Trans 2010-03-10: “Dr. Linus” (Episode 6-07)

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“Ben deals with the consequences of an uncovered lie.” Instead of our regular blog post, this week we posted a “Shortwave Transmission” initial reactions podcast, as Ryan will soon be off the island. We include some calls from the LOSTLine, as well as the latest track from The Others LOST Band. We’re hoping “You All Everybody” can keep the conversation going on the blog. What did you think of “Dr. Linus”? We’d love your comments below!

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276 Responses to Trans 2010-03-10: “Dr. Linus” (Episode 6-07)

  1. Yann From France says:

    “I want to go home” meant I want to do a home run!
    Jacob build the team since he watched them for a long time and he will speak through Hurley who will be the coach for team Jacob.
    The whispers are the supporters who are are waiting in the forest for the game to start. Widmore and team MIB against Hurley/Jacob and team Jack… The Finale will be great.

  2. greenberry says:

    Thank-you for another Daylight Saving Sunday morning chuckle!

  3. April says:

    @ Yemeni: When you said “The flash sideways are in 2004. The island events are happening in 2007. Is it possible that somehow, the 2004 flash sideways characters where on the island and when the bomb exploded, they found themselves back on 815 with little or no memory of their island experience? And, that by 2007, they will somehow be transported back to the island with their memories restored? That’s one way to bring the two “realities” together…” … I thought that was genius!

    @Steven in Bathurst: Well put! I totally agree! I too especially want the Walt story explained… it was one of the first major storylines and they just dropped it!

    @Yann From France: You are welcome! It’s nice to hear from like minds!

    Finally, as far as dead people being seen by some, and MIB inhabiting dead bodies, I think there are some who actually see dead people (like Hurley) and there are those who might think they are seeing dead people when they see MIB who just happens to go inside of certain dead people…. they seem to only be corpses that somehow arrive on the island. Perhaps these corpses also need some kind of a link to each other before the MIB can utilize them… otherwise why did dead Locke’s corpse require Christian’s shoes?

    One more “finally”… in consideration of this being our last season… judging by the contributors to these comments, Lost viewers are a brilliant bunch… far superiour in intellect to the average tv viewer! Be proud!

  4. Rich in Cleveland says:

    Watching the Cavaliers & just caught the latest promo. Tsunami.

  5. ScottB in DC says:

    I was struck today by the story of the prodigal son when the son who stayed home all the while, cries out to the father, “what about me?!” I’ve been here the whole time. Sounds just like Ben pleading with Jacob moments before he stabs him.

    The father’s response, your brother was dead to us, now he is alive again. He was lost……………….but now is found.

    Another mythical example of the overall arc of the series I think. Light vs dark, being your best self, just beacuse.

    An how cool was it in Sundown when Sayid puts a bullet in Martin’s chest – that guy did such a great job – pure dark.

    And how beaultiful did Alex get in the past few years! She was awesome.

  6. John Harvey says:

    Wow! a lot of good points about the baseball thing..but if this whole thing turns out to be two idiots choosing sides for a baseball match, I’m going to be pretty upside. 🙂

  7. John Harvey says:

    …upset that is 🙂

  8. John says:

    Coolpeace raises a key question when he writes: “Food for thought: Is Jacob pulling the strings? and has qestionable morality or is MIB pulling off the longest con in humanity? Is Widmore in MIB’s camp here and always was? ”

    Whose side is Widmore on? My conclusion is that he is with Jacob. I do think that MIB is running a long con, but with Ben as his agent and dupe. It is Ben who kills Locke, opening the door for MIB. It is Ben who kills Jacob. Ben seems to be taking the key steps necessary to put MIB in control of the island. I accept he may be doing this unwittingly. Recall, also, that Ben seemed to be able to call up Smokey when the freighter folks were attacking. Ben seems to have some connection to Smokey. For that matter, Smokey seems to be working against the freighter folks, who were sent by Widmore

    Ben exiles Widmore. Ben kills Abadon, Widmore’s agent. Ben and Widmore are (or were until last week) on opposite sides. Ergo, Widmore is working for Jacob.

    Another point in this regard: Ilana seems to have some backing. It seems that she is working with help from somebody powerful. Widmore? She is clearly on Ben’s side.

    More thoughts. Widmore wants the candidates back on the island in
    Live together, Die Alone.” It is Jacob who seems to want the candidates on the island. He brought them there, seemingly.

    Final piece of this. Jacob is expecting someone to come back and wants them back. Now Widmore is arriving.

    The show has surprised me before, but I see a lot of things point to Widmore as one of Jacob’s crew.

  9. Carol from Boston says:

    @john – I don’t think Ilana is working for Widmore. Remember her group kidnapped Miles and tried to talk him out of working for widmore and going with them.

    I wonder if Widmore is just working for himself. He wants control he wants to be running the island.

    Maybe Ben and Widmore are the final two running the island like MIB and Jacob.

  10. Cindy says:

    At rhe end of “Dr. Linus, when the sub surfaced, and for a breif moment, did it look like the hatch of the sub have a smiley face on it?
    I am still hung up on the changing colors of some of the eyes. When Ben is in the sideways story his eyes are brown. When he is on the Island his eyes are blue
    When Alex and Ben are in the Library, Alex says her Mother works 2 jobs. Is this a hint that the Rousseau on the Island and Rousseau off the Island are different women? Wasn’t the Island Rousseau a scientist? I would think a scientist would make enough money to send a child to college?
    The look on Bens face when Alex told him about Principle Reynolds and the School Nurse was one of heartache. Could the School Nurse be Annie?
    Did Alex manipulate Ben to get her letter of recomendation? On the Island Ben is the Master of Manipulation. In the sideways story he gets manipulated by Alex and Lock. (please excuse my spelling)

  11. Yann From France says:

    I don’t know why nobody got those dots joined but: MIB wants to leave the Island. Widmore is coming with a submarine… Hey! How about Widmore is coming to pick up MIB?
    @Cindy: As I said in my first post on this blog. I am a PhD student but I know that a lots of us will end up doing other things at the end… It is a very competitive business and more so if you have a child. It just takes to many hours of work. So it is either one or the other.
    I don’t think he got manipulated to do a recommendation. Either you have a good student and you back him up either you don’t. As a teacher I thought he looked like a good one. And John is more supportive than manipulating… he just told him “hey if you got the job I am with you (and please take me as a regular instead of a substitute)”

    @Ryan and Jen: I think some of the conversation we had on this blog should make it on the next podcast (for those who don’t come on the blog… the fools!) the “Jacob’s touch is a gift except it’s a curse” and some of our interpretations are (I think) dead on (or at least entertaining). And I am suprised that no one seemed to react to that part of the show.

  12. Yann From France says:

    Buddhism philosophy is about letting go of your desires in order to stop the circle of reincarnation/doing your mistakes in a new life all over again. That is Nirvana. Now we see that Sayid who desire Nadia’s well end up killing for her sake again, while Ben who gives up on his desire for power ends up with other things to work onto before reaching Nirvana…
    We speak a lot about the western religions impact on the show but it is good to see they have not forgoten about eastern philosophy. Dogan was a little wink about this. Namaste!

  13. Rusty says:

    Following up on my point about Choices in the flash-sideways world…

    I rewatched the scene from The Substitute where MIB releases Richard. MIB asks Richard to leave the island with him.

    Richard: I’m not going anywhere with you.
    MIB: Are you sure, Richard? People seldom get a second chance.

    That’s exactly what we’re seeing in the flash-sideways. People are given a second chance. They’ve all faced a life-altering decision, and have the choice to do things differently.

  14. Lynn says:

    The previous food product from Hurley in his sleep – Mallomars!!

  15. Carol from Boston says:

    @Rusty- I like what you are saying re: second choices.

    @yann and Rich – Jin and Sun’s gift/curse – fertility? Or was that the island healing them? Jin was able to have a child even though he was sterile?

  16. Yann From France says:

    @Carol: Yes but Juliet said that the Island made man more fertile if I remember correctly.
    Interestingly the Auntie who came to bless them just before Jacob asked about “starting a family” and Jacob comes right after that with “your love is a very special thing. Never take it for granted”.
    Maybe it is indeed Ji-Yong that is their gift.
    While Kate got away with crime, Sawyer got a pen while writing his letter against the con man who betrayed his parent, Jack just saved someone miraculously (first patient) but got angry against his father/himself, Locke has his back broken, Sayid lost Nadia and Hurley thought he was crazy.
    Those were really their defining moments! Their “choices” MIB will ask them will be about those things for sure. Funny how character driven everything finally is… including the lost Mythology with their gifts coming from then and how we can make it work through the seasons. And how the end of the season will depend on them and their choices they will make.
    Funny thing, Jacob apologies “I am sorry…” to Sawyer, Sayid, Ilana, and Locke. We know what happened to Locke and Sayid… I am starting to wonder what will happen to Sawyer an Ilana!

  17. Alex the Greek says:

    Something that made me very excited was MIB’s “I once were like you. I had dreams, hopes.” or something to that extent. Does that mean that there was somebody else who did this to him and made him into smokey? The island itself maybe? Or the kid with the bloody hands? MIB is one of the most talked about characters this season because he’s so powerful and mysterious. Even more mysterious than Jacob I would say.

  18. Coolpeace says:

    I wanted to guide you all to read Doc (Jeff) Jensen’s Lost column of today. I hope you all are taking the time to read his musings because every now and then he brings something interesting to the discussion. In his column today he does just that. We may have all heard that Damon and Carlton both love Stephen King and they have often cited his works in Lost. They also have talked about The Stand and The Dark Tower as having potential influence on the story. Here Doc Jensen’s brings out another nugget which, I for one, was not aware of – that C.S. Lewis also wrote a story called “The Dark Tower”. Gasp, were we being misdirected by Darlton – thinking about King’s story all the while they were referencing Lewis’ story.

    Here is the link to the article : http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20351909,00.html

    Below is the section, taken from Doc Jensen’s Lost blog on Entertainment Weekly’s site. Please go read the full article which I found very interesting. Also, he has a video series called Totally Lost where he discusses past episodes with Dan Snierson and SPOILER warning they also have teasers for tonight’s episode but they are somewhat cryptic in nature (these are written on screen and not discussed per se).
    “…..After all, don’t the producers love Stephen King? Haven’t they been on record as saying how much they love The Dark Tower? The answer to those questions is yes. But did you know that the Master of Horror has something in common with the Master of Christian Fantasy? Did you know that Lewis also wrote a story called The Dark Tower? It’s true! It was published in 1977 — the same year that George Lucas released Star Wars (another Lost influence), and the same year the castaways blew up Jughead. It’s true! And you want to know what it’s about? If you guessed ”parallel worlds,” you’d be absolutely right!
    Lewis’ The Dark Tower begins with a conversation about time travel. The characters conclude that the past can’t be changed. They then find a device called a ”chronoscope” that allows them to peer into the past or future — or so they think. Looking into the chronoscope, they witness a past or future world (they can’t tell which, so they just call it ”Othertime”) in which a devilish character leads people astray, clouding their minds and turning them into virtual zombies. Then a character makes a discovery: The chronoscope isn’t a device that allows peeks into other times — it allows them to peek into parallel worlds. He then makes another discovery: His double in Othertime is a bad guy. To prevent him from doing bad things, he crosses over…and accidentally switches minds with his bad doppelganger. And so, while the Good Guy tries to save the day in Othertime, his evil doppelganger wreaks havoc in ”the real world” and the Good Guy’s ”real world” friends try to stop him.
    How does it end? Wish I knew. I haven’t read the book, just what Wikipedia summarized. Yeah, I’m a lame scholar, but you know what? It doesn’t matter anyway: C.S. Lewis technically never finished the story. The Dark Tower only exists as a fragment of a novel, an unfinished work — a Lost story. Also interesting: Lewis’ story was designed to connect to his own series of Space Trilogy novels via shared characters and themes. Part of me is in love with the idea that those Stephen King-loving, Star Wars-grooving writers of Lost are basically taking the raw material of Lewis’ Dark Tower and building something new out of it. At the very least, I find myself wondering if Jack made the same mistake in ”Lighthouse” that the characters in The Dark Tower made about the chronoscope: those mirrors inside the Lighthouse didn’t peek into the past — they peeked into the Sideways World. ”
    +++

    @ The Jacob’s gift crowd : you‘ll be interested in hearing what they are saying In Totally Lost about that topic. They also throw me a bone by mentioning what I had brought up as a food for thought item earlier in the week above: “Food for thought: Is Jacob pulling the strings? and has questionable morality or is MIB pulling off the longest con in humanity?”

  19. Yann From France says:

    @Coolpeace: funny I said reincarnation fits with Eastern philosophy while he wonders if the writers are going that path… maybe they are maybe not but I think that works quite well with the “Dharma” we have had since season2. I don’t think they are 1religion specific but more all religion embracing as western religions themes are quite proeminent this season.
    The mummy and daddy thing… lol. Just an exemple why people should not write while they are on acid! Drugs are bad!
    I hate rethorical… I can make you belive that it will end in a Baseball game doing rethorical!
    I would say is “exemples” for each episodes show more that it is about “live together or die alone” than mummy and daddy issues! In fact reread his exemple and see if they are “living together” or “dying alone” and you will see who had a “good” end or not.
    Waw is numbers from another book “theory” is even better than his mom and dad thing! I want the same thing he takes… looks like good stuff.
    And I thought I was over thinking Lost… (did he got payed to write this? I want to be payed! … and the stuff he is having)
    ps: funny how he doesn’t want to go to “reincarnation stuff” but he is totally willing to go “Master of Christian Fantasy”… arf.
    reps: the totally lost are usually quite fun tho. loved the one with MIB

  20. ShannyMac3T0 says:

    re-watching The life and death of Jeremy Bentham. Which is just amazing to watch now that I know what I know now!

    MIB as Locke is seen on the beach with a black cover over him. Boy did they hit us over the head with that easter egg.

    In Charles Widmore’s chat with the real Locke off island it is now clear to me that CW is coming and has been enlisted by Jacob not MIB. CW says to Locke “there is a war coming and if you are not there the wrong side will win”. Confusing but he later says the he does not know why Richard Alpert would tell John that he had to die to do so and that he would do everything in his power to protect him. Please, please, please correct me if I am wrong but Alpert is told that by Locke, correct? Was he MIB then or Locke?

    Another thing that is confusing me, off island Locke can walk? He is seen in a wheel chair but that is only due to his leg injury from falling down the well. This is why I wanted to re-watch this ep to see if he is Locke or MIB off island too…… ugh. grr.

    So now Walt is talking to Locke. He tells Locke off island that he was not surprised to see him because he had been having dreams about him dressed in a suit and that there were people all around him that wanted to hurt him. Thoughts?

  21. Yann From France says:

    Funny about the “gift” in Totally Lost (which I don’t agree with them) I am playing Final Fantasy XIII and that is EXACLY what happens in the game. Some sort of god like creature touch you and you get a “gift” you can use magic and you have a purpose but if you fail to do your purpose you end up a monster while you become “immortal” if you succeed. The thing is the god doesn’t tell you what the purpose is so usually people ends up as monster so the “marked” one are considered cursed and are to be killed.
    Wonder how that will play out (both in the game and in Lost)

    I saw a movie sunday that I liked a lot (I know it got bad reviews because it touch “sensible” stuff in the US) but with Clooney, McGreggor (a jedi! again!), Jeff Bridges (the Dude!) and Kevin Spacy! Just the cast is amazing. But I tell you that because the story had “flashback” people with powers… I just thought it was a lot like Lost.

  22. Yann From France says:

    @Shanny: he is told by MIB. He is Locke before being killed by Ben. (As MIB told Ben in Jacob’s lair)
    Walt might have seen sideways… Or he didn’t understood that they wanted to hurt Un”locke” while Locke was dead in a suit on the ground in LA X.

  23. Matt in Texas says:

    First, Awesome episode! I loved seeing Ben get some redemption, and I am annoyed that the ABC promo had me thinking he was going to die.

    This episode got me thinking about an unanswered question from a previous season. When Widmore’s people first come to the island, Ben says that they are going to kill everyone on the island. When Faraday and Charlotte are in the station which can supposedly gas the entire island, they say they are trying to stop it and apprently do. But then Keme’s final orders are to ‘torch’ the island, or kill everyone one it. I felt like we never got a good resolution to who the good and bad guys are with resepect to which side truly wanted to kill everyone on the island. If Ben was taking orders from MIB, then really he and Widmore were on the same side and didn’t notice. Unless Widmore is really on Jacobs side – but then why would he want to torch the island as a backup plan? It seems to me that both side have expressed some willingness to destroy the island at some point. Unless this is explained by the fact that Widmore or Ben were mistaken about who they were following, could this prove that Jacob and MIB really just want the same thing?

  24. Yann From France says:

    @Matt: I think Widmore knows about the Candidates, he took those who were off Island and put them on the Island (as a pseudo “science team”)and then his plan was to kill everyone there then come an the Island to pick MIB.
    His plan failed and some of the Candidates left the Island again… he had to bring them back again and now he is coming to take MIB.
    The only think I can’t make sense with that is Naomi who was supposed to protect the Candidates (much as Ilana now).
    But that explains why when Ben knows about Widmore he asks Rousseau to bring Alex to the Temple because: “it is the only place safe on the Island” with the MIB guys there…
    And yet it does not explain why Ben was able to ask Smokey to kill some of the Freighter killers.
    Explaining that and fitting all the pieces will be a tough (and don’t ask me about “the Other Woman” who said they were going to use the gaz while they weren’t (but Faraday knowing the future might have prevent this possibility by himself) but especially HOW did she knew Ben’s order while she was supposed to be at the Temple and yet “appeared disappeared” in front of Juliet and Jack with the “whispers”!)

  25. Rich in Cleveland says:

    Wouldn’t it be quite an ironic twist if Ben’s summoning of the smoke monster out of his outrage and profound grief is what released the genie from the bottle? This conjecture doesn’t explain some of the inconsistencies, Yann, but you could see it in retrospect as a critical turning point in Flocke’s grand scheme. If the mercenaries do anything less than execute Alex, then Ben doesn’t change the rules and let Cerberus off its leash.

  26. Eric from Sedona says:

    A lot of of points on different topics that as a side effect blow my Flash Sideways Widmore idea out of the water. A pity. I rather liked it. And I don’t like the idea of Flash Sideways as simply the end state. Unless consciousness get merged or something like that. (Still Desmond might have access to both timeliness, if only through memories. I hope that’s true. I also acknowledge we don’t really know if Sayeed’s flash sideways life is without redemption, since his storyline will continue with Jin’s. So he might not get short shrift in that timeline. But I tend not to like “they all forgot everything they experienced” stories.)

    We need a explanation of how (besides death) candidates get weeded out and how much of it is subjective vs. objective.

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