BEN'S RAGE

We know this is not true: LOST was not about Ben.

Or was it? We know in reality that Ben was going to be a throw-away character; a leader of the villain clan who would have been killed by the survivors as they marched toward Lord of the Flies madness. But Michael Emerson's strong acting performance soon made Ben a fan favorite, and a new story engine for the series.

People have theorized that the LOST mythology centers around Jack, or Hurley but in the beginning we know from the preproduction notes that Kate was supposed to be the focal point for the series. But again, that changed when Jack in the pilot became the instance face of the series. Instead of killing off Jack to "bump up the island drama," Jack became the leader of the survivors instead of Kate.

So the show has a history of changing course in mid-stream.

You can apply just about any centrist theory onto Ben.

It can lead to a compelling case that the workings of the show were in Ben's head.

For example, Ben has spinal cancer. He dreams/prays/desires a miracle surgeon. And right away, a great surgeon literally falls out of the sky to save his life. How does that happen?

Considering that Ben had the means, opportunity and wealth to leave the island and do whatever the hell he pleased, why he was stuck on the island waiting for fate to take his life was odd. There are a few explanations for this behavior. One, he was scared of living the island because he may not be able to return. Two, he was the embodiment of the island's power, like Jacob, so he would be naturally healed because he was the island's native leader. Three, he really did not have cancer - - - it was a myth or phobia or a nightmare.

By putting the context of the show into the mental state of Ben could explain many contradictory aspects of the story lines.

We know Ben was an insecure child. He was raised by a drunken father. He was blamed for his mother's death. He was quiet and introverted, he made no real friends. Everything we saw and heard could have been the transcript of a lonely child's imagination.

A telling point is when Hurley invites Ben into the church reunion to "move on" to the next plane of existence. However, Ben passes on the opportunity. He has personal things to work on. Again, why would Ben even show up in the main characters' purgatory reunion world?

The sideways world appears to be one made for "second chances." In it, Ben is a lowly school teacher. He is taking care of his ill father. He does not have any friends, only colleagues at work. He is meek and naive. But there is a part of him that is a dreamer. He thinks he can help other people, that he can be a strong leader, and that he can find happiness (maybe as a step dad to Alex). But in this alternative universe, nice guys still seem to finish last.

But if you view the island world as a prequel to the sideways fantasy world, it could make some sense. Ben dreamed of being a powerful and wealthy man. He dreamed of the island fantasy because in his "real" life (which the sideways world is based upon) is so dull. When Ben dreams of being special, his mind races to create nightmares based upon his anxieties such as falling in love with women he could never have (Juliet and Kate were island examples.)

Each of the main characters could represent the problems in Ben's life. Hurley could represent the unlucky lottery winner. Locke could represent the trapped personality in both career and personal life. Kate could represent either women who don't find him attractive or his need to escape his routine. Jack could represent his fear of success. Desmond could represent his fear of failure. As he tries to figure out how to change himself, his dreams attempt to try to change these fictional characters into better, stronger people.

As we have discussed, researchers do believe that the purpose of dreams is to allow a person's mind to make calculations and "what if" variable runs to find solutions to waking problems. The variables in Ben's life could be represented by the main characters and how they are trying to cope with the various hard-wired problems in Ben's persona: including rage, desire, needs, fears. It seems that Ben's biggest problem is that he feels that he is not acknowledged or recognized as being a good person. He is merely a background player in the sideways school. Only one of his students finds him approachable and helpful. His colleagues dismiss his talk as being merely fiction or a wild dream. He is a dog without a bark or a bite.

So, the show is a series of dreamscapes showing Ben how he could be more like Jack, Locke, Kate or Hurley. How can he find love. How can he be more open and confident. How can he get people to listen to him. How can he get people to follow his lead. How he can lead a better life.

But it is Ben's pent-up rage that feeds a long pattern of nightmares. His mind is sidetracked by personal failure that he envisions himself as a diabolical tyrant who acts like a god-like figure over stronger willed people. Perhaps by the time he has the sideways church conversation with Hurley, Ben has learned that he has to let go of his inner rage - - - and to also let go of all the imaginary characters that he created to help him cope with his miserable real life.

Ben has to "wake up" from living in a fantasy world in order to "move on" in his real life. The sideways world was closer to reality than we thought; it was really the last act in Ben's elaborate self-examination. He decided that he no longer needed the main characters to help him figure things out in the real world. He decided to let them go (and symbolically be erased by the white light at the end of episode).

From that point forward, Ben had the mind-set of cleaning up his act. To begin to work on how mend his fences with his father (as Locke had done in the sideways world),  and to work on finding true companionship with Rousseau and Alex.