Chrism, you clever girl, you! You just got me thinking.

What if the man Sarah was sneaking around with behind Jack's back was BEN??? I don't mean that Jack's wife and Ben were having a sexual relationship, exactly, since she was already seeing that other guy. (The girl gets AROUND, don't she?) I think Ben was blackmailing her to leave Jack. Christian found out about it and became her confidant.

My theory is this: Ben forced Sarah to end the marriage because Time Travelling Ben knew that somehow that event would put Jack on a path to the island, where he would remove Ben's spinal tumor. (Removing the spinal tumor kept him alive to save the island...and humanity...or whatever :-p) Ben got Sarah to do this by "Doing what he always does: finding out what she cares about most and using it against her." Probably this was the threat of some horrible violence against Jack. (Or maybe he showed her Jack's future as junkie and convinced her she could help him avoid it only if she left him.)

SUPPORTING "EVIDENCE":
(1.) Before the crash Jack discovers his father's phone number in his Sarah's cell phone. Jack confronts him at an AA meeting at the hospital. Christian swears that that's not what's going on. He defends Sarah's honor w/out ever actually explaining why they were meeting in secret. Clearly (to us) it's killing Christian that Jack thinks so harshly of him. We know Christian goes back to drinking after months sober, which had been a major accomplishment for him. This is the beginning of the binge that takes Christian to Australia. Why go through all this? Why not just explain? Christian tells Sawyer that "Some people were just meant to suffer," but there is a good REASON behind it. He suffers to keep Jack safe. Ben was threatening Jack and Christian would rather have Jack alive and hating him than dead and loving him. Not such a bad guy, after all. Aawwww!

(2.) Juliet is shocked that Ben is not surprised to learn he has a tumor. Juliet is shocked that Ben immediately assumes it's cancer. Juliet is shocked to see that Ben is not totally thrilled that a spinal surgeon who could save his life magically landed on the island. Too much to believe, even for Lost. Pretty much all of Losttalk assumes Ben is an experienced time traveler with extensive knowledge of the future and the past. I think he knew ahead of time that he was going to get a tumor; he also knew that Jack would soon arrive to save the day. Clearly, he had enough info. about Jack in the Super-Duper Secret Red Files to know how to manipulate the people around Jack. Time traveling just makes it even easier to manipulate people (He already did it at least once w. Locke/Sawyer/Anthony Cooper!)

(3.) Sarah cried over the sink when Jack admitted he kissed the Italian woman because she WASN'T cheating and she was crushed that Jack was. Sarah still loved Jack. Clearly the marriage had other issues going on, Jack's prioritizing the hospital over her, but I do think Sarah was really mourning the UNTIMELY (*wink wink*), forced loss of her marriage too. Making up a fake affair was to keep him from coming after her, to keep him safe; unexpectedly to her he kept after her anyway.

(4.) Remember how Sarah never reveals the name of the man who came between them? Even when she could have easily said "Yeah, it's that dude with the car right in front of the police station over there who's waiting for me" or "Yeah, it's the guy I'm talking to right now on the playground." That poor schmo is just some dude she started dating later because she's a woman who can't stand being alone. That guy has nothing to do with the end of her marriage to Jack.

Sarah says "I've been seeing someone else." NOT "I'm in love with someone else." If you've ever been in the NYC dating scene you know that "seeing someone" can be a euphemism for almost any level of seriousness or relationship. It's a non-answer more than an answer. Word choice is important on this show.

(5.) LASTLY AND MAYBE MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!: Christian's knowledge of Sarah's being manipulated by Ben helps explain Christian's presence on the island in the last Missing Piece. If Ben knows how to time travel (or how to clone) he could have easily brought Christian to the island to work for him. He could be manipulating Christian just like I think he manipulated Sarah.

Didn't mean that to be so long-winded. Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away. Chickenpotpiesarehot, and so is my brain with Lost theories a-cookin' and a-brewin'!






Chrism posted the following entitled: JULIETTE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER

So in this episode when the therapist is talking to Juliette the second time (Maybe the first) she's talking about Ben's feelings for Juliette and mutters "You look alot like her..." or something like that, and then quickly changes the subject. I remember when Jack was locked in that room after the "Others" caught him and Juliette would come and bring him lunch and talk to him, she says the same thing to Jack that Ben is using her (juliette) to con Jack into breaking down since she (Juliette) closely resembles a girl that was important to jack in his past (his ex-wife Sarah). Anyone else catch this? Ben had an "Other woman" that resembled Juliette as did Jack! Could Ben and Jack both have had the same "Other woman?" (Sarah).

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

I don't quite follow how and when Sarah & Ben meet and grow some kind of romantic interest in one another.

Also, I thought that Ben was somewhat able to leave the island and come back, before the explosion at Des' hatch took place. If that's the case, why bother with time-traveling to find yourself one Jack Shepperd to cure some future-cancer. As opposed to checking into a clinic in Florida or somewhere in Switzerland..

I know not many would agree with me on this, but I never get the Sarah-Juliette resemblance thing. I mean, I get the references & hints from 3rd season and this last episode reminds that yes, but the two don't look alike to me physically..

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"Bear...? Is that you?"-- Hurley S03E4

I was thinking that Juliette may have reminded Ben of his mother, who he did have a picture of on-island.

I think Ben would have preferred the surgery on-island to enhance the healing process and not be under the gas in a foreign land but on his beloved island. I like this theory a lot, esp since I think a lot of the Losties had been manipulated for a long time to eventually get to the island, and ben may have had a hand in all of it.

FLANEUSE SAID:
I don't quite follow how and when Sarah & Ben meet and grow some kind of romantic interest in one another.

I don't know when exactly Sarah and Ben meet either. My theory is that Ben was manipulating Sarah, blackmailing her somehow, NOT that they were having a romantic/sexual affair...just their meetings were secret from Jack.

FLANEUSE SAID:
Also, I thought that Ben was somewhat able to leave the island and come back, before the explosion at Des' hatch took place. If that's the case, why bother with time-traveling to find yourself one Jack Shepperd to cure some future-cancer. As opposed to checking into a clinic in Florida or somewhere in Switzerland..

I was saying that Ben knew he would get a spinal tumor and that he would need someone to fix him in order for him to go on and protect the island from whatever danger it is he sees the freighter people posing. For that reason he might go to great lengths to ensure that Jack was on flight 815. If he was able to glimpse a possible future, he might have known that the end of Jack's marriage would put him on a certain path eventually ending up on the island, and therefore Ben would want to ensure that the marriage did end. I don't have it all worked out yet, but I like that there are loose ends that I can tie up with this theory.

My thought process must have been totally muddled in that post. Sorry!

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

thanks for the clarification potpie things are clearer here now.

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"Bear...? Is that you?"-- Hurley S03E4

You did make a really good point, Flaneuse, which my theory has a hard time addressing: If Ben could leave the island why not just go to Johns Hopkins or Cancer Treatment Center of America or whatever; why rely on Jack on an island with few medical supplies and properly trained staff? I have no idea, except that, to me, that's not a very satisfying plot line and so many characters on the show (Ben, LOCKE(!!), Eko, Desmond, and others) have a strong feeling for how things are supposed to work on the island. They can't articulate how or why they feel so strongly that things need to be a certain way, they just do. It's part of the whole Man of Faith/Man of Science dichotomy of belief systems. It also occurred to me that Ben feels his leadership on the island is slipping. Maybe he's afraid to leave because he fears a mutiny. Maybe he's a control freak. Maybe he's a bad flyer like Rose. I don't know.

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"Helen, do you remember that authentic Australian walkabout I told you about?"

"I fear a madness held me. This must crave,
An if this be at all, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
Be living, and be here?"
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 5.1

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i like the quotes, bee

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I love my beautiful turnipheads...

Queenbeesteph, I too like the quotes.

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"Bear...? Is that you?"-- Hurley S03E4

That's how I took it at first. Either of his mother or of Annie. But thats just because I despritaly want Annie back in the picture. Annie and Libby HAVE to have more of a role in this little mind f*ck