Episode summary:Mercenaries from the freighter have arrived on the island, killed Karl and Danielle and taken Alex prisoner. They use her as a hostage when they arrive at the Others' settlement, killing numerous people there and blowing up Claire's house.
Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Miles, Claire (who survived the blast) and her baby and holed up inside Ben's house.
The soldiers use Alex as a bargaining chip: They'll let her live if Ben turns himself over. Ben thinks they're bluffing and refuses to surrender, but Alex is killed. Ben is very distraught--he says the soldiers have "changed the rules" on him.
Ben goes through the hidden door in his home, goes to yet another hidden door--this one ancient-looking and made of stone and emerges a few moments later all sooty looking. He tells the rest in the house they need to get out fast and head into the jungle. Everything starts to rumble, the smoke monster is coming in a big way and it's attacking the soldiers, allowing Ben and the rest to get to safety. Somehow, Ben's going through the stone door has activated the monster.
Ben and Locke are set on going to Jacob's cabin and demand that Hurley come along, since he's seen the cabin most recently and may be able to help them bring them there. Sawyer thinks they're crazy and heads for the beach with Claire, baby and Miles.
Back on the beach: Jack is in pain, he tells Kate it's some sort of stomach problem and he's shown taking pills of some kind.
Suddenly, Bernard shouts out. A body has washed up on shore. It's the doctor from the freighter and his throat has been slashed. Daniel admits he knows the man. Jack wants to contact the ship, but the satellite phone isn't working. Daniel says it might be rigged to send morse code signals.
Later, the morse code system working, Daniel contacts the ship and hears back. He says those on board don't know anything about the doctor and that helicopters are on the way to rescue everyone. Bernard, who knows morse code, tells Jack and everyone else that Daniel is lying--no helicopters are coming.
In flash forward: Ben is shown regaining consciousness in Tunisia. We learn it's 2005, after the crash, and he seems to be looking for someone.
Later, he sees a TV news report showing Sayid--now famous as one of the Oceanic 6. Sayid's wife has been killed and her funeral is being prepared. Ben is later shown photographing the funeral and a man in the crowd. Sayid sees Ben and runs him down. Ben shows him an older photo of the same man he was photographing. He says this man was involved in the death of Sayid's wife, Nadia.
Ben later makes contact with the man and Sayid kills the man dead, telling Ben he has nothing else to live for now, he wants to work for Ben. Ben reluctantly agrees. But, then, as we see him walking away from Sayid, there's a smile on his face. Has he manipulated all this?
Also in flash forward: We see Ben turn up at Charles Widmore's apartment in the middle of the night. They know each other. Widmore asks if Ben has come to kill him, but Ben says "You know I can't do that."
Ben tells Widmore he will kill Penelope in revenge for what happened to Alex. Widmore says he wants the island, it belongs to him, but Ben says Widmore will never find it.
Questions/clues/observations:* It the
doctor dead on the island but alive on the freighter due to the time anomaly between the island and the rest of the world?
*
How did Ben get to Tunisia? Teleportation? Quantum leap? Scotty beamed him down? He asks the hotel desk clerk in Tunisia what the date is, including the year, as if he had traveled through space and, possibly, time.
*
Ben's arm is wounded when he arrives in the desert. What happened to him?
* Ben is wearing a
Dharma coat with a new-to-us logo on it. Is it for the Orchid Station? The coat has the name "Halliwax" on it. This was one of Marvin Candle's names in the Dharma
orientation films.
* In an earlier flashback, Charlotte discovers a
Dharma polar bear skeleton in the desert. Was this bear sent in an earlier teleportation experiment.
* When Ben checks into the hotel in Tunisia he says he hasn't been there for a long time. He identifies himself with a passport, telling the clerk his name is
Dean Moriarty. This is the name of the Neal Cassady character in Jack Kerouac's novel "
On the Road"--a beatnik proto-hippie.
Professor Moriarty, of course, is also the name of Sherlock Holmes' arch nemesis.
* Is Ben's story to Sayid
what really happened to Nadia? Or is Ben manipulating things? Did
he kill Nadia?
* What does Ben mean when he says
Widmore has changed the rules? Family members can't be killed in whatever conflict there is between them?
*
Widmore says who knows who Ben is, what he is. What does this mean? What is Ben? We know Ben is a killer and a master manipulator. But we're still not sure, in the grand scheme of things, whether he's acting out of some sense of "good" or evil.
* Widmore tells Ben he's been keeping
whiskey next to his bed ever since the nightmares started? What nightmares? What is causing them?
* There's a painting of the
Black Rock ship in Widmore's bedroom.
* What is
Widmore's claim to the island?
* What's the connection between Widmore and Ben?
Why does Ben say he can't kill Widmore? Is this another "rule" to their game? How does Jacob figure in?
* What prevents Widmore from
locating the island?
* Before the attack, Sawyer, Hurley and Locke are shown playing
Risk. Hurley says "Australia is the key to everything." Australia is certainly important to the "Lost" story. And the Risk game seems to mirror what's going on between Ben and Widmore.
Also see:
Lost Season 4 Episode Guide
The Best Lost Sites on the Web
Lost: What we STILL don't know
.
