LOST: Ben Goes Back To School

This past Friday, Taylor the Architect and I watched all six available LOST episodes consecutively, for roughly five hours, stopping only for the restroom and to make alfredo sauce, which did not turn out swimmingly. However, having the broad scope of what course LOST is taking this year, I can say with some certainly that this is likely to be the least powerful episode of the season.

The major bomb dropped, the one that should have carried the weight of all explosives used in World War II combined, was passed over like speed reading. BOOM! Charles Widmore is the man behind the freighter. Moving on.

I again sent my friend and Native American Ricky Shade an apology, because I still cannot believe how right he was (not that he has a track record of being wrong; it's just surprising that anyone can predict what will happen on LOST). There was a major tip in Desmond's episode, where Widmore buys the journal of a Hanso, first mate on the Black Rock, which contents have never been known outside the family (what auctioneer notes that in his introduction?). The obvious conclusion is it details the Hanso's experience with the island, spurring his family's search for it, and fueling Widmore's desire to find it.

So this calls into question every move we've seen Widmore make; all his interactions with Desmond, were they calculated? Did Widmore have an idea that Desmond would wind up where he is, that he funneled Desmond into his global sailboat race? And, even though Penny claimed ignorance of her father's boat, are they trading information in their parallel searches (probably not, though Widmore certainly knows his daughter is searching).

This episode did finally address the Jack-Juliet Train, in the creepiest way possible. Ben, whenever not tied down and walking upright, walked in his best imitation of Poindexter, constantly recalling every stereotypical high dork seen on Saved By the Bell. All he lacked were suspenders. However, this dweeb exercised unimaginable power, and in a plot taken from a bad Saved by the Bell, he uses this power to contain the popular girl (for Juliet looks so much like her. Who? Anne?). Yes, he even tells her to her face that she is, in fact, his. 

On a totally unrelated note, I recently told a girl she was mine, in the sense that I possessed her and it was naught for her to resist. She resisted.

And then the Jack-Juliet Train finally tooted its whistle, as Juliet finally tells Jack that she is unsafe to be around, because Ben knows how she cares for Jack. Jack then says that Ben knows where to find him, which, I assume, is behind the big tree in the back of the playground, the same place I once fought Zack Starr in third grade.

Oh yeah, and there was some sort of conflict and immediacy given by some sort of gas. I was a little fuzzy on that, and, though I hate to bite the hand that feeds me my entertainment, it felt like a last minute addition to an episode where nothing happens. But could Ben really have given those orders? Isn't more likely that the Others, led now by the immortal Richard Alpert (by the way, does no one else remember he was immortal? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!), are planning to gas the entire island like they did first to eliminate the Dharma Initiative.

IN OTHER NEWS, Daniel is way too nice to be a bad guy, Sun for the first time herself useful in a pursuit besides gardening, Locke is on the verge of executing each and every dissident her perceives, and I still can't get over the fact that Ben is a pitch perfect imitator of Uriah Heep when it comes to his crushes.

In Jeff Jensen's interview with the show's producers, it was mentioned that by episode seven, we would know the entire Oceanic Six, so my guess is that this episode is a calm before the storm. Next week, the cat's about to hit the fan, and yes, in my mind, it is a cat.