Why does Ben lie? The answer is a clue to the Others by DannyFaraway

"How are you reading?"

"My mother taught me."

"Can ask you something?"

"I'm a Pisces."

Two clear instances of Ben not just lying, but displaying that lying is his first instinct, his go to move, a defense mechanism of sorts. In both of the instances it's entirely unnecessary for Ben to lie, but he does, immediately, without hesitation, as if it were more natural than the truth.

To me, this clearly places Ben on the bad side of the coin, I had hope for him redeeming himself in someway by the time the show ended, but after rewatching it's become clear Ben is simply a bad person, looking out for his own interests. His skill is manipulation and it's founded in his natural ability to lie.

But who's responsible for this? We can't place the blame on his parent, an abusive alcoholic father can lead to many things but a liar generally isn't one of them. The first time we see Ben lying, it's to his father, but at this point he's simply a child, and he has a bad poker face, not the Ben we know now. So it doesn't appear to be born from his relationship with his father, if it were, he'd already know how to lie to his father. He doesn't, he get's caught trying to bring Sayid food and gets his father's wrath.

So now let's look at his relationship with the Others. He meets Richard while following "his mother" into the woods and Richard tells him he has to be patient. He'll have to stay with the DI until the time is right. This makes Ben believe that he is one of them, he is on the Island with his horrible dad for a reason, it gives him both hope and surely a new found feeling of detachment from the DI.

After Ben is shot by Sayid, he is taken by Richard into the Temple wall after Richard tells Kate, Sawyer, and more importantly us, that Ben will never be the same. Something will be different. He will always be "one of them". He will always be an Other. When we next see Ben he's sitting talking with Widmore, who assures him no matter how long he has to wait, he is "one of them". If we're to assume he did go back and wait until the Purge to join them, this would of required him developing into a "double agent" of sorts, someone living with people they now naturally considered the enemy. This would of required the skill of lying.

Now certainly the next part remains undetermined. It hinges on whether what we saw in seasons 1-3 was a result of what we saw in 4-5 or not. If we're to believe it is, then the Ben who's incapable of being entirely truthful was a result of what Kate and Sawyer had Richard do. Whatever Richard did, he went into the Temple wall with a child who was incapable of lying to a person he hated(his father) and came out with one that would grow into a man who lies at every turn with the same effort most people use to breathe.

Frank Lapidus, after hearing "We're the good guys" said "In my experience the people who go out of their way to tell you they're the good guys, end up being the bad guys". Truer words were never spoken. And the first person to assure us he was "one of the good guys"? Benjamin Linus.


So what's the point? I know, it took me a while to get there, but the point is clear, The Others are the bad guys. When Richard "made Ben one of them", he made him bad. He made him someone who would become capable of murder, manipulation, and most expertly of all, lying. He took a child who couldn't look his abusive father in the eye and lie and came back with a child who would spend the rest of his life lying to everyone he came in contact with. And what are we told is responsible for this change? Richard making him an other, a bad guy. Thoughts?