Now I know how I react to grief: denial. After Alex was shot, I spent the entire commercial break trying to think of scenarios in which she could somehow still be alive. Charlie's death still packed the biggest emotional wallop, he was given a grand send-off; by contrast, Alex's life was brutally, horribly cut short. Even before these "Initial Thoughts" I felt compelled to write an obituary.
The helpless part about Alex's death is that you can't blame Ben; if he had turned himself in, that would've meant the extinction of every island inhabitant including Alex. His "she means nothing to me gambit" was the best shot he had. The only man responsible is Keamy, and man, Kevin Durand is good at playing people you want to describe by using profanities - he also played a wretched jerk in 3:10 to Yuma. Let's hope, like in that movie, he gets his throat cut very early on.
By the way, Alex, nice job setting off the panic alarm; heroic to the end.
Sawyer has officially turned into John McClane. Nice job not getting shot in a hail of bullets. Although it was really nice that he was so concerned about Claire, who was so shook up after the explosion that she called him "Charlie." That doesn't excuse the writers for giving her less than a day of Charlie grieving, but it was, well, terribly sweet and sad. Sorry, I'll be right back, I have something in my eye. Both eyes.
Sawyer, a markedly sobered Miles, Claire, and Aaron are returning to the beach. Is something going to happen to them on the way, or are the writers just sending them there because that's where they need to be for the finale?
I thought Ben sounded particularly out of character when he was telling Sayid that it's "not his war" in the future. The trickster was, of course, playing a simple game of reverse psychology, which Sayid would've picked up on if he hadn't been grieving over the death of Nadia. Speaking of which--
So Ben does know something about the Smoke Monster - in fact, he can freakin' control the thing. Him, Hurley, and Locke are trouping over to Jacob's right now to discuss the whole thing, in fact. I wonder if Jacob will give them any concrete answers - heh heh, just kidding. Still, a very interesting development (and one that solidifies the oft-assumed link between Jacob and Smokie), and kind of awesome to see most of the freighter troops get wiped out. One big question: what exactly did Ben do in his secret room to "call" it?
I've previously surmised that Season 5 will intercut between the island and the off-island adventures of the Oceanic Six, but that structurally wouldn't make sense since they seem to be answering all the flash-forward questions in this season. So what happens at the end of this season? Do we jump forward a year Battlestar Galactica-style? Or does that Jeff Jensen theory come true?
The big, massive button on the end of the episode was obviously Ben's conversation with Widmore in the future (and of course the proclamation that he'll kill Penny as payback). While I'll have to watch the scene again (and again) for more information, it basically sounds like (A) Widmore was the original "owner" of the island, sort of the Lando to Ben's Han, and (B) all this talk of "rules" sounds disturbingly like a game. A cruel, twisted game. Like Cube or something.
This episode demanded some further rumination, which I'm sure I'll give you with in-depth ramblings later, but I'm emotionally spent. Good night and good Lost.
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