5.12 "Dead is Dead"

The story of Ben and Widmore past is revealed.

-I'm kind of surprised that young Charles doesn't know that Little Ben wouldn't remember what happened to him. Richard knew he wouldn't remember. Maybe it's more Richard's temple than it is "our temple".

-Locke didn't wake Ben last time; Ben woke all on his own.

-The crate. WTH is in it? "just some stuff we need to move" huh? I wonder if Ben really knows. He almost drops it too quick and easily. What do you think it is? It could be guns for the upcoming "war" but it's certainly large enough to be holding a body. Some airlines do put caskets in "air trays" but they're usually wooden; but some can be metal. If it is a body, who's is it? There is some speculation that Locke IS dead and the Locke we've seen is really Smokey. Could they have put Locke's coffin in an air tray to ensure he didn't come back like Christian? The episode is name "dead is dead" afterall, could they be trying to tell us something? Also, when we did see Smokey at the end of this episode, Locke was conveniently absent only to pop in as soon as Smokey was gone. Quite remenicant of Clark Kent appearing just after Superman flew away.

-Love how Ceasar thinks he's the big man on campus. Dork.

-What were they thinking? That's the best they can do at making Ben look 24 years old? A comb-over and Boy Scout uniform? Unbelievable. As wonderful an actor Michael Emerson is... even he can't pull this off.

-Seems they knew nothing about baby Alex huh? Maybe they don't have a thing for children on this island. (Or maybe they do since Widmore didn't dare kill her.) And looks like Ben wasn't always terrible. He didn't kill Danielle when he was told to but then again, he did kidnap her baby.

-And didn't Danielle say that she saw smoke just before Alex was kidnapped? Was it before she went to bed? Was it just the smoke from their camp?

-And what of the whispers Ben warned her of? We need more on that ol' Benny boy.

-I think it's great that Ben didn't bother lying to Locke about why he killed him. "You had critical information that would have died with you" and "Well, I just didn't have time to talk you back into hanging yourself." I'm sure he left stuff out, but he fessed up to everything we already knew.

-I'm happy to see "Island Locke" back. I don't much care for "Mainland Locke".

-I was so expecting the outrigger to outrigger gun battle on the way over to the main island. Bummer. I'm now betting that Ilana and her gang will be the ones to take the last outrigger and will be involved in the shoot out. I'm excited to see which one of them Juliet takes out.

-Inside Ben's house every looks the same, even the game of Risk is still set up just as it was the last time we were "there"; the night Alex died. Meaning this isn't an alternate future.

-As much as they tried to lead up to something big, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see Sun in Ben's house.

-Ben looked surprised to both see the 1977 photo with the Losties in it and to hear Christian's name. Of course, it's hard to tell when he's really surprised isn't it.

-When Ben pulls the plug in Smokey's little mud puddle, the water drains clockwise. Just thought you'd like to know.

-Charles is being escorted off the island. How is this "tricking" him like he told Locke?

-He had a daughter with an outsider huh? Must be Penny. Or so we think, right?

-And he leaves "regularly". Doesn't everyone?

-Funny how Ben tells Sun to go inside because what's coming out of the jungle "he can't control". We assume he's talking about Smokey but instead it's someone else he can't control; Locke.

-Where'd Locke go and why does he now know where to find Smokey?

-Some date confusion here... based on speculation, the purge occured in 1992. This date has yet to be confirmed on the show but Horace mentions to Locke, in his dream, that he'd been dead for 12 years. Since he died in the purge, that would have been 1992. Anyway... Widmore says he's been trying to get back to the island for "almost 20 years". 1992 (or later) to 2007 = 15 years, at most. Is he rounding WAY up or is there more to his quote?

-Ok. So the place where Richard took Little Ben was the "wall" that surrounds "their" temple. Ben knows this now. Does he remember or was he told?

-Ben asks Sun to tell Des that's he sorry. OMG.. for what?!? Hold your breath because we're about to find out...

Ben starts out by shooting Des. Wait, where's the blood? Could he have a bullet proof vest in that grocery bag or is the island just "not done with him"? Next, it's Penny's turn. While trying to convince Ben that she has no relationship with her father, one "Charlie" comes up to deck. We know he's named after our Charlie but as far as Ben knows, he's his Grandpa's namesake. Again, Ben proves himself not to be such a bad guy and doesn't shoot once he sees the child, much like he spared Danielle's life. Then Des' beats his ass to a pulp. Yay!

Anyone else get the feeling that this Charlie is our Charlie? Do Des and Penny bring him to the island so he'll be back in 1977 and grow up to be one Charlie Pace?

-"What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Boy oh boy. We're over the "who's obituary" thing so they need to give us something else huh? There are SO many ways to read into this. We'll start with the obvious, the statue, we'll all assume, is the 4-toed statue. What lies in it's shadow? The Orchid? The temple? The Lefties were standing at the well (later to be the location of the Orchid) when they passed through the statue's time. A little less obvious, maybe the shadow is Smokey. Or maybe it's not a question at all but rather a code. Maybe, whoever Ilana's "with" has a code word and that's what she's looking for from Frank. I did a little research on "shadows" as far as Egyptian mythology goes and this is what I found:

A person's shadow, Sheut (šwt in Egyptian), was always present. It was believed that a person could not exist without a shadow, nor a shadow without a person, therefore, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contained something of the person it represents. For this reason statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as their shadows.

The shadow was represented graphically as a small human figure painted completely black as well, as a figure of death, or servant of Anubis.

Maybe this is reading into it WAY too much but you never know.

-Where's Sun? Why didn't she climb under the wall with Locke and Ben?

-There are Egyptian hieroglyphs EVERYWHERE in the chamber. I've yet to see any translation of them but if I do, I'll post it on the home page.



-The one above where Smokey comes out appears to be Anubis (the forementioned God in the Shadow description) kneeling down with Smokey. He appears to be either taking something from him or giving something to him. I'm guessing he's taking the souls of those Smokey has judged since Anubis is the God of the Dead.

-Smokey (via Alex skin) warns Ben not to kill Locke, like he's planning. He promises that he won't. Is he lying, yet again? He's seems pretty scared... don't think he's lying.