The Man Behind the Curtain

Emily Linus (Carrie Preston), gives birth to her son in a forest. Afterwards, her husband Roger (Jon Gries), carries her and the baby to the roadside outside Portland, where a car carrying Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison) and Olivia (Samantha Mathis) soon stops to help them. Emily dies after telling Roger to name the baby Benjamin.

Seven years later, Ben (Sterling Beaumon) and his father arrive at the Island to work for the DHARMA Initiative, of which Horace is a member. At one point, Ben sees another vision of his dead mother. This, along with his drunken father blaming him for his mother's death, prompts Ben to sneak into the jungle in search of her. He encounters Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), one of the "Hostiles" who are native to the island. Ben tells Richard that he wants to join the Hostiles on the grounds of not liking the DHARMA Initiative. Richard tells Ben that if he truly wants this, then he must be very, very patient.

Years later, Ben, now a young man working for DHARMA, helps his father Roger load a van. (This is the same van that Hurley had found in "Tricia Tanaka is Dead"). After confronting his father about forgetting his birthday again, Roger suggests they go for a drive together after their work is done, to have some father-son time. After parking atop a hill, Ben asks his father if he blames him for the death of his mother. Roger simply answers "What do I know", and promises to try and remember Ben's birthday the following year. But Ben, fed up after years of neglect and abuse, pulls out a gas mask and bids his father goodbye before filling the van with a gas that kills Roger. Ben returns to the barracks, where all the DHARMA workers have died from the same gas, and Alpert and his men emerge wearing masks. As Alpert's men start picking up the bodies, Alpert offers to go and collect Roger's, but Ben tells him to "leave him out there".

John Locke arrives at the Others' camp carrying his father's body on his back, and demands that Ben tell him everything about the Island. Ben tells him that the true leader of the Others is named Jacob, and denies Locke's request to see him. Ben also tells John that he was not born on the island. (Actually born "outside Portland") as we see at the beginning of this episode. Soon after, Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff) stumbles into the camp and talks about a parachutist who landed on the Island, Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason). To convince Ben to bring him before Jacob, Locke beats Mikhail unconscious, while Tom and Richard do not intervene.

Ben and Locke arrive at Jacob's cabin. They enter, but Locke cannot see anyone inside. Ben introduces Locke to Jacob and gestures towards an empty chair, to which he starts talking. Locke tells Ben that he is crazy and pathetic. Just as Locke is about to exit the house, an odd and deep voice says "Help me". Locke pulls out a flashlight, and suddenly, objects in the room begin to violently fly about, windows shatter, and Ben is flung against a wall as a strange man is briefly seen sitting in the chair. Locke and Ben run out of the house.

The following day, Locke still does not believe Jacob is real, and says he will expose Ben as a fraud. Locke notices that Ben is leading them back by a different path, and Ben then leads him to mass grave full of skeletons clothed in DHARMA uniforms. Ben tells Locke that he helped kill his own people when it became clear that the DHARMA workers could not coexist with the natives, and then shoots Locke, who falls into the pit. Locke reveals Jacob said "Help me", and Ben replies that he certainly hopes Jacob helps him, as he departs leaving Locke for dead.

At the survivors' camp, James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) plays Juliet Burke's (Elizabeth Mitchell) tape for Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) and Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly). Later that night, the survivors are introduced to Naomi and the tape is played for all to hear. Just then, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and Juliet return to the camp. Juliet tells Sawyer to play the other side of the tape, which is Ben's plan to lead a team to kidnap all the fertile women. Juliet reveals that she has already told Jack about it, and that they were still thinking of a plan.