Ben Linus

Template:Infobox Lost character Benjamin "Ben" Linus is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost portrayed by Michael Emerson. During the first 3 seasons, he was the de facto antagonist and leader of the group known as "the Others," but has recently become more of an anti-hero. During the second season he was known by the alias "Henry Gale." We later learn that Henry Gale was, in fact, a real person, but had died after his hot air balloon had crashed on the island. In the second season, the character was a recurring guest although for the third season his status was elevated to main cast. Michael Emerson has stated that "I have full sympathy [for Ben]. I believe he has a mission and an agenda that he hasn’t shared with us yet. The survival of the earth may depend on Ben’s work, so it justifies his ruthless behavior. Maybe I’m just fantasizing or deluding myself. "

Appearances

Prior to the island

Benjamin Linus, one of the Others, claims to have been born on and lived on the island his entire life, but he was actually born in the U.S., 32 miles (51 km) from Portland, Oregon, on 17th of December, in an unknown year, to parents, Roger and Emily Linus. Emily went into labor only 7 months into the pregnancy during a walk in the woods and died from the complications that arose. When Ben was about 10 years old, his father had difficulty finding work and was offered a job on the island by Horace Goodspeed, a passerby who found and helped Roger soon after Ben's birth.

Prior to the crash

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A young Ben arrives on the island.

On the island, Roger Linus started working as a janitor, or a "work man" for the DHARMA Initiative, while Ben went to school and befriended Annie, a girl his age. Immediately after their arrival on the island Ben saw a vision of his mother from his room's window, but she quickly disappeared. Roger started drinking heavily and verbally abusing Ben on a daily basis, blaming Ben for his wife's death. On the day of Ben's birthday, Annie showed him two woodcarving dolls she had made of the both of them. Annie gave him the woodcarving doll of herself and kept the one of Ben, telling him that this way they would always be together. Ben kept his doll all the way to adulthood. When Ben returned home, his father was drunk and had once again forgotten about Ben's birthday, telling him that it was impossible for him to celebrate on the day that he killed his wife. Ben ran off towards the jungle where he again saw his mother on the other side of the sonic fence. When he was about to cross it, she stopped him, saying "It is not time". At a later date, he again ran off in pursuit of his mother, but came across Richard Alpert instead, one of the presumed "hostiles" that fought against the DHARMA Initiative. Ben expressed his hatred for the DHARMA Initiative and asked to join him. Richard accepted the idea of taking Ben into their group, telling him that he would have to think very carefully about leaving DHARMA and that he would have to be very patient.

Many years later, Ben became a work man like his father. On Ben's birthday Roger once again forgot, but offers that he and Ben have a father-son talk up on a mesa before delivering a shipment of supplies to the Pearl station. At the mesa, Roger told his son that he would try and remember his birthday next year, but Ben told his father that his patience is up. He donned a gas mask and dropped a canister of poison gas into the van, killing his father. When Ben returned to the Barracks, he found every DHARMA Initiative member dead from poison gas, including Horace Goodspeed (Horace's body was the only one that Ben seemed to show respect for by closing Horace's dead eyes personally). The "hostiles" entered the Barracks and Ben joined them. They buried the bodies in a mass grave and took up residence in the Barracks. Ben decided to leave his father's corpse where it was.

At some undetermined point, Ben assumed a leadership role with The Others, even though Juliet claimed that they made their decisions as a group, Ben remains the only one who can interact with their real leader, Jacob, and communicate his will to the group.

Sixteen years before the crash, The Others kidnapped Alex, Danielle Rousseau's daughter when she was one week old. In uncertain circumstances, Ben became her adoptive father, raising her as one of The Others and giving her the idea that her mother was dead.

Ben watches Oceanic Flight 815 crash.

Two days before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, Ben discovered that he had a spinal tumor. After he witnessed the crash, he commanded Ethan to investigate the fuselage and Goodwin to investigate the tail section. Ben used Goodwin in order to remove his competition for Juliet's affections.

After the crash

Ben and Juliet enter the Pearl station, where they watch Jack from one of the monitors. He tells Juliet that he will get Jack to come to them through Michael, and that he will convince Jack to perform surgery on him by using his usual methods of persuasion: he will look for an emotional struggle in his life and he will exploit it. They leave shortly after, leaving behind a radio that is picked up by Paulo, who had been hiding in the bathroom.

Season 2

Ben Linus was first introduced on the second season episode One of Them. He is caught in the jungle, in one of Rousseau's traps when he, allegedly, was travelling to the survivors' camp to retrieve Locke. Ben claims to be Henry Gale, an owner of a mining company in Minnesota that crashed on the island while traveling via hot air balloon with his wife, whom he buried near the balloon crash site after she got sick and died. When Sayid breaks him loose Ben attempts to flee, only to be shot in the shoulder with a crossbow by Rousseau. He is treated by Jack at the hatch, where he is held captive and interrogated regularly by Sayid. Ben's presence is only known by Sayid, Jack and Locke. Mr. Eko however, learns of his presence and goes to see Ben only to tell him how he killed two of The Others.

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Ben, as "Henry Gale", imprisoned in the Hatch.

Locke tells Ana Lucia about Ben in order to recruit her help in convincing Ben to divulge information about himself.

Ana Lucia visits Ben, at which time he draws her a map to the balloon. Soon after she leaves, he is let out of the armory and fed by Locke and Jack. Ben tells them of Ana Lucia's leave, resulting in his brief freedom being cut short. Later, when Locke is left to guard the hatch, Ben is released during the lockdown phase, and assists Locke in ensuring the timer doesn't run out. Ben climbs through the ventilation shaft into the computer room, but upon returning claims never to have touched anything. Ben had earned Locke's trust, but is soon broken when Sayid, Ana Lucia and Charlie arrive to expose him as a fraud, having found the body of the real Henry Gale, an African-American whose identity Ben presumably stole, buried at the balloon's crash site. Ben is quickly returned to the armory, where he is severely interrogated by Sayid. He is spared from death when Ana Lucia stops Sayid from shooting him. Ben goes into a state of isolation, refusing to eat or speak to almost everyone. He does however talk to Locke, but it mostly consisted of him taunting Locke about the Swan being a joke to his people and constantly ridiculing him. It is only after Ana Lucia pays him a visit that he becomes vocal again, nearly throttling her to death in revenge for her killing some of his friends earlier until Locke intervenes. He is finally released when Michael, on orders from the Others so he can get his son back (who was previously kidnapped by them) shoots himself in the arm after killing Ana Lucia and Libby to cover up what he was about to do.

Ben leaves and arrives at the Others' fake camp, where he organizes the capture of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. Upon their success, Ben and the Others take them, as well as Michael, to the pier. Keeping the Others' earlier promise, Ben reunites Michael with his son Walt, and gives him a boat and some coordinates to freedom, telling him that the Others are the 'good guys'. He releases Hurley, and asks him to tell the rest of his camp never to come looking for them. After witnessing the island being enveloped in a violet glow, brought on by the hatch's implosion, he takes Jack, Kate and Sawyer on board their submarine.

Season 3

Ben gives Juliet the task of interrogating Jack, while he and Kate have breakfast that morning. He tells her that the next two weeks will be "very unpleasant," before sending her into the cages with Sawyer. He watches the three of them via surveillance. Ben orders Colleen to seize Desmond's boat from Sayid, Sun and Jin. He later shows Jack events that have taken place off-island since his arrival. However, at the funeral of Colleen, Ben scolds Juliet for allowing Jack to see his x-rays. He admits to Jack about having a tumor on his spine, and begs him to remove it for him, to which he refuses at first; Jack later agrees to operate on Ben. On the operating table, Ben is sedated, but wakes up moments after Jack severs his kidney sack and reveals Juliet's plans. He bargains with Juliet to help free Kate and Sawyer in exchange for his own freedom, and Ben's operation is finished.

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Jack with Ben on the operating table.

Later, Ben puts Juliet on trial for killing Pickett. Ben's surgical scar becomes infected, and he is forced to spare Juliet when Jack refuses to examine him. Instead of facing execution, Ben orders for Juliet to be branded for her crime instead. He returns to the barracks with the rest of the Others, with Jack in tow. Ben is confined to a wheelchair upon returning. He is confronted by Locke when he, Kate and Sayid arrive, and holds Alex at gunpoint. Ben takes Locke to the submarine, and is relieved when it is destroyed. He takes Locke to a room, where Anthony Cooper is held captive. Ben then offers Locke the opportunity to depart with the Others, to which he accepts. They leave the next morning, and set up camp in a large clearing in the jungle. Once there, he tells Locke that he can only join the Others once he has killed Cooper. Ben jeers and belittles Locke when he is unable to commit murder, and orders the Others to move on without him. Ben is mortified when Locke finds them again, presenting him with Cooper's corpse.

Ben is forced to take Locke to meet Jacob, much to the Others' shock. Upon arriving at an isolated cabin, Ben warns Locke not to use his flashlight inside. Ben introduces Locke to Jacob, but only Ben is capable of seeing him. Locke does however hear Jacob say "Help me", which Locke thinks that Ben said it. When Locke shines his flashlight at him, Ben tries to calm Jacob when he erupts with anger. The next morning, Ben takes Locke to a pit filled with long-deceased DHARMA members. Upon revealing that he is the only survivor of the DHARMA Initiative, Ben shoots Locke and leaves him for dead in the pit because he heard Jacob and had become far too much of a threat. He returns to the Others' camp, where he orders Pryce and Tom to invade the camp early, and also tells Richard to lead the remaining Others to the "Temple." Ben takes Alex with him as he attempts to intercept Jack at the radio tower, where he tells her that he is "delivering her to her new family." Upon meeting Jack and the rest of his group, he tricks him into thinking that Sayid, Jin and Bernard are dead in order to get the satellite phone that Jack is carrying. Ben claims that if Jack contacts the freighter that every single person on the Island would die, but Jack doesn't believe him. Ben is beaten and taken hostage, and forced to join them at the radio tower. Ben begs Jack not to contact Naomi's freighter, a desire that nearly comes to pass when Locke attacks and severely wounds Naomi. Ben desperately pleads with Locke to shoot Jack, but Locke could not, it is later revealed his gun was empty; the freighter was contacted.

Season 4

Ben continues to be a prisoner of the castaways. As the group divides in two, Ben joins Locke's group, which leaves the cockpit and sets out for the Barracks. In episode two he continues to taunt Sawyer and Locke. Ben then steals Karl's gun and shoots Charlotte twice in the chest. When she survives due to a bullet proof vest, Locke and Sawyer decide to kill Ben after Locke asks him what the monster is. He responds "I don't know." However before they can kill him he reveals that the people on the freighter are there to find him and reveals personal information about the crew including the names of Miles, Daniel, and Frank. Finally when asked how he knows all of this he responds "because I have a man on their boat."

More information is found out about Ben, when Sayid discovers a secret hideaway behind a bookshelf, in his house at The Barracks. The hideaway appears to be an office and clothes closet. A bunch of metal cases are stacked on a shelf in one corner, and a desk occupies the center of the room. Sayid searches the desk to discover one drawer full of foreign bank notes and another full of passports from several different countries, all of which undoubtedly belong to Ben, under different aliases, including "Dean Moriarty" (the camera pans to Ben's photo within the Swiss passport). Meanwhile, Ben is imprisoned in Tom's house and is soon after joined by Sayid who says that the day he begins trusting Ben is the day he will "Sell [his] own soul".

Locke moves Ben into the basement of his own house to keep him under supervision. That night, Miles makes a deal with Kate to tell her everything he knows about her life before the island as long as he can speak to Ben. Kate agrees and breaks into Locke's house where Miles asks Ben for $3.2 million dollars. Locke is angered by this and makes a deal with Ben to let him free if he tells Locke the secrets of the freighter people. Ben accepts the deal and tells Locke that a man named Charles Widmore is trying to find the island to exploit it in every way possible.

Not wanting to keep any secrets from the other inhabitants at the barracks, Locke calls for a meeting at his house where Ben tells everyone that the spy on his boat is Michael. After the meeting, Ben urges Alex, Karl and Danielle to travel to the temple where the Others are for protection from the freighter's group. Unfortunately, on the way to the temple the group is ambushed, and the freighter group takes Alex as a hostage.

After the freighter group uses Alex to infiltrate the Barracks and take control, Ben and the others move to his house and fortify their defenses, while Locke argues that they will still not hand over Ben. When Martin Keamy, the leader of the mercenaries, threatens to shoot Alex if he doesn't come out. Ben refuses to comply. He staunchly denies any attachment to her, ultimately resulting in the execution of his daughter, leaving Ben dazed and lost for words. When he finally comes to, Ben tells the others how Widmore has "changed the rules", and after going into a secret room in the house he tells the others they need to leave the Barracks and head for Jacob. As he's telling them this, the smoke monster descends from the forest and attacks the mercenaries, noticeably larger than any other appearance (about as wide and tall as a house and probably hundreds of feet long). As the confused survivors run for the forest, a tearful Ben spends one last moment with his dead daughter. Once they are safe Locke asks Ben again about the smoke monster but Ben says Jacob will explain everything once they reach the cabin and, after forcing Hurley to help them find the cabin, they depart.

After some time John asks Ben where they're going, but Ben just tells them that he's been following Hurley this whole time, and John decides to make camp. That night, Locke woke up from a dream to find Ben staring at him. Ben stated that he used to have dreams, and they then continue on. They come upon the mass grave, and Locke explains to Hurley about Ben's massacre of the Dharma Initiative. However, Ben denies this and states it wasn't his decision as Locke begins rummaging in the grave. Ben reacts with shock when Locke finds the corpse of Horace Goodspeed. Horace's pocket contains a schematic of Jacob's cabin, as well as a map to it. Upon reaching the cabin, Locke enters alone, because Ben believes that his own time has gone. While Locke is inside, Hurley and Ben awkwardly split an Apollo Bar. Suddenly, Locke exits the cabin, stating that they need to "move the island".

Ben is able to signal the Others with a mirror and he takes Locke and Hurley with him to the Orchid, a DHARMA station that looks like a greenhouse which is able to move the Island, but can only be used as a last resort due to it being highly dangerous and unpredictable. When they make it to the Orchid, Keamy and his mercenaries are waiting on him. Ben tells Locke how to get into the real Orchid (which is below the apparent Orchid), and Ben solely goes to surrender to Keamy. Keamy and his men take Ben back to the helicopter, but the Others ambush them there, appearing to kill Keamy along with the rest of the mercenaries and freeing Ben. Ben returns to the Orchid to help Locke "move" the island, but Keamy, who survived his fight with Sayid and Richard Alpert earlier, tracks him down into the station. Though Keamy reveals that he is wearing a heart rate monitor functioning as a "dead man's switch" that will trigger 500 pounds of C-4 explosive on the freighter, Ben leaps out of the shadows and stabs him fatally in the throat. He claims not to care about the freighter or the survivors and sends Locke out to become the new leader of the Others, and apologizes for all the wrongs he has done to him. Ben dons a parka inscribed with the name "Halliwax", presumably belonging to Dr. Edgar Halliwax, as Marvin Candle calls himself in the Orchid Orientation Video, ventures down a dark tunnel behind "the Vault", entering a room that appears to be frozen, and badly slices his arm when the ladder he is on breaks. He comes upon a wheel/crank in the wall. He then states "I hope you're happy now, Jacob." and after many tries, turns the wheel. This appears to cause the island to disappear beneath the ocean. He had previously claimed to Locke that anyone who moves the island is permanently banished from the island. After turning the wheel/crank in the wall he disappears and is transported to the Sahara Desert which it shows in a flashforward in The Shape of Things to Come

After the Island

Ben makes his first off-island appearance waking up with an injured arm in the middle of the Sahara Desert in 2005, wearing the coat he put on in the Orchid station, with the name-patch that reads "Halliwax" on the left breast, and the Orchid Station Dharma logo on the right breast. Since the cut he received falling down the ladder beneath the Orchid is still fresh, it can be assumed this was where he was sent upon turning the wheel and moving the Island. Almost immediately afterwards, Ben is confronted by two hostile desert dwellers, and demonstrates considerable skill in combat by beating them using his telescopic baton. During his conversation with the dwellers he speaks Arabic and Turkish.

Arriving at a hotel, Ben asks the date and discovers that it is 10 months ahead of the date on which the island was moved. Hence he has been transported through both time and space by doing it.

Ben finds Sayid at his wife Nadia's funeral, and tells him that the man who killed his wife Nadia was under orders from Charles Widmore. He claims that he left the island with Desmond Hume's sailboat. After Sayid murders the man apparently responsible for Nadia's death, he volunteers to help Ben with his 'war'. Ben recruits Sayid as his personal assassin and has him eliminate several people, whose names are on a specified list.

Ben later infiltrates Charles Widmore's penthouse apartment in London and tells Widmore he intends to have his daughter Penelope murdered as revenge for the death of Alex, since he is unable to kill Widmore for unspecified reasons. Widmore tells him that he'll never find her, and Ben responds that he'll never find the island.

During a botched mission in Berlin, Sayid is injured and meets Ben at an animal hospital to be treated and debriefed. Ben tells Sayid that he has to kill these people to keep his friends safe, who are presumably his fellow castaways. Ben gives Sayid another assignment. Sayid says that "they" are on to them. Ben replies, "Good".

Ben later visits Jack after the latter breaks into a funeral home to see the body of John Locke. He informs Jack that that his aware of the latter's continuing flights across the Pacific, saying "That's dark, Jack." He tells Jack that after he left the island, "very bad things" have happened. Jack tells him he is trying to go back but can't find the island. Ben replies that he will help and that the only way to get back to the island is if everyone who had left it returns; that includes bringing the body of Locke with them.

Creation

Michael Emerson was originally contracted to appear in just three episodes of Lost but the producers were so impressed by him that they contracted him for a further five episodes. He was then made a part of the regular cast for the third and fourth seasons. In 2007, Emerson was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Ben in the 2006-07 season, losing out in the end to fellow Lost cast member Terry O'Quinn (John Locke).

Literary parallels

Henry Gale is Dorothy’s Uncle Henry in "The Wizard of Oz", but only named so in the 1939 film adaptation. “The Wizard" of Oz originally arrived in Oz by way of hot air balloon (which is the manner in which Ben's alias, 'Henry Gale', also 'arrived' on the island) and was worshipped as a great wizard but in reality was a fraud. Before Oz, “The Wizard" was a traveling magician. In another Wizard of Oz reference, the first episode centric to Ben is called "The Man Behind the Curtain". In the episode, Locke accuses Ben of being like the Wizard, putting forth the mythical Jacob as his people's leader while, Locke believes, Ben truly runs things from 'behind the curtain'.

The allusion to Oz continues with the 2 part finale to season 4, which is called 'There's No Place Like Home'.