So I will say up front that this episode didn't really do it for me. I think that is probably because it came on the heels of four of the most exciting hours Lost has had so far combined with the fact that Kate is my least favorite character. With that said, it was a new episode, so lets dive in.
Alternate Timeline
Kate hijacks the cab, steals Claire's purse, and kicks her out of the cab. After getting her cuffs removed she sees the picture of a preggers Claire and some baby stuff. She has a change of heart and somehow tracks Claire down at a bus stop. She offers to drive Claire to the house of the couple who is going to adopt her baby. At the house, the woman's husband left her, her life is falling apart, and she can't take Claire's baby anymore. Kate yells at the woman and Claire starts having contractions. Is Kate going to deliver Claire's baby again? Kate brings Claire to the hospital where we find that her doctor is Ethan Goodspeed.
Here is where I could use some help on the timeline. In "The Incident," Dr. Chang evacuates all women and children from the island. I presume this would include Amy and Ethan. But later he is seen living with The Others. Did he leave the island and come back? Or did he never leave in the first place? If he never left in the first place, this would point to the fact that the bomb is not the immediate cause of the island sinking, because Ethan would have been on the island, and we see him alive in 2004 AT. If he left the island, the bomb may still be the cause as Ethan would have been off the island by then. We will have to see if any of our other characters from 1977 who were on island when the bomb went off show up in the 2004 AT (Ben, Richard, Ellie, Widmore).
Anyway, Ethan offers Claire drugs to stop the baby from coming, but he doesn't want to stick her with needles unless he needs to (contrast with the multiple attempts to inject Claire on the island). The baby's heartbeat goes flat and Claire wants to know what's wrong with Aaron?! It was like she already knew the name. Fate. She covers for Kate when some officers come asking and then gives Kate her credit card to help her our. Kate thinks Claire should keep the baby (and so does Richard Malkin...Claire, take a hint).
Original Timeline
Lennon hurries to tell Dogen that Sayid is alive. They seem concerned and want to speak with him alone. Jack doesn't like this idea, because Jack is hell bent on ruining everyone's lives. Rob McElhenney (Aldo) is back and apparently still alive. Sawyer starts shooting and wants to leave. Dogen says he really must stay. Sawyer leaves anyway. Kate, seeing an opportunity to continue her role as the island whore, says that she can track Sawyer and bring him back because she can be very persuasive when she has to be (translation: I will have sex with him). Jin goes with Kate.
Sayid is strapped down in Dogen's lab area and subjected to a series of "tests." The first involves putting ash on him, the second is electrocuting him, and the third is burning him with a hot poker. He reacts exactly the way I would react if I were being tortured but apparently he failed the test. When Jack finds out that Sayid was tortured he storms off to see Dogen and Lennon. They explain that Sayid is "infected" and he must take a pill with medicine. Sayid can't be forced to take the pill, he must take it willingly (free will working here) so Jack must ask him to as his friend. Jack takes the pill to Sayid and Sayid says that he trusts Jack and will take the pill if Jack says to. While the entire audience realizes that there is something wrong with Sayid because "dead is dead" Jack can't seem to get out of his own way and decides not to give Sayid the pill.
Jack goes back to see Dogen and they have some discussion about why he uses a translator when he can speak English. Dogen explains that it keeps a barrier between the leader and those he is in charge of so that they will accept difficult decisions that he has to make even if they don't like them. Sounds a lot like how Jacob ran things. Dogen was "brought" to the island just like everybody else and Jack really should "know what he means." Jack demands to know what is in the pill but Dogen insists that he has to trust him. Jack, again makes the wrong choice (I'm not sure the last time Jack made the correct choice...perhaps free will is wasted on Jack) and swallows the pill which turns out to be poison. Luckily Dogen is a master of kung fu and is able to get Jack to spit it up. He explains to Jack that there is a darkness in Sayid and if it spreads to his heart he will lose everything that they previously knew of him. Jack wants to know how they know this and it is because the same thing happened to his sister (Claire).
Out on the search party we run into a trip wire that Kate assumes must be put there by Rousseau. But Rousseau has been dead for years, this must be a trap put here by...shut up Justin! Who is this mysterious person planting traps in the jungle? Aldo reminds Kate that she tricked him with the old Star Wars switcheroo and then knocked him out with the butt of a rifle. Kate proceeds to repeat this with the butt of her pistol. The trap springs and knocks Justin out. Kate and Jin separate and Kate reveals that she isn't bringing Sawyer back but just wants to find him and be with him. Juliet hasn't been dead for a day and Kate smells blood in the water. Kate finds Sawyer who is back at his house in Dharmaville crying. They share a moment on the dock about Juliet and how Sawyer was going to ask her to marry him. He throws the ring in the water. Some people are just meant to be alone. Single tear.
Back in the Jungle, Aldo and Justin meet up with Jin and Aldo wants to kill Jin. Jin runs away and is caught in a bear trap (which should probably have cut his foot off). Just as Aldo is going to shoot Jin, crazy infected Claire comes to the rescue to shoot Aldo and Justin. What did Justin ever do? He didn't want to shoot Jin, that was all on Aldo. Poor guy. Jin says, "Claire?" and we get a look at what Claire looks like after three years in the jungle. She seems to pause for a moment in recognition and we cut to black.
Thoughts
All in all I didn't think it was a really exciting episode. I don't mind the character driven episodes but I just couldn't really get into it. Maybe I am too biased against Kate. We got nothing from the Flocke/Richard group, which was a little disappointing but I think the previews for next week, "The Substitute," made it look like we will get some more answers on that. The infection that Sayid has, I assume, is the same one that infected Robert, Lacombe, and Brennan (Rousseau's science team). They got it after entering the Temple so maybe the smoke monster has something to do with it. Sayid's body was "claimed" according to Lennon. I'll be interested to see how the rest of the Losties take the news. Hurley clearly will not be rational about it and will side with Sayid. I didn't get too much out of the flash sideways but maybe I wasn't watching very closely. I'll be interested to hear from others and maybe it will jog some other thoughts I have.
UPDATE: Apparently Damon Lindelof does not like that I wasn't a big fan of last night's episode. I promise to try and not piss him off in the future. I don't think I would fall into the category of people calling this episode "filler," but I think they have raised people's expectations perhaps unnecessarily high. I mean there is a whole season left to tell the story and ABC keeps promoting it as the final episodes of the series where all the answers are coming. I think after LA X people were ready for some more answers and the episode gave us fairly little on that front. Season one was a lot of backstory and character driven. I loved season 1. But I watched it in like 2 days. It's hard, I think, waiting a week between episodes, especially when people are so excited for answers. Like I said, I didn't hate the episode, it just didn't do it for me.
