Sayid angrily crushes the photograph in an "I may not be a fucking ninja, but I'm a fucking badass in my own way and I am going to extract some epic, over the top, summer blockbuster style revenge on these people" gesture.
Back at Ben's house, Miles gives Ben the walkie-talkie after explaining that the hostage isn't one of Ben's people who are all prepared to die in the name of the island, but his daughter.
Ben makes contact with Keamy.
"I'd like you to go look out your east window so we can talk about this face to face."
Ben obliges him and peeks through the curtains. Keamy offers to spare everyone if Ben turns himself over to him.
"You and I both know that once you have me, there's nothing to stop you from killing everybody else on this island."
"What kind of guy do you think I am?"
Well, you look kinda ate up, to be honest. I'm skerd.
"Martin Christopher Keamy. Former first sergeant, United States Marine Corps, served with distinction from 1996 to 2001, but since then you've worked with a number of mercenary organizations, specifically in Uganda. So I know exactly what kind of man you are, Mr. Keamy, and we can dispense with the formalities."
Keamy obliges with a whistle. Alex gets roughly shoved into view and pushed to her knees.
(Dirty mind sidenote: I really wish that they had made the Alex character older than 16. Even though the actress is 20, I'm just not comfortable with all the "pushed to her knees" references that I could have made in this episode...)
"Get your ass out here right now...or I'm gonna kill your daughter."
"I'd like to present a counter proposal."
"I'm listening."
"You and your friends... You turn around. Walk back to your helicopter. You fly away and forget you ever heard of this island."
Ben seems unclear on the whole "negotiation" concept.
"Dad... They're serious. They killed Karl and my Mother."
Ben tries to reassure her. He's also unclear on that concept too.
"You have ten seconds, Ben."
"Okay, listen."
"Nine."
"She's not my daughter."
"Eight."
"I stole her as a baby from an insane woman. She's a pawn, nothing more. She means nothing to me. I'm not coming out of this house. So if you want to kill her, go ahead and do it..."
And Keamy, apparently unclear on the whole seven through one concept, does.
One shot.
And if you don't think that Ben started down the road to hero in that moment, you weren't watching the same show I was.
The group paces, absorbing the enormity of Alex's death. Sawyer and Locke discuss what their next move should be. Sawyer favours turning Ben over to the mercenaries. Locke is wary that the mercs have no intention of letting them live either way.
Ben whispers almost to himself. "They changed the rules."
You're not supposed to just kill bad actresses. You're supposed to call their agents and tell them you've decided to go in a different direction.
Locke wants to know who changed what rules, but Ben ignores him and bolts for his secret room. He gets there before Sawyer can stop him and triggers a door that locks Sawyer out.
Inside, he pulls aside a hidden door (secret doors behind secret doors - what's next? A shoe phone? The Cone of Silence?) that reveals what looks like an ancient stone door. Strange writing covers it almost completely. With the force of his body, Ben pushes through the strange door...
OMG! NARNIA!
At a cafe in Tikrit, Ben watches his quarry as he sips coffee in a cafe. When Bakir leaves, Ben does his best to follow without being spotted. After losing sight of him, Ben turns a corner and finds only an empty alley. Then he feels the gun.
Bakir has the drop on him. He pushes him into the alley and roughly frisks him. He asks him who he is and why he's following him.
"My name is Benjamin Linus..."
Mr. Frisky II seems to recognize the name. At least he lets his gun lower a bit.
"...And I need you to take a message to Mr. Widmore for me."
"And what message is that?"
A silenced gunshot is heard and Mr. Frisky II slumps to the ground. It's not too shocking to realize that the whole thing was a set up. After all, Ben is a fucking ninja.
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Comments (12)
I didn't understand why Ben & Locke were taking Hugo to Jacob's cabin when Ben clearly knows how to get there on his own. I don't get the logic there. Was Ben lying to Locke about why they needed Hugo?
1 of 12 | Posted by kellyt | Posted on April 30, 2008 7:27 AM
On a previous episode, Hurley pointed out that the cabin was "the other way", earning a big time stink eye from John. Perhaps Hurley has been granted the ability to "see" the cabin that neither John nor Ben currently have . . .
2 of 12 | Posted by SOCKMONKEY | Posted on April 30, 2008 8:47 AM
kellyt: Jacob's cabin has moved since the time we saw Locke and Ben visit. Hugo was the one to stumble across its new location. Apparently, Ben does not know where it is at the moment. Which is puzzling, if Jacob's cabin moves all the time, does Ben spend a lot of his time looking for it?
What a great episode! Lots of action, the return of the smoke monster, and a Ben centric!
Kinda bummed that Alex died, but holy cow, it's worth it for Ben's reaction. I saw someone say that they would only read the transcripts of episodes now because the show "had become a bloodbath". *sigh* Ya know, we're kinda running out of time for Libby and Daniel's backstories. I have trouble imagining how they are going to fit them in without it looking really shoehorned in.
The Ben/Widmore scene at the end was extremely intriguing.
The first scene of the flashforward - Oh ma gaw, how awesomely weird was that? My little theory is that there's some sort of teleporter in the Arctic. Just as a polar bear mysteriously appeared in Tunisia, I think Ben got that arm wound via an angry polar bear. And hey, according to Wikipedia, polar bears live in some parts of Siberia, which was also mentioned in this episode! Perhaps the symbol on Ben's coat is for a hatch in Siberia?
One question: Do you all think the "Freighter Four" are going to be regular characters, or just recurring roles? It seemed like we were going to see quite a lot of them at first, but they've had little to do the past few episodes. Miles and Faraday certainly seem to have more characterization ahead, but Charlotte and Frank?
3 of 12 | Posted by Merick | Posted on April 30, 2008 8:48 AM
I found this little tid bit on the net and thought it was pretty cool. Gotta love google earth
There is a time portal/wormhole that connects Tunisia to the Island. That's how Ben ends up seemingly fallen from the sky in the Tunisian desert. That's how a polar bear skull is excavated from the Tunisian sand. And that how a small prop plane can take off from Nigeria and end up on the island. The proof: according to Google Earth, the coordinates for 'Tunisia' are: 33 deg, 53 sec N and 9 deg, 31 sec E. The polar opposite of those coordinates is: 33 deg, 53 53 sec S and 170 deg 29 sec W. If you follow those coordinates, you end up....just NE of Sydney, Australia in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, enroute to LA, and not far from Fiji.
4 of 12 | Posted by pauliewalnutz | Posted on April 30, 2008 9:26 AM
I love Ben. I don't care if we were meant to think of him as a 'bad' guy from the beginning, I still loved him lol.
He deserves any and all awards this show gets from now on. No one can deliver a line quite like him =)
5 of 12 | Posted by pixi-stix | Posted on April 30, 2008 9:55 AM
Great recap Grey. Worth the wait!
Someone got new headshots LOL!
I suppose it's not surprising that she'd see a munchkin...er, hobbit after having a house dropped on her. OMG LOL!!!!
I never thought of Ben as the hero. He always seemed so evil to me. But I look forward to more of your hero hypothesis.
6 of 12 | Posted by akgirl7 | Posted on April 30, 2008 10:30 AM
Interesting theory pauliewalnutz. I understand Ben in the desert and the prop plane, but don't see how this theory explains the polar bear excavation. Polar bears wouldn't typically be found on an island in the south pacific or in the desert in Tunisia. Am I missing something?
7 of 12 | Posted by Bryant92 | Posted on April 30, 2008 11:26 AM
so many gigglez taday:)
coconut radio jokes, fuk'n ninja jokes...
shaken not stirred...
sigh :)
aha! nobody else has mentioned.. i know iknow it's really nothing.. but noone noticed the painting, back wall bedroom (of the 'black rock' that widmore won at the auction, when confronted by dez during an episodic timetrip.....
yah.. and whaz up w/the 'we need hurley to find jacob's shack?
sounds like pfffft ta me....
great review.. i have sorely missed these..
how many more shows do we have left in the season....anybody?
8 of 12 | Posted by kikz | Posted on April 30, 2008 12:21 PM
I've been looking forward to this recap all week and you did not disappoint me!!! It was great once again and the comments from everyone were quite insightful. Thanks you guys. I've always loved Ben and those horrible eyes.... Ben deserves the Emmy!
9 of 12 | Posted by chooch850 | Posted on April 30, 2008 12:47 PM
I've been looking forward to this recap all week and you did not disappoint me!!! It was great once again and the comments from everyone were quite insightful. Thanks you guys. I've always loved Ben and those horrible eyes.... Ben deserves the Emmy!
10 of 12 | Posted by chooch850 | Posted on April 30, 2008 12:50 PM
Bryant92:
I'm pretty sure they kept polar bears in the Dharma Zoo, where Kate and Sawyer were kept. They weren't native to the island, but they were there.
11 of 12 | Posted by puregold | Posted on May 9, 2008 3:26 PM
Bryant92, I'm pretty sure they kept polar bears in that Dharma Zoo where Kate & Sawyer were held. They aren't native to the island, but they were there!
12 of 12 | Posted by puregold | Posted on May 9, 2008 3:27 PM