'Lost Untangled:' Dead is Dead

*Spoilers from recent Lost episode*

Maybe I've been spoiled by all the Lost goodness that's been aired in the past few weeks. What with time travel, Kid Ben getting shot and my head hurting from trying to figure out what everything means, I've come to expect to be absolutely thrilled by the time a new episode concludes. Not so much with this last one.

It's not that the fact that the episode, "Dead is Dead" was Ben-centric that turned me off. I love Ben Linus. He's one of TV's great villains. Manipulative. Ruthless. Unpredictable. Who could've seen coming him killing an already suicidal John Locke? Or shooting Cesar after convincing him that Locke was a potentially violent loon? Brilliance.

Yet I found myself not really caring what happened to Ben when the kid-loving character was preparing to be judged by the "smoke monster" in an Indiana Jones-like temple complete with hieroglyphics of some sort for which, no doubt, Lost fans will seek out a translation soon if they haven't already (on the Pop Candy blog, some commenters are suggesting that the carvings referenced some sort of god of the dead or of the underworld or souls). Ben wasn't going to die. Not yet anyway. He's too central as the only, long standing villain. Who could replace him and wear the series' big black hat? Charles Widmore? Richard Alpert? No one really could fill Ben's shoes, therefore I didn't expect anything to happen to happen to him in the belly of the temple.

I found Kid Ben compelling because he was just that, a kid who could've been influenced and changed, drawn away from his potential, future evil ways, or at least we could try to understand how and why Ben became sinister. Adult Ben -- who didn't really repent because he believes that the island trumps everything and is the excuse for everything he does -- isn't going to change at this point. Learning that Ben spared Rousseau from death years ago when he kidnapped her baby didn't alter how I feel about him. Seeing Ben pushing cute little girl Alex on a swingset while he was sporting an atrocious hairdo was only mildly interesting.

I did, however, find intrigue in how and why Widmore was banished from the island, in what the "new" plane crash survivors are arming themselves for and in the clearly Jesus-like resurrection of Locke, on the island where previously those who were dead stayed dead.

Meanwhile, ABC's new Lost Untangled video is very funny this week. I love the Locke voice. Quirkiest bit: "Precious Moments with Ben Linus."



Your thoughts on "Dead is Dead?"