6.03 - What Kate Does

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.

LA X

First of all, wow. I thought last night was great. There were so many stories going on that I was interested in that two hours didn't feel like nearly enough. Rather than recap last night, I thought I would just do a sort of stream of consciousness with thoughts from last night. For a recap check out Lostpedia.

Alternate Timeline

So this is the new vehicle for this season. We've seen flashback, flashforward, time flash, and now alternate universe flash. I enjoyed a lot of these scenes but am still a little unsure how it fits into the whole story. Perhaps a destiny v. free will thing. Even if the plane never crashed these peoples lives were destined to cross paths. We saw many familiar pairings from the time on the island play out in the alternate universe. To name a few: Kate/Jack, Kate/Sawyer, Sawyer/Hurley, Jack/Locke, Locke/Boone, Kate/Claire.

So, obviously this is meant to be an alternate version of events if the incident never happens, the hatch doesn't get built and the plane never crashes. So what's different? Well apparently in the alternate timeline Jack's "It's not a very strong drink" comment doesn't draw as much sympathy from Cindy, the stewardess, because this time Jack only gets one nip instead of two. He has the same conversation with Rose, but this time Rose is the one calming Jack down ("You can let go now"). Also, Jack's neck is bleeding.

Desmond is on the plane. Probably because his boat never crashed on the island (if he even still entered the race...we aren't sure how far the ramifications of the explosion go). Jack seems to recognize Desmond from somewhere. I figured it was after he said "brother" and we are to assume that they still had their interaction at the stadium. But it could also be a hint at lingering memories from the main time line. Bernard and Rose did not see Desmond. Is he real?

Boone is back in coach rather than first class. Shannon isn't here because she didn't want to get saved from her bad relationship (but really Maggie Grace just couldn't fit it in her schedule). We are left to guess for a bit on Locke and whether or not he can walk or not. He tells Boone he went on the Walkabout and for a while I thought he did. Why did he go on the Walkabout though? In the main timeline he went because Abaddon encouraged him to go. I know he helps people get where they're going, but assumed he worked for Widmore. And now that the island is underwater (!?) why would Widmore be interested in Locke? Perhaps he just went on the Walkabout for other reasons.

Hurley is a lottery winner and his Mr. Cluck's hasn't been destroyed by a meteor (Doc Artz loves Mr. Cluck's). The numbers aren't cursed and Hurley is the luckiest man in the world. I'm not sure about Sawyer. I'm thinking he may not be the same con man, but we'll see. Hurley was an easy mark, and instead he warned him about people taking advantage of him.

Charlie is likely the same drug fiend. I would take it he swallowed the bag of drugs so that he could get them through customs. Jin and Sun are miserable it seems. Claire is pregnant. Frogurt still complains about everything. I didn't notice but on one of the fan sites they noted that Sayid's passport is from Iran not Iraq. Christian's coffin isn't in LA and Oceanic doesn't not know where it is. Locke makes some comment about "how could they know where he is."

I'll be interested to see what they do with this alternate timeline. I like the idea, but again, I want it to mean something, otherwise it's just in there to appease the "bomb changes everything" crowd.

On the Island

The 1977 Losties flashed back to 2007 at the site of the Swan. Sawyer now hates everything about Jack because Juliet is dead. We got some closure on that relationship, and she wanted to tell Sawyer that "It worked." Perhaps she had some connection with the other timeline and knew it worked.

Hurley can see dead people so Jacob tells him that to save Sayid he has to bring him to the Temple. They do and we see where the other group of Others is. Then Pai Mei and Jenny's abusive boyfriend from "Forrest Gump" show up and want to shoot the Losties. Hurley shows him the guitar case with the Ankh from Jacob with the note inside. They scramble to save Sayid by dipping him the water (which isn't clear anymore). Sayid dies. Hurley lets them know Jacob is dead and it's all hands on deck to keep "him out".

Bram and a few of his crew go to try and find Jacob but he's gone. So they shoot Flocke who turns into the smoke monster and kills them. Bram momentarily protects himself with the ring of ash but he is pushed outside of it and killed. Ben is upset that he was used. Flocke tells him that he wants the one thing Locke didn't, "to go home."

I had a friend comment that he hoped this wasn't some God and the Devil kind of thing where the man in black was Lucifer, a fallen angel trying to make his way back into heaven. "He who will save us all" lies in the shadow of the statue, Richard as a sort of guardian angel...I think that would be a bit too spiritual for this show. I could be wrong, but I feel like it would be too tired of a story to retell in such a great series like this. Plus, I think I read somewhere that Darlton said not to be surprised if you switched allegiance between Jacob/MIB a few times before it was all over. I could see that happening. Our natural inclination is to side with Jacob. But in reality we really don't know much about him. He orders the Others to kidnap people, kill people, etc., so who knows. But Flocke is very disappointed in everyone on the beach. The scene with Richard and Flocke was interesting. Flocke mentions that its good to see him without his chains and Richard seems to then realize that Flocke is the MIB which clearly frightens him. Who is Richard? Are they literal chains that he used to wear (he is very old after all) or the figurative chains of serving Jacob? The mention of chains is what seems to cue Richard in to Flocke's real identity. I'm interested to learn more about this.

Back in the Temple Jenny's abusive boyfriend wants to talk to Jack alone and this is not negotiable. Just then Sayid awakes after being clearly dead. Cut to black. So, is this Sayid? Is it Jacob? I mean "Dead is Dead." I have a lot of questions at this point, but I think they are short term questions that will help answer some of the larger questions in short order.

I want to know why the island is underwater and when that happened. How much of the alternate timeline did the explosion change? Is Jacob part of the good guys or the bad guys? I still don't know what Ilana and her crew are up to. Where is home for the MIB? All in all, I was happy with the first episode. I am already anxious for next week, but it's better than eight months. It was a long episode with lots to talk about so if you have something of substance it will probably be better served in a full post rather than in the comments section. If anyone is having problems posting, let me know. I know I missed some stuff so feel free to fill in.

First post and "The Incident"

So, here is how this is going to work. Following each week’s episode this will serve as sort of an open conversation about what we just saw. In the past this was accomplished via email, but in an attempt to join the social media revolution, we thought this would be better accomplished in the form of a blog. It will be easier to share with others and a format that lends itself to adding new voices down the road without having to read endless emails to catch up. So without further ado, I figured I would start this off with some thoughts on last night’s reshowing of “The Incident.”

This won’t be a full rehash, because we already did that at the end of last season, but rather some new questions/thoughts that I had upon my third viewing of the season 5 finale. So I think I will just list them as bullet points. Feel free to respond to any an all.

- My thoughts on “the loophole.” In retrospect this is a little too simplistic, but the rules (whatever they may be) prohibit them from killing each other (similar to Ben not being able to kill Widmore in “The Shape of Things To Come”). I think part of the deal also requires that everyone have free will. Jacob stresses a few times about having a choice (both to Hurley in the cab and to Ben before he is killed) so they must have to manipulate the people on the island while at the same time leaving them with a choice. Nobody sees Jacob unless Jacob asks to see them or in the case of Flocke, if you demand that Richard take you. Apparently Richard is the only one who knows where Jacob is (technically Flocke knows where Jacob lives, but he can’t very well just lead Ben there or he’ll blow his cover). Only the leader gets to see Jacob, and presumably they have picked their leader well, so it would be difficult to imagine a leader killing Jacob. Which is why Flocke comments that “you have no idea what I’ve had to go through to be here.” Here is a rough shot look at how Flocke came to be in the position he was. The only reason Richard paid any attention to the idea of Locke being their leader is because Locke marched into their camp in 1954 with the compass that Richard gave him in 2007. And Richard only gave him that compass because Flocke told him to. He visits John off the island three times and finds him to be unremarkable. His belief in John seems strengthened by Jack’s ringing endorsement in 1977. Jack begins to have his sudden change of heart about Locke after Locke mentions that his father said hello. I think that Christian is a form taken by the smoke monster who is also the Man in Black, but that theory is for another post. If that is correct, the Man in Black is responsible for Jack beginning to believe which is in turn responsible for making Richard believe in Locke. Now, for some reason Locke can’t be killed on the island so to kill him and then take his form, the Man in Black needs to get Locke off the island, make sure he is killed off island, and then have his body transported back. Richard tells John that he must go back and bring all of his friends back to the island and that he is going to have to die (this was on direct orders from Flocke). His death is confirmed by Christian down by the frozen donkey wheel (“That’s why it’s called a sacrifice”). After all of this is accomplished, all he has done is take the form of the leader and ensured himself access to Jacob. But he still can’t kill Jacob. Luckily for Flocke, Ben will do whatever he says because Alex (again, I think the smoke monster/MIB in the form of Alex) told him he had to. This doesn’t really seem like a loophole though. The loophole is having someone else kill each other? Seems too simple to me. I think it may be a little more complicated than this, but this is what I have now.

- Ilana. What is her deal? She comes up with the cover story about bringing Sayid back to face justice for his murder in the Seychelles, but really her and her clan are trying to get to the island, presumably because the war is coming, and Jacob has asked for help. Presumably the only way to get back to the island is with as many of the original passengers on board, and since Sayid was out at this point, this was the only way to make sure he was coming back. But this goes against the “you have a choice.” I won’t lose sleep over it though. I take it that her riddle (“What lies in the shadow of the statue?”) is meant to distinguish friend from foe. If they knew that Jacob resides in the shadow of the statue, wouldn’t they have gone there first before going to the cabin? Also, what’s the deal with the cabin? She was really upset to find out that he hadn’t been there in a while and that “someone else has been using it.” She then orders that it be burned to the ground. It clearly has some special purpose or else there wouldn’t be a need to burn it.

- We probably could have guessed this was it for Juliet. Hers is the only flashback where Jacob doesn’t feature (granted, he wouldn’t because he didn’t bring her to the island, but the Others did). It gives us a quick excuse for why she wants to end things with Sawyer even though she loves him. I thought the ending was heartbreaking, but we’ll see what happens this season with Kate.

- Speaking of, this episode just confirmed how much I dislike Kate. Sure she’s hot and everything, but I don’t know if she has any redeeming qualities about her.

KATE: “Jack is on his way to blow up a hydrogen bomb.”

SAWYER: “Why the hell would he do that?”

KATE: “Does it matter!? We have to stop him.”

Just that kind of attitude really grinds my gears. She has the same attitude with Rose later when she mentions the bomb and Rose says, “So what?” Kate acts all incredulous and responds, “Excuse me?” Like her cause is the most important thing in the world. I hope she ends up alone. I’m currently watching season 4 and she is no more likeable in that season either.

EDIT: I meant to include this in my Kate rant. I saw an interview with Evangeline Lilly and her Canadian accent is so thick, I can't take her seriously. It completely detracts from her attractiveness. I'm actually pretty impressed with how she is able to completely mask it on the show.

-I thought the Bernard and Rose scene was stupid. I know that people wanted some closure on them after the flaming arrow attack but can we just agree that they are Adam and Eve and leave it at that?

-Finally, I’m of the thought that Miles was right. The hydrogen bomb is the incident. Whatever happened, happened. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. Daniel Faraday was always going to try to detonate the bomb to save Charlotte. This caused him to storm the camp to find his mother, who was always going to shoot him. This would cause her to take up his cause to change things with the bomb. They always went to the temple to get the bomb and they always blew up the swan. It’s not the full Jughead bomb, and it was detonated deep underground, so it makes sense that it wasn’t a catastrophic event that wiped out the island. I mean Chang always loses his hand, so everything up until that point has always happened. It doesn’t make sense that all of a sudden they could change things. Now, how this plays into the proposed new narrative device that has been leaked I don’t know. There have been a lot of pictures leaked from sets which include many of our heroes going about their lives as though the crash didn’t happen. The first episode is called LA X (with the interesting space between the A and the X) so I think it will have something to do with flight 815 landing safely. But it can’t be that simple. It is too much of a cop out and would nullify 5 years of story as well as leave us with lots of hanging questions (like what’s going to happen with Jacob now dead). I’m not sure how they’ll work this device into the show, but it should be interesting. With that, I’ll sign off.

Thoughts, questions, comments?