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Monday, September 21
S.O.S. (S2, ep. 19)
The Rewatch Column for "S.O.S." is stuffed and mounted on Chud.com for your viewing pleasure. If you enjoy it, feel free to link to it!
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Liked this one too! Especially the Uluru fun facts.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't know if I'd agree with the idea that Ben lacks a faith that extends beyond himself. One of Ben's defining characteristics seems to be that - for most of his life, at least - he handed himself over to the idea of the Island as an entity (and, to give that philosophy a personal manifestation, Jacob).
Katie,
ReplyDeleteThanks! You're right in that, for most of his life Ben has given himself over to the Island/Jacob. But note that when Ben recieves his tumor he is not the same man. He's going against Jacob and Alpert's wishes by focusing on fertility to the apparent exclusion of everything else. His faith during most of the time we actually spend with him seems more like an elaborate smokescreen designed to allow him to hold onto power - see, for instance, the episode where he leads Locke to 'Jacob's cabin,' fully aware that Jacob isn't there, in order to ensure that Locke will not displace him as Leader. See also the Season 5 finale, where Ben's loss of faith culminates in the slaying of the man he's supposed to serve.
Hmm, that's interesting, I never looked at it quite that way before. I would definitely agree that during his on-screen time he's lost most of his faith in the island and in Jacob, but I'd always assumed that most of that was precipitated by him actually getting the tumor in the first place. You have a good point about the fertility focus, although I'm not sure Ben would have seen that as antithetical to his service to the island.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's just difficult to tell. There are still huge gaps in Ben's story, especially the time in between the kidnapping of Alex and getting caught in Rousseau's net.
I was actually watching this episode this morning and was struck by Isaac of Uluru's comments...which got me thinking. He speaks of being able to harness this energy and pass it to others. Yet, something about Rose or the energy around her is unable to be open to Isaac's specific type of transfer. Now, we can assume that Rose is denied because she has cancer. Looking at the set dressing for Isaac's compound, you can see that there are crutches and wheelchairs littered about. The little girl Bernard speaks to outside the window is on crutches. Thus, we can assume that Isaac heals the physically disabled: people who can no longer use their legs. However, Isaac's reaction to Rose's aura seems to suggest tht there is something about her that causes him feare. Perhaps Rose's energy is somehow different because of her "destined" connection to the Island (that is if we are assuming that destiny in fact brought all of the castaways here), which brings to mind a question about Isaac: Could he possibly be an Other, one of Ben's/Locke's/Alpert's people? MMorse has suggested in later columns that there is the possibility that the Others have people stationed throughout the world, who guide people to the Island (e.g. Desmond's fellow monk who is shown in a photograph with Eloise Hawking). Perhaps Isaac of Uluru is one of these people. Perhaps he has been stationed here in Uluru as a keeper of this energy, a watcher. Perhaps Rose's arrival, her having been somehow "touched" by the Island (meaning her destiny to go to the Island), alerts Isaac to the Island's activities involving the soon-to-be castaways. I don't know. This is all random conjecture...but this character really got me thinking.
ReplyDeleteI friggin' love this show.
All great thoughts, Moo. Thanks for taking the time to post them. It's certainly very possible that Isaac is an Other, given that we know certain key people in the narrative have connections to the Island/the Others (see: the photo with Hawking and the Brother from Desmond's monastery) It's also possible that Isaac was working for/with Widmore.
ReplyDelete