What I'm wondering is... When 'Richard et others' took Ben and 'fixed' him, did they make the bullet hole disappear? Surely Jack would have seen it when he operated on Ben and probably would have said something about it.

Ok guys, thanks for clearing so much up. But, I still say that Richard Alpert is the one to watch. He never ages, he never leaves the island, he knows everything about everyone and even gets to hang out in the temple with the black smoke. WTH?

So Ben has "lost his memory" BUT he obviously goes back to live with the Dharma Initiative until hes an adult.does he remember Kate, Sawyer etc?? He may not remember the Sayid shooting incident, but does he remember Kate etc? or will they disapear into the future by the time Ben comes back from the temple?even if they do disapear he still would hear about them from the rest of the Dharma Initiative.So what exactly has Ben been planning all this time that hes known about Kate atc?Coz hes bound to remember them!
Also why is Richard always the same age in the past & future.he's always with the others.how come hes not in charge? y did he choose Ben to be in charge? & Charles to be in charge in the past? Surely if Richard has been there longer then he would want to be in charge?

This is a little late to comment, sorry, but I just wanted to mention to Cindy, on the last page, that the Other said to Richard, "Ask Ellie or Charles", not Neely. As in Elanor, the jewerly-store lady & time travel expert. We saw a young version of her (at least, we assume it was her) back in "Jughead", set in the '50's. I also liked Richard's comment, "I don't answer to them". I read a comment awhile back that I think was right on, that Richard is the true leader on the island, he justs takes a 2nd place seat to Widmore, Ben or whoever, for reasons not yet clear. I think by the end of the series, we'll know how central he has been to the story.

Dammit! I'm ready for my Desmond-centric episode!

Well...I've asked more of other shows before, but...I'm going to give the writers a pass on this one. They are telling a story, and this is the story they have chosen to tell. It kind of is rational to me, too.

Ben is an innocent kid until this precise point in time. Then this event sets in motion his becoming the man we know him as, and everything before is lost to him. That's not so hard to stomach. Besides, traumatic events like being shot are often portrayed as (and may also in reality be) shocks to the system that prevent memories from forming. Your brain does have defense mechanisms like that--and you see that all the time and its PERFECTLY acceptable.

That's why I like amazo's comment best--its the irony that in trying to not save Ben because he becomes this evil person, Jack in fact causes it to come about. You can't fool with time...

Well, Richard said "he won't remember any of THIS", he didn't say "he won't remember anything". Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I feel like the memory wipe is exclusive to whatever will happen in the temple.

Also, it continues to baffle me as to why people are assuming Ben doesn't remember Sayid shooting him because he's never mentioned it. Wow, how much information has Ben kept to himself? Especially when he was first caught, why in the world would he point out that Sayid shot him as a child??

Now, that doesn't mean I'm sure Ben remembers and has just kept quiet (he may not), but we can't assume he doesn't b/c he has mentioned it. Come on, it's Ben.

Sure it SEEMS lame.

But that's just like the first half of every Harry Potter book...

Um... just wanna put this out there. In the next episode ben will "be judged by the smoke monster". I want to point out that way back in season 3 we found out that the Monster has some sort of power over memories. Eko stared into the smoke and saw images from his past. Also, the monster made him see and fight people from his past who weren't actually there.So the monster is probably what erases Ben's memories.
My point is this memory thing didn't come out of nowhere.

Richard said he'll lose his innocence, and he'll have always been one of them. Why does he have to lose his memories for that to happen? He was already interested in becoming a Hostile. Maybe the simple act of them saving his life makes him eternally loyal to them, with all of his memories in place. Right? I think you're jumping to too fast of a conclusion.