Tuned In

Happy Lost Day! How Dead Is Ben?

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Maybe it’s a lame choice for a Lost Discussion Group topic, but I don’t see how we move on from last week’s conclusion without asking whether Ben is dead or not. Having said that, there are plenty of subquestions to explore.

First—and I have to credit this question to time.com honcho Josh Tyrangiel—is it possible that Jack will have to perform life-saving surgery on Ben for a second (which is to say first) time? (And if that’s the case, does it explain why Ben was saved by the crash of a plane carrying not just any doctor, but that specific one? I mean, who likes changing primary-care physicians?) 

Second, if Young Ben is dead, does it matter? Which is to say, does it follow that the history of the Island has been changed, the Dharma Purge forestalled, etc.? We know that dead is a pretty relative term around these parts—maybe we’ve been in the presence of a revived Ben, or a ghost Ben, all this time? 

Related question, for the Lost/Galactica fans out there: we just saw a BSG finale that addressed some of the same issues that Lost has set up (the resurrection of a dead character, the co-existence of spiritual and scientific answers). Would you be satisfied if Lost ended with BSG’s level of clarity (or lack thereof), or do you want something more/different?

Finally, the title of tonight’s episode is “Whatever Happened, Happened.” Which—by quoting Faraday’s you-can’t-change-the-past thesis—seems to promise to address the question of whether the ’70s Lostaways have changed their future. The title would seem to suggest that they can’t have. Therefore, it can’t be that simple. Can it?