recap: lost- "the man behind the curtain"

*spoiler alert! do not read if you have not seen the 5/9 episode*

ok, on the upside, lost is officially back. seriously. it had all of the WTF moments that made season one fantastic. the downside is that there are only 2 more episodes left in the season. the other upside is that there is definitely an end in sight for the show, which means this shizz is gonna get wrapped up. the other downside, 48 episodes is a looooong time.

in last night's episode, we not only got a highly anticipated ben flashback, but we also got an ending with a bang. literally.

we learn that ben's mom died while giving birth to ben. and contrary to popular belief, ben wasn't born on the island, but instead 32 miles outside of portland. oh, and that uncle rico from napolean dynamite is his dad. years later, we see ben and his dad arrive at the island. they are there to join other members of the dharma initiative and work on the island. one night, young ben takes the code to the sonic fence and unarms it. uses a bunny to see if it's safe to cross. when he goes into the jungle, young ben encounters a man (who appears to be richard). young ben tells the man he wants to join him. the man tells him to be patient. time passes and ben is older. once again, uncle rico (ben's dad) has forgotten ben's birthday (a reccuring theme throughout the night's episode). ben helps his dad pack up the van to make a drop at the pearl station. when they reach the mesa, they stop. ben looks at his watch and puts on a gas mask and kills his dad with nerve gas.

flash forward to real time events. locke brings his dead father's body (courtesy of sawyer) to the others camp. locke asks ben to tell him everything about the island. ben tells locke that a man named jacob is the leader of the island, but he doesn't talk to anyone but ben. locke doesn't care and ben reluctantly agrees to take locke to meet jacob.

ben and locke reach a small house. ben advises locke to leave his flashlight off as "jacob hates technology". when they go in, they have a very norman bates moment when ben introduces jacob to locke, only to have locke stare at an empty chair. ben continues to full out have a conversation with said empty chair. locke clearly thinks ben is crazy and begins to leave when he hears a voice say "help me". locke turns around with his flashlight on and crap starts flying all around the room. locke leaves, ben is thrown in the air. locke asks ben what was in there, and he simply replies "that was jacob."

on their way back, ben takes them on a different route and shows locke the mass grave full of skeletons wearing dharma coveralls. ben tells locke that the his group couldn't co-exist with the original inhabitants of the island. ben made sure he wasn't in that group that died, and tells locke that he wasn't smart like him. locke turns around and ben shoots him in the abdomen. locke falls into the pit. ben asks locke what jacob said to him. when locke tells him, he replies by saying that locke had better hope jacob will help him.

meanwhile, while all that crap happens, back on the beach, juliet is revealed as a mole. when they play the recording and confront her, jack says that he knew the whole time.

so, questions:

-first of all, is locke dead??? the producers did say that there would be a few deaths before the finale, but i refuse to think locke is one of them. after all, the island does heal people faster than usual. and the island hearts locke.
-how the hell has richard not aged, yet ben is like 30 years older?
-why is ben the leader, and not richard?
-why couldn't ben hear what jacob said to locke?
-who the hell is jacob? for realsies!

-is it just me, or in the split second that we saw jacob, did it not look like locke with a wig? (thanks mark)

(source: lostpedia)