WOW. Another good episode, and it left me with my mouth hanging open by the end. Holy schnikies!

Fasten your seatbelts:

AT THE BEACH CAMP:

Let's just get this out of the way since it's the quickest part of the ep. Sawyer comes back from his journey with Locke and finds Sayid. He tells him that the Others are planning a raid to find pregnant women and shows him the tape. They go to Juliet's tent to find her but it's empty. Kate approaches and they tell her about the tape. Kate admits that she told Jack about Naomi, because she thought he could give her some medical attention (yeah, right, she was just trying to kiss Jack's ass).

That night, the whole camp is pissed about the fact that Naomi was kept a secret. Sawyer plays the tape for everyone and then Jack and Juliet show up. Juliet explains that she's trying to help them, and asks Sawyer to turn the tape over and play it. The other side of the tape is Ben's voice saying that they are going to kidnap all the fertile women. Juliet tells everyone that Jack already knows about the plan and that they were trying to figure out what to do. Jack says that it's time for everyone to "catch up," whatever that means.

And Sayid somehow found the time to get a haircut between learning about Naomi last week and being confronted by Sawyer this week. Puzzled

FLASHBACK:

In the thick of the jungle, a woman, Emily, lies on the ground, in labor. Her husband Roger (Hey! It's Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite!) helps to deliver the baby, a boy. But Emily has lost a lot of blood and is dying. Roger says that nobody knows that they're out there.

Roger picks up Emily and the baby and runs until he reaches a road with cars driving on it. Oh, you guys! You fooled us! They're not on the island in a jungle, they're just in the woods. Roger tries to flag down a car and one finally stops. A man and a woman (Hey! It's Samantha Mathis!) get out and try to help Roger, but Emily doesn't look too good. She tells Roger to call the baby Benjamin, and dies.

Years later (10? 12? 13?) Uncle Rico, I mean Roger, and a young, bespectacled, silent, fairly creepy little kid (obviously Ben) disembark from a submarine and end up on the island. Turns out that the nice couple who helped them the day Ben was born (Horace and Olivia) are working for the Dharma Initiative and got Roger a job since he was having trouble finding work. A little girl named Annie befriends Ben, and Roger gets pissed when he finds out that his job is as a janitor (his coveralls say "Roger Work Man." He is the dead body Hurley and Co. found in the van). Meanwhile, Ben watches an orientation video starring Dr. Marvin Candle, where he learns about the sonic fence and that they can get a code every day to deactivate it if they want to leave the base area.

Later, Ben is in school, learning about volcanoes from his teacher, Samantha Mathis, star of Pump Up The Volume (yay!) when a siren sounds. Samantha, I mean, Olivia, tells the kids to take cover and loads a shotgun. She explains that it's just "the hostiles."
Hey! It's Samantha Mathis, star of Little Women!Hey! It's Samantha Mathis, star of Little Women!
That night, Ben is in his bedroom and overhears his father yelling at Horace, saying that he didn't sign up for a dangerous job. Horace explains that they are having some problems with the "natives" but drunk Roger doesn't care. Little Ben suddenly sees his dead mother's face in the window, but then she disappears.

On little Ben's birthday, Annie gives him two carved dolls, a boy and a girl. Ben goes home and drunk Roger sees the gift and realizes that he forgot Ben's birthday. He drunkenly says that it's hard to celebrate the day Ben killed his own mother and basically says that he resents Ben.

Ben runs off and goes to the sonic fence. He sees his mother on the other side of it. She says that it isn't time for her to be with him yet, and walks off. Later, Ben gets the code to deactivate the fence and does so. He sends his pet bunny through first as a test, and when the bunny doesn't blow up, Ben walks through. He hears the ghostly whispers that the characters often hear and then runs into a long-haired Richard Alpert (ed. note: are we supposed to believe that Richard is that much older than Ben. I certainly don't). He asks Richard if he's a "hostile" and Richard asks him if he even knows what that means. He tells Richard that he saw his dead mother and Richard doesn't seem surprised. He says he wants to go with Richard, and Richard kind of agrees, but says that Ben must be "patient."

Many years later, an adult Ben is working as a "work man" on his birthday. He confronts his father about not remembering his birthday again, and Roger suggests that, after they make a delivery to the Pearl Station, they drive the van to the mesa and drink some beer, some father/son time. Ben agrees. They go up to a beautiful spot on the island and crack open some Dharma brand beer. Ben asks Roger if he really thinks it's his fault that his mother died, and Roger doesn't answer. Ben gets pissed and says that he's been patient for too long. He puts on a gas mask and opens a canister of poisonous gas. Roger bleeds at the mouth and then dies.

Ben goes back to the barracks and sees that the rest of the Dharma Initiative folks are dead as well, with blood coming out of their mouths. A gas-mask clad Richard (along with some other gas-mask wearers) approaches Ben and we find out that they were all working together. They take off their masks. Richard asks Ben if they should collect his father's body to put with the rest of the bodies, but Ben says to leave him where he is.

PRESENT-DAY:

It's Ben's birthday. Again. He's in his tent, looking at the wooden dolls that Annie gave him all those years ago. Richard comes into his tent and they realize that the tape recorder was never brought back to the Staff Station, but it's missing now. They go outside to ask Tom where the tape recorder is but they're distracted by Locke, approaching with his dead father on his back.

Locke and Ben go back into Ben's tent and Locke demands to know everything. Ben says that Jacob is in charge of the group, and that only Ben is allowed to see or speak to Jacob. Locke calls bullsh*t and says that Ben is the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz. Ben denies it so Locke demands to meet Jacob. But, suddenly, Mikhail comes out of nowhere. He says that he survived the sonic fence because it wasn't set to a lethal level and tells them about Naomi. Ben is surprised but says that they can wait a few days to do something about her, because they're going to the camp to take the pregnant women soon. Locke says that Ben is going to take him to see Jacob, and Mikhail gets angry. Locke beats the crap out of Mikhail. Ben begs Richard and Tom to help Mikhail, but they don't (Tom hilariously just drinks his coffee casually and watches the skirmish. Hee!)

Ben finally (and reluctantly) agrees to take Locke to see Jacob. As they're at a spring getting water, Alex comes to give Locke a gun. She says he'll need it if he's going to meet Jacob. She snottily says happy birthday to Locke and then leaves. Ben reiterates that it's not a good idea to pop in on Jacob. You only go to Jacob if he SUMMONS you. But Locke ain't havin' none of it and they carry on.

They finally get to a small, run-down house. Ben warns that there's no turning back, and tells Locke to turn off his flashlight because Jacob doesn't like technology. Ben lighs a lantern and they go inside. Ben introduces Locke to Jacob, but really, it's an empty chair! Ben starts talking to the chair and argue, while Locke looks totally confused. Finally, Locke gets angry and asks Ben if he actually believes that there's someone in the chair of if he's just playing a stupid joke. Ben seems kind of surprised and disappointed that Locke can't see the person in the chair. Locke angrily goes to leave but then he hears a voice saying "Help...me." He turns back around and suddenly the room goes crazy, like there's a poltergeist in there or something. Things move all around, windows break, and the lantern falls and starts a fire. For a split second, we see a creepy face on the chair. Locke runs outside and Ben follows. Locke asks Ben what the hell that was, and Ben replies, "That was Jacob."
Jacob??Jacob??

The next morning, Ben leads Locke back a different way. In the light of day, Locke seems less freaked out and more suspicious. He accuses Ben of being a liar and Ben says that he DID lie about some stuff. He admits that he wasn't born on the island. He takes Locke to a pit full of skeletons (some are still wearing Dharma clothing). He tells Locke that he used to be with this group, with Dharma, but they couldn't coexist with the natives, so the natives performed a "purge" to get rid of Dharma. Locke turns around, and Ben SHOOTS HIM IN THE CHEST (or was it his stomach?) and Locke falls into the pit. Jawdropping!

He tells Locke he shot him because he heard Jacob, and demands to know what Jacob said to Locke. Poor Locke tells Ben he heard Jacob say "help me" and Ben says "You better hope Jacob will help you, then." And he leaves Locke in the pit of skeletons to die.

What do you think? Think Locke is actually going to die??