Lost 5.11

[selenak]

In which, at long last, we get a Kate episode that isn't about a) her relationship with Jack, or b) her relationship with Sawyer, or c) her love life at all. Also, Hurley and Miles discuss the intricacies of time travel. Not a stellar episode, but a pretty good one, and dare I say it makes me feel cautiously optimistic the writers might have figured out much of their audience is tired of the triangle/quadrangle?



Firstly, the Kate revelations - the fact the mysterious person she was visiting now and then was Kassie & daughter Clementine, on behalf of Sawyer, and that she gave Aaron to his grandmother - weren't that difficult to guess, except for one, which I highly approve of: the fact her reason for returning to the island was to find Claire. (While simultanously respecting what dream!Claire told her, i.e. "don't you dare bring him back!") Not to reunite with Sawyer, not because Jack asked her, but to find Claire, which everyone else seems to have given up on. And the way they paralleled this with her concern for child!Ben in the present worked as well. And there's the narrative irony of Roger Linus, for the first time since the very first flashback he appeared in in season 3 (i.e. the one of Ben's birth, at which point Roger was simply a worried husband and not yet an abusive father and jerk), behaving in a sympathetic way. I'm saying "irony" because only when he and Kate chatted did it occur to me that Roger, in his alcoholic abusive state, resembles Kate's bio-and-adoptive father whom she killed very much indeed - but she meets him at the one point where Roger behaves like a human being and NOT like her father. The fact Roger has paternal feelings at all and is concerned for his shot son I can buy; few abusers are relentlessly abusive, and it's easy to feel worry and concern for a dying child. (Unless you're Jack Shephard, about whom more in a minute.) I fully expect, however, that once Roger gets presented with recovered!Ben, he'll remember figuring out Ben stole his keys to free Sayid and return to that pattern of abuse which did its part in forming the Benjamin Linus we all know and love.

So, just for statistics: Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, all of whom started the show as morally ambiguous characters responsible for at least one death in their pasts do want to save child!Ben; Dr. Jack Shephard, the show's leading man in as much as it has one, joins Sayid in the ranks of "Ben deserves to be dead, and if that means letting him die as a child, then so be it". I'm not dissapproving of the storytelling choice, mind, because as opposed, say, some season 2 episodes, I'm sure this time around the writers do want me to see this as a rotten action on Jack's part, and it really does illustrate what wee_warrior has observed in past episodes - the Oceanic Six start out ostensibly saved and better off than they were on the island and gradually become worse, while the characters left on the island start out in worse circumstances but become better, not just in the physical sense (no more nosebleeds and death) but in the happiness and strength or character sense. As Juliet tells Jack, they didn't need saving; he's the one who does. And btw, loved that both Kate and Juliet were disgusted with Jack in this episode but didn't waste time on this but found other ways to get the rescue going.

The whole giving Ben to Richard for rescuing in the end, and Richard's warning that this will make Ben one of them forever, had strong fairy tale elements, which works with the overall mythology. I did expect ultimately the island to save Ben's life - it had to, for the Locke parallel - and also also guessed that Juliet would be involved in earlier efforts, which supports my theory that this is why Ben imprinted on her and that the "her" Juliet reminds him of was always herself. Speaking of the overall mythology, though, if Richard just took child!Ben to Jacob in that last but one scene Jacob apparantly used to live, err, exist in grander style than in the current day timeline; I wonder whether Dharma made a difference and caused the cabin set-up or whether it's something Widmore or Ben did later. Interestingly enough, one of the Hostiles says Richard should ask "Charles" first and Richard says he doesn't answer to him. Which would indicate that by this time, the late 70s, Charles Widmore (last seen as a young punk in the 50s) did make it to leadership position within the Hostiles/Others but it's not one approved by Richard and/or the island.

Then we get the final tag scene of adult!Ben waking up with Locke by his side. I can't help myself, Ben/Locke/Island are my angsty Lost OT3, so I squeed. Can it be next week now?

Comments

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Is it terrible of me that I almost approve of Jack in this one, not because of the fact that he's apparently forgotten the concept of "Hippocratic Oath," but because I'm glad he's finally realized that he is, in fact, useless and never should have been in charge in the first place? It is terrible of me, isn't it? :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, while I wouldn't say I approve of Jack I approve of the show not trying to sell him to me as fearless-leader-who-always-does-the-right-thing. And yes, letting him make the choice to let Ben die passive-aggressively is way more interesting than if he had done the right thing at once and saved Ben? (Also, of course as with Sayid there's the irony that they both now contributed to making Ben the man he'll be.)

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I'm not dissapproving of the storytelling choice, mind, because as opposed, say, some season 2 episodes, I'm sure this time around the writers do want me to see this as a rotten action on Jack's part

I don't remember too much of S2, but yes, Jack's inaction did seem to me to be portrayed as reflecting badly on him.

Richard's warning that this will make Ben one of them forever, had strong fairy tale elements, which works with the overall mythology

Good point about the fairy tale, though see my LJ entry for my reasons for potentially disliking this.

one of the Hostiles says Richard should ask "Charles" first and Richard says he doesn't answer to him.

They also mentioned Ellie! *Before* Charlies, iirc.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

If subsequent episodes tell us Ben is the way he is because he got saved by the island from death rather than because of all the other non-supernatural circumstances in his early life, I'm going to be furious, too, but I hope they won't make that mistake. What the island/Richard saving his life will create, I think, is Ben's attachment to the island and his own brand of the island worship he shares with Locke. He didn't have any particular reason for this before. I mean, whether he lives with his father on the mainland or on the island, circumstances are rotten, and yes, he had the fantasy of joining Richard after meeting him the first time, but mostly on "anywhere should be better but here" grounds. But being given his life back is a reason for the whole possessiveness about the island, the sense of it as a place of miracles, etc, and again, see parallels with John Locke later.

Ellie: yes indeed, and I think it's save to say at this point she IS identical with Eloise Hawking. Wouldn't it be sublime if we find out Charles Widmore fibbed and never was leader of the Others but Ellie's second in command before whatever happened to change the Others hierarchy?

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be sublime if we find out Charles Widmore fibbed and never was leader of the Others but Ellie's second in command before whatever happened to change the Others hierarchy?

Yes! And it would make sense of Charles's obsession with Ben, vs. Eloise's relative indifference, earlier in the season.

[leia-naberrie.livejournal.com]

It looks like I might end up watching this show again. I hope for your sake that I'm not disappointed because my change of heart is entirely due to your amazing reviews. :D

[selenak.livejournal.com]

:) When did you stop originally? I was talking about this with abigail_n the other day: one of the reasons why I never broke it off with Lost was that while I liked the show all the way back in season 1, I wasn't in love with it, plus I watched the first three seasons on dvd, which meant I didn't have to wait for weeks for a good episode but could know that after a weak one, the next one was right on the dvd. And I could see the plots unfold at greater speed. This was doubly fortunate because by the time I started to watch real time, i.e. week after week, it was season 4 with its radical change of premise which rejuvinated the show. By now I do love it. But whether this would have happened had I loved it in season 1 and watched it in real time during s2, I can't say...

[leia-naberrie.livejournal.com]

October 19th, 2005*** (http://leia-naberrie.livejournal.com/8345.html) Or some time earlier since I was already ticked off when I wrote that.

There were some really great episodes in Season 1 - Locke's; Sun's and Jin's. But I struggled with an uncharismtic leading man (I wonder how differently the show might have played out if JJ had been allowed to kill off Jack as he intended to in the pilot and leave Kate as the "hero" of the show.) And something deep down within me always had the sneaking suspicion that JJ was just making it up as he went along and soon he would write himself into a hole bigger than the size of Rambaldi's biggest Clifford ball.

Half-way through Season 2 - soon after the awesome Anna Marie died so ignominously - I gave up.


***See the benefits of tagging? *hint *hint.

[jaydk.livejournal.com]

I don't think I agree about why Jack refuses to treat Ben - I think he was genuine in that he's trying to do what he's supposed to do, and there's also the knowledge that no matter what choice he makes, Ben will survive. I do agree that we're meant to see Jack's choice not to act as a bad one, in that whether or not he knows Ben lives, it doesn't absolve him of the moral responsibility to help a suffering child. Jack is being passive-aggressive and justifying not wanting to treat Ben again by deferring his conscience on to "the will of the island." But I don't think Jack was deciding that Ben had to die the way Sayid was in shooting Ben in the first place, because Jack has more knowledge at this point. He believes that Ben will live no matter what choice he makes.

I'm much more sympathetic towards Kate, Sawyer and Juliet choosing to act to save Ben, but I do love that we specifically see Kate and Sawyer make a choice that will in some way contribute towards Ben "losing his innocence" and becoming adult Ben. So Sayid, Jack, Juliet, Kate and Sawyer all have some involvement in Ben becoming Ben, although ultimately I think it's down to Ben's own choices as an adult. I really can't wait to see next week's episode though - the idea that Ben himself thinks he should be judged is extremely intriguing.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that the ultimate responsibility for Ben's choices lies with Ben and no one else. The show has been pretty good to differentiate between explanation and excuse (same with Sayid; same with Locke; same with everyone - we all get shown why they became the people they are, but it's still they who are responsible for what choices they made). And boy, am I impatient for next week!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There's also the narrative irony of Ben losing his innocence (though I don't know how) and becoming an Other because Jack refused to save his life.

I loved that last scene. "Welcome back to the land of the living" indeed. :-D