LOST: what now?

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Ben is dead! Long live Ben! (bleah)

Although I'd love it if Obi-Wan Faraday is the one to find perforated Ben, I have a feeling that a path of less resistance might be followed...

Jin will regain consciousness, discover bullet-holey Ben, call LaFleur to explain. LaFleur will tell Jin to bring Ben somewhere safe/remote, where he and the rest of the gang will meet him. Jack will have to perform surgery to remove the bullet. Perhaps Juliet will assist, sparking up the old high school romance fireworks? Sawyer will get a chance to see them in action and have those old second thoughts that Ben enjoyed playing on, "Why would any girl choose you over the doctor?" Which could turn him to despair, or his sights back on Kate, or maybe get the gears turning for ways to screw over the doc. Altho, man, you already made him a janitor! =)

The surgery would be a LOSTy bit of vu-ja-de, remini-prescient of Jack's operating on Ben's spine in 2004. It'll be touch and go, but thanks to the power and will of the Island, Ben will miraculously heal up just fine.

Maybe we'll see young Ben crush hard on Juliet. Heh, a CPR scenario?

Sayid's attempt to pre-emptively end Ben's future horrors will have only served to create the very monster who will inflict them. A mixed-up, unhappy, 10-year old kid, shot and killed by a man he was helping, whom he saw as his salvation, comes back to life to overhear that he's destined to lead the Hostiles, returns home to play punching bag to his dad, bides his time, hones his already developing knack for plans and manipulation, and grows up to be the man who exterminates his father and the DI and cons King Charles into giving up his throne.

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King Charles turns the wheel...?

Maybe Sayid will scarper deep enough into the jungle to run into Hostiles/Others. He could definitely speak to Richard about his time traveling, deliver to him more news of the future, about Ben, maybe even about the Purge. Would he get an audience with King Charles? I figure he must be leader of the Hostiles/Others in 1977. Perhaps he and Eloise are an item at this time? I wonder if Penny's been born yet. In 2004, she seems too mature to have been born in the 80s (putting her in her early 20s). In the 80s, at the time of the purge, Ben will have convinced Charles that he has to turn the wheel to move the Island, to ensure that the DI can never attempt to resettle/re-establish the Initiative.

Frack. If Charles moves the Island to keep the DI from ever returning, how the H do the lockdown pallet drops continue thru 2004? Could there be a safe passage in the skies above the Island, from the outside world, at the old, pre-Purge (1950s-70s) site of the Island, to the post-Purge (2004) site? And whatever remains of the DI continues to drop supplies? Could that have been the first pallet drop since the Purge? The same Swan event that pulled 815 out of the sky might have alerted some DI legacy to the Island's new location...?

Blerg. Maybe this is something that the writers will just have to forget about...

That, or I'm off on my theory that Charles turns the wheel as part of the Purge. Bleah.

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WAR...?

Remember when Charles explains to Locke why he's helping him round up his friends and get back to the Island...?

Locke: Why would you help me?
Widmore: Because there's a war coming, John. And if you're not back on the Island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.

What up with that? I was hoping that Widmore was referring to a spacetime-rending history changing paradox, that Locke would have to get back to the Island, AND back in time, to prevent the Nazis from discovering the Island in the 30s and exploiting it to win World War II...

Well, y'know. SOMEthing like that. =) Where Locke and company played an integral part in the secret history of the world and saved it from an Axis of Evil.

Wouldn't it be awesome to see Desmond and Ben and Sawyer and Widmore and Miles and all the ghosts of their dead friends teaming up to take out the frickin Nazis? C'mon, you KNOW it would be awesome! =)

But... It seems a little more likely that that war is going to happen in "present day." It could be on a scale of the Island and its regular players, or on a global scale, as the Island's untapped powers and resources are infinitely valuable, and some of its regular players have international influence.

A war. At least two sides. The winner would be the one to take control of the Island. Widmore is certain it's coming. He's also certain that Locke needs to get back to the Island so that the wrong side (not good or bad) does not win. Abaddon seems convinced. Walt may have had a premonition of a prologue to an opening salvo: Locke, back on the Island, dressed in a suit, surrounded by people who want to hurt him.

Maybe there is a nefarious contingency plan in play. A scorched-earth if-I-can't-have-it-than-nobody-can strategy to destroy or render uninhabitable the Island. Who would trigger such a thing, tho? Ben? Widmore? Another party? Hrmm... Maybe it's an Island doomsday device?

Gotta think/imagine some more on this. Maybe there'll be more to work with this week...?

Keep on keepin on~