How The Computer Game Myst Explains Ben, Widmore, and Lost as a Whole

In the video game Myst, you play a character who opens a book and is magically transported to a mysterious island. After doing some exploring, you find two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar, both trapped inside a separate book. They both want you to go look for missing pages of their respective books; find them all, and they'll eventually be freed. But both also warn not to trust or release the other brother.

In the end, who do you trust? (Myst spoiler alert.) Neither. Both brothers eventually warn you not to look inside a third book -- so naturally, you do, and find their father, Atrus, who explained that he created the island but was imprisoned in the book by his corrupt sons -- who then were imprisoned in their own books by traps Atrus had left for them.

If you actually follow Sirrus or Achenar's advice and don't look at the third book, and instead give one of them their last remaining page, they escape the book and you get trapped in it. Forever.

It's not hard to apply these lessons to Lost when trying to puzzle out whether to trust Ben or Widmore. The answer? Don't trust either of them. They will use you, even help you, when it suits their own motivations, but they'll throw you to the wolves the minute you become expendable.

And what are their motives? Very similar, in fact: they both want control of the island. Or, maybe more accurately, Ben wants control of the island, and Widmore wants to make sure Ben doesn't have control of the island.

Widmore's schemes extend back quite a while. According to what he told Locke in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", Ben tricked him into leaving the island, at which point Ben usurped him as leader. Furious, Widmore became a self-made millionaire who made it his life's goal to find the island so that he could exact revenge on Ben. That's why he financed Daniel Faraday's experiments and came into contact with Eloise Hawking, and it's also why he pushed Desmond to go on his race around the world.

But once the island was found, how could he get rid of Ben? His plan involved an experience he had back on the island when he was seventeen, when a man named John Locke appeared and claimed that he was supposed to be the true leader of the Others. If Widmore could get Locke to the island, Locke could usurp Ben for him. So he sent his underling Abaddon to convince Locke to go on the walkabout (though I'm not sure how he knew getting Locke to Sydney would get him to the island.)

Once Oceanic 815 crashed, he used his wealth to cover it up to stop any outside search parties from happening upon the island and bringing Locke home. But when Desmond turned the key and caused the Swan hatch to impode, causing the island to suddenly appear on radar, Widmore capitalized on this discovery with a plan that left less up to chance: send a freighter to the island to kill Ben outright.

Ben, for his part, is desperate to hold onto power on the island. That's why he shot Locke in Season 3: because Locke could hear Jacob and was thus a credible candidate for island leadership. And it's also possibly why he killed Locke after Locke mentioned that Widmore wanted him to visit Eloise Hawking -- because she would reveal to Locke that he, not Ben, should be the rightful leader -- or worse, that Widmore was the rightful leader before Ben. In a sense, Ben could be playing Hawking: following her orders to bring Locke back to the island, but using it as his own ticket back, too.

Why did Ben leave the island in the first place? Alex. At the time, Ben let Locke stay on the island because (A) he knew turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel meant Locke wouldn't actually get to lead the Others, and (B) it didn't matter as much anymore because he needed to get revenge on Widmore for Alex's death -- at that point, his need for revenge outweighed his lust for power.

Widmore's endgame is still unclear: he may just be motivated by revenge and want Ben out of the picture, or he may see Locke as an easy party to manipulate -- and after Locke usurps power from Ben, it would make it that much easier for Widmore to then take control.

So if Ben and Widmore are the Sirrus and Achenar of Lost, who's the Atrus? Well, Jacob, naturally -- the shadowy figure who hovers over the story but whom we don't really meet until the end (season six). And Locke is the player: manipulated by the two schemers, but who ultimately -- hopefully -- stops doing each of their bidding and starts working with Jacob instead.

TAGS: Achenar, Alex, Atrus, Ben, Charles Widmore, Desmond, Locke, Myst, Presumed Dead, Sirrus, The Freighter, The Hatch Implosion, The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham, Theories
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Bobby said:

Hey. I just stumbled upon this post (don't know how old it is), and I think it's brilliant! Does this mean that Jacob is Ben's and Widmore's father? Either real or spritual? In the Bible, Jacob is Ben's grandfather. Maybe it's the same in the show. Anyway, good insight!

Posted at 08:05 AM, on April 17 2009

How The Computer Game Myst Explains Ben, Widmore, and Lost as a Whole

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