Quote Originally Posted by nikvoodoo View Post
I may be in the minority, but it wouldn't bother me if Marcus was dead. Yes, he was the big shot when we got to the Colony but by Marcus trying to make Michael his number 2, Marcus set in motion the chain of events that caused his own downfall. Maybe I'm just used to things like this happening in tv and movies that I've seen where people die off screen and it never gets shown (see MASH).

Seeing Marcus die isn't the important point of the Catalyst chapter. The important part (if you take this all on face value) is that the Colony's command structure is now different and is being run by Gatekeeper. We don't necessarily need to see the change over happen. I agree it leaves the question open ended, which provides the speculation we're indulging in right now, but I don't feel like seeing him die is a priority.

Michael hitting Bixby in the face wasn't a leadership thing. It was protecting his girlfriend who just got zapped with a tazer. Michel back talking isn't anything new. He did that to Burt in the Tower just before he left on the Colony mission. I will grant that he might have realized the differences between the Tower and the Colony, but I feel like having another leader (albeit a poor one) remind him that people die and it happens was more key than the rest of it in my mind. Everything else Michael did inside the Colony was pretty much within his character.
I'm probably wrong, but I'd need to re-listen to hear a bit more of Michael. Ever since his arm got messed up, he wasn't the same.

Again, I 110% see exactly your point. I'm trying to fish for a few reasons to stand on my own just because an off-screen (well... not sure what'd you call it) death doesn't seem very We're Alive. Have we had a character of some importance die in the background yet? Scratch got a death moment, compared to Latch and Durai, he wasn't too big. I'm a Lostie, so it might just be my nature to second-guess any death that's not in your face.

Marcus gone or not is still going to result in Gatekeeper having his rule. The Colony did, inevitably, result in Michael's newfound confidence. We can both agree to that. As brought up in We're Not Dead, what particular motives would Gatekeeper have to pursue the Tower? Marcus would be the only one who could fuel a charge, in my eyes (ears?). After his monologue in part 2, I thought he'd have some more importance in an eventually confrontation.