Good Guys

Hello peoples,

next week, I will have to find something to write about that isn't Lost related because of the show's current hiatus. I assume I will find something to ramble about, but don't cry too hard if I don't. Now onto the Kevin Johnson episode of Lost and what we learned, didn't learn and why I was ultimately disappointed by the episode. As often, spoilers ahead.

Before I talk about the episode specifically, I want to delve a bit into the Ben-Widmore war. I have discussed the matter before, but I'm not sure I nailed down the exact premise of the war before. The war is (in my current theory's incarnation) about classic, nineteenth century imperialism. It appears that from the very moment Dharma stepped on the Island, they have been struggling with the Hostiles. If you notice, Dharma (and Widmore) tend to bring in mathematicians and scientists like Horace Goodspeed, Michael Faraday, and Charlotte Staples Lewis, while Ben and the hostiles bring in doctors like Juliet, Ethan, and Alpert. Dharma brought in scientists to study and extract whatever natural (or unnatural) resources the Island has to give. As of now, the Island has shown the ability to prevent death (see Michael, Jack, Juliet's sister, Rose, etc.), prevent aging ala the Fountain of Youth (see Alpert), sub-conscious time travel (see Desmond, Faraday, Minkowski, etc.). So, it is totally understandable that Dharma would want to comprehend and harness those unique properties for profit as well as for the betterment of humanity as a whole. On the other side, Ben and his lot are more naturalists, and they intend to hoarde, protect, and preserve the island's natural gifts in fear that people don't understand the gifts of the island and will misuse them for the non-betterment of the world. When, Ben brings the doctors, they are there to study, treat, and prevent the negative effects of living on the Island (see the birthing problem) to make the island completely habitable.

Of course, neither side is as benevolent and kind as I portrayed them. Widmore represents the conventional military-industrial corporate complex that has trained military people like Naomi, maintains a frigate, with air support, and boundless resources, often spent in public places such as auctions. Ben, on the other hand, is the guerilla warfare expert, eco-terrorist who is willing to kill civilians en masse with chemical weapons, see the Purge, and his submarine was torched, while his money is often in cash.

It's time to start thinking of Ben as Kurtz, the guy who came into the heart of darkness as an imperialist and stayed as the leader of the nativists. The result... an apocalypse, an apocalypse of the human mind? Of course, it's never as simple as that in Lost, so, there are other viable theories.

A widespread theory that I appreciate is often refered to as the Palpatine theory by Doc Jensen and his replacement. The notion is that the fight is really Ben against Ben. When I first saw this played out in The Phantom Menace, despite the sub-expectations nature of the movie, I was so excited about the notion of an evil, manipulative person who is so smart that he could manufacture a war/conflict to create the opportunity to play the hero on both sides, so he gains influence and wins the war either way. It's possible that Ben has foreseen the events that would lead him towards the ultimate power on the island. Nothing unites people better than a war against outsiders... against others. And Ben has managed to seize a leadership role for himself by generating further conflict to harness the full extent of his power. He also uses lies, blackmail, violence, brainwashing, and Jacob (which is the veritable equivalent of quoting scripture) as well as other forms of manipulation, so why not engineer a war to place stranglehold on his community that was rapidly warming to the idea of following John Locke's principles. It is thoroughly plausible, but I almost don't want to believe it because of how convincing Michael Emerson is, and how much Ben appears to believe he is one of the good guys. If he was playing both sides, he wouldn't be one of the good guys at all and he couldn't even reasonably think he was one of the good guys.

Speaking of power, if knowledge is power, Miles is powerful. Otherwise, Miles is not. Miles can talk to ghosts of drug dealers, Naomi's ghost, Ben's bank account, and Kevin Johnson's passport. I'm still convinced the show is under-utilizing his intensity, but I'm not sure how they can satisfactorily use this premise without scaring off many of the sci-fi-hesitant viewers.

The Plane. The Plane. It's now an old fashioned, "who done it" mystery. Whose story is more plausible, Widmore's story as told by Captain Gault or Ben's story as told by Friendly Tom? Tom's story has more details, but Michael bought into the story very very quickly. Worse yet, he was persuaded to kill yet again at the drop of a hat. This time, Ben didn't even use Walt as bait, but Michael was ready to do anything for Ben. The acting was fine, but the writing was implausible. It's nice that Michael is haunted by the ghost of Libby's past, and it makes sense that his murdering could drive him to depression and despair... but to more murder... mass murder? There had to be more persuasion from Mr. Friendly to get Michael to that point.

I'm not sure how Michael survived his suicide attempts, but the gun jamming, along with the car crash survival along with the Jack's failed suicide attempts leads to the conclusion that, indeed, these former Islanders can't die. Not sure how that works even in this Lost world of several improbable events (and it's always unseemly when supernatural occurences take place off island like Miles with ghost whispering and Walt with bird killing). Now, I am even more intrigued how someone could end up in the coffin off the island. And who is it? The Kevin Johnson guess is looking very strong.

Speaking of Sayid, what the heck was he thinking? In an impetuous move, he wasted his one trump card on the boat, the identity of the saboteur without negotiating anything on his or his friend's behalf. Why? To make friends with a clearly suspect, and certainly untrustworthy captain? Or more likely, he acted rashly to punish his one-time friend because Sayid appreciates loyalty and friendship, and Michael is the cardinal sinner/betrayer of friendship.

It is unclear how the time traveling, space traveling polar bears played into this episode, but I wanted to mention them.

The death of Karl was tragic because of his youth, but as a character, he had served his purpose. He had been brainwashed, been in love with the bad guy's daughter, and not gotten her pregnant. I think that's it for him. I am not convinced that Alex's mother, Rousseau, is dead, considering we still don't know about her survival story, the research project that she was on, and whether it was Dharma related? Was there really a virus? How did she deliver Alex by herself? Crazy stuff.

And the question to ask here, is who shot at them. Ben would want to kill Karl to keep Alex from fornicating (and getting pregnant and dying like his mother did and every other island fornicator did. It's a classic slasher film: sex = death.) Ben would want Rousseau's death because she is Ben's rival for Alex's affection and guidance. Ben would also want Alex to feel threatened, so that she could be more easily manipulated and feel forced to turn to Ben for protection. He had access as he has people, the hostiles, hidden away and still following his orders. However, Widmore might have people on the island because Lapidus was off on a mission. Widmore might not have a compunction killing anyone on the island, particularly picking them off in secluded locations. And thus, Alex yelling out that she is Ben's daughter would likely save her life either way, either as a unique specimen to be protected or a commodity to be exploited. It's still unclear who shot at her, but it's totally clear that she will live to fight another day.

Eight weeks off? The horror. The horror.
-ME PB