Teleportation?

[thewarlord]

If it was teleportation, then why did he wind up in Tunisa instead of Iraq(via the Syrian border).   That kind of miss could land you in miles out in ocean depending on where you were trying to go.

[Asmodean]

He did ge to Iraq pretty darn quickly, didn't he?  And he had the traffic cam info on him.

So, did he 'go' somewhere when he went into the closet before Smokie attacked?

I think he went to turn on Smokie..  Which leads to many other questions.. Ben never tells every thing.. always shares information when it works for him..

And Smokie was pissed!

[hyperform]

smokie was like a flying freight train, just like doc browns in the last back to the future

[Lion of Atreides]

Notice that Ben's arm was already injured when he awoke in the desert. That suggests that perhaps he was in danger, and used the 'magic box' to escape from whoever had injured him on the island.  Perhaps they hadn't perfected the technology since the Orchid Video mishap (Ben did kill the scientists working on it, after all), and so it's still unpredictable.  Perhaps there was a chance that it could've sent him to the Antarctic portal, hence the warm coat.  On the other hand, the Sahara does get below freezing at night.

Obviously Iraq is many thousands of miles from Tunisia/the Sahara desert. Clearly Ben travelled (by horse) from the interior desert to a coastal city, where he has assets in place (i.e. the desk clerk recognizing Dean Moriarty), and travelled by more conventional means to enlist Sayid in Iraq.

[on the island]

Did anyone notice the strange reaction at the hotel?  I can't decide if the woman checking him in was scared when he told her his name or if she recognized some sort of code.  She gives a really strange look right after he says "I'm a preferred guest here" (paraphrasing)".

Also, if this is the first time he had teleported, why would he have been to the hotel so many times before?  Doesn't seem like an easy area to get to. 

[opgelost]

Notice that Ben's arm was already injured when he awoke in the desert. That suggests that perhaps he was in danger, and used the 'magic box' to escape from whoever had injured him on the island.

He was cut through his jacket. I guess the teleportation caused the injury.

[zeekloveslost]

If it was teleportation, then why did he wind up in Tunisa instead of Iraq(via the Syrian border).   That kind of miss could land you in miles out in ocean depending on where you were trying to go.

Exactly my thought as well.  I am guessing that the portals only go to certain locations.  This is the second time we've seen Tunisia.  The polar bear was found there, which I suspect was a test of the portal before this trip by Ben. Perhaps he does not have the ability to transport directly into Iraq (because that would have been a hell of a lot easier than riding a horse to a major coastal town and then getting to Iraq, 2000 miles away).

[BobBX542]

I'm thinking that this isn't teleportation in the sense that we're thinking. Has anyone seen "The Prestige"?? Perhaps it is something along those lines, I would spill it right here, but in case anyone hasn't seen the movie, I won't ruin the ending. But perhaps it is something like that, OR, they tried to bump up the time travel experiment from just sending the concious mind to sending the person.

[hackgrid]

Did anyone notice the strange reaction at the hotel?  I can't decide if the woman checking him in was scared when he told her his name or if she recognized some sort of code.  She gives a really strange look right after he says "I'm a preferred guest here" (paraphrasing)".

Also, if this is the first time he had teleported, why would he have been to the hotel so many times before?  Doesn't seem like an easy area to get to. 

Yeah I thought she was pretty scared. But why should she know him / know what a preferred guest is? Was it planned by ben that he would arrive there?

[Suzanne4au2]

Okay here is my question: Does anyone else think that the two scenes we saw, 1-Tunisia and 2-London were 2 separate teleportations? I think they were. My husband disagrees, he says been got on a plane and flew to London. But I think they were meant to be 2 different times Ben left the island. Any thoughts?

[opgelost]

Charles said: I see you've been having more sun.
Ben answered: Iraqi is lovely at this time of the year.
So I think same teleportation.

[T Mack]

Did Ben teleport to the desert?

He was wearing the completly wrong coat, looked confused and puked. He was not sure what day or year it was. This has to do with the Bunny video.

Or was he thrown there is a drug induced haze?

You can call it what you want, but he moved from one time line to another- physically- yes, physically.

The rest is just posturing and parsing, but he time traveled.  They may not call it time travel in the sense of Marty McFly or some dumb analogy like that, but Ben went from 2004 to 2005. End of story.

[BobBX542]

Did Ben teleport to the desert?

He was wearing the completly wrong coat, looked confused and puked. He was not sure what day or year it was. This has to do with the Bunny video.

Or was he thrown there is a drug induced haze?

You can call it what you want, but he moved from one time line to another- physically- yes, physically.

The rest is just posturing and parsing, but he time traveled.  They may not call it time travel in the sense of Marty McFly or some dumb analogy like that, but Ben went from 2004 to 2005. End of story.

No, not the end of the story. It could have been a flash forward to Ben in 2005 experimenting with the teleportation technology, and just wanted to make sure that there was no temporal accident. I don't personally believe this myself, just offerring up yet another reasonable explanation for the odd behavior.

[Austruck]

I wasn't entirely sure the desk clerk looked scared when she found out he was a preferred guest. I thought it could have easily also been a little confusion. After all, he looked pretty ragged and ratty to be a preferred guest.

[BobBX542]

I wasn't entirely sure the desk clerk looked scared when she found out he was a preferred guest. I thought it could have easily also been a little confusion. After all, he looked pretty ragged and ratty to be a preferred guest.

That's the train of thought I'm on.