So mothers die on the island, and Ben was born on the island: Did Ben's mother, perhaps a part of the Dharma Initiative, die and yet Ben somehow lived? That might explain the behavior of the Others... Ben grew up with an obsession with his mother's death and once he was old enough, he began to manipulate Dharma's research to his own agenda (maybe causing... an Incident?) After some time... he and his followers, driven by the obsession of their charismatic and stunningly manipulative leader, caused an insurrection within the Dharma initiative (leading to... an attempted but failed Purge?).

And ever since then... Ben has been manipulating his group as he obsesses over finding the cure to the "mother problem" on the Island.

Just a thought. Hopefully it will be substantiated in some way over the last few episodes... if it is proven right, yay me... if it is proven wrong, well at least something was proven. :-)

Thoughts?

Interesting thought. I didn't even think about the fact that Ben was born on the island...and yet they said that Claire is the first pregnant woman to live. ???

I think that's a good theory, silverlegend! I definitely think there has to be a reason Ben's so intent upon this problem. If not his own mother, I was wondering if perhaps he had a wife who had died before having their child, hence why he adopted Alex (and genuinely loves her)?

I think the portrait of the woman in his house might help us figure out his motives. Was there ever any consensus as to who she is?

I cannot recall if there was ever an explanation, but my personal suspicion is that the topic of Ben's parents will be addressed in the upcoming Dharma-centric episode

I think that's a good theory, silverlegend! I definitely think there has to be a reason Ben's so intent upon this problem. If not his own mother, I was wondering if perhaps he had a wife who had died before having their child, hence why he adopted Alex (and genuinely loves her)?

I think the portrait of the woman in his house might help us figure out his motives. Was there ever any consensus as to who she is?

I was thinking the same thing about Alex. Reminds me of those women you heard about who have a baby that dies then freak out and steal a newborn form a hospital. Alex doesn't (as far as we know) seem to serve any purpose at the others camp then being "Bens Daughter" And the all the know it! Don't they all seem to treat her with the "oh man the bosses kid is here" kind of attitude whenever they see her.:biggrin: She dosen't seem to be part of any experiement at least she doesn't seem brainwashed in any way.

But you know, for that matter, what about Danielle? Do we know whether she had Alex before they crashed on the island? Maybe she survived and Ben stole her baby... why he hasn't tried to study her would be the question there, then, but there could be an explanation to that. (Or else she did have Alex previous to the crash... *shrugs*)

Whatever is killing the pregnant women on the island is obviously not indiginous to the island, but the result of something that happened on the island, because there was at one time a civilization there who built the 4 toed statue. They must have been there for many generations to develope into a society that could engineer such a monument.

But you know, for that matter, what about Danielle? Do we know whether she had Alex before they crashed on the island? Maybe she survived and Ben stole her baby... why he hasn't tried to study her would be the question there, then, but there could be an explanation to that. (Or else she did have Alex previous to the crash... *shrugs*)

We do know that Danielle gave birth to Alex on the island. She says way back in season one that she was already pregnant when she and her team shipwrecked and that she delivered the baby herself.

I think the reason that Ben hasn't tried to study Danielle is because she conceived pre-island. Like Juliette said - it happens at conception. Claire survived because she conceived pre-island too. I'm guessing that Sun's pregnancy will be key to Ben as we don't know whether she conceived pre- or post-island. However, we've been told that Jin is sterile and I think it is Jae's baby so I'm voting pre-island conception.