Who Da Man?

Some Lost fans complained in the second season that the show moved too slowly, but by the latter half of the third season, you stopped hearing that. A good example of how much they could stuff into one episode is "The Man Behind The Curtain."

What happens? Well, the castaways discover Naomi has reached the island. Sayid, then Kate, then everyone discover Juliet has been spying on them. Next Jack reveals that Juliet has told him everything. Then they find out the Others are coming the next day to kidnap some of the women. That alone would have been a good episode, but this is just what happens on the beach, where the action is essentially in a holding pattern.

The episode gives us the origin story of the mysterious Ben, which we've been wanting to see for over a season. In fact, the episode starts with a classic Lost fake-out, where you think you're on the island but it's just two strangers hiking outside Portland. And baby Ben is being born, killing his mother (played by Michael Emerson's wife) and making his father run into Horace Goodspeed, who offers him a job.

We then get to see the whole Dharma operation in full flower for the first time. This explains why the episode has a lot more guest stars than usual. We see Ben's problems with his father, his puppy love with Annie, his schooling with Olivia (Samanthis Mathis in a surprisingly small role--not the only time Lost has thrown away a major guest shot), his vision of his mother and his run-in with an apparently ageless Richard. Almost every moment is a revelation.

But this isn't even the main story, which is in the Others' camp. Ben discovers his tape is missing (we saw Locke give it to Sawyer the previous show) but before he can do anything, Locke marches into camp with his dad's corpse. Locke starts demanding that Ben give up the secrets of the island, as promised. Ben lies a bit (we now know) but he has to give in, and promises to lead Locke to Jacob.

Then Mikhail runs into camp (took him a while--guess he's not the tracker that Locke is) and tells everyone about Naomi, which gives Ben an excuse to forget about Locke. Locke will have none of it and beats Mikhail senseless (he thought he'd killed him already--Ben likes to kill John, John likes to hurt Mikhail) while Richard and Tom stand by, watching. Alex gives Locke a gun before they leave, and they march off to see Jacob, who we now know runs things (allegedly).

Once again, this sounds like a fine episode already, but I've left out three big events, any one of which could have been a climax. First, Ben leads Locke into Jacob's Cabin (at least we think it's his), which seems empty. Ben talks to an empty chair and Locke thinks he's putting on a show. But as he goes to leave, Locke hears "help me." He turns on a flashlight and all hell breaks lose. So something is going on, though what it is no one can say. Climax #1.

Then we have a flashback. It's years later from the last one and Ben is an adult. He and his dad go out on Ben's birthday. Ben gives himself a present and gasses his dad to death. Then he returns to Dharmaville where everyone else has been gassed, thanks to Ben helping the Hostiles. Horace is dead. What about Annie? Olivia? (Ben is looking at Annie's present in his tent near the beginning of the episode.) The purge is over and the Hostiles go to bury the dead. Climax #2.

Ben and Locke are returning to the camp, but they're not going the same way. Ben shows Locke the pit where all the Dharma corpses are. Turns out Ben is very unhappy that Locke heard Jacob say something. He takes Locke's gun and shoots him. Locke falls into the pit, and is left for dead. Climax #3.

LOST.