[Finny61]

Correct, what's interesting is that in parallel Ben was on the island still and obviously had not been shot because Sayid was never there so he stayed a good person. Now we are seeing that even though Ben was shot and became a manipulator, traitor, killer, etc he is still on cusp of still being a good person. Even Richard said himself that he could save him when he was shot but he would never be the same and the goodness would be taken out of him. So is Ben special then? Does the death of Alex keep him from becoming a part of Locke's faction?

I thought the episode was great and makes me wonder if the true candidate to replace Jacob is actually Ben.