“Dr. Linus” certainly wasn’t the most exciting or most tense episode of the series, but it was a great episode to move the story along and start giving us answers (keep reading). Here are a few thoughts:
But something that I wanted an answer for didn’t get: How did Ben escape from the temple? Last week we left him in an unsettled state backing away from Sayid, and this week we see Ben running through the jungle. Did he use the secret passage, too? If not, how did he get past smokey?
Some future action (don’t know what yet) will reset everyone’s timelines at some point before the crash of Oceanic 815. Therefore, the flash-sideways that we see now really isn’t an alternate realty like the writers have said; instead, it’s THE timeline. This theory of mine was backed up by:
The most revealing piece to me was when Roger Workman mentioned the Dharma Initiative and leaving the island. That was the first mention of the island in any flash-sideways we’ve seen so far. Something happened to change what we know of their past. What was it? And when was it? We also found out that Richard Alpert was given a gift by Jacob and that presumedly Richard came to the island on the Black Rock.
Back in “The Substitute” when we were first introduced to Dr. Linus, a friend of mine and I thought that his teaching subject, European history, wasn’t an accident. For instance, why not have Ben be a statistics teacher or a grammar teacher; European history was chosen for a reason. Perhaps that reason was revealed in this episode. When discussing Napoleon on Elba, Dr. Linus mentions something about Napoleon being powerless on his own island a parallel to Ben on the LOST island.
That wasn’t the only parallel between on-island and off-island Ben. In both story lines, Ben was tempted by Locke and was given the choice of being the Ben we’ve known for so long or a different Ben; he could choose the self-interested path to power, or he could act for the greater good. Both on-island and off-island, he resisted temptation and chose the more righteous path.
Final thought: Walter Peck is still a dick.
Can’t wait for next week!
