I’ve made no secret of the fact that Locke is my favorite character on Lost, and in fact, on television. My second favorite? Benry. Man, I loved this episode.

I’m going to say right now that this episode seems to have a lot of literary and historical references that will warrant more thought than I can muster right now, so I’ll be looking more at those for the Pre-Game. There’s still more than enough to deal with tonight, including some surprising background on Timeline X.

We begin on the Island, which is unusual these days. Benry hooks up with Ilana and her merry band again after fleeing the temple. And then, it’s off to Timeline X, where Dr. Linus is giving a lecture on Napoleon. “It was on this Island where everything changed”, he says of Elba, and truer words were never spoken. He also mentions how Napoleon kept his title, but was exiled with no real power. Who do you suppose that refers to? I think it’s an allusion to Smokey – he wants off the Island, after all. You could also make the case that it’s supposed to invoke Jacob, though. The Timeline X scenes this week pretty obviously parallel events in regular Benry’s life, which is kind of unusual. This lends credence, in my mind, to the “Smokey’s Funhouse” theory, but we’ll get to that in due time.

Anyway, we meet Principal Reynolds, who is absolutely hilarious. He’s played by William Atherton, who you may remember as Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. There’s absolutely nothing likable about the character, and thus he cracks me up. Due to budget cuts, he’s assigning Benry to supervise detention, even though he’s supposed to be holding History Club. In the Teacher’s Lounge, he gripes to Arzt and Locke, which makes this the best school ever. Locke suggests that Benry X would make a good principal, and it’s all very reminiscent of Benry’s preparation for the Purge. Principal Reynolds is totally getting a face full of gas!

On the Island, Benry is having a hard time keeping track of his lies, which I love. He says Smokey is the one who killed Ilana’s friends, and he actually has to be reminded that, in his story, that’s also who killed Jacob. This episode has a lot of dark humor, and almost all of it involves Benry. Well, Ilana gives Miles that bag of Jacob ashes and asks him for Jacob’s last thought. Poor Miles has to be tired of this by now – it’s the only reason that half the cast even talks to him Anyway, Miles sees Benry murdering Jacob. Ilana does not take this well.

Man, it’s good to see the beach again, isn’t it? I missed seeing the old wreckage. Benry is pretty hilarious as he tries to make conversation, and then makes Miles look like the bad guy. As you’d expect, Ilana is not convinced.

Benry X goes home, and we get a look at Roger Workman in this timeline. He’s old and feeble, requiring an oxygen tank to breathe. He’s less mean than the one we’re used to. (Also, he was in Real Genius alongside William “Principal Reynolds” Atherton. They’re just a Val Kilmer away from an official reunion!) He says this isn’t the life he wanted for Benry, and then busts open the space-time continuum by mentioning the Dharma Initiative. In fact, he and Benry lived on the Island, but left. Huh.

This is our first mention of the Island or Dharma in Timeline X, which is significant in and of itself. But both of them were on the Island in 1977 when the bomb (supposedly) went off. You could make a case that Benry was evacuated with the women and children, but Roger was definitely on the Island. This would seem to indicate pretty definitively that Timeline X was not created by the detonation of Jughead. And it gets even better when there’s a knock at the door, and it’s Alex Rousseau! Awesome!

So why does she live in LA? And why doesn’t she have an accent? We find out later that she’s being raised by her mother, so you’d think she’d have picked up some trace of a French accent. And why does her research scientist mother have to work two jobs? Boy, it would seem like her personal background is entirely different in Timeline X. That ties in nicely with my theory that Smokey has built Timeline X, and populated it with familiar faces. Alex is there to get an emotional reaction from Benry, without regard to how her personal history works out. Anyway, she needs some extra study time, since the History Club didn’t meet. (In real life, there would not be pretty girls in History Club. It would instead be me.)

On the Island, Sun is still worried about Jin, and Ilana reveals that her job is to protect the Candidates. Until she knows which one of them is “42 – Kwan”, she sort of needs to keep an eye on both of them, so she wants to find Jin, too. She also lets Jin know that Jacob was looking for a replacement. Hey lady, I’ll cover the recaps, OK?

Meanwhile, Hurley wakes up, and man, is it good to see him and Jack again. I am ridiculously happy to see any Lostaway who isn’t dead, evil, or suicidal at this point. Hurley actively tries to lead Jack away from the Temple. Jacob gave him a warning, after all. As they argue, Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert finds them, which blows their minds. I might be wrong here, but I think Hurley and Jack have only ever seen him in the 70’s. I don’t think they’ve ever seen him in the present before. And where has he been? “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” You know, at this point I think Hurley and Jack are a pretty receptive audience for crazy stories.

Back at the beach, Benry finds a dirty magazine (with the awesome name of “Booty Babes”), a book by Benjamin Disraeli, and Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (that last one is particularly appropriate). You just know that’s Sawyer’s old tent. In conversation with Frank, we find out that Frank wasn’t the pilot that day because he overslept. Benry finds that fascinating, and alludes to the idea that the Island wants Frank one way or another. And then Ilana puts a rifle to Benry’s head and walks him out to the graveyard. She’s built a tether to tie him to a tree, and then orders him to dig his own grave.

In Timeline X, we open on a picture of a boat that looks a heck of a lot like the Black Rock. Benry is helping Alex study, and she’s freaking out – for him it’s just a test, but it’s her entire life. You know, like when Keamy tried to use her to lure Benry out of his house. Benry has the great, ambiguous line “I don’t worry about your future at all”. Alex mentions that Principal Reynolds is a pervert, and Benry immediately assumes a worst case scenario. Fortunately, that’s not the case. She did, however, spot the married principal hooking up with the school nurse “in the room where they give hearing tests”. Hee. Man, that kind of indiscretion nearly ended Principal Skinner’s career. I think you can see where this is going. She also mentions needing a letter of recommendation for Yale, and the only alumni she knows is the old perv.

Miles brings Benry some food, and I love how everybody is cool with the fact that the poor guy is digging his own grave. Benry offers Miles the 3.2 million dollars that Miles tried to blackmail out of him back in Season Four, if only he’ll help him escape. Miles doesn’t care, because he knows there are eight million dollars worth of diamonds buried with Paolo and Nikki. Ha! Miles further offers the interesting information that Jacob was hoping he was wrong about Benry, right up until he died. That puts a new spin on his final moments.

Hurley pumps Richard for information as to why he looks the same as he did in 1977. In true Hurley fashion, his main theories are that Richard is either a time traveler, a cyborg, or a vampire. Richard simply says that “Jacob gave me a gift”. He leads Jack and Hurley to the Black Rock and tells them that everybody at the Temple is dead. And Richard, for his part, is disillusioned with Jacob and just wants to die.

In Timeline X, Benry approaches Arzt about getting into the school nurse’s e-mail account. Once Arzt finds out what it’s about, he’s entirely too gleeful. He’s got a list of things he wants from soon-to-be Principal Linus. “Linus, you’re a real killer.” Hee. And you have to think that the guy who plays Arzt was excited about coming back to do scenes with Benry. On a lot of shows, if your character dies before one of the main characters is introduced, you don’t get to act with them. That’s not how it works over here though.

Richard walks through the hold of the Black Rock, and he clearly has a history there. Remember, the last time Smokey saw him, he was in chains. Lot of chains in that cargo hold. He even tells Jack that it’s the first time he’s come back to the ship. “Come back”. That pretty much clinches that he was on that boat. He finds a box of dynamite and does not handle it gingerly. In an episode where Arzt appears prominently, that seems like a bad idea. Hurley is appropriately freaked out.

As he assembles a fuse, Richard explains that he can’t kill himself. Hey, sort of like Michael! He was touched by Jacob, which is supposed to be a gift. His faith has been shaken now, because he spent his life in service of Jacob, who claimed to have a plan. And now Jacob’s dead, there was no plan, and to Richard, that means his incredibly long life had no purpose. This is interesting – Richard can’t kill himself, but he believes that if Jack lights the fuse, it will work.

So those touched by Jacob can be murdered by can’t commit suicide? That’s interesting. Well, Dogen and Locke were both touched by Jacob and they were killed, so it makes sense. Would that also mean that Locke wouldn’t have been able to kill himself after all? I’d like to know how Richard arrived at this conclusion. I mean, he’s had time to work it out, so I tend to believe him.

Also, it’s pretty clear that Richard is a special case – not everybody touched by Jacob turns out to be ageless. If that were the case, Kate and Sawyer would still be children, as they were when they met him. Not all of Jacob’s gifts are the same.

Jack agrees to help Richard out by lighting the fuse, but then sits there right next to him, much to Hurley’s chagrin. Jack wants answers, and he believes that the dynamite won’t go off if he’s there. He believes he’s protected the same way that Richard is. Being there with the dynamite that he lit, well, that would be suicide. And that apparently doesn’t work. Jack manages to convince Hurley to get out of there, just in case. Sure enough, the dynamite does not go off. And now Richard is ready to follow Jack, who wants to go back to where they started.

And this is awesome. As my viewing buddy Rachael said, he’s turned into Locke. Jack is now a man of faith – and he’s betting his life on it. And look at the way Matthew Fox plays this scene – the way he smiles when talking about what he doesn’t understand, and the way he uses Richard’s name when talking to him. That’s old school Locke right there. Nice job! Whatever happens, Jack is already realizing that Locke was right.

As Benry digs, we hear the sound we’ve come to know and fear. Sure enough, Look-a-Locke shows up. It seems that he’s only visible to Benry, since Ilana doesn’t see him. Granted, she’s a ways off and she’s enjoying a mango, but it doesn’t seem like she’d drop her guard enough to totally miss this exchange. Unless it’s a really fantastic mango, I guess.

Smokey doesn’t want Benry to die, which at least means we have something in common. He’s gathering a group to leave the Island, and he needs somebody to be in charge after he leaves. Benry is his first choice. So, both he and Jacob are looking for replacements then? Interesting. Could it be that he can’t leave until he passes his role on to somebody else? Anyway, he removes Benry’s shackle and tells him where he can find a rifle. After Benry’s escaped, he’s supposed to meet up with Look-a-Locke at the Hydra Station on the other island. Oh, somebody’s getting fish biscuits! When Smokey disappears, Benry makes a run for freedom as Ilana chases him down.

In Timeline X, Benry presents Principal Reynolds with 30 salacious e-mails from the nurse’s account. He tells Reynolds to step down and recommend him for the position, or the e-mails go public. Yep, this is Sweater Vest Benry’s version of the Purge. But Reynolds fights dirty. Alex has asked him for a letter of recommendation, and unless Benry backs off, he will torch her academic career.

Now, this is where Dr. Linus is a very different man from our Benry. Our Benry would have reminded Principal Reynolds that he’s in no position to make threats, and any letter from him will mean next to nothing after the world finds out that he fondled a student, and then he’d immediately go about faking proof and destroying Reynolds utterly. But here, in Timeline X, Benry has to choose between his own needs and Alex. We know how well that worked in our world…

On the Island, Benry makes it to the rifle and aims it at Ilana. He has her dead to rights, and instead of shooting her, he tries to explain why he killed Jacob and seeks forgiveness. This is an incredible scene here, where perhaps for the first time, Benry bares his soul. He has nothing to gain here. He has the upper hand – he could shoot Ilana and run to safety and that would be that. Instead he tells her how he lost his daughter, and how he can never forgive himself. He tells her how Jacob didn’t care about any of his sacrifices, and how that hurt him. There’s no agenda here. This is Benry seeking some measure of redemption. Michael Emerson is just amazing here.

Ilana asks what he wants, and he just wants to leave to join up with Look-a-Locke “Because he’s the only one who’ll have me”, and it’s the most honest he’s ever been. Put aside the alternate timelines and Smokey and the literary allusions and the numerology for just a minute. When you strip away all of that, Lost has some of the best character work you’ll see on television. This is just a heartbreaking moment, when the master manipulator reveals himself to be fragile and human and alone. The fact that they’re getting this emotional reaction from a character who’s lied and murdered his way through the last five seasons is a testament to the skill of all involved.

And then Ilana brings it home. “I’ll have you,” she answers and then walks back toward the beach. We don’t know much about her yet, but that act of kindness and forgiveness tells us all we need to know. It’s so simple and so perfect. And if Benry’s reaction, the mix of confusion and profound gratitude, does not bring tears to your eyes, you’re some kind of cyborg. Or a vampire.

In Timeline X, Benry hangs around in the Principal’s office, leaving us to wonder what he chose. Alex enters, just as Benry moves toward the unoccupied chair behind the desk (nice fake-out!), and gushes about the great letter that Principal Reynolds wrote for her. Reynolds enters and yells at Benry, who says he’s just dropping off the detention sheets. He also mentions to Alex that he’s off detention duty, and that History Club is back.

That’s right, Benry X traded his dreams for Alex’s. He chose her over himself this time. And while I’m not sure why he would get his wish in a world created by Smokey (he’s not a Candidate, after all), it certainly seems as if his desire was to make things right with Alex – to make the unselfish choice. I can not even tell you how much I am loving this episode. Benry even gives Arzt his parking space, just so everybody has something to be happy about.

Finally, Benry follows Ilana back to the beach, where he lays down his rifle and asks Sun how he can help with the shelter. As Frank builds a fire and Miles looks at the diamonds that he must have dug up, Jack, Hurley, and Richard emerge from the jungle. It’s a joyous reunion – while everybody is elated to see their old friends, Richard and Benry hang back on the outskirts. In a nice long shot, we see the tightly clustered group with those two standing alone at either end. I will not cry, I will not cry…

And then, we see that same shot through a periscope. That’s right, it’s a submarine. The man at the ‘scope says “Sir, there are people on the beach. Should we stop?” His boss says “No, proceed as planned.” That would be a cool, mysterious ending by itself, but the fact that it’s Charles Widmore in the sub should blow your mind.

What’s Widmore doing? How did he find the Island? I don’t even know what to think right now, so I welcome your suggestions. Or we can just talk about how awesome Michael Emerson was in this episode. Either way, I’m good.