TV Thursday: Lost

ABC has set an end date for "Lost." It will run for 48 more episodes (three seasons with 16 episodes) which will air uninterrupted. "Lost" will bow out during the 2009-10 season.

**SPOILER ALERT FOR ENTIRE POST**

Back Story
• Apparently Ben was born in the woods 32 miles outside of Portland. That throws a monkey wrench into Ben's claim that he was born on the island. His Mama (Emily) went into premature labor (hmmm, Mama died in labor in her 2nd trimester...we've heard that before) whilst she and hubby were hiking. She passed away as his Papa (Roger Linus) was carrying them both to get help. As they reach the road, a couple in a roadster stop to give assistance. The guy, Horace Goodspeed (an anagram?), ends up offering Roger a job with Dharma many years later that ends up taking he and adolescent boy Ben to the island via the submarine. They are greeted with leis, smiles, and "Namaste" when they walk up the dock...a little too Fantasy Island-ish if you ask me. They go through registration where they get an innoculation.
• The Dad ends up being the janitor "Roger Work Man" that was dead in the VW Microbus several episodes ago. Drunk Daddy, unhappy about the rotten turns in his life, tells young Ben he was responsible for the mother's death by coming early. Happy Birthday, son, I'm sure that makes you feel special. Ben flees and sees the ghost of Momma past out by the high-frequency sonar fence who tells him it isn't time yet. Time for a mutiny by the looks o' things.

Primary Storyline
• Locke makes his triumphant return to the new tent city with his "kill" strapped to his back. He wants answers from Ben, and he wants them now. Locke proves to be a little more cunning than I had given him credit for and maneuvers Ben to bring him to see Jacob who is the island's big cheese. No one has seen Jacob. No one has heard Jacob. No one knows where Jacob is. Except Ben. And everyone else accepts his existence based on faith in Ben. Seems a bit God/Pope-ish as in Jacob/Ben.
• Mikhail, on the dead run from his encounter with the campers, tells Ben about Parachutina, her helicopter, and boat off the coast. Ben is surprised, so Naomi isn't an Other and isn't a plant. Mikhail gets irritated when he sees Locke. After all, it was Locke who tried to kill him by pushing him through the sonar fence. Luckily the fence was only set on stun...so our Russian friend didn't die and regenerate through the power of the island. A fight ensues between the two men and Locke kicks the crap out of him. Ben implores them to stop. He implores big-bad Tom and Suddenly Seeking Richard to stop the fight. But they don't. Ben is losing his authority status.

Backstory
• Ben is in school when an alarm sounds and he and the other kiddies have to do a duck and cover move while the teacher cocks her rifle. It's the Hostiles...the indigenous folks who they are in a pitched battle for control of the island. Ben later points out the irony of peaceniks not being able to coexist with the natives.
• His little girlfriend gives him a carved statue for his birthday. She keeps one of him, he'll keep one of her so they'll never be separated. The carvings looked like the heroin statues of Mary to me but I won't swear there's any connection.
• Being blamed for his mother's death is a little bit more than young Ben can handle. Ben runs for the hills, and with a trusty albino bunny in tow (what's up with the albino bunny fetish?), he brings the fence down with the code of 54439 (significance?). After he shoves the bunny through first and it doesn't get zapped, Ben runs screaming through the woods in search of his ghostly mother. What he finds instead is Richard who seems to be the exact same age, albeit a little worse for wear, regardless of what timeframe we see him in. Ben says he doesn't want to go back to Dharma since he hates it there and befriends Richard the Hostile.

Primary Storyline
• Off Ben and Locke tromp through the jungle. Ben's nervous because Jacob summons people. People don't just show up at his humble hut and request an audience. Along the way they step over an ashy type substance. I'm not sure what it is and Ben tells Locke to hurry up when he stops to investigate. He even sniffed it but never says what it is...I'm sure it will come into play later. Is it gun powder?
• Alex gives Locke a pistol because she says he'll need it when they go to meet Jacob. How smart is she?
• They eventually show up at Jacob's lair. Why, might I ask, does this stuff always happen at night? I'll tell you why. Cause then no one can see anything, that's why.
• They get to Jacob's hut in the middle of nowhere. And in they go, flashlight dowsed, because Jacob "doesn't like technology". They light a lantern and enter.
• Well cuckoo Ben introduces Locke to Jacob who is supposedly sitting in a chair. No one is there but Ben claims he can see him. Locke can't see Jacob and says Ben is crazy as he carries on a conversation with the invisible overseer.
• This makes Jacob pissed. He starts blowing out windows, tossing stuff about, lighting fires. A bit like the little Drew Barrymore in Firestarter.
• Ben calms Jacob down as Locke heads out the door. Then, it happens. He hears Jacob say "help me" in a low gutteral tone. So Locke can't see him, but can hear him; Ben can see and hear him, but can't hear him when he talks to Locke. Got that? Maybe he talks telepathically and it is only heard in one's mind.

Backstory
• Ben apparently goes back to the compound where he grew up. He becomes a Work Man like his Dad.
• Birthday time rolls around again. He reminds his Dad who suggests that Ben join him in one of the VW Microbus on a beer delivery to the Pearl station. After they drop it off they can go to the mesa and have a father/son bonding experience over some beers. {They say the show is shot on the north shore of Oahu but I think the scene on the mesa is on the north shore of Kuaui. I've been there, they are the North West corner of the island at the tip of Waimea Canyon looking to the north towards the Na Pali coast.} Ben has the doll that his childhood female pal gave him.
• At 4 p.m., he puts on a gas mask and pulls out a poison gas canister and kills his pops. Now we see why he wanted Locke to prove himself by killing his own father. When Ben returns to the Barracks, he still has the gas mask on but everyone around the encampment is dead. Everyone has been wiped out with the toxic gas. Richard and the rest of the Hostiles appear with masks on, too. They've staged a coup of the highest order and massacred the whole lot of Dharma-ites.

Primary Storyline
• Ben wants to know what Jacob said to Locke but Locke insists that Ben drop the charade. He plans on telling everyone that Ben is a bit touched in the head.
• On the way back, Locke asks Ben why they are taking a different way. Ben takes him to the mass grave where all of the skeletons of the Dharma folks have been tossed.
• Well, in quite a surprise, Ben shoots Locke and he ends up falling in the ditch on top of the corpses. Ben tells him these are the people that he comes from and that he is considerably smarter than them, and him, since they are all in the pit and he isn't.
• Ben asks him again what Jacob said. Locke replies "help me" — that's really what Jacob said but Ben thinks it is just Locke asking for help since he's been shot. While I'm on this train of thought, why is Jacob asking for help if he's so powerful?
• Ben leaves Locke with a bullet in the belly. But if he can come back from being paralyzed, a bullet shouldn't be too much to overcome.

Elsewhere on the Island
• Sawyer makes it back to the beach and pulls Sayid aside and tells of his adventures with Locke over at the Black Rock.
• Sayid seems in control and gives Kate a disgusted look when he hears she told Jack everything that was happening.
• The group collects, at which time they hear the tape of Juliet ratting out Sun and the rest.
• "Here he comes to save the day!" (Sung to the Mighty Mouse theme.) Jack and Juliet show up and ask where the tape came from? Sawyer and Sayid basically tell him to shove off.
• Juliet tells them to turn the tape over and press play. They hear Ben's plans to attack the Losties. Juliet finally tells her secret. That Jack has been in on it all along and they've been figuring out what to do. Next week they're going to meet in a big powwow to develop a kick-ass plan for when the Others attack. Or are they Hostiles now?

Yes, friends, Jack is a good guy. At least today, and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I can also rest knowing that Juliet's smirk is a good one. Again, at least for today. We'll see how this all plays out in the finale. I think my brain is going to explode!
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