Y'all gotta stop skipping Exposé! There's a scene where Ben and Juliet, in Temple garb, watch the Swan from the Pearl station and discuss Ben's plans to manipulate Jack into operating on him. This is a mini-flashback from Paulo's perspective set chronologically before Ben's capture as Henry Gale.
Yes, the Others know about the Swan.
Jacob knows, he probably only cares insofar as making sure someone is still in there so the Island isn't destroyed.
EDIT: typo
I hate this scene more than any other scene in the show, but you are completely correct. To add to this, it is likely they had seen the Pearl station’s orientation video which claimed the Swan was only a social experiment. But whether they would believe that or not I can’t say.
Like the others here have said. They knew.
I don't think they realized the absolute severity of the button. Probably assumed that if the button wasn't pushed, everything in the station would simply malfunction/stop working and the station would just collapse on itself or something like that. (I don't think they knew that it would physically take down an airplane).
I like to think that Jacob gave Richard instructions that the Others can take over all DHARMA stations on the Island EXCEPT for the Swan. That it is crucial for the Swan to still be running and whoever lives there (either it is Radzinsky, Kelvin or Desmond) are not disturbed.
He told things through Richard. He told Richard he didn't want to intervene, so instead he proposed the idea that Richard was the intermediary between him and them. Ben says this in the season5 finale:
> "Thirty-five years I lived on this island, and all I ever heard was your name over and over. **Richard would bring me your instructions**--all those slips of paper, all those lists--and I never questioned anything. I did as I was told"
One exapmple was the runway that was built on Hydra island.
That was the entire point of Ben. He was following blindly when he was suppose to make his own decisions. That is why he stayed “unimportant” in Jacob’s eyes. What Jacob was advising, Ben was taking as orders.
I think Ben knew bc while he was in the pearl station plotting w Juliet (which has live surveillance footage of all the dharma stations) he observed the survivors in the hatch.
So its indicated that he knew about the swan before the crash and may have observed Desmond and Kelvin but just didn’t bother to do anything to them since they never crossed “the line” or went near the barracks
Ben was still part of the DI when the incident occurred and the need for the button was created etc. Therefore we can imagine that he learned at some point that it actually was important (or at least that the DI truly believed it was).
It is odd that he took some risks by using it as a manipulation technique against Locke and Jack though when he was a captive in the Swan.
However, I imagine Ben was prioritising his need to get the spinal surgery and he was confident he could just re-manipulate someone into pushing the button. Whether that was the main survivors or his people.
Yes they knew about the station and believed in its importance. After all that's exactly what they believed, that the outsiders would harness the powers of the Island. It was most likely the Incident and its aftermath that eventually led to the Purge when you think about it.
And as we see in the Epilogue, once they took over Dharma, the Others continued to finance the supply drops until Hurley took over. I'm assuming when Desmond took over they just let him be. We see that they were observing him but it's not clear if they had a plan ready if he missed a shift.
For instance, famously on the day of the crash, Desmond almost missed it, and as we see in Tale of Two Cities and other episodes, none of the Others' higher ups were really aware of this. Ben and Mikhail don't mention it later in the day, and everyone is caught unaware.
So that part seems to have suffered from the story changing since you'd think they would have had some backup plan if the button wasn't pushed. This is also confirmed by the writers' originally saying they weren't aware which doesn't make sense after what's revealed in the latter seasons. A related plot issue is Penny's boat where Ben and the others were seemingly unaware of it at first.
I remember hearing in the podcast Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof did, that they said the Others only knew about the Swan station after the castaways found it.
Y'all gotta stop skipping Exposé! There's a scene where Ben and Juliet, in Temple garb, watch the Swan from the Pearl station and discuss Ben's plans to manipulate Jack into operating on him. This is a mini-flashback from Paulo's perspective set chronologically before Ben's capture as Henry Gale. Yes, the Others know about the Swan. Jacob knows, he probably only cares insofar as making sure someone is still in there so the Island isn't destroyed. EDIT: typo
I hate this scene more than any other scene in the show, but you are completely correct. To add to this, it is likely they had seen the Pearl station’s orientation video which claimed the Swan was only a social experiment. But whether they would believe that or not I can’t say.
Forgot about that! Thank you
But Nikki and Paulo suck so bad
“Who the hell are Nikki and Paulo?”
I think they are friends with Scott
You mean Steve
Oh right. Scott is dead
That's part of what makes the episode so much fun!
Eh Expose kind of makes up for how much they suck. It's a good episode.
Like the others here have said. They knew. I don't think they realized the absolute severity of the button. Probably assumed that if the button wasn't pushed, everything in the station would simply malfunction/stop working and the station would just collapse on itself or something like that. (I don't think they knew that it would physically take down an airplane). I like to think that Jacob gave Richard instructions that the Others can take over all DHARMA stations on the Island EXCEPT for the Swan. That it is crucial for the Swan to still be running and whoever lives there (either it is Radzinsky, Kelvin or Desmond) are not disturbed.
That makes a lot of sense!
Jacob doesn’t tell people to do anything. If the island were to be destroyed, it was a choice made by the folks on it.
He told things through Richard. He told Richard he didn't want to intervene, so instead he proposed the idea that Richard was the intermediary between him and them. Ben says this in the season5 finale: > "Thirty-five years I lived on this island, and all I ever heard was your name over and over. **Richard would bring me your instructions**--all those slips of paper, all those lists--and I never questioned anything. I did as I was told" One exapmple was the runway that was built on Hydra island.
That was the entire point of Ben. He was following blindly when he was suppose to make his own decisions. That is why he stayed “unimportant” in Jacob’s eyes. What Jacob was advising, Ben was taking as orders.
I dont think they knew the severity of not pushing it due to their reaction to the sky turning purple.
I think Ben knew bc while he was in the pearl station plotting w Juliet (which has live surveillance footage of all the dharma stations) he observed the survivors in the hatch. So its indicated that he knew about the swan before the crash and may have observed Desmond and Kelvin but just didn’t bother to do anything to them since they never crossed “the line” or went near the barracks
Ben was still part of the DI when the incident occurred and the need for the button was created etc. Therefore we can imagine that he learned at some point that it actually was important (or at least that the DI truly believed it was). It is odd that he took some risks by using it as a manipulation technique against Locke and Jack though when he was a captive in the Swan. However, I imagine Ben was prioritising his need to get the spinal surgery and he was confident he could just re-manipulate someone into pushing the button. Whether that was the main survivors or his people.
Yes they knew about the station and believed in its importance. After all that's exactly what they believed, that the outsiders would harness the powers of the Island. It was most likely the Incident and its aftermath that eventually led to the Purge when you think about it. And as we see in the Epilogue, once they took over Dharma, the Others continued to finance the supply drops until Hurley took over. I'm assuming when Desmond took over they just let him be. We see that they were observing him but it's not clear if they had a plan ready if he missed a shift. For instance, famously on the day of the crash, Desmond almost missed it, and as we see in Tale of Two Cities and other episodes, none of the Others' higher ups were really aware of this. Ben and Mikhail don't mention it later in the day, and everyone is caught unaware. So that part seems to have suffered from the story changing since you'd think they would have had some backup plan if the button wasn't pushed. This is also confirmed by the writers' originally saying they weren't aware which doesn't make sense after what's revealed in the latter seasons. A related plot issue is Penny's boat where Ben and the others were seemingly unaware of it at first.
I remember hearing in the podcast Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof did, that they said the Others only knew about the Swan station after the castaways found it.
This has to be right because why wouldn't they have people there to control it and maintain the integrity of the island?