Spoilers below the image!
This week on LOST, we got a bit of a break from the confusion and excitement of the season premiere. In What Kate Does, Kate helped Claire with her pregnancy in one timeline and followed Sawyer out into the jungle in the other, while the newly-alive Sayid was tortured and “diagnosed” back at the temple.
And for an episode in which not a whole lot happened, we had an awful lot to say! Leave your own thoughts and theories in the comments (while remembering no spoilers for upcoming episodes!).
Alright, first things first. What did you think of the episode?
CARA: I have to say, that with an episode title like “What Kate Does” — especially in light of the the Season 2 episode “What Kate Did” being a really great one — I expected that Kate might actually do something, particularly something of significance and importance. And especially after a few seasons of Boring Kate, I was hoping we might get Badass Kate back. Instead, what Kate “did” is what she always does: follow people she was told not to follow, and be a softhearted fugitive. My expectations were pretty high, and then I felt like we got what more or less amounted to a filler episode.
SADY: What Kate does is, Kate follows along on other people’s far more interesting plot lines. Apparently.
JILL: I interpreted “what Kate does” as “Kate runs away.” Or “Kate runs after people.” As in, this is some commentary on her character. I thought the episode was ok; I was particularly annoyed at the replay of the Sawyer runs away, Sawyer says don’t come after him, Kate follows, Jack tells Kate to be safe, blah blah. Haven’t we seen this exact same exchange about 14 times now? Doesn’t it always end badly? And hasn’t Sayid been tortured about as many times? New drama, please!
LAUREN: Now that you say that, Jill, I’m thinking that “what Kate does” is “the same wherever she is,” answering one of the basic questions viewers have had about the alternate reality. The characters we know have essential qualities that will be unchanged regardless of their involvement with the island and one another.
So, in the flash sideways, Kate and Claire are BFFs.
LAUREN: See, I know they’re supposed to “know” each other thanks to all this time they shared in another life (“brutha”), but if someone in handcuffs kidnapped me and hijacked my taxi at gunpoint, I would generally regard that as a red flag.
CARA: Agreed! Things I Would Not Do If I Were Claire: Get in the car with the woman who had just hijacked my cab and kidnapped me at gunpoint, because taking the bus is annoying. But then again, Claire has always been a bit irrational. In any case, I did like seeing two women working together and helping each other. Reminded me of Kate’s other adventure with Cassidy.
SADY: Well, yeah, it was great to see these women together. But I was just not sure about how it painted them both as totally irrational and swayed by the power of Baby. “You kidnapped me! But right now I am concerned about my baby. Will you help me with my baby?” “I have noticed that you are going to have a baby! I will help you, with the baby! We are women. Women care about babies!” That’s how that plot line went, in my own personal head.
I have to say that I thought the appearance of Ethan was particularly well played. What do you think all of the close parallels between the two realities/timelines mean?
LAUREN: I think there is a basic set of events that were “meant” to happen that will happen to the characters in both timelines. Kate was meant to help Claire with her birth. Ethan was meant to be a part of that process. Why? No idea. One thing that was interesting was how upbeat and un-creepy this Ethan was about Claire’s birthing process. Part of what I’m looking out for this season is what other events will be a part of this structure, like, if they make further appearances, whether Charlie, Eko, Ana Lucia, and Boone were meant to die. Also, how the characters we know are affected by the removal of the effects of the island.
JILL: I think that’s about right. The writers have been clear, too, that there’s only one ending — I think each character has some sort of basic life story arc, and they cross over in a few places, and when their lives end, they end. Kate was meant to help Claire with her birth; Boone was meant to follow John; etc etc.
CARA: re: Ethan being un-creepy, I’ve just got to note that Ethan always creeps me out. Ever since his Otherness was revealed when he kidnapped Claire and Charlie, Ethan has always scared the bejesus out of me, and I have a visceral reaction to him. I mean, right after it was revealed that Amy and Horace’s baby was named Ethan I started yelling “KILL IT!!! KILL IT!!!” So him saying that he wasn’t going to hurt Claire? *shudder*
SADY: Yes! Ethan screws me the heck up, just with his face. And although I appreciated the careful parallels, and the implication that no Island = good Ethan, I also started freaking the heck out, going, “no needles! Don’t let Ethan touch you with the needles! NOOOOO, CLAIRE.” (Potential alternate title for this episode: We Disapprove of Claire’s Decisions.)
CARA: Sudden realization! If Ethan is alive and well and practicing medicine off the island, this clearly means one of two things: a) the bomb didn’t cause the split timeline, or b) somehow, the Dharma folks survived a hydrogen bomb going off, as Ethan was on the island cooing in his crib at the time. If it’s the latter, it means that Faraday most likely was born and everything is cool there. If it’s the former … wtf?
SALLY: OMG CARA! I guess this is more evidence for those who think it was something other than Jughead… which I am quickly becoming one of…
LAUREN: Didn’t they women-and-children-first most of the people off the island before the bomb went off?
CARA: They did! But I always assumed that Ethan and Amy had stayed, since Ethan outlived The Purge and went on to join the Others. It seems more likely, anyway, that he stayed than that he left and came back.
LAUREN: Very curious.
Back on the island, Sawyer is understandably distraught, and Kate is predictably unwilling to give him any space.
SALLY: I kept yelling “Kate, just STOP! Pause for a moment!”
CARA: Kate does not understand the concept of “alone time.” Poor Sawyer.
LAUREN: I was really struck by Sawyer’s loss. He and Juliet made a life together on the island, the kind of life he’d never have been able to have on the mainland, and it’s just gone. Kate’s insensitivity to this is pretty appalling.
SADY: Yeah. I also started cracking up when Sawyer told Kate that “some of us are meant to be alone.” Like, “ALONE, Kate. Get it? Meant to be ALONE, without KATE HERE? Like, maybe Kate should LEAVE these people, these people who are meant to be ALONE, so that they can be ALONE AND BY THEMSELVES????”
JILL: I still have a soft spot for Kate, and I think she and Sawyer do have similar personality types and that’s why she keeps trying to misguidedly help him — they’ve both been abandoned and they’re both used to abandoning other people, so it’s important that they’re there for each other, blah blah. But the point where I kind of wanted to slap the writers? When Sayid comes back to life and Kate says to Sawyer, “How is that even possible?” Um… remember how you’re living on an island with polar bears and smoke monsters, and you just returned from the year 1977? Yeah. I think you can suspend disbelief for a moment, sister.
Dogen, the Head Temple Other, says that Sayid has been “claimed” and wants to kill him. He also tells Jack that the same thing happened to Claire. Are we to think that this is “the sickness” that Rousseau was always talking about?
SALLY: I can’t think of anything else it could be. With this news, I firmed up two theories: 1) MIB used Christian’s body the way he’s using Locke’s and 2) when he doesn’t have a dead body to take over, part of his Smokiness gets inside wounded, near-dead people. There are some who say Claire, Sayid & Rousseau’s clan did, in fact, die, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I know Miles got shifty around Claire & Sayid, but I think it’s because he sensed something was going on, not because they were actually dead.
CARA: My theory is that if he does have the sickness, it’s because of the water in the temple. The Others remarked that the water was not clear; presumably, it turned that weird murky brown color because Jacob had died. As it’s believed, based on what happened to Rousseau’s crew, that Smokey is the cause of the sickness, it makes sense that Jacob dying and Smokey taking over did something to the water that made it go from healing to “infectious.”
SALLY: Which makes me wonder – why on earth would they dunk Sayid into the water if it’s normally clear? I mean, really, weren’t they just asking for it?!
SADY: Because they’re EVIL! Is now the appropriate time to bring up my widely-discredited “Jacob and all who follow him are EVIL” theory? Because, you guys, they were all acting really EVIL!
JILL: Maybe I’m a sucker, but I don’t think they’re evil. I mean, that John Lennon-looking guy seems pleasant enough, and the guy from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Kind of a dick, but not EVIL-evil. I think they might be good-ish guys, and I think Sawyer and Kate just effed it up by running.
LAUREN: Well, Jacob told them (via ankh-mail, it’s slower than e-mail but it travels through time) to keep Sayid alive, and we don’t know why yet, so I’m assuming that’s why they put him in the water without knowing whether it would work. I told you guys last week that I was really against the idea of island-zombies, and I know Hurley joked about it in the temple, a writing device Cara mentioned last week, but this is veering very close to zombie territory. I’m pretty sure that if the Others want to take care of this Sayid situation they can avoid the poison and just shoot him in the brains.
JILL: I refuse to believe that this is a zombie issue.
CARA: I also rule out zombies, in no small part because I cannot get behind any theory that involves shooting Sayid in the brains!
LAUREN: Oh c’mon, entertain me for a minute. We’ve got at least two people on the island who were dead, but are reanimated BECAUSE THEY WERE INFECTED! They even used the word “infected!” Just like every good zombie movie from the last ten years. For the record, I’d still lick Zombie Sayid.
SADY: Whatever it is, I just hope Dogen punches the crap out of Jack for being too damn pushy again. In fact, I hope it happens in every episode.
JILL: Seriously, what is with Jack’s Big Macho Man schtick of walking up to giant armed guards and demanding answers? Isn’t it a universal rule of life that when someone has a gun you do not get in their face and make demands? I hope It’s Always Sunny guy punches Jack in the face as soon as he gets back to the temple.
Out in the jungle, one of the Others says that they can’t kill Jin because he’s “one of them.” What on earth does that mean? And did Dogen save Jack’s life from the poison pill because he’s also “one of them”? Is that why he’s so insistent on all of the Losties being at the temple?
SALLY: I think there’s definitely meant to be something special about the Losties. Maybe they’re supposed to stop MIB from taking over? That’s all I’ve got…
LAUREN: Dogen did make some cryptic comments to Jack about “being brought” to the island for some greater purpose, and when Jack denied knowledge of this, Dogen insisted that Jack knew exactly what he meant. Someone needed to call Jack out on his constant denial. His higher purpose is what motivated Jack to bring everyone back to the island — we know they are there for a reason, but I can’t figure out what that reason is. Jacob was really cryptic about this before his death, too, only saying that everything up to “the end” was “progress.” Are they meant to save something physical, like a person or the island itself, or is it something more esoteric, like saving themselves? Are we progressing toward a desired outcome for all, or will there be clear winners and losers?
CARA: It’s possible that the Losties were the “they” that Jacob was referring to as he died and said “they’re coming.” The obvious conclusion is that he meant Ilana and her people, but Smokey didn’t seem too put out by them at all, and he did seem very displeased with the prospect of whoever Jacob was referring to. This is of course just a guess; both of these comments were extremely cryptic, and I think it’s possible that they’re related.
And lastly: CLAIRE! She’s not only back, she’s the new Rousseau!
SALLY: I’d like to say that I WAS RIGHT! CLAIRE IS ALIVE BUT UNDER A SPELL! Granted, I said it was a Christian-induced trance, but if my theories above are correct, then I wasn’t that far off because both Christian and Smokey are MIB.
LAUREN: For all the filler in this episode, I think this was the one satisfying thing. The small explanation about what happened to Claire answered so many questions I had about Rousseau’s life on the island and why she was the way she was. It’s ironic, too, that Sayid, who had such a complicated relationship with Rousseau, may be facing her same fate.
JILL: Yes, the end with Claire was glorious. The Rousseau connection is perfect — what with the baby-stealing and the dirty hair and whatnot. I’m also interested to see when we get back to the whole “a psychic told me I had to raise my baby myself” thing with Claire — what happens if she doesn’t raise the baby herself? But if Claire has the sickness, does that mean Rousseau was sick too? I thought she killed her crew because they were sick but she wasn’t. I’m confused.
LAUREN: Rousseau talked about her crew getting “sick”, and during one of the flashbacks last season, Jin (I believe) witnessed her shooting the last of her crew because they were “sick” too. It adds another layer of irony that Rousseau was sick herself, and that the Oceanic team was following around and taking direction from someone who was really, truly unwell, not just an eccentric, loner island lady.
CARA: I don’t think that Rousseau was sick. I’d always assumed that the reason she was not sick was the fact that Jin kept her from going underneath the temple into Smokey’s lair. If Claire is actually sick, I don’t think that her living out in the jungle is a symptom of that. But hey, I could be wrong. I mean, it’s LOST, right?
SALLY: I’m with Cara, I don’t think Rousseau was sick – she couldn’t fit that pregnant belly down that hole.
LAUREN: I’m totally open to criticism on this one, but I thought that because Claire and Rousseau’s jungle habits are virtually identical, because there is clearly a before and after with Claire’s behavior, and this is related in some way to the “sickness” because it’s such a distinct pattern. And you know what? I feel like I know what I’m seeing, and then you all have to point out what show I’m watching. Thanks.
SALLY: Maybe this is supposed to make us think that Claire isn’t actually sick. Maybe there was another way to get the Smokiness out of her heart and she did that? I think the real key to this is to figure out why Claire is alone in the first place. Did she skip through time with the others? Did Christian abandon her once Flocke was on the island (we still don’t know if he can be in two places at once)?
CARA: Well, I’m sure they’ll answer all these questions and more … by the time the series is over. Maybe!