Ben, Juliet, and the pregnancy problem.
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By KevinJohnson
- Ben, Juliet, and the pregnancy problem.
- Created: Mar 29, 2008
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
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After watching the Other Woman I’ve thought about the way Ben behaved in Juliets flashback and about the reason Juliet was brought to the island, to solve the problem of pregnant women dying.
I’m gonna suggest that maybe the pregnancy issues are a pretty recent problem for the natives, and the whole thing is a con that Ben set up purely to bring Juliette to the island and to keep her there.
Its perhaps not the explanation everybody wants, but if you look at some of the evidence I think there is a strong case for it:
When Ben and Juliet are in the lab and Juliet is explaining to him her findings about pregnancy on the island so far, Ben couldn’t have looked less interested. (You might argue that he was too busy eyeing up Juliet but still that kind of information should have got some sort of reaction)
When Ben gives Juliette her house and she protests that she’ll only be there six months, from the look on Bens face he clearly knows she’ll be around longer, obviously he was planning to keep her around but if he has no knowledge of the pregnancy problem then for all he knew with Juliets knowledge of fertility medicine she could have solved the problem within a month and he’d have no excuse to keep her there, unless he knew that the problem couldn’t be solved by Juliet.
In season 3 Richard stated to lock that he doesn’t think the pregnancy problems are that important, and if the hostiles have been there since at least the time of the Black Rock then they must have reproduced on the island at one time - before they could travel to real world using Dharma technology.
We know that something called ‘Jacobs list’ exists and that this instructs Ben and the others as to who is ‘worthy’ of living on the island, it is not indicated as to whether or not Juliet is on the list, but if she wasn’t then he would need to find or create a reason for him to bring her there in order to justify it to his followers.
It might sound a bit crazy and I don’t claim to know how he is doing it, but judging by the extremes hes gone to so far to keep Juliet on the island and under his control it doesn’t sound too fantastic.
I think you could be right about this. Ben actually has seemed far more interested in Juliet than in the pregnany issue itself. Maybe the pregnancy issue only applies to women who have been on the island under a certain amount of time? But once they have been there long enough to be natives, they can give birth? Or maybe it depends on the womans’ genes?
I don’t know that Ben woulfd have created the pregnancy problem, but it does sort of seem that he might already know the answer, and that Juliet is not really needed to find that answer.
Nice thoughts +1 I like the idea that there is nothing behind the pregnant women dying thing…Maybe Juliette was brought to the island for a totally different reason…
Thats also a possibility ozzig, he definitely seemed totally disinterested in Juliets findings.
you’re right about ben’s interests. everyone seems to think that ben is obsessed with the pregnancy thing (richard said something about that to locke) and yet, he didn’t care at all about the progress that juliet had made.
This is mind blowing, I thank you for the great read, +1. However there are a few holes.
1: The island in my opinion keeps people alive through long age, they’re not actually reproducing.
2: Why would ben kill off woman on the island? Just to keep a woman there in the near 10-30 years future? (when they found out about the pregnancy problem)
Ben might not be killing off women, it’s just that maybe IF they are so slow to age, mother nature/the island steps in and reduces the birthrate for the species. Something that would have evolved over time for the natives? But for non-native women who haven’t been there a long time, it could be different?
I think there is rerally something to this theory, because Ben definitely is not into the pregnancy thing as much as he’s into Juliet.. It seems like a ruse to get her and keep her there.
I think the pregnancy issue is way more important than you’re painting it to be, Kevin Johnson.
X - We only know that Richard Alpert hasn’t aged theres no evidence this happens to anyone else on the island, I think Richards agelessness could me more to do with his trips to and from the real world, and linked to the time anomaly Faraday discovered.
We don’t know how long the pregnancy problem has been going on but I think it could as recent as in the last few years before the plane crash.
Maybe Mr Linus, its just an idea. I think a lot of the things in the show turn out to have more logical explanations than they first seem to though.
Why was this flagged for fck sake?
o sorry,thought I saw it in the offensive theory pile
good read, but I disagree with one point: we don’t KNOW there is a Jacobs list, we only have Ben’s word that the list exists, I don’t think Jacob ever gave him a list.
I like this :)
Ben said to Juliette “after all the trouble I went to to get you here and keep you here” or something along those lines….so you may well be on to something.
A lot to think about! +1
Excellent theory. It’s like Ben invented a crisis just to get Juliette. +1 from me too :)
WoW, this is great! I was wondering about why the others don’t seem so concerned about it and only Ben is. +1
KevinJ, I definitely agree that Ben is totally doing anything and everything to keep Juliet from leaving the island. He is the most enigmatic character there is on Lost ! When he told Juliet “Don’t you understand Your Mine” I can’t see how anyone would not know that is how he viewed her, especially Juliet! What I don’t get is when Jack was still being held in TheHydra, is why Ben would say to him “Has it not occurred to you Jack,how much Juliet resembles your ex-wife.” It would seem that he knew Jack would be attracted to her for that reason if no other? But why would he want that since he is so possessive of her ?
Oh and +1 for bringing it up.
Also with the pregnancy issue, doesn’t anyone think it strange that this was not brought up as a danger when Juliette was having the affair with Goodwin. And if the problem is so well known then it would have made sense for Ben to tell Karl no sex with Alex as it could cause her to die. So is this a real danger or not, I think that Ben doesn’t care either way, as being a man the danger of becoming pregnant is one that does not exist for him, so it is hard to tell if the danger is real, or if those women died of some other cause.
KevinJohnson this is a good theory. The only slight objection I have is that initially Richard seemed to be fully on board with recruiting Juliette, as did the late Ethan. That would suggest that at some point they believed the pregnancy problem to be significant. Be interesting to know what changed their minds! Perhaps they discovered Ben’s real reasons for wanting to solve ‘the problem’ in which case your theory fits perfectly.
+1 for good work.
stitch, I would assume that since Juliette is a fertility doctor having an affair witha married man that she is able to properly use a contraceptive. I guess we’ll be on the lookout for dharma condoms in the next supply drop.
one think I really like about this theory is the idea that maybe the pregnancy problems are only for women who haven’t been on the island for a long enough time. Meaning, someone who had ben on the island for years, perhaps children who go through puberty on the island, are able to successfully give birth on the island, while those who have not grown up on the island are so affected by the electro-magnetism they are unable to successfully procreate.
+1 nice theory.
Could it be that the cause of non (delayed) aging, might also be the cause of a disrupted gestation cycle. If the Island has en effect on human physiology and biology that can “level out” given contact with the Island for long enough then full term pregnancy should be possible.
Sorry to dissapoint, but that does not make any sense.
Juliet SAW the problem, she analyzed it, and acknowledged it. And I don’t believe Ben would kill all these pregnant women just to get Juliette on ths island.
And Ben didn’t look uninterested, but I would say “distracted” because he seemed to like Juliette.
In my opinion, the pregnancy problem is real, and they brought Juliette to the Island to fix it. But now that she is on the Island, Ben doesn’t want to let her go. That’s all…