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Lost Episode 3.20: "The Man Behind the Curtain"

Lost Episode 3.20: "The Man Behind the Curtain"
Original Airdate: May 9th, 2007

So of course, having just mentioned last week what a fan I am of Mr. John Locke, the writers see fit to put a bullet in his gullet this week.

GRAND.

And yet, if John Locke must go, if indeed he is going at all and not just getting shot and/or re-paralyzed--if John Locke must go, this is how it should be. The man who has always had the most faith in the mysteries of the island should die on his quest to uncover those mysteries.

There’s something almost...poetic about Locke down in that mass grave, looking up at the sky, slowly bleeding out. The lead in his belly was put there by Ben, the man who Locke believed had all the answers he was seeking. Instead of getting those answers, he got shot.

Why? Was it because he was too curious? Too powerful? Too good at seeing through Ben’s turgid mix of lies and half-truths? Or was it just the island’s way of reasserting itself, driving Ben through madness to lash out at the only one powerful enough to really discover what’s going on, whatever it might be?

Or was it just a cool way to end an episode, and the writers were tired and had to get home?

Whyever it happened, it worked for me. I’ve always enjoyed shows that are willing to throw that kind of caution to the wind--to legitimately create the vibe that any character could die at any time. You’ve probably already heard the story that initially, the character of Jack on Lost was meant to be a HUGE fake-out. The producers wanted to hire Michael Keaton for the pilot, behave as if his character was central to the show and a major cast member, then kill him in the first two hours.

That’s the level of unpredictability I like in my television, and I felt a little bit of that tingle when Locke went down. I felt it again, quite honestly, when we "met" Jacob, the ghost/creature/person/figment of Ben’s imagination that supposedly rules over the Others.

From one perspective, it’s another mystery layered into the mix, and it’s hugely frustrating. At the same time, it might just be the most interesting mystery presented to us since the show began--it’s more mystical than scientific, and it doesn’t seem to be a question that someone, somewhere has an answer to. It’s just...there. We think.

This week, those are the major developments on the here and now front--Locke and Ben go visit Jacob, Ben shoots Locke, and back at the camp, the castaways learn of Juliet’s secret spy gig for the Others, and she lets slip that the Others are coming to kidnap Sun cause she’s preggers. Seemed to be a self-preservation move as much as it was a sincere desire to help the group--or maybe the whole thing is part of some Ben master plan? Maybe he wants them to know he’s coming, for some nefarious reason we don’t understand yet?

We learn just why Ben is so good at being so evasive in the flashbacks, where we find out Ben wasn’t in fact born on the island. He arrived there when his dad took a job with the Dharma Initiative, and he fled Dharma when he couldn’t take any more of his drunk dad’s abuse.

Then he joins the Hostiles, the original Others, who spray the Dharma folks with deadly gas and take over their village. Again, it’s a near-perfect twist--even better because it builds upon what we already know, instead of tossing random new knowledge into the mix.

They’re tugging threads, now--bringing disparate pieces of the show together. You can feel the plots growing as taut as they can, even though the storytelling’s been so loose that there’s still some sag in the middle. Bits snap together that you never expected to connect--the VW van Hurley found in the jungle had Ben’s father in it, "Roger Workman," and the Dharma initiative is a total red herring when we learn that Dharma isn’t even on the island anymore.

My faith in Lost is back, and I can’t wait to see where we’re going. I just hope Locke is there to find out too.

iTunes Links:

Lost Series
Lost Season 3
This Episode - "The Man Behind the Curtain"


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

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