LOST Season Six: "Dr. Linus"

Woah. Dr. Linus was fantastic. Before this point I wasn't quite sure about this season. I mean, "Sundown" had an amazing conclusion and "The Substitute" was a pretty good episode, as the case usually is with John Locke stories.

If there's anyone further from the Ben Linus we know it would be Dr. Linus, the kind European history high school teacher. Scene chewer, Leslie Arzt, also happens to be a teacher at this school and the two are pretty chummy. Ben takes care of his father, Roger, who reminisces about leaving the Dharma Initiative and that everything he ever did for Ben was to try and make his life better. This reality is *very* different.

It also introduces what I think is our first real peice of information that does not jive with a 1977 detonation and "sinking" of the Island. I mean, we aren't Rep. Hank Johnson and the island won't "capsize" like Guam might... Anyway, so yeah, if we remember "The Incident" - Ben was still at The Temple being healed and Roger would have been running around after shooting Sayid. No, this is something else entirely. Whatever happened, didn't happen the way we thought. The island didn't sink because of the explosion otherwise these two never would have made it off the island alive except through "magic" - which Roger does not appear to indicate. He left voluntarily (or was forcibly removed) prior to the event.

This reality we're seeing is not directly resulting from the bomb. Good job Jack.

Anyway, Ben tries to blackmail the principal, played by regular asshole-character actor William Atherton. He tries to blackmail the principal, but is countered with a threat that he will bury (metaphorically, like "the box" that Ben talks about in earlier seasons) his star pupil, Alex. Alex is of course, none other than Alex Rousseau. Faced with either taking the principal down and taking the job or helping Alex get a letter of recommendation, and ultimately taking the later really shows the kind of character Ben has in this reality.

On the island, Richard Alpert tries to kill himself. Jack, intervenes and tries to explain that fate won't let him die, and to prove it he sits next to Richard and a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite at the Black Rock. At the last moment, the fuse goes out.

Ben is forced to start digging his own grave by Ilana, who blames him for Jacob's death - of course, he's guilty as sin, since he stabbed Jacob himself. He's spared, but only after a heart wrenching scene where he apologizes for (basically) being a monster. The ending is heartwarming when Hurley, Jack, and Richard join up at the beach with the rest of the group (they always seem to appear from around that same dang bush). That is, until we see a sub and it's revealed that Charles Widmore is aboard.