Lost - Campfires make everything OK

As anyone who reads this knows (looking at you Cherye and Mom, since you're my fan base, Dede will never catch up to the show, seriously Dede you're 4 episodes behind! Mike you're 2 back!) I like to make obscure references to other movies or music that I can tie to the show usually for the most pointless of events, and last night is no exception. When our new group of let's call them the white team get to the beach, Ilanya suggests that they make a campfire and Miles snaps back with, "Yeah a fire will fix everything." Reminded me of Aliens (A James Cameron classic, yeah that same guy that did Titanic and Avatar) right after the Marines get wiped out by the Aliens and the one guy starts saying, "How about we start a fire, sing a couple songs." So out of place so inappropriate, so perfect. Thank you Miles for commenting on how pointless a camp fire really is.

And with that we're off, like a roaring fire of theory and information. So let's start with some of the facts that we learned from a very very complex episode. We learned a little bit more about Richard and why he will live forever, and no Hurley he is not a vampire (great great line, very much a nod to the fans and some of the theories that have been thrown around). Richard lives forever because Jacob touched him, thus he is incapable of killing himself, sounds a lot like Micheal off the island where no matter what he tried to do he couldn't kill himself. Or how about last season where John was going to hang himself but Ben walks in and prevents him from doing it, only to then kill him himself. We also got confirmation that Richard arrived on the Blackrock when he said that he hadn't been back to the ship since he got there. Best part of all the Richard goodness, in two weeks we get his story, now that should be really really interesting because a sideways story with him would be rather unique, I think that's how we'll learn what happened to the island.

We also know that the nuke that was set off on the island did not incinerate the island, as Faraday said the nuke would negate the energy below the Swan, so my guess is that is exactly what it did any one on the island would not notice the effects outside of a purple flash of light, like at the end of season 2. By the way, we now know what that flash of light was, it was a nuclear device that was placed in the Swan as a fail safe to keep the Swan from doing some serious damage like it was going to do in season 2. Another clue, Sayid in season 2 said that the only place he had ever seen concrete piled the way it was in the Swan was at Chernobyl. The show is taking a very subtle approach to answering the questions that it has presented over the years, but if you read between the lines than you start to see all of the answers, sure I can't be 100% sure on them, but there are enough clues to say with 90% certainty that that is what the answer is. We're not going to get a clear list of this is this, or that is that, it's all going to be in the details.

With the island not blowing up, that allows Ben and his dad to make their way back to the mainland, after Ben had been shot by Sayid (that is key). Very ironic moment where Ben turns on the fresh oxygen for his dad when you consider that Ben killed his dad in the island world by gassing him. Great lines on, "I wonder how different our lives would have been if we'd have stayed on that island?" My guess is that they would have been dead considering it sank, or... Ben was supposed to stay on the island to have protected it, but him leaving is the reason that it sank. So in this stretch of a theory if you believe it and you believe that Jacob is the good guy in this story (which I'm believing more and more) then Ben's service to the island made a difference, that all of the deeds that he performed were in the service of Jacob and the island, and if my Locke theory is correct about him being swayed by Smokey from early on, Ben was on a course to lose his power from that moment on.

Ben losing his power sounds a lot like a guy in France during the early 19th centruy, a guy that interestingly enough was banished to the island of Elba. Of course I'm talking about Napoleon and the lesson that Dr. Linus was teaching sure sounded like the other Ben didn't it. Here was a man that had been stripped of his power and left to live on an island in despair, nope don't know any characters like that on Lost, oh wait I got one, BEN! From very early on it was obvious that Ben has been all about control and power, he lies to maintain both and is a master manipulator to accomplish his goals, the question of course is how far down did that motivation run inside of him? Deep enough for him to sacrifice Alex on the island, deep enough that Jacob knew that it existed within Ben and hoped that he had been wrong about Ben, that Ben had a good side to him. Think of how God would have responded had Job renounced him instead of praised him, my guess is that it would have been like a dagger to his heart (see dead Jacob and Miles comments about the death). Here is where I had a hard time putting all of the pieces together because I think it's extremely complex, what was Ben's motivation for killing Jacob, was it the loss of power, the loss of Alex, the feeling of being manipulated like Richard flet? My guess is that Ben was a man that had lost everything that he valued in life and at that moment there was Smokey to make him question his faith. Even at Locke's funeral Ben says, "He was a true believer, he was a better man than me, I'm sorry I murdered him." Ben acknowledges his own loss of faith to which I believe he maintained without question previous to flight 815 crashing.

In the end Ben unloads all of his guilt on to Ilanya saying that he's turned to Smokey because that is the only one that will take him now, he's forsaken his faith and he can now only turn to darkness, he believes himself beyond redemption, and isn't looking for it. Then Ilanya says that she'll have him. At first I was thinking, Ok that is just gay, first she wants to kill him, now she forgives him. In this case it's literally like forgiving the person that killed your father, I know in the Christian faith you hear of people doing it, but I don't know. Originally I was thinking that it might have to do with her being a bounty hunter and who was she to judge Ben after all of the people that I'm sure she has killed. And maybe that is it, since she believes in the Jacob and what he represents then she knows that she should turn the other cheek and not pass judgement upon Ben, it's not her place to take her anger and revenge on him.

Earlier I had mentioned that it was key that Ben had been shot on the island that means that he also got to take a dip in the holy hot tub in both time lines. So the person that we see as a teacher is essentially the same person that we see on the island with all of his traits. Off the island he makes a play to be the principle of the school but in the end he gives up his quest for power to save Alex, where on the island he let's her die to maintain his power. Off the island he looks like he has that sense of satisfaction for making that decision, on the island he is broken by what he allowed to happen, and is what eventually leads him to kill Jacob. Just like in all of the other off island stories the ending is a positive one.

And finally how about a little theory action. Jack has come a long way huh? Starting off as a man that questions everything about the island to a man of enough blind faith that he can sit next to a stick of dynamite knowing that he's not going to be blown to pieces. Jack was the man of Science, John the man of faith as stated in an earlier episode I think way back in season 2. Now I have a little bit of a soapbox that I'm trying not to jump on, but it just seems so easy to right now. If my earlier theory is correct that Locke was manipulated early on, a man that was looking for a higher purpose, that purpose found him in the form of Smokey, giving him what he wanted only to manipulate and take from him in the long run, just like everyone off of the island in his life. Meaning that evil will pray on those that are looking for meaning by giving them the easy answer, "you want to believe in something, well I'll give you a miracle to confirm your faith in me." - paraphrasing what the devil might say. While Jack on the other hand questions everything that he sees, denying everything up until there is nothing left to question and the truth becomes undeniable and in the end, last night he found Jacob. Lost makes a lot of references to religion and faith and good and evil, so I don't think it's a stretch to say that they are making a statement about those ideals in the framework of the show. We'll see how it all plays out.