'Lost': The 'Dead Is Dead' Zone

Image credit: ABC

All About

Lost

Get the latest photos, news, and more

''HIS INNOCENCE WILL BE GONE'' (cont.)
Of course, there's another theory, which I like to call the ''Richard Alpert Ain't Gonna Do Anything To Ben That Ain't Already Been Done Theory.'' After all, Ben doesn't really have much innocence left to lose. Bad Daddy. Dead Mommy. Bleak future within Dharma culture. Betrayed and shot by a guy he thought was going to save him. It's hard to think that this kid was going to grow up anything but alienated from his culture and filled with rage toward it. My thinking is that Alpert's florid speech to Kate and Sawyer about Ben's fate was merely an attempt to put Ben's existing human damage — and inevitable consequences — in mythological terms. Why not? If Richard really is an immortal being, he probably sees all of life in a more cosmic, even religious perspective. He may have had another motive, too: to impress upon Sawyer and Kate that they have done nothing to alter Ben's ultimate destiny, and to dissuade them from thinking otherwise. ''Don't go thinking Ben will be your friend because you saved him. And don't go thinking you can do anything to change his fate. Sorry, kids: No matter how much you want to change it...what happened, happened.''

Of course, watch all of this blather get blown to smithereens in tonight's episode. I look forward to seeing how right — or wrong — we may be. We'll count the ways and consider the ramifications tomorrow in my recap.

Namaste!

Doc Jensen