Tonight’s the big night, just a few hours to go. At last we’re getting to the true origin of Benjaman Linus. His previous backstory scenes obviously skipped over essential parts . The writers are too good to suggest that having an asshole father made Ben a sociopath, which he clearly wasn’t as a boy, when he’s actually sympathetic.
Ironic that Jack and Sayid actually created evil Ben Linus by trying to kill young (good) Ben. If they hadn’t meddled, Kate and Sawyer wouldn’t have taken the dying boy to Richard, and whatever Richard (or the Island? or Jacob?) does to save him that presumably changes him into evil Ben, would not have been done. The Lost creators are Stephen King fans, and you can see the Pet Sematary influence here.
The way Ben so knowingly called Sayid a born killer in that one scene makes it clear that Ben knew who he was all along, that he remembered. He knew all of them. Big Ben was ready when their plane crashed on the Island the first time. The paradox is that when they first met, Sayid and the others were part of big Ben’s past, giving him the advantage, while little Ben was still part of their future. The real reason (or so it appears before tonight’s episode) that Big Ben had to get Jack, Sayid and the others back on the island is to make sure the past happened the way it did. In a sense, he would not have existed if the boy hadn’t been shot, it would’ve been a different Ben Linus.
If you can’t wrap your head around all this, I’m sure Miles and Hurley will be happy to explain it to you.
