This scene is from the sideways world. It’s SO good:
And, if I can toot my own horn for a sec, Elba, the word that Ben writes on the blackboard in the clip, is something I was thinking about when I wrote my theory Oedipus Lost.
That theory, which I wrote before Season 6 started, now appears to be wrong in some respects. But I think in one respect — that something is going on that has to do with exile — it might be close to being right. Though from what we’ve seen so far this season, it wasn’t Jacob who was in exile and trapped on the Island against his will (which is what I had been thinking at the time) — it was Smokey.
Theories aside, I love to watch sideways Ben as a teacher. That scene from a few episodes back where he was fussing over the coffee pot in the break room was one of my favorite of the season so far. It was pitch perfect — it seemed exactly how Ben would have turned out if he hadn’t been immersed in the Pool of Doom in the temple as a child.
