What many of us predicted, happened.
Sayid shot young Ben.
The question, however, remains: Does Sayid actually kill young Ben? This is what my husband kept asking as they were showing previews for next week.
1. The Island has magical healing powers, and dead men walk there (Christian Shepherd, John Locke). Maybe young Ben is only wounded; maybe the Hostiles will come out of the jungle and claim him and heal him. Maybe Ben will walk again.
2. Ben really dies in the past. And that changes the future.
Here’s what I think: First, remember that Ben didn’t actually cause the crash of Flight 815; he simply took advantage of it. The plane crashed because Desmond did not press the button that day when he was supposed to. I think Flight 815 goes down no matter if Ben dies in the past or not — John Locke is on that plane, and John Locke is supposed to come to the Island.
So, yeah, I think Sayid does actually kill young Ben. Along with bringing Locke to the Island, I think the Island takes advantage of certain other skill sets to “course correct” as Doc Jensen calls it. Ben was not supposed to ever be a leader of the Others/Hostiles; he was not supposed to purge the Dharma Initiative; pregnant women were not supposed to be dying in their second trimester.
(For a little bit last night, I thought maybe Sayid was going to kill Ben’s father instead of Ben — maybe try to “course correct” by trying to create a kinder, gentler Ben. But then I thought, “Nah.” He was pretty upset about shooting a kid, too, you could tell. Sayid: alternatively hot and cold blooded. We didn’t get him shirtless last night, but seeing as he bolts off into the jungle, I fully expect to see him running about in a loin cloth sometime early next season.)
So the Island gets wonky, and brings certain people to 1977 to make changes.
Which is not to say that the course is corrected at this point. We don’t actually know if Ben is dead, and even if he is, if he stays that way.
Now what?
I have no idea. It’s kind of fun to guess though!
Will Ben disappear from the future? Or will he simply be someone else — maybe one Henry Gale, who has nothing to do with the Island and knows nothing about it. How does no Ben affect the eventual survivors of Flight 815? How does no Ben affect Juliet? She will not be needed on the Island, if my theory is correct. Does Juliet get to lead a “normal” life in Seattle (Portland? I forget) with no Ben in the future? And what happens to our survivors in the past?
I think this is all going to lead us to the mysteriously missing Daniel Faraday. I think he is the key to all these questions about changing the future in the past.
One of my co-Losties thinks that Faraday is lost in a time loop, trying not to change things (i.e. Charlotte’s death) but inadvertently changing them all the same. I have the impression — and I’m not alone — that Faraday is the one who set up The Lamppost back in LA.
I don’t think we’ll get many answers until Daniel reenters the scene.
Quote of the night: “For three years, we haven’t had buses on fire. You people have been back one day!” — Sawyer
Red Pen Mama 