The Shape of Things to Come SE4 EP9

“Oh, so you DO speak English.”

Ben is 007! Ben is Lethal Weapon! Ben is the Freakin’ Terminator! Well… maybe, not so much. I mean he kicks butt pretty impressively, but I just can’t get past that pansy way he runs….

Anyway, a solid, action packed return—as promised.

On the Beach
Jack is sweaty and popping pain pills. He tells Kate that they are antibiotics, but are they? Are they REALLY? Or is this just the beginning of Jack’s drug dependency? Kate even looks skeptical when he tells her—or maybe she’s just worried.

The doctor on boat washes up on shore with a slit throat. The Jackies rig the sat phone so that they can send Morse code to the boat. Daniel sends “What happened to the doctor?” They send a message back which Daniel translates as, “Your friends are fine and they are coming back on the helicopter tomorrow morning.” But Bernard knows Morse code: “He’s lying.” Bernard says. “They said ‘What are you talking about? The doctor is fine.’” Jack is freaking out and is getting progressively sicker. He confronts Daniel: “Did you ever intend to take us off the island?” Daniel; “No.”

When Mercenaries Attack!
Alex is in custody. She is pleading with her captors: they have a baby with them! Alex, of course has a special affinity for Claire and Aaron since she helped Claire escape from Ethan’s mad baby doctor lab.

We cut to Locke, Hurley (holding baby Aaron) and Sawyer playing the world’s all time greatest board game: Risk, when the phone suddenly rings: Code 14J. Code 14J. Code 14J. What does THAT mean, they wonder. So they decide to waste some precious time arguing over whether to tell Ben about the phone call or not. Ben freaks out. It means they’re here.

Sawyer, realizing they are going into siege mode, runs to Claire’s house to get her, even though Ben warns him off of it. It’s war out there: three people get shot, and a rocket launcher goes off, destroying Claire’s house. Sawyer persists, eventually finds Claire and brings her back. This was the only part of the show where Sawyer did not get on my nerves. Listen, bud, you threw your lot in with Locke because you assumed he knew what he was doing, MUST you question every decision the man makes?

Meanwhile, back at the fortified camp, Ben tells Locke That it’s important that he, Locke, survives this. “They won’t risk hurting me. Stay with me if you want to live.” (Which fits right into that whole “Terminator” thing I mentioned earlier. After all the shooting, suddenly the doorbell rings. Our Lockies exchange looks: WTF???

It’s Miles and he’s selling magazines to earn money for college. He’s got a walkie talkie and tells Ben to talk to them. Ben refuses. Then Miles tells Ben they have his daughter. Now Ben relents. Mercenary Martin tries to negotiate with Ben, but Ben is having none of it—he knows exactly who Martin is and tells him so. Martin then brings out Alex, holds his gun to her head and says he will kill her if Ben does not come out. Ben proposes a counter offer: Get back on your helicopter and leave this island and never come back. Martin begins counting to 10, at which point Ben desperately denies that Alex is his daughter. “She’s a pawn and she means nothing to me!” This does not affect Martin, who shoots Alex point blank, killing her.

Ben is stunned. “He changed the rules.” Distraught, Ben goes into the secret closet and (presumably) calls the Smoke Monster, who comes and takes care of the mercenaries. “We need to get to Jacob,” Ben says. Locke does not know the way but Ben says, “Don’t worry. Hugo does.” They all leave the house and Ben tells them to run to the treeline—because by that time, the mercenaries, having been handily dispatched by Smokey, have abandoned the treeline. Sawyer, who has been relentlessly campaigning to toss Ben over to the mercenaries during the entire episode, has had enough of the craziness. He’s taking everyone back to the beach, Claire, the Baybay, and Hurley. Not so fast, Sawyer. Locke pulls a gun and announces, “Hugo is staying with us.” Sawyer begs to differ and draws down on Locke. Hugo mediates and tells Sawyer he will go with Locke. Miles, meanwhile stays with Sawyer.

International Man of Mystery
Ben seems to “vibrate awake” in the Sahara Desert with a large gash on his arm and wearing a Dharma parka. Some obviously hostile Arabs ride up and Ben tries several languages to try and communicate with them and let them know he’s harmless. The red headdress Arab searches him, “What’s this?” he asks in Arabic. “Is this a billy club, or are you just happy to see me?” Ben, looking embarrassed, removes the billy club from his pocket and proceeds to go all Steven Segal on them, taking them out and then taking their horse.

Flash to Tozeur Tunisia. Ben checks into hotel as D. Moriarty(Sherlock Holmes nemesis) The date is October 21, 2005. Ben sees Sayid on TV in the lobby. As he is one of the Oceanic Six, the press is hounding him. “I just want to bury wife.” He says.

So Ben heads on over to Tikrit to be in time to take pictures of the attendees of Nadia’s funeral procession. Sayid spots him, and confronts him. “What are you doing here? How did you get off the island?” Ben says he used Desmond’s boat then turned left at Fiji. Ben tells Sayid that a man named Ishmael Bacchia, who works for Charles Widmore, killed Nadia. We next see Ben in a bar watching Ishmael. Ben follows him from the bar, leads him to a deserted alley, where Sayid shoots the crap out of him. “Don’t let your grief turn to anger—it will consume you. I know of what I speak” Ben warns Sayid “This is not your war.” A despondent Sayid answers, “I spent the last 8 years searching for the woman I love, I finally found her and married her. Then I buried her. Don’t tell me this is not my war. Who’s next?”

Ben considers. “I’ll be in touch.” He walks off with that creepy little I-just-beautifully-manipulated-someone-into-doing-exactly-what-I want-them-to-do smile on his face.

Ben then cons his way into Widmore’s building and enters Widmore’s penthouse apartment. They exchange pleasantries.
Charles: You look like you’ve got some sun.
Ben: It’;s nice on your rock this time of year. Since when are you sleeping with scotch on the night table?
Charles: Since the nightmares started
Ben: You killed my daughter
Charles : No YOU did that. Don’t act like you’re the victim. I know who you are. Are you going to kill me?
Ben: You know I can’t do that. I’m going to kill your daughter instead, so you can see how it feels. I will make you sorry that you changed the rules.
Charles: It’s still my island.
Ben: You’ll never find it.

Desmond’s boat was conveniently mentioned in this episode, which caused me to wonder if perhaps Widmore sent Des on the “race around the world” knowing he would be stranded on the island and further knowing that Penny would move heaven and earth to find him. I believe Widmore may just be vile enough to use his own daughter in this way. He certainly did not seem terribly moved by Ben’s assertion that he was going to kill her. And just WHO are these guys, anyway? That whole scene in Widmore’s penthouse had the feeling of a Dr. Xavier / Magneto confrontation: two enemies who, once upon a time were as close as brothers but followed different directions in life. Clearly Ben has powers or access to powers that are not available to Charles.

Next Week:
It's Jack’s appendix that is troubling him, but are those really antibiotics, or the beginnings of an addiction to painkillers?. Also, Claire will be featured in upcoming episodes.

Preview of 2nd half of Season 4

I spent my morning in the dentist’s office waiting room, but all was not in vain: the office had the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and included in it’s pages was a tasty little Lost article, which I sum up hence forth:

The next episode is called “The Shape of Things to Come” It is a flash forward for Ben. The Sayid/Nadia love story is explored further. We learn more about the Smoke Monster. And a major story line begins for Claire—according to the article “Mysterious things are happening” to Claire.

The episode after that is a Jack flash forward in which Jack’s transition from Island hero to Mainland loser is explained.

There will be one more flashback this season which is “mythically significant”. Smart money says it’s about Locke.

We will explore the Orchid Station (all three levels) and it’s attendant time warping properties. We will see Penny, Richard Eyeliner, and Matthew Abbadan but we will not learn much more about newcomers Miles and Daniel until next season.

The finale complicates the Sawyer – Jack – Kate love triangle with a “spectacular kiss.” It also elaborates on Jack’s flash forward obsession for getting back to the island and why this may be harder than everyone thinks.

We may learn the the occupant of the coffin (though the smart money says it’s Hurley!!!)

I understand from this article that the first eight episodes were intended to set up the last eight. Given the quality of the first eight, and the fact that we now need to condense the final eight into five, the next five weeks are going to rock.
Countdown: T minus 9 days.