Discuss this episode here.  

--Last edited by TheIsland on 2008-04-26 06:11:04 --

Awsome episode.

Ben appears in the Dharka.  His appearance leaves little doubt that teleportation AND time travel are involved because a) Ben is way over dressed for the desert and b) he doesn't know what year it is!

The method of transportation is definitely contained in the Orchid station.  That Parka belongs to Dr. Candle.  Which means, yes, that was the Orchid logo.

We got confirmation the Danielle was in fact dead by Alex.

Ben came out all covered in soot and whadda-ya-know, Smokey shows up.  Clearly showing so very definite control over it.

Ben refers to "rules" several times.  The idea of a game being played is alluring, but I have a suspicion that Widmore was somehow complicit in the goings ons with the island.  In that case, Ben and Widmore may have been partners at one point.

Alex dead!  Now we know future Ben's motivation.  Now he wants to kill Penny, and just why is Widmore so sure Ben can't find her?  Is Penny and Des, Adam and Eve?  Did Widmore send her back to the Island because perhaps he thought it would be the last place Ben would look for her?

The hidden door in Ben's already hidden room is covered with a combination of Egyptian hierogrlyphics and what appear to be some Aztec markings.

the ship's doctor washes up dead on the island, but on the boat he is still alive. It would seem an open and shut case that time is moving differently, the most logical solution being that the island is slightly in the future, and that we'll see how the doc meets his end in an upcoming episode. But what about those phones?  Maybe, just maybe, it is the fact that they are sattelite phones, and the time disturbance does not extend into the heavens.

At the 2007 San Diego Comicon, Darlton played outtakes from an orientation film for a station called "The Orchid." in the video, we see the artist known as Marvin Candle, and occassionally Mark Wickmund, now going under yet another name "Edgar Halliwax."  The same name appearing on Ben's Dharma jacket in the desert.  It should be a NO BRAINER then that this jacket comes from The Orchid, and therefore the logo is the symbol for The Orchid station on the jacket....but how is the wound explained on his arm?

We discovered that early in his off-Island Oceanic 6 life, Sayid reunited with lost love Nadia and married her. Alas, shortly before the events of this episode, she was killed, and according to Ben, the murderer was an assassin in the employ of Charles Widmore. Ben's pursuit of this Widmore pawn was merely an elaborate setup designed to manipulate Sayid into wanting to become his dark-knight avenger

Ben and Widmore seem to be engaged in a war — a war for the Island, a war over time itself. For a long time, Ben was winning that war by either facilitating or managing a new timeline of events, one that denies Widmore his predestined life — a life that may have been ruinous for the entire world. But victory for Ben hinges on knowing or at least anticipating the future — and with Alex's unforeseeable death, ("he changed the rules") it appears Ben has become omnisciently challenged. Once, he was able to see the shape of things to come. Now, the future is as hazy as Smokey himself.

I agree with most of your observations TI, but I do wonder if Ben has control over Smokey as opposed to just knowing how to activate or piss it off. As you said "Ben came out all covered in soot", yeah he looked like hell. I think if he had control of it then he didn't have to say "we don't want to be near that tree line, we want to run like hell the other way" If he had control, the logically they could just stroll out and walk away.

I agree with you about the Ben/Widmore conflict going on for ages, almost like 2 immortals fighting thru time. I think one of the keys to this theory is when Widmore said "the island is mine, it always was, and will be again"

The glyphs on the door that Ben went into have been translated.  Since glyhps can be read left to right, right to left, up-down or down up, there are several suggestions.  It looks like the most clear is "To summon protection"

Others can be:

"Time to summon strength"

"To summon time protection" or "To summon time power"

"Time summons the power of life"