Jacob wants, and suggests that if it is, Charles should do it. Later when they live in the Dharma compound, we see Ben seeing Charles off into his banishment via the submarine. Charles says that if the island wanted Alex to be dead, then she will end up dead, and Ben will end up banished like him.

Charles Widmore and Richard In the present day, Ben says that he broke the rules by coming back to the island, and that he needs to be judged. When John asks by whom, Ben says they do not even have a word for it, but Locke and his friends call it “the monster.” A little later, Locke suggests they talk about the elephant in the room. When Ben offers justification for having killed him, Locke says he was just looking for an apology. As they go to summon the monster, Locke says that he doesn’t believe that he is going to be judged for breaking the rules, but for killing his daughter. When they get to Ben’s old house, Ben finds Sun and Lapidus there. Sun says that Christian told her to wait there for John Locke if she ever wants to see her husband again. Lapidus leaves Sun with Locke and Ben. Ben goes into the chamber beneath his house and reaches into a pool of water and lets it go down a drain, summoning the monster. Later Ben says to Sun that he has seen the island do miraculous things, but never this. Even on the island, dead is dead, and so John being alive scares the living hell out of him. When he expects the monster to appear, he refers to it as something that he cannot control. Locke says that he knows where the monster can be found, and takes them to the wall around the temple, where Ben was healed as a child. Locke says that they are not going into the temple, they are going under it. Before descending, Ben asks Sun a favor: if she ever manages to get off the island, she should tell Desmond Hume that he is sorry.

In a flashback, we see Ben shoot Desmond and then try to kill Penelope. But Desmond tackles him and beats him up.

Ilana asks Lapidus “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” When he cannot answer, she hits him.

In an underground chamber filled with strange inscriptions, the smoke monster surrounds Ben and shows him scenes of Alex. Then Alex appears, and she says that she knows he is already planning to kill Locke again, and that if he harms him she will hunt him down and destroy him. He must follow Locke and do everything he says.

On one level, there seem to be tensions here with what is depicted in the following season. If Smokey could access the area beneath the temple, then in what sense was it a safe place from him? On the other hand, the idea that he was summoned to judge those who broke rules is not as problematic as it might first seem. Often a figure with whom one is supposedly at war can also play a positive role – compare, for instance, Paul’s reference to handing someone over to Satan in 1 Corinthians.

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