Day after "Lost" ramblings

I love "Lost." You love "Lost." Let's dive right into the weekly tra ... oh, dude. Bummer.

Hey, just because "Lost" isn't back until April 24 doesn't mean we all have to go into hibernation! In the interest of trying to figure out just what the heck is going on with the show -- and maybe to answer the question about why Locke still has hair if the island is located in some past loop of button-pressing madness -- I thought it'd be wise to watch "The Man Behind the Curtain" on the "Lost" Season Three DVD. In case you're having Faraday-like memory lapses, that's the episode that brought young Ben Linus to the island for the first time. A second viewing had to bring about some type of clarity, right?

Right?

What we already knew:

"Lost" pulls a classic switcheroo by making us think Emily is giving birth on the island. But the camera catches a sign that reads "32 miles: Portland" before Roger flags down a car and Emily christens her child Ben.

What struck me on second viewing:

Not sure why this would be significant, but it seemed to me that Emily really wanted her baby boy to have the name Ben. Also, I never matched this up the first time around, but Horace Goodspeed -- the man who stops his car to help Emily and Roger -- is the same guy who helped bring Ben and his father to the island. It's stated outright that Horace gave struggling Roger work through Dharma, but only now did it hit me that Mr. Goodspeed is going to have a much bigger role to play. I attribute that to the drama of Emily dying shortly after childbirth, and the viewer not being in a position to care about Horace getting out of his car.

What we already knew:

Schoolgirl Annie takes an immediate shine to Ben -- the boy who doesn't speak much (and kinda looks like the youngest lad from "Home Improvement.") In a classroom scene, Ben is instructed to "get into position" as a siren blares and the windows start to rumble because of "the Hostiles." Roger mentions an intense shootout while yelling at Horace about collecting "hazard pay" for his job, which leads to a confused Ben seeing his dead mother on the island for the first time.

For his birthday, Annie gives Ben two handmade dolls in their likeness so they "never have to be apart." Ben still cherishes these as an adult. Back in the past, beer-soaked Roger informs Ben that it's hard to celebrate the boy's birthday since it also marks the death of his wife/Ben's mom. His crass response leads a shattered Ben to storm out of the house and run wildly towards the sonar fence that protects the New Otherton compound. This marks the second time Ben sees his dead mother -- who looks very "Alice in Wonderland" like -- in the distance. She informs him that, "it's not time yet."

What struck me on second viewing:

Probably one of the richest sequences in "Lost" history. We're introduced to the enigma that is Annie and her immediate attraction to Ben. It doesn't really come across as puppy love, but rather, something much more intimate. Annie has yet to return in any future form, and her status -- at least to me -- remains uncertain following the Dharma purge. We also get some delicious seed planting on the part of Roger courtesy of his broken relationship with Ben. It certainly fits the theme of "daddy issues" among the island dwellers.

Roger seems like collateral damage at this point, and not a principal player in bringing Ben into the island's mystical fold. On the other hand, it would appear Dead Emily practically summoned Ben to the island for the purpose of leading a coalition. Also intriguing, in her jungle scene, Emily looks almost exactly like Juliet. This could echo the statement from Harper in Juliet's Season Four flashback about how she "looks just like HER" -- meaning someone close to Ben. Anyone read Oedipus Rex lately? Will Ben be gouging out his eyes in no time?

What we already knew:

A defiant Ben enters the jungle and brings a white rabbit (another "Alice" allusion) to test the force field fence. While in the jungle, he begins to hear the unexplainable whispers. Looking kinda like Pigpen from "Peanuts," a disheveled Richard Alpert appears, and immediately causes a double-take because he looks to be the EXACT same age as he does now (some 30 years later) even though Ben is a boy. This leads to a deal being struck, and Ben being very patient before the planned Dharma purge (including the death of Roger) that eventually makes Mr. Linus leader of "the Others."

What struck me on second viewing:

Again, Alpert is a scene stealer. So little is known about his role, but he obviously precedes Ben on the island, is a member of the so-called "Hostiles," and doesn't age. Key line from Ben that could support a continual time loop: "You do remember birthdays, don't you Richard?"

Time, people, time! But why does Ben get older and not Richard if it's about the island being "stuck." OK, I'm clueless on this one, folks, unless Richard's time travel capabilities/seeming immortality/Ponce de Leon fountain dipping will later be adequately explained. The man really needs a flashback; he's such a huge piece of the puzzle. But beyond that, it could be that no one is celebrating birthdays on the island because time is not passing according to the yearly calendar.

What we already knew:

Locke beats the snot out of Mikhail in order to prove that he's calling the shots in the wake of getting Sawyer to kill his kidney-stealing dad. Goading Ben into revealing the higher power known as Jacob is one of Locke's best moments -- his brazen assertiveness giving him the brief upper hand. But truthfully, Ben is always in control, and having led Locke to Jacob's enchanted (and apparently, moving) cabin, he "puts on a show" while conversing with an empty chair. That's when Jacob reveals himself to Locke by uttering the words, "Help me." Ben, feeling threatened, shoots Locke and leaves him to die in the Dharma skeleton pit. This will later lead Locke to "see" Walt and hurl a knife at Freighter Naomi's back.

What struck me on second viewing:

Still no clarity on Jacob. The ash that surrounds his cabin might be the very thing that keeps him "stuck in time." How else to explain his being invisible and then appearing in flashes? Same goes for his taking on Christian Shephard's form in Season Four. Is Jacob's fluctuating state the same as the island "smoke monster" -- or an entity that appears to scan its subjects before deciding whether they live or die? Are they composites of other dead beings?

To bring it all full circle, in the episode commentary, Damon Lindelof says, "Richard Alpert might be construed as some sort of a Panchen Lama, as he has a conversation with this boy who sees something that he wasn't supported to see, and now I think Ben finds himself in the role of Panchen Lama as he brings Locke into this cabin, in an attempt to sort of determine whether the island has chosen him to be its new surrogate." Hmmm, that's some food for thought.

Also, Ben makes it a point to close Horace's eyes while he sits "gassed" on a park bench. I await your return to the show, Mr. Goodspeed.

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com