Friday "Lost" blogging: "The Shape Of Things To Come"
If the title of this week's "Lost" episode ("The Shape Of Things To Come") is to be taken literally, we're in for a mighty exciting ride in future episodes. This episode was tight, the narrative was fast-paced and controlled, and the story jumped forward in several different respects.
The episode blew several of my pet theories right out of the water and gave rise to a host of new questions.
We've known for a while now that Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six; when that fact was revealed in "The Economist," we also saw him working as Ben's hit man. The juxtaposition of those facts in that one episode led me to believe that Ben left the island at the same time as the Oceanic Six (although he clearly wasn't one of the official Six), and it also led me to believe that Sayid's departure from the island was somehow directly connected to his decision to work for Ben. This week's episode negates both of those ideas.
It's now obvious that Ben left the island after the Oceanic Six. We see Ben lying on the ground in the Sahara Desert in Tunisia (presumably having arrived via teleportation), wearing a parka, of all things. He then makes his way to a hotel, where we learn that the date is October 24, 2005. The Oceanic Six have been off the island for some considerable time by that date, since enough time has elapsed for Sayid to track down his long-lost love Nadia, then marry her, then see her die in Los Angeles.
Ben tracks down Sayid in Tikrit, Iraq, on the day of Nadia's funeral, where he implies to Sayid that the bald guy Ben just saw in the funeral procession was the man responsible for killing Nadia. Ben also tells Sayid the bald guy works for Charles Widmore. Sayid, of course, kills the bald guy in anger. He then agrees to join Ben's "war" against Widmore, asking him, "Who's next?"
When Ben turns away from Sayid after replying "I'll be in touch," Ben's wearing a very self-satisfied grin which strongly implied to me that he had just manipulated Sayid into doing what Ben wanted. That smile made me wonder if the bald guy really did kill Nadia, or if Ben just used that as a means of tricking Sayid into working for him.
When Keamy (of the Freighter People) executed Ben's daughter Alex, Ben said of Charles Widmore, "He changed the rules." That prompted him to summon the smoke monster to kill Keamy and the other commandos. What "rules" would have prevented Ben from summoning Smokey the day the Freighter People landed and having it kill them from the outset? Ben has always stated that the Freighties intended to kill everyone on the island, and that presumably includes his compatriot Others, in addition to the survivors of Flight 815. If Ben was so certain his fellow Others were in danger, why not just summon Smokey to protect them all at the first sign of danger? Those are some very strange "rules" he's operating under.
Speaking of Smokey, Ben entered the closet in his hidden room and revealed an ancient-looking stone door leading into a stone tunnel; this is presumably the place from which he summoned the smoke monster. The appearance of the door and the hieroglyphs on its face seem to imply that the smoke monster is very ancient. This shoots down my theory that the smoke monster was originally a part of the DHARMA Initiative.
Earlier in the episode, Hurley, Sawyer, and Locke are seen playing Risk. Anyone who's ever played the game will recognize the truth of Hurley's statement that "Australia's the key to the whole game." That's certainly true of Risk, and I believe it may also prove true of many of the mysteries of "Lost."
For example, Jack's father, Christian Shepard, had made numerous trips to Australia over the years, where he carried on a long-term affair with a woman by whom he fathered Claire Littleton. I've always believed that Christian Shepard is still alive, and that the apparitions of him are not actually a ghost. I've believed for quite a while that Christian is somehow involved with the Others, the DHARMA people, or maybe both, and that he was instrumental in engineering the facts to make sure Jack was on board Flight 815. It may have been during one or more of those trips to Australia that Christian first became involved with the island; this would make Australia "the key" to that part of the story, and perhaps a lot more of it as well.
At the end of the current episode, Ben makes his way to Charles Widmore's swank London penthouse. Ben awakens Widmore, and Widmore says, "Have you come here to kill me, Benjamin?" Ben's odd reply: "We both know I can't do that."
Why can't Ben kill Charles Widmore?
Another odd exchange between them happened when Widmore said "That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again." That seems to imply some kind of symbiotic relationship between the Others and Widmore, with Ben somehow acting as a usurper.
Ben's reply was just as strange: "But you'll never find it." Widmore's freighter certainly found it, and Widmore had obviously found the island in the past, so why couldn't he find it again? Can the island teleport itself and somehow remain hidden from outside view? Frankly, I think that would be too strange, even for the writers of "Lost."