Spoilers below!
I’m just going to be upfront and say that with regards to last night’s episode, Whatever Happened, Happened, I was more than a little bit disappointed. In fact, I’m feeling down right “meh” about the whole thing. And I’m not alone. Because for an episode that has the word “happened” twice in the title, virtually nothing happened.
But, here we go anyway. Let’s see if we can make some lemonade.
RECAP
We open up with Jin coming to, and noticing that Mini-Ben is lying flat on the ground looking like he’s shot. Being apparently a lot smarter than Sayid, Jin goes over and checks if Mini-Ben is still alive. And he is! So, instead of cursing the fact that he doesn’t still have his gun on him to finish up the job, Jin loads Mini-Ben into the Dharma van to find him some medical attention.
Meanwhile, the Flaming Dharma Van has been extinguished, and everyone is running around looking busy. Horace is giving out directions and going on about how Sayid has escaped and is responsible for this, when Jack steps in and starts being all Jack, interrupting and asking annoying questions, like how Sayid could set a van on fire when he’s locked up. Horace says, “he had help, dumbass.” Meanwhile, Kate is making friends with Ben’s abusive dad, when Jin comes rolling up in the van and rolls out the shot kid. Ben’s dad looks shocked and distraught, and Kate looks like “oh shit, one of us kicked Ben’s ass again, but now he’s only Mini-Ben which makes me feel a little bit bad about it.”
Then we get a Kate flashback. Kate shows up at the door of Cassidy — you know, Sawyer’s old love interest who he knocked up, conned and left, and the woman who helped fugitive Kate find her mother — to apparently spill about how everything the Oceanic 6 said was a lie. She tells Cassidy about Sawyer, and that he wanted their daughter Clementine taken care of, giving her a big wad of cash. Cassidy is not impressed, convinced that Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter not to save Kate, but to get away from her, which has to do wonders for a person’s self esteem. She also doesn’t buy that Aaron is Kate’s kid, for obvious reasons, and Kate issues a “denial” that actually confirms the suspicion.
Back on the island, we have Kate making trouble, wanting to know if Sayid shot Mini-Ben. We have Sawyer and Horace trying to figure out who let Sayid out, and Sawyer figuring out that it was Mini-Ben by way of the fact that his dad no longer has the janitor’s keys, and Juliet furiously trying to save Mini-Ben’s life, despite the fact that she’s not a surgeon. And we have Jack, Kate and Hurley held under house arrest by Miles, so that they won’t get in the way of Sawyer.
While under lockup, Miles and Hurley have conversations about time-travel, which are hilarious and in my opinion constitute the best part of the episode by far:
I just love how as they go back and forth, they take turns being right. And how their conversations mirror that of so many LOST fans.
Also, it’s really good finally seeing some people on this damn show being concerned with all the crazy shit that’s going on.
Anyway, Sawyer comes to get Jack to save Mini-Ben. Jack flat-out refuses, pointing out that he already saved that asshole’s life once, and look what happened. He also makes note that we know Ben has to live, so Jack doesn’t have to do anything to help out. Kate implores Jack to help anyway, and Jack again points out that he already not only saved Ben’s life once, he did it for Kate. Kate says that she liked the old Jack better, and Jack makes yet another good point, that Kate didn’t like the old him. At the same time, as we watch Jack slowly morph into Locke, and go from Man of Science to Man of Faith in both this scene and his next one with Juliet, I agree with Kate; even as I didn’t like the old Jack, I liked the old Jack better. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?
Kate decides that she’s going to help Juliet save Mini-Ben. She starts out by giving him some blood and talking down Ben’s abusive dad, and then has a conversation with Juliet where they realize that maybe the Others/Hostiles can help. After all, they have quite the affinity for Ben. Kate takes a Dharma van, loads Mini-Ben in the back, and takes off, obviously not concerned that if there are more problems, oops she’s not a doctor.
Another Kate flashback, and we finally see what happened to Kate after she left the docks on the night that Ben tried to convince them to go back. First, she takes Aaron to the grocery store to get a juice box, and there’s a whole pointless scene where she loses him. We start to wonder if this is actually what happened to Aaron, but no. When she finally finds him, it looks like he’s with Claire. That would make this whole scene have a point, and would have been really cool if she was there taking Aaron but then disappeared, but instead it’s just some woman who looks like a slightly older Claire, with too much makeup.
But the otherwise completely pointless incident, that as far as I’m aware happens to virtually every parent at some point, turns into a catalyst for Kate to give Aaron away. Being the blabbermouth that she is, she now goes and finds Claire’s mom, tells her the whole story, too, and gives Aaron to her. The only interesting thing about this is that we find out why Kate went back to the island, and it’s not for Sawyer, as we were led to believe — it’s to find Claire. (Who’s totally dead, Kate, sorry.)
On the island, Juliet confronts Jack as he steps out of the shower with a towel already on (seriously, do people really do this?). She asks “Why did you not help me, you asshole?” Jack says “Because I don’t want to! Also, I’m a Man of Faith, now.” She says “well why did you come back here, you asshole?” He says “to save you, weak little woman!” She says “WE DIDN’T NEED SAVING YOU STUPID ASSHOLE.” And Jack says “but it was my destiny! The island, it wanted me to! And don’t tell me what I can’t do!” And Juliet gets that disgusted look people always get when they talk to Locke, and leaves.
Sawyer heads out to help Kate get Mini-Ben to the Others, and rubs in her face how much he loves Juliet. That’s the only reason he’s saving Mini-Ben, by the way — because Juliet wants him to. Which kind of means that all of the bad stuff that happens as a result of Ben living is conveniently the fault of the women on the island. Unsurprising.
The Others circle Kate and Sawyer once they cross the line, and tell them that they’ve broken the truce. Sawyer says he knows, and to take them to Alpert. Once they find Alpert, he asks incredulously, “Is that Benjamin Linus???” Why yes, it is. Kate asks Alpert to save Mini-Ben. Alpert says he’d be happy to, but Ben will be “changed” if he does. Changed? Yup, he’ll always be an Other. Also, he won’t remember this, which is convenient for the plot hole of why Ben didn’t know who Sayid was. Kate agrees, and Alpert takes Mini-Ben. One of the other Others tries to stop Alpert, saying that he should check with Ellie and Charles, but Alpert doesn’t care. He takes Mini-Ben to the temple — the one that gave Danielle’s crew the sickness.
Then, back to the present. Adult Ben wakes up from the unconsciousness that Sun put him into with her boat oar, and Locke is sitting there waiting. He says “welcome back to the land of the living” and for some reason, Ben looks none too pleased to see him.
QUESTIONS
The reference to Ellie (Eloise Hawking) and Charles indicates a connection between the two, as has been suspected. But what? Brother and sister? Lovers? Are they leading the Others together? And if so, what is Alpert’s role within the Others hierarchy? I always got the idea that he was second in command, but now it’s unclear, both because it was suggested that Ellie and Charles were both above him, and because he said that he doesn’t answer to them.
What does the temple do? It seems to likely be the home of the smoke monster. It also seems to give people a strong loyalty to the island. And I’m guessing, it can also heal people. Is this where the healing power of the island “comes from”?
What exactly will Ben remember? Does he forget Sayid entirely? Even if so, why does he not seem to remember the other Losties? Do they end up leaving Dharma somehow, before Ben is back and well? Or does Ben actually remember all of it, and he’s just been playing along for the whole time? Also, it seems that my idea of Sayid being the one to turn Ben evil was actually more inadvertent than that. The break in trust and being shot seems to not be what turned him evil, but the healing process.
Also, why was Ben surprised to see Locke? Didn’t he know that Locke was going to come back from the dead? Is it just me who assumed this? Although, I guess even if you did have advance warning, it would still be unpleasant to wake up to the man you murdered.
Is Jack going to stop being Locke now that Locke is back around on the show? Is Kate going to start actively looking for Claire? What the hell happened to Daniel Faraday? Because I still really want to know this.
And what the hell is going on with next week’s episode? Something about how Ben came back to the island to be judged — seemingly by the smoke monster. Hopefully, some shit is going to go down.