These two episodes were inextricably entwined and filled in so many gaps, it’s almost impossible to take them separately.
In “He’s Our You,” we found out why Sayid ended up on the plane to Guam (sort of, we still don’t know if it really was Ben who hired the bounty hunter to bring him there or if, perhaps, it was Widmore who was behind it – hmmm, hadn’t thought of that until this moment, actually)…
In “Whatever Happened, Happened,” we found out why Kate changed her mind and decided to go back to the island (sort of) and, more importantly, what the heck happened to Aaron.
And, perhaps most importantly, we learned how and why Ben became who he was.
The young Ben, as we’d already seen, hated his father and was miserable in Dharma-land because of it. His father was a grade-A a-hole, mean and unforgiving. But we saw that when his son’s life was on the line, he realized how he’d mistreated him. If Ben weren’t taken by the Others, who knows if they’d have been able to repair their relationship.
We’ve seen, however, that you can’t change the future or the past, no matter how hard you try. Maybe you change individual events (you don’t even know if you’re really changing them, because it’s all happening in your own present), but the end result is the same.
The timeline is set. If not, and Ben had died, Hurley was right – it would have created a temporal paradox and they would have vanished in a puff of logic (apologies to Douglas Adams).
But Ben couldn’t die. We knew that, because he was alive in the future. Not the Losties’ future, but Ben’s future. We saw it. It just so happened that was the Losties’ past. And because that had happened, Ben couldn’t die, no matter what Jack decided.
In fact, Jack was supposed to decide not to operate on Ben, ironically, because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a reason to take Ben to Richard and the Others, which led to the purge and Ben’s leadership of the Others, and so on.
Obviously, Richard’s decision not to consult with Widmore (and Ellie) led to Widmore’s eventual expulsion from the island (did Widmore have to jump the island in time at some point? Did Ben trick him into jumping the island in time?) and Desmond ending up on the island and the plane crash and the Oceanic 6, and …
And so everything happened as it was supposed to happen. And whatever Richard does to Ben in the temple, he doesn’t remember, so that (very neatly) explains why he doesn’t remember any of this.
But Richard does, and feels responsible. Which is why he helps Locke out. It’s as if he’s trying to atone to the island for what he did with Ben, by helping Locke take over leadership by letting Locke know that his father is the one who caused Sawyer’s father to kill Sawyer’s mom and himself. Did I just give you a headache there?
I still want to know how Richard gets on and off the island, by the way.
The Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet square is rather interesting, as we basically have Jack totally left out in the cold, with both Kate and Juliet mad at him and in love with Sawyer. But I think that Sawyer does truly love Juliet, and he went to save Ben not because of Kate, but because of Juliet. And Juliet felt so strongly about saving a little boy that she knew it was more important to send Sawyer after Kate than to keep them apart.
You could see the pain in her eyes as she told Jack that.
It’s an interesting dynamic, to see Jack so utterly being left out and considered, basically, useless. He’s boxed himself into this corner, though, and has no one to blame but himself.
The Hurley/Miles conversations were totally the comic relief of the night and I loved the entire conversation between the two of them, with Hurley finally, finally stumping Miles. Until a couple scenes later when we get the answer to the question of why Ben doesn’t remember Sayid shooting him. Though, honestly, how do we know Ben doesn’t remember that? Ben never gives anything away. Maybe he remembers Sayid shooting him and telling him that Ben is right, that he is a killer. Hmm? And so that’s why he says that to Sayid all those years later (or earlier, depending on whether you’re looking at it from Ben’s or Sayid’s perspective).
I was so afraid they were going to kill off Sayid, by the way. Glad they didn’t.
And, by the way, I loved the scene where Sayid tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and they all think he’s insane. Lucky for Sawyer, that.
So what are we left wondering?
• What, exactly, does Richard do to Ben in the temple?
• What, exactly, are the Others/Hostiles?
• What, exactly, is the Incident and why does it lead to the Purge?
• How/why, exactly, does Widmore get expelled from the Island? You’ve gotta assume that Ben is behind it.
• Why, exactly, am I writing “exactly” in each of these questions?
Great post! I wonder if Ben will live through the next episode. I didn’t see the whole preview for next week, but he said something about being judged by the island? Hmmm…
Am VERY happy for the choice to keep Juliet and Sawyer together.
But I didn’t understand the part about Kate keeping Aaron because Sawyer broke her heart… When did he do that? I thought it was pretty much a mutual thing, because Kate kept bouncing back and forth between Jack and Sawyer anyway.
I know there are a lot of Jack haters out there, and that him refusing to operate on Ben will give them even more reason to hate him, but I think it makes his character and potential storyline MUCH more interesting. He seemed very happy to not be in charge anymore, and I am quite curious as to what comes next for him… or maybe I just like him naked and wet.
I too loved the Hurley/Miles conversation. It felt like the writer’s were talking just to us in that scene, and it was greatly appreciated.
I hope that the next episode tells us how Ben got all those wounds on his face. They have been holding that story back, and I wanna know!!! God this show is awesome.
I just want to say, “I love Sawyer”! And Hurley and Miles conversation was so hilarious. When Miles pauses and simply says, “hmmm?” – it was classic.
could you explain the whole time travel thing. I don’t quite get whether they’re reliving the past now, or rewriting the past that will still basically lead to the same events happening?
@Dube – I don’t think Sawyer broke her heart so much as she found being without him to be heartbreaking. He made it pretty clear he didn’t have any strong desire to leave the island and for whatever reason, Kate did. To her, that meant he didn’t really want to be with her – and despite her bouncing back and forth, Sawyer’s the one she loves.
@Erika – I agree that the change in Jack makes him far more interesting.
@Donna –
@TelevisionSpy – I don’t think it’s either, really. They always ended up in the past, but didn’t know it, because it happened in their future. Just like Daniel told Charlotte in her past that she should never come back to the island, it hadn’t yet happened in his life. But it was going to happen, no matter what, because it happened.
The way the Lost folks are trying to explain it, however, seems to be that when the wheel was turned, the island jumped to a DIFFERENT timeline, where different events happen. But the end result appears to still be the same.
The idea that the past and future are immutable is common in science fiction. I wrote about that more in depth in this post about Torchwood last week: http://www.tvtyrant.com/?p=319
Once again, I’m so impressed by how you dissect this…
I want to know why Richard is always the same age. Who/What is he?
And Hurley never fails to bring some heart to whatever’s going on. I love him.
@Christine – I’ve been reading some folks who believe that Richard is the smoke monster, which I think is an intriguing idea. Not sure I buy that, tho. I also want to know why he doesn’t age. Excellent point.
I feel the same about Hurley.
LOVE HIM!
Solid post Amy. Fantastic show. This season rules. It is killing me to know what, “exactly,” are the Others/Hostiles?
@Scott – Another excellent question.