In retrospect I think that the Emmys did a better
job when it came to recognizing Lost both in terms of total nominations
and overall wins. As I’ve repeatedly mentioned Lost’s original run was
almost dead center in the first part of Peak TV’s period of great dramas and
it’s frankly remarkable it did as well as it did. I would have preferred it had
been nominated for Best Drama for its second and third seasons (having seen the
competition it was superior to House and Grey’s Anatomy, which
received nominations for Best Drama at the time) and I would have liked a few
more acting nominations over its run (Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Holloway in
particular deserved recognition for their work) but by and large I was
fundamentally fine with what it got from the Emmys during its six seasons on
the air.
And where the Emmys absolutely got things right
was that they gave more than appropriate recognition to the two actors whose
work is not merely considered the highpoint of the show but much of television:
Terry O’Quinn as John Locke and Michael Emerson as Ben Linus. Both received
Emmys for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama (O’Quinn in 2007; Emerson in 2009)
and both received the most nominations overall than any other performers in the
cast: O’Quinn received three nominations overall and Emerson received four.
That they did as well as they did is even more
remarkable when one considers the competition both men had to face during their
tenure on the show; it wasn’t quite as hard as surviving battles with the Smoke
Monsters but it was very nearly the TV equivalent. O’Quinn was up against The
West Wing and The Sopranos at the start of his tenure as well as the
powerhouse work of William Shatner on Boston Legal (Shatner beat him the
first time O’Quinn was nominated). By the time Emerson was made a series
regular for 2007, both men would have to go up against the work of John
Slattery on Mad Men, Aaron Paul on Breaking Bad and the endless
series of great supporting actors who were cast on Damages during the
three seasons the two shows’ runs overlapped. When Emerson won in 2009, he was
up against not just Paul, Slattery, Shatner, but William Hurt in Damages; in
2010 when both men were nominated they faced off against Paul (who deservedly
won) Martin Short for Damages, Andre Braugher for Men of A Certain
Age and Slattery – all more than worthy Candidates.
Both men were more than aware of how great the
other’s work made them; when O’Quinn accepted his Emmy in 2007, he went out of
his way to thank Emerson in particular and say how lucky he was to work with
him. And indeed if you asked any fan of Lost to give a list of their
favorite moments on the series, I guarantee you the majority of them would talk
about scenes between Ben and Locke. This was held by both Stafford and both
authors of Back to the Island and it’s impossible to disagree: in my own
writings as early as 2009 I knew just how great their work was.
Ben and Locke were never part of the three
official battles that Stafford claimed existing during Lost: Stafford
arguing that Locke’s major opponent was Jack and that Ben’s was Charles
Widmore. But every time I rewatch Lost I think by and large the show was
more about the two of them than anything else. That might be a bit of a stretch
considering Michael Emerson didn’t appear on Lost until Season 2 and
wasn’t officially given the role as leader of the Others until Season 3 and
(fifteen year old spoiler) Locke was dead by the end of Season 5.
Still I think there’s an argument for it,
considering how similar both men were at the end of the day. I don’t just mean
the many real similarities in their lives growing up and when they got to the
island (Stafford provided a fairly comprehensive list in her Season Four
compendium); I mean that of the regulars we followed for the majority of the
series both men were disciples of the island and were willing to put it above
everything else. This led them to be separate from the group throughout their
lives: Locke always stood more apart from the survivors; Ben was the leader of
the Others but he was always viewed with the kind of disdain by his followers
the survivors viewed Locke. Both of them believed that they had been chosen by
the island and that they were special. Both were more than willing to sacrifice
every relationship they had in the name of protecting the island. In many ways
both were the perfect candidates for what Jacob had planned for them.
But there was a critical difference between how
both men approached the island and it clearly crackled. Locke loved the island
and treated it with respect. He was always more genuine about his love for it
and how special it was and that never changed during his entire run. Ben
thought the island was special and remarkable but he never seemed that happy to
be there the way John always was. His attitude always seemed to be darker, more
cynical and quietly angrier about being there.
And there was always something very different
about their natures that never seemed to fit. While John’s character would take
a turn starting in Season 3 which shocked many of the initial fans of the
character, there was always one constant. He would do anything for the island
and that frequently led him to do horrible things but he always felt remorse.
At the end of Season 1 he famously told Jack Boone was ‘the sacrifice the
island demanded’ in beatific tones. But by the end of Season 2 it was clear he
felt great remorse about Boone dying for his quest which he expressed to both
Eko and Desmond by the end of the season.
Locke was capable of being violent at times but it
was rare that he was willing to kill for the island. The few occasions he
actually killed someone – Naomi at the end of Season 3, one of the Others while
the island was jumping through time – he was doing so to protect the survivors
who while he might not be a part of it, he didn’t want them to die. Even after
he defected to the Others in the middle of Season 3, he still wanted to protect
the survivors: he gave Sawyer the recording proving Juliet was a mole, his
leadership in the Barracks in Season 4, while dictatorial was still protective
and when he learned of the threat Keamy posed to the freighter he tried to talk
to him first rather than attack him. It’s worth remembering Locke’s final act
on the island was done in the name of helping the ones who were left behind and
while he was being manipulated by greater forces, it was still a selfless
action – particularly considering that the island meant more to him than anyone
there.
Locke was never the kind of person who could kill
if he stopped and thought about it, even if the person deserved it. When
confronted with Anthony Cooper on the island, the man who had done everything
to make his life a misery, he couldn’t bring himself to kill him. Even while he
manipulated Sawyer into doing so, Sawyer asks why he didn’t do it and he said:
“Because I can’t!” He wasn’t lying. And when Jack was about to call the
freighter, he fired a shot at Jack’s feet but didn’t kill him the way he’d just
killed Naomi moments earlier. (The next time they met Jack showed no such
qualms and it was only because the gun was empty that Locke didn’t die.) Locke
could be ruthless at times but he was never cold-blooded.
By contrast Ben Linus is famously described by
Sayid in Season 5 as “a liar, a manipulator, a man who allowed his own daughter
to be murdered to save himself, a monster responsible for nothing short of
genocide.” Ben doesn’t deny this when he’s with Locke, only that he did so in
the name of the island. That does little to change the fact that he is a
sociopathic liar and an emotional torturer, preying on the vulnerabilities of
everyone around him and using them to his own means. He has no problem sending
people to their deaths: he does so over and over throughout the third season
and he has no problem killing people himself, sometimes for cold-blooded
reasons, sometimes in the heat of the moment. After Locke tries to parlay with
Keamy at the end of Season 4, Ben first attacks him and then stabs him with his
own knife. Locke’s first action is despair: “You just killed everyone on that
boat.” Ben’s reaction is chilling: “So?”
Even if you consider that Keamy killed his
daughter just a few days earlier Ben’s actions are still utterly coldblooded.
He stands over Keamy’s body and waits for him to breathe his last (Locke’s
still trying futilely to save him) and the moment Keamy dies goes about his
business to move the island without the slightest bit of remorse about all the
innocent lives who have just been lost as a result of his actions. In a sense
much of this is negating in his final actions on the island: he knows that the person
who moves the island can never come back and that he has been chosen to ‘suffer
the consequences’.
The final scene does show Ben in what appear to be
honest moments. He tells Locke that he’s now the leader of the Others,
apologizes for ‘making his life so miserable’ and then walks below the Orchid
to move the island. As he does so with tears in his eyes saying bitterly: “I
hope you’re happy Jacob,” we see a man who is about to lose everything and it
chills us.
Of course by the time we see that, we know that Ben has spent his entire time off
the island manipulating Sayid into becoming his personal hitman, has spent much
of the last three years watching everyone who left, has threatened Charles
Widmore that he will kill his daughter Penelope and has made it clear that he
intends to find the island again. He’s about to manipulate Jack into going back
to the island, start maneuvering all of the Oceanic 6 to go back, and is doing
so over the body of Locke – who we will later learn that Ben himself killed.
While flying back on Ajira 316 Jack asks Ben what will happen to the other
people on the plane and Ben is clearly surprised by the question: “Who cares?”
he tells him.
In Back to the Island Murray argues that Emerson
always did his best work with O’Quinn ‘the two actors delivering their lines to
each other with a mix of smugness and self-doubt, shifting from scene to scene.
Murray also tells that Locke and Ben’s dynamic is more interesting than Jack
and Locke because of their similarities. ‘The difference is that Locke’ an
idealist and Ben’s a cynic which is why it’s so fun to watch him control Locke
just by dangling the two things he thinks he wants most: to expose Ben
as a phony, and to learn the secrets of the island.”
That is a key part of their dynamic throughout the
series. However I’d argue that Locke, who many fans thought was the dupe in
these scenes, was actually smarter than he looked. A large part of this was
because of their beliefs in the mystical properties of the island. By the time
we meet Ben in Lost it’s clear that he is using his faith in the island
to maintain control of the Others. Locke’s faith in the island remains strong
throughout the series with two critical exceptions.
When Locke meets Benry in Season 2, his faith in
the island has been ebbing ever since he opened the hatch. Benry takes advantage
of this to manipulate John by telling him that nothing happens if you push the
button. (Ben of course knows differently.) Even after he’s exposed he just changes
his story and Locke still believes in him before Michale facilitates his escape
in ‘Two for the Road’. This combined with what he takes away from the Pearl Station
convinces him it’s a joke and it leads him to destroy the button – and it turns
out to be disastrous.
One of the most iconic scenes in all of Lost comes
as the Swan is blowing apart around him. Locke makes no real effort to run,
despite Desmond’s warning. The last scene of him in Season 2 is his looking at
Eko and saying three simple words: “I was wrong.” These words basically sum up
everything Locke has gone through not just this season but his entire life so
far. It’s a moment of tragic honesty because he absolutely believes it.
By the time he meets Ben again in ‘The Man From
Tallahassee’ he has come on one mission: to blow up the submarine. Ben figures
it out immediately and tries to tell Locke that if he does this “it will make
me look bad with my people’. Alex actually tells him that he’s being
manipulated by Ben and it’s possible he is – but then there’s that scene at the
end where he’s being held prisoner. He tells Ben that he knows he could have
stopped if he wanted to. He could have told Ryan to look in the pack and take
the C4 and he didn’t. (There’s also that small fact that the show’s writers
have never confirmed or denied he blew up the sub – but let’s not go there.)
Indeed Locke speaks with a kind of radicalism and
moral superiority that he only seems willing to show to Ben, and never Jack. He
refers to Ben as ‘a pharisee’ who doesn’t deserve what the island has to offer,
eating food from a fridge and sleeping in a bed. And there is the clearest
difference between them which Locke points out: “I’m in a wheelchair and you’re
not.”
And it’s the one point Ben can’t refute. He knows
Locke was in a wheelchair for four years and now he’s walking immediately. And
on an island where no one gets sick, he developed a fatal tumor on his spine.
We’ve seen him try to argue that the crash was proof of divine intervention to
Jack: “Two days after I learned I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal
surgeon fell from the sky. And if that’s not proof of God, I don’t know what
is.” Jack didn’t buy it at the time and it’s clear Locke has a similar contempt
for the idea.
Ben does know that Locke is a threat to his power
and no doubt arranges for Anthony Cooper to be brought to the island as a
bargaining chip to keep Locke in place. He then sets up ‘a test’ in which Locke
has to kill his father as a sacrifice and I mentioned how that went. But he’s
stunned when Locke shows up with the body of Anthony Cooper on his back,
demanding to know the secrets of the island.
Ben pivots and tries to tell Locke that he’s not
the leader but Jacob is. Now there is a Jacob on the island but Ben argues that
he is the only one who ever talks to him and sees him. Locke calls him on it: “I
think there is no Jacob…You are the man behind the curtain. The Wizard of Oz.
And you’re a liar. “
Then Mikhail shows up with vital information.
Locke says that Ben is taking him to see Jacob. Mikhail is infuriated by this.
Locke starts to beat Mikhail to a pulp. There’s no love lost between Mikhail
and Ben (we never find out why) but he orders first Tom, then Richard to
intervene. Ben’s people just stand by watching. Ben knows that he is on the
verge of toppling. Even Alex points it out before they leave.
So Ben takes Locke to Jacob’s cabin, in one of the
most terrifying scenes in Season 3 and indeed the series. There he speaks and
gestures to a completely empty chair where he says Jacob is sitting. We are
completely with Locke when he says that Ben is completely crazy and turns away
in disgust. And then we hear a voice that says: “Help me.” Locke hears it, but
Ben doesn’t. Then we see the cabin completely explode in an incident of terrifying
telekinesis where we appear to see…something – in that chair. (Oh, how fans
spent hours trying to figure out who was in that chair and we weren’t even
close.)
During this episode ‘The Man Behind the Curtain’,
we finally learn Ben’s backstory. We learn he wasn’t born on the island (as he’s
been claiming all season) but that his mother died giving birth to him and his
father never forgave him for it. Eventually he and his father were recruited
into the Dharma Initiative where his father (and later Ben) were basically
treated as janitors, unsuited to joining the scientific pursuit. Roger would
drink and take out his abuses of the world on Ben and then Ben started seeing
the images of his mother on the island. He explored the island on his own, met
Richard who seemed impressed by him and said he could join them “but he would
have to be very patient” At some point he would lead the Purge that wiped out
the Initiative and killed his own father.
The question posed by Murray is interesting: “Does
Ben ever actually believe anything they believe? Is he just using them as a way
to wield power? Or is some larger force guiding him?” The short answers to
these three questions are: It’s unclear, almost certainly and yes. In the first
flashback of Ben on Lost, it’s fascinating how much it resembles that of
the castaways: the audience is aware of all of these secrets but he never tells
anyone else. He shows Ben two key pieces: the cabin where ‘Jacob’ resides and
the pit where the bodies of the Dharma Initiative were left after the purge.
And it’s telling he only shows them both to a man he plans to kill, which he
does at the end of the episode, when he shoots Locke.
But he’s clearly stunned when Locke tells him that
Jacob talked to him, even if he doesn’t understand the message. This clearly
emphasizes to Ben that Locke is special in a way Ben just doesn’t seem to be.
Clearly reeling from this he then orders Pryce to lead his raid on the beaches
to take the pregnant women in what is a clearly a last ditch attempt to
maintain his power. It backfires spectacularly and in the season finale we see
Ben desperately pleading Jack to give him the phone because he says Naomi, the
woman who parachuted onto the island promising rescue is representative of a
hostile force.
Ben is telling the truth for once but we can’t
exactly blame Jack for not believing him. He beats Ben to a pulp and takes him
prisoner. And when Locke shows up at the radio tower having just thrown a knife
into Naomi’s back, Ben reacts with shock rather than dismay. The island has chosen
Locke and his days are over.
Ben and Locke spend Season 4 more or less ostensibly
on the same side. Locke and Ben both agree there is a threat to the island on
the freighter. Ben actually knows far more about that. But Locke has no reason
to trust Ben right now – he did just shoot him and leave for dead the previous
day – and he’s still trying to find a way forward.
Locke’s character takes a lot of criticism in
Season 4 for having gone over the dark side. And its true his leadership in the
Barracks and his action on the island does show him basically at his worst.
Essentially he is a dictator, despite his denial. But he’s not good at it
because while he wants to keep everyone safe he thinks his main job is to
protect the island. His faith is now fully restored and it has granted him a
bit of a messiah complex. Walking to the barracks Sawyer actually refers to him
as Colonel Kurtz and as Nikki Stafford said in Finding Lost, it may be
the most accurate nickname Sawyer gave to date. His followers think he’s
completely deranged (and that’s before he tells them he got his marching orders
from Walt) and the only reason they’re following him is because Hurley spoke up
on his behalf. (This is a decision Hurley will regret almost immediately.) But
for all this Locke genuinely wants to keep the people at the barracks safe.
The same can’t be said for Ben. Considering that
he knows both the man behind the freighter, what his plan is and what he will
do to get it, he spends much of his time as prisoner not acting to help protect
anyone else but mocking Locke’s leadership and trying to manipulate him. He
gives what little he knows in dribs and drabs but only for leverage. It’s clear
in retrospect Ben is still trying to find a way to turn this situation to his
advantage: he wants to stay alive long enough so that he can keep his power.
The only person he wants to protect is his daughter Alex, so he draws a map for
her, Rousseau and Karl to take to the Temple.
And as anyone who watched Lost knows it
ends in tragedy. In ‘The Shpe of Things to Come’ Keamy and his mercenaries
attack the bunker and kill almost everyone Locke brought there. Keamy then threatens
to kill Alex if Ben doesn’t come out. Ben tries a bluff, and it is one of the
saddest moment in the show’s history. He tells Keamy that Alex isn’t his
daughter and that she means nothing to him. Those are the last words she hears
before Keamy kills her.
Emerson received his Emmy nomination for his work
in this episode and it’s another feather in his cap. There are few scenes more
stunning after Ben unleashing the smoke monster on the mercenaries and then
before they flee Ben says he has to say goodbye to his daughter. This moment
breaks Ben in a way that nothing else really has.
Cabin Fever is a powerhouse episode for both O’Quinn
and Emerson. Locke is still trying to find a way to the cabin to find Jacob but
slowly a path opens to him. He takes the occasion to show to Hurley the true
horrors of what Ben did, particularly when it comes to the Purge. He is given a
dream which leads him to where the cabin is.
Emerson spends the entire episode in a daze,
almost as if he’s being moved from square to square. It’s clear he knows that
his time is over and he’s bitter about it. When Locke awakes he tells him: “I
used to have dreams,” sadly and matter-of-factly. When Ben tells Locke that he’s
doing a good job of manipulating Hurley Locke fires back: ‘I’m not like you’
and Ben instantly deflates. And when they finally reach the cabin. Ben just
said: “The island wanted me to get sick. It wanted you to get well,” and he
sits on the steps utterly defeated. It’s hard not to feel sympathy for him at
this point.
After the events in the season 4 finale Locke ends
up leaving the island to try and persuade the Oceanic 6 to come back. This ends
with the revelation that he ended up dying during his question. It’s not until
the fifth season episode ‘The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham’ that we learned
how that happened – and we see the final confrontation of Ben and Locke.
I’ll save what happened in this episode for
another article but what I will say is that once Locke leaves the island his
faith has gone. Each meeting with one of the Oceanic 6 leaves him more
emotionally drained and by the time of his last meeting – with Jack – he is
about to kill him. He received a message from multiple sources telling him to
bring everyone back he’d have to die, but watching O’Quinn in these scenes you
see a man who just wants to kill himself.
And then Ben breaks the door down. We’ve never
seen O’Quinn like this in these moments, he is completely in total despair,
utterly broken. When Ben tries to tell him how important he is he tells him: “I’m
a failure’. Just as when the Hatch was blowing up Locke completely believes his
words with a sincerity that hasn’t been present any other time. The last time he
was on the island and that may have saved him. Now he’s off it and he’s at the
mercy of Ben – who as we’ve seen has none.
There was a great amount of debate as to why Ben
would talk John out of committing suicide only to strangle him two minutes
later. The underlying idea throughout Season 5 was that Ben was doing this
because he knew John would come back to life on the island. However in ‘Dead is
Dead’ when Sun asks him this very question. Ben’s response is: “I had no idea
this would happen…Dead is dead. You don’t get to come back from that. Not even
here.” And indeed, by the end of Season 5, we find out Ben was absolutely right
about that.
So why did he kill Locke? After many rewatches
I’ve figured the simplest answer is likely the truest. (Yes I know this is Lost
were talking about.) After Alex was killed and he was banished, the only
thing Ben lived for was revenge on Charles Widmore. We see that he spent the
better part of two years utilizing Sayid to do just that. He clearly wants to
get back to the island but he doesn’t know how but he thinks the Oceanic 6
might be the key. When Locke shows up, he thinks this might be his chance and
saves him. Then he learns Locke has no intention of going to see Sun and that
he knows how to find a woman named Eloise Hawking. With the means to get back,
his jealousy of Locke overcomes him and he strangles him. He then uses his
death to manipulate the Oceanic 6 to do what he wants so he can get them on a
plane that will get him to the island and once he’s there back in his proper
place.
And then he wakes up and see ‘Locke’ looking at
him. (I’m not going to tell you who it is yet.) Ben knows now it’s all been for
nothing. He’s never going to be in charge of the island again; he’s never
really been chosen. Hell, he couldn’t even get his revenge on Widmore, because
when push came to shove he hesitated when it came to killing Penny and Desmond,
who he underestimated beat him to a pulp. Ben is now as much a failure as Locke
was and his faith in everything he ever believed in is gone as well.
That’s why I think that its fitting that when the
truth about Locke is revealed and he is laid the rest it is Ben who is the one
who give the eulogy for him. It’s a bizarre scene but it’s also sweet. Ilana
asks: “Didn’t any of you know him?” There aren’t a lot of people around but the
tragedy of Locke on the island is that he never let any of the survivors know
him and that in many ways led to him meeting his end.
So when Ben says: “I knew him”, it’s true. Over those
four seasons Ben knew Locke knew better than anyone else perhaps in his entire
life. Sure they were mortal enemies but those people know each other the best.
And Ben’s eulogy is short, sweet and for once, honest:
John Locke was a believer. He was a man of faith.
He was a much better man than I will ever be. And I’m very sorry I murdered
him.”
Even this final statement contains a genuine truth.
Ben isn’t sorry for killing Locke because of the horrors he’s unleashed in its
wake or even as an act of repentance. Just like Jack he has finally realized
what a remarkable man John Locke was, now that he’s too dead to hear it. It’s
an act of remorse and repentance from a man we spent most of the series
thinking had none. It’s not the first time Locke was able to accomplish in
death what he could never do in life.
Of course that doesn’t mean every part of Ben’s
storyline was perfectly done. In the next article in this series I will deal
with the conflict between Ben and Widmore, which started out seeming like it
might be the endgame of the series and proved to be one of Lost’s
biggest anticlimaxes.
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