Who Cares What Kate Does?

Ah, the dreaded Kate episode. Not much happens, there are a few too many longing glances, and Kate is a crazy manipulator on the run. Nothing new here! Like the song says, "Meet the new boss/same as the old boss"

At the end of season three I wasn't sure Lost could keep my attention - how much more could we learn about the pasts of these characters? If I saw one more Jack or Kate episode, I was ready to quit watching! Then, the producers did something brilliant and it felt like the entire show had flipped on its axis - we were watching a flash forward!! How did they get off the Island and what's been happening since? Why does Jack say they have to get back?

Well, season four answered those questions. Season five kept me going with some really interesting time travel stuff, plus an exploration of the DHARMA folk. And so we come to season six. I don't care about Kate in the regular time line, why would I care about sideways universe Kate?!? I should point out here that contrary to what I said last week, the Losties have not landed in a pocket universe. The producers are adamant that this not be considered an inferior reality.

"And we don’t use the phrase “alternate reality,” because to call one of them an “alternate reality” is to infer that one of them isn’t real, or one of them is real and the other is the alternate to being real." - Damon Lindelof

Not sure that really explains anything, but there you go. The producers want their cake and wanna eat it too, I guess.

Anyway, this episode did move into some good stuff. Yes, we're back to the Losties being held by the Others. It's all a bit "season three" but there's a big helping of season one in there, with just a twist of new.

Sayid sits up and can talk to the Losties, saying he doesn't remember anything since being shot back at the Barracks. Is it just me, or does Sayid's voice sound different? Softer, and the accent is different. Lennon runs to Dogen to give him the news - and Dogen clutches that necklace he wears. Some kind of protection?

Back in the Temple everyone is overjoyed to see Sayid. Well...not quite everyone. Sawyer is pissed that his love is dead, but a torturer and would-be child killer gets another chance. And Miles is still seeming wary. Last week Miles looked as though he was disturbed by Sayid's corpse - either "dead" Sayid wasn't saying anything to Miles, or he said something that creeped Miles out. Now he seems a little freaked out by the fact that Sayid is moving and talking. And it's not just a zombie thing.

Dogen wants to get his hands on the newly revived Sayid. Sawyer just wants the hell out of here and he'll kick anyone's ass who tries to stop him! Yeah boy! I was really excited to see angry Sawyer this season, and Josh Holloway continues to deliver. As Sawyer flees (with Miles, Kate and Others on his tail) Dogen gets his crack at the torturer.

Sayid is run through a series of tests that seem tailor made to detect the Smoke Monster, and it seems like he passes. The ash contains the Monster somehow. I loved the hand powered generator! I'd bet it operates on a frequency that disrupts the Monster's physical form. The glowing hot poker...well I don't get that either. He feels pain? But the real kicker is that Lennon says Sayid did not pass these tests at all! I was wrong - that's not Jacob in his body. But I don't think it's the Monster using his form either...

Now we come to my least favorite part of the episode (except for every scene with Kate, natch.) The Others Comedy Relief Team! Aldo and Justin were just too wacky, and the use of Rob McElhenney was the very definition of Stunt Casting. These guys goofing around destroyed a lot of the mystique they've built up around the Others. It was cool that the guard from Room 23 came back, and remembers Kate busting him in the chops. Not cool that they had to trot it out and hit us over the head with it, and then somehow Kate drops him with a quick back hand from a canteen. Eddy and Adam trying to be a bit too cute with their writing.

I did love the bit where Jin says, "What do you care about Kate?" Kate has absolutely no answer - we know that Kate just cares about Kate. She tries to continue stringing along both Jack and Sawyer in this episode, and Sawyer just wasn't having it. Some people felt like Kate was hit with a realization at the dock - how she'd screwed things up with Sawyer and how bad she felt about it. Me, I just see Crazy Kate trying to use tears to get Sawyer interested in her again. This character is only happy when everybody loves her, and she's the center of attention.

Meanwhile in the sideways universe a bunch of nonsense is happening. This all seems like a bunch of useless detail, when I'd much rather get back to Richard and Fake Locke. Kate's still on the run, and somehow convinces Claire to come along with her, after holding her up at gunpoint. Seriously, why would Claire go with Kate? Then Kate claims to be innocent, and you can just see the ridiculous smirk on her face when Claire believes it. For the record - Kate X didn't kill her father, she accidentally killed an innocent plumber and went on the run.



Claire tells Dr. Goodspeed her baby's name is Aaron. To Kate she says, "I don't know why I said it. I just knew it." I was thinking, "Uhhh, you mean the writers told you?" Once again, too cutesy from Eddy and Adam. It is very interesting that Ethan is alive though. We saw him being born on the Island in the 1970's, and his parents met in the DHARMA Initiative, so we can assume that much of the time line is intact. I guess Amy and Ethan (and maybe Horace too?) fled the Island before the Incident, thus escaping being sunk under the ocean. Or something. It's also strange that Claire's ultrasound is dated 10-22-2004; is this an indication that more has changed than we knew, or a simple production error? It's so hard to tell with this show!

Anyway, there's some blah, blah, blah with Kate, but meanwhile Dogen wants to poison Sayid. He tries to get Jack to "just trust" him. He tries to convince Jack that darkness has taken over Sayid. No matter what, Jack isn't buying it and he won't kill his friend. I would guess this turns out to be yet another bad decision from Jack, because he always wants to be in charge - the one to fix things. It kills him to have to tell Sayid he didn't fix him. But is that really Sayid? This is where Sayid's accent seems particularly off (for reference, Naveen Andrews' natural accent is pretty close to Cockney - like a London street kid)



I'm not really sure what to make of it all. It's some kind of struggle between free will and fate. Dogen tells Jack that Sayid must take the pill of his own free will. Sayid looks pointedly at Jack and says, "If you want me to take it, I will." I guess it's Jacob and his Nemesis, debating whether these people are controlled by destiny or still retain choice over their fates. I still can't quite figure out the stakes.

There's definitely a war brewing, but in this episode more than Jacob vs. The Man in Black, it seems like some kind of crazy face off between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Everyone who dies on the Island and isn't put to rest according to the Others' funeral rites may be taken over by a dark force. This is apparently what happened to Claire.

While the other Losties were hopping through time, Claire has been living on the Island and fighting with the Others for the past three years. Some kind of stand in for Rousseau, if we're to believe the much too cutesy writing. Anyway, much like Miles' reaction to Sayid in this episode, he tipped me off that something was odd with Claire. I don't think Claire could have survived the RPG explosion that destroyed her Barracks house way back in episode 409 "The Shape of Things to Come". Miles has a special connection with the dead, and after Claire is carried into a room, she emerges all wobbly:

SAWYER: You all right, sweetheart?
CLAIRE: Yeah, a bit wobbly, but, uh, I'll live.
MILES: Well, I wouldn't be too sure about that.

After she died, Claire wandered out and joined Christian in the cabin. It would seem that once the ring of ash was broken, the Smoke Monster gained access to the Cabin. Jacob fled to the Statue and Christian/Smokey set up shop, using the opportunity to trick John Locke into believing Jacob was talking to him. Good thing Ben never really saw Jacob, or the jig would be up! This is how the Man in Black found his loophole.

So, if we are to believe Dogen, if one dies on the Island and proper procedure isn't followed, a darkness will grow inside you. Once it reaches one's heart, all that one was will be gone. It seems this has happened to Christian Shephard and Claire...and is now happening to Sayid. But the Losties have been brought here for a reason.

I loved the moment with Dogen and Jack, talking about leadership, responsibility and giving people orders that they might not like but are in their best interests. Dogen tells Jack he arrived on the Island because he was "brought here, like everyone else." "What do you mean brought here?" "You know what I mean", says Dogen. I think he means Jacob.

Whew. Still a lot to be sorted out here. Why has Claire become a stand in for Danielle Rousseau? Are the forces of darkness lead by The Man In Black/Smoke Monster/John Locke, or an even bigger bad guy? What to make of the themes of death and references to Egyptian mythology? How far back in time does MIB's plan extend and what's he after? Did he appear as Ben's dead mother, to convince Richard that Ben might be a candidate for the Others, so Ben would someday be leader but have a crisis of faith and leave the Island in the hands of John Locke? Was MIB killing Jacob, or just starting the next phase of their dual existence? When the Smoke Monster says he wants to go home, where does he mean? (Many say the Temple, but my money's on outer space. Seriously!)

Next week has a lot of promise. "The Substitute" features Fake Locke/The Nemesis and, I guess, some flash sideways for Terry O'Quinn who always brings the awesome. Anything but another Kate episode!