REVIEW: Lost Season 6 Episode 6 "Dr. Linus"

I love to hate Ben Linus. He may very well be my favorite character on Lost. I know he’s an evil pawn, but it’s fun to watch him play the game. For that reason this review may be a little skewed. Give me a break.

WARNING: what follows will have spoilers and probably won’t make much sense if you haven’t seen the episode. I’m not doing a recap here.

Overall Experience and whatever I want to talk about...
Our episode starts out with Linus running like a scared dog and landing flat on his face in the middle of the jungle. Then we flash sideways to him in the class room teaching French history. This scene is full of blatant foreshadowing. Ben was talking about Napoleon having no power but being the figure head of France (Sound familiar). If we look a little deeper into history we see that Napoleon was not only a fake emperor but also exiled to an island. Napoleon was one of the most power hungry men in the history of the world. Many say he was making up for his own insecurities. Dr. Linus clearly points out the worst blow to Napoleon wasn't being exiled but having the useless title of emperor. I think that is Ben Linus exactly. He has been a man that would connive, scheme, and betray to get into power. Even if that power was only ceremonial power Ben likes feeling important. The biggest blow to Ben was losing his power.

Catching back up with Jack and Hurley had both the quirkier moments and the most revealing moments of the episode. I was excited to see Richard again. We finally got confirmation that he was on the Black Rock (Something that has been speculated for a long time). We also had an interesting reveal of why Richard never ages. The answer: he was touched by Jacob. Also because of that he can’t kill himself (But apparantly someone else can). WHAT?! So does that mean that all the candidates can’t kill themselves and they don’t age? Does this includes our Oceanic crew? What happens happens next tells that it at least includes six of them. Jack tries to blow himself and Richard up, but it doesn’t work. The dynamite just fizzles out right before it blows up. So this whole time we’ve thought Richard was special with his non-aging-never-dying thing. He wasn’t.

Ben Linus is a good teacher and a good son in the sideways world. He cares for his students and his father [It was fun to see “uncle Rico” reprise his role]. Ben is soon faced with a choice to possibly destroy Alex’s life for his own selfish reasons. Thankfully this time he passes it up for her benefit. That was a relieving gesture. I was sure he was going to be typical selfish Ben, but I was glad it turned out differently. Again, I believe the point of these happy ending is to close off the characters stories throughout the season. It would be impossible for the writers to successfully close off everyone’s stories it in a two hour season finale. These stories serve to show us end of Lost. They essentially show us what we could have expected following the final episode. Why else would they be giving happy endings to our favorite characters? That being said-- I’m still anxious to see how we get there.

Evil Locke shows up and offers to free Ben and tempts him with Ben’s true love-- power. Locke was only going to put Ben in as a figure head, but Ben falls for it with his head over his heals. His break for freedom ends with a pointing gun, not at him, but at his captor Ilana. He has the chance to shoot her and I think old Ben would have. It was an emotional moment when Ben lays his heart out to Ilana and tells her how he was so angry at Jacob for all that had happened to him over his years on the island. Ben’s last hope, so he thinks, is Evil Locke, because he’s the, “The only one who will have [him].” Ilana’s looks at Ben and says, “I’ll have you.” That was forgiveness beyond what I would have given him. Ben killed Jacob, Ilana’s closest thing to a father, but she takes him back. Ben was her prisoner and even digging his own grave at her forcing. Her hate for Ben seems to have her too far gone. How could she forgive him?  I think she saw his desperation and she related to it. She forgave him.

My hope is that she remembers that just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean you should trust them. We have to forgive but we don’t have to be stupid about it. If someone steals your wallet you should forgive them but you don’t leave your wallet alone in the room with them. My point is I’m glad to see her forgive Ben because I want Ben around, but I still don’t trust him. I think he could easily turn into an informant for Evil Locke.

The episode ends off with a typical Lost cliffhanger. We see Widmore for the first time this season on a submarine. He apparently has plans to take the island for himself and possibly kill everyone on it. He could become a tool of Evil Locke’s or he could end up fighting on Jacob’s side. Have you ever heard the statement, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”? Maybe Evil Locke stands in Widmore’s way and he’ll help the candidates beat him for his own selfish reasons. Only future episodes hold the answer.

This was another great episode of Lost. I was happy to see a little bit into Richard’s past. I fear we won’t get a flashback episode because we haven’t seen any flashbacks this season. Will we ever get the whole story? I can only hope.

Crap Index
It was relatively clean. There are some questionable words like D***. There is also talk of a sexual act done by a school principle to the school nurse, and there’s also the typical Lost gun pointing. The upside is we see the redemption of a character, and we see the power of forgiveness. Those are things that I never mind my kids seeing.

O.E.- 8.8

C.I.- 7.0

GameTrust Recommendation- 7.9

I want to hear your theories, please post them in the comments below.