Ben is easily one of the best characters in the show, and possibly in television. He’s one of those guys you love to hate. They are gonna dangle that “Anti-Hero” shit in our face and rip it away…they’ve done it a couple times with his character before. Especially involving Locke. And oh by the way, if you saw the preview for the next episode, Locke seems to be falling right into Ben’s plan….again.

Sawyer has always been an amazing character. But again, like Ben, not a hero. He’s out for himself and no one else…the only redeeming quality about him is that he tells everyone what he’s all about and makes no excuses or apologies for it.

Jack is still my favorite character but the writers seem to be making it incredibly hard for him to succeed. With his alcohol dependency, his “Stomach Bug,” Kate, his Ex-Wife, his father….fuckin’ A, who would kill themselves with all that shit…maybe he just has an ulcer.

I’d just like to point out that this may be the first time Jay has agreed with me on anything….woo hoo!!!!

In response to Jason, I think that there is more to the picture with Ben and that he (in his own mind) is a hero. He told Michael “We’re the good guys” at the end of last season. I think that has a lot to do with his motivation. He definitely tried to rope Sayid in, it’s also not entirely out of the question that HE had Sayid’s wife killed and blamed it on Widmore.

Ben is slowly becoming my favorite character on this show, Jack is turning into a wus and Sawyer is cominginto his own. I loved the part when says “Jacob? Who the hell is Jacob?” and figured he’s done with this crap. Awesome.

Also, I agree with you that Locke’s Dad wasn’t just kidnapped. That wouldn’t explain why Locke’s dad just thinks he “poof” disappeared and showed up on the island, unless he was coached to say that. Hmm…

He uses people for his own gain. I definitely don’t think the guy he had Sayid kill had anything to do with his wife’s death. It was a ploy to get Sayid wrapped into his ideas and to start him on the path to being a powerful henchman.

Ben will say or do whatever he needs to in order to protect himself. Resourceful and evil are probably the nicest things I can say about him, but he did come across as a bit of a badass with that whipstick beating of the guys on horseback.

We could be in the process of being setup by the show to buy into him as an anti-hero… but I don’t know, I just don’t think after all he has done people can really get behind him.

Speaking of which, he seemed very uncomfortable with unleashing the smoke monster - as if that was the islands dirty little secret.

I will concede that the heroes on the island are very flawed (my #1 would be Sawyer).

I did read Bad Twin, but it was several years ago - I’ll need to take a skim through it again.

I don’t agree with #2, I don’t think it’s that easy, I think there’s something more to it. A man of Widmore’s age could very easily have a heart attack, or a stroke - something Ben could very easily “make happen.” I think Ben is more than a survivor - there is something with the island, I belive he feels that he is in service to it, its power, or its continued existence. Unfortunately it’ll take 2 more seasons to find out.

I heard tale that they were going to try and get an extra episode out of the network. So that would mean 4 more.