I don't think they get off either but they don't have to die, they just have to go to the future (present or later) rather than the 70s. I'd be kind of surprised if they all die but you never know.

Nope, it's the monster. They made a point to show the same exact thing with Eko/Yemi in S3, and then the producers mentioned it was the monster the entire time. It even goes back to S2 when the producers mentioned that the monster appeared, but we didn't realize it. (Walt appearing to Shannon)

There were a few unintentionally hilarious moments, like Widmore's "How did you get this number?" and Ben acting all gay when Ethan was telling him he could do it (kill Daniele).

Richard could be the monster as well though. As old as he appears to be without aging. Remember when they brought young Ben to the Temple and Richard pops up. Sawyer says, "where'd you come from?"

I've never seen so much unneeded debate (re: Ben "killing" Penny). We saw exactly what happened, end of story. The scene was there to show us how he got banged up and why he felt the need to apologize to Desmond. But most importantly, to show the exact point in time that he accepted blame for Alex's death. He realized that he was just as much to blame for Alex's death as Widmore was and killing his daughter would solve nothing. It was obvious that he had a change of heart right before Desmond tackled him. No, Penny is not dead.

But, but, but...Penny might have gone down to see if Desmond was okay and then slipped from the splashed up water, falling down and breaking her neck, instantly killing her.

(Sorry)

Yeah, I guess you're right. Never considered that she might have been wearing the wrong shoes. These writers sure are tricky.

Or maybe she slipped and got amnesia, forgetting she put her baby in the microwave seconds earlier to dry him/her off. Poor baby.

Clearly Penny became intolerable after having the kid and Ben's apologizing for not killing her. Duh.

Were was the funny happening in those scenes?

No debate here is unwelcome or unnecessary. Answer me this though. When Ben called Charles to gloat about killing Penny why didn't he call Jack around the same time to ask him to pick up Locke when he still had his cell phone? He waited until after he tried to kill her and failed, then got dumped in the water (along with his phone). He made the call to Jack at the nearest pay phone. Why wasn't he on his way back to L.A. yet? I'll tell you why. Because he was thinking of another way to get on that boat and kill Penny.

Desmond is not gonna come back to the island unless he has the proper motivation.

Oh Yeah... Interesting!.. smokey was already in.. and of course Ben realized tat it wasnt his daughter( after he was literally overpowered by 'Alex')... nice... and also the way she spoke... 'I will hunt u down and Destroy u'... typical words of some monstrous being... i really wanna c Ben follow John Locke and become his lapdog... hehe.. although he'll still have a lot of tricks up his sleeve... it's Ben afterall.

Maybe the baby was distracted from pushing a button he has to push every 17 minutes, so the entire United States was sent flying into outer space. No oxygen means Penny died.

Okay, time to stop. Maybe it was time to stop before the above.

Because he was planning on doing it after he killed Penny, not realizing that he would fail utterly and not have his cell phone (and didn't know he was about to get the shit beat out of him by Desmond and thus need Jack to pick up Locke's body).

Or just because it took that long to get away from Desmond (who presumably did not stop trying to beat the shit out of Ben after he went in the water) and find a pay phone.

Also he did not need to get "back" to L.A. since Desmond was also there (or Santa Monica, Long Beach or somewhere nearby).

Sorry, but your conclusion is not supported by any evidence.

Possible, but I doubt it. We have seen the monster appear as a few people now and every time it has not touched someone else while in human form. OTOH Richard has been in contact with other people, such as carrying Ben. I think Christian is a better candidate than Richard since he wouldn't let Locke touch him down near the FDW.

Oh, I love LOST threads...where minor throwaway moments are turned into series-changing events...where situations are made 10X more complicated than necessary...and where people seem convinced that the writers WANT you to solve the mystery they haven't solved themselves.

I'm gonna beat this dead horse one last time. First, they're all in Long Beach. That's where the boat is. Ben has to get back to L.A. to catch his flight on 316. He was going to pick up Locke but ran out of time so he called Jack. He did this after Desmond attacked him. His hair is still wet while on the phone. He didn't drown. At most, 5 minutes has past since he went into the water. How ever much time it takes him to go try and kill Penny in Long Beach is not gonna be lengthened by being thrown in the water. He must've thought he had enough time to kill her and get back to pick up Locke and make it to the airport. The only thing that would prevent him from doing that is going after Penny in a smarter, more methodical way. Instead of the emotional way that got him in trouble the first place.

LAX is in El Segundo, not L.A. Want to guess how close Long Beach is to LAX? Practically next door, so he didn't have to go far.

Also, the last we see of Ben at the boat is him going into the water leaking blood from every opening. He was pretty much beaten. Therefore, the story ends there.

The story doesn't end there because we've seen him on the phone after that. Not chronologically but afterward.

Doesn't matter how close the airport is. He needed to pick up Locke first.

We'll see how it all plays out.

Why would Desmond and Penny hang around to let Ben come back? I think they were long gone by the time Ben got out of the water.

I have a feeling Ben kidnapped Charlie and brought him onto the island in that huge crate that they are trying to open. Charlie is the next "chosen" one, since he is the spawn of Desmond, the one who the rules don't apply, and Penny, princess of another chosen one.

If Ben got out of the water, and "finished the job" I will send you $100. Your theories are so absolutely ridiculous and without basis (floating alien island) that I can barely even believe you're being serious at times. Seriously, are you a plant from the show sent here just to fuck with message board posters? Are you mocking us by showing how ridiculous we all sound sometimes?

I agree. needless debate. ben did not finish the job. the end. like des and penny would just wait around for a beat up and one-arm ben to get revenge. same with the monster, it was alex.

I think you're way off the mark. "The Incident" is obviously referring to Ben killing Penny. The working title was "Sorry Desmond" but they changed it so as not to give away too much.

As if anyone really thinks that the title of the episode doesn't refer to what we've been wondering about since season two.