Feb 10, 2010

What Kate Does

Season 6 continued with "What Kate Does," and it can't be a good sign that one of Lost's creators, Damon Lindelof, was on Twitter last night defending this episode to all the fans who are calling it "filler." Well, it sure did feel like filler, but that comes with the high expectations that fans have for the show and now that its in it's final season, fans think every episode should be loaded with answers. Like most Lost episodes, this one will need to be revisited and put into context of the entire season. But taken on face value, "What Kate Does" was not one of Lost's better efforts.

Flash Sideways Story
The hardest thing fans are dealing with this season is what to make of the sideways story. After investing 5 years in the lives of the 815 survivors, there's a worry that the past five seasons were all for not. With only a handful of episodes left, fans are worried about investing in this new timeline. How will this be resolved? What's it got to do with the island story we known and loved? Does this tie into the on-island events? These are all concerns that hurt the new story-telling device.

Then there's the slight alterations from the original time line. Things like Hurley being lucky or Sayid's passport saying he's from Iran. Sure these new mysteries are interesting, but I'd rather work on the established story and not a new one.

This week's off island story continued Kate being on the run. We see what happened just after she jumped in the cab with Claire. We got confirmation that Claire is pregnant with Aaron and got to see the "family" that she was giving Aaron up for adoption. Turned out that it wasn't anyone we already knew and the woman's husband had just left her, adding more fuel to the fire that Claire is supposed to raise Aaron, even in the new reality.

So then Claire goes into labor and Ethan Goodspeed is her doctor, they stop the labor, she names him Aaron, she and Kate become friends and everything is fine. Wait, what? Ethan made it off the island (or was he ever there in this new time?) and is a legitimate good-guy doctor? Is there more to it than that? Are the Others still influencing things in the new time or is Ethan just a regular doctor? And using the name Goodspeed instead of Rom? We never found out why he used Rom in the first place, but add another mystery to list now.

Speaking of mysteries, Claire's ultrasound date was Oct. 22, 2004, a month after the original timeline with Oceanic 815 crashing on the island. While these mysteries are fun little tidbits to those who closely follow the show, there's still that bit of "does it matter?" associated with them. Until we get proof that the new timeline affects something in the on island time line, these flash sideways stories are going to frustrate.

The Infection
Sayid is alive, yet he's determined to be infected after a series of torturous tests. Dogen tries to get Jack to give him a pill, but it will only work if Sayid takes it willingly (of course). Only after Jack decides to take the pill himself do the Others confirm its poison. The only way they can describe Sayid's infection is that a darkness has taken over him and once it hits his heart, everything that they knew of Sayid will be gone ... just like Jack's sister.

Now, here's where we can make inferences, which usually gets you in trouble regarding Lost, but let's go there anyway. Sayid got infected with this darkness after dying. Claire was also infected, so she must have died when the mercenary group blew up New Otherton. She seemed fine, but ended up leaving Sawyer, Miles and Aaron to go with Christian (more on him in a second). So Claire died, but seemed alive since she was infected. Who else has died by also seemed alive on the island? Ah yes, Jack's dad Christian. So can we safely say that the same thing that Sayid's going through is the explanation for Christian being alive on the island?

What is this darkness anyway? Is it tied to Man in Black? Is this the reason why dead people on the island need to be buried or sent out to sea Viking funeral style? and is this the "sickness" that has been talked about for so long? When Rousseau's team was infected with the sickness, was this the same thing?

As far as Sayid is concerned, what's going to happen to him? Will he become a zombie? Is this all part of Man in Black's plan or is this something separate from the Jacob/Man in Black feud? So many questions, yet so few episodes of Lost left.

Claire?
Speaking of Claire, her infected self finally made an appearance on the island, after being AWOL last year. Wonder if she went through the timeflashes too? I guess Kate should have stayed with Jin, since her goal is supposedly to find Claire anyway. Jin did a pretty good job of that about 5 minutes after leaving Kate. So what's going on with Claire. Is she the island's new Rousseau? The Others, including Aldo (remember him? He's the Other who fell for the old Wookie in handcuffs trick when Sawyer and Kate rescued Karl from Room 23), debated whether the traps they came across could be Rousseau's, even though she'd been dead for years. Turns out, Claire has taken up Danielle's bid to booby trap the island.

So what has Claire been up to all this time? Where's Christian? Has she been living with him? What contact have the Others had with her, as Dogen knew what happened to her? Will she even remember Jin or is too much of the original Claire now gone?

Running Kate and Grieving Sawyer
I may have liked the Kate on the run and Sawyer grieving Juliette storyline the least. Why wouldn't Kate want to help Jin find Sun? That seemed out of character for her to have this new, one-track mind of finding Claire. Of course she's running, that's what she does, but why choose to abandon Jack and company at the Temple to be with Sawyer? Something about her this episode seemed out of character. I don't know if it was her telling the Others that she can be very convincing or her just abandoning everyone else or the refusal to help Jin. Just seemed a bit off to me.

Regarding this new grieving Sawyer ... I hope he gets over Juliette soon. Don't get me wrong, I understand his grieving, but we've seen characters lose someone they love before on the island and they usually turn that grief into a rage to get answers or accomplish something. Sawyer is going back to New Otherton and sulk. It was sad to learn that he was going to propose to her and that he now blames himself for not letting her leave the island, but Sawyer's character had grown so much and for him now to go back to being self centered felt like a step back.

Who are the good guys?
It seems like the first episodes of season 6 are starting to plant the seed for the audience to ask, who really are the good guys? We've been lead to believe that Jacob is good and Man in Black is evil, but what if its backwards? Is Man in Black really the one trapped, and Jacob is the chessmaster in this game? Are the Others on the right side in this battle? Just something to ponder as we move forward.

Other tidbits:
  • Dogen said that he was brought to the island like everyone else and that Jack knows exactly what he means. So what does he mean? Why are the 815 survivors so important and why were they brought to the island? Why do the Others feel they have to protect them?
  • What is Dogen typing on the typewriter, and why does he have a baseball?
  • How do the Others know so much and why don't they just tell the 815ers what's going on?
Here are some other takes on "What Kate Does"
Next on Lost: "The Substitute"

*Photos from GetLostPodcastMedia.com
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