One enduring question on Lost is whether Ben Linus really is a ‘good guy’ or not, particularly in comparison to Charles Widmore. We encountered it more recently in “The Life And Death of Jeremy Bentham” where we saw Charles try and sell his side of the story to John Locke. Personally, I still go with Ben being a force for good. As Samwise Gamgee said “I think a servant of the Enemy would look fairer and feel fouler.” which applies to Charles Widmore as opposed to looking foul and feeling fairer, which I believe applies to Ben. After all, this is the man who let Michael and Walt sail off into the sunset simply because his people gave them their word, even though he disagreed with the bargain. Can’t say fairer than that!

Any time Ben has been portrayed as a master of evil, it is usually misdirection, misrepresentation or just Michael Emerson’s wonderfully creepy acting, but the writers never seem to give Ben a break, they. Case in point, when Jack and Company are making their way to the radio tower in the season 3 finale, we are led to believe that Ben has had the shooters on the beach killed when they were not. Ben still got pummeled by Jack and then dragged around on a leash; Jack was never shamed for his actions of beating a man twice his age that had enough compassion not to shoot the people who had just killed a number of his own people.? The writers have done enough to ensure that we think Ben is evil that no matter what actions he takes that viewers remember those actions that enforce that view, and ignore the actions that don’t. If Ben really was evil, wouldn’t he have shot the Losties on the beach for real?

Ben’s lot is not a good one based on what we know. From his mother dying at birth to being blamed for it by his alcoholic father every year on his birthday Ben grew up to become the man who would purge the island of Dharma and become the leader of The Others through some plot line we haven’t yet seen. Ben takes his role seriously and dedicates the next 20 years to protecting the island, at least as far as we know.

He does so using a certain degree of foresight which many (including myself) believe comes from having been through all this before a number of times, or at the very least, by reading ahead in the book so to speak by passing forwards and backwards through time. Other possibilities are that Jacob guides him on these matters which would explain why Ben has been somewhat lost in the last few off-island episodes. No example of Ben’s foresight could be clearer than the last episode (Namaste) in which Ajira Flight 316 crash lands on the runway built back in Season 3 by Kate and Sawyer among others. After the crash landing, Ben heads off to find the 3 boats that were exactly where Ben said they would be, all neatly covered and camouflaged from the casual observer. Bear in mind, that Ben had been off the Island for 3 years, and yet he still knows where the boats are?

With that in mind, we get to Ben’s issue of being secretive and manipulative which many take to be deceptive and evidence of mischief. For most of the show, Ben has had a clue as to what must be done, and also how things are to get done. He has given us a number of clues as to how complex his life is and how many balls he has to juggle in order to keep the train on the track so to speak. For this reason, I think he treats the details as a triviality. It’s like a train that goes from A to B. No matter how much the passengers will it, the train will never end up somewhere else, and it won’t take a detour through points C and D. No matter how many times you ride it, it is always the same, and it is pointless indulging in the passengers desires to go somewhere else or go via a different route, or telling the passengers and having to explain time and again why.
So let’s look at some of Ben’s biggest sins from the first 4 1/2 seasons.

As my wife reminds me, the writers in a pod cast or in a captioned episode have said that Ben is a bad guy, but to the viewers he is the bad guy. I wouldn’t expect the writers to confess right out that he’s really the good guy but they are tricking you into thinking he is the bad guy. They will continue to portray him the way the series does. I’m hoping the good/bad Ben arguments keep going to the end. Also the captioned episodes are not that official since Darlton and Co. admitted they are not directly responsible for the captions so it isn’t altogether canon.

The Purge – Looking up the meaning of the word, it generally means, to get rid of bad stuff. While we are meant to believe that the Dharma initiative is some kind of peaceful commune, I think we’ve seen a few hints that they are not as benevolent as their ideology might seem. We know for one thing that they were deliberately looking for the island as per Mrs. Hawking in episode ‘316′. They were also all too willing to clash with the indigenous hostiles in order to stay on the island, and they knew enough to build the sonic fence to keep Smokey out (wouldn’t they also have some idea of what Smokey is?). We also saw Horace criticize Sawyer for not being “Dharma Material” which is why they were being shipped off in the sub which seems both unwelcoming and elitist. It seems that at the very least, the everyday Dharma-bot might have feel-good intentions but those behind the initiative have more insidious goals in mind. I think this is one possible reason behind the purge.

Shooting Locke – Yes, Ben shot Locke in The Man Behind The Curtain, he also probably knew he would survive it give the healing powers of the Island. If he really wanted Locke dead, he could have shot him in the head. How can Ben have the foresight to build a runway 3 years earlier but not know that Locke won’t die despite knowing about his mad healing skills and the fact that he had only one kidney. As for motive, he shot Locke in order to find out what Jacob had said after which he left him to heal. The shot was likely more a way of immobilizing Locke so he could interrogate him.

Strangling Locke – I also believe that Ben had to kill Locke in order to make the whole process work. Christianity wouldn’t be what it is if Jesus had just decided to go string himself up with electrical cord in some crappy New York apartment. However, Ben did seem to be waiting to extract some piece of information from him getting busy like an illegal immigrant in Rob Schneider’s shower. Interesting since we had almost the same interaction in The Man Behind the Curtain when Ben shot Locke to find out what Jacob had said to him.
After setting up the Locke suicide scene, and cleaning up, a wistful Ben says he will miss John, and I think he genuinely means it in some sense. I think he knows Locke will come back to life, perhaps coming back a wiser, bolder leader and Ben will miss the everyday John who was full of wonder of the Island. Perhaps Locke will now have to start acting like Ben does, beholden to the island and trapped on a train ride where every curve is known before hand and unavoidable, the same ride Ben has suffered on for the last 2 decades. We have already seen Locke share some knowledge with his new castaways and we know it has elicited more questions and some suspicion. Perhaps John will have to learn to go with the flow and don’t let anyone know.

Benry – When Ben was captured, he did indeed lie about who he was and how he got there. However, there is no real evidence that they had anything to do with harming the real Henry Gale, and the others probably even buried him. Ben was lying to protect who he was, again, in order to avoid having to answer questions. However, the eerie conversations Ben had with Jack and Locke about ambushing the other losties as they went looking for his balloon was eerie, and definitely caused Ben to start racking up the evil points with the viewers.

Ana Lucia and Libby – As part of rescuing Ben, Michael intentionally killed Ana Lucia and accidentally killed Libby. This wasn’t part of the plan, and Ben has always tried to go for more peaceful, non-violent options. Ben made this clear to Michael when Michael was on the freighter and Ben told him that they didn’t kill innocent people not only reaffirming Ben’s good guy status, but also rubbing Michaels nose in his own murderous ways.

Kidnapping Losties- The others have taken a number of people from the Losties overall, and while this is initially played as a scary, violent and harmful act to make us revolt against and fear the others, we learn later that for the most part, those that were taken are just fine and happy with where they are. It’s either a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome or they have a really good reason for staying there. Additionally, they must have been told something that would keep them there and not give the game up. How come the stewardess and the others immediately get sucked up into playing the part of an other by not telling anyone anything, but obviously having some idea of what is going on.

Given the way the series has gone, with repeating story and time lines, I’m wondering if there were people on flight 815 that were on the island before and ‘got off’ like the Oceanic 6 did, only to return, and the others ‘taking’ people was really a case of the others coming back and picking them up. Would we see Jack and Jin sneaking in to the new Losties camp to bring back Sun and Frank had they not already left to go find Jin?
Perhaps Ben’s apparently ‘good’ actions only stem from the fact that his hand is stayed by Fate. In the Season 3 finale at the beach, perhaps the reason he didn’t shoot any of shooters, was because he knew they had parts to play in the future (i.e. in the past), even though he might have wanted to shoot them.
In summary, Ben is a victim in almost every sense of the word. We start with his mother’s death to having a lousy father who is bitter and abusive any chance he has. When he tries to break out and join the Others, he has to wait, and when they give him the chance, at least as far as he thinks Sayid is being honest, he gets shot. Unfortunately, the only doctor on the island that can save him won’t (yeah, wrong again Jack!), and so he is carted off to the others where he is changed forever, and made one of the Others. While the next part of Ben’s life has to be divulged, we know he is enslaved to the Island, bound to the ‘fickle bitch’ of fate, while dodging bullets, being tortured, and doing everything he can to make sure everything runs on time, only to be cast aside and banished when the Island finds a new protector in John Locke.