Who Really Ran Hanso's Biz? by Robert Goodman

I'm led to wonder now whether Alvar Hanso was a mere figurehead -- if not always, at least by the time of most of the action shown on "Lost". As you know from reading my theories here, "Lost" depicted the culmination of a struggle between Charles Widmore and the multi-named Michael Emerson character fans dubbed "Benry" for control of Hanso's business, echoing the story of "One of Our Aircraft Is Empty" from "Department S", which you should review as there are several full length postings on YouTube of that episode. But, as with Ralph A. Voss on that episode, was Alvar Hanso too a mere figurehead, with real control of his industries having already been in the hands of one or both of Widmore and Benry, as had been true of Terrell and Finch in the predecessor story? As with Voss, it helped that Hanso was reclusive.

The recurrent m.o. of "Lost" was to present miniature versions of the overall plot as sub-stories, especially in the hands of Benry, who was repeatedly playing Hamlet's game of the play within the play, "The Mouse Trap". It seems to me now that that's what was being shown in the relationship between Benry and Jacob. That is, I believe Jacob was a figurehead, and that Benry's orders purporting to be from him were always from his own head. Not only was Jacob a figurehead, but he may have been entirely imaginary. I haven't yet decided whether Benry put up a real person to stand in as Jacob in some scenes, or whether Jacob was entirely vaporware. I do know, however, that Damon Lindelof had a high regard, as I did, for the movie of "Fight Club".

The first indication we got that Jacob was imaginary was when Benry took Locke to see him, in a scene evoking the movie of "Psycho". This too was part of the Mouse Trap that Benry sprang on Locke, fishing for Locke's reaction so he could tell how much THIS Locke (for we know there were more than one of him) knew of what was really going on. Locke's response was, however, ambiguous in that he acted scared (or really was scared) but then let on that he'd been hoodwinked. Benry's response was parallel to that of Goodwin's helping a character out of a literal hole, then answering a question of his and killing him. In this case Locke was put into the hole and shot. I'm not sure whether Benry knew this Locke was missing a kidney, or whether it was a different Locke who next met him. Regardless, the scene was giving us a big hint that Jacob was either wholly imaginary or a figurehead.

The next time we saw Benry, Jacob, and either the same or a different Locke together, Benry appeared to kill Jacob, and then Locke cast him into a fire which seemed to magically consume him completely. I think what that meant was that there was no actual living Jacob in that scene.

There were various scenes with Jacob and no Benry or Locke. One was of Jacob's giving a package to Hugo for delivery. But we know how good Hugo was at imagining dead or fictitious persons and communicating with them. Another was Jacob and Jack, before and after Jack's wrecking the holograph in the lighthouse; probably an imaginary Jacob there too, but might have been a real person with no actual connection to Benry's Jacob. Similarly the visit of Jacob to John Ford. And finally there was the episode with Jacob and Nameless, which can easily be dismissed (because of lack of living witnesses) as a cover story supplied by Benry to give The Island a phony history. If Jacob and Nameless are imaginary, then they can be as old as anyone wants them to be.

I have no evidence in mind of Widmore's having similarly put up a figurehead. If he did, it would be symbolized by the nameless Man in Black, the previously-described episode then being allegory by the makers of "Lost" rather than an invention of Benry's. Widmore then would appear to have the tougher job, trying to dislodge Benry's existing control of Hanso.

Still I must take seriously the relevance of another "Department S" episode, "The Duplicated Man", to the plot of "Lost". Since Alvar Hanso's name references not only that of Ralph A. Voss from the former episode, but also the dual personality Anthony Harvey/Andrew Haywood of the latter (as well as that of Hamlet, especially with Hanso's being Danish), there could be some plot parallel between that of Anthony Harvey's having killed off one of his personas via a witnessed mid-air destruction of a plane he was a passenger on and that of the similar supposed death of Alvar Hanso on flight 815, beyond the simple disappearance of one figure. Were the makers of "Lost" telling us that Alvar Hanso similarly led a double life? Could Widmore have been in charge of one figurehead Hanso, and Benry another?