One of the show’s fictional characters is Benjamin “Ben” Linus, portrayed by Emmy winner, Michael Emerson. Ben was only supposed to be on the show for three episodes but the producers saw something in him and his portrayer, Emerson. When we first see Ben, he tells the survivors that his name was Henry Gale and was also on the plane. Locke and the other survivors grew suspicious of Ben and later his true identity was revealed. Ben was the leader of the Others, a group of island inhabitants that tortured and terrorized the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors. His ability to manipulate and lie, enabled him to mess with Locke’s mine, and gets himself released from their captivity in the hatch.
Ben Linus was born in the woods outside of Portland, Oregon. His mother Emily died giving birth to him and his Dad, Roger, blamed Ben for his loss. When he was a young boy, his father took a job for the Dharma Initiative, and they moved to the Island. Roger started drinking heavily and verbally abused Ben. Ben grows to hate Dharma and runs away bumping into the never aging Richard. Richard was an island native and part of the group known as the “Hostiles”. Ben wanted to be a part of this group. Richard told him to be patient and he will get his wish. In the fifth season where the island is moving through time, Sayid comes across young Ben and shoots him, leaving him for dead and hoping to end Ben’s reign of terror. Jack refused to help the dying Ben so Kate and Sawyer bring him to Richard who deems him as one of the Others from that point on.
We begin to know more about Ben’s past in his flashbacks. In 1988, Charles Widmore, the leader of the Others, sent Ben to kill Rousseau, “the French Lady”. He sees that she had a baby and kidnaps her and raises her as his own. Four years later, in another flashback, we see Ben killing his father and all of the members of the Dharma Initiative with poisonous gas. After that, he banishes Widmore from the Island and takes over as leader of the Others. He tells them that he is in constant communication with Jacob, the real leader, but it comes out later that he never met Jacob.
It was only two days before the crash of Oceanic flight 815 that Ben learned he has a spinal tumor. While watching the crash, he sent a couple of his group to investigate to see if there were any doctors aboard and had survived. He learns of Jack Shepard, a spinal surgeon, and concocts a plan to get Jack to do his surgery. After finding out that the men he sent didn’t get any answers, Ben came up with the idea to be Henry Gale, a man that died on the island earlier, to get closer to the survivors. After escaping, he was able to capture Jack, Sawyer and Kate to put his plans in motion. After some convincing, Jack agreed to do the surgery. But before Jack was done, he refused to finish unless Sawyer and Kate were let go and Ben agreed.
Locke ends up rescuing Jack but not without a hostile encounter with Ben. Ben tells Locke that they have his father and if he killed him, he can become part of the Others. Locke ends up getting Sawyer to do his dirty deed and then takes the corpse to Ben. Ben decides to take Locke to meet Jacob but shoots him and leaves him for dead after discovering the Locke can hear Jacob.
Ben ends up back with Jack and the other survivors who are now in contact with a freighter somewhere off the coast of the island. Ben warns them that these people are evil and will kill everyone. For his efforts, he is beaten and taken hostage while Jack makes contact with the freighter.
In the fourth season, the survivors are now divided into two groups, those that believe the freighter people to be good and those that believe they wish them harm. Ben knows that Charles Widmore sent the freighter and wants him. As the people from the freighter land on the island, the mercenaries end up killing Ben’s daughter, Alex, and others. Ben summons the smoke monster who quickly attacks the men, killing them all. Afterwards, Ben, Locke, and Hurley visit Jacob’s cabin where Locke goes inside by himself. Locke returns and tells them that they must move the island. They go to the Orchid where Ben tells Locke to leave and become the new leader of the Others while he enters a secret room. In the room is a large immobile wheel in the wall which Ben turns and it teleports the Island to a new location and through time. Ben himself is sent to the Sahara Desert in Tunisia, ten months ahead of the time he left the Island.
Ben seeks out and finds Sayid, one of the Oceanic Six that got off the Island, at his wife’s funeral. He convinces Sayid that Widmore was the one that had his wife killed and enlisted him as his personal assassin. While Sayid fulfilled Ben’s lists of targets, Ben finds Widmore and threatens to kills his daughter, Penny, as punishment for the death of Alex, his daughter. Meanwhile, Locke leaves the Island to convince the Oceanic Six to return. Ben finds Locke and kills him making it look like a suicide. Ben then later convinces Jack that Locke’s body needed to be on the same flight with other six. Ben and the Oceanic Six board a flight to return to the Island. Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid end up on the Island in 1977 with those that were on the Island when it was moving through time. Ben and Sun remains in the present with Locke’s dead body, the stranger walking around in Locke’s body, and the survivors of this flight.
A failed attempt to take a boat to the main Island, Ben is faced with Locke, who is quite alive. He tells Locke that he tried to get to the main Island to be judged by the Monster, breaking rules and returning to the Island. He and Locke go to the main Island looking for the Monster at his house. Locke tells him that he knows where the Monter’s lair was located, in tunnels beneath the Temple. Ben and Locke enter the temple when Ben falls through the floor and is faced with the Monster. He sees flashes of all the decisions he made, most of which involved Alex. After not being harmed by the Monster, he sees Alex who tells him not to kill Locke and to obey whatever he asks of him.
Along with Locke and Sun, Ben returns to the Others’ camp where Locke promises all of them that he will take them to see Jacob. As they are walking back to the temple, Locke tells Ben that he will kill Jacob. Because of what Alex said, Ben reluctantly agrees. When they reach the statue, Ben and Locke enter where they are met by Jacob. Jacob realizes that Locke is not Locke but his enemy and he is there to kill him. After a heated argument, Ben stabs Jacob twice, killing him. A very upset Ben is told to bring Richard inside, but before he does, Ben is confronted with Locke’s corpse. The group that brought Locke’s body was confronted with the smoke monster after shooting at “Locke”. Ben, Sun, and Frank (the plane’s pilot), buried Locke and Ben eulogist him saying that, “John was a believer, a man of faith, and a better man that Ben himself could ever be”.
In this season’s story one; Ben is on the island with Sun, Frank, Miles and other survivors. They are at the camp of the Oceanic 815 survivors, cleaning up the mess to make the place livable. In the alternate timeline where the plane didn’t crash, Ben is a European History teacher, having survived the destruction of the Island in 1977. We see him meet up with Locke who is a substitute teacher, and Alex, who is a student of his and not his daughter. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
