Lost (Episode 320) The Man Behind the Curtain

Written by six from the blog The Lost Chronicles on 26 Jul 2007
Favourite this post

Episode 320
The Man Behind the Curtain

This is really difficult, really very difficult.
My thoughts are so all over the place that I’m finding it challenging to actually put down something on paper. I’ve been thinking about this ever since the episode aired (as one does tend to do with an episode of Lost) and I am still at a loss. This is undoubtedly one the best episodes of the entire series.

If I tell you that I have been sitting here for over 2 hours, trying to compose a coherent sentence, would you believe me? I just cannot find the words to attempt this one. All I can say now is... Oh My God. What the hell was that!!!!

I think that the most obvious thing to discuss first would be Jacob - the invisible, scary Jacob who lives in a little hut surrounded by mysterious grayish sand/ash. The very same Jacob that Benry seems terrified of. That very same Jacob who asks Locke to “Help him”

The appearance of Jacob (and I use that word so lightly) changes things. Gone are the days when we can fool ourselves into believing that there is a logical explanation for everything that has happened on the island. All logic has been purged, and the supernatural now resides in its place.

I admit I didn’t see Jacob when he appeared on screen. It happened so quickly. But here’s a screen capture of him. Did you see him??

Does this Jacob exist? I think so. I thought so before he spoke to Locke and before we saw him. Benry might be a lot of things – an excellent actor, a terrible and terrifying leader, a liar; but he could not disguise his fear of Jacob. Benry was positively terrified at the thought of going to Jacob when he had not been summoned.

So, the question is – who is Jacob? What is Jacob?
I’m sure, that in the true spirit of Lost, we won’t know the answer anytime soon.

I am sure, however, that Benry shot Locke on Jacob’s orders. When Benry emerges out of that hut after the terrifying, confusing happenings around Jacob, Benry himself seems terrified. My theory is that Jacob told Benry to shoot Locke. Jacob, being the paranormal thing that he is, knows that Locke was not the person who killed Cooper, and this is a test to see if Locke really is as connected to the island as Locke believes he is.

Of course the glaring flaw in this theory is that Jacob asks Locke to “help him”. Sigh.

So now Locke is lying dying in that horrible pit containing the skeletons of the Dharma-ites. That pit reminds me so much of images of World War II. What I find so disturbing is that the pit was never covered up. The bodies are just lying there, for everyone to see. Why? As a warning perhaps?

Anyway, I don’t believe, not for a moment, that Locke will not be healed. I believe that he will survive, and I think that Locke and Benry are now engaged in a power struggle.

Benry’s flashbacks were quite insightful. He was not born on the island, as he’s been pretending to. Benry’s father, Roger (i.e., Roger Work Man from Tricia Tanaka is dead) was recruited by Dharma and brought to the island where Ben grew up. For some reason, I believed Benry when he said that he’d been born on the island. Shows how much I know.

I never thought I’d see the day that I would feel sorry for Benry, but I did sympathize with little Benry. He now joins the long list of characters on this show that have daddy issues.

To cut a long story short, Benry runs away after he sees his dead mother. He meets one of the “hostiles” in the jungle who looks exactly like Richard (let’s call him Richard1) and says that he doesn’t want to return to the Dharma village. But he does, and years later, participates in the “Purge” of the Dharma-ites. Benry kills his father. At this point we see someone who looks like Richard again – Richard2.

Interesting. How does Benry assume leadership of the Others? Who are these Richard look-alikes? Is it the same person? And if it is the same person, why has he not aged?? Is there a fountain of youth on the island?

Meanwhile, on the other end of the island, Jackass reveals that he is aware of what Benry is planning. Juliet’s apparently confided him him. Ooh. How I want to wipe that smug, know-it-all, “I-am-the-man” look from Jackass’s face. Argh!!! He infuriates me! We saw very little about what’s going on in camp, but this will no doubtedly lead to an amazing episode next week.

What did we learn this week?

• Benry was not born on the island as he has been maintaining all this time.

• The Dharma-ites were not the ones who “purged” the island as initially reported by Mikhail in Enter 77. (Although I may need to check my facts on that one) The purge happened by the Others.

• Benry saw his dead mother while on the island. Could he have seen the monster?

• We have seen Richard (or someone who looks like him) in three different stages of Benry’s life – when he was a child, when he was probably in his early twenties and now, when he is probably around forty-ish.

• The invisible Jacob asks Locke for help, which Benry did not hear.

• Young Benry reminds me Harry Potter (Hee. Had to throw that one in). All that’s missing is the scar

• Benry still keeps one of the dolls that Annie made for him as a child. What happened to Annie? Was she also purged?

• Young Benry’s teacher tells the children that there was a volcano on the island years and years ago

• Jackass and Juliet are smug little sods. But they apparently have a plan to outsmart Benry

• Mikhail says his survival is due to the Sonic Death Fence not being set on a "lethal level."

New Questions this week

• Who is Jacob?!?!
• What is Jacob?
• Will Locke live?
• Who are the Others? Where did they come from?
• How does Benry become the leader of the Others?? How did Benry apparently become Jacob’s “right-hand man”?
• Are the three Richards one person? If so, why hasn’t he aged?

So many new questions! My head is reeling with this information still. I’m not sure of anything at this stage. I may change my mind about things once I’ve watched the episode again. All I know is that I want the next episode now!!!

Interesting Trivia

• The opening flashback scene, when Benry is born, is unique as it is the first time we've seen a moment from a character's life that they couldn't have remembered.

• Benry kills his father on his own birthday, therefore both of his parents died on his birthday.

• Marvin Candle is heard on the tape to say that a new code for the fence is given each day.

• The gas grenade prop Ben uses in the van is a repainted ALSG272 CS smoke grenade. The same grenade was used (without the can being repainted) in Left Behind. (hmm. So, why did the gas knock the losties out, but killed the Dharma-ites)

• After Locke turns on his flashlight in the cabin, a silhouetted, long-haired man appears for a split-second in the chair that Ben was talking to and the man is neither Locke nor Ben.

• In the Bible, Jacob has a son called Benjamin. Ironically, the Biblical Benjamin also resulted in his mother Rachel's death

• In real life, Carrie Preston, who plays Benry's mother in this episode, is married to Michael Emerson, who plays Benry.

Screencaps (and there many, as they are too good to resist)