LOST Fan

There are many parallels between Widmore and Ben as fathers.

Widmore loves his daughter Penny, and Ben loved his daughter Alex. But both became bad fathers when they tried to get in the way of true love, even though they thought they were doing so in the best interests of their daughters.

Widmore tried to drive Desmond away, because he thought Desmond wasn’t good enough for Penny. Ben tried to drive Alex’s boyfriend Karl away, because he was afraid that Alex would become pregnant, and pregnancy is fatal on the Island.

In an enigmatic flashforward in Season 4, episode 9 (”The Shape of Things to Come”), Ben confronts Widmore. The issue? Their daughters.

Ben accuses Widmore of killing his daughter. Widmore says, no, it was Ben who killed her. Ben says, ’tis not. Widmore says ’tis so. Then Ben says he’s going to kill Widmore’s daughter.

Even their threats are symmetrical.

Penny and Alex, of course, weren’t 815-ers, and my main theory of the bad fathers has to do with the Island giving the 815-ers what their bad fathers had taken away.

But I have a strong hunch that something is going on here with Ben and Widmore that will fit into the theory in the end. I think something about what they did as fathers will tie into the actions of the fathers of the 815-ers.

I wonder if it will turn out to be significant that Ben was Alex’s adoptive, not biological, father.