"Shape of Things to Come" 04/24/2008 Episode Discussion

@joanna
<<What on earth was Ben doing there to call up the smoke monster?>>

I have no idea...but the look of the stone door he went into, with heiroglyphs on it, certainly puts the monster's creation as being "ancient". I think I might have been very right in my 200-word theory that the monster was the invention (or maybe invocation?) of the Island's ancient 4-toed inhabitants (and probably their executioner as well).

I do hope we find out how he seemed to control ol' smokey, though!

Oh wait, Ben was wearing a winter coat when he was in the Sahara suggesting he actually just transported from a very cold place. Interesting.

Did anyone else notice Miles has a backpack on? I wonder why they didn't search it?

Oh and anyone notice the shadows on Ben and Widmore's faces when they were talking? The shadows allowed us to only see half of their respective faces in each shot. Was that suppose to symbolize that they are dark and light?
Or perhaps that they are each one half of the other? Hmmmm maybe that is why they can't kill each other?


So does this mean all the extra non essential Losties that followed camp Locke are dead now? They weren't very bright anyway, I guess. If someone on that island told me take cover, run, hide etc... I would run away first and ask questions later. After all the shit they have seen go down you would think they knew that by now.

<<And what was up with Ben just waking up in the desert? Was that some sort of teleportation thing happening? Did he just make a jump straight from the island to the desert?>>

At first i thought when he went into the locked room, he was transporting himself to Tunisia through time because "Widmore changed the rules" - and because he came back with dirt all over him. But then when Smokey came out of nowhere, i realized the time-jumping was probably a red herring.

interesting, though, no? polar bear in tunisia? ben in an arctic jacket in tunisia? the mind boggles!

@Yuni
<<So does this mean that like Michael, Widmore can't die until the island lets him? Maybe that is why Ben and Widmore can't kill one another.>>

Maybe. Maybe it's something worse than that...Michael is only pawn in game of life. Ben and Widmore seem more like the players in the game. And the "rules" about not killing off those near and dear to one another (the ones "changed" by Keamy's killing of Alex) struck me as much more a "gentleman's agreement" than the kind of force preventing Michael from killing himself.

<<And what was up with Ben just waking up in the desert? Was that some sort of teleportation thing happening? Did he just make a jump straight from the island to the desert?>>

Mark my words—and this is not spoilery info, only my informed speculation—we're going to see the beginning of that temporo-spatial jump in the finale with the Orchid station as the starting point. This is also how the polar bear got to Tunisia for Charlotte to find its bones there. As for the DHARMA parka, maybe the process has to be done in a chilled room (for super-conductance required by the beefy electronics, perhaps? This would also explain why a previous test subject would have been a polar bear!).

<<I was totally surprised to see Alex go like that. I thought for sure we would see more future episodes of her and Danielle. I love being surprised like that though.>>

Me too...and the scene really gave both Tania Raymonde and Michael Emerson LOTS of room to shine as actors. The look on Ben's face after Keamy pulled the trigger, like he'd just been pole-axed, was so emotive...pain, fear, betrayal, and the very beginnings of sweet, sweet revenge when he broke the look off...I mean, wow. That guy can do more acting with just his eyes than most actors can with their full selves.

Thankfully, the Darlton has *promised* us Danielle's back-story (and reaffirmed this shortly before The Shape of Things to Come aired...), so we're not through with Danielle just because she seems to be dead. Just another reason to love this show. A character's death doesn't have to be the end of their story...I mean, Christian Shephard has been dead since the pilot and we're still learning stuff about that man! ;-)

<<And I am wondering about Penny too. Does this mean Desmond won't be able to find her even if he does get off that friggen barge, since her dad is hiding her?>>

Good question. I have no friggen clue. All I know is that I feel really bad for ol' Des, brotha! This is not going to make things any easier for Odysseus to return to Ithaca. :-/

<<And what happened to the barge's doctor???>>

More to the point, *when* did/will it happen? After all, the message in Morse Code really said "What are you talking about? Doctor is fine." So, clearly, the Doc washed backward in time a piece in addition to reaching the shore of the Island. Tho it DOES make me mighty anxious to get back to the Freighter ASAP to check in with Sayid, Des, and Michael.

One more observation...I think this episode more than any other one recently reaffirms the importance of Locke to the plot. What's happening between Ben and Widmore is a game of sorts...a deadly one, to be sure, but a game nonetheless. And Locke is the master gamer. Watch and see. He'll find a way to either tip the balance for one or the other of them or else outmaneuver them both. The "Risk" game sequence at the beginning was very telling and foreshadowing here.

@Skylar
<<I was stunned when they executed Alex. I thought for sure Ben would be able to talk his way out of that happening. Guess not. But Smokey! Holy crap...Ben can control that thing, yet we still don't know what the hell it actually is.>>

You and me both...Ben *clearly* thought that Keamy could only possibly be bluffing, given his arrangement w/ Widmore to leave their loved ones out of it.

<<I am ever impressed with the lengths Ben will go to get what he wants and how brilliantly manipulative he is, not to mention skilled in so many things (languages, fighting, electronics, and of course mind f*cking!). His smirk as he turns away from the person he has just drawn into his web is certainly Ben's signature.>>

No fucking kidding! Ben makes for a mighty good International Man of Mystery™, and he's really vicious with that asp of his (the telescoping truncheon). I've gained a whole new respect for Ben. He's clearly a renaissance man—music, literature, languages, combat, psychology, strategy, acting—whose only real lacking skill seems to be in romance.

<<Now him and Widmore...the "you killed my daughter so now I'm going to kill yours" thing seems like a cover up for something else.>>

Well, yes and no. I think that the vendetta for Alex is going to be a catalyst not just for Ben's attempts on Penny, but also for him to win the "game" over the Island and try to crush Widmore once and for all. But I really don't think it's anything more than that. It's just a very long, complex, and high-stakes game.

<<Poor Des! Unless it is a means to get Des to fight for Ben against Widmore (the same way he got Sayid on board).>>

Actually, I think we might find the reverse to be true...Desmond seems much more likely to side with Widmore since Penny's life is something over which they would no doubt agree on sufficiently to put any squabbles about Des' relationship with her aside...or at least on a back-burner. If anything, I think this might end up pitting our two freighter passengers squarely against one another in an extremely sad way.

<<And i was interested about the nightmares Widmore confessed to having...>>

Abso-fucking-lutely! Also of interest was that Ben didn't even question this. Perhaps the "endgame" is taking its toll on both "players".

One more thing...I think Widmore was 100% correct about Ben re: Alex. If he'd negotiated with Keamy and come out rather than calling what turned out to be no bluff, Alex would very likely still be alive right now. Ben, the master manipulator, was outmaneuvered pure and simple, and he (well, really Alex) paid the price for his pride and complacence.