Lost: Season 5, Episode 12: "Dead is Dead"

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12:
“Dead is Dead”
Grade: 8.6
Here is my attempt to catch up on Lost reviews. I had been looking forward to this Ben episode all season because well, its Ben, my favorite character on Lost and since we have gotten so few flashbacks with him and know not nearly as much as I would like to about him, this was highly anticipated by myself and by so many others as well. While not a complete Lost classic in my book (I’m talking like top 10 material here), its easily one of the best of the season and of the series and is an extremely solid episode with so many good moments to be had including the always creepy and awesome Michael Emerson turning in a fantastic performance as always.

Flashbacks:
So many goodies in this episode for long time fans of the show (can there be any other kind). Honestly having events that we have heard about happening on the show actually happen before us is so ridiculously satisfying. We see Widmore talking to young Ben for the first time and seeing that Widmore immediately resented Ben’s presence there. We get a younger Ben although still played by Emerson with a very young Ethan. We see Ben not able to kill Danielle or the baby so he just steals the baby. Ben’s weakness is children. He cannot kill them. Okay so Ben may not be completely evil after all. Why? Because he cannot kill a child. Okay so then we get to see why Charles was exiled from the island; he had a relationship off the island (hence Penny’s existence). I used to be so in the loop with what we knew and did not know but I swear I am starting to get so ridiculously mixed up with things here. It’s not the show’s fault; its mine. I mean I get everything that is happening and why it is. I just get confused sometimes about what we know and don’t know and what questions we should be asking ourselves. Then we get the long awaited scene with Penny and Ben’s visit to her. Ben picked a bad time to go because well, Desmond just happened to be back from grocery shopping! And he brought with him an incredibly bullet proof bag of groceries just for safekeeping (joking obviously as we will see in last night’s episode that Desmond did indeed get hit with the bullet). Basically I had been dreading this scene forever because I was convinced that the “major-ish” character who was supposed to die was going to be Penny. (It turns out the reality was far worse indeed). Either way this was still a great scene and I had so much tension in me leading up to this. But pretty much it just ended with Ben getting his millionth major beat down although this one was special due to the massive amount of blood that poured out his mouth underwater. Lovely.

Real Time:
As I have said before Ben/Locke is my favorite interaction on this show. Ben/Locke scenes are at worst quite intriguing and at best ‘edge of my seat’ captivating. The question everyone seems to have is yet again how much does Ben know? Do we believe that he was really that surprised about Locke being alive? Honestly I do believe him. I especially liked the scene between him and Sun. It showed him trying to get Sun to be cautious of Locke because of his resurrection but he also conveyed what to me was genuine fright to seeing Locke alive. Plus how often do we get Ben/Sun moments? Seriously.

Ben trying to come off as friendly to Caesar was very very very amusing. Total fail. What we suspected was correct; Ben killed Locke in an effort to get everyone back but needed information from him which is why he first talked Locke out of killing himself. And poor Locke just wants an apology. When all is said and done on this show I cannot see myself being more intrigued by anyone more than either Ben or Locke. I hated Locke for a while and I still cannot stand him sometimes but I’ve said it many many times and I will say it again; I do believe Locke to be the most original character on the show and his presence on this is never something I will see again.

Ben shoots someone. Big surprise. Specifically he shoots Caesar a.k.a the Poor Man’s Jack Shepard. I am starting to wonder about Caesar’s significance on the show. Is he still alive? Clearly Ilana has some significance due to her fucking psychotic behavior in this episode. We get the first of two times the extremely important (I am assuming) question of “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Clearly stuff has happened within this new group of survivors and unfortunately it looks like poor Frank has walked right into the middle of it.

So Ben and Sun and Locke go off on their journey to the smoke monster so that he can be judged. Another question; do we believe that Ben really did not know about everyone being back in Dharma times? While Alpert’s line about Ben not remembering things if he is taken in by the Others is definitely evidence to support that he does not in fact remember wouldn’t he at least remember Sawyer or Juliet who he had been living near with for 3 years? Honestly information like this is stuff that I want Ben to find out because I truly believe he has no idea that this happened. In which case I’m starting to get confused about people’s motivations here. Which characters know that the 815 survivors go back to Dharma times and that it is there job for them to be there? I have no idea. Ben clearly does not because I really believe he had no idea that he was in the same vicinity as them. Charles? Hell I have no idea what these people’s motivations are! Charles must know because again he was in the same area and with where we are now wouldn’t he see Daniel and Kate and Jack (while J and K have not yet made their appearance to the Others again yet I assume they will). Eloise sure as hell does…omg such a bitch. Still no idea. None as to what anyone wants at this point.

Ok so Ben goes to see the smoke monster. Throughout the episode we get to see a great and refreshingly new dynamic between Ben and Locke and that is Locke being in the dominant position and vice versa for Ben. Ben hates now being in charge of things and having to follow people and it really shows in the episode to the point where Locke awesomely calls him out on it at some point. Also, I just have to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Locke in this episode. Seriously, he just kills it with the amount of bad ass he displays.

Once again I’ll start this paragraph with Ben goes to see the smoke monster. He wants to be forgiven for Alex’s death although he initially went because of his coming back to the island even though he was not supposed to. Basically he is judged and is forgiven although with a warning from the smoke monster in the form of Alex saying do not try to kill Locke again and to follow what he says to do and that he will be destroyed if he fails to follow Locke’s leadership. So clearly this Ben/Locke dynamic will stay in play for a while. Another question is whether Ben would dare to actually try to come up with an alternative plan. Again I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he won’t. I think he will definitely think about it but Ben knows more than almost anyone what the island is capable of and he is far from being a moron.

I must say I am completely intrigued by everything going on in the 2007 story because as I said before I have no idea where it is going. None. In the 70’s we are leading up to “The Incident”. 2007? I have no idea where this is heading; especially the Ilana stuff. Overall the episode just once again proves Lost’s brilliance.