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Twitter'Lost': The man (in black) with the plan, Part 3
Hopefully you've found my analysis of The Man in Black's long "Lost" con revealing up until this point. Today? We start getting ourselves a little cabin fever. But we have a short ways to go before getting there. Don't you worry, we'll get there before long.The start of Season 3 found Ben and Locke in different, but equally dire, straights. Ben finds himself in the position of requiring Jack's help in removing a malignant tumor from his spine; Locke finds himself unable to speak after the explosion/implosion at the Swan. At this point, Ben is acting without any input from any higher Island power. Pickett mentions at one point that Jack wasn't on Jacob's list, indicating that Ben's flying solo at the Hydra Station. Why is this important? Not only do some of the Others start to openly question Ben's leadership from this point forward, but Ben feels isolated and alone from the man he so desperately wants to serve.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to reestablish a connection with the Island lost during his tenure inside the Swan, a mute Locke constructs a sweat lodge. What Locke didn't realize is the same thing no one watching the show at the time could have realized: he was communing either with Jacob or The Man in Black, not the Island itself. I think you can make a plausible case that either god-like figure produced the airport vision, guided by the deceased Boone. Boone's confidence certainly shares a tone reminiscent of Cabin Christian or Cabin Claire, but the message to save Eko could either come from a concerned Jacob or a vengeful Man in Black, eager to not let some stupid polar bear claim a kill rightfully his.
While Ben recuperated from surgery, a leader wounded not only from a political but now physical perspective, Locke made his way slowly but surely from The Flame to The Barracks, blowing up every damn thing in his path. Emboldened by Eko's stick providing the correct bearing, Locke grew ever more confident in his status as a worthy emissary for the Island, unaware of psychological pushes from the two titans of the Island.
While still in a position of weakness, Ben nevertheless temporarily got the upper hand over Locke thanks to Locke's gullibility and crippling psychological Achilles heel: Anthony Cooper. Whether or not Charles Widmore ordered Ben to kill his own father through Jacob's will or his own personal vendetta, Ben nevertheless saw himself as the true Island heir due to his willingness to kill Roger. Knowing Locke could never do that, Ben ordered the capture of Anthony from Tallahassee to stop Locke's ascension.
But in many ways, the damage had already been done. Watching Ben Linus from the arrival of Oceanic 815 through the end of Season 3 is watching a man who sees his life eroding at an ever-rapid pace. His improvisations are often quite brilliant, but he's playing against the house for so long that inevitably, his gambles falter. Even with Locke unable to outright kill Anthony, enough doubt has been created by this point by The Man in Black's machinations that Richard Alpert conspires behind Ben's back to give Locke the 411 on Sawyer's connection to Cooper.
By the time Locke arrives at The Others' camp with Cooper's body in tow, Ben's hold over The Others is at an all-time low. Not only has Alpert already betrayed him, but not one person moves a muscle while Locke beats the holy hell out of one of the final Linus loyalists, Mikhail. All this sets the stage for one of the first BIG MOVES by The Man in Black in the show's history: Chaos in the Cabin.
While we walk there, invisible alongside Ben and Locke, a little theoretical history lesson on the cabin. I think Ilana's visit in "The Incident" confirmed that the site was at some point a place that the Island Ruler would visit in order to gain information. The fact that Ben knows where it is indicates that Richard would take him there, and probably park him outside without nary an Apollo Bar to nosh on while the adults talked in the cabin. But in between the last visit Richard made to the cabin and the fateful first trip for Locke, The Man in Black took over the lease in order to widen the schism between The Men Who Would Be King.
By now, both men have been primed: Locke as the destined leader, Ben as the fallen pretender. Couple that with the most important fact: Ben had never, ever seen or spoken to Jacob. In fact, I think we can safely assume that the first time Ben ever entered the cabin at all is in "The Man Behind the Curtain." So Ben's horror at learning "Jacob" said "Help me" takes on added significance in hindsight, shaking Ben to his very core. Of course, we know now that it wasn't Jacob at all who said these words, but The Man in Black himself. He inadvertently learned a valuable lesson in the aftermath of his words to Locke: that Ben can turn into a murderous SOB when feeling neglected by Jacob. Talk about "file that away for later."
Turns out, "later" was during the following season, as The Man in Black got himself a helper, set a new person in his sights, and made his boldest plays to date in terms of finally find the loophole. As of now, the loop of ash around the cabin is still intact. To finally break it, The Man in Black needed to pull of the mother of all cons. And pull it, he did.
But all that next time, in the next installment of this weeklong series.
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.
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Hmmm....I don't know if you really answered the question as to why Ben and Locke had too kill their fathers in order to become leaders of the Others. With the great importance of fathers on Lost, these acts are of huge significance as is who "ordered" them and why.
Also, the button...you don't see Locke as a Job-like character being tested by Jacob? I believe that Eko was right when he said that pushing the button was more important than ever and was a test of faith. A test that Locke failed. Locke proved his gullibility (and his fear of being proven gullible) by misinterpreting what he saw on the video (which was also testing those taking the notes). If you'll recall, Ben tried to stop Locke from pushing the button, and it wasn't out of the kindness of his heart. For some reason, he wanted Locke to fail at this task.
(One of my favorite images from Lost is when Sawyer, etc, happen upon the end of the pneumatic tubes and the hundreds of full notebooks.)
True ChrisK. It looks as if the people in the Swan pushing the button were the ones doing the important work all along. The ones at the Pearl who were observing were actually the rats in the Skinner box.
So maybe the circle of ash was there to keep Jacob out while MiB did his stuff inside? Who put the scrap of tapestry there for Ilana to find, and how long was it there? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I keep getting a nagging feeling that Jacob WANTED MiB's plan to go through. Obviously, Jacob knew what MiB was up to; that's how he was able to get his counterplan in place. However, if he wanted to foil the plot, all he had to do was say to Richard, "Hey, that's not me in the cabin", and the whole thing would unravel. Jacob seems like he WANTS to be killed - it smacks of the whole Obi-Wan-ish "I will become something greater than you can imagine" attitude!
Maybe its a way to end the fate v. free will argument once and for all - Jacob is dead, and if his counterplan works to let someone kill MiB, humanity would then be free to determine its own destiny, free of "divine" interference. Sort of a literal Nietzsche-like "God is dead" ending to the story.
ChrisK: my take on the dads is that neither had to truly die. Widmore made it up to further punish Ben, and without any direct access to Jacob, Ben never learned that.
Then again, it's not that vital a question in terms of ascendance. It's only vital from a psychological perspective.
ChrisDR: pushing the button is important in that it would prevent another Incident, but is pushing the button important to Jacob? I'm hard pressed to think Jacob's master plan involves that button in any way. He might have need of its continued pushing, but there are people to fulfill that role. Locke is not that person.
Andrei: I've been pushing the Obi-Wan thing for a while now, such as here:
http://blog.zap2it.com/lost/2009/05/gods-once-lost-perhaps-now-found.html
Ryan, Where Jacob is concerned, I agree that pushing the button may not have been on his list of priorities. The button pushing was definately a Dharma necessity and the work at the Pearl definately a Dharma experiment and nothing having to do with Jacob or MIB.
OK, I see where you had that last week (although in my defense, I KNOW you didn't mention Nietzsche!).
So now in addition to reading and commenting, I'm supposed to remember everything that was written before? It's all too much, Ryan, it's all too much... ;)
What can't this be: It WAS jacob in the cabin who told Locke "help me" -- MIB had him trapped there. Hurley sprung Jacob by disturbing the ash, then MIB moved in, invented Cabin Christian and started screwing with people.
So you don't think that Locke=Job is an apt comparison (with Jacob=God and TMIB=Satan essentially placing bets on him, Jacob trying to prove TMIB wrong)? For a long time I have been convinced that Locke was in a Job-like position, having his faith and goodness tested. I don't see a definitive argument that Locke didn't need to press the button.
If killing their fathers is not vital to ascendance (or at least acceptance), why did Ben tell Locke he couldn't join the others unless he came back with his dad's dead body? And why couldn't Ben lost the Dharma jumpsuit until he killed his dad? I can't buy that it's unimportant, but I will if you can present a convincing argument.
ChrisK: If you don't buy the argument, that's fine. I don't view this blog as a soapbox to declaim absolute truths from on high, but to offer a forum for discussion. Entries are made as much to spark debate as to share my personal viewpoint. But you shouldn't expect me to change mine because it doesn't jive with yours. Your argument has merit, and I can see deriving a strong overall view of Locke from it. I think both of our takes can coexist and people can decide which one works for them without having to have one that is "right."
And if you read my comment above, you'll see I've already addressed why I think killing fathers is only vital in that Ben believes it to be so thanks to an order that came from Widmore. The collective misunderstanding that derives from that gives patricide its power. Again, that's just my take, given how utterly fooled Ben and Locke have been over the years over core pieces of their supposed destiny.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I didn't think of it as a soap box. And I don't expect you to change your opinion, of course. I was just debating and hoping maybe there was something more that you had to say. Didn't mean to come across as negative or anything, sorry. I find your opinions very interesting, and that's why I ask the questions.