Episode Title: The Man Behind the Curtain

Flashback: Ben

• Has Ben never heard Jacob speak? Is he mad because Locke has heard Jacob and he hasn't?

  • Ben and Jacob are speaking to each other in this episode.

• Why doesn't Richard age? And yes that was him in the jungle when Ben was still a boy.
  
• Would Ben seeing his mother and seeing "Richard" be proof of clones?

  • There are no clones, and Richard's age might be nothing more than bad makeup by the LOST crew.
    • Hippie Richard is obviously intended to look like a young man in his circa-1968 scene with young Ben, maybe early twenties, but current Richard does not look even as old as current Ben, who looks to be around 50. This would have to be some seriously bad makeup by the crew. Either Hippie Richard was not current Richard or the island has some anti-aging property for some people, like Richard, but not for others, like Ben.
      • That scene couldn't be set in 1968 as the Dharma Initiative wasn't created until 1975. Add to that the time it would take for them to actually build all the various underground installations and the barracks and we're looking at somewhere closer to 1980, possibly 1985.

  • Also, at the start of the episode Ben asked Richard, "You do remember birthdays, don't you?", suggesting Richard really isn't ageing and therefore doesn't have birthdays of his own any more.
  • We know that Ben is "about 40" from the episode when Jack was looking at his X-rays. Assuming he's 10-plus when his Dad moves them to the Island, that makes it 1974 onwards (Lost being set in 2004). That's based on the "facts" given to us in the course of episodes/flashbacks. Possibilities: Richard looks late-30s then and now and seems to be one of the Natives.
• Do the Natives have special qualities, given how special the Island itself is?! Could Ethan also be a Native - he seemed pretty ageless in the flashbacks and he and Richard are the only people who move to and from the Island.

• Will Jacob "help" John? What was the powder that Ben stepped over and John sniffed?

  • It looked like gunpowder or volcanic ash.
    
  • In the school flashback Annie asks if that was what happened on the island, when the teacher shows the workings of a volcano. It also could be a border to ward off evil spirits or even retain them in this case (such as those used by shamans and medicine men during their rituals); what we saw couldn't have been human afterall. It is thought that evil cannot cross the boundary. It's also interesting that a circle (it looked to encompass all of Jacob's home) brings forth the Circle of Life idea here as well. HomerJ
    

• How did that one canister that Ben opened "purge" the entire island (It didn't)? Or did the "natives" unleash an assault with multiple canisters?

  • I think they used more than one canister, but I could be wrong. Anubis 5/10/07
    
  • It is quite obvious that with the help of the "natives", the Dharma Initiative was "purged". As you could see, the one can Ben opened, only released the toxins inside the van, therefore making it unrealistic for the toxins to escape the van let alone the entire island. Kyle 5/10/07
    

• Was the cassette shown to Juliet in real-time?

• Why does Jacob need Locke's help?

  • Because he's trapped in the house by the powder around the perimeter? Maybe it's salt, like in Supernatural.

• What happened to Ben little girlfriend? Do we see her grown up just before the purge?

• Could the Island Natives (those who were there before the Dharma Initiative) be aliens? Is the perimeter "fence" a line between heaven and hell? Does anyone think the Island may be purgatory?
  
  • Prodcers have said they are alive -- not spirits.
• Why was Ben so insistent that Locke kill his father?

  • Technically Locke did not kill his father... this may be his saving grace.
    
  • Ben killed his father - very odd parallel or possibly just a fluke.
  • I think the reason for having Locke kill his father is that Ben knew from his records that his father was Lockes number 1 weakness. It was a way of Ben to keep Locke at bay, at least for awhile. AlexFSU6 9-20-07
    

• Maybe the only way to see Jacob is to kill your father?
• If Ben set out to kill all the members of the Dharma Initiative why was Kelvin Inman spared?
  
  • We know Ben monitored all the stations from Pearl.
    
• Was Kelvin an Other in the same vein as Mikhail? Was he repairing Desmond's boat for reasons other than the ones he gave?
  
  • Kelvin was not initially a member of Dharma, as he worked for the government (we saw this in an earlier Sayid episode). It is likely he arrived after the purge.