"Whatever Happened, Happened" Half-Assed Analysis

Well, I guess I’m a slacker again.

 

Super Nice Weather All Weekend = Super Late and Crappy Blog Post

 

Luckily, this week was definitely a “light” episode in regards to the required analysis, so the timing worked out pretty well. It’ll be another quick turnaround with the analysis today and the episode preview tomorrow – but better late than never, right?

 

Kate. Since this week’s episode was a Kate-centric affair, it’s only appropriate to start with the resident Lost hottie. I must say, Kate has done quite a bit of growing up over the past three years. All the sudden, she’s no longer the wishy-washy girl that is crying on Jack’s shoulder one minute and then punching and shacking up with Sawyer the next. Apparently three years of taking care of a baby just drains the crazy right out of you!

 

Kate actually made some really levelheaded and logical decisions this week, kept her emotions in check, and showed she was able to put the past behind her and act to save Young Ben. Even better, she actually has a logical reason to return to the Island besides “I still might kinda like Sawyer”. I have to admit, I never saw it coming – but having her make a promise to bring back Claire is a great way to bring the Claire storyline back into the fold (even though she’s Jack’s half-sister, it really doesn’t seem like anyone else is worrying about her too much). Now if only we could find out that the reason Hurley came back is to find Vincent.

 

(Note: I almost wrote “Rose and Bernard” there, since that seems to be the consensus complaint from the Lost Blogosphere – the fact that none of our characters are worried about them, and have no idea what happened to them. But then I got to thinking – do I really need Rose and Bernard eating up valuable storyline time over far more interesting characters like Desmond, Locke, Miles, or Faraday? Heck no! So even though people seem to ask about what happened to them each week – deep down, we really don’t care THAT much, do we?)

 

Aaron. Poor Aaron. First he’s born to a single mother who couldn’t wait to give him away. Then he crashes on a crazy Island where mysterious Others may have been obsessed with stealing him away. Before he knows it, his pseudo father figure (Charlie) dies. Then his birth mother leaves him alone in the Jungle to follow an apparition of her father – a guy she was never really that close to anyways. Luckily, he makes it off the Island and gets the hottest biological mom on the block – only to have her leave him all alone in a random hotel room, hoping that a grandmother he has never met will stop by and raise him… even though she really never committed to doing so before Kate took off.

 

Yikes. Sucks to be him.

 

But the big question for me is – is this the end of Aaron’s storyline? Although Kate did tell Carole Littleton the truth about the Island, what are the odds that Aaron ever makes it back to the Island? I’d put them around 10% - if somehow Charles Widmore is involved, and Aaron really is “important”, then there’s a chance he’ll steal him and bring him along on his way back to the Island for whatever big battle is forthcoming. But those are two very big ifs – meaning there is a 90% chance that the next time we’ll see Aaron will either be with a tearful reunion with Claire in the series finale… or as a washed up child actor relegated to a life of TV commercials and hosting Lost Fanboy Events at malls around the country.

 

Of course I’m hoping for the former – just to give some payoff to all the hype that surrounded Aaron for the first season of Lost… but we’re so far removed from that storyline that I’m really struggling to see how the writers could resurrect it at this point.

 

See you at Lost-Con 2020, Aaron.

 

Love Rhombus. Speaking of storylines that might be ending, this episode has me wondering – is this the end of the Love Rhombus between Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet? This week seemed to drop two huge bombs on the Rhombus.

• Kate told Jack “I don’t like the new Jack”. Jack responds “You didn’t like the old Jack either.”
• Sawyer decides to help take Young Ben to the Others, risking blowing the cover on this perfect life with Dharma. But in a huge twist, it wasn’t because he wanted to help Kate out (which may indicate there were still feelings there), but because Juliet asked him to (albeit, using Kate’s words).

 

So it seems to me that we’ve actually got some true love going on between Juliet and Sawyer… and it seems to me that the newly matured Kate finally realizes that she and Jack just aren’t right for each other. Television history has always taught us that twisty relationships like these don’t ever work themselves out before the series finale (see: Friends, Dawson’s Creek, The Wonder Years, Perfect Strangers) – but wouldn’t it be just like Lost to be a little different, and resolve this storyline nearly a season and a half remaining?

 

Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic… and if Buffy the Vampire Slayer taught me nothing else, it’s that when characters find happy love – one of them is doomed to die before season end. But I have to admit, I’m pulling for Sawyer and Juliet to end up together, Jack to become a disciple of Locke on the Island, and Kate to move to Cincinnati and attempt to seduce me away from my wife (unsuccessfully, of course – if KB is reading this).

 

(Note: Really, can you blame Kate for leaving Jack? He gets out of a shower and puts his shirt on without drying off first? Are you serious? That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen on Lost ever! Who does that?!)

 

Benjamin Linus. This brings us to the major discussion point from the episode – Richard Alpert taking Benjamin Linus to the Temple. Are you kidding me? The words “Alpert”, “Benjamin” and “Temple” all in the same sentence? It’s a Lost nerd’s dream! Points to ponder:

 

Did Juliet know that the Others had this magical ability to bring people back from the dead, even thought it comes at the cost of innocence? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, she knows more than she is letting on – but I can’t figure out why. What harm would there be in telling our Survivors (especially someone like Sawyer) all the secrets she knows about the Others from her time with them? Does she think she is protecting them? Or maybe Juliet really doesn’t know that much, and thought about asking the Others to help Young Ben as a last ditch effort? I love Juliet… but I still don’t know if I trust her.

 

Why did Ben’s wound move from the left side of his body to the right? Initially, I would chalk this up to a mistake in the costume / special effects department… except I have to think that they would have filmed the final scenes of “He’s Our You” (with Sayid shooting Ben) and the first scenes of “Whatever Happened, Happened” (with Jin picking Ben up), right? Wouldn’t that have been way easier than setting up that scene the exact same way twice? If this is the case, it would mean someone would have to put a bullet hole in the left side of Ben’s jacket, have him fall down – then cut scene, have him switch jackets to one with blood on the right side – and continue. That’s being intentionally inconsistent, which I don’t buy for Lost.

 

Instead, I’m going to assume this is an example of the Island not letting someone die until it’s damn well ready for them to die. So although Sayid – an expert assassin – shot Ben in the heart, the Island slid that wound just a little to the right using magic Island powers. It’s a small enough change that the characters on the show wouldn’t notice it (which would make them suddenly start thinking that Ben is invincible), but major enough to save Ben’s life. I’m stretching here, but it’s the best I can come up with.

 

The biggest point of debate from the episode concerned these lines from Richard Alpert: "If I take him, he's not ever going to be the same again. What I mean is that he'll forget this ever happened and his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us." Is this an example of the writers coming up with a clever (read: cheap) excuse for why Ben never mentioned knowing our Survivors when he interacted with them in Season Two?  Is this an excuse for how sweet Young Ben turns into evil Grownup Ben? I have a hard time believing that the writers would spend three episodes showing us how terrible Young Ben’s life was (which provides a very logical explanation for how and why he could be a part of the Purge) only to have it actually mean nothing – and explain his personality on some Temple Magic. In fact, I think we’ve done a decent job in our pervious analysis of justifying why Ben wouldn’t have referenced knowing our Survivors in Season Two (like it would blow his cover, take away his strategic advantage over our Survivors, etc) where people weren’t really questioning it anymore – at least not as much as they are complaining about the lack of Rose and Bernard this season.

 

Here’s how I interpreted Richard’s words:

 

“If I take him, he’s not ever going to be the same again” = If I take him, he’s going to turn into a devout follower of the Religion of Island, just like CFL’s crew.

 

“What I mean is that he’ll forget this ever happened and his innocence will be gone” = He won’t know why he’s suddenly a devout follower of the Religion of Island, but his childhood innocence will be gone and he’ll suddenly be consumed with the life and death struggle to protect the Island.

 

“He will always be one of us” = There’s no undoing this. It’s not BF, it’s BFF.

 

This means that Ben is still going to have the knowledge about what a jerk his dad was (although the writers did their best this week to make us feel sorry for him), which would explain why he felt the need to personally kill him in the Purge. It would mean he’s going to remember Sayid shooting him, which would explain why he used Sayid as an assassin to turn him into the one thing he didn’t want to become – a killer – because payback is a bitch. It would also mean that there’s a reason for all his cryptic speeches to our Survivors over the years – because he knows what they would become when they grow up… and end up back in 1977.

 

(Note: there’s always the chance that I’m totally wrong and the Lost writers are taking the easy way out with Ben losing his memory and becoming an mindless Island Zealot. Maybe it was really nice weather in Hollywood and they slacked on their writing duties this past week just like me on this Blog…)

 

Widmore. Finally, we seemingly got our confirmation that Charles Widmore ascended to the role of “Leader of the Others” by 1977, and Ellie was his right hand man (woman).

 

Random Other: "You shouldn't do this without asking Ellie. If Charles finds out..."

Alpert: "I don't answer to either of them."

 

So, in 1954 Widmore was an up and coming Other. When Widmore talked to Locke in 2007, he told him that he was leader of the Others for 30 years. Miles said that Widmore had been looking for the Island for 20 years. This would mean that Widmore stops being the leader of the Others sometime in the 1980’s… conveniently right after these events with Benjamin Linus take place. He then spends the next twenty years off-Island looking for the Island, which leads us up to the events of 2004 with the Freighters. It’s looking like all our earlier theories about Widmore being “tricked” into leaving the Island by Ben are coming true after all! It also looks like there is at least some divide among the Others between those who think like Alpert, and those who think like Ben.

 

For a brief refresher of those earlier theories, revisit the “Jughead” Analysis here: http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2009/01/jughead-analysis.html

 

 

Okay – sorry for mailing it in this week guys. I promise to try and do better next time.

 

Until tomorrow!

 

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