Date: 02 Jun 2013 03:46 Title: Chapter 26
Wow, that was a mind bending chapter there. First, let me address the way you captured that awesome “I’m getting married!” vibe with Ethan and Karin. The proposal was sweet, nervous, all mixed up but totally done and Ethan’s reaction to it was utterly priceless. Bounding for joy, out in the corridor screaming out “SHE SAID YES!” is a great celebration. The fact that he forgot to give her the ring, even put it on her, is quite grin worthy but Hoshi’s scene at the end where she tells says the magic has hit again … many, I laughed. Hoshi so rarely got to deliver those one liner zingers in the series, it’s nice she gets to develop them here.
Moving on, we get back to Q and Lili. Q has returned successful and goes about paying the debt he owes her and he pays it to her now by granting her any awesome powers or preventing some future personal tragedy but by showing her how happy a family she had a part of building. Sure, the family is extensive and a bit confusing to the uninitiated but it’s a living thing. It’s not stagnant, it’s not dying, it’s thriving and as Q shows her it thrives on and on throughout the next many hundred years. Her influence, the influence of those she loves, and what they did is somewhat lost as the generations progress but the essence remains … they’re legacy remains.
I thought Lili would ask him to remove all the memories at the end. The various flash-forward sequences all hint at the people knowing about the things she saw but she didn’t exactly tell them it (and I doubt she would have even knowing it). I like that Q left a little something of the experience and that everything is back to normal for her, mostly.
Author's Response:
Yep - there is a tiny nugget there.
Oh, I love writing Ethan and Karin, and have since The Light, and I wanted to give them a culmination. Plus, of course, how do we get Rebecca without this happening first?