Why did Ben kill Jacob on 'Lost'?

Why the hell would you post a huge spoiler like that in the title of your article. I was waiting to watch this season when it came out on DVD, thanks for ruining a huge plot twist!

Wow. You REALLY did ruin that for Jonathan. Yikes.

"Jonathan", once an episode has aired, information about it is no longer considered a spoiler. Your fault if you wait months later to view.

"Jonathan" If you were a true lost fan, you would know better than to read ANYTHING about it online, anything said is a spoiler when you haven't seen it. I waited til DVD on season 2 after watching season 1 on tv, and I couldn't do it... the rest of the season's I had to watch week-by-week..... It's just tooooo addicting!

Seriously, I would have lost my mind if I saw this title and hadn't seen the episode. Jonathan is owed something sweet from cnn.com. Because spoilers are uncool, guy. Uncool.

Seriously, that episode aired weeks ago. Get over yourself. It's not even a surprise. John told him he was going to do it!

Ahhh that's horrible, I didn't even notice that! It's ok though, he didn't really spoil anything super important for you, there's a lot that will keep you interested...as any true Lost fan knows, nothing is ever straightforward with this show!

Did they post the (WARNING: Spoilers ahead.) after Jonathans comment? However, I agree with Jamie that you shouldn't read an article about Lost if you don't want spoilers- what do you expect a month after the finale aired??

It's not a spoiler after the fact. I have to agree with Jeff and Jamie.

I agree with Jeff that posting something that happened months ago hardly qualifies as a spoiler.

Boohoo,
Watch it on TV with the normal people next season.

But it's not a Spoiler, since the show has already aired.

Dear Jonathan, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Signed, the LOST fan who watched the finale when it aired.

Jimmy, Jonathan, as has been mentioned before it's only a "spoiler" if it comes before the show has been aired. It's no one's fault but your own for not seeing it when it aired, or on abc.com any day since it aired to find out for yourself. If you don't want to know what's happening after an episode of Lost has aired, best to lock yourself away in your home, disconnect all the electricity, turn all cell phones off and cut yourself off from civilization as that's the only way to be sure you won't hear anything from someone somehow...

Jonathan just needs to avoid any Lost articles after a season is aired. Once it's aired, it's fair game. Spoiler courtesy does not exist past a certain point.

It's been a month since the finale. It's 2009, go buy yourself a DVR and set-up a season pass. BTW...In Usual Suspects Kevin Spacey is Keyser Soze, In Sixth Sense Bruce Willis' character is dead the while time, and in Seven Gwenyth Paltrow's head is in the box. Sorry – were you waiting to watch these 10+ year old movies too?

WHO CARES!!!!!!!! This series is in one of those time slots and the plot is OLD. Time to fold

I can see that a variety of opinions is not welcome here. An outfit as respectable as CNN should entertain all comments. My comment that the series was getting old, was an honest one, one for which I expected a little more from CNN in there evaluation of whether to post my comment or not. Thanks for not entertaining both sides of the issue.

At least the article didn't mention that Locke's body was found after the 2nd plane crash

I hate Jonathan

Lets kill Jonathan! Lets burn him with our torches! Get him! Get him!

way to go "victim" there Jonathan. I bet you're a democrat...

Everyone
You realize Jonathan was pulling your leg, don't you?

haha. I have 9 episodes on my DVR from this last season of Lost that I still have to watch. I read this article, and wasn't too mad because I still don't know what happens up til then or what it even really means for the show. Just because we don't watch Lost right when it airs doesn't mean we're not true fans. We just like to know what happens consecutively without having to wait a whole week.. I would consider us mega fans

I can't wait until the next season to wrap up all the questions!

Hey Jonathan:
Soylent Green is people.
She's my sister and my daughter!
Kaizer Soze is the gimp.
Rosebud was his sled.
Bruce Willis was dead the whole time.
It's a cookbook!
and...the butler did it.

You go Zork!! Obviously you care enough about the show to read the article and then write a comment about it even though...in your eyes....its "time to fold"

I've watched LOST since it's pilot aired and it pulled me in hard and quick. But the last year or two have become so far-fetched on the believability scale, that I'm really glad it is coming to an end. They added 57 more characters, 4,366 flashbacks and flash-aheads that you couldn't keep up with it, even if you were in Mensa. And no, I don't plan on shelling out $712 for the dvd series.

I just wanna thank MWC for the funniest comment I've read online in a long time!

I totally agreed that this wasn't a "spoiler" since the episode aired weeks ago and anyone who is a Lost fan would have caught up with missed episodes by now. CNN owes Jonathan nothing.

So are you allowed to reveal the ends of movies just because they have had their premieres?
I do find it funny though that the title is a spoiler and the next line is "Warning: spoilers ahead."
Maybe?

Jonathan-
KRISTEN SHEPARD SHOT J.R. ON DALLAS!!!

Yeah, seriously, it's not a spoiler after it's aired. For example over at EW.com they have an article about Charlie next season. They said in the first few sentences, "If you don't want to know about this plot line for next season stop reading now." THAT is disclosing a spoiler. Why you would wait months to watch the show and still read articles about it is beyond me.

Jonathan, you have to know that by waiting six months after a season ends to begin watching it, you'll eventually hear something about the season along the way. You can't be that naive. Get a DVR.

Zork, you're an idiot. This is one of ABC's top rated shows. Get a life and get your facts straight.

Jonathan,
That sucks. There is still a lot of stuff that makes the final season episode worth watching. Like when you find out that blahblah isn't blahblah and in the opening scene where you see blahblah floating towards blahblah and that other guy.
Will

I am fortunate enough that I was able to watch it, but here are two things to bear in mind before jumping all over poor Jonathan:

Not all countries get Lost in a timely manner. Here, season 5 is still showing. Not everyone has the option (because of prohibitive bandwidth costs or other reasons) to download episodes.

Two, the title of the article is on the main page of CNN.com. That means whether he chose to read the article or not, he was at definite risk of seeing something he didn't want to see through no fault of his own.

MWC – love your post! Here's another – in The Crying Game, the chick is really a dude.

For the ignorant, a 'spoiler' is *ANYTHING* that reveals a key piece of information. There is no shelf life as to what can be considered a spoiler so the argument that it's 'not a spoiler' if the episode has already aired is totally irrelevant, and just plain inaccurate; it's a spoiler anytime it reveals information you did not know, and probably did not WANT to know.

That being said, the longer amount of time you go without seeing/reading/hearing your tv/books/movie, the greater chance you run of coming across a spoiler in some form, whether water-cooler chatter, a commercial break on radio, or random CNN articles.

While it goes without saying that a) a true Lost fan would be caught up and b) don't read *ANY* Lost articles for fear of finding out information you don't yet want to know, it is pretty irresponsible and just plain sh*tty to put a plot spoiler in the article's title. Most people scan headlines before reading a story and in that situation, you're not given the chance to steer clear of the information.

To Jonathan – Your own fault for not being up to date.

To Doug (the author) – You're a d*ck.

who says jacob is dead anyway? did anyone check his pulse? does he even have a pulse? Isn't it possible the bomb was detonated before he actually "died" thereby negating the whole event anyway?

PS: Kristin Shepard shot JR. I hope I didn't ruin it for you.

A "true Lost fan" can't help it if the headline is too revealing. Once your eyes scan that headline, it's spoiled, even if you weren't looking for the information. I came late to the show via Netflix and luckily got all caught up before I came across this headline. I'm on your side, Jonathan. A shame they couldn't have titled it better, especially in the age of DVD and TiVo.

Well, in defense of Jonathan – it was in the headline of the article, so it's not like he could have avoided reading it (especially since the leading link from cnn.com was a completely different headline "'Lost' star wants to know what's going on"). I'm a little behind on my LOST viewing so I haven't seen the finale either – but personally I'm not too bothered by plot spoilers, but can understand that others prefer a little mystery.

Relax everyone, including Jonathan. Do you really think Jacob was killed? In this show, nothing that happens really has happened.

Jonathan,
I don't want to say too much but you *might* find that the episode on DVD has *quite* a different ending from the broadcast version. I'm not saying anthing, I'm just saying...

Jacob

Jonathan, if you didn't want it to be spoiled why would you read articles about the show? It's your fault.

When Gilligan and the castaways (The original Lost) awaken one morning , they realize that the hut they were has been swept off the island by a tidal wave and the hut is now a makeshift raft. They use clothes and make a sail, and try to make their way to land. In an attempt to make a meal, Gilligan makes a fire which spreads to the raft. At first, angry at Gilligan for doing another one of his stupid stunts, the castaways are then grateful when the United States Coast Guard spots the smoke and rescues them.

After being towed to Hawaii, the castaways are at first confused by modern life. They are informed that the President is now Jimmy Carter, and that they had missed the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. They quickly part however, to try and return to life as they knew it before the shipwreck. However, they agree to go on a cruise for the holidays

Does this not sound like Lost?!?!?!

To Jonathan Another spoiler......Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!!!!!

Zork – you don't know what you're talking about. Lost is a high quality show.. NO other show can compete with its story, characters, plot etc..

ha, a guy with the name Zork calling LOST old.

IRONY!

I agree – the so called after the fact spoiler was not in the title – the title was "Lost star wants to know what's going on" and you have to click on the article in order to get to a page with spoilers. Clicking on a link titled the way it was is really taking a risk of being exposed to spoilers.

Interesting that the actors don't know any more than the fans about the series.,..

Notice how all the main Losties have had "father" issues at one point in their lives. The show seems to have showcased that. Wonder if that has anything to do with the plot?

If you have nothing but time, you can go to ABC.go.com and selectively watch any or all episodes of LOST from Season One through Five for free at least for now. Many other ABC shows are also available to watch on this site.
http://fep.abc.go.com/fep/player?src=abccomjs&lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP

Hey Jonathon!! Charles Witmore lived on the island 30 years ago. The whole gang is back on the island 3 years ago. Time travels going on every day. Locke is now the leader of the "Others".

Read Jonathan's comment again folks. The problem is the spoiler is IN THE TITLE. Not that it's in the article. You can avoid reading Lost articles all you want but a quick glance at cnn.com news stories will give you a spoiler. That is the problem. And I agree it's not cool.

Rosebud was his sled, BTW.

Aww!!! MWC, I was waiting for The Usual Suspects to be 25 years old before I watched it. Thanks for spoiling it for me!

I would have to agree with most, it isn't a spoiler if the episode has already aired. I looked at the title and knew right of the bat that "Duh, Ben stabbed Jacob" so unless I hadn't seen the episode I would I wouldn't have read any further. You have to use your head. Think before you react!

It's not a spoiler, the episode already aired and you probably shouldn't click on anything that says "Lost" or "Why Did Ben Kill Jacob on Lost?" Unfortunately titled, but get your head out of your bum.
Also, ever hear of a DVR? You record things and then watch them when you have time.
SPOILER, the Allies won WW II, hopefully I didn't ruin that history book you've been meaning to read all these years.

i like Lost a lot.

Hey Jonathan – here's another spoiler for you. Bruce Willis is really dead in The Sixth Sense. I know you were waiting for it to air on TBS.... bummer.

Hey Jonny:
Obama won the election. Hope I didn't spoil it for you.

That scene with Locke and Walt in the pilot has been talked about a lot, especially since the season 5 finale. There's also a lot of talk that season 6 will be about a war between Jacob and his followers vs. his Nemesis (the "Loophole Guy"), with the Losties playing the pivotal role.

HELLO PEOPLE!!! You can watch the complete episodes on Fox...so, why haven't you seen it yet...?

I used to watch LOST. I wasted way too many nights on LOST. I even sat through the 'beat everybody to a pulp' episodes because I thought they were moving the story forward. Then one night I realized that there WAS no forward to move the story to. Every bit of the storyline is what you call a 'throwaway,' some mystery that you never have to explain(like a sonic screwdriver) because the characters were all killed in a plane crash in the first episode, just as we all thought by the third episode.
The writers insist that this isn't so, and give us 200-year-old orangutangs who drink Sprite and polar bears with corporate logos; I say they are lying and this show jumped a dharma-logoed shark a long time ago. I haven't watched it in two years and I have zero interest in renting DVDs to see if I missed anything(according to the article, I haven't).

Hey Johnathan – next season's premier reveals that Kate and Jack are brother and sister!

Know what else is old ?....the username zork.....That game was outdated back in '77

Agreed. It's not a spoiler. It was already on TV and most fans watched it already.

That final episode aired on May 13th! You can't possibly expect every media outlet to keep the show's plot and story secret until you feel like watching it. There's a ton of places you could have seen this show after it's original airing by now. You don't have to wait for the DVD. Be real...it's 2009 and there's a lot of different technologies out there to get access to tv episodes.

If they had such cryptic clues in the very first episode of this show, that makes me wonder what they would have done if the show was cancelled after four weeks! We'd have never known what we missed!

I only started watching Lost because I thought the plane crash was cool. I had no idea where it would lead.

Jonathan = trolling

OK folks, one more time with feeling...
It is not a "spoiler" once the item in question (TV show, movie, book, etc,) has been released to the public.

If you are going to wait for an item to come out in a different format MONTHS after release of the original, you are going to get details.

According to the logic, everyone seeing the episode when it first aired cannot discuss it out loud or must use encryption so they don't ruin it for someone who hasn't seen it yet and may overhear such a conversation.

If you are going to wait to see (or read or listen or whatever) an item until later than it is your own responsibility to avoid "spoilers", not the rest of the world.

MWC, you forgot that Rosebud is a sled.

You can watch every episode at ABC.com. seriously...it's your own fault.

Hey Jonathan, sorry to spoil it for you, but in season 1 – the plane crashes!!!! and eventually, they blow up the hatch! Sorry if I gave anything away.

I hope they tell you why they kidnapped the children from the plane crash in season one and what they did with everyone they kidnapped – I think there were some adults "taken" also, but why the kids? It hasn't been mentioned in a LONG time!

Maybe if you were in another country that hadn't seen the episode since some are on a previous year, you wouldn't expect to see this headline. But then, when you cruise on another country's web sites, what do you expect.

Hey...did you hear that OJ was found innocent?

Why did you have to mention the backgammon scene from Season 1? I was going to wait until Season 6 came out on DVD before I viewed them all for the first time from the very beginning...Ben Linus? Who the hell is Ben Linus?!?! Arrrghh! Spoilers!! Thanks for ruining it for me!!

Seriously, get a life.

Johnny boy should have seen the episode by now, but the title was a bit much. I waited for The Tudors to come out on dvd, but I knew little Annie Boleyn's head was rolling eventually.

Oh, and Darth Vader is Luke's father... but that is more than 25 years old so all is good, right?

Man! What the heck are people talking about as far as 'spoiling' anything??? Sweet Jesus! There was nothing written that isn't already traveling through space about 5 light years past the moon! Get hold of yourself people!!!

My take on "Lost", after seeing Season Five, is that all of the "survivors" actually did die in the crash. However, the island itself is Purgatory and the "survivors" are all there to work out all of the issues they had in life before they can either ascend into Heaven or descend into Hell. All of the main characters had "father" issues: Jack who travels to Australia to claim the dead body of the father he had issues with; Kate who killed her step-father; Claire whose father turns out to be Jack's father; John Locke whose father swindled him out of a kidney; Sawyer who as a child witnesses his father killing his mother and then committing suicide. Jacob, I believe, is the "Christ-like" figure who has visited the characters at various stages in their lives and tries to offer them comfort. He needs to die so he can rise again, and so he goads Ben, who for decades believed in Jacob without ever actually seeing him, (like any religion) into killing him. There's a definite power struggle going on throughout the show – good vs evil – and as in life it's not always easy to tell them apart. Juliana is a classic example – you never really know exactly whose side she was on... The finale should be very interesting indeed....

Johnny, Johnny, Johnny,

If only you'd known the kind of wrath to be unleashed by making your boo hoo spoiler comment...I hear ya buddy....it really sucks to be told something about a show you weren't expecting, like when you find out that Darth Vader is Lukes father in 'Empire' before seeing it, or that he dies in "Return of the Jedi"... oh...crap....sorry...you might not have heard about those ones either....

Jonathan, it's your own fault for reading this article. This episode aired weeks ago. Since you are following the show on DVD, you obviously haven't kept up with this show since the beginning, unlike many of us who DO read online articles concerning "Lost"...

Vader is Luke's father.

PEOPLE! PEOPLE!

Relax.... I'm not dead. I am however very heartened to see so many worrying about my untimely demise (no pun intended). Don't get too mad at Ben and as for poor Jonathan , the four toed geno-race will rise again to take their proper place alongside humanity in real time...

you'll see.....oh yes.... you will SEE....

The ethics of spoiling are very clear: one receives a one-week grace period of silence and then the storyline in question is completely molded into the popular dialogue and consciousness. For there will always be someone who has not seen a certain episode in question. However, there is one very new, fiercely seductive cause for this new found moral quandry: TiVo.

Twenty - or even just nine - years ago, if one missed something, a season-finale say, then one was out of luck. One usually *asked* people to tell them what happened in the missed episode; there were no DVDs or playbacks to give them what they wanted: a chance to see for themselves. TiVo has re-written what television is.

Jonathan's dilemma is one that many people, unfortunately, have developed in these recent years: they feel that a television episode has been written and displayed entirely for them. The fact that, like Sting in a night of tantric bliss he was holding off for the release (of DVDs), only goes to show that, inexplicably, he feels that the immediacy of television makes for bad television and that viewing it in DVD form is what the creators of the show actually intended.

This, of course, is an interesting argument on two levels: first, solipsistic approaches to entertainment consumption and, second, viewing television as a very (very) long film.

To address the first point, the notion that a single person is the target audience for a show, such as "Lost", is, of course, false. Millions of people watch the show. There must, however, also be a social sensitivity toward the new technology that changes the way in which people view the show. "Lost" airs on Wednesday nights; many people may choose to TiVo it, wait, and watch it on, say, Friday night instead. This, one can be sure, is a common practice. However, the acute self-identification with the consumption of a show - that one may choose how everyone must view a show - leads only to a gross miscalculation of what television even is. People respect one another enough to include the advent of [spoilers] now in articles. Look at the word: spoilers - it will spoil the show for you (note, for "you," the singular). Spoilers, though, only matter (viz. popular relevance) within a certain time frame. If someone were to write a review of a new law-thriller and in it include the twist-ending of Hitchcock's "Witness for the Prosecution," no one would think anything of it. Why? Because the film is half a century old. Yet, if someone from 1959 were to have skipped the film and till this day asked that no one tell him or her the ending - that they were waiting for the right moment to see it - everyone would think them mad.

The very fact that television can be "held" and distributed in a number of ways, including DVD and iTunes, changes everything. This is the second point: viewing television series as long novels or films. Perhaps this is what Jonathan was aiming to do: watch the entirety of the fifth season of "Lost" as a twenty hour long film (with breaks, I'm sure). Approaching television in this way is very interesting (it's how I caught up with "How I Met Your Mother"); however, it is not how television is *intended*. The serial nature of the medium - dispersing it over a number of weeks (and in the shows entirety, years), the show takes on a greater tautology that forces people to anticipate before enjoyment. The fact that someone wishes to bypass this is, in a way, simply playing into its very nature: upping the anticipation and waiting before enjoying. Yet, Jonathan has just fallen into the pithole of this. He knows the plot twist before he watches the show.

After the show has aired, again, it is only one week in which people should keep mum over the plot points of the episode. However, after that week is over, it is the responsibility of the person who chooses not view it - for whatever reason - to avoid coming into contact with all forms of spoilers.

It is not the fault of this article for "spoiling" anything. Rather, Ben's killing of Jacob is not within the full cultural consciousness: it is now saturated. It has moved from "post-viewing" spoiling to "pre-viewing" spoiling. That is to say, if you talk about Mufasa's death in "The Lion King" in everyday conversation, no one would think anything of it as a spoiler because it is no longer in the immediate post-viewing period. However, no one would say to someone who's about to watch it, "Mufasa dies by an antelope herd". This is Jonathan's problem. He is - literally - sitting in his armchair waiting for the DVD to start (for months, now) and, like it or not, he heard that Mufasa has died.

Doesn't CNN.com spoil the evening news for us? So just to be on the safe side all articles on this site should contain a Spoiler Alert.

Here's another – In Fight Club, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are two personalities of the same guy. Ooops...I broke the first rule. I talked about Fight Club.

Aww Come 'on MWC...!

I just rented Fight Club today from the local video shack down on the beach by the busted up plane engine..there goes two bottles of water and mango well wasted...

You morons!!! Front page spoiler??? Seriously???

granted the episode aired weeks ago, but you can't say that it was his fault for reading the article. It was the HEADLINE of the article that I just happened to glance at from the front page.

BEN didn't kill Jacob on LOST- LOCKE did- or someone in Locke's body, probably the man who was talking to Jacob on the beach in flashbacks, saying how badly he wanted to kill him and would find a loophole.

MCW, thanks for making me laugh out loud while Im supposed to be working! Your comment was great.

Another spoiler for you Jonathan – in Titanic, the ship sinks!

to Jenn's comment

LMAO!

WAAAAHHHHH!!!!

It's not a spoiler if it aired a month ago..maybe you guys shouldn't catch on to good shows so late.

Spoiler, schmoiler. Why would you wait for the DVDs? They're all available online.

I too side w/ Jonathan....I have to wait til season 5 is on DVD because I am in Afghanistan....have been for quite a while, and still have many months to go....so just lay off of the poor guy....not everyone can sit on the fat behinds and watch TV every day, yet we too should be able to enjoy a quality show like "Lost" when we are allowed the chance

Hey man, any true Lost fan has watched, re-watched and re-re-re-watched the season finale by now, along with all of the past Season!
Thanks for posting this, and I might add that I did exactly the SAME thing last week, re-watched the pilot and the very same moment with Walt and John was certainly seen in a new light by me as well. JJ once said that everything you need to know about the show you can figure out from the pilot. Damon said that once you see The Incident, pts 1 and 2, you know where and how the show will end. I don't know about that but I can't wait to see it all unfold, I know it will be as amazing as the rest of the show has been, though on another level, man, how awful it will be when its all over!!! I hope FlashForward, with Dom, lives up to the hype.

and @Matt- That was VERY funny dude!!!!!!!!

(mouth hanging open in shock)...it was PEOPLE??? But...but...

Too bad for those who hadn't watched the show. And folks – people's viewing habits are very different now and we all need to accept that. Many folks prefer watching it on DVD as a marathon experience without commercials and of a higher picture quality. Some of us now DVR everything and watch it when we're ready or able. And some folks still watch it when it airs. The headline linked here seemed like an interview with Emerson talking about the upcoming series finale. I didn't realize it was about the past season's finale and if I was Jonathon (the first poster here) I would be upset.

Although if I haven't seen a show yet I will tend to avoid watching or reading anything about it for fear of a spoiler.

It's all very confusing now.

Folks having fun at Johnathon's expense or at the expense of teasing about other spoilers:

Stop it. I'm a filmmaker and I would hate anything I did to be ruined for someone by someone else blurting out endings/surprises without need.

There are folks who haven't seen films that might be five years old let alone ten. First off – not everyone is the same age and filmmakers do enjoy getting new viewers – no matter when.

Example – I was never into Lost until Season Five – I was home sick for a week from work and friend lent me the first season on DVD and I spent several weeks curled up on the couch with my wife watching and getting hooked on the show.

Teasing is understandable to some extent but please – be nice. Not everyone is you.

Just look at the Tech Sgt's post above – some folks are fighting in wars and can't watch all their favorite shows that are on.

And heck – I'll plug my little show – http://www.andboris.com

Wow, I like Lost but you people need to get a life! Debating spoiler etiquette? What a joke.

There was an episode when John asked Ben to see Jacob. The found a cabin and when John was inside, a voice said "help me..!". does anyone remember that?

its a great movie but l'm having problem getting season season 5,please.