Seeing That Ben Is Going To Get A Bigger Focus In Season 4 (yay!) Has Really Reminded Me Of Some Of The

Seeing that Ben is going to get a bigger focus in Season 4 (yay!) has really reminded me of some of the theories around in Season 1. More specifically, the Chekhov’s Gun theory.

For anyone who doesn’t know, in 1x2, Ben is reading The Bet by Anton Chekhov.

This was where the theory split into two. The Bet is a short story that discussed which was better: the death penalty or life in prison. This can sort of relate to Ben as a character due to the fact that he is dead.

The other side of this theory didn’t specifically focus on the story, but more on the writer, Chekhov. One of his biggest theories was called Chekhov’s Gun and this was the idea that you shouldn’t reveal details unless they’re going to be important later:

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on a wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

Being the second episode of the show, Ben didn’t really have a purpose. He was just there. The plot (unfortunately) wouldn’t really change if he wasn’t there. So this theory basically stated that Ben was going to be more important than the writers were letting him on to be. This was true with the Season 1 finale, but isn’t this also true with Season 4?