Monsters of Television

“It was on this island that everything changed.”

This may be the best, most compelling episode (yet) of the final season of Lost, for many reasons.

"You were larger than life, you came and you conquered..."

It’s an episode that provides even more nuance to Benjamin Linus, a character that’s been going strong for seasons now, and who knew that there was much nuance left to be mined (obviously Michael Emerson, thus proving, yet again, his acting ability).

It’s an episode that gave even more weight to the flash-sideways structure than any previous one, one that navigates ideas about destiny and choice, and manages to provide redemption for a character who has done horrible things (never mind that fans had long since forgiven Ben Linus anything based on the sheer amount of charisma the character has).

But the episode also begins to map out the season’s most compelling new character, Richard, while still providing a bit of meta commentary, though this time significantly more subtle than in “Lighthouse.”  After last week’s episode that emphasized the big picture narrative of Smocke’s goals to leave the Island, to see what the Island means to a man who who wanted to protect it, and himself, it made for damn fine television.

Ben has not had an easy journey. His desire to protect the Island has always been driven by his own desire to be appreciated, to be loved. The Island (or Jacob) never wanted Benjamin Linus, and he seems to have become a means to an end, a way to get candidates to the Island (would Flight 815 have crashed if Ben hadn’t motivated the purge?). He played his part, only to finally bring about all the trouble that is now occurring (and perhaps that was his part in all of this in the long run?).

And this season has found Ben a different Benjamin Linus than before. No schemes, no one step ahead of everyone, no lies from his lips proving effective. While I’ve longed for Ben to being to working toward a measure of revenge against Smocke, this episode has done away with that (though I have no doubt that it will be Ben who dispatches Smocke in some fashion). It shows Ben where he has slowly been getting to: broken, angry, confused, and struggling for meaning. In many ways, Ben has become the man John Locke was before John Locke crashed on the Island. I ultimately want, more than Ben to have revenge, for Ben to have peace.

And I believe Ben has made that decision as well. Forced to dig one’s own grave is probably a sobering experience, and has one reflect on their own mortality. That Ben, once discovering he has a place with Ilana, makes the decision to go with her, and not with Smocke, signals his desire not only to redeem himself for killing Jacob, but to work with the Island and not use the Island, to protect it from Smocke.

It’s an decision reinforced by the flash-sideways. The parallels aren’t subtle, as Dr. Linus (what a wonderful way for me to differentiate between the two Bens) seeks to gain control of his school to make it better by blackmailing the school principal (played by William Atherton, turning his normal jackass character into a resigned, but not beaten, jackass character). But like Ben, Dr. Linus is faced with a choice: sacrifice Alex’s (as a student of his) future or gain control of the school in hopes of improving it.  Dr. Linus chooses Alex over maintaining his power (he even gives up his parking space to Arzt, who helped with the blackmail scheme).

This flash-sideways also plays out the idea of fate over choice. Dr. Linus is able to make a decision, free of the Island’s guiding influence (he was on the Island, but left before it went underwater). He’s the man that Ben, deep down, always wanted to be, and manages to be. His connection to Alex (Rousseau got off the Island, too?) is not overplayed, no flash of recognition, no idea of why he cares so much about this one girl.

Holding all this together is Michael Emerson. If the entire episode has been him digging in the sand, I would’ve watched that and called it brilliance. Because it would’ve been. The apology near the end of the episode is tear-inducing as Emerson perfectly captures a man with nothing to live for, but desperately trying to find something to cling to. I keep wavering on who should get a Emmy this season, but it really needs to be Emerson for this episode.

But doing a fair amount of legwork himself is Nestor Carbonell as Richard. More than anyone in the cast, Carbonell is in the weeds in terms of motivation, but he also high narrative expectations. Richard holds so much knowledge and backstory about the Island’s history that that character could be an expo-speak character, but the writers have wisely put Richard in a position where none of that matters for the character. Instead, Richard struggles with suddenly being a man who put his faith in a man with a supposed plan, only to have that rug pulled out from under him, and no idea of what should have happened or will happen next. Carbonell manages to have made the swing from mysterious yet comforting to mysterious yet insane without missing a beat (thank goodness for people not watching Cane).

Again, an audience surrogate is provided (albeit one with plenty of answers). Richard knows that there was some plan, just as many audiences members know there’s a plan for the show, an endgame. Much like the dynamite, we know that the fuse, no matter how long, wasn’t going to go off because the story isn’t finished yet (and contractual immortality). While we could think of that fuse as the revelations that just stop shy of occurring, we could also view it as the audience settling in for the final tale of what’s to come. And that’s the one I like to go with.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Did anyone else know that Mario Van Peebles was directing a Lost episode?! That floored me.
• I can’t believe I’m going to say this, as sick of them as I became, but I genuinely missed the slow-mo, Giacchino scored beach reunions. (Sun’s no longer angry at Jack now that she knows Jin’s alive, I guess…)
• Good for Miles getting those diamonds, and properly using the term jabronis.
• Smocke’s freeing of Ben with a gesture elicited a scoff of deus ex machina from me. My girlfriend (wisely?) asked, “Is it really a deus ex machina when they’re every where?” Is it?
• When they revealed that Atherton’s principal was having an affair with the school nurse, I wondered how it was possible since “this man has no dick.”