The Life and Times of Dr. Linus

LOSTaways-

We're already seven weeks into the final season of the greatest show in the history of humans, and I don't like how fast it's all going by. This week's episode, Dr. Linus, was one of those hours of LOST where you feel like next to nothing is happening while you watch it; but by the time all is said and done, some tremendously important and fascinating things have taken place.

This week's song that ties in to the episode we saw? A little number from Old Blue Eyes called "A Man Alone":

In me you see a man alone
Held by the habit of being on his own
A man who listens to the trembling of the trees
With sentimental ease

In me you see a man alone
Behind the wall he's learned to call his home
A man who still goes walking in the rain
Expecting love again.

A man not lonely
Except when the dark comes on

A man learning to live with
Memories of midnights
That fell apart at dawn

In me you see a man alone
Drinking up Sundays and spending them alone
A man who knows love is seldom what it seems
Only other people's dreams.

In the off-island alternate reality of 2004 we find Ben Linus as an over-qualified high school History teacher with a doctorate. He is a kinder, gentler Ben Linus. He is a man alone in a world that doesn't appreciate him, that doesn't understand his potential. He has sacrificed a lot, we're told by his ailing father Roger Linus. Presumably that sacrifice includes the need to take care of that same ailing father. Worst of all, he has to put up with the insufferable Dr. Arzt (who was much more enjoyable when he was all blown up back at the Black Rock in season one).

Things open in the off-island saga with Linus teaching his students about Napoleon's exile on the island of Elba. This past summer I read two fantastic books on Napoleon and the British general Wellington who defeated him at (or actually near) Waterloo. One was simply called Napoleon and Wellington, written by Andrew Roberts. Much has been written in the past 200 years about Napoleon, his temperament, his psyche, his motivations, his successes, and of course his failures, so I'm not trying to break any new ground in my analysis of why the writers might have put a Napoleon reference in this particular episode (about this particular character).

As Dr. Benjamin Linus so succinctly puts it to his students, Napoleon's greatest test was the loss of his power. This came at the hands of the British general Wellington. Napoleon was in many ways a confident man, but did everything he could to publicly disparage the reputation and talents of Wellington. He couldn't stand other people having power, or even coming close to the respect and control he commanded.

Ben is much the same way. Or I should say, the Ben we have known since Season 3 is that way. He did what he could to get Charles Widmore booted from the island. He hated that Goodwin was the object of Juliet's affection and sent him off on what turned out to be a suicide mission (at the hands of Anna Lucia). And most of all, he loathed John Locke for being "special". In that compelling scene is last season's finale, Ben lets all of his penned-up pettiness and jealousy out as he was berating (and then stabbing) Jacob.

Another comparison between the Old Ben and Bonaparte was injected into the episode when Dr. Linus mentions Elba. Napoleon was exiled twice, the first time to the island of Elba. While in that initial exile, Napoleon plotted his return to power. He had every intention of returning to France and continuing his single-minded quest to rule Europe (and then the world). Sound familiar? Ben left the island, but had every intention of returning. I still kind of think that he was never actually told to leave the island, like he said was Jacob's punishment for disobedience. Perhaps, like Napoleon, he saw that he was in trouble, decided to go and re-group and lull his enemies into thinking he was no longer a threat, while all along was plotting his return to power.

But this New Ben, and even by the end of the episode, the Old Ben, is different. (Or so we think.) Off-island, alternate-reality Ben, is a hard-working History teacher, caring son, and considerate mentor to Alex Rousseau. There is the principal at his school who mistreats and under-appreciates him, similar to how Ben felt Jacob had treated him on the island, but when given the chance to do what he does best (i.e. manipulate people for a power grab) Ben takes the high road and chooses Alex over his own ambitions.

Those ambitions to take over the school by blackmailing the principal for his sexual indiscretions (the same crime Charles Widmore was ousted by Ben for) were stoked by the wheelchair-bound John Locke (who, as we saw in an earlier episode) is the substitute teacher at Ben's high school.

I especially liked the scene between Ben and his dad Roger where Ben was gassing his father...but this time with life-saving oxygen instead of poisonous fumes during the Purge. In that same ironic light, did you pick up on the "formaldehyde" reference by Dr. Arzt (who is dead in the original time-line)? As Ben and his father chat around the frozen dinner table, we learn that Roger and his son Benjamin had still traveled to the island to be a part of the DHARMA Initiative. Something happened...like, oh I don't know, it was submerged to the bottom of the ocean...and the pair of them left, to the eternal regret of Roger Linus. I loved to see the relationship between Ben and his dad was different in this alternate reality. By leaving the island Ben missed being turned into a monster, and he and his dad developed a healthy, normal friendship.

The rest of the off-island happenings were fairly self-explanatory, although very interesting and engaging. I liked seeing a different Ben, and am excited to see where the writers are taking us with this alternate-reality set of characters.

So on to the juicy on-island, original time-line stuff:

Let's take the Jack/Hurley bumping into Richard Alpert first. The two of them are met in the jungle by a visibly disturbed Richard who beckons them to follow him to the Black Rock. Richard was "touched" by Jacob and cannot grow old, and because he has lost his faith in Jacob and Jacob's plan for island salvation, he is ready to end his own life. But, of course, he cannot take his own life (as we saw Michael have trouble with back in Season Four), and so looks to either Jack or Hurley to light the fuse of dynamite that will blast him into oblivion.

And here we witnessed what I propose to be one of the most compelling scenes in LOST lore. Jack v. Richard. An awkward staring match between the former Man of Science and the island's un-changing guru who has recently LOST his faith. Jack calls Richard's bluff and lights the fuse. Although Jack initally flipped out when he learned that Jacob had been watching him his whole life, after a cool-down session on the rocky bluff over-looking the ocean, he came to his senses and realized that despite his confusion and anger, what any rational person must do in his situation is accept things as they are and deal with them. Jack tells Richard that although he isn't sure what is going on, he knows that a man like Jacob would not go to such great lengths only to let him die in the hold of a slave ship in the middle of a magical jungle.

And he was right.

Jack came to the island to be "fixed" after a life-time of trying to fix other people. What he's finally realizing is that in order to be helped, one must be helpless. One must be humbled and broken and willing to ask for (and receive) the help. Jack has reached his breaking point internally, and as is so often the case in life, it is only when we stop trying to control everything ourselves can we see the truth: we can't do this (life) on our own. When we stop trying to explain away the incredible things in life and in this world, we realize that it all is pretty incredible. Jack has ceded his fight against the obvious, and I think, has become a true Man of Faith.

Oh, and by the way, in case you missed the previews for the episode coming up on March 23rd...it's a Richard Alpert back-story.

Now we turn to the occurrences at the Beach Camp with Sun, Lapidus, Ilana, and Ben....

Miles rats Ben out for having offed Jacob. Ilana is pissed, but bides her time until she can devise a plan to punish Ben for his crime of passion. Her plan entails tying Ben up to a tree and making him dig his own grave.

More coming later...I'm stuck in an airport but wanted to post something today. I'll finish things up tonight.

-JL's Pants

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I told you there'd be more. It took me two planes and 8 hours, but I finally got home from Miami, FL where I was attending a conference on economic issues, hosted by the Acton Institute. But back to the LOST parsing...


So Ilana ties Ben up and tells him that Jacob was the closest thing she's ever had to a father. Really? The closest thing? Said it's a bummer, lady.

Who in the world is this Jacob character, really? And why can he leave the island and play the father-figure role to crazy chicks, while Flocke is stuck 'illin on the island? Did whoever it was who set "the rules" between these two island entities give separate-but-equally-cool powers to each of them?

But for now, what is important is that Ben lied to Ilana about killing Jacob...Miles spills the psychic beans that it was really Ben who did the saber thrusting what did in old Jacob...Ilana lures Ben into thinking he's free and clear....Ilana then shows Ben he is not free and clear and is now tied to a tree, digging his own island grave....and eventually the tempter himself, Flocke, appears on the scene to entice Ben into making a break for it with him.

Ben waits for the worst possible time when Ilana is looking right at him, and commences the lamest jail break since Nicholas Martin sneaked out of the house to see "Night of the Bloodfreaks 4" in McGee and Me:



The just don't make marginally-average, poorly-acted, substitute-for-any-real-Sunday-School-curriculum videos like they used to...

But Ben runs all the same, as he had reached his breaking point. The man who showed no remorse or fear in order to retain power on the island was reduced to begging the ever-sarcastic Miles for quarter. As he was begging for his life to Miles, Ben did mention something fairly interesting: a network of people and resources back in the real world that he would have at his disposal should Miles help him escape. Now obviously the cynic in me assumes Ben is partially (or fully) lying, but we do know that there are Others-related people back on the mainland...we just don't know who is working with who, who is good and who is bad...and whether or not any of those people Ben is talking about want anything to do with him.

The scene between Ben and Ilana was powerful and very well-done, especially juxtaposed with Ben's redemptive story back in the alternate-reality storyline. Ilana sees and hears in Ben a hurt, broken man who is forever scarred by the decision he made to let Alex get clipped in the cranium in Season Four. I felt like for the first time we saw the real Ben Linus.

He had the chance to kill Ilana, something we know he has few moral equivocations about doing, but he chooses to bear his soul to her because he knows the alternative (going to Flocke on the Hydra Station island) will end in his destruction. Sharing his pain to a relative stranger like Ilana is the act of a desperate man, but not desperate merely in the sense that he is trying to avoid pain, but more in the sense that he's already chalk-full of pain and looking to unload that burden. Ben just wants to be forgiven.

He wants to be accepted.

He wants to be normal.

His childhood was taken from him. His innocence was LOST on an insane island full of black clouds of smoke and yurt-dwelling nut-jobs who run around barefoot and kidnap people identified by their names being written on parchments of papyrus leaves handed down from a mostly-invisible deity named after the father of the nation of Israel.

I think Ilana saw and sensed the genuine pain in his plea for her to stop trying to off him.

I loved how LOSTpedia.com described what happened to end the Ben-Ilana emotional encounter in the jungle:

Ben has lowered his rifle, and he asks to be allowed to leave. Ilana asks where he'll go, and Ben says he will go to Locke. She asks Ben why, and he responds that Locke is the only one who will accept him into his group. Ilana reveals that she is willing to accept him into her group, much to Ben's surprise. She then picks up her rifle and heads back to the beach. Ben stares in shock after Ilana for a second, then follows her.

Ben made so many enemies and burned so many bridges that the only one left who will have him is evil incarnate walking around in the form of the man he himself strangled to death in a seedy motel in Los Angeles. Ilana offers Ben grace and forgiveness because he hit rock bottom and was finally ready to accept those things.

The very end of the episode shows a Charles Widmore-led submarine emerging from the murky depths and because I am just writing this blog-post now (nearly two weeks after "Dr. Linus" first aired), we know that Widmore lands and sets up shop on the Hydra Station island. (More on this later this week when I post the review of "Recon").

I LOVE where things are heading. The "war" is coming.


Random Thoughts/Theories:

-Ben and Lapidus have an interesting conversation about destiny and fate in Sawyer's old tent on the beach. Lapidus remarked to Ben that he was supposed to be on the original Oceanic 815 flight and wonders aloud how different his life might have been. Ben, as only Ben can, sarcastically reminds him that the island still got him in the end. A consistent theme throughout the show, and across the spectrum of characters, is just that: an acceptance of their fate. This isn't to be confused with an apathy towards what actually happens in one's life. Failing to accept his situation is what drove Jack to make the mistakes he made along the way...and eventually he ended up back on the island looking to be fixed.

- It was a poignant camera shot we were treated to as Jack, Hurley, and Richard approached the beach and Sun ran to embrace them. There was the six "normal" people in the middle, with Ben apart from the group on the right, and Richard apart from the group on the left. Ben and Richard both had a spiritual awakening in this episode, but are both still on the outside looking in as far as the castaways (and Ilana) are concerned.

- Speaking of Sun on the beach...Ilana broke the news to her that either her or her husband (or both...think: Adam and Eve in the caves) have been chosen as candidates. Sun (and 10 million viewers) wanted more info from Ilana about what being the candidate all entails. No dice.

- Here is Doc Jensen's review at Entertainment Weekly.com. I haven't been able to read his stuff for a few weeks, but his columns are always top-notch LOST commentary.

-We got a long-awaited Nikki and Paulo call-back this week! How exciting...is what I would say if those two dopes weren't the worst thing ever perpetrated on the LOST-viewing audience apart from Claire's mom's acting "skills." Miles talked to the dead star-crossed lovers and found out they had a stash of diamonds buried with them.

- My theory from more than a season ago, that Richard Alpert came on the Black Rock originally, was finally confirmed in this episode and I want an "atta boy". Please. It's all I have.

- Richard said Jacob touched him, and that it was that act that made him "special." Is that why they made such a point of showing Jacob touch Sayid, Hurley, the Kwon's (what, no love for Bpo-Bpo), Kate, Sawyer, and Locke in the Season Finale last year? Is his magic caress the thing that separates the candidates from the Yemi's?

- Hurley asked Richard if, in light of his inability to age, he was a cyborg. If, as some suggest, this is an allusion to The Terminator series, then I am happy. The first Terminator is one of the best action/science fiction movies of all-time. In that first installment the cyborg (a young, buxom Arnold) comes back in time to kill the mother of the man who will one day lead the revolt against the cyborgs. In T 2: Judgment Day, Arnold returns as the same cyborg who must now protect John Connor, and eventually is willing to sacrifice himself to end the future human-cyborg war. Is this a foreshadowing of what will happen to Richard? Will he make some grand gesture and sacrifice himself for the salvation of these castaway strangers?

- As a student of all things political, I couldn't pass up making a comment about the Machiavelli reference. Here's how LOSTpedia describes its usage in the episode:

Principal Reynolds compares Ben to this 16th century diplomat and political philosopher, known for his cunning and deceitful manipulations. The Prince, his best known work, describes ways that a ruler can control his people. He recommends, among other things, that the prince should be a public figure above reproach, whilst privately acting amorally to achieve his goals. He also notes that sometimes good outcomes happen even though evil deeds are performed

That's all I got for now. Sorry this one took so long to post. I'll have Recon-related material this week and then try and get caught up next weekend. This upcoming episode on Tuesday night is entitled "Ab Aeterno" which is Latin for....something...but looks to be quite a doozy. Richard's story finally told!

See you in the funny papers.

-Pants