I’m bored, I’m sick, I’m waiting for my dinner to cook. Seems like a perfect time to me to tally up the top ten best Ben scenes – not episodes – of the series thus far. Silly I know but I indulge myself when I’m sick. 
Honorable Mention: “How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan.” – Season 4, “There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1″
#10. “Consider that my apology” – Ben kills Caesar, Season 5 “Dead is Dead”
- Included because it was, for me anyway, completely unexpected and 100% bad ass Ben. The action also sizes up Locke, that he is someone in which a gesture of violence means more than a confession of apology. It was just so cool.
#9. “Get your ass out here, Ben” – Keamy kills Alex as Ben watches, Season 4 “The Shape of Things to Come”
- This entire scene makes the list with Ben looking on as Keamy shoots his daughter in the head. Ben’s basically denying her as his daughter in an effort to stop Keamy so that the last thing Alex ever hears is that her father doesn’t care about her. A lie, but still. I also love Ben’s line “He changed the rules.”
#8. “Got any milk?” – Ben, posing as Henry Gale, freaks out Locke and Jack, Season 2 “The Whole Truth”
- Back to the beginning when we didn’t know if our Benry was good or bad (not that we know that now either). In this scene, Jack brings out Henry for some dry Dharma cereal in the hatch and Henry proceeds to describe how he’d, if he was in fact an Other, set up a trap for Sayid and Ana Lucia who are going to try and find Henry’s hot-air balloon. It’s really the first time we see Ben’s manipulation in the spotlight. He plans out the big, elaborate thing just to mess with Jack and Locke and then ends it with “Got any milk?” I think this is when my love affair with Benry started.
#7: The fyadora!!!! – Season 5 “He’s Our You”
- Come on!
#6: “You’re mine!” – Ben comes clean with Juliet, Season 4 “The Other Woman”
- An otherwise forgettable episode became classic thanks to this one scene. In a flashback, Ben has taken Juliet out to the jungle so she could see her lover Goodwin’s dead body. Juliet freaks and starts accusing Ben of all sorts of things, bringing out the immature, romantically challenged side of him. She asks him why he’s doing all this to her and Michael Emerson delivers one of his creepiest line readings yet: “You’re mine!”
#5: “But Thomas was not remembered for this act of bravery” – Ben and Jack in church, Season 5 “316″
- I love this scene. The image of Ben presumably praying is really striking at the beginning and then Ben launches into this sermon of sorts to Jack about the biblical figure Thomas who doubted the resurrection of Jesus. At the time, I thought the speech was mostly about Jack but now I don’t think so. I think Ben was the one doubting Locke would be resurrected on the island. Doubting, hoping it wouldn’t happen, not believing…all the same. “Sooner or later we’re all convinced, Jack.”
#4: “So?” – Ben blows up the freighter, Season 4 “There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2″
- Do I have to explain this one? Locke yells at Ben over Keamy’s dying body “You just killed everyone on that boat!” to which Ben replies “So?” Very cold, Ben. Very cold. And awesome! Again, Michael Emerson FTW!
#3: “Good-bye Dad” – Ben kills Roger Linus, Season 3 “The Man Behind the Curtain”
- We knew Ben was ruthless, we knew he was a manipulator but we did not know he was this dangerous until this episode, until this scene in which he kills his father. Really intense scene, especially with Ben just sitting there while his father spasms and thrashes beside him from the poisonous gas. Also awesome because we had already met the dead Roger Linus in an earlier episode in a much more lighthearted way. Leave it to Lost to freak us out like that.
Very difficult to choose between the next two, which are on another level from any other Ben scene:
#2: “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.” – Ben kills John Locke, Season 5 “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”
- Epic, epic moment of the series. Ben talks John down from killing himself then turns around and strangles him to death. Just plain chilling to watch. I still can’t decide if Ben was doing it for the island or for more selfish reasons. Time will tell.
And finally…
#1: “And you’ll wish you hadn’t changed the rules.” – Ben meets Charles Widmore in London, Season 4 “The Shape of Things to Come”
- It’s just a perfect scene, that’s all there is to it. I love Michael Emerson in that snazzy black suit with his hair slicked back. I love the shadows in the scene, the exotic environment. But seeing Ben face off against Charles Widmore, not only did we get great dialogue but we got a peek at the bigger battle going on for control of the island. It expanded the scope of the show tenfold. Oooh, and I just love that little eyebrow raise Michael Emerson does when talking about Penny. It almost makes me sad that he didn’t end up killing her…almost.
So many scenes left out of this from the more recent scene in the Temple to the older scenes from Season 3 when we were learning about the Others. It’ll be fun to do this list again next year and see how many more amazing moments we get from Ben and from the wonderful Michael Emerson.
Am I obsessed?…
….yes.
