Lost 4/1: "What Happened, Happened"

Cannot say I was overly blown away by this episode; Kate's stories never seem to phase me that much. I can't tell if it is that I have lost interest in her because her character is too transparent and her actions are too predictable, or because I am a raging, heartless sexist. Every girl I have talked to loved this episode, so it's hard to complain.

Interesting tidbits:

Jack: is a pussy. You know I want to believe that he is playing some cards close to the vest, that he may be planning or knowing more than we think he does, but his "wait for fate" approach is tedious. Maybe that's the point though; maybe Kate's series-aware reference to how she doesn't like the new Jack is a pointed effort to tell the audience that we aren't supposed to like him. Hopefully it pays off later down the road.

Sawyer: He openly in front of Kate pretty much told her that he does what he does to protect his and July's happiness on the island. You know...until she dies.

Kate: so she turned out to be the catalyst and fated shepherd of Ben to the others. I am sure old-Jack will take umbrage - and then the new one just won't care.

Alpert: We had a reference to "Ellie" (Eloise Hawking?) and Widmore by the Others and their questioning of Alpert's motives, to which Alpert himself replies that he does not answer to them. Did he omnisciently hold in his hands the new heir to the leadership, thus breaking his fealty to Widmore? Of course his last words to Sawyer and Kate had to be extremely vague, as to leave the audience with several different interpretations:

1. Ben's "loss of innocence" - does this go hand in hand with he'll always be one of us? What we will do to him to heal him will forever alter him physically, or attune him to the island? Does healing him also gift Ben with the knowledge of future events, making him a slave to uphold the timeline that creates him?
2. Loss of Ben's memory - Alpert also mentions that by going through the island healing ritual in the mythical "Temple", young Ben will lose the memory of the events. Does he lose the memory of ALL event predating his shooting, thus answering Hurly's time-boggling question of how Ben doesn't recognize Sayid in the future? His relationship with his father, and the way he kills him in cold-blood during the purge seems to suggest that he does retain old memories (and grudges). Perhaps future Ben will shed more light (and consequently more darkness) on what happened after Alpert took him down into the temple. This may have something to do with why Alpert specifically asked Sawyer for the body of of the slain Dharma initiative member in payment for the deaths of 2 others.