SUDO-SPOILER ALERT!
In that scene with Ben and Locke where everything got all shaky and you briefly see a person, I did a frame by frame playback and the person sitting in the chair has the exact profile (including that very distinct forehead and extremely distinct nose) of Ben!
Stealing Cathy’s thought, have we gone a little 6th Sense here? Who of the Others have the Losties actually physically contacted and conversed with? Richard? I’m not so sure anymore. Patchie? Definitely. Juliette? Definitely. Tom? Definitely. Ethan? Definitely.
The revelations in tonight’s Lost episode were awesome!
I did the exact same thing with the frame-by-frame… I thought he looked like Richard, the one young Ben met in the jungle with the long hair. It didn’t occur to me that he looked like Ben… I’ll go back and look at it again.
I’m not sure where you’re going with the 6th Sense analogy… Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, Claire and Sayid all had extended contact with the whole Others camp (Hurley on the dock, only, really) plus Michael and Walt.
I’m thinking now Jacob is a manifestation of the Smoke Monster. That whatever powers it is the true power on the island, and apparently “speaks” to Ben as an entity named Jacob.
Locke had better not be dead, although it’s looking pretty grim. No one has really been confirmed as coming back from the dead, assuming Mikhail wasn’t ever dead at all. Ana Lucia, Libby, Shannon, Ethan – all shot and all died. Boone had multiple internal injuries. The Other that infiltrated the Tailies – they even found his body long after Ana Lucia killed him.
With the Sixth Sense thinking, when Ben calls to Tom and Richard to breakup Locke and Patchie no one moves. Now since we know that Jack played football with Tom that lack of interaction doesn’t really prove that Tom is a figment of Ben’s imagination but it does not disprove that Richard is a figment of Ben’s imagination…Richard who appears not to have aged since the day Ben met him.
Locke’s father is dead. Locke’s life battle is closed. In theory, he can die but so can Sawyer. I have a hard time believing he won’t recover.
Ben gives a nice profile for comparison immediately after the scene as he leaves the cabin.
I had the same thought about Locke – but although his back story has been resolved (the battle with his father) his character story has not. There’s still a lot of growing that Locke got do, regarding faith, trust, loving himself, and a host of other things. But then I’m sure Ana Lucia, Libby, Shannon, Boone, Eko, Paulo and Nikki did too and they died before their character arcs were complete so who knows.
I watched the screen pause again very carefully and I just don’t see the profile resemblance to Ben. I do see a profile resemblance to Richard.
Speaking of Richard, he was the one who worked with Ethan to recruit Juliet, was on the outside filming Juliet’s sister Rachel and her child, and was with Locke several times (taking Locke to see his father, giving him the intel file on Sawyer). I’m not so sure the non-aging is a factor, it could be that since the actor has such a youthful face to begin with that’s the best they could do.
I do think there is something more than meets the eye with Richard, but I’m not sure it’s non-aging or immortality. But I could be wrong.
If we want to know whether or not Locke lives or dies, then the real question we need to be asking is “Has Terry O’Quinn had any traffic violations lately?”