20. The Man Behind the Curtain
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Lost:
Season Three:
20. The Man Behind the Curtain
Aired May 9
Writers: Elizabeth Sarnoff and Drew Goddard
Director: Bobby Roth
Guest Cast
M.C. Gainey: Mr. Friendly/Tom
Tania Raymonde: Alex
Andrew Divoff: Mikhail
Nestor Carbonell: Richard Alpert
Marsha Thomason: Naomi
François Chau: Dr. Marvin Candle
Sterling Beaumon: Young Ben
Jon Gries: Roger Linus
Carrie Preston: Emily
Doug Hutchison: Horace
Samantha Mathis: Olivia
Madeline Carroll: Annie
Locke returns to the Others and demands Ben tell him what he knows of the island. Together they take a trip to visit the mysterious Jacob and Ben thinks back on his life with Dharma. It also turns out he's the fiftieth character to have daddy issues.
At the beach, the Lostaways confront Jack and Juliet.
Ben backstory
Notes:
-Ben lied about being born on the island. He was born outside of Portland and came to the island with Dharma.
-The Purge is shown. The Others ultimately win the conflict by gassing the Dharma personnel.
-It turns out that Roger the work man whose skeleton is discovered in Tricia Tanaka is Dead was Ben's father.
-Both Ben and Locke have mothers named Emily
-The island has a (seemingly inactive) volcano
-The Dharma personnel belive that the Others are the island's original inhabitants. The Others did not take kindly to the Dharma Initiative setting up shop there.
-One of the Dharma skeletons appears to have a bullet hole in its head.
-Ben hears the whispers in this episode twice. Once before seeing his mother in the jungle and once before he runs into Richard for the first time.
Unanswered Questions: Just who, and what, is Jacob? Why does he want Locke's help? Why does Jacob hate technology? What is the purpose of the line of sand that Locke and Ben cross? How has Richard seemingly not aged in decades? How, and why, was Ben seeing his mother? Why is Ben now the apparent leader of the Others? Why has DHARMA continued to make supply drops? Why do the Others just let Locke beat on Mikhail?
By Kevin (Kevin) on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 7:20 am:What, no nits to report?
By ScottN on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 8:52 am:So, is Jacob the long-haired dude that TeenBen runs into?
By ScottN on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 8:55 am:And a nit just to make Kevin happy ... 
Ben must be somewhere around 50, based on his age in the 70's. He's got to be at least 45.
Given that the events on the island are occurring in 2004, that puts his birthdate somewhere in '50s.
The cars on the road when Ben is born look too modern for that era.
By Triggins (Triggins) on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 4:31 pm:I want a backstory on Richard to know why he has not aged. Though my theory is that the long haired man in the jungle was Richard's father.
By Kevin (Kevin) on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 5:41 pm:If anyone hasn't seen it yet, there is a picture of Jacob under his entry at Lostpedia, and on dozen of other websites now. He was briefly seen during the Jacob-goes-mad scene. Since they hired an actor for this, I'm assuming he does exist.
By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 9:47 pm:Link?
By Kevin (Kevin) on Friday, May 11, 2007 - 11:15 pm:http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Jacob
Some interesting media files there, including Jacob's 'Help me' sped up by 25% where it (supposedly) 'sounds exactly like Ben.'
Be sure to click on all the photos on that page.
By Triggins (Triggins) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 8:49 pm:Jacob could be an manifestation of Ben's split personality. Maybe even Richard is that is why he has not aged over the years. But Jacob is probably a spirit of a crew member of the Black Rock.
By Kevin (Kevin) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 12:33 am:The latter is what I'm thinking. And somehow Ben captured it, is controlling it, whatever. The others (I mean, the other Others) know that Jacob exists but don't know everything. Ben is calling the shots but says Jacob is. Jacob never made a list; that's all Ben's doing.
Or I'm wrong.
By ScottN on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 11:17 pm:This episode raises some questions about the food drops. The food drops are still from Dharma -- they have the Dharma logo on them.
How can Dharma not know that their team is dead? Why is Dharma still dropping food on the island?
By ScottN on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 12:13 am:And we find out about Roger "Skeletor" Workman from Tricia Tanaka is Dead
By Josh M on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 12:48 am:This episode raises some questions about the food drops. The food drops are still from Dharma -- they have the Dharma logo on them.
How can Dharma not know that their team is dead? Why is Dharma still dropping food on the island?
I have to think that it's some kind of automatic system that was never turned off. I have no idea how that would work, though. A drone, maybe?