Ben came to the island as a kid.....obviously he has plenty of contactwith the ourside world.... and some one out there wants them.....

What do the frighters want with Dharma? what do they want?

Wow, I have no idea... he must have done something.

Any clues people got from that photo (other than that Ben has a dorky vest... hehe)

But they have pics of him as an adult, that's interesting

The only thing I can think of is Ben made a recruting trip (sort of like Alpert) or had other business to do and someone got his photo. Makes you wonder how and why someone was after him and even knew who he was.

Maybe they knew Ben killed all of Dharma?

that would be my idea..that these guys are after ben for killing dharma

Yeah, I think they are ex Dharma back for revenge on Ben.

yea, I was thinking the same thing. It was a picture of an adult Ben and it looks like he is off the island.

I agree, this must be because of "the purge". Took Dharma long enough to find out though huh?

Someone was bound to come for Ben sooner or later. It was inevitable. He had contact with the outside world, however limited it may have been. Limited or not, though, you don't kill a whole group of people and just get away with it.

DHARMA obviously had contact with the outside world, as well. So...someone was bound to notice that something was a little off and send people to the island.

The reasons for the "Freighties" being there are most likely related to the fact that Ben killed all the DHARMA employees.
100%
Also, I think Ben has known all along that someone would come for him. You would have to. Any smart person would. And Ben isn't stupid.

Someone was bound to come for Ben sooner or later. It was inevitable. He had contact with the outside world, however limited it may have been. Limited or not, though, you don't kill a whole group of people and just get away with it.

DHARMA obviously had contact with the outside world, as well. So...someone was bound to notice that something was a little off and send people to the island.

The reasons for the "Freighties" being there are most likely related to the fact that Ben killed all the DHARMA employees.

Any thoughts?

Ben's pretty creepy and dare I say evil in some ways. Maybe he killed someone he shouldn't have when he murdered all those people on the island. Maybe they're after him for some good old fashioned revenge?

I believe they want Ben for information that would lead them to doing what they really want to do which is tap into the power of the island.

I believe they want Ben for information that would lead them to doing what they really want to do which is tap into the power of the island.

Makes sense...but it also makes sense that someone who knows a large group of people were murdered would come to find out why, and who did it.

Because he's a baaaaaaaaaaaaad man

Because he's a baaaaaaaaaaaaad man


LOL...indeed, sir. Indeed. :biggrin:

I think the reason is really, really simple. They have come to take Ben from the island because he is a fired employee that won't leave the workplace. Note the Ben picture Miles had - it showed Ben in work clothes reminiscent of the late 70s/ early 80s. He, at some point, worked in an office environment. In the Ben flashback last season, Ben, before the purge, was a Workman just like his father. After the purge, he evidently gained some kind of status boost to office worker and possibly beyond.

Whoever he was working for after the purge, decided at some point that Ben was abusing his power on the island and fired him. Ben holed up with his hostiles and allies and refused to leave. That could explain the rituals we saw the Others take part in early in Season Three (the burial, the branding, etc...). These are Ben devised ways of keeping his people with him to surround him when his old bosses finally sent in a team to extract him.

Thoughts?

I am not sure about the fired employee part. I think the main reason they want him is because he wiped out all the Dharma people. Obviously, (because Charlotte recognized the Dharma symbol on the bear in the desert) they are connected to Dharma. If the Dharma people were really onto something on the island, then Ben really messed things up for them when he killed everybody. They have probably been looking for the island ever since they realized all of their people were gone....that would be a lot of time to build up anger/hositility toward Ben for ruining their plan.

I am not sure about the fired employee part. I think the main reason they want him is because he wiped out all the Dharma people. Obviously, (because Charlotte recognized the Dharma symbol on the bear in the desert) they are connected to Dharma. If the Dharma people were really onto something on the island, then Ben really messed things up for them when he killed everybody. They have probably been looking for the island ever since they realized all of their people were gone....that would be a lot of time to build up anger/hositility toward Ben for ruining their plan.

The one question I have about this idea has to do with Dharma's ability to get to and from the island. Obviously, the submarine was Dharma's. Thus they had to know how to get back and forth under the radar so to speak. I'm not sure what I think about the idea they are just now coming to get him to punish him for the purge. Island time that's got to have been over 20 years ago.

Also, your theory posits that Charlotte was part of Dharma at the dig. I'm thinking she joined afterward. I think she was kind of student groupie and then got to come on as an actual member.
100%
But maybe it's about Ben just not following orders? Maybe he was never the "king" of the island.

It's definitely what they want us to believe, hence the gas mask that Daniel had packed. Why pack a gas mask? Fear Ben might gas everybody again.

I'm still having a problem believing that it would take Dharma this long to come to punish Ben.

yeah, i definitely think they are after Ben because of the purge. but why send in four non-military, no training "geeks" to go after Ben? (no offense, i'm a geek, too) i mean, if he's this dangerous murderer, why not send in a tactical team to neutralize him, then send in the scientists after?

I don't know if the gas masks were there to protect them from Ben there were packets in there with biohazard symbols. I think they were planning on doing some exterminating of their own.

good point, porknz. i think maybe they WERE there to do a little gassing of their own perhaps. or maybe the bio-hazard bag was a specemin/sample bag to take somthing from the island back to the frighter?

I think WHY they are there is what will be revealed this season ( or next) and in true LOST fashion it will not be anything we think it is. Or anything we have seen up til now

Charlotte knows something about Dharma polar bears being found in Africa
Frank knows that there is something not right about the dead pilot found in the Sundra Trench


not sure how it will play out - just know there is a connection

This was certainly my first thought - that Dharma has finally made their way back to get to Ben. Perhaps he has done so well at masking the island and controlling it that it prevented them from getting to it until now?

There is definitely more to it than just revenge (this is LOST, after all), but I think that the 'purge' was probably the major factor in sending these people to the island.

I think it very well may be because of the purge, but then again it may not be!! You never know with this show. It certainly does look like they want us to think that. I say there is more behind them wanting Ben.

I think it definitely has to do with the purge. I kind of touched on this already in another post. But how could you possibly take out every single person in their operation and not have the people funding it wondering what the heck went wrong. I believe Ben probably stopped all communication with Dharma so they are wondering what the heck happened. They can't get back to the island because Ben blocks it so they have to go and try and find it again. Then they slowly piece together the fact that Ben is now recruiting people off island to bring them to the island, Dharma finds out and tries to step in and put together a team that can not only capture ben, but I think all these people are specialists in some way (besides the pilot). They were picked not because of their SWAT abilities obviously, but because of the things they know, and how that relates to the island. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a showdown soon with smokie and Miles and it blows his mind.

Whoever put the losties on the island are the same people that are helping ben recruit, and are the same people that are covering things up (plane crash wreckage). Abbadon is the other guy ( the dharma side maybe).

I don't think they're after Ben for revenge or justice or anything having to do with the purge. I think they want him because he is the last true member of the Dharma Initiative on the island. He's the only one that was around when the Dharma Initiative was operative. If people like Charlotte are a third party researching the Dharma Initiative then frankly they may not care about the purge 20 years in the past, they care that there is someone that has firsthand knowledge of just what the heck the D.I. was able to accomplish.

They came because Locke probably did enter 77 on the communication computer before he blew the place to hell. (77 i think was if the island was under attack by the hostiles)

Another thing just occurred to me - they know Desmond is Dharma-still-on-the-island too. Naomi had his picture, and they are using him as their cover story. They're after anything that the Dharma Initiative knows that may have been used to bring down 815. Abbadon may have been telling the truth - he may work for Oceanic Airlines, and Oceanic wants to know what brought down the plane, so they hire experts who are each piecing together Dharma history to find the remnants of the Dharma Initiative.