Spoilers about “The Shape of Things To Come” after the jump.

The execution of Alex, in my opinion, wasn’t necessarily unexpected. It adds to the story by Ben having an emotional vendetta against Charles Widmore. That was brutal and I believe that we have entered a new phase in Lost. We were given some answers but then again, not so much.

Why do I think this? Because “it changed the rules.” Apparently Ben had been following some sort of moral code of some kind. It could be based on time-jumping or even an inner knowledge of how this “war” was to be conducted. Widmore said to him in that creepy scene in dark shadows of the penthouse bedroom that the island was his. I’m still not sure who the bad guy is here.

I do know that lots happened and the episode was compact. Each scene worked. I liked this first post-strike episode. We know there is some time travel going on, or at least I think there is and it could explain also, for lack of a better word, transported polar bears in the Sahara Desert. Was Ben transported there? He obviously had been put through some kind of ordeal when we saw him lying in the desert. And he threw up some nasty stuff which made me think “how did he get there?”

With that said, what do we know now?

Well, we know that Sayid found and lost Nadia.

We know that the smoke monster is still a bad ass but was it controlled by Ben or did it just show up?

We know that Ben didn’t know what year it was at the hotel and had to have it confirmed.

Who would of known that Ben could be Action Jackson? That one was a surprise to me. I like that the accountant looking guy kicked butt actually.

We know that Faraday and his posse is not going to help the losties. But the preview from last week looks like Frank just might be key in helping the Oceanic Six.

We got to see Sawyer be the good guy in helping Claire and Aaron.

We also got to see Hurley be brave by going with Locke and Ben to Jacob’s cabin.

This episode also creates many new theories. When Ben went into his bat cave, was he there to just call Smokey or was he gone for a long time? I don’t know, that seems significant to me.

And why is Locke so important? Has Ben lost some of his mojo with Jacob?

The saddest part of this episode was the execution of Alex. The last words she heard was her father’s bluff which were cutting and cruel. And then he said the sentence as he stood shell-shocked at the window about the rules being changed.

What rules are Widmore and Benjamin Linus following? What changed? And why can’t they kill each other?

Henry Gale stood at the controls of Oz. Is Linus losing control of his Oz?

I guess we will have to wait and see.