My Enemy's Enemy Is My Friend?

It's an ancient proverb which means that because two parties have a common enemy, they are friends. Often described as an Arabic proverb, there is also an identical Chinese proverb which may be an extension of another Chinese proverb that says, "It is good to strike the serpent's head with your enemy's hand." A historical example of this policy occurred when the Greeks were attacked by the Persians at Thermopylae; the Greek city-states put aside their differences and fought the common enemy.

Could this be the case for Ben? Will he choose to align himself with Fake John because he now views Jacob and his own people as his enemies.

It is conceivable. We saw John remind Ben of practically every failure he suffered as a leader of the Others. He reminded him of all that he apparently was forced to sacrifice in his service to Jacob. And for what? Absolutely nothing. Not even a "good luck in your future endeavours" when John arrived to take over as leader. No gold watch. No shares in the company's stock. No "happy retirement" party.

But serving Jacob is not like working for the company for 35 years, putting in your time and looking forward to drawing from your retirement fund. But, like the faithful who go to church every week and drop all they can into the collection box, all they can hope for at the end is forgiveness for their sins and entry to the place they call heaven.

But did Jacob ever promise Ben a reward? Sure, he made Richard ageless, but we have yet to learn the circumstances of that event. I hope we get to see this next season. If there are any other Others with special qualities, please let me know. And I don't mean Ethan and his super strength.

I was wondering if it really was Jacob who saved young Ben's life back in 1977. I've decided that he did, but only because he knew Ben's fate was not to die then and there, Ben wasn't finished just yet.

Was Ben ever destined to become leader of the Others? I don't think so. I think Ben, like his father, believed he was more than what others assessed him to be. Remember when we saw the flashback of Ben and his father arriving on the island? Remember how angry Roger Linus was to find that he'd been assigned janitorial duties according to his aptitude tests? And we see a grown up Ben also working as a workman, which I'm sure it more than what he aspired to be.

I have a little theory on how Ben became leader of the Others. I could be no where near the ball park on this one, but it's all I can come up with right now.

Other than the promise of a great relief from the restrictive society that Ben finds himself living in, the Hostiles promise an escape from the apparent anger and hatred of his father. Life with Roger Linus had been illustrated as dark, depressing and a serious blow to the kid's self esteem. I don't blame young Ben for wanting to escape such a miserable existence and the promise that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence is too tempting for young Ben to resist. Above all else, Ben believed, like his father, that he was greater than the sum of his parts.

But here's the kicker. Ben was only ever considered to be a member of the flock. Nothing more. Nothing less. He was expected to do what he was asked and not to take the initiative. His reward was acceptance within a society that accepted him for whatever he was. The realization that his position within the Hostiles was equal to his position with Dharma must have been one hell of a shock. So, he manipulated and contrived and insinuated himself into a higher position, eventually taking control in a bloodless coup. He exiled the island's true leader and took what he thought was his rightful place at the top of the pyramid.

Then along came cancer. Whether Jacob could have allowed it to occur, I really can't say either way at this point. Then came Oceanic 815 and a whole host of problems. Remember that Richard and the Hostiles were told in 1954 that a man named John Locke was going to arrive via a plane crash and he would be their leader.

It would have been a long awaited and anticipated arrival of the messiah. Talked about often and how a great leader would come. The current, or interim leader, Ben, must have felt inferior and not very appreciated. He had never seen nor spoken to Jacob, didn't have a communion with the island and really, his instructions arrived by messenger Richard.

Ben did all that he could to sabotage John Locke and maintain his tenuous leadership position. He lied to him and lead him into situations of great danger. On several occasions he tried to kill him or have him killed and ultimately managed to strangle him to death. He manipulated the Oceanic 6, the survivors of the crash who were rescued, into returning to the island, insisting they take the body of John Locke with them.

I believe Ben was taking the body of John Locke back to the island as proof that the Others were without a leader and attempt to reclaim the job. There didn't seem to be any other candidates in the wings. Ben's shock and utter frustration must have been disheartening, to say the least. Only this time, Ben doesn't have a back up plan. He never counted on John Locke's resurrection.

He was used as he had used John. He was manipulated as he had done to John. All, it would appear, by John Locke himself. And yet, despite his loathing of John Locke and all that he seemed to be taking away from him, Ben made a choice. Only time will tell if it was the right one for him to make.

Using a common enemy as the basis for an allegiance is dubious, likely because there are probably very few other areas for mutual agreement. Remove the common enemy and the friends are apt turn on each other.

Jug Head

I'm not going to go into a deep analogy of the hydrogen bomb. The only thing I know hydrogen bombs is that they go boom and cause a great deal of death and destruction. I'm not even going to try to relate it to the classic comic character from the Archie series. I read one or two issues when I was a teen, but that's about it. I just want to clarify something and either be wrong or right.

I think that Daniel's plan has merit and could, to a small degree, work. However, he has failed to take into account other variables. By variables, I mean other people's actions. Let's first deal with the plan, then I'll talk about what I think could happen.

The plan is to detonate the hydrogen bomb at or near the Swan construction site to negate the sudden and violent burst of electromagnetic energy that is released when the drilling begins.

Negate: (verb) to nullify or cause to be ineffective

Dan's plan is to render the electromagnetic energy burst ineffective.

Of course, now that Dan is dead, we have a slight, itsy-bitsy problem. Jack, Eloise, Richard, nor Sayid have a clue how to detonate the bomb, nor do they know when the drilling at the Swan site is supposed to start. This left me wondering.

Remember when Miles drove Dan to the Orchid? Daniel checked his watch, then consulted his journal. Written in the journal are key dates and times. I am assuming that Dan, indeed all of the survivors, have been experiencing the time loops over and over again, each time learning a little bit more information that will help them to stop the cycle. Daniel has written in his journal the time Radzinsky's drilling hits the pocket of energy, thus telling Jack when the bomb needs to be detonated.

What? Two explosions of out of this world energy? At the same time?

Yes. If positioned properly, and detonated at just the precise moment, both blasts can neutralize each other. Either that or the island is blown to smithereens and, blip, it's all over. But consider this. A synonym for neutralize is cancel. Each blast cancels the other, and we have a less destructive effect.

Now, let's get back to the variables I mentioned earlier. People. We have a scenario that seems to be overlooked. Remember that I posted earlier that Sawyer drew a map to the Hostiles in exchange for an exiting trip on the Galaga? This is where things change from other times the scenario was played out in the previous loops. What if Radzinsky decides to mount an attack on the Others, disguised as a rescue attempt to retrieve young Ben?

Radzinsky instructs his crew to start drilling, despite Chang's warning. Jack and the others detonate the bomb according to Daniel's instructions. But, with an other than expected result. Perhaps Chang tries to stop the drilling and loses his arm, which causes a delay, the bomb explodes and then the burst of energy is released. I just don't know at this point in the game and, as each minute passes that brings us closer to the finale, my mind is working over time.

But I know that, to me, Radzinsky appears confrontational, angry and aggressive. He has always appeared to me like this. I'm not even sure how he was ever deemed Dharma material if these are the only traits he displays. Dharma has guns, yes, but I think they were purely defensive. We have never seen Dharma be on the offensive, just the defensive. They want world peace. Which is why I have such a problem with Radzinsky's character.

It's not a perfect theory, and I haven't figured out all the minute details, but it could happen.

The Incident - What Is It?

As we all know the season finale is titled "The Incident".

The name itself leads us to believe something on a massive scale is about to happen, and many people are thinking that the incident involves the Hydrogen bomb, the Swan Station and something called Electromagnetism and it all coming together explosively. Indeed, many audience members are expecting such.

But, just a thought, what if the "Incident" doesn't really have anything to do with the H-bomb, the Swan or the infamous electromagnetic energy burst?

In Follow The Leader the last thing Sawyer trades to get himself and Juliet onto the sub is a map to the Hostiles. Radzinsky demanded it. Do you remember? I didn't even pay attention to that part of the scene until today, as I was thinking about what could be the incident.

Then I started putting two and two together and possibly have come up with eleventeen, but bear with me.

We know an "incident" occurred during of shortly after construction of the Swan.
Pierre Chang's right arm is unmoving and appears to have been amputated in the orientation video.

Ben and the Others apparently did not know about the existence of the Swan until after Locke and Jack had blown the hatch door (I am skeptical of this, but I'll explain later).
Despite the gassing purge of the island, Danielle survived, as did Radzinsky and Kelvin Inman.

Okay, so here's my blazingly brilliant thought.

What if the incident is Dharma attacked the Hostiles, a battle ensued and, in the end, neither side wins?

Just a thought.

The reason why I doubt that Ben and the Others didn't know about the Swan's existence is simple. There were enough people working on the project within Dharma, some of them actually wearing coveralls with the Swan insignia, that Ben would have noticed. Not only that, I believe Amy, Ethan's mother and Horace's wife, was a Hostile spy. I can think of no other way how Ethan would have been with Ben and the Hostiles in 1988 when Alex was taken. ClearwaterChica from the Lost Message Boards actually helped me to make the connection by pointing out the elderly Amelia. Amelia. Amy could be short for Amelia. Someone else on the boards also pointed out the pendant Amy's first husband wore around his neck, and how important it was to Amy. Which was the same symbol connected to the statue. Even if Ben himself didn't know about the Swan, I'm sure Amy, having Horace's confidence, would have known and told the Others.

"Uhm, hey, guys? Remember when I was living among the Dharma folks and having babies and sharing pillow talk with their leader? Well, he told me about a top secret station they were building in our territory.....And well, if you're gonna kill all these people, maybe you might want to take care of the ones in that station too. Just thought you'd like to know...."

Or something like that. The point is, the Others utilized every resource they could from Dharma and it stands to reason that they would make sure they had total control of the island by taking out whomever was in that station. Of course, they could have made a deal with Radzinsky to push the button and let him think he was saving the world. There is also the possibility that, with the duration of the term of service in the Swan, the station was sealed for that period of time automatically ( a kind of don't' open until Christmas idea) and, by the end of that time the Others had forgotten about it.

Or not. Soon we will see.

A super-hyped, getting really, really excited Arcticroses.

Can Jacob Be Killed?

The last thing we hear is John Locke telling Ben that he is going to kill Jacob.



Here's my thought on this.



Jacob, like Richard Alpert, is very very old. They may even have arrived onto the island at the same time. Possibly on the Black Rock, maybe even earlier.
I think Jacob is good and that he may have been the original leader of the Others, but Richard staged a coup and chose a "puppet" leader, ruling the Others via proxy as the Advisor.

The ash circle around Jacob's cabin is not to keep people OUT but to keep Jacob IN.

I have suspected this since the first time his name was mentioned and when Ben said only he or Richard have ever seen him. When Locke heard Jacob's cry for help Ben knew he had to act and shot John, leaving him to die in the Dharma Death Pit. But the island healed him because it needs John.

Richard and Ben have been perpetrating an elaborate hoax, ala King John, by locking away the true leader and ruling in his stead, following his own agenda but claiming it is decreed by the real king. Richard and Ben have realized that John Locke will be their downfall, which is why Ben keeps trying to kill him. Ben did not know that the island would revive John and imbue him with such confidence, purpose and knowledge.

I believe the only reason Ben boarded the Ajira 316 flight was to return to the island and resume his leadership of the Others. Seeing the new and improved John Locke is causing both Richard and Ben to fear. How is it that Richard was not aware of John's return to the island? And Ben admitted that the island never told him anything and came perilously close to admitting to never seeing Jacob.

John Locke in NOT going to kill Jacob but is going to kill the myth of Jacob. He is going to pull back the curtain and reveal the deceit and lies that Richard and Ben have been telling to everyone for so many years. They have been using Jacob's name as an instrument of fear to keep their people in line.