About Ben in Season 6.....

[ben_linus]

Why is he in the alt. timeline?

This has been bugging me since the reveal that Ben is apparently in Locke's alt. reality scenes in The Substitute, and that he is some kind of substitute teacher , with his centric being called "Dr Linus".
So from my understanding, the alt timeline is meant to to show what would have happened to the Losties if Oceanic flight 815 had never crashed on the island, and had instead landed safely in LAX. So why does Ben have ANYTHING to with this? Even if the Losties changed things by detonating Jughead, this would only affect the passengers of 815 - not Ben, who wasn't on that plane, and would be living on the island as leader of The Others regardless of whether or not it crashed.

[My name is James]

Originally Posted by ben_linus

Why is he in the alt. timeline?

This has been bugging me since the reveal that Ben is apparently in Locke's alt. reality scenes in The Substitute, and that he is some kind of substitute teacher , with his centric being called "Dr Linus".
So from my understanding, the alt timeline is meant to to show what would have happened to the Losties if Oceanic flight 815 had never crashed on the island, and had instead landed safely in LAX. So why does Ben have ANYTHING to with this? Even if the Losties changed things by detonating Jughead, this would only affect the passengers of 815 - not Ben, who wasn't on that plane, and would be living on the island as leader of The Others regardless of whether or not it crashed.

Same question for the less interesting and important Ethan.
I guess some of the Others dudes just got back on the continent since they were meant to interact with Oceanic 815 passengers anyway, just like Ethan delivering Aaron

[Ricardus Alpert]

It's possible that he still is an Other, and is on a mission off the island.

[SBD]

The question is what is Ben doing alive in the Alt universe.

If the bomb is nuclear you’d think it would destroy most of the island and at least kill everyone on it, as far we know Ben is still with the Others getting healed when the bomb goes off. That’s what I thought would happen anyway. Especially after Kate says in Follow the Leader

JACK: The three of us disappeared off that plane and ended up here, ended up now, because this is our chance to change things.
KATE: And if you're wrong, then everyone on the Island dies. Do you understand that?

Unless because they only used a part of the bomb, not all of it, and possible the exotic matter it is dropped near lessens the blow of it.

[BearHug]

Newbie poster but long time reader. Hi all

Re Ben off island in AT:

In an 'Alt Timeline' , 815 never crashes, ergo none of them ever go back to the 70's and Ben doesn't get shot by Sayid and get taken to the Others to become one of them.

Given the relationship he had with his father, I wouldn't be surprised if in the 'AT' he left the island at some stage to continue his education and eventually received a doctorate.

Horace made a point to Roger about Ben getting a 'quality education' when Roger demanded more money after an altercation between Dharma and the 'hostiles'.

In the 'timeline' we saw young Ben, he not only brought Sayid a sandwich but also a book. What 12yr old, unless he was very bookish himself, would bring a prisoner a book?

Young Ben may have been an emotionally deprived and abused child but he was no metal slouch. In the 2004-7 timeline we have also witnessed his intellectual and mental acuity.

It is no great stretch to imagine him in an AT off island with a doctorate of some sort IMO.

[ben_linus]

Originally Posted by BearHug

Newbie poster but long time reader. Hi all

Re Ben off island in AT:

In an 'Alt Timeline' , 815 never crashes, ergo none of them ever go back to the 70's and Ben doesn't get shot by Sayid and get taken to the Others to become one of them.

Given the relationship he had with his father, I wouldn't be surprised if in the 'AT' he left the island at some stage to continue his education and eventually received a doctorate.

Horace made a point to Roger about Ben getting a 'quality education' when Roger demanded more money after an altercation between Dharma and the 'hostiles'.

In the 'timeline' we saw young Ben, he not only brought Sayid a sandwich but also a book. What 12yr old, unless he was very bookish himself, would bring a prisoner a book?

Young Ben may have been an emotionally deprived and abused child but he was no metal slouch. In the 2004-7 timeline we have also witnessed his intellectual and mental acuity.

It is no great stretch to imagine him in an AT off island with a doctorate of some sort IMO.

But Ben would have become an Other anyway, regardless of Sayid shooting him. Ben had already met Richard four years prior to being shot, when he ran into the jungle and was told that he could join The Others if he was very patient. This was why Richard saved Ben at The Temple in the first place, he was already familiar with him and believed him to be special because he'd seen his dead mother on the island.

[SBD]

If the bomb destroys the exotic matter. Then Dharma would probably leave seeing as their research is mainly based around this matter. Therefore Roger takes his son and leaves, Dharma packs up and closes for bussiness. Ben ends up being raised in the real world. The others maybe unable to track Ben down so give up on him.

Ben becomes a teacher, probably still kills his Dad at some point too.

[jpventoso]

All this would make sense if the island ceased to exist in the alternate timeline.

[JulietDetonatesMyHeart]

Originally Posted by jpventoso

All this would make sense if the island ceased to exist in the alternate timeline.

THAT would be awesome.

[jbryan1984]

I like Bearhug's theory on Ben. Makes a lot of sense. He hated the DI, Richard was not going out of his way to convert Ben so when there was no Sayid to shoot him, he prob left the island at age 18 to return to the real world.