Looks like it’s just me (Robert) this week. Everyone’s off doing things and denying their LOST nerd tendencies, but no matter. Let’s re-cap what went down with “Dr. Linus,” shall we?
While it was good for a chuckle or two, the glimpse of alt-Ben as a school teacher in “The Substitute” relegating him to the life of a naggy subordinate seemed trite and incomplete, especially considering how integral he’s been to everything that’s happened since Season 2. I thought that might be the last we’d ever see of him, but this episode took that inkling of a thread and pulled it out to a proper conclusion, setting out to give alt-Ben a touching final bow while also moving on-island Ben towards his new place in the scheme of things.
When alt-Ben becomes frustrated by how the school is being run, he makes a play for Principal Reynolds’ job by exploiting some dirt that his Alex shares with him. It sets up a poignant showdown that mirrors the same decision he had to make in the original timeline when it was his daughter versus the fate of the island. For a moment there, I really thought Ben was a goner but his revealing plea for forgiveness and understanding strikes a chord with Ilana, with her acceptance of “I’ll have you” serving as his only relief.
Speaking of which, his role on the island—at first tempted to follow Locke out of desperation, now willing to stay with the Ajira gang thanks to Illana’s acceptance—isn’t quite clear any more. I’ve said it in past weeks that I don’t really get what’s going on with Locke and Claire (and now Sayid) and the island, and even if that picture is starting to become clearer, I still don’t care so much about what happens. I’m sure there’ll be some big showdown and it’ll be life-or-death stakes, but I still feel like it won’t matter in the end.
Instead, I go back to my theory that the flash-sideways are going to eventually be revealed as being the ”correct” timeline. Since the producers (Lindelof and Cuse) have said that both of these realities are “real” and neither can be dismissed outright, I can only assume—as everyone else has—that it’s a matter of two parallel timelines that have to be resolved. The “what if” question that alt-Roger poses to alt-Ben about staying on the island and how much different their lives could’ve been is maybe the first hint we’re given about where things diverged from the original timeline. That makes me think Roger and Ben left the island before things changed, which couldn’t have been because of any of the Lostie-related action from last season (and certainly not after Ben was shot by Sayid). There’s a clue in there; I’m sure of it. I just haven’t figured it out yet.
(By the way, I thought it was great to see that Ben naturally cares for Alex even though he doesn’t have the same father-daughter relationship with her. And I’m still amazed at how Michael Emerson manages to play so many sides of the same character so effortlessly. In one scene, he looks studious and caring as he cares for his alive-but-elderly father Roger, and in the next, he’s broken and frayed as he reluctantly digs his own grave. Ben has developed nicely from that mousy guy who was caught in Rousseau’s trap way back when.)
On the other hand, the B-story with Richard, Jack and Hurley also offered up some information on the nature of Jacob and what it means to be “touched” by him. Richard couldn’t live with the idea that he’d served an entity that didn’t care about him but couldn’t kill himself because Jacob apparently granted him some sort of “conditional” immortality. When Jack lights the dynamite and refuses to leave, he believes neither one of them will die because Jacob touched him too. That’s right—Jack believes it. And when the lit fuse dies out just before detonating, the question of whether everyone Jacob has touched can die is answered. Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Sayid, Sun and Jin also have this same “gift”. Again, that’s not to say they can’t be killed, but they just can’t do it themselves—like that time they tried to detonate an atomic bomb.