[Hordriss]

As I recall, the only reason that Ben as we know / love / hate him exists is that the writers were so impressed with Michael Emerson's portrayal of "Pseudo-Henry Gale" in S2, that they decided to expand the character. One hardly wonders... Season 2 was hitting quite a low when "Benry" came on the scene and got me instantly re-addicted to the show. How I hoped he would not turn out to be a liar... but even so, he is still a compelling presence. Emerson's performance is perfectly judged, always treading a fine line between weird charisma and all-out creepiness, which suits the character's immense moral ambiguity down to the ground. He handles the duality of the character extremely well, convincing us that Ben is - at some level - an idealist and a visionary, while making it equally convincing when Ben falls victim to the more petty, vindictive, and immature side of his nature (especially when he has any dealings with women, rather pathetically...). I can't think of any actor who would improve on the role, though I do sometimes wonder if they didn't originally intend to cast a younger performer: entertaining as it was to hear Widmore call him "boy", I doubt there can be all that much of an age-gap between them.