Here are the results of the Day 1 Votes.
Congrats to the Winners
Best Episode
The End - 56.8%
Ab Aeterno - 20.5%
Happily Ever After - 7.6%
My Choice - The End
Best Flashback/Flashforward(s)
Ab Aeterno - 43.9%
The End - 24%
Happily Ever After - 12.7%
My Choice - Ab Aeterno
Worst Flashback/Flashforward(s)
What Kate Does - 65.8%
Recon - 11.5%
Across The Sea - 5.6%
My Choice - What Kate Does
Best Title
Ab Aeterno - 27%
What They Died For - 18%
The End - 14%
My Choice - The End
Worst Episode
What Kate Does - 65.4%
Recon - 13.4%
Across the Sea - 7.7%
My Choice - What Kate Does
Showing posts with label What Kate Does. Show all posts
Showing posts with label What Kate Does. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Spoiler Accuracy Thread
One of our users, BookhouseBoy, from the Forum, has started to compile a couple of interesting threads.
These threads take a look back after an episode has aired and looks at all the spoilers that were posted for it and how much we knew and how accurate our spoilers have been. Thankfully so far it's been pretty damn good ;). All our sources for example all rated What Kate Does as the lowest rated episode out of the 8-9 episodes that they had seen, and this appears to have been the consensus of the fans if you look at the current polls/episode table.
Take a look at threads below. We'll be updating this each week so that those of you who do not follow spoilers can see what was spoiled about the episodes that have aired.
Episode 6.01/6.02 - LA X
Episode 6.03 - What Kate Does
Episode 6.04 - The Substitute
Episode 6.05 - Lighthouse
Episode 6.06 - Sundown
Episode 6.07 - Dr. Linus
Episode 6.08 - Recon
Episode 6.09 - Ab Aeterno
Episode 6.10 - The Package
Episode 6.11 - Happily Ever After
Episode 6.12 - Everybody Love Hugo
Episode 6.13 - The Last Recruit
Episode 6.14 - The Candidate
Episode 6.15 - Across The Sea
Episode 6.16 - What They Died For
Episode 6.17/6.18 - The End
These threads take a look back after an episode has aired and looks at all the spoilers that were posted for it and how much we knew and how accurate our spoilers have been. Thankfully so far it's been pretty damn good ;). All our sources for example all rated What Kate Does as the lowest rated episode out of the 8-9 episodes that they had seen, and this appears to have been the consensus of the fans if you look at the current polls/episode table.
Take a look at threads below. We'll be updating this each week so that those of you who do not follow spoilers can see what was spoiled about the episodes that have aired.
Episode 6.01/6.02 - LA X
Episode 6.03 - What Kate Does
Episode 6.04 - The Substitute
Episode 6.05 - Lighthouse
Episode 6.06 - Sundown
Episode 6.07 - Dr. Linus
Episode 6.08 - Recon
Episode 6.09 - Ab Aeterno
Episode 6.10 - The Package
Episode 6.11 - Happily Ever After
Episode 6.12 - Everybody Love Hugo
Episode 6.13 - The Last Recruit
Episode 6.14 - The Candidate
Episode 6.15 - Across The Sea
Episode 6.16 - What They Died For
Episode 6.17/6.18 - The End
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
What did Dogen say?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Episode 6x03 What Kate Does Recap - Kate by Anna
Hey All,
Late yesterday Anna posted her recap of last week's Episode 6x03 What Kate Does, but with all the chaos of last night's episode we never got it posted here. I am sure most of you want recaps for last night's wonderful episode, but this is still a good read!
Enjoy!
I sincerely apologize for the delay getting this out to you all. Although I can’t time travel (yet) as I’d like to, I suppose it’s better late than never!
INTRO: Bad Idea
While it may not have been the myth-busting explosion of answers many LOST fans are now eagerly anticipating (and expecting) in this sixth and final season, the third episode “What Kate Does” offered up quite a decent helping of surprises. For the most part the revelations were strictly personality-based. Character-development has always been one of LOST’s strengths since the series premiered, and it is what originally kept me glued to the screen with the need to learn more about each of the survivors’ lives. (OK, ok, the monster noises kept me watching even more...I won’t deny it!) But honestly, historically speaking I have never been a huge fan of the Kate-centric episodes.
Now before any “boos” and “hisses” start flying my way, it is important for me to note that this is not because I always consider the story of Ms. Austen to be what is referred to as “filler”, though we have had a handful of episodes in past seasons that may have fit this bill. Her life on and off the Island has had its share of complexity, emotional turmoil, and total excitement. We all know that Kate and running are like polar bears and fish biscuits. She has demonstrated a strong will to survive no matter what, and a tenacity that has for the most part remained unmatched by any of the other female roles in the show. And of course, Kate has had a severe fondness for getting into all kinds of trouble, with or without a firearm in tow.
I’m just not really a fan of her character’s personality overall, and even though I tend to steer clear of persecuting her in my recaps, snide comments are often going off at a rapid-fire pace secretly inside my head. Please also know my view has nothing to do with Evangeline Lilly’s acting. She’s handled this complex, self-motivated role with true professional style. At times there are even echoes of Sigourney Weaver’s “Ripley” in regards to her strength. Ms. Austen has had some truly amazing moments where my respect for her character has unexpectedly been raised up a level. But in my opinion, overall she just isn’t the most likable person there is in the LOST universe.
With that being said, the new timeline is offering Kate a lot of potential, and I must say that this episode was an exception to my usual view of her story. I definitely enjoyed the unfolding tale of how she handled herself in this installment, especially in relation to Claire, and towards the end actually found myself wanting more.
Twin Falls
When we last left Kate at LAX, she was, surprise (!) running from that darn Marshall Mars again in a cab she hijacked with poor Claire already in the backseat. It was great to see David H. Lawrence, if only briefly, as the flustered cab driver. He did a tremendous job even with this minor role, though a small part of me kept hoping he would bust out some superpowers and take control of Kate like he would do as Eric Doyle the “Puppet Master” on NBC’s Heroes. I loved when he frantically bailed out of the cab and left the wheel to Kate.
Is it just me or did that mechanic who helped her lose the “bracelets” look familiar? He reminded me of someone from her past. Wait. This whole Timeline X thing is really messing with my head. I want to refer to Kate’s past flashbacks, but if things have changed then I suppose I can’t necessarily count on knowing her life as before. None of us know really how much of our survivors’ pasts had been altered by the bomb’s explosion and its subsequent “butterfly-effect” through time. Oddly though, not enough changed to keep certain people from meeting and affecting each other’s lives in Timeline X just as they always had in the normal course of events.
For instance, we’ve now seen Kate and Claire team up in both normal time and X-time. Now, logic tells me that Claire would have immediately gotten out of that cab and called the police to report the hijacking and stolen luggage. And even though this is a TV show where small things like this are more than likely left out for the sake of the overall plot, I still want to try to explain it somehow. So perhaps, just as Jack seemed to have a little case of déjà vu on the plane, and just as Kate seemed to recognize Jack on some deeper level as she was escaping the terminal, Claire also had some indefinable knowledge deep down that she and Kate needed to reconnect. Now we can almost begin to draw a parallel line between events on the Island and events in Timeline X. Whereas Kate returns to the Island in 2007 to search for Claire, in 2004 off-Island Kate also loses her, and then returns to find her. Now I’m no Eloise Hawking, but it sure sounds like a little case of the ol’ course-correction to me.
Song for the Dumped
Even in the new timeline it would seem Claire was also meant to keep her baby. This makes me wonder once again about the psychic Charles Malkin, and whether or not he knew the “nice couple in Los Angeles” was going to be a lost cause. Was he just giving Claire false hope by sending her to the states? In our original timeline, he tried to tell Claire that she needed to raise the child on her own, but then later told her he found parents who were “good people” that would adopt her baby. I always wondered if he actually foresaw the plane crash and knew that this would be the only way to force Claire into raising Aaron herself.
Now I am wondering the same thing for Timeline X, and if instead of the crash of Flight 815 Charles saw the couple splitting up, again forcing Claire to be on her own with the child. The other part of this mystery is the fact that Charles told Eko that he was a fake. I’ve always thought that Charles only said that to Eko to get the church to leave his family alone. If you remember, his daughter Charlotte was clinically dead for a brief amount of time when she, much like Sayid, passed through the Other Side during death and was able to communicate with Eko’s dead brother Yemi. To me it seemed the writers were hinting that some kind of ability did indeed run in the Malkin family. Then again, at this point it is hard to know if Claire even went to see the psychic at all in this timeline. However, my thought is that she did, since she had obviously still travelled to the states to meet the people in L.A. who were going to adopt Aaron.
Hospital Song
How convenient that the news of that broken marriage sent Claire into labor with Kate right by her side to help out. The fact that Kate risked her own freedom to get Claire to the hospital was one of the moments that made me think better of her character. She was obviously drawn to Claire, as you could see a faint glimmer of recognition when she was searching through Claire’s luggage and found the same type of stuffed whale that Aaron had played with during her time raising him in our “normal” chain of events. Again it seems that these two different timelines overlap and connect in some way. Once more Kate is there with Claire for the birth of Aaron, and even though it was a false alarm, I get the feeling that she will still be there whenever Claire does decide to go through with it. Kate didn’t consciously know why she was holding Claire’s hand during the ordeal, why she was drawn to this total stranger, and why she immediately cared for her well-being. Claire didn’t consciously know why she started calling her child Aaron, as she said it just came to her.
I was totally surprised to see our old friend Ethan as Claire’s doctor once again. He seems like a much gentler, well-adjusted person in the new timeline. There was a great moment when he mentioned how he didn’t wish to stick a bunch of needles into Claire if he didn’t have to which directly corresponds to the episode “Maternity Leave” where we saw him do that very thing. I also noticed that his last name was Goodspeed instead of Rom. This is interesting and makes me ponder what happened on the Island in our normal timeline that gave him a different last name than his parents. My best guess is that right before the incident Horace sent Amy and baby Ethan off-Island via the submarine, just as Dr. Chang had ordered. It is possible that once on the mainland she either reverted to using her maiden name, which could have been Rom, or she remarried someone else with the name. At some point Ethan may have been recruited by the Others to return to the Island as their go-to doctor/fix-it man. Of course I could be wrong about all of this, and I am hoping at some point this little bit of missing info from the story comes back into play.
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Back in the regular timeline on the Island, Sawyer was staging his own great escape. At that point he was pretty much of the mindset that he was going to leave the Temple and the Others were going to have to shoot him to stop him. What was most interesting to me was the fact they let him go without much of a fight. I was under the impression that Jacob needed the entire party to stick around, at least while the Lockeness Monster was roaming about. Perhaps if Dogen and the gang had not been so stingy with their secrets and explained better why our survivors were so important, Sawyer would have potentially seen things a little differently. The again, the man was so bitter and grief-stricken he still probably still wouldn’t have cared.
I did love how Kate acted as if she had some kind of say in the situation. It’s evident that she under-estimated Sawyer’s deep love for Juliet, and up until this point she had been speaking to him in ways that might make one think she believed he still held the torch for her. You could see her self-confidence rear up as she pulled out one of those classic hurt puppy looks that she keeps tucked away for when she wants a man to do something for her. She called his name as if she expected him to just drop everything. It was oh-so-excellent to see this quickly stifled by Sawyer’s determination to leave, and lack of concern for Kate and her attempt to stick her nose into his plan.
Satan Is My Master
At the same time, I couldn’t be happier than I am to see Miles and Hurley continuing to serve as the comedic duo of the bunch. With Sayid recovering from his adventure through the Underworld, Jack moping in the corner like a kid in time-out, and Sawyer seeing the world through funeral-colored glasses, we needed a little levity, and these two have steadily provided it. The first thing that gave me the giggles was Miles’ way of catching Sayid up with the latest developments. He says as sarcastically as humanly possible, “Yeah, and as you can see, Hugo here has assumed the leadership position, so…that's pretty great.”
Yeah Miles, it IS pretty great! If there is anyone in the group who can be counted on to be a just leader, it’s Hurley. Sure he’s no firearms expert, and he won’t be winning any shootouts. No, he can’t break a man’s neck with a swipe of his ankles, either. But give the man a DHARMA van, and he’ll run you down like nobody’s business.
In essence, Hurley is basically the most selfless character on the show. If we put aside his early issues with the Hatch food pantry way back in season 2, we can say that he has consistently demonstrated the desire to help others and he has done all he could do in the attempt to make them happy. Hurley has done everything from building a golf-course in order to alleviate post-crash depression, to putting his own reputation on the line to try and help Sawyer become accepted by the group during his more anti-social days on the Island.
Everyone else, whether they are “the good guys” or not, only too often make decisions motivated by their own demons and desires. Meanwhile Hurley is the most genuinely caring and giving of anyone on the entire show. I could definitely see him as the one leader out of all of them who is likely to make decisions purely based on what’s fair, what’s safe, and perhaps even what’s fun. How ironic it is that his own life is plagued with so much “bad luck”. He is really just a good soul through and through.
Not at all like, say, a zombie! The fact that the LOST writers take the time to include little winks to the hardcore fan base is one of the reasons why I love the show so very much. But I never would have guessed we would get such a straight-forward shout-out to the now legendary Zombie Season. This is what fans refer to when discussing the prospect of yet another year of the show where all of the characters who have died in the past are brought back to life, as zombies of course. Sayid’s blank expression and deadpan delivery of the answer to Hurley’s inquiry made me literally fall over in my seat, “No…I am not…a zombie”. I am still giggling about it even as I write this, as it was worth a few rewinds just to re-watch this little exchange.
Selfless, Cold and Composed
It’s a good thing Dogen performed his little experiment on Sayid in private, or else Hurley for one would have had another major protest about how the Temple Others were treating our beloved Iraqi. Ah, how the Life and Death of Sayid Jarrah overfloweth with irony. Besides the whole Sayid-shoots-Ben, Sayid-gets-shot-by-Ben’s-dad coupling, we’ve now had the former torturer laid out on a table reminiscent of his time spent in captivity by Rousseau and witnessed him on the receiving end of one very strange, painful ordeal.
What kind of voodoo did Dogen do, anyway? POOF! A little cloud of black powder was spread over Sayid’s abdomen. ZAP! A healthy jolt was provided from old-school electro-shock therapy. SIZZLE! Some hot-poker action was administered to scorch his side. Sayid screamed and pleaded for Dogen to explain why he was being treated like a lab rat, yet Dogen just remained entirely silent the whole time. I for one am growing tired of Dogen’s consistent lack of dialogue, as well his bedside manner leaves something to be desired. It matters to me not that there is an immediate threat that was driving his actions. I am getting quite impatient in the long wait for this man of what appears to be both science and faith to give us some straightforward answers.
Smoke
Thank goodness Jack felt the same way. It’s about time someone really stood up and demanded to know what all the secrecy is about and why in Jacob’s name they felt the need to torture poor, dear Dead but Here Sayid. Dogen then attempted to play the “redemption card” against Jack as he knew that Sheppard was feeling a tad guilty about all the bad decisions he had made while on the Island. Just like Richard’s crew, these Others seemed to know everything about our survivors, and did not hesitate to use this information to manipulate and motivate them towards some still unknown goal.
But Jack really shined in this part of the episode as he debated whether or not to have Sayid take the pill that Dogen had whipped up in his little garden of herbal delights. His usual stubbornness is now being channeled towards learning exactly what these Temple folks are all about. It really shows how far Jack has come from his earlier days of needing to blindly take charge of every situation in an attempt to “fix things”. He now seems much more humbled and accepting of his shortcomings. At the same time, recent events (i.e. Jughead) seem to have given him a new attitude, and he longer just allowed the new Others to make demands of him without giving him a reason. Jack has always been a brave fellow, but he kicked it up a notch when he decided to call Dogen’s bluff and swallow the pill intended for Sayid. I believe we have a new Sheppard catch-phrase in the form of, “I don't trust myself. How am I supposed to trust you?”
Indeed it was a shock to learn the pill was poison. However, Jack’s move forced Dogen to reveal his intentions and we finally learned why he had been “diagnosing” Sayid. Of course what we received was pretty much the same type of vague, partial explanation that LOST usually provides us, as it only brought about more questions.
Sayid had been “claimed”, but now we must ask, claimed by who? The most obvious choice would be the Monster in Black. For one thing, Dogen’s test reminded me of ways in which the Monster operates. During the torture scene, it appeared that he covered Sayid with black ash, which we now know the Monster expresses an aversion to. In addition, the Monster seems to have some type of electrical static charge as it moves around the Island. This is reminiscent of the electric-shock portion of Dogen’s investigation. Finally, at this point it is safe to say the Monster uses the dead, typically by taking their form and speaking through them to manipulate our survivors. So does this mean that when a person dies on the Island (or arrives dead) the Monster has the ability to “infect” them somehow and either brings them back to life or take control of their body for his own purpose? Another question I have is in regards to the time it takes for the “darkness” to take effect. What takes it so long?
And why on earth did Dogen say that Jack’s sister Claire was also filled with this “darkness”? My thoughts on this in a bit.
Don't Change Your Plans
Meanwhile Kate, Jin and two Others named Aldo and Justin were on a little jungle adventure of their own. Kate once again used her master manipulation skills to convince the Others that she could bring Sawyer back to the Temple. Most of this part of the episode was a bit annoying and predictable to be honest. Actually, perhaps it was just the Aldo character.
I’ve heard a lot of people in the LOST fan community express a fondness for Aldo, who we first met back in season 3 at the Hydra station. However, I found these scenes to be too over-the-top, especially Rob McElhenney's acting. I did however enjoy his description of the Monster to Kate, as “a big pillar of black smoke, makes a tikka-tikka sound, looks pissed off”. But as far as the rest of this part of the story went, it was just meh. For one thing, Aldo’s disdain of Kate was not portrayed as very realistic, but instead was bordering on comical. And really, it’s just ridiculous to me that he was so willing to just shoot Kate and Jin when the Others were supposedly trying to protect them all.
The character of Justin was by contrast very likable and reasonable. He saved Kate from a giant rock-filled trap only to then be knocked out by it himself. He actually tried to answer questions even though he was consistently quieted by Aldo. Justin even attempted to calm Aldo’s trigger-happiness by reminding him that Jin is “one of them”. I am guessing he means the special ones from Jacob’s list, as in the group that Jacob personally touched and brought to the Island to fulfill a purpose that we still have not learned. It was unfortunate that his fate was the same as Aldo’s, as they were both shot dead in the end.
Regrets
The best part of the episode (besides the mention of zombies) was also the most emotional. Lately it seems that every time something major happens to Sawyer’s character I get the pleasure of being amazed by Josh Holloway’s portrayal of his reaction. In one of the most heart-wrenching moments ever on LOST, we learned that Sawyer had been planning to propose to Juliet. I don’t know what Holloway was channeling to bring himself to tears in this scene, but it was extremely convincing. As he sat with Kate and cried we learned that he actually took that blame for Juliet’s death by asking her to stay on the Island instead of letting her take off after it had been moved.
Without saying it in words, I believe he was letting Kate know that it was his sadness from losing her that was directly related to his need for Juliet’s comfort after he had dived off of the helicopter. Whether or not Kate got the hint, Sawyer was definitely more than direct in letting her know that he really didn’t want her around the barracks at that point, and suggested that she immediately head back to the Temple before nightfall.
Best Imitation of Myself
Of course the major shocker came in the form of the first appearance of Claire on the Island since season 4. At this point it would appear that she has taken the same type of role as Danielle Rousseau once had. This is another woman who lost her baby and has been forced to survive in the jungle alone with a gun and some clever traps. How she managed to get a giant net full of rocks up into the trees is a mystery, but perhaps when you have been claimed you have a little extra strength and stamina. I suppose now the questions are why and how she is also infected with the same darkness that is apparently taking over Sayid.
In my article on season 4’s episode “Something Nice Back Home” I explained Claire had more than likely been killed by the explosion when the freighter people blew up her home or she possibly died shortly thereafter. The last she was seen by any of our survivors was when Miles saw her walking off into the jungle with the form of Christian Sheppard. We can now look at this scenario in a new light, for if Christian was the Monster in human form, then we might have a reason to believe that this is when Claire was claimed. It makes more sense now, and explains why Aaron was left behind in the jungle. Claire is no longer herself, as many of us already had noticed when she showed up again in “Cabin Fever”. It is almost as if the Monster collects the dead, but the reason has yet to be revealed.
It is even stranger to me that she is just left to live in the woods on her own, that is, unless she has been given a certain task by her new master. For example, she may be protecting the Island in the same way that Rousseau’s crew was after their encounter with the Monster. They all came out from that hole in the Temple wall looking the same, but with a new purpose. Either way, it will be interesting to see what Claire is like now and how she treats her fellow Flight 815 passengers, if she even remembers them.
Mess
By the end of the episode we had witnessed several situations which seemed to serve the purpose of splintering the plot a bit. Sawyer went off on his own. Jin left to search for Sun but then ran into "Claire Rousseau”. Kate is also somewhere in the jungle, and we have two groups of Others on different sides of the Island. This is most definitely a set-up, and I predict the next few episodes will involve a scenario where everyone makes their way towards a major re-grouping and subsequent face-off with the Lockeness Monster.
It was nice to see Kate’s character develop a bit more, as the long-standing issue of her constant indecision between Jack and Sawyer has finally been resolved. I am sure there are some very disappointed ‘shippers’ out there who have been waiting for many seasons to see Sawyer & Freckles become a real couple. This chapter has been given some closure, which is probably for the best. It is a much better fit for Kate’s current state of mind, as the only guy that Kate has truly and consistently seemed to love has actually been Aaron. This is what motivates her now, and I really am excited to see her and Claire finally reunite no matter how much “darkness” Claire is filled with at this point in time.
In essence this installment was not as Kate-centric as some of her episodes have been, but instead was much more balanced. If anything, it was somewhat Claire-centric as well. Overall I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that “What Kate Does” was filler. Instead, to me it seemed like the necessary pause before a much deeper conversation. I for one am looking forward to the discussion to come.
a.N.
fourtoedfoot.com
*I write about LOST because I love the challenge of deciphering the clues and adding the pieces together. My thoughts are based solely on the show and random research, as I try to avoid spoilers, promos, and even future episode titles. I love to guess what is going on, but I also like to do so in a way that leaves some of the conclusions still up to you. I do not know the answers and am often wrong. Whatever the truth turns out to be, it has been the journey that has been the most meaningful to me.*Posted By: The ODI
Late yesterday Anna posted her recap of last week's Episode 6x03 What Kate Does, but with all the chaos of last night's episode we never got it posted here. I am sure most of you want recaps for last night's wonderful episode, but this is still a good read!
Enjoy!
I sincerely apologize for the delay getting this out to you all. Although I can’t time travel (yet) as I’d like to, I suppose it’s better late than never!
INTRO: Bad Idea
While it may not have been the myth-busting explosion of answers many LOST fans are now eagerly anticipating (and expecting) in this sixth and final season, the third episode “What Kate Does” offered up quite a decent helping of surprises. For the most part the revelations were strictly personality-based. Character-development has always been one of LOST’s strengths since the series premiered, and it is what originally kept me glued to the screen with the need to learn more about each of the survivors’ lives. (OK, ok, the monster noises kept me watching even more...I won’t deny it!) But honestly, historically speaking I have never been a huge fan of the Kate-centric episodes.
Now before any “boos” and “hisses” start flying my way, it is important for me to note that this is not because I always consider the story of Ms. Austen to be what is referred to as “filler”, though we have had a handful of episodes in past seasons that may have fit this bill. Her life on and off the Island has had its share of complexity, emotional turmoil, and total excitement. We all know that Kate and running are like polar bears and fish biscuits. She has demonstrated a strong will to survive no matter what, and a tenacity that has for the most part remained unmatched by any of the other female roles in the show. And of course, Kate has had a severe fondness for getting into all kinds of trouble, with or without a firearm in tow.
I’m just not really a fan of her character’s personality overall, and even though I tend to steer clear of persecuting her in my recaps, snide comments are often going off at a rapid-fire pace secretly inside my head. Please also know my view has nothing to do with Evangeline Lilly’s acting. She’s handled this complex, self-motivated role with true professional style. At times there are even echoes of Sigourney Weaver’s “Ripley” in regards to her strength. Ms. Austen has had some truly amazing moments where my respect for her character has unexpectedly been raised up a level. But in my opinion, overall she just isn’t the most likable person there is in the LOST universe.
With that being said, the new timeline is offering Kate a lot of potential, and I must say that this episode was an exception to my usual view of her story. I definitely enjoyed the unfolding tale of how she handled herself in this installment, especially in relation to Claire, and towards the end actually found myself wanting more.
Twin Falls
When we last left Kate at LAX, she was, surprise (!) running from that darn Marshall Mars again in a cab she hijacked with poor Claire already in the backseat. It was great to see David H. Lawrence, if only briefly, as the flustered cab driver. He did a tremendous job even with this minor role, though a small part of me kept hoping he would bust out some superpowers and take control of Kate like he would do as Eric Doyle the “Puppet Master” on NBC’s Heroes. I loved when he frantically bailed out of the cab and left the wheel to Kate.
Is it just me or did that mechanic who helped her lose the “bracelets” look familiar? He reminded me of someone from her past. Wait. This whole Timeline X thing is really messing with my head. I want to refer to Kate’s past flashbacks, but if things have changed then I suppose I can’t necessarily count on knowing her life as before. None of us know really how much of our survivors’ pasts had been altered by the bomb’s explosion and its subsequent “butterfly-effect” through time. Oddly though, not enough changed to keep certain people from meeting and affecting each other’s lives in Timeline X just as they always had in the normal course of events.
For instance, we’ve now seen Kate and Claire team up in both normal time and X-time. Now, logic tells me that Claire would have immediately gotten out of that cab and called the police to report the hijacking and stolen luggage. And even though this is a TV show where small things like this are more than likely left out for the sake of the overall plot, I still want to try to explain it somehow. So perhaps, just as Jack seemed to have a little case of déjà vu on the plane, and just as Kate seemed to recognize Jack on some deeper level as she was escaping the terminal, Claire also had some indefinable knowledge deep down that she and Kate needed to reconnect. Now we can almost begin to draw a parallel line between events on the Island and events in Timeline X. Whereas Kate returns to the Island in 2007 to search for Claire, in 2004 off-Island Kate also loses her, and then returns to find her. Now I’m no Eloise Hawking, but it sure sounds like a little case of the ol’ course-correction to me.
Song for the Dumped
Even in the new timeline it would seem Claire was also meant to keep her baby. This makes me wonder once again about the psychic Charles Malkin, and whether or not he knew the “nice couple in Los Angeles” was going to be a lost cause. Was he just giving Claire false hope by sending her to the states? In our original timeline, he tried to tell Claire that she needed to raise the child on her own, but then later told her he found parents who were “good people” that would adopt her baby. I always wondered if he actually foresaw the plane crash and knew that this would be the only way to force Claire into raising Aaron herself.
Now I am wondering the same thing for Timeline X, and if instead of the crash of Flight 815 Charles saw the couple splitting up, again forcing Claire to be on her own with the child. The other part of this mystery is the fact that Charles told Eko that he was a fake. I’ve always thought that Charles only said that to Eko to get the church to leave his family alone. If you remember, his daughter Charlotte was clinically dead for a brief amount of time when she, much like Sayid, passed through the Other Side during death and was able to communicate with Eko’s dead brother Yemi. To me it seemed the writers were hinting that some kind of ability did indeed run in the Malkin family. Then again, at this point it is hard to know if Claire even went to see the psychic at all in this timeline. However, my thought is that she did, since she had obviously still travelled to the states to meet the people in L.A. who were going to adopt Aaron.
Hospital Song
How convenient that the news of that broken marriage sent Claire into labor with Kate right by her side to help out. The fact that Kate risked her own freedom to get Claire to the hospital was one of the moments that made me think better of her character. She was obviously drawn to Claire, as you could see a faint glimmer of recognition when she was searching through Claire’s luggage and found the same type of stuffed whale that Aaron had played with during her time raising him in our “normal” chain of events. Again it seems that these two different timelines overlap and connect in some way. Once more Kate is there with Claire for the birth of Aaron, and even though it was a false alarm, I get the feeling that she will still be there whenever Claire does decide to go through with it. Kate didn’t consciously know why she was holding Claire’s hand during the ordeal, why she was drawn to this total stranger, and why she immediately cared for her well-being. Claire didn’t consciously know why she started calling her child Aaron, as she said it just came to her.
I was totally surprised to see our old friend Ethan as Claire’s doctor once again. He seems like a much gentler, well-adjusted person in the new timeline. There was a great moment when he mentioned how he didn’t wish to stick a bunch of needles into Claire if he didn’t have to which directly corresponds to the episode “Maternity Leave” where we saw him do that very thing. I also noticed that his last name was Goodspeed instead of Rom. This is interesting and makes me ponder what happened on the Island in our normal timeline that gave him a different last name than his parents. My best guess is that right before the incident Horace sent Amy and baby Ethan off-Island via the submarine, just as Dr. Chang had ordered. It is possible that once on the mainland she either reverted to using her maiden name, which could have been Rom, or she remarried someone else with the name. At some point Ethan may have been recruited by the Others to return to the Island as their go-to doctor/fix-it man. Of course I could be wrong about all of this, and I am hoping at some point this little bit of missing info from the story comes back into play.
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Back in the regular timeline on the Island, Sawyer was staging his own great escape. At that point he was pretty much of the mindset that he was going to leave the Temple and the Others were going to have to shoot him to stop him. What was most interesting to me was the fact they let him go without much of a fight. I was under the impression that Jacob needed the entire party to stick around, at least while the Lockeness Monster was roaming about. Perhaps if Dogen and the gang had not been so stingy with their secrets and explained better why our survivors were so important, Sawyer would have potentially seen things a little differently. The again, the man was so bitter and grief-stricken he still probably still wouldn’t have cared.
I did love how Kate acted as if she had some kind of say in the situation. It’s evident that she under-estimated Sawyer’s deep love for Juliet, and up until this point she had been speaking to him in ways that might make one think she believed he still held the torch for her. You could see her self-confidence rear up as she pulled out one of those classic hurt puppy looks that she keeps tucked away for when she wants a man to do something for her. She called his name as if she expected him to just drop everything. It was oh-so-excellent to see this quickly stifled by Sawyer’s determination to leave, and lack of concern for Kate and her attempt to stick her nose into his plan.
Satan Is My Master
At the same time, I couldn’t be happier than I am to see Miles and Hurley continuing to serve as the comedic duo of the bunch. With Sayid recovering from his adventure through the Underworld, Jack moping in the corner like a kid in time-out, and Sawyer seeing the world through funeral-colored glasses, we needed a little levity, and these two have steadily provided it. The first thing that gave me the giggles was Miles’ way of catching Sayid up with the latest developments. He says as sarcastically as humanly possible, “Yeah, and as you can see, Hugo here has assumed the leadership position, so…that's pretty great.”
Yeah Miles, it IS pretty great! If there is anyone in the group who can be counted on to be a just leader, it’s Hurley. Sure he’s no firearms expert, and he won’t be winning any shootouts. No, he can’t break a man’s neck with a swipe of his ankles, either. But give the man a DHARMA van, and he’ll run you down like nobody’s business.
In essence, Hurley is basically the most selfless character on the show. If we put aside his early issues with the Hatch food pantry way back in season 2, we can say that he has consistently demonstrated the desire to help others and he has done all he could do in the attempt to make them happy. Hurley has done everything from building a golf-course in order to alleviate post-crash depression, to putting his own reputation on the line to try and help Sawyer become accepted by the group during his more anti-social days on the Island.
Everyone else, whether they are “the good guys” or not, only too often make decisions motivated by their own demons and desires. Meanwhile Hurley is the most genuinely caring and giving of anyone on the entire show. I could definitely see him as the one leader out of all of them who is likely to make decisions purely based on what’s fair, what’s safe, and perhaps even what’s fun. How ironic it is that his own life is plagued with so much “bad luck”. He is really just a good soul through and through.
Not at all like, say, a zombie! The fact that the LOST writers take the time to include little winks to the hardcore fan base is one of the reasons why I love the show so very much. But I never would have guessed we would get such a straight-forward shout-out to the now legendary Zombie Season. This is what fans refer to when discussing the prospect of yet another year of the show where all of the characters who have died in the past are brought back to life, as zombies of course. Sayid’s blank expression and deadpan delivery of the answer to Hurley’s inquiry made me literally fall over in my seat, “No…I am not…a zombie”. I am still giggling about it even as I write this, as it was worth a few rewinds just to re-watch this little exchange.
Selfless, Cold and Composed
It’s a good thing Dogen performed his little experiment on Sayid in private, or else Hurley for one would have had another major protest about how the Temple Others were treating our beloved Iraqi. Ah, how the Life and Death of Sayid Jarrah overfloweth with irony. Besides the whole Sayid-shoots-Ben, Sayid-gets-shot-by-Ben’s-dad coupling, we’ve now had the former torturer laid out on a table reminiscent of his time spent in captivity by Rousseau and witnessed him on the receiving end of one very strange, painful ordeal.
What kind of voodoo did Dogen do, anyway? POOF! A little cloud of black powder was spread over Sayid’s abdomen. ZAP! A healthy jolt was provided from old-school electro-shock therapy. SIZZLE! Some hot-poker action was administered to scorch his side. Sayid screamed and pleaded for Dogen to explain why he was being treated like a lab rat, yet Dogen just remained entirely silent the whole time. I for one am growing tired of Dogen’s consistent lack of dialogue, as well his bedside manner leaves something to be desired. It matters to me not that there is an immediate threat that was driving his actions. I am getting quite impatient in the long wait for this man of what appears to be both science and faith to give us some straightforward answers.
Smoke
Thank goodness Jack felt the same way. It’s about time someone really stood up and demanded to know what all the secrecy is about and why in Jacob’s name they felt the need to torture poor, dear Dead but Here Sayid. Dogen then attempted to play the “redemption card” against Jack as he knew that Sheppard was feeling a tad guilty about all the bad decisions he had made while on the Island. Just like Richard’s crew, these Others seemed to know everything about our survivors, and did not hesitate to use this information to manipulate and motivate them towards some still unknown goal.
But Jack really shined in this part of the episode as he debated whether or not to have Sayid take the pill that Dogen had whipped up in his little garden of herbal delights. His usual stubbornness is now being channeled towards learning exactly what these Temple folks are all about. It really shows how far Jack has come from his earlier days of needing to blindly take charge of every situation in an attempt to “fix things”. He now seems much more humbled and accepting of his shortcomings. At the same time, recent events (i.e. Jughead) seem to have given him a new attitude, and he longer just allowed the new Others to make demands of him without giving him a reason. Jack has always been a brave fellow, but he kicked it up a notch when he decided to call Dogen’s bluff and swallow the pill intended for Sayid. I believe we have a new Sheppard catch-phrase in the form of, “I don't trust myself. How am I supposed to trust you?”
Indeed it was a shock to learn the pill was poison. However, Jack’s move forced Dogen to reveal his intentions and we finally learned why he had been “diagnosing” Sayid. Of course what we received was pretty much the same type of vague, partial explanation that LOST usually provides us, as it only brought about more questions.
Sayid had been “claimed”, but now we must ask, claimed by who? The most obvious choice would be the Monster in Black. For one thing, Dogen’s test reminded me of ways in which the Monster operates. During the torture scene, it appeared that he covered Sayid with black ash, which we now know the Monster expresses an aversion to. In addition, the Monster seems to have some type of electrical static charge as it moves around the Island. This is reminiscent of the electric-shock portion of Dogen’s investigation. Finally, at this point it is safe to say the Monster uses the dead, typically by taking their form and speaking through them to manipulate our survivors. So does this mean that when a person dies on the Island (or arrives dead) the Monster has the ability to “infect” them somehow and either brings them back to life or take control of their body for his own purpose? Another question I have is in regards to the time it takes for the “darkness” to take effect. What takes it so long?
And why on earth did Dogen say that Jack’s sister Claire was also filled with this “darkness”? My thoughts on this in a bit.
Don't Change Your Plans
Meanwhile Kate, Jin and two Others named Aldo and Justin were on a little jungle adventure of their own. Kate once again used her master manipulation skills to convince the Others that she could bring Sawyer back to the Temple. Most of this part of the episode was a bit annoying and predictable to be honest. Actually, perhaps it was just the Aldo character.
I’ve heard a lot of people in the LOST fan community express a fondness for Aldo, who we first met back in season 3 at the Hydra station. However, I found these scenes to be too over-the-top, especially Rob McElhenney's acting. I did however enjoy his description of the Monster to Kate, as “a big pillar of black smoke, makes a tikka-tikka sound, looks pissed off”. But as far as the rest of this part of the story went, it was just meh. For one thing, Aldo’s disdain of Kate was not portrayed as very realistic, but instead was bordering on comical. And really, it’s just ridiculous to me that he was so willing to just shoot Kate and Jin when the Others were supposedly trying to protect them all.
The character of Justin was by contrast very likable and reasonable. He saved Kate from a giant rock-filled trap only to then be knocked out by it himself. He actually tried to answer questions even though he was consistently quieted by Aldo. Justin even attempted to calm Aldo’s trigger-happiness by reminding him that Jin is “one of them”. I am guessing he means the special ones from Jacob’s list, as in the group that Jacob personally touched and brought to the Island to fulfill a purpose that we still have not learned. It was unfortunate that his fate was the same as Aldo’s, as they were both shot dead in the end.
Regrets
The best part of the episode (besides the mention of zombies) was also the most emotional. Lately it seems that every time something major happens to Sawyer’s character I get the pleasure of being amazed by Josh Holloway’s portrayal of his reaction. In one of the most heart-wrenching moments ever on LOST, we learned that Sawyer had been planning to propose to Juliet. I don’t know what Holloway was channeling to bring himself to tears in this scene, but it was extremely convincing. As he sat with Kate and cried we learned that he actually took that blame for Juliet’s death by asking her to stay on the Island instead of letting her take off after it had been moved.
Without saying it in words, I believe he was letting Kate know that it was his sadness from losing her that was directly related to his need for Juliet’s comfort after he had dived off of the helicopter. Whether or not Kate got the hint, Sawyer was definitely more than direct in letting her know that he really didn’t want her around the barracks at that point, and suggested that she immediately head back to the Temple before nightfall.
Best Imitation of Myself
Of course the major shocker came in the form of the first appearance of Claire on the Island since season 4. At this point it would appear that she has taken the same type of role as Danielle Rousseau once had. This is another woman who lost her baby and has been forced to survive in the jungle alone with a gun and some clever traps. How she managed to get a giant net full of rocks up into the trees is a mystery, but perhaps when you have been claimed you have a little extra strength and stamina. I suppose now the questions are why and how she is also infected with the same darkness that is apparently taking over Sayid.
In my article on season 4’s episode “Something Nice Back Home” I explained Claire had more than likely been killed by the explosion when the freighter people blew up her home or she possibly died shortly thereafter. The last she was seen by any of our survivors was when Miles saw her walking off into the jungle with the form of Christian Sheppard. We can now look at this scenario in a new light, for if Christian was the Monster in human form, then we might have a reason to believe that this is when Claire was claimed. It makes more sense now, and explains why Aaron was left behind in the jungle. Claire is no longer herself, as many of us already had noticed when she showed up again in “Cabin Fever”. It is almost as if the Monster collects the dead, but the reason has yet to be revealed.
It is even stranger to me that she is just left to live in the woods on her own, that is, unless she has been given a certain task by her new master. For example, she may be protecting the Island in the same way that Rousseau’s crew was after their encounter with the Monster. They all came out from that hole in the Temple wall looking the same, but with a new purpose. Either way, it will be interesting to see what Claire is like now and how she treats her fellow Flight 815 passengers, if she even remembers them.
Mess
By the end of the episode we had witnessed several situations which seemed to serve the purpose of splintering the plot a bit. Sawyer went off on his own. Jin left to search for Sun but then ran into "Claire Rousseau”. Kate is also somewhere in the jungle, and we have two groups of Others on different sides of the Island. This is most definitely a set-up, and I predict the next few episodes will involve a scenario where everyone makes their way towards a major re-grouping and subsequent face-off with the Lockeness Monster.
It was nice to see Kate’s character develop a bit more, as the long-standing issue of her constant indecision between Jack and Sawyer has finally been resolved. I am sure there are some very disappointed ‘shippers’ out there who have been waiting for many seasons to see Sawyer & Freckles become a real couple. This chapter has been given some closure, which is probably for the best. It is a much better fit for Kate’s current state of mind, as the only guy that Kate has truly and consistently seemed to love has actually been Aaron. This is what motivates her now, and I really am excited to see her and Claire finally reunite no matter how much “darkness” Claire is filled with at this point in time.
In essence this installment was not as Kate-centric as some of her episodes have been, but instead was much more balanced. If anything, it was somewhat Claire-centric as well. Overall I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that “What Kate Does” was filler. Instead, to me it seemed like the necessary pause before a much deeper conversation. I for one am looking forward to the discussion to come.
a.N.
fourtoedfoot.com
*I write about LOST because I love the challenge of deciphering the clues and adding the pieces together. My thoughts are based solely on the show and random research, as I try to avoid spoilers, promos, and even future episode titles. I love to guess what is going on, but I also like to do so in a way that leaves some of the conclusions still up to you. I do not know the answers and am often wrong. Whatever the truth turns out to be, it has been the journey that has been the most meaningful to me.*Posted By: The ODI
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Lost Fantasy League- Week 2 Update!
Update: 22:05 Video added
NOTE: The video will be added as soon as it is done processing.
This episode was much easier to score and yet I'm still late in getting the results to you! :-p
"What Kate Does" was a little disappointing for the LFL. The score was high but that's mostly because it was our first double-points episode. It was also very unbalanced. But, it's our second straight 1000+ point scoring episode.
Check out the info below and remember that you can use our Lost Fantasy Team Lookup Table pin down your Fantasy Team's roster. You can also follow me behind the scenes each week by following the LFL on Facebook and Twitter.
If you think we missed anything with the scores, tell us in the comments or by emailing your questions and scoring thoughts to LFLquestions@gmail.com
NOTE: The video will be added as soon as it is done processing.
This episode was much easier to score and yet I'm still late in getting the results to you! :-p
"What Kate Does" was a little disappointing for the LFL. The score was high but that's mostly because it was our first double-points episode. It was also very unbalanced. But, it's our second straight 1000+ point scoring episode.
Check out the info below and remember that you can use our Lost Fantasy Team Lookup Table pin down your Fantasy Team's roster. You can also follow me behind the scenes each week by following the LFL on Facebook and Twitter.
If you think we missed anything with the scores, tell us in the comments or by emailing your questions and scoring thoughts to LFLquestions@gmail.com
ODI LOSTcast 50 - 6x03 Recap and 6x04 Preview
Happy LOST Day!!By now, most of you have probably read our fellow podcast partner Vozzek's home burnt down a couple of days ago. We recorded this podcast with him shortly before this tragic event and we all wish him the best. Luckily no one was hurt and they are currently in a mobile home on their own lawn.
As far as this podcast, Vozzek, Karen and I provided you with our thoughts on Episode 6x03 What Kate Does and we made our case for why this episode was NOT a filler episode.
We discuss all of the off-island ALT time line adventures with Kate and Claire and of course everything on island at the Temple and in the jungle.
At the end of the podcast is a preview of Episode 6x04 followed by a spoilers round up.
This podcast was posted on iTunes yesterday. So don't forget to subscribe to iTunes, but for those of you that do not use iTunes below is a link to an audio player and download link.
http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2010/02/odi-lostcast-50-6x03-recap-and-6x04.html
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Updated Season 6 Episode League Table
For those that have been emailing me, here are the updated Episode League Tables.
Friday, February 12, 2010
"What Kate Does" Recap and Analysis, by Erika
Here is the Episode 6.03 recap from Erika Olson (aka "e") from LongLiveLocke.com.
Let's start off by tying up a few loose ends from the the second hour of the premiere:
1) A huge "Thanks!" to the approximately 1,457 people who reminded me that the gaping hole in the Temple's perimeter was caused by Ben's fall when he was on his way to be judged by Smokey last season...
2)... and that the chick who drowned in Season One was named Joanna...
3) ... and that in Korea, married women often keep their last name, so it might not have been any sort of clue when the security guard called Sun "Mrs. Paik."
Some people also wrote in to say that perhaps Fake Locke's reference to Richard's chains wasn't because Richard was on the Black Rock, but rather because he was originally a slave in ancient Egypt who was brought to the Island by Jacob (hence tying in the multitude of nods to that culture on the show over the years). Others thought the chains were just the metaphorical kind -- like now that Jacob's dead, Richard's no longer at his beck and call.
Since I am positive we'll get more background on the Ageless One before the final credits roll on the series, let's move on to "What Kate Does." I've heard some grumblings about this episode having "too much filler," "moving too slowly," and "not giving enough answers." I felt quite differently. Perhaps it's because I rewatched all of Season One this past summer (that's as far as my own personal re-watch got, though, unfortunately) and have a new appreciation for what makes an hour of Lost enjoyable enough that it stands the test of time.
I'd forgotten how much simpler the show used to be -- hell, Jack spent half of "Deux Ex Machina" trying to figure out why Sawyer was having bad headaches (remember his classic line of questioning about STDs?) and melding together Harry Potter glasses for his rival.
And guess what folks? Whether you realize it or not, those were the kind of scenes that made you fall in love with the show and stick with it for the past five years. "What Kate Does" brought back that type of intimate vibe that is hard to achieve in a more action-packed episode. I'd take meaningful, heartfelt exchanges between characters over Smokey sequences and rumbles in the jungle any day. So what I'm trying to say is, I liked this episode. And for the record, I don't care if they dole out ONE more answer on this show. I mean it. I can explain everything we've seen so far courtesy of my over-active imagination. And that way I can still get some elves into the picture.
Now that I've made my plea to you all to just ENJOY the remaining hours of the show, let's get into the meat of this Kate-centric installment. Casual viewers (aka: "normal people") might have forgotten that in Season Two there was an episode entitled "What Kate Did," which clued us in to her (successful) attempt to blow up her mom's house... which contained her abusive stepfather. In "What Kate Does" she's still on the run for murder in the alternate timeline, but aside from the video played at Comic-Con, we have no other details about exactly what landed her in handcuffs.
So let's take the do-over/reset/reboot/bizarro world/if-there's-a-common-name-the-alternate-timeline-is-being-referred-to-across-the-messageboards-please-tell-me scenes first.
I KNOW YOU
I WALKED WITH YOU ONCE UPON A DREAM
I KNOW YOU
THAT GLEAM IN YOUR EYES IS SO FAMILIAR A GLEAM
After Kate jumped in the cab with Claire, good ol' Arzt blocked their way with all of his dropped luggage. You can bet that I thought he was going to be run over since we all know he didn't meet a very happy ending on the Island, either. But he stepped aside, and only his luggage was worse for the wear.
What was more important about this part, however, is the weird look that flashed across Kate's face when she locked eyes with Jack as he stood outside the terminal and was making calls to try and straighten out his dad's non-funeral. Yes, Jack and Kate bumped into each other on the plane and he'd made googly eyes at her, but she was pretty busy stealing his pen and I don't think their quick encounter was anything that would've caused her to make such an expression of recognition when she saw him again a half-hour or so later. Jack also had a "Hey, huh, wha...?" air about him when he saw Kate from afar. Some people think that if this timeline was running concurrently with the timeline in which Flight 815 crashed, that by this point Kate and Jack would've met each other on the Island and that's why they're now seeming to recognize one another in this instance of events. That doesn't really explain why Jack would've already felt like he'd met Desmond before, though... and I'm honestly not sure that Jack and Kate met THAT quickly after the crash, but it's still something to consider.
I'm going with a more general theory that all of the 815ers are going to start experiencing some sort of nagging feelings... like they're meant to be somewhere else. Or they'll feel oddly drawn to certain people, much like we've already seen starting to happen between Jack and Locke, and now Kate and Claire.
GOT A WHALE OF A TALE TO TELL YA, LADS
A WHALE OF A TALE OR TWO
After Kate left Claire stranded on the side of the road, she sweet-talked a mechanic into breaking open her handcuffs and then went into the body shop's bathroom to change into Claire's stuff. Except that there were no clothes in Claire's bag, there was just a bunch of baby stuff. Including the very same stuffed animal that Kate would end up buying Aaron in the original timeline in "Something Nice Back Home." I totally freaked out when I saw that thing.
So Kate then felt all guilty and decided to go back to get Claire, who was still in the exact same spot, waiting for the bus. Now, did the woman who stole Jack's pen, bashed the marshal's head into a counter, held a cab driver and pregnant chick at gunpoint and then manipulated her way into getting out of her 'cuffs strike you as the type of considerate lady who would have a change of heart about someone she screwed over that she didn't even know? No. Up until Kate looked in the bag, she had no intention of going back for Claire. I personally don't think she would've gone back even if she'd seen Claire's Polaroid or the pack of onesies. It was that orca stuffed animal, I tell ya, calling to Kate from a different dimension -- luring her back to be reunited with someone she was connected to in another life.
HE'S THE ONE THEY CALL DR. FEELGOOD
HE'S THE ONE THAT MAKES YA FEEL ALL RIGHT
That otherworldly connection Kate and Claire share is probably the same thing that swayed Claire into hitching a ride with the very same woman who had hijacked her cab earlier in the day. How else can you explain that decision?
Since I had seen William Mapother's name on the Guest Starring list at the beginning of the episode, I expected that Ethan would be the adoptive father who would open the door when Claire showed up in Brentwood. When he wasn't -- and when Claire started going into labor after being delivered the news that there was in fact no happy couple waiting to adopt her baby -- then I knew Ethan would have to turn up in the hospital. Damn spoilery beginning credits!
And yep, there he was, Dr. Ethan Goodspeed. I've been asked to address how he could be alive in this instance of events, so I'll remind you all that when Miles had forewarned Daddy Chang that the Island might blow up, the Dharma peeps started shipping out all of the women and children. So baby Ethan would've been safe, as would've baby Miles, and toddler Charlotte, etc., etc. So see -- Faraday DID save Charlotte, the death of the skinny tie was not in vain!
But back to the hospital room -- Ethan's all nicety-nice and makes a point of saying that he doesn't want to stick Claire with needles if he doesn't have to. Uh-huh. She chooses to delay the delivery, and then Unnamed, Unborn Turniphead throws a hissy fit and the machine beeps out some sort of flatline. The second Claire shouts, "Is Aaron OK?", however, normalcy returns and the ultrasound shows that everything's just dandy. This was clearly not a coincidence. Later, Claire claimed that it was like she just "knew it or something" when Kate inquired about the fact that Claire'd given her child a name. Kate also threw in that she felt Claire "should keep him."
Now, let's think back a bit about what originally put Claire on Oceanic 815. The psychic -- who I truly believe WAS a psychic -- who felt so strongly that Claire must be the one to raise Aaron that he put her on a flight he knew would either strand her with her son on a crazy island or -- gulp -- kill them both. What if in this new timeline she visited the same guy and he put her on the Oceanic flight because he knew that even though the adoption would fall through and the plane would land safely in LA, Claire would meet Kate and the labor scare they went through together -- as well as Kate's words -- would ultimately lead Claire to raise Aaron herself?
Finally, before we move on to the present-day events, I want to address something I mentioned at the end of my "LA X (Part 1)" post. I'd speculated that the new Oceanic flight we were watching might have been taking place three years after the original, in order for the on-Island and off-Island events to be moving in parallel and things to some how sync up in the series' finale. But, besides Jack's old-school cell phone, I think we now have other proof that the rebooted flight took place exactly when it did before: 9/22/04. Why? Because on Claire's ultrasound there was a date: 10/22/04. Some peeps wrote in to Gregg Nations, who keeps track of each and every little crazy detail about the show, and asked if the 10/22/04 was a mistake or a clue. He said it was a bit of both, and in this thread on Lost's creative team's official site, you can all but discern that the date should've been 9/22/04 (the mistake being the "10," and the clue being the "04"). The crew's just human folks -- they can goof up every once in a while just like the rest of us. So moving forward I will be working from the all-but-confirmed assumption that the alternate timeline is taking place in the fall of 2004.
Let's head to the Island!
HEY, I AIN'T NEVER COMING HOME
HEY, I'LL JUST WANDER MY OWN ROAD
HEY, HEY, I CAN'T MEET YOU HERE TOMORROW
NO, NO
SAY GOODBYE
DON'T FOLLOW
MISERY SO HOLLOW
At the Temple, Sawyer glares at the rest of the group from the sidelines and informs Kate that he intends to escape. The Others return and demand some alone time with Sayid and Jack attempts to fight them off, but Sawyer starts firing shots in the air and lets everyone know that he'll be leaving now. Dogen the Japanese Other Leader decides that this would be an appropriate time to start speaking English and pleads, quite seriously,
"Please, you have to stay." Shuh, right! "James Ford" has totally reverted back to being Season One Sawyer -- hating on Sayid, out for himself, and just wanting to be alone. "Don't follow me," he warns Kate.
But OF COURSE Kate is going to go after him, and Jin -- sensing his chance to get closer to finding Sun -- offers to join her and two Others on the search mission. After a near-smooch with Jack (I really thought it was gonna happen), Kate takes off with Jin and Sayid is dragged away to a very Princess Bride-like Pit of Despair, minus the freaky albino wheelbarrow-toting guy.
BAD MEDICINE IS WHAT I NEED
SHAKE IT UP
JUST LIKE BAD MEDICINE
THERE AIN'T NO DOCTOR WHO CAN CURE MY DISEASE
When Lennon first informed Dogen that Sayid had awoken, did you notice how Dogen kept fingering that weird silver scroll pendant thingy around his neck? That's gotta mean something. I just don't know what yet. I also liked how he was corresponding with god knows who using a TYPEWRITER -- I think he was even pounding away at the keys one-finger style. I don't get these Others, they so crazy.
Anyway, once they get Sayid to the torture chamber, they do a bunch of stuff that 1) really reminded me of when Rousseau first captured Sayid back in Season One, and 2) is clearly related to the Man in Black/Smokey because Dogen was blowing ash all over the place. He shocks Sayid, brands him with a hot poker and then proclaims, "Nope, you don't have H1N1 -- that vaccine you got at Walgreens actually worked, whaddaya know!"
Sayid stumbles back out into the main chamber and Jack has just about had it when he learns that has friend has been hurt. My FAVORITE part of the episode was when Jack's all, "Step aside," to those two burly guards... and then they do it! He had a classic look on his face like "That worked?" before brushing by them. It reminded me of that little smile he had in "The Incident" when Hurley pulled up in the Dharma Van to rescue him and Bleeding Out Sayid.
Jack confronts Lennon and Dogen, who deliver the bad news that Sayid is "infected," and that if he doesn't take the green pill Dogen's whipped up, the "infection will spread." They stress that it's critical Sayid take the pill willingly and that Jack be the one who gives it to him. Dogen also mentions that since it's Jack's fault Sayid got shot in the first place (and reminds him of how so many others had been hurt or killed following him, their leader), this would be a good way to redeem himself.
WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD
IN YOUR HEAD
ZOMBIE
ZOMBIE
ZOMBIE
Back in the spring room, Sayid is like "WTF just happened to me, for real," and Hurley's all, "Don't you remember? You signed on for the top-secret Zombie Season -- it's really gonna happen, just like Damon and Carlton promised! And you get to be the first zombie!"
Jack returns to have a quick private chat about the mystery pill with Sayid, whose attitude is, "I'll do whatever you want, bro. I apparently already died, what else could happen to me?"
Jack goes back to Dogen's lair once more and this time Dogen's messing around with a baseball. WHAT?!?! I was trying to remember if we've seen a baseball on the show before, but I've got nothing. We do know that Jack is a big BoSox fan, and one of the items that Ageless Richard had Young Locke choose from when he was "testing" him in "Cabin Fever" was a baseball glove, but that's all I could come up with. The mystery of the baseball gets added below the mysteries of the silver necklace thingy and the typewriter. But if the next time we see Dogen he's in a Snuggie, I will stop watching this show.
Anywho, Jack asks Dogen why he uses a translator when he doesn't need one, and Dogen gave a very diplomatic answer: "I have to remain separate from the people I'm in charge of. It makes it easier when they don't like the decisions I make for them." This immediately brought to mind the dreaded Episode About Jack's Tattoos, where we learn that one of the Mad Doctor's markings reads, "He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." Ah, the life of a leader is often a lonely one. Dogen and Jack have a bit in common, it seems.
But they're not yet at the same level of acceptance about the power of the Island, though. When Jack asked Dogen if he's "from" the Island, Dogen looked very confused and replied, "I was brought here like everyone else," and then Jack was the one feigning ignorance.
Not for long, however, because when Dogen continued to refuse to tell Jack the secret recipe for not only Mrs. Field's Cookies, but also Coca-Cola, KFC chicken and the mysterious green pill, Jack straight-up popped the little bugger down his throat. I did NOT see that one coming. I think I actually yelled out, "D'OH!!!!"
SWALLOW IT DOWN
SUCH A JAGGED LITTLE PILL
Bad move, Jack. It was poison. Double-d'oh!
Thankfully, Dogen was up to date with his Heimlich training and was able to retrieve the "medicine." Then he had no choice but to explain, with Lennon's help, that Sayid had been "claimed." They said a darkness was growing in Jack's Iraqi friend and once it reached his heart, everything that we all love about He of the Black Tank Tops will be gone forever. Nooooooo! Jack asks, "How do you know this?" and they clued him in to the fact that the same thing had happened to his half-sis, and she'd officially gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. (More on that later.)
Elsewhere on the Island...
SHE'S GONE
OH I, OH I'D
BETTER LEARN HOW TO FACE IT
SHE'S GONE
OH I, OH I'D
PAY THE DEVIL TO REPLACE HER
SHE'S GONE
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Kate, Jin and Others Aldo and Justin are tracking Sawyer, and Aldo confirms that all the hullabaloo at the Temple was in order to prepare the grounds against a Smoke Monster attack. Before too long, however, Kate finds a way to knock both of her captors out, and after a tense exchange with Jin ("Who do YOU care about, Kate?") she makes a beeline for New Otherton.
And dammit if Sawyer isn't there pulling up the floorboards to retrieve the engagement ring he'd planned to give Juliet. He allows Kate to come with him to the pier and she tries to convince him to help her find Claire. Their ensuing "some of us are meant to be alone" conversation was almost too hard for me to watch, as they each took turns blaming themselves for Juliet's death. But -- my dog as my witness -- I totally, totally lost it when Sawyer threw the ring into the water and then broke down once again... and then after he left KATE broke down. This show has championship-level criers, it always has. Matthew Fox still reigns supreme as the Most Outstanding Man-Crier, but Josh Holloway came close to swiping the title with this scene. It was beautiful and awful all at the same time. I'm glad they're not just having Sawyer "get over" everything. And it doesn't look like he'll be trotting after Kate back to the Temple any time soon, either.
YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?
YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY!
YOU'RE GONNA DIE...
Meanwhile, poor Jin's wandering around by himself trying to figure out how he can make it to wherever the Ajira flight might have landed when Aldo and Justin find him again. Aldo threatens to kill Jin, but before he gets a chance, he's shot down and then so is his fellow Other. By a very unkempt Claire. I've got to give props to Tom T for writing me milliseconds after the show ended and coining the nickname "Clousseau" for the Rousseau-ish Claire. I've since seen it elsewhere, but in my mind Tom T gets the kudos for that one.
So what's going on with Claire, and why are Dogen and Lennon convinced that whatever happened to her will also happen to Sayid?
When we last saw Completely Normal Claire, she was at her home in New Otherton before Keamy's team attacked. Her house was blown up, but Sawyer found her in the rubble and she appeared to be alive... though Miles was giving her funny looks from that point on, which made many of us think that she might actually be in some sort of undead state. That theory was strengthened once she up and left Aaron in the jungle and ran off with Zombie Dad to Jacob's cabin. Locke later saw her there and she was acting like she'd had one too many shots of MacCutcheon's since she claimed to be "fine" and that Aaron was "where he needed to be."
What can we make of all this?
THE DEVIL INSIDE
THE DEVIL INSIDE
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US
THE DEVIL INSIDE
Sticking with the "the easiest explanation is probably the right one" approach, I'm going with the theory that supports Locke and Walt's chat about backgammon waaaay back in the series' pilot. "There are two players: one side is light, one side is dark." On the Island, these sides are represented by Team Jacob and Team Edw--oops, I mean Team Man in Black. Jacob and his adversary have been lining up players for their various "armies" -- Jacob's got the Others and the 815ers that he visited and physically touched in the past. The Man in Black is able to pick off anyone's who's died and hasn't been properly disposed of (which is why, as we guessed before, the Others have always been so concerned with how to handle their dearly departed members).
This would lead us to believe that Claire did in fact die in that explosion at the barracks, and that the Man in Black got to her immediately. Same goes for Sayid. It doesn't matter that the Man in Black is also taking Locke's form right now -- he can be many places at once thanks to his ability to control the Black Smoke. At least this is how I'm explaining everything to myself in my own mind. Anyone else have any other relatively simply (key phrase) explanations?
Let me leave you with this thought so that you don't lose all hope for our favorite torturer: Dogen and Lennon generally seem to be telling the truth to Jack, it's just that -- like Ben -- what they say may often have a double or hidden meaning. So consider the fact that Dogen said the pill was made of poison. OK, we've got that, but at no point did he say that the pill would KILL Sayid. Now, think about how many medications are often actually poisons, but they double as antidotes if the person they're given to already has a disease or has been afflicted by something... that's essentially what ANY vaccine is. That's what chemotherapy is. So what if the pill contains poison that would've killed Jack because he's not been infected by Smokey, but it will actually help Sayid? I think there's some hope yet for him. There has to be.
BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE
Hurley: You’re not a zombie, right?
Sayid: No, I am NOT a zombie.
Miles: We’ll be in the food court if you need us.
Kate: ... I’m sorry, I never should’ve followed you.
Sawyer: Which time?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Back in August when the Season Six premiere title ("LA X") had just been announced, I joined other members of the DarkUFO team -- Karen from Karen's Lost Notebook, The ODI from TheODI.com and Vozzek from Things I Noticed -- for a fun chat about the show and our predictions about Season Six. At the start of our talk I give a little background about how Long Live Locke came to be -- I think this might be the only time I've ever shared the full story!
You can listen to it on ODI's site here, or download it from iTunes here. Our discussion starts at the four-minute mark. Enjoy!
Until next time,
- e
Let's start off by tying up a few loose ends from the the second hour of the premiere:
1) A huge "Thanks!" to the approximately 1,457 people who reminded me that the gaping hole in the Temple's perimeter was caused by Ben's fall when he was on his way to be judged by Smokey last season...2)... and that the chick who drowned in Season One was named Joanna...
3) ... and that in Korea, married women often keep their last name, so it might not have been any sort of clue when the security guard called Sun "Mrs. Paik."
Some people also wrote in to say that perhaps Fake Locke's reference to Richard's chains wasn't because Richard was on the Black Rock, but rather because he was originally a slave in ancient Egypt who was brought to the Island by Jacob (hence tying in the multitude of nods to that culture on the show over the years). Others thought the chains were just the metaphorical kind -- like now that Jacob's dead, Richard's no longer at his beck and call.
Since I am positive we'll get more background on the Ageless One before the final credits roll on the series, let's move on to "What Kate Does." I've heard some grumblings about this episode having "too much filler," "moving too slowly," and "not giving enough answers." I felt quite differently. Perhaps it's because I rewatched all of Season One this past summer (that's as far as my own personal re-watch got, though, unfortunately) and have a new appreciation for what makes an hour of Lost enjoyable enough that it stands the test of time.
I'd forgotten how much simpler the show used to be -- hell, Jack spent half of "Deux Ex Machina" trying to figure out why Sawyer was having bad headaches (remember his classic line of questioning about STDs?) and melding together Harry Potter glasses for his rival.And guess what folks? Whether you realize it or not, those were the kind of scenes that made you fall in love with the show and stick with it for the past five years. "What Kate Does" brought back that type of intimate vibe that is hard to achieve in a more action-packed episode. I'd take meaningful, heartfelt exchanges between characters over Smokey sequences and rumbles in the jungle any day. So what I'm trying to say is, I liked this episode. And for the record, I don't care if they dole out ONE more answer on this show. I mean it. I can explain everything we've seen so far courtesy of my over-active imagination. And that way I can still get some elves into the picture.
Now that I've made my plea to you all to just ENJOY the remaining hours of the show, let's get into the meat of this Kate-centric installment. Casual viewers (aka: "normal people") might have forgotten that in Season Two there was an episode entitled "What Kate Did," which clued us in to her (successful) attempt to blow up her mom's house... which contained her abusive stepfather. In "What Kate Does" she's still on the run for murder in the alternate timeline, but aside from the video played at Comic-Con, we have no other details about exactly what landed her in handcuffs.
So let's take the do-over/reset/reboot/bizarro world/if-there's-a-common-name-the-alternate-timeline-is-being-referred-to-across-the-messageboards-please-tell-me scenes first.
I KNOW YOU
I WALKED WITH YOU ONCE UPON A DREAM
I KNOW YOU
THAT GLEAM IN YOUR EYES IS SO FAMILIAR A GLEAM
After Kate jumped in the cab with Claire, good ol' Arzt blocked their way with all of his dropped luggage. You can bet that I thought he was going to be run over since we all know he didn't meet a very happy ending on the Island, either. But he stepped aside, and only his luggage was worse for the wear.
What was more important about this part, however, is the weird look that flashed across Kate's face when she locked eyes with Jack as he stood outside the terminal and was making calls to try and straighten out his dad's non-funeral. Yes, Jack and Kate bumped into each other on the plane and he'd made googly eyes at her, but she was pretty busy stealing his pen and I don't think their quick encounter was anything that would've caused her to make such an expression of recognition when she saw him again a half-hour or so later. Jack also had a "Hey, huh, wha...?" air about him when he saw Kate from afar. Some people think that if this timeline was running concurrently with the timeline in which Flight 815 crashed, that by this point Kate and Jack would've met each other on the Island and that's why they're now seeming to recognize one another in this instance of events. That doesn't really explain why Jack would've already felt like he'd met Desmond before, though... and I'm honestly not sure that Jack and Kate met THAT quickly after the crash, but it's still something to consider.I'm going with a more general theory that all of the 815ers are going to start experiencing some sort of nagging feelings... like they're meant to be somewhere else. Or they'll feel oddly drawn to certain people, much like we've already seen starting to happen between Jack and Locke, and now Kate and Claire.
GOT A WHALE OF A TALE TO TELL YA, LADS
A WHALE OF A TALE OR TWO
After Kate left Claire stranded on the side of the road, she sweet-talked a mechanic into breaking open her handcuffs and then went into the body shop's bathroom to change into Claire's stuff. Except that there were no clothes in Claire's bag, there was just a bunch of baby stuff. Including the very same stuffed animal that Kate would end up buying Aaron in the original timeline in "Something Nice Back Home." I totally freaked out when I saw that thing.
So Kate then felt all guilty and decided to go back to get Claire, who was still in the exact same spot, waiting for the bus. Now, did the woman who stole Jack's pen, bashed the marshal's head into a counter, held a cab driver and pregnant chick at gunpoint and then manipulated her way into getting out of her 'cuffs strike you as the type of considerate lady who would have a change of heart about someone she screwed over that she didn't even know? No. Up until Kate looked in the bag, she had no intention of going back for Claire. I personally don't think she would've gone back even if she'd seen Claire's Polaroid or the pack of onesies. It was that orca stuffed animal, I tell ya, calling to Kate from a different dimension -- luring her back to be reunited with someone she was connected to in another life.
HE'S THE ONE THEY CALL DR. FEELGOOD
HE'S THE ONE THAT MAKES YA FEEL ALL RIGHT
That otherworldly connection Kate and Claire share is probably the same thing that swayed Claire into hitching a ride with the very same woman who had hijacked her cab earlier in the day. How else can you explain that decision?
Since I had seen William Mapother's name on the Guest Starring list at the beginning of the episode, I expected that Ethan would be the adoptive father who would open the door when Claire showed up in Brentwood. When he wasn't -- and when Claire started going into labor after being delivered the news that there was in fact no happy couple waiting to adopt her baby -- then I knew Ethan would have to turn up in the hospital. Damn spoilery beginning credits!
And yep, there he was, Dr. Ethan Goodspeed. I've been asked to address how he could be alive in this instance of events, so I'll remind you all that when Miles had forewarned Daddy Chang that the Island might blow up, the Dharma peeps started shipping out all of the women and children. So baby Ethan would've been safe, as would've baby Miles, and toddler Charlotte, etc., etc. So see -- Faraday DID save Charlotte, the death of the skinny tie was not in vain!But back to the hospital room -- Ethan's all nicety-nice and makes a point of saying that he doesn't want to stick Claire with needles if he doesn't have to. Uh-huh. She chooses to delay the delivery, and then Unnamed, Unborn Turniphead throws a hissy fit and the machine beeps out some sort of flatline. The second Claire shouts, "Is Aaron OK?", however, normalcy returns and the ultrasound shows that everything's just dandy. This was clearly not a coincidence. Later, Claire claimed that it was like she just "knew it or something" when Kate inquired about the fact that Claire'd given her child a name. Kate also threw in that she felt Claire "should keep him."
Now, let's think back a bit about what originally put Claire on Oceanic 815. The psychic -- who I truly believe WAS a psychic -- who felt so strongly that Claire must be the one to raise Aaron that he put her on a flight he knew would either strand her with her son on a crazy island or -- gulp -- kill them both. What if in this new timeline she visited the same guy and he put her on the Oceanic flight because he knew that even though the adoption would fall through and the plane would land safely in LA, Claire would meet Kate and the labor scare they went through together -- as well as Kate's words -- would ultimately lead Claire to raise Aaron herself?
Finally, before we move on to the present-day events, I want to address something I mentioned at the end of my "LA X (Part 1)" post. I'd speculated that the new Oceanic flight we were watching might have been taking place three years after the original, in order for the on-Island and off-Island events to be moving in parallel and things to some how sync up in the series' finale. But, besides Jack's old-school cell phone, I think we now have other proof that the rebooted flight took place exactly when it did before: 9/22/04. Why? Because on Claire's ultrasound there was a date: 10/22/04. Some peeps wrote in to Gregg Nations, who keeps track of each and every little crazy detail about the show, and asked if the 10/22/04 was a mistake or a clue. He said it was a bit of both, and in this thread on Lost's creative team's official site, you can all but discern that the date should've been 9/22/04 (the mistake being the "10," and the clue being the "04"). The crew's just human folks -- they can goof up every once in a while just like the rest of us. So moving forward I will be working from the all-but-confirmed assumption that the alternate timeline is taking place in the fall of 2004.Let's head to the Island!
HEY, I AIN'T NEVER COMING HOME
HEY, I'LL JUST WANDER MY OWN ROAD
HEY, HEY, I CAN'T MEET YOU HERE TOMORROW
NO, NO
SAY GOODBYE
DON'T FOLLOW
MISERY SO HOLLOW
At the Temple, Sawyer glares at the rest of the group from the sidelines and informs Kate that he intends to escape. The Others return and demand some alone time with Sayid and Jack attempts to fight them off, but Sawyer starts firing shots in the air and lets everyone know that he'll be leaving now. Dogen the Japanese Other Leader decides that this would be an appropriate time to start speaking English and pleads, quite seriously,
"Please, you have to stay." Shuh, right! "James Ford" has totally reverted back to being Season One Sawyer -- hating on Sayid, out for himself, and just wanting to be alone. "Don't follow me," he warns Kate.But OF COURSE Kate is going to go after him, and Jin -- sensing his chance to get closer to finding Sun -- offers to join her and two Others on the search mission. After a near-smooch with Jack (I really thought it was gonna happen), Kate takes off with Jin and Sayid is dragged away to a very Princess Bride-like Pit of Despair, minus the freaky albino wheelbarrow-toting guy.
BAD MEDICINE IS WHAT I NEED
SHAKE IT UP
JUST LIKE BAD MEDICINE
THERE AIN'T NO DOCTOR WHO CAN CURE MY DISEASE
When Lennon first informed Dogen that Sayid had awoken, did you notice how Dogen kept fingering that weird silver scroll pendant thingy around his neck? That's gotta mean something. I just don't know what yet. I also liked how he was corresponding with god knows who using a TYPEWRITER -- I think he was even pounding away at the keys one-finger style. I don't get these Others, they so crazy.
Anyway, once they get Sayid to the torture chamber, they do a bunch of stuff that 1) really reminded me of when Rousseau first captured Sayid back in Season One, and 2) is clearly related to the Man in Black/Smokey because Dogen was blowing ash all over the place. He shocks Sayid, brands him with a hot poker and then proclaims, "Nope, you don't have H1N1 -- that vaccine you got at Walgreens actually worked, whaddaya know!"Sayid stumbles back out into the main chamber and Jack has just about had it when he learns that has friend has been hurt. My FAVORITE part of the episode was when Jack's all, "Step aside," to those two burly guards... and then they do it! He had a classic look on his face like "That worked?" before brushing by them. It reminded me of that little smile he had in "The Incident" when Hurley pulled up in the Dharma Van to rescue him and Bleeding Out Sayid.
Jack confronts Lennon and Dogen, who deliver the bad news that Sayid is "infected," and that if he doesn't take the green pill Dogen's whipped up, the "infection will spread." They stress that it's critical Sayid take the pill willingly and that Jack be the one who gives it to him. Dogen also mentions that since it's Jack's fault Sayid got shot in the first place (and reminds him of how so many others had been hurt or killed following him, their leader), this would be a good way to redeem himself.
WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD
IN YOUR HEAD
ZOMBIE
ZOMBIE
ZOMBIE
Back in the spring room, Sayid is like "WTF just happened to me, for real," and Hurley's all, "Don't you remember? You signed on for the top-secret Zombie Season -- it's really gonna happen, just like Damon and Carlton promised! And you get to be the first zombie!"
Jack returns to have a quick private chat about the mystery pill with Sayid, whose attitude is, "I'll do whatever you want, bro. I apparently already died, what else could happen to me?"
Jack goes back to Dogen's lair once more and this time Dogen's messing around with a baseball. WHAT?!?! I was trying to remember if we've seen a baseball on the show before, but I've got nothing. We do know that Jack is a big BoSox fan, and one of the items that Ageless Richard had Young Locke choose from when he was "testing" him in "Cabin Fever" was a baseball glove, but that's all I could come up with. The mystery of the baseball gets added below the mysteries of the silver necklace thingy and the typewriter. But if the next time we see Dogen he's in a Snuggie, I will stop watching this show.Anywho, Jack asks Dogen why he uses a translator when he doesn't need one, and Dogen gave a very diplomatic answer: "I have to remain separate from the people I'm in charge of. It makes it easier when they don't like the decisions I make for them." This immediately brought to mind the dreaded Episode About Jack's Tattoos, where we learn that one of the Mad Doctor's markings reads, "He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." Ah, the life of a leader is often a lonely one. Dogen and Jack have a bit in common, it seems.
But they're not yet at the same level of acceptance about the power of the Island, though. When Jack asked Dogen if he's "from" the Island, Dogen looked very confused and replied, "I was brought here like everyone else," and then Jack was the one feigning ignorance.
Not for long, however, because when Dogen continued to refuse to tell Jack the secret recipe for not only Mrs. Field's Cookies, but also Coca-Cola, KFC chicken and the mysterious green pill, Jack straight-up popped the little bugger down his throat. I did NOT see that one coming. I think I actually yelled out, "D'OH!!!!"
SWALLOW IT DOWN
SUCH A JAGGED LITTLE PILL
Bad move, Jack. It was poison. Double-d'oh!Thankfully, Dogen was up to date with his Heimlich training and was able to retrieve the "medicine." Then he had no choice but to explain, with Lennon's help, that Sayid had been "claimed." They said a darkness was growing in Jack's Iraqi friend and once it reached his heart, everything that we all love about He of the Black Tank Tops will be gone forever. Nooooooo! Jack asks, "How do you know this?" and they clued him in to the fact that the same thing had happened to his half-sis, and she'd officially gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. (More on that later.)
Elsewhere on the Island...
SHE'S GONE
OH I, OH I'D
BETTER LEARN HOW TO FACE IT
SHE'S GONE
OH I, OH I'D
PAY THE DEVIL TO REPLACE HER
SHE'S GONE
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Kate, Jin and Others Aldo and Justin are tracking Sawyer, and Aldo confirms that all the hullabaloo at the Temple was in order to prepare the grounds against a Smoke Monster attack. Before too long, however, Kate finds a way to knock both of her captors out, and after a tense exchange with Jin ("Who do YOU care about, Kate?") she makes a beeline for New Otherton.
And dammit if Sawyer isn't there pulling up the floorboards to retrieve the engagement ring he'd planned to give Juliet. He allows Kate to come with him to the pier and she tries to convince him to help her find Claire. Their ensuing "some of us are meant to be alone" conversation was almost too hard for me to watch, as they each took turns blaming themselves for Juliet's death. But -- my dog as my witness -- I totally, totally lost it when Sawyer threw the ring into the water and then broke down once again... and then after he left KATE broke down. This show has championship-level criers, it always has. Matthew Fox still reigns supreme as the Most Outstanding Man-Crier, but Josh Holloway came close to swiping the title with this scene. It was beautiful and awful all at the same time. I'm glad they're not just having Sawyer "get over" everything. And it doesn't look like he'll be trotting after Kate back to the Temple any time soon, either.YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?
YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY!
YOU'RE GONNA DIE...
Meanwhile, poor Jin's wandering around by himself trying to figure out how he can make it to wherever the Ajira flight might have landed when Aldo and Justin find him again. Aldo threatens to kill Jin, but before he gets a chance, he's shot down and then so is his fellow Other. By a very unkempt Claire. I've got to give props to Tom T for writing me milliseconds after the show ended and coining the nickname "Clousseau" for the Rousseau-ish Claire. I've since seen it elsewhere, but in my mind Tom T gets the kudos for that one.So what's going on with Claire, and why are Dogen and Lennon convinced that whatever happened to her will also happen to Sayid?
When we last saw Completely Normal Claire, she was at her home in New Otherton before Keamy's team attacked. Her house was blown up, but Sawyer found her in the rubble and she appeared to be alive... though Miles was giving her funny looks from that point on, which made many of us think that she might actually be in some sort of undead state. That theory was strengthened once she up and left Aaron in the jungle and ran off with Zombie Dad to Jacob's cabin. Locke later saw her there and she was acting like she'd had one too many shots of MacCutcheon's since she claimed to be "fine" and that Aaron was "where he needed to be."What can we make of all this?
THE DEVIL INSIDE
THE DEVIL INSIDE
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US
THE DEVIL INSIDE
Sticking with the "the easiest explanation is probably the right one" approach, I'm going with the theory that supports Locke and Walt's chat about backgammon waaaay back in the series' pilot. "There are two players: one side is light, one side is dark." On the Island, these sides are represented by Team Jacob and Team Edw--oops, I mean Team Man in Black. Jacob and his adversary have been lining up players for their various "armies" -- Jacob's got the Others and the 815ers that he visited and physically touched in the past. The Man in Black is able to pick off anyone's who's died and hasn't been properly disposed of (which is why, as we guessed before, the Others have always been so concerned with how to handle their dearly departed members).
This would lead us to believe that Claire did in fact die in that explosion at the barracks, and that the Man in Black got to her immediately. Same goes for Sayid. It doesn't matter that the Man in Black is also taking Locke's form right now -- he can be many places at once thanks to his ability to control the Black Smoke. At least this is how I'm explaining everything to myself in my own mind. Anyone else have any other relatively simply (key phrase) explanations?Let me leave you with this thought so that you don't lose all hope for our favorite torturer: Dogen and Lennon generally seem to be telling the truth to Jack, it's just that -- like Ben -- what they say may often have a double or hidden meaning. So consider the fact that Dogen said the pill was made of poison. OK, we've got that, but at no point did he say that the pill would KILL Sayid. Now, think about how many medications are often actually poisons, but they double as antidotes if the person they're given to already has a disease or has been afflicted by something... that's essentially what ANY vaccine is. That's what chemotherapy is. So what if the pill contains poison that would've killed Jack because he's not been infected by Smokey, but it will actually help Sayid? I think there's some hope yet for him. There has to be.
BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE
Hurley: You’re not a zombie, right?
Sayid: No, I am NOT a zombie.
Miles: We’ll be in the food court if you need us.
Kate: ... I’m sorry, I never should’ve followed you.
Sawyer: Which time?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Back in August when the Season Six premiere title ("LA X") had just been announced, I joined other members of the DarkUFO team -- Karen from Karen's Lost Notebook, The ODI from TheODI.com and Vozzek from Things I Noticed -- for a fun chat about the show and our predictions about Season Six. At the start of our talk I give a little background about how Long Live Locke came to be -- I think this might be the only time I've ever shared the full story!
You can listen to it on ODI's site here, or download it from iTunes here. Our discussion starts at the four-minute mark. Enjoy!
Until next time,
- e
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