The Episode

There you have it. Again. For those who hadn’t quite got it yet, in this episode you have it again black on white: “whatever happened, happened”. Ben became the person he was because Sayid shot him, because Kate and Sawyer handed him to Alpert, because Juliet couldn’t save him and because Jack refused to operate on him. Way to go, Jack. Way to go.

It’s an interesting way of looking at time travel, and I think this is exactly where the series is going in its final run: the question of determinism versus free will. The writers are trying so hard to lure us into this determinism thinking, but I expect that before this season is over, we’ll be confronted with the other side of the coin. At least something will change.

Endless speculation aside, this episode itself was quite the treat – for a Kate episode. It shall be no secret that I don’t like Kate, but her talk with sandwich making Jack he gave her a tiny piece of his mind with which I wholeheartedly agreed, and that was good. As if the writers were confirming to me that, yes, she is an annoying little thing.

Roger, Ben’s dad, did show sympathy when he heard “his boy” got shot. So maybe we’ve been seeing things in the wrong perspective during The Man behind the Curtain? I’m not so sure, but seeing how Ben will be a changed kid after his visit to the temple, we definitely know we’ve had a big gaping hole in our story so far. Maybe Ben’s dad tried to change things over after Ben came back? Maybe Ben wouldn’t listen anymore?

That being said, I kind of worry about Ben at the moment. I don’t think he’ll make it to the end of the season. He’s kind of evolved into Lost’s own evil Dumbledore, and once the beans have been spilled on our creepy bastard… it’s down and out for Linus. But who knows? I’m probably out of my mind for saying this.

The Questions

So kate gave Aaron to his grandmother. It was kind of the obvious (and fair) thing to do. Connected to that, we now know what Sawyer whispered to Kate. I was right – he wanted her to take care of his daughter and her mother. And I also was right in assuming this was going to be not important at all. The most interesting question in my little list is undoubtedly the last: “What is the smoke monster?”

Now this may sound crazy, but could it be that Ben Linus is – in part – the smoke monster? He could summon it, and Charles knew who and WHAT Ben was at the end of “A Shape of Things to Come” in season 4. Interesting thought worth pondering or just crazy? The next episode might just give us the answer.

In all…

Quite a nice episode. The “bye bye baby” line was unbelievably corny, but that aside I could feel a mother giving away her child. Not that I know what that feels like. Does this all mean that Aaron is out of the picture? Is this the end of the “raised by another” saga? I guess only time will tell – but I don’t think the island is done with Aaron…

Favourite Quote:
Hurley: “Back to the Future,” man. We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he’ll never grow up to be big Ben, who’s the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can’t be here. And therefore, dude? We don’t exist.