Hurley starts to join Sawyer, but Ben gives Locke his permission, via a little eye-speak, and Locke cocks his gun and points it at Sawyer.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"Hugo stays with us."
Sawyer is having none of it. He whips around and points his gun at Locke. "Not a chance."
After a few seconds of the two men arguing at gunpoint and ignoring him, Hurley finally convinces them to lower their weapons. He'll go with Locke.
"You harm so much as one hair on his curly head... I'll kill you."
After a second where he seems to be admiring Sawyer's loyalty, Locke agrees. "Fair enough."
Bizarrely, despite claiming to need Hurley to find the cabin, Locke asks Ben which way and Ben confidently tells the two men to follow him. Ben is comfortably back in a leadership position. A perfectly executed coup. Well, except for the dead daughter...
Ben steps out of a cab in London. He walks into the lobby of an upscale apartment and is stopped by the doorman.
The doorman seems surprised that someone would be calling so late at night, but Ben convinces him that he's really there to see the Kendricks in 4E and that he's expected. Considering that he's got his "I'm a fucking ninja" baton behind his back the whole time, the doorman is fortunate that he's a gullible idiot.
Ben gets in the elevator and instead of pressing a button, he first pulls out a key and turns a lock that enables the "penthouse" button. A beat later, he's stepping out of the elevator in the penthouse and into a darkened bedroom.
"Wake up, Charles."
"I wondered when you were gonna show up. I see you've been getting more sun."
"Iraq is lovely this time of year. When did you start sleeping with a bottle of scotch by the bed?"
"When the nightmares started."
As he pours himself a glass of McCutcheon's, Widmore asks if Ben has come to kill him.
If kill = make love to, then yes.
"We both know I can't do that."
I'm reminded here of the early James Bond films, where Bond would announce his intention to destroy the villain's empire while casually playing cards, or golf or whatever. Again, Ben is cast in the role of hero here.
"Then why are you here?"
"I'm here, Charles, because you murdered my daughter."
"Don't stand there, looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the blame for the death of that poor girl on me, when we both know very well I didn't murder her at all, Benjamin. You did."
So, Widmore feels that Ben's actions forced him to act as he did, hiring mercenaries who kill indiscriminately? Villains always feel that they're in the right, even when killing innocent people to further their cause. Again, Widmore has solidified as the villain, Ben as the hero.
"No, that's not true."
"Yes, Benjamin, it is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night, like a rat, and have the audacity to pretend that you're the victim? I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have, you took from me. So... Once again I ask you: Why are you here?"
"I'm here, Charles, to tell you that I'm going to kill your daughter. Penelope, is it? And once she's gone, once she's dead, then you'll understand how I feel. And you'll wish you hadn't changed the rules."
Think my hero hypothesis is broken here? Nope. Remember that. I have a bet with myself here about how Ben will achieve his goal AND remain the hero. Watch this space. I'll tell you more as the event draws near.
"You'll never find her."
Ben doesn't say anything. He simply turns to leave.
"That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again."
"But you'll never find it."
"Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us."
"I suppose it is. Sleep tight, Charles."
I bet Ben finds Penny before Charles finds the island. After all, Ben's 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