What happens to the dead people?

[Murgatroyd]

Last episode of season 3 - which I'm currently watching - Ben says to Jack that, if Naomi's people come to the island, 'every living person on this island will die'. The stress falls on what seems to be the most pointless word in that phrase - 'living'. It's superfluous. Dead people can't be killed. But that said, dead people have some kind of a life on that island, if only as visions. If every living person dies, does every dead person get to do something else?

What do you think the significance of the word 'living' is in this context? Is it some sort of a clue as to the fate Naomi's people might be bringing to the island?

And wow, this is all so Ben's fault ....

[The Wizard]

I noticed exactly the same thing when Ben said this, there is just no need for that word to be in there if it is ambiguous. It would have made more sense for him to say 'every living thing on this island will die'. I think there must be some underlying agenda here.... but what?

[Toby]

Ah the intricasies of Semantics.

I didnt notice that at first at all, and now you've got me all intruiged! Ben's manner, his way of doing things... it is all great acting. Manipulation. But what is he playing at with Jack? He is too clever for letting everything fall at this last hurdle, so maybe he wants it to? Another layer of truth above that we have percieved before.

So, by reverse psycology, perhaps Ben wants to kill every living thing on the island... so that the dead can reign supreme? Clutching very lucid staws here, needs more thought *grabs S3 box set, hugs and opens DVD*

[The Wizard]

Originally Posted by Toby

So, by reverse psycology, perhaps Ben wants to kill every living thing on the island... so that the dead can reign supreme?

[Toby]

Originally Posted by The Wizard

Ah, you know it to be true!

I was it a fast typing mood, a thought stream like a river of lubricated water. Just saying what came to mind, bar the consequences or the consequnces of those. Deep connatations of liberties form here, an anthesis to the state of the losties.

Well think about it, Ben's lost his "daughter", lost Juliet, lost the trust of his fellow others (and about 17 of their legs) so perhaps he wants to die. Wants to join the only thing keeping him going: Jacob.

*will edit in a picture of Jacobs Cream Crackers here*

[Hordriss]

Given the amount of afterlife theories buzzing about the place, Ben's phenomenal disregard for the lives and well-being of "outsiders", not to mention this mysterious report of Flight 815 having been found in an ocean trench (which Mikhail could have intercepted), I wouldn't put it past Ben to have assumed that all the Losties are, in fact, dead souls sent to the Island for purgatorial purposes (after all, he has seen his dead mother about the place), which might help to account for why he has no moral qualms about ordering their deaths. If, indeed, the Others have taken on a purgatorial duty, even in their own warped imaginations, that might also help explain their policy of extracting "good" people (who might find redemption by serving a term of their afterlife in Ben's noble cause, ha ha...) and doing in the "bad" people (who may as well be rushed off to Hell ASAP for the "greater good").

However, I suspect Ben would rather not "join" Jacob, as their relationship did not appear to be in a very healthy state, nor does he seem to be carrying out Jacob's actual wishes with any marked reliability (When exactly did Jacob order an attack on the beach? I confess to having missed that part of the conversation...).

[KatesFate]

I always felt that Ben might have been referring to Jacob when he says this. IMO Jacob is not a living entity

[The Wizard]

Originally Posted by KatesFate

I always felt that Ben might have been referring to Jacob when he says this. IMO Jacob is not a living entity

So he's saying that Jacob is the only one who will survive