Lost Review from Mania.com

Television Review

LOST: "The Man Behind the Curtain" By: Stephen Lackey, Columnist
Date: Friday, May 11, 2007



Scene from LOST: "The Man Behind the Curtain" (2007).

©ABC
Mania Rating
Grade: AStarring: Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Mathew Fox, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell
Created By: JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof
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Email This! One of the things that saved this series from its first six episode run this season is that the writers understood that there should be a balance between the Others, or individual stories, and the beach. This episode definitely lost, no pun intended, that balance. In the episode’s defense, Locke and Ben had a lot of story to get through. On the beach, Sawyer returned with the tape and revealed to everyone on the beach that Naomi was in the camp and he played the tape for them. He and others revealed their distrust of Jack fully to the rest of the camp, well you know, the ones that matter anyway. The whole beach segment was nothing but a tease for next week, which really irritated me, one: because I wanted more of that story and two: because the tease worked, as I can’t wait for next week’s episode. Jack and Juliette walk up while the castaways are listening to the tape and as where they got that tape. Jack tells them “it’s time for us to catch up.” Finally next week we get to hear what Jack believes is his endgame. I knew he had been acting out of character for some time and if the tease pays off next week, we’ll finally learn his plans. It’s still a bit surprising that he wouldn’t include any of the castaways in his plan in advance though.

The bulk of the story this week was focused on Locke and Ben. Ben finally returns to the Others carrying Cooper’s body and he is not happy. Locke is determined to get paid back for what he’s been put through. The Others have begun to shift their support from Ben to Locke and it’s the most obvious when the eye patch man returns and takes a heck of a beating from Locke. No one steps in to stop the fight even when Ben orders them too. I was disappointed to see eye patch man return after being killed by the sonic fence with no explanation. This week we get a throw away one line explanation of the fence not being set to kill. Seems like a bit of a stretch since his death looked pretty convincing but who cares, I like the character and am glad he’s back and the writers gave us a reason for his return.

So, Locke confronts Ben about the promised answers he was to be given. As usual, Ben sidesteps giving these answers but he does reveal the name of the man he answers too; Jacob. Locke demands to see Jacob and Ben is forced into taking him to Jacobs’s technology free cabin in the woods. During the trip, we are treated to a flashback that finally reveals Ben’s back-story. It’s interesting that Ben pretends to have been born on the island when he really wasn’t. He was born in the forest 32 miles outside of Portland. His mother died due to complications from the birth. Could this be connected to Ben’s obsession about births on the island? Also, it’s interesting that Ben was born in the same place that the company that hired Juliette is supposedly located. Why is a 7 months pregnant woman hiking? There’s more to this story that I’m sure we’ll get in future flashbacks. Anyway, Ben and his Dad are taken in by two people who pull over to help them when Ben is being born. After Emily’s death, Ben and his dad head to the island where Ben’s dad takes a job working for DHARMA as a “Work Man”. Ben hardly speaks, and Ben’s dad constantly treats him bad and makes him feel bad about celebrating his birthday, the day he killed his mother. Ben’s birthday is what ties the flashback and current time together.

DHARMA appears to be a pretty peaceful community but they are in constant conflict with the “hostiles” the original inhabitants of the island. One night when Ben had his fill of his father, he sees his mother and chases her to the sonic fence where she tells him not to follow and further. The next day, Ben returns to the fence with the unlock code and he steps beyond it into the forest searching for his mother who he knows logically is dead but he has to search anyway. This is when he meets one of the hostiles. The hostile he meets is Richard Alpert looking exactly the same as he does in current time. This begs many questions, the most obvious of which is was this a relative of Alpert’s or as one of the island’s original inhabitants has he learned to control the power of the island to the point of using to stop him from aging? Anyway, Ben asks to join the hostiles and his wish is granted after he helps them gas the entire DHARMA camp. As Ben grew up he gained a place of authority among the island’s original inhabitants that is currently being threatened by Locke.

Back in current time, Ben and Locke make the trip to see Jacob and when they finally arrive inside the cabin Ben is speaking to an empty chair. Locke is at first perplexed and then angry that Ben is playing with him. Ben is a master manipulator and he does nothing without personal motive. His motive this time was to see if Locke could hear Jacob and just as Locke is about to storm out of the cabin he apparently does hear him utter the words “help me”. When Locke turns and ignites his flashlight the room explodes with energy, Ben is thrown across the room, windows are broken, and a fire is started. Locke was warned by Ben to shut off the flashlight before entering the cabin and now we know why. There was one quick payoff though, within the beam of the flashlight a silhouette of a man appears for just a scant few seconds. When Locke and Ben leave the cabin, Ben takes Locke to see one last thing on the island; an open grave full of the skeletons of the DHARMA people. It’s at this location that Ben puts a bullet in Locke’s chest sending Locke flailing back into the grave. Ben asks Locke what Jacob said to him and Locke tells him Jacob said “help me.”

I absolutely don’t believe Locke will die in that open grave. If the island can cure Locke of his paralysis, I have no doubt it can cure him of a gunshot wound. I think Ben knows this too; maybe he’s just trying to buy some time to reestablish his leadership role with The Others while Lock is out of commission. Here’s my question, why did Jacob utter the words “help me?” Did Ben do something to him to trap him in this invisible condition in order to get him out of the picture so he could become the leader of The Others? Ben had a rough childhood and he was apparently made ruthless by it early on, as he killed everyone he knew including a little girlfriend. In an early scene of the episode he is looking at a couple of wooden dolls the girlfriend made for him when he was a boy. The fact that he still has them, and he looks at them on his birthday to remember tells me that he has just the smallest amount of regret.

One final thought; how do you think the volcano on the island will eventually play into the story? In Ben’s flashback, we see him in a class being taught about the volcano that’s on the island and how it’s dormant and in current time Locke discovers some volcanic ash on his way to meet Jacob. LOST is finally delivering answers in an almost weekly basis and still building more questions and mystery. The only complaints I have about this week’s episode is the lack of Hurley, Sawyer, Charlie, and Jin. Sure they were standing around for a few minutes but they didn’t get anything meaningful to do.