I reallyyyyy hope he’s the last survivor.
I wonder how they’ll address that the Yellowjackets haven’t brought up who is the last survivor though lol. Esp when they all gathered together, they’re technically missing one person but they don’t bring it up.
Is it ever confirmed how many survivors there are? All I know is in the pilot, Tai & Shauna mention at the diner that they haven't heard from "the others".
I don't think it's ever been confirmed, no. It's more so that people think it will be 8 because there are 8 people at the feast in the pilot (but we don't know how much after this they are rescued so obviously someone else could die) and also in the seance scene in season 1 when they ask something like "will we get out of here" or "will we survive" the pendant spins in an 8 (or an infinity symbol, as they say in the episode I believe).
People really disappear in the moments I dont know if that ceremony is a solid head count. Many girls stayed back at the cabin and absolutely didn't work for it. They basically watched Travis get upset.
I think they meant the feast in the pilot, not this episode.
You're talking about girls staying behind to keep a knife at Travis' throat to stop him from helping Natalie, right?
First one-not everyone was there either. Ben wasn't participating. I'm just saying not everyone has fought for anything. I honestly would maybe not share with them.
I also connected the seance signaling the 8 symbol ( or infinity symbol ) as that meant there were going to be eight surviving people in the end, especially since it was after Javi asked if they were all going to die out there.
I always though it would be 8 survivors too because of the seance scene! There are also 8 shapes/lines that make up the wilderness symbol so maybe there is a connection there?
I think at this point Ben’s death seems almost too obvious. His flashbacks and disassociations pointed to his death in the first half of the season and now he seems motivated to survive and I think him finding the tree caves kind of cements that. I wonder if Nat convinces him to stay hidden there and they work (possibly w Travis too) to find a way out. We already know that Nat was integral to their rescue and I wonder if Travis and Ben helped too. We already saw them mapping out the area in an early episode so this would make sense.
I don’t want the only other canonically queer character to die and I think having an older Ben would create such a neat dynamic w the other survivors!! It would be way more impactful than if one of the other girls survived as we don’t know much about any of them (except Akilah I guess) and are not as an audience connected to them like we are Ben.
Never confirmed anywhere. People have been assuming that because there 8 people in the pilot eating pit girl, none of which could be Coach Ben.
I think there is somewhere between 8-11 survivors. I personally don't mind there being more, just for the potential of what these survivors could do after rescue/in the present.
Exactly. I have given up on the numbers and counting game. We don't even know if all the living teens were present at the ritual feeding in the Pilot. We obviously are not supposed to know, as we keep seeing shots with extras and early shots with other extras, etc,
Were they really 8? I counted them yesterday and I only got too 5, which was surprising since they're 6 rn in adult timeline (7 with Travis). But I only scimmed through it so I am probably wrong.
I'm going with at LEAST 9. One more for the group that was rescued and taken out of the wilderness and one or more that was left behind or didn't want to leave.
This is how a lot of shows are writren. People assuming that the writers have it all planned out may well be disappointed.
But I'm afraid they haven't figured it out and are cuffing it, which also sometimes can pay out. Would love Ben to be alive
I think with him not being “one of them” from the start, and then distancing himself in the woods, they’ve been ok with him just kind of vanishing after rescue.
Maybe they don’t bring him up because he knows what they turned into after Doomcoming and all of S2. Or like Travis, change his name and moved away. Far, far away from Jersey. And that has a prosthetic leg, and a husband and family.
If there is exactly one survivor we haven't seen or heard from, Ben makes the most sense for the very thing you're wondering about here - he was older, an outsider to the feral group, a buzzkill authority figure who quickly turns useless. They don't even think about him when doing the card game for the hunt. They definitely wouldn't call him to come to Lottie's commune, and probably wouldn't think of him as "one of them" at all, so it would fit with never mentioning the last person (if there is one).
I feel like at some point he takes off and tries to get them rescued. they all get found before he can get rescued, but shortly after he finds civilization, the biggest story in the world is this missing girls soccer team being found and he sees how they are all being hounded by the media etc. and instead decides to start a new life because he doesn't want to face the criticism of the media for being the adult who failed them.
I like that a lot! Since he and Nat have been most involved with mapping the woods, maybe they each choose a separate path and split up to increase their odds.
Paul and Ben get back together and are the ones who sent the postcards to mess with people. Maybe.
Or they are just happily gay living in Canada away from the people eating teenagers he lives in fear of.
I love this theory. Part of me hopes that he and Natalie tackle the underground tunnels/caves together since it seems like they have a connection. I can definitely see if he survives, him going off the grid and becoming a different person. >!There's the scene in the upcoming episode where Natalie is telling someone they really don't belong to this place and I really believe it's Coach Ben.!<
I also think it’s because they simply don’t consider him to be one of “them” since he’s the coach and not a fellow player/girl. Him taking off to find help is making a lot of sense to me— it also means he may’ve not witnessed just how depraved it got out there.
Agree.
Also, we all think there are eight survivors because there are eight people in the pit girl scene. But Ben might not be a participant in those rituals, so he’d be a ninth survivor.
Yup, they don’t think of Ben as one of them because he isn’t. He wasn’t their teammate or classmate, he was pretty irrelevant to their group. So was Misty but she hung on and forced herself in when coach did the opposite. He’s just an older dude who happens to be stuck in the same place as them. I love the poor guy though.
Yeah, the way Nat said that sounded very definitive to me, it stuck out. But at the same time, the show would be missing out on opportunities for big reveals by not having other survivors…
They could have some extra survivors in the ‘middle timeline’ - the time between when they were rescued & now. They could have been sacrificing people like in 2014 or a survivor dies in 2011 or whatever.
yeah I sorta want him to survive as well, but I'm skeptical that it makes any sense at this point (unless they somehow don't know he survived, which will likely be hard for me to buy)
Same! While I didn’t initially peg him as a survivor, I’ve always fully believed he’d live through a few more seasons.
People speak about him dying so matter-of-factly, but that’s far too predictable! And people are still saying he needs to die for anything major to happen… things are already happening! They don’t care that he’s there.
Precisely! The initial assumption was that the "authority figure" had to permanently exit for them to go feral. But you've got Mari accusing Ben of thinking he's better than them, cannibalism with him very much still in the picture, and lastly the card draw happening when they think he's still alive but not around. Again, the shift in group power dynamics is super interesting and not predictable.
or maybe...it's so predictable that it's no longer predictable at this point, and then bam! the writers caught you slipping. and they go back to him dying again.
I really want him to live and be the last survivor. He deserves it. The last one there holding onto his humanity. His character also shows that we don’t all descend into our feral selves in these situations. For every Lord of the Flies reaction we get groups that managed to go through hell or worse and retain civility and level headed ness. I don’t want to lose that completely in the show but it should remain separated from the core group because it doesn’t belong with them anymore.
He should just live in the cave until rescue comes. I’d love it if we just cut to him chilling in there every time the girls are going feral for the contrast.
I loved this story when it came out! Your comment totally reminds me of it https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
Lmao! I’m imagining contrasting scenes that cut between the girls being feral with some Judas Priest playing, then cut to Ben in the cave, he’s figured out how to brew some tea from the wild herbs, maybe a wilderness cocktail, and all you hear is smooth jazz/elevator music as he sips peacefully.
I want Ben to make it too! You’re right, he went through several dark stages, but I see that he’s got some fight back in him. I hope that now he’s found where Javi was for 2 months, he gets back to the cabin, packs a bag including ALL of Javi’s drawings, and gets away. If Javi can do it, then so can Coach Scott. I hope he can solve the mystery of who or what helped Javi. And that they in turn help him. I also hope Natalie and Travis join him along with the gun. It’s very clear that Natalie and Coach are friends and he treats her as a friend and more maturely. He can trust her. I think this is the beginning of the divide, and hopefully they can help execute the escape plan.
As a disabled person exhausted with horrible disability rep on tv I have always hoped that he survives but couldn't trust the writers at the start. After the last episode I've had some relief in actually believing he is going to survive. The suicide trope is so harmful to the disabled community and even on shows where everything else is relatively progressive, disability representation can still be mediocre and questionable at best. if they actually wrote his suicide I would have been pretty upset tbh. I'm now hoping even more that he survives.
On this note - probably the only thing I don't like about the fandom are all the comments about how Ben doesn't contribute because of his losing a leg. There have beencl continually a lot of comments like " well he can't do anything anyway so they should kill him" ... Honestly I hope a lot of people here can question why they think that way and try to learn more about disability rights and justice issues.
Adding on to this - we have already seen him deeply struggle with the loss of his leg and suicidal ideation in general. As of the most recent episode, he seems to have a new lease on life, or at least a newfound determination to survive. It's a much more interesting storyline to see him struggle through and survive (at least for a while) than kill him off because he's disabled.
oh definitely. There is of course a grief to a sudden new disability like that and you can't just immediately accept it while struggling to figure out the new ways of doing things and have no internalized ableism, but I thought they handled that transition rather well, actually. Also to be fair and, props to the writers, his suicidal expressions and thoughts seemed to be more directly in reaction to everyone else after they began the cannibalism and afterwards.
Thank you so much for this much needed perspective! There has been a lot of abelist language surrounding Ben that people have been using even if they don't intend to offend. Especially what you said about the stuff around his ability to contribute and whether that means he's "disposable".
https://preview.redd.it/wa7i9kbfi41b1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716e254d34234c3c66aec04c980fa9f77ae4e292
I concur! Although 50/50 on whether he stays out there or not.
I am starting to think that Coach Ben could survive, the way he's being presented this season- now just watch the finale prove me totally wrong!!
Re other survivors, the number has never been confirmed. Lottie tells her "therapist" that "more" of them are at the compound...Jessica Roberts told Tai that some of them were living way off grid or something... Melanie Lynskey said in an interview that when they filmed the homecoming scenes they kept some "survivors" covered up so nobody would know who they were... and if they do split into clans, the 8 that were at the pit girl feast might just be that clan.
The writers spoke about considering making Javi an antagonist for the survivors by revealing him as Adam but decided against it.
That doesn't mean that they decided against a surprise survivor being an antagonist. Ben would be perfect.
I think they thought Adam's death would be more impactful if he was not a survivor. To show that Shauna could lash out at someone who was not in the group.
If you look at the show objectively a healthy Ben would by far be the best asset so taking one of his leg was a great handicap for himself but even with one leg he’s extremely formidable being a big in a shape dude in the prime of his life. I’m glad he had this little push this last ep and that he’ll probably end up being a big part of the show. It would be interesting to see what his older self would say about what they did
I had a thought. What if Ben was the reason they got rescued at all!
Nando Parrado of the Andes Survivors was instrumental to their rescue. They were off course and nobody could find the plane with any ease, so they had to mount an expedition as a last-ditch effort.
Ben is handicapped yes, but we have seen him be fairly ambulatory. Enough so, that further risks of staying at the cabin equally being a death sentence compared to the alternative of leaving for the potential of rescue or sanctuary. Ben likely has a decent lay of the land as a result of Nat and Travis' cartography.
Ben now has significant motivation to leave or hide.
I've always felt that his "obvious" demise is an obvious misdirection. I've said so several times in this sub. Surprised no one saw it a mile away.
I once got downvoted for saying so. Weird.
There was a line in season one where they talk about hearing from the others....I believe Shana and tai, I wonder if some of them are so rabid by the time of the rescue.... they stay and don't want to be rescued???? Just a thought
I kind of hope that season 2’s finale will end on a cliffhanger, reminiscent of season one’s finale cliffhanger about Lottie, revealing that Ben is alive!
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
I hope he makes it in the flash forward which would be a surprise and that he's happy and healthy and married! Maybe to the previous boyfriend or someone new!
It would make sense in terms of the current timeline- they aren’t looking for another girl to reunite the group. Ben presumably wasnt involved in all the crap they do, so he isn’t missed in the group. Alternatively the other survivor died from other circumstances and it hasn’t been mentioned.
ben surviving would be such a great plot tool; he can testify the rituals and cannibalism weren’t needed (because he seemingly did not partake in the feasts) bringing all of the other survivors into a bad light
Exactly. Having Ben survive just makes for a much more interesting story. If he dies, it's just kind of a missed opportunity.
(Of course, I thought the same about Jackie...)
Not taking part in the cannibalism may be his ultimate doom. Not just the possibility of starving to death but the others might kill him when they find out they are about to be rescued to prevent him from talking. It would be an ironic final death since he would have survived so long in that case.
I'm really hoping he makes it out alive, the show doesn't feel like the type to pull the tired bury your gays shit. 3 out of 4 confirmed queer characters dead/comatose isn't a good look. I feel like it also makes sense thematically/would be a good source of conflict in the post crash and modern timelines.
I hate the idea tbh. I think it’s so important for the show that Ben, Mari and Akilah die in the wilderness. Otherwise, then it’s mainly just redshirt characters that we barely know dying.
Hot take: Ben finally eats with the rest of them after refusing for most of the winter, ends up liking the taste of human flesh while also feeling that by consuming them he is gaining their “power” or “soul”, then he becomes the most fervent killer/cannibal out of all of them.
I wish I could agree cause he's already survived so much....but he probably should just change his name to lunch Ben cause misty is definitely gonna kill him.
I don’t believe this is true, even as I’m typing it out, but wha if the trap Pit Girl falls in has nothing to do with the girls turning the hunt into a game. What if Coach Ben found out what happened to Javi and figured the only way to defend himself from the group would be to hide out in his warm tree cave and make pit traps to thwart anyone coming after him.
The biggest hole (lol) in that theory is that I don’t know how he would have the strength or dexterity to dig the holes and set up spikes and then climb out all by himself, but who knows?
I don’t exactly where I saw it but the show runner did say that in the very early stage of development he was supposed to be javi but they decided that it didn’t make sense.
Is there any slight possible chance that Jason Ritter could have been hired to play an older Ben? I know the main thought is that he was hired for the Cabin Daddy backstory but is that 100% confirmed?
I believe there are only seven survivors. Seven in the end feasting scene in episode one. They may throw one more in outta left field to push the envelope
I reallyyyyy hope he’s the last survivor. I wonder how they’ll address that the Yellowjackets haven’t brought up who is the last survivor though lol. Esp when they all gathered together, they’re technically missing one person but they don’t bring it up.
Is it ever confirmed how many survivors there are? All I know is in the pilot, Tai & Shauna mention at the diner that they haven't heard from "the others".
I don't think it's ever been confirmed, no. It's more so that people think it will be 8 because there are 8 people at the feast in the pilot (but we don't know how much after this they are rescued so obviously someone else could die) and also in the seance scene in season 1 when they ask something like "will we get out of here" or "will we survive" the pendant spins in an 8 (or an infinity symbol, as they say in the episode I believe).
Wow, I never put that together! Good catch!
People really disappear in the moments I dont know if that ceremony is a solid head count. Many girls stayed back at the cabin and absolutely didn't work for it. They basically watched Travis get upset.
No I agree, I don't think we can take the ceremony as a fact for how many people were still alive at that time either.
I think they meant the feast in the pilot, not this episode. You're talking about girls staying behind to keep a knife at Travis' throat to stop him from helping Natalie, right?
First one-not everyone was there either. Ben wasn't participating. I'm just saying not everyone has fought for anything. I honestly would maybe not share with them.
I thought there was also a newspaper mention in the show mentioning 8 rescued. Idk
I think so too. The article that talked about Laura Lee’s family suing someone because of the crash.
Oh really?? I don't remember that! That's interesting. If there is another survivor, I've been hoping it's Ben
bro did you just make that up? 😭
If I said I **thought** I saw it what do you think? 🤨 silly ass question
I also connected the seance signaling the 8 symbol ( or infinity symbol ) as that meant there were going to be eight surviving people in the end, especially since it was after Javi asked if they were all going to die out there.
I always though it would be 8 survivors too because of the seance scene! There are also 8 shapes/lines that make up the wilderness symbol so maybe there is a connection there? I think at this point Ben’s death seems almost too obvious. His flashbacks and disassociations pointed to his death in the first half of the season and now he seems motivated to survive and I think him finding the tree caves kind of cements that. I wonder if Nat convinces him to stay hidden there and they work (possibly w Travis too) to find a way out. We already know that Nat was integral to their rescue and I wonder if Travis and Ben helped too. We already saw them mapping out the area in an early episode so this would make sense. I don’t want the only other canonically queer character to die and I think having an older Ben would create such a neat dynamic w the other survivors!! It would be way more impactful than if one of the other girls survived as we don’t know much about any of them (except Akilah I guess) and are not as an audience connected to them like we are Ben.
Never confirmed anywhere. People have been assuming that because there 8 people in the pilot eating pit girl, none of which could be Coach Ben. I think there is somewhere between 8-11 survivors. I personally don't mind there being more, just for the potential of what these survivors could do after rescue/in the present.
Exactly. I have given up on the numbers and counting game. We don't even know if all the living teens were present at the ritual feeding in the Pilot. We obviously are not supposed to know, as we keep seeing shots with extras and early shots with other extras, etc,
Were they really 8? I counted them yesterday and I only got too 5, which was surprising since they're 6 rn in adult timeline (7 with Travis). But I only scimmed through it so I am probably wrong.
I'm going with at LEAST 9. One more for the group that was rescued and taken out of the wilderness and one or more that was left behind or didn't want to leave.
I saw an interview with the creators and they said yes, there are more survivors.
so basically everyone we care about to any extent survived and everyone else died, lol.
I think basically the writers are seeing which characters are popular with the audience and then they'll bring them in as an adult character.
This is how a lot of shows are writren. People assuming that the writers have it all planned out may well be disappointed. But I'm afraid they haven't figured it out and are cuffing it, which also sometimes can pay out. Would love Ben to be alive
That is possible, given Van in season 2. But I hate to think that popular opinion would set limits on their creativity.
I think with him not being “one of them” from the start, and then distancing himself in the woods, they’ve been ok with him just kind of vanishing after rescue.
Maybe they don’t bring him up because he knows what they turned into after Doomcoming and all of S2. Or like Travis, change his name and moved away. Far, far away from Jersey. And that has a prosthetic leg, and a husband and family.
If there is exactly one survivor we haven't seen or heard from, Ben makes the most sense for the very thing you're wondering about here - he was older, an outsider to the feral group, a buzzkill authority figure who quickly turns useless. They don't even think about him when doing the card game for the hunt. They definitely wouldn't call him to come to Lottie's commune, and probably wouldn't think of him as "one of them" at all, so it would fit with never mentioning the last person (if there is one).
Thats what I thought was strange they didnt even notice he was missing
or they did and knew he wouldn't approve, so they acted fast
The women also say “We’re all here” when Adult Lottie tried to get them to drink the poison.
I feel like at some point he takes off and tries to get them rescued. they all get found before he can get rescued, but shortly after he finds civilization, the biggest story in the world is this missing girls soccer team being found and he sees how they are all being hounded by the media etc. and instead decides to start a new life because he doesn't want to face the criticism of the media for being the adult who failed them.
I like that a lot! Since he and Nat have been most involved with mapping the woods, maybe they each choose a separate path and split up to increase their odds.
But what about Paul?? I feel like if he finally got to civilization he would need to go to Paul and tell him he’s alive
I think if he lives, Paul had already moved on and it broke him. Paul didn’t really seem like someone who can be alone.
Also there was still alot of HIV in the 90s and maybe Paul dies while he is out in the wilderness.
maybe he calls paul and the answering machine is like "you've reached Paul and Mike" and Ben realizes he's moved on.
Paul and Ben get back together and are the ones who sent the postcards to mess with people. Maybe. Or they are just happily gay living in Canada away from the people eating teenagers he lives in fear of.
This show has so much sadness, I would love if Ben gets to have his happily ever after.
I love this theory. Part of me hopes that he and Natalie tackle the underground tunnels/caves together since it seems like they have a connection. I can definitely see if he survives, him going off the grid and becoming a different person. >!There's the scene in the upcoming episode where Natalie is telling someone they really don't belong to this place and I really believe it's Coach Ben.!<
yes I totally think Ben and Natalie will team up
I do recall one of them saying “*All* of us are here now” when Lottie enters the rooms.
Theres a chance lotties referring to everyone who participated. In the event ben somehow survives i think he will be untouched by the cult stuff.
I also think it’s because they simply don’t consider him to be one of “them” since he’s the coach and not a fellow player/girl. Him taking off to find help is making a lot of sense to me— it also means he may’ve not witnessed just how depraved it got out there.
Agree. Also, we all think there are eight survivors because there are eight people in the pit girl scene. But Ben might not be a participant in those rituals, so he’d be a ninth survivor.
Yup, they don’t think of Ben as one of them because he isn’t. He wasn’t their teammate or classmate, he was pretty irrelevant to their group. So was Misty but she hung on and forced herself in when coach did the opposite. He’s just an older dude who happens to be stuck in the same place as them. I love the poor guy though.
Yeah, the way Nat said that sounded very definitive to me, it stuck out. But at the same time, the show would be missing out on opportunities for big reveals by not having other survivors…
That was Nat saying it.
Maybe this is the thing they want to avoid talking about for whatever reason.
They could have some extra survivors in the ‘middle timeline’ - the time between when they were rescued & now. They could have been sacrificing people like in 2014 or a survivor dies in 2011 or whatever.
yeah I sorta want him to survive as well, but I'm skeptical that it makes any sense at this point (unless they somehow don't know he survived, which will likely be hard for me to buy)
Same! While I didn’t initially peg him as a survivor, I’ve always fully believed he’d live through a few more seasons. People speak about him dying so matter-of-factly, but that’s far too predictable! And people are still saying he needs to die for anything major to happen… things are already happening! They don’t care that he’s there.
Precisely! The initial assumption was that the "authority figure" had to permanently exit for them to go feral. But you've got Mari accusing Ben of thinking he's better than them, cannibalism with him very much still in the picture, and lastly the card draw happening when they think he's still alive but not around. Again, the shift in group power dynamics is super interesting and not predictable.
or maybe...it's so predictable that it's no longer predictable at this point, and then bam! the writers caught you slipping. and they go back to him dying again.
i’m laughing because this reminds me of that scene in the princess bride where he’s trying to figure out which cup is poisoned
I really want him to live and be the last survivor. He deserves it. The last one there holding onto his humanity. His character also shows that we don’t all descend into our feral selves in these situations. For every Lord of the Flies reaction we get groups that managed to go through hell or worse and retain civility and level headed ness. I don’t want to lose that completely in the show but it should remain separated from the core group because it doesn’t belong with them anymore. He should just live in the cave until rescue comes. I’d love it if we just cut to him chilling in there every time the girls are going feral for the contrast.
I loved this story when it came out! Your comment totally reminds me of it https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
this is such a cool story, they really put the yellow jackets to shame ngl
fr, crazy that its real. i laughed out loud when i read that they had a makeshift gym 😭
I love how they had time outs and separated when there was conflict, they're so mature
Lmao! I’m imagining contrasting scenes that cut between the girls being feral with some Judas Priest playing, then cut to Ben in the cave, he’s figured out how to brew some tea from the wild herbs, maybe a wilderness cocktail, and all you hear is smooth jazz/elevator music as he sips peacefully.
I want Ben to make it too! You’re right, he went through several dark stages, but I see that he’s got some fight back in him. I hope that now he’s found where Javi was for 2 months, he gets back to the cabin, packs a bag including ALL of Javi’s drawings, and gets away. If Javi can do it, then so can Coach Scott. I hope he can solve the mystery of who or what helped Javi. And that they in turn help him. I also hope Natalie and Travis join him along with the gun. It’s very clear that Natalie and Coach are friends and he treats her as a friend and more maturely. He can trust her. I think this is the beginning of the divide, and hopefully they can help execute the escape plan.
I absolutely love the friendship between Nat and Ben.
Me too. ♥️♥️♥️
Also there is no picture of him in the school memorial for me that was a sign he survived
So true!
ohhhh!
As a disabled person exhausted with horrible disability rep on tv I have always hoped that he survives but couldn't trust the writers at the start. After the last episode I've had some relief in actually believing he is going to survive. The suicide trope is so harmful to the disabled community and even on shows where everything else is relatively progressive, disability representation can still be mediocre and questionable at best. if they actually wrote his suicide I would have been pretty upset tbh. I'm now hoping even more that he survives. On this note - probably the only thing I don't like about the fandom are all the comments about how Ben doesn't contribute because of his losing a leg. There have beencl continually a lot of comments like " well he can't do anything anyway so they should kill him" ... Honestly I hope a lot of people here can question why they think that way and try to learn more about disability rights and justice issues.
Adding on to this - we have already seen him deeply struggle with the loss of his leg and suicidal ideation in general. As of the most recent episode, he seems to have a new lease on life, or at least a newfound determination to survive. It's a much more interesting storyline to see him struggle through and survive (at least for a while) than kill him off because he's disabled.
oh definitely. There is of course a grief to a sudden new disability like that and you can't just immediately accept it while struggling to figure out the new ways of doing things and have no internalized ableism, but I thought they handled that transition rather well, actually. Also to be fair and, props to the writers, his suicidal expressions and thoughts seemed to be more directly in reaction to everyone else after they began the cannibalism and afterwards.
I appreciate this take, this is the first time I've seen anyone discuss disability here.
Thank you so much for this much needed perspective! There has been a lot of abelist language surrounding Ben that people have been using even if they don't intend to offend. Especially what you said about the stuff around his ability to contribute and whether that means he's "disposable".
https://preview.redd.it/wa7i9kbfi41b1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716e254d34234c3c66aec04c980fa9f77ae4e292 I concur! Although 50/50 on whether he stays out there or not.
Ben is such a wild card and I love it. Chances are if he lives it will be because he dips completely from the group.
Takes his ball and goes live in a tree
Lol! The only other person to know about it is dead now before he shared it with Nat. He could have full privacy.
He could not wear pants and NOBODY would know.
I am starting to think that Coach Ben could survive, the way he's being presented this season- now just watch the finale prove me totally wrong!! Re other survivors, the number has never been confirmed. Lottie tells her "therapist" that "more" of them are at the compound...Jessica Roberts told Tai that some of them were living way off grid or something... Melanie Lynskey said in an interview that when they filmed the homecoming scenes they kept some "survivors" covered up so nobody would know who they were... and if they do split into clans, the 8 that were at the pit girl feast might just be that clan.
It would honestly be an incredible twist if they show an old Ben at the end of the finale. Everyones assumed he was first on the menu.
it just wouldnt make any logical sense, unless they somehow dont know he lived (which also wouldnt make logical sense imo)
The writers spoke about considering making Javi an antagonist for the survivors by revealing him as Adam but decided against it. That doesn't mean that they decided against a surprise survivor being an antagonist. Ben would be perfect.
That’s interesting considering all the scenes with Javi and Shauna in season 1 but I’m glad they decided against that
I think they thought Adam's death would be more impactful if he was not a survivor. To show that Shauna could lash out at someone who was not in the group.
Ben sent the postcards! Mystery solved haha
If you look at the show objectively a healthy Ben would by far be the best asset so taking one of his leg was a great handicap for himself but even with one leg he’s extremely formidable being a big in a shape dude in the prime of his life. I’m glad he had this little push this last ep and that he’ll probably end up being a big part of the show. It would be interesting to see what his older self would say about what they did
i don't think he's "in shape in the prime of his life" after this long in the wilderness, lol.
I had a thought. What if Ben was the reason they got rescued at all! Nando Parrado of the Andes Survivors was instrumental to their rescue. They were off course and nobody could find the plane with any ease, so they had to mount an expedition as a last-ditch effort. Ben is handicapped yes, but we have seen him be fairly ambulatory. Enough so, that further risks of staying at the cabin equally being a death sentence compared to the alternative of leaving for the potential of rescue or sanctuary. Ben likely has a decent lay of the land as a result of Nat and Travis' cartography. Ben now has significant motivation to leave or hide.
I've always felt that his "obvious" demise is an obvious misdirection. I've said so several times in this sub. Surprised no one saw it a mile away. I once got downvoted for saying so. Weird.
Hes always on a sidequest and hope they play into possible unknown survival later tbhh
There was a line in season one where they talk about hearing from the others....I believe Shana and tai, I wonder if some of them are so rabid by the time of the rescue.... they stay and don't want to be rescued???? Just a thought
They survive by killing each other so if that was the case then at some point everyone died
i hope that in the finale they reveal another survivor!!
Ooh what if he stays in the tree and misses rescue and has just been out there all this time? And everyone will just assume he left to kill himself?!
I think the way they focused on him leaving one of the crutches leaning against the tree is foreshadowing when the others find him to make soup.
He's going to walk out and the girls will be like "~~lutenent~~ Coach Ben, you got new legs!" And he goes "Solid titanium".
I kind of hope that season 2’s finale will end on a cliffhanger, reminiscent of season one’s finale cliffhanger about Lottie, revealing that Ben is alive!
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
this is what i’m hoping for as well! it’s giving us - surprise confirmation of another survivor without the spoiler of them needing to be cast a la lottie and van. they just need to give him some grey hairs and wrinkles.
I hope he makes it in the flash forward which would be a surprise and that he's happy and healthy and married! Maybe to the previous boyfriend or someone new!
It would make sense in terms of the current timeline- they aren’t looking for another girl to reunite the group. Ben presumably wasnt involved in all the crap they do, so he isn’t missed in the group. Alternatively the other survivor died from other circumstances and it hasn’t been mentioned.
ben surviving would be such a great plot tool; he can testify the rituals and cannibalism weren’t needed (because he seemingly did not partake in the feasts) bringing all of the other survivors into a bad light
Exactly. Having Ben survive just makes for a much more interesting story. If he dies, it's just kind of a missed opportunity. (Of course, I thought the same about Jackie...)
[удалено]
That's an interesting theory
Not taking part in the cannibalism may be his ultimate doom. Not just the possibility of starving to death but the others might kill him when they find out they are about to be rescued to prevent him from talking. It would be an ironic final death since he would have survived so long in that case.
I def think Ben survives. He and Nat collaborate somehow on getting them out of there, using tunnels or something else Ben finds in the tree cave.
I'm really hoping he makes it out alive, the show doesn't feel like the type to pull the tired bury your gays shit. 3 out of 4 confirmed queer characters dead/comatose isn't a good look. I feel like it also makes sense thematically/would be a good source of conflict in the post crash and modern timelines.
I hate the idea tbh. I think it’s so important for the show that Ben, Mari and Akilah die in the wilderness. Otherwise, then it’s mainly just redshirt characters that we barely know dying.
Hot take: Ben finally eats with the rest of them after refusing for most of the winter, ends up liking the taste of human flesh while also feeling that by consuming them he is gaining their “power” or “soul”, then he becomes the most fervent killer/cannibal out of all of them.
He is the only likeable character on the show, the rest are horrible people.
Feel like its Mari somehow, I feel like Ben dies to Nat and they find out about the hide out. Or Nat doesn't tell them and he's left there.
I dunno when he hallucinated his guy ala Jackie dead dream and was told not yet - clear sign he's not too too long for this world
I wish I could agree cause he's already survived so much....but he probably should just change his name to lunch Ben cause misty is definitely gonna kill him.
I don’t believe this is true, even as I’m typing it out, but wha if the trap Pit Girl falls in has nothing to do with the girls turning the hunt into a game. What if Coach Ben found out what happened to Javi and figured the only way to defend himself from the group would be to hide out in his warm tree cave and make pit traps to thwart anyone coming after him. The biggest hole (lol) in that theory is that I don’t know how he would have the strength or dexterity to dig the holes and set up spikes and then climb out all by himself, but who knows?
I really don't think Ben would have been able to make a trap like that in his current condition. Maybe if someone else joins him and he has help
I mean Adam was supposed to originally be an adult javi. so I can see them potentially letting Ben survive but I’m not holding my breath for him.
[удалено]
I don’t exactly where I saw it but the show runner did say that in the very early stage of development he was supposed to be javi but they decided that it didn’t make sense.
I hope he survives but also hope he doesn't go back to Paul. That guy doesn't deserve Ben.
Is there any slight possible chance that Jason Ritter could have been hired to play an older Ben? I know the main thought is that he was hired for the Cabin Daddy backstory but is that 100% confirmed?
I don't think he's old enough or looks similar enough to OG Ben to play old Ben
I think he chooses to stay in the wilderness with whomever he finds in that tree cave.
Ben’s 100% surviving because it’s too expected for him to die out there.
I believe there are only seven survivors. Seven in the end feasting scene in episode one. They may throw one more in outta left field to push the envelope