Since you're gone my empty arms have nothing left to hold

Well, I'm baffled myself because of my own reaction. This might be the only Ben episode in the history of Lost which I actually liked. WHAT.

Team CTRL + ALT + CANC

1. Ben explaining Napoleon = SO APPROPRIATE. -nod- Also LOL at him talking about Elba. Hey, it's my country, dammit. And awww at Ben being so protective of his little history club.

2. BEN AND ARZT BEING BFFs IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED THIS SEASON AFTER BOONE. WHEN I REALIZED IT I WAS LIKE 'SCORE!'.

3. Aha, so basically while in the regular storyline Ben mindfucks with Locke, here Locke starts making Ben get grandeur illusions? Fiiittiiing.

4. Aw, Alex. <3 Do I assume that Danielle is alive in this verse too? Though poor woman, on the island she's crazy and in the alt she has two jobs? Will she ever get a break? And for some strange reason the whole Ben and Alex interaction in the alt didn't creep me out. Even if I think it was supposed to.

5. Augh, hi Roger. For a second when they filmed Ben taking out whatever it was that he had under the kitchen sink I thought it'd have ended with Ben giving Roger some kind of euthanasia because alt!Ben is too not creepy not to have something like that up his sleeve, but in the end it seems like he knew better than his counterpart, so...

6. I REITERATE, ARZT WILLING TO FUCK WITH THE PRINCIPAL'S COMPUTER BECAUSE HE WANTED A NEW PLACE FOR HIS CAR WAS SO ARZT. I had missed Leslie, lol. Win to the alt just for this.

7. Anyway, relevant to the plot thing: Roger said that he had gone to the Dharma initiative and to the island but that he and Ben came back to the real world, which brings me to the following conclusions:

a) this Ben is what Ben would have become if he hadn't been brought to the temple and the Oceanic 815 people hadn't arrived in the seventies, which leads me to believe that the bomb did work because otherwise I can't explain it;
b) working for Dharma gives you cancer when you leave the island (opposite to, idk, Rose who was healed when she arrived there).

It probably might be important. I still need to figure it out though.

8. Conclusion: I'd have liked Ben a lot better if he hadn't been brought to the Temple. I can't dislike him in the alt, dammit. Even if he does have that lingering creepy-ness to him. If next time he talks about the French revolution I'll be happy, but then again Napoleon arrived after the French revolution, so..

9. BEN'S PRINCIPAL WAS IN DIE HARD. Brb, having a laughing fit.

Team we all live in a yellow Widmore submarine

10. WTF WIDMORE WAS THE PERSON COMING BACK TO THE ISLAND????????????????????? Do we have to assume that Jacob meant him two weeks ago?

11. Then again, if Widmore is back, THEN WHERE THE FUCK IS DESMOND?

12. Btw, Widmore's submarine = some of the worst cgi ever.

13. Point is: in S4 I was pissed because I thought this was going to become the Ben and Widmore show.

Now I'd actually be happy if it ended up with Widmore arriving and being like BITCHES, BACK OFF. Hey, at least he isn't a demi-god.

(Even though I still like Jacob. I just do not ever want to see F!Locke ever again, and sadly it isn't the case.)

Ah well.

Team the good, the bad, the psychic and the ugly, or: YOU DIG

14. Ilana is totally the poor men's Clint Eastwood. Sorry, I just go there when anyone mentions digging.

15. At least she's starting to have half a purpose, even if I still don't get why I would care. Even if she provided something amusing, but that's for another section.

16. Miles, never change. You and your peanuts and bananas. Also yay, HE HAD MORE THAN FOUR LINES! Though why the hell did he know about Nikki and Paolo? Did I miss a point last season when they said he did know? And I'm afraid this will be all the acknowledging they'll get this season, not that I mind.

17. FRANK LAPIDUS = PLEASE HAVE A CENTRIC NOW. *swoon* JFC the man is hot. Also his conversations with Ben were delightful. Why isn't he doing anything more than that? WE WANT MORE, DAMN.

18. Good for Sun that she's asking questions. Even though jeez, give her some more to do?

19. The more f!Locke gets around mindfucking people, the more I can't stand him. Also I spent five minutes thinking at Ben that damn, I don't like him, but he's notoriously smarter than listening to f!Locke.

20. Aurgh, the whole conversation between Ben and Ilana was confusing. I mean, while I do appreciate that Ben at least had the grace to acknowledge that it was his fault that Alex died (even with all the stealing) and I could sorta maybe see his point about the whole power deal I really can't buy that in the end he's going with Locke just because no one else will have him, poor baby. I mean, it kind of feels not consistent, considering that we're talking about Mr. Mindfuck and that I spent three years hating his guts, but then again Michael Emerson is good and in the end I freaking was feeling sorry for him, which NEVER happened any other time I think Darlton wanted me to feel sorry for him.

This whole shit is confusing. I can't even hate on him anymore but I don't even want to buy that he's suddenly just looking for someone to give a damn because all you need is love. I mean, IT'S BEN, dammit. I'm feeling like I felt when Sylar suddenly turned out good in Heroes. It was crap and it was OOC and it was mostly WTF and anyway I still liked him better when he wasn't psycho. I'm probably overthinking this but for once I'm glad that f!Locke didn't hit the target, since Ben did go back with Ilana & co. I said that he was too smart for that.

21. THAT LAST SCENE WAS PERFECTION. FINALLY SOME OLD SCHOOL LOST! When I realized they were doing the redux of the 3x16 scene where they all got back to camp with only Richard instead of Juliet I teared up, aw. HUGS! HANDSHAKES! SMILES! HURLEY HUGGING PEOPLE! AWWW. Poor Ben though. He and Richard can hug it out, lol.

Team pirates of the Caribbean

22. Hurley, never change. Really.

23. Uh. Jack and Richard in the Black Rock probably were my favorite scene of the ep. Apart from Richard being obviously pretty, him and Jack in the same scene = always a pleasure.

24. Richard speaking, awwww. It really hit me that now he'd want to die. It does make sense imo, especially with all the speech he had at the end, but awwww.

his boyfriend dying really hit him hard, huh? Also I liked that at least he gave some answers. And hell, I really liked that scene. I vote for a Jack/Richard alliance.

25. Also LOL at Hurley being like 'do you trust him?' and Jack being like 'well, he isn't stalling at least.' I was expecting 'at least he has pretty eyelashes'.

26. So waitwaitwait, serious thing: if Jacob touches you, you can't die? That's huge, duh. Richard can't obviously kill himself (like the whole island deal which wouldn't let you die etc. etc.), Jack couldn't kill himself in the flashforwards, Michael couldn't too (even if he wasn't touched by Jacob I guess? but still, island and stuff), Sayid resurrected even if he was technically dead... I mean, it means that until I'm proven wrong Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Kate, Jin and Sun are immortal...?

Duuuuh.

27. Richard, why so pretty?

Team everything relates to SPN

28. Ilana, this ep: JACOB WAS THE CLOSEST THING I HAD TO A FATHER.

Dean, 4.01: Your name is Robert Steven Singer. You became a hunter after your wife got possessed, and... you're about the closest thing I have to a father.

Excuse me, brb laughing my ass off.

29. Clearly Ben giving Roger healthy stuff is obviously Sam. *snorts*

30. And Roger was back after his SPN stunt this year. God, sometimes I think they really do that on purpose.

In conclusion:

31. After the premiere, this was my favorite episode this season.

It probably also was my favorite Ben episode.

Considering that we're talking about me, it's scary.

32. The American promo for next week has Leonard Cohen playing in the soundtrack. It's probably the thing that leaves me most WTF in the whole thing.

33. NEEDS MORE BOONE.

And Desmond.

That's probably all. ;)