'Lost': The Man Behind the Curtain

There have been times during the We Have to Go Back campaign where I look at the next episode on the list and go, "Screw it, I'm going to review a Buffy episode instead and hope no one notices." But then there are episodes I circle weeks ahead of time, looking forward to the day I can rehash them for you, Lost fans. And this is one of those circled episodes. Crackling with tension, drama, and more mythology than you can shake a Jesus stick at, people.

(Curious what I thought upon first peeking behind the curtain? Check it out.)

The Man Behind the Curtain

4) In Short

"We're off to see the wizard, The Terrible Wizard of Odd!"

8) Now

Ben is staring at a doll in his tent. He tells Richard it's a birthday present, and curiously asks Richard if he remembers what birthdays are. Hmmm. Ben gets agitated upon learning Richard never returned Juliet's tape recorder to the Staff. As he goes to ask Tom about its whereabouts, he finds Mr. Friendly slack jawed. Ben looks in the direction Tom is gazing, and sees John returning exactly as directed: with his father's body draped over his shoulder. John's looking for those Island answers, y'all. Ain't we all.

Inside Ben's tent, Linus pours two glasses of whiskey. John refuses his, intent on learning answers. Ben states that while John might think he's the leader of the Others, that's not entirely true: a man named Jacob is. John wants to see Jacob; Ben insists that's impossible. Moreover, he's the only one who knows where Jacob lives. After all, Ben is one of the last people born on this Island, and only he has earned Jacob's trust. John finds this all a little too convenient, calling him "the man behind the curtain," and then calls Ben the L word: liar. Ruh row. Nobody puts Baby in the corner, and no one calls Ben a liar.

Mikhail runs hastily back to the Others' camp. Locke is surprised to see him alive; Mikhail notes the fence wasn't set to a lethal level when Mr. Clean pushed him through. Ben is alarmed at the news of Naomi. Mikhail wants to invade the Lostaway Camp now, not in two days.

Locke loudly proclaims that isn't possible: after all, Ben's taking him to see Jacob. Oh no you didn't, John. The Others react as if they just heard there's going to be a High School Musical 4. Ben tells Locke Jacob will have to wait. Locke reacts by beating the holy hell out of Mikhail, with Tom and Richard ignoring Ben's requests to intervene. After dispatching Mikhail (get it? disPATCHing? God, I kill me...), John asks when he and Ben will be leaving.

At a nearby river stream, Alex hands John a gun. Ben's less than pleased by this development. "Happy birthday, Dad!" she says. Heh. Ben tells Locke that Jacob will be very angry; according to Ben, Jacob is not a man you see, he's a man that summons you. Locke, mouth full with melon, says there's a first time for everything.

Back at the beach, Sawyer pulls Sayid aside. He wants Sayid to listen to the tape. The two later approach Juliet's tent, but she's gone. Kate walks by and tells them she's already left somewhere with Jack. Sayid's annoyed Kate told Jack about Naomi; Kate insists he had a right to know. As Sayid storms off, Sayid tells Sawyer to play her the tape. There's a theme developing here.

Ben and Locke walk through the jungle. Ben takes care to step over a roughly 1' wide line of grey ash. Locke bends down to inspect the ash, but Ben insists they have to keep moving. That's not wicked important or anything.

At the beach, Sayid's told everyone Naomi's story. They're a little...freaked, I guess is the word? You know, about everyone thinking they are dead and stuff, on the bottom of the ocean floor. They want to know why Naomi's been kept from them for so long. Sayid says they were protecting her from Jack and Juliet. When Sun stands up for the pair, Sawyer finally plays the tape made at the end of "D.O.C." When the tape ends, Jack and Juliet walk in. Sawyer wants blood; Juliet wants him to turn the tape over. On that side? Ben's instructions to Juliet: mark the tents for extraction in three days time. Juliet reveals that she told Jack what Ben wanted her to do the night of Sun's inspection. "I think we got some catching up to do," says Jack. No sh$t, Sherlock.

Ben and Locke finally reach their destination: a creepy, rundown cabin in the woods. Ben tells Locke to turn off his flashlight; Jacob's no fan of technology. Ben lights the lantern outside Jacob's cabin, and loudly announces than he and John are here to see him. Inside is dimly lit, with only a few items visibly seen. One of the things NOT seen? Jacob himself. Ben talks to an apparently empty chair. Locke becomes furious with Ben, thinking he's either gone off his rocker or is having fun at Locke's expense.

Locke turns to go, then hears a low voice say, "Help me." Locke turns around, thinking Ben said it. Ben's look betrays confusion. Locke makes the mistake of pointing his flashlight at Ben, which causes the entire cabin to start shaking violently. Windows are broken, lanterns overturned, cats and dogs, living together...mass hysteria! Ben puts his hands over the chair in which Jacob supposedly sits, and is violently pushed into the opposing wall. As the camera whips back to the chair, a mysterious figure can suddenly be seen. Hard cut to Jacob's eye, smash cut to Locke soiling himself as he leaves the cabin.

On the way back from the cabin, Ben wants to know what Jacob said to him. Locke's still skeptical that Jacob even exists. Moreover, he notes that Ben is taking back a different route. Ben admits that some of the things he's said are simply not true. Example? He tells Locke he was never born on this Island. "Then where did you come from?" Locke asks. Ben tells him that's where they are going.

They come to a mass grave, filled with the former members of the Dharma Initiative. "They came here seeking harmony, but they couldn't even co-exist with the Island's original inhabitants," Ben tells Locke. He then shoots Locke through the sternum, causing Locke to fall into the grave. Ben once again asks Locke what Jacob said to him. When Locke tells him, a sound of shock escapes the lips of a man who excels at betraying no emotions at all. He tells John he hopes Jacob helps him, then leaves Locke to die in the grave.

15) Then

A woman, Emily, is in painful childbirth in the jungle. Her husband is helping her as best he can. While she gives birth to a boy, she tells her husband that it still hurts. Roger tries to carry them both back, stating that no one knows they are out there. Eventually, they come to...a road. With cars rushing past. What the...? We soon realize they are not on the Island at all, as another couple pulls up in a car in front of them and offers to help. Emily tells Roger to name their son Benjamin, then dies.

A young Ben arrives with his father via submarine on the Island. They pass under a large sign that says: "NAMASTE! Dharma Initiative." They are soon greeted by the man who stopped alongside the road to help Emily: Horace Goodspeed, who hooked Roger up with a job on the Island. Inside the processing room, the two Linus men watch an orientation video featuring The Artist Known Now as Pierre Chang. In it, Chang describes how the sonic fence protects the Barracks from the Island's diverse "wildlife."

As Ben scouts the room, he meets a young girl by the name of Annie. She notes that he's new, and offers him an Apollo candy bar. "We can have as many as we want," she tells him. Nearby, Roger receives his work assignment, and he's none too happy to learn he'll be a janitor. He grabs Ben and leaves in a huff.

In the Dharma School for the Futurely Purged, Ben's teacher is teaching them all about volcanoes. Boy, this seems oddly important, especially when Annie notes that this Island once had an active volcano. Things go odd, however, as the earth starts to rumble, followed by an alarm going off. The students are told to go get into position as Teacher loads up on some weaponry near the box of crayons. Annie tells Ben not to worry; it's only the Hostiles.

That night, Ben plays with his pet bunny and hears his father talk about his perspective of the day's events with Horace. Turns out Roger ended up in the middle of a firefight coming back from the Flame station. Horace tells him they've had skirmishes with the "natives," and that they are not exactly sure who these natives really are. As they fight, Ben hears something outside his window. Who should he see but his mother, staring back at him. But upon another look, she's gone.

Ben and Annie sit on the swing set in New Otherton. It's not the rotten, rusty version we've seen in present day, but rather a brightly painted version. She's gotten Ben a birthday gift: two carved dolls, one each representing one of them. "Now we never have to be away from each other," she said. That night, Ben comes home to find his father once again drunkenly passed out on the couch. Upon waking up, Roger sees Annie's gift on the table. He realizes it's Ben's birthday, and says, "Kinda hard to celebrate the day you killed your mom," in what might be the most awful line in the show's history.

Ben runs out of the house, crying. He approaches the sonic fence and stops. He soon sees his mother again, and says the first words we hear: "Mom?" He runs to her, but she stops him cold. "It's not time yet, Benjamin," she says, and retreats into the jungle. Some time later, Ben returns to the fence with two things in tow: his pet bunny and the deactivation code for the sonic fence. Ben tests the code by letting little Fluffers go through first. THERE'S the Ben we know and love!

Once through, Ben puts Fluffers into his backpack and gives chase towards his mother. Once in the jungle, he hears the familiar whispers. He soon runs into someone, but not Emily. It's Richard Alpert, who looks EXACTLY THE SAME AGE AS HE DOES IN THE PRESENT. Well, except for the Joshua Tree-era Bono haircut. Ben reveals that he spoke to his dead mother on the Island. Richard thinks he might have found what he's looking for, here on this one tree hill, right off where the streets have no names. But for now, Ben will have live without him: he might be able to live with the Hostiles one day, but for now, Ben has to practice patience.

Patience, indeed, as we cut to many years ahead. Ben's a Work Man, like his father before him. It's the janitorial version of the Skywalkers, really. He stuffs the doll made for him by Annie into his pouch and helps his father load a familiar looking Dharma van. Ben's upset that his father has once again forgotten his birthday. (Seriously, who is this guy: Richard Alpert or something?) Roger tells Ben he'll make it up to him with some father/son brew time after they make their morning delivery.

As "Shambala" is heard, the two drive to the mesa. Ben asks his father if he truly blames him for his mother's death. When Roger asks Ben why he keeps looking at his watch, Ben pulls out a gas mask. He tells his father that putting up with him all these years required a tremendous amount of "patience." He tells his father good bye, puts on the mask, and opens a canister. Roger starts to choke, bleeds heavily from his nose, then dies. A very merry unbirthday to you...to you!

The carnage continues: in one of the great shots in Lost history, the camera pans over a sea of dead bodies in New Otherton. They are all caked in dried blood from nose to chin, all having dropped dead doing a variety of menial tasks. Ben closes the open eyes of Horace Goodspeed, then greets a small army of people in hillbilly-esque outfits, gas masks, and guns. Richard Alpert pulls off his mask to meet his new leader. Richard wants to know if Ben wants them to get his father's body; Ben tells him no. Ironically, that decision alters his fate in late 2004.

16) The Mythology

You'd think I'd have a billion things to say about Jacob. After all, he's one of the central lynchpins of Lost mythology. That cabin's the alpha and omega of answers for our mythology-addled brain. And yet, I don't have a lot to contribute right now.

Part of it stems from the sheer scope of Jacob's role in Lost. But a lot of it comes from the lack of real information we have about him. Most of what we "know" comes from Ben "I Was Born on the Island, I Swearz" Linus. I spent a good chunk of my Season 3 thought process based on the assumption that he was born on the Island. That was time incredibly well spent, no?

I will say this much: when Jacob says, "Help me," he's not talking about Ben. There's a mutual master/slave dynamic between these two, but Jacob clearly fears the Cabin Christian Coalition, not Ben Freakin' Linus. Why doesn't he confess this fear to Ben? Beats me. Maybe he can't. Maybe he wants to send Ben away to save him after the fit hits the shan once the donkey wheel has turned. There are so many possibilities that analysis is near impossible.

That's not to say that we shouldn't talk about these possibilities, but I feel like what would ensue would be an interesting roundtable of equally likely scenarios, versus a Socratic dialogue honing us in on the reality. Hopefully, Season 5 will start eliminating a few possibilities while tantalizing us with truths.

23) The Moment

Michael Emerson's face upon taking off his gas mask. Watch him move from horror to eerie calm in a matter of seconds.

42) In Retrospect

1. Michael Giacchino's music during the Purge scene is some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. It's the kind of music you'd want to walk down the aisle to, assuming you wanted the creepiest wedding ceremony ever.
2. Not sure how I forgot this, or didn't see the parallel during "The Brig," but Ben would naturally use patricide as an acceptable form of Others hazing. After all, it handed him the keys to the kingdom for a while, no? He's like Montell Jordan: this is how we do it.

108) In Summary

All hail Emerson and O'Quinn! All hail Sarnoff and Goddard! All hail Darlton! One of the ten seminal episodes of Lost, this episode provides something we thought we'd never see (a Ben flashback!), tons of great Ben/Locke moments, and the introduction of one of the central mysteries in the Lost universe. That's 40+ minutes well spent, people.

Next up: Charlie Pace makes a list. And even Charlie hatahs might find their bottom lip quivering a touch.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to join the all-new Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed. Pretty soon he'll have as many platforms as Jacob has creepy liquid-filled jars.