Showing the plane crash scene from the beginning of season 3 again in 'The Other Woman' reminded me of a continuity question I've had for a while.

We know from seeing the x-rays that Ben knew he had a tumor at the time of the crash. At the end of season 2 after he got free, he had Michael bring Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to him, and let Hurley go. He did this to manipulate Jack into wanting to do the surgery for him. He also claimed that when he got captured in Rousseau's trap, he was on his way to get Locke.

But in 'The Hunting Party', Tom had Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Locke surrounded and disarmed in the middle of the jungle. Ben hadn't even been captured yet and they still had Michael. So why go to the trouble of having Michael go back and get those people, if they'd already had all 4 of the people they wanted right there? Instead Tom just told them not to cross the line and to leave them alone.

Either Ben didn't want John there or they didn't know that Jack was a spinal surgeon by then. But yeah, you're right, that's a big error in the overall story.

Maybe Jacob hadn't made his list yet, or they were still interrogating Michael.

I don't think he knew about Jack's surgical abilities at that point. If we're generous and admit that the latest possible date he could have known for sure was the scene we witnessed with Juliet in The Other Woman, where does that leave the timeline vis-a-vis The Hunting Party?

And I don't think Ben really wanted Locke at that stage; he just knew how to push his buttons in the hope of being released.

These dates are from Lostpedia's timeline:

The scene from THP where Jack, Locke & Sawyer encounter the Others was day 52
Rousseau captures Ben in her net on day 58.
The scene where Ms. Klugh gives Michael the list of Losties to bring back was day 62The scene from TOW where Juliet says "So Shephard's a spinal surgeon" could have taken place between days 52 and 58

This was discussed in another thread: http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=91255&page=3

By dating back to The Other 48 Days, someone determined that Goodwin was killed on Day 27. His body wasn't that badly decomposed so it must have been less than a week (in the tropical heat) when Ben took Jules to see it. So Ben knew there was a spinal surgeon well before THP.
My conclusion was that the storyline hadn't been thought of yet. Michael Emerson didn't debut until after THP in OOT, and he was at first slated to do only 3-6 episodes if I remember from an interview. :shrug:

You can't see the X-rays -- they're invisible!

(Sorry, old Firesign Theatre line there, from the Nick Danger: Case of the Missing Yolks video, if I recall correctly. Couldn't resist.)

- mnw

I think it's easy to surmise that Ben hadn't created or finished creating his master plan yet. He knew he needed Jack for the surgery but hadn't figured out how to manipulate him into performing the surgery yet. I think this is one of the reasons he allowed himself to get caught. He wanted to be around the Losties and figure out their weaknesses, first.

Michael Emerson was only originally supposed to be a random Other, but when they saw his performance they decided to make him the leader. The plan was always to have a leader (Ben), the only change was to make that leader Michael Emerson. This was in a podcast last year or the year before. Also, they said the original storyline had Henry Gale escaping during Lockdown but moved it to later in the season so they could keep the character around longer.

These dates are from Lostpedia's timeline:

The scene from THP where Jack, Locke & Sawyer encounter the Others was day 52
Rousseau captures Ben in her net on day 58.
The scene where Ms. Klugh gives Michael the list of Losties to bring back was day 62The scene from TOW where Juliet says "So Shephard's a spinal surgeon" could have taken place between days 52 and 58

COULD have, but check this out: http://en.lostpedia.com/wiki/Expose

According to Exposé, Paolo saw Juliet and Ben spying on Jack in the Pearl on Day 49.

JULIET: That him? Shephard?
BEN: Yes.
JULIET: He's cute. Why are we doing this? Shephard will never agree to do the surgery.
BEN: No, I can convince him to do it.
JULIET: How?
BEN: Same way I get anybody to do anything. I find out what he's emotionally invested in, and I exploit it.
JULIET: So, what? We just grab all three of them, Ford and Austen too?
BEN: No they need to come to us.
JULIET: And how do we make that happen?
BEN: Michael, of course.

Three days later, and they DID "come to us", without the help of Michael.

COULD have, but check this out: http://en.lostpedia.com/wiki/Expose

According to Exposé, Paolo saw Juliet and Ben spying on Jack in the Pearl on Day 49.



Three days later, and they DID "come to us", without the help of Michael.
Thanks for the info from Expose. Not sure what to make of it all, but workingmom's thoughts make sense.

Yeah, I'm sure it has more to do with Michael Emerson joining the cast. But whether he or anyone else would've played the "leader" of the Others, it seems like they were intending to have those three captured at the end of the season anyway, right?

They're usually good at explaining things from different angles, so I wonder if they'll ever get around to coming up with a reason why they weren't taken at that point.

The best one I can come up with is that they needed Locke to destroy the Swan, and Eko to cause Locke to regain his faith in the island.

Maybe the meeting was somewhat down to chance and the Others only knew X people were headed this way but not who. Remember when Carl is saved from the room the guard didn't seem to know who Sawyer and Kate were so it's possible that this also happened in THP and Ben told Tom to threaten them but not take any of them..