[At the Others’ camp, we see Ben sitting in his tent writing in his journal.]
_/12 An important meeting tonight with (R) and (M) regarding the developing situation. We are now on day 3 of our exodus from the village and I am, I fear, at the limit of my tactical resources. (T)’s agenda, which I don’t question, is however a narrow and difficult one, and I could well wish we’d had time to prepare, not merely for the military strike, but for a surveillance campaign of the beach. We are short on provisions (seasonal) and, more importantly, the long-awaited re-supply of camp gear having been missed (and so necessary!) _____ _____ _____ just as our water supply ____ ___ have been cut off. We look like a very sad sort of gypsy army. (Transcript courtesy of Doc Arzt.)
[A walkie transmission interrupts Ben as he writes.]
BONNIE: Come in. Come in, Ben.
BEN: Hello?
BONNIE: Ben, it's Bonnie. Ben, are you there? Can you hear me, Ben?
[Mikhail and Richard are playing chess, and notice Ben on his walkie outside for signal]
BEN: Why are you breaking radio silence?
BONNIE: One of them's down here.
BEN: I'm sorry, what?!
BONNIE: We have him tied up but he's here. One of them swam down here.
BEN: Who? Which one?
BONNIE: He won't tell us.
CHARLIE: [Overhearing] It's Charlie! Tell him I said hi!
BEN: How did... how does he know about the station?
BONNIE: He said Juliet told them.
[Pause]
BEN: All right, sit tight, don't do anything, I'm sending help. [To Mikhail] Mikhail you need to go down to The Looking Glass and find out what Charlie Pace is doing down there.
MIKHAIL: You told us The Looking Glass was inoperable. Flooded.
BEN: I lied. Mikhail, I need you to go, now.
MIKHAIL: I can be there by dawn. But if Juliet told them about The Looking Glass, what else did she tell them?
[Mikhail goes, as Ben fiddles with his walkie]
BEN: Ryan, come in. Ryan are you there?
[At the beach, Ryan's walkie is off as he looks at the quiet camp with binoculars]
[Later]
[Ben uses his walkie at the Others' camp]
BEN: What?
TOM: They're all dead. Diane, Ivan, all of em, dead. And Shephard and his people, they're all gone.
BEN: Gone, gone where?
TOM: I dunno. Did you hear me? They killed seven of our...
RYAN: Tom! Calm down and tell him the good news.
BEN: What good news?
TOM: We caught three of em. The one's who stayed behind to blow up the tents. Ben, they knew we were coming?
BEN: It was Juliet. She betrayed us.
TOM: What?
BEN: Just figure out where she is, Tom.
RYAN: [To Sayid] Get up.
[He pulls him up]
RYAN: OK, junior, where the hell did...
[Sayid spits in his face, and Ryan hits him hard over the head with his handgun]
TOM: They're not talking.
BEN: Who do you have?
TOM: Jarrah, Kwon, and the dentist.
BEN: Shoot Kwon.
TOM: What?
BEN: If you want them to answer questions, kill Kwon, do it now.
JIN: [Speaks Korean at Tom]
RYAN: I dunno what that means, but I'm sure its lovely.
[He cocks his gun]
BERNARD: No, wait. No.
JIN: No. No talk.
BERNARD: No please.
TOM: You talk to me, nobody will get hurt. Now tell me where your people are.
SAYID: He's lying, he's going to kill us all any...
[Sayid is kicked down]
RYAN: Where are they?
[Short pause. Ryan puts his gun at Jin]
RYAN: Sayonara.
BERNARD: A radio tower. They're hiking to a radio tower.
TOM: Why in the hell are they going there?
BERNARD: A woman, parachuted here. She has a satellite phone and they're gonna call her ship.
BEN: [On walkie] Juliet thought we were coming tomorrow. So why were they waiting for us tonight?
RYAN: [To Bernard] You heard him. How'd you know?
BERNARD: A kid, told us, he came in a canoe, and he warned us.
TOM: What kid?
BERNARD: Karl. He said his name was Karl.
TOM: You heard that, Ben? [Pause] Ben?!
BEN: I heard.
[Ben looks out of his tent and stares at Alex]
TOM: What d'you want us to do, kill em?
BEN: No. Not yet.
[Next day at the Others' camp. Ben draws a line to the radio tower on a map, as Richard watches.]
RICHARD: We're going to the radio tower?
BEN: Not we, Richard, me. You're going to take everyone to the temple as planned.
RICHARD: Now might not be the best time to go tromping off on your own.
BEN: Oh really and why not?
RICHARD: Because people are asking questions, Ben. About leaving home, about what happened to Locke, about Jacob. Not to mention the rapidly spreading rumour that everyone that went down to the beach is dead.
BEN: They're not all dead.
[Ben gets up to get some things]
ALEX: Where are you going?
BEN: Hello, Alex.
ALEX: I asked where you were going.
BEN: Well I thought I might go for a walk! See if I can't find Jack and all his friends.
ALEX: [Defiantly] I'm coming with you.
BEN: All right.
ALEX: [Surprised] What?
BEN: I said all right. In fact I think its a good idea. I mean you do want to see Karl again, don't you? [Pause] Get your pack, I'm leaving in ten minutes.
RICHARD: There's forty of them. And you're alone. They're gonna do whatever it takes to get off the Island. What do you think's gonna happen when you get there?
BEN: I'm gonna talk them out of it.
[Later]
[A bleeping sound can be heard from the comms room]
GRETTA: That's Ben.
MIKHAIL: [Holds up his knife] I'll get it.
[In the jungle, Ben talks to Mikhail on his walkie as he and Alex walk]
BEN: You have to understand, everything I did, I did for the Island.
MIKHAIL: The Island told you it was necessary for you to jam your own people?
BEN: Yes it did. You've always been a loyalist, Mikhail, now I'm asking you to trust me, to trust Jacob who told me to do this.
MIKHAIL: Why would Jacob ask you to lie to your own people?
BEN: Because this Island is under assault by forces stronger than anything its had to deal with in many many years. And we are meant to protect it, Mikhail, by any means necessary. The jamming was for everyone's security. We are in a serious situation here.
MIKHAIL: So why not trust me?
BEN: I made a mistake. I should have told you, and I apologise.
[Pause]
BEN: Mikhail, are you still there?
MIKHAIL: Yes.
BEN: I need you to help me. I need you to help me clean up this mess I've made. I need you to kill Charlie. Make sure that the jamming mechanism continues to function at all costs. And we can't risk Greta and Bonnie telling the others about what we've done, so you'll have to take care of them too.
[Alex looks shocked]
MIKHAIL: How do I know you didn't say the same thing to them about me
BEN: Because if I had, Mikhail, you'd already be dead.
[Later]
[Ben and Alex have stopped while Ben studies his map]
BEN: If we head North, we should get to em before they reach the tower.
ALEX: Why did you let me come?
BEN: I let you come because I'm delivering you to your new family. I let you come because you betrayed me, Alex.
ALEX: You locked Karl in a cage. You put him a room and tried to brainwash him.
BEN: I didn't want him to get you pregnant. I suppose I overreacted. We better get going.
ALEX: Ben. Why do you have to stop them? Why won't you just let them leave.
BEN: Because I can't, Alex.
[Later]
Ben and Alex appear before the Losties on a hillside.]
BEN: Hello, Jack. We need to talk.
[Inside The Looking Glass, Mikhail exits the comms room]
GRETA: What did Ben say?
BONNIE: Can we kill him?
MIKHAIL: Is it possible to turn this equipment off?
BONNIE: What?
MIKHAIL: The equipment that's jamming the Island, can you turn it off?
GRETA: Sure. Ben gave us the code.
MIKHAIL: You are the only ones who have it?
BONNIE: Yeah. Why?
MIKHAIL: What would happen if this station were to be flooded?
GRETA: Nothing. The casing for the equipment is waterproof, it'll keep going forever.
MIKHAIL: Then why do you need to be here?
BONNIE: Because Ben told us to. We were following orders.
MIKHAIL: And you never asked why?
BONNIE: No. Because I trust him. And I trust Jacob. And the minute I start questioning orders, this whole thing, everything that we're doing here falls apart.
[Later]
[Jack and Ben stand opposite each other on the hillside. Kate heads off to check the flank, as Jack approaches Ben.]
BEN: [To Naomi] Hi, I'm Benjamin, I don't believe we've had the pleasure...
JACK: Don't talk to him! [To Ben] What do you want?
BEN: Just a moment of your time. To talk, you and me, alone.
JACK: For what?
BEN: Jack you've just killed seven of my people, the least you can give me is five minutes.
[Rose and Sun exchange anxious looks. Kate arrives back to Jack]
JACK: He alone?
KATE: There's only two sets of tracks, his and hers.
JACK: Five minutes.
[Ben nods. As he leads the wway, Jack grabs Ben's walkie]
[Jack follows Ben away from the main group]
BEN: Have a seat.
[They both sit.]
BEN: Not so long ago, Jack. I made a decision, that took the lives of over forty people in a single day. I'm telling you this because, history is about to repeat itself, right here, right now.
JACK: Let me guess, you've got us surrounded, and if I don't do what you say you're gonna, you're gonna kill all my people.
BEN: No Jack, you are.
[Jack laughs]
JACK: And how am I going to do that, Ben?
BEN: The woman you're travelling with. The one who parachuted onto the Island from that helicopter. She's not who she says she is.
JACK: She's not, huh?
BEN: No she's not.
JACK: Then who is she?
BEN: She's a representative of some people who've been trying to find this Island, Jack. She's one of the bad guys.
JACK: Oh, I almost forgot, you're the, you're the good guys.
BEN: Jack, listen to me. If you phone her boat, every single living person on this Island will be killed. So here's what has to happen. Get that device, the phone she carries with her, and give it me. I will turn around, we'll go back to my people, you will turn around and go back to your people.
JACK: I'm not going anywhere.
[They both stand.]
BEN: May I have my walkie back?
JACK: What?
BEN: There's something you need to hear. Please.
[Jack gives it him]
BEN: Tom, are you there?
TOM: Yes, I'm here.
BEN: [To Jack] Your plan killed seven of my people, but the one's that you failed to kill are now holding your friends. Jin, Sayid, Bernard. At gunpoint.
SAYID: Jack don't give him anything!!!
[Sounds of a struggle can be heard over the walkie]
BERNARD: Leave him alone!!
RYAN: I said shut up!!
[A thud signals Ryan hitting someone]
JACK: And what's to stop me from snapping your neck?
BEN: [Quickly] Tom, unless you hear my voice in one minute, shoot all three of them.
TOM: Got it.
[Ben looks at his watch]
RYAN: I said don't move!!
BEN: Bring me the phone, Jack.
SAYID: Don't negotiate with him...
JIN: No!
BEN: Forty seconds.
JACK: No. I'm getting them all off the Island. All of them!!
BEN: Let me ask you something, Jack. Why do you wanna leave the Island? What is it that you so desperately want to get back to? You have no-one. Your father's dead, your wife left you, moved on with another man. Can you just not wait to get back to the hospital? Get back to fixing things? It's twenty seconds now. Just get me the phone, Jack.
JACK: No.
BEN: Ten seconds. Bring me the phone.
JACK: No.
BEN: I'm not bluffing!
JACK: I WON'T DO IT!!!
BEN: Five. Four. Three...
JACK: No.
[Pause]
[Three shots sound over the mike]
BEN: I'm so sorry, Jack.
[Jack attacks Ben, pounding him relentlessly and causing his own knuckles to bleed. Jack grabs the walkie.]
[Later]
[Jack drags a bloody Ben back to the main group, and throws him on the ground.]
JACK: Tie him up. He's coming with us.
[Jack walks on and Kate chases after him. Alex approaches Ben, and Danielle approaches Alex]
ALEX: What?
BEN: [Sighs] Alex. This is your mother.
[They stare at each other, Rousseau holding back tears]
ROUSSEAU: I'll help you tie him up.
[Later]
[The group trek up a hill to see the radio tower dominating the sky. Inside the French message can be heard playing on loop. The recording is from a machine in the room by a speaker]
ROUSSEAU: I recorded this sixteen years ago. [To Alex] Three days before you were born. I guess we don't need it anymore.
[She turns off the recording and removes the tape]
JACK: [To Naomi] All right, do it.
[Naomi holds the phone]
NAOMI: I can't get a signal in here.
[They all exit the room and go outside, as everyone watches, including Ben who has been tied to a tree]
NAOMI: I'm getting something!
KATE: It's gonna work! It's happening, we're gonna get off of this Island!
JACK: We'll celebrate when we're home.
BEN: Jack! I know you think you're saying your people. But you need to stop this. It's a mistake. JACK: The mistake was listening to you.
BEN: This'll be your last chance, Jack. I'm telling you, making that call is the beginning of the end.
NAOMI: I've got it, I've got a signal!!!
BEN: Jack please, you don't know what you're doing!!
JACK: I know exactly what I'm doing.
[Naomi presses on the phone, and it says “CONNECTED”. Naomi suddenly shakes, and spurts blood from her mouth. She falls down with a knife in her back and drops the phone. Behind her, Locke moves forward]
JACK: JOHN!!!
[Locke pulls out the gun he found, and points it at Jack]
LOCKE: Step back, Jack.
JACK: What did you do?
LOCKE: What I had to. Now step back.
[Jack stays still as the phone tone signals that Naomi has made the call, and there just needs someone to answer it]
LOCKE: Stay away from the phone.
[Jack dives for it. Locke tries to destroy it, but his shot misses and Jack takes it]
JACK: What are you doing, John?
LOCKE: I don't wanna shoot you.
BEN: Do it, John! Shoot him! Do what you need to do...
[Rousseau knocks him unconscious with an elbow strike to the face. The phone continues to beep waiting for someone to pick up.]
End of Ben Linus dialogue, Season III
