Lost: What Kate Does
[Total spoilers ahead-Do not read until you have watched the episode]
Maybe it was just me, but I hated being picked last whenever I played basketball, or some type of team sport in school or at playgrounds or even at the local 24 Hour Fitness. Top two picks or else I’d get my feelings hurt. I wanted to be wanted.
It seems from tonight’s Lost episode, “What Kate Does,” as if Jacob and Reborn Locke (aka Man in Black) have made their first two selections in the all-out island war that has been looming for decades (or centuries or millennia): Jack and Sayid.
In the episode, we learn that the bodies of Sayid and “Jack’s sister,” as Dogen, the mysterious Japanese leader of the Others, calls Claire, have become “claimed” by someone — Reborn Locke we assume. And with this revelation, I think it’s safe to assume that Christian, Jack’s father, has also been “claimed” by the same adversary of Jacob. These people have been enlisted to do this man’s business.
And with an adversary like Sayid, it’s no wonder Dogen is not happy that Sawyer has decided to go rogue and leave the sanctuary of the Others’ temple. They need as many tough guys as possible, and James Ford is as tough as they come.
But this episode is a reminder that the entire series of Lost comes back to the first season. Hell, one of the first episodes of the series. “Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark,” Locke tells young Walt back on the beach while explaining the game of backgammon.
Well, it appears that the pieces are falling into place. Jack and Dogen fighting for Jacob. Sayid, Claire and Christian fighting for Reborn Locke.
Meanwhile, back in the 2004 alternative timeline, we start to understand that certain fates seem to happen no matter what the circumstances. A fugitive Kate befriends a very pregnant Claire. They go to visit the prospective adoptive parents we have heard so much about, but Claire is told that an adoption isn’t going to happen. As in Season 1, Claire goes into premature labor when major stress hits–this time from the shock of a spurned adoption, not a plane crash. Kate rushes Claire to the hospital, where she is treated by none other than Ethan Rom, the creepy Other from first season who fell in love with Claire, but was killed by a vengeful Charlie. While on the island, he treats Claire. And it appears that in non-Dharma 2004, he, with the help of Kate, will be the one to deliver Claire’s baby.
(This adds to the belief that the divergent realities will come crashing together with help from some of the time-traveling outliers, particularly Desmond.)
Back on the island in the present, Kate realizes that she is powerless. Her hold over Jack has been greatly diminished because Jack himself has been greatly diminished. And her hold over Sawyer is nonexistent. He was in love with Juliet, and nothing Kate tells him will convince him of anything. She is as good as dead to him. She realizes it, which is why she sits at the dock in tears. She is as powerless as she’s ever been.
She’s starting to remind me a lot of Ben. Spurned by those she loves and without any power over the events to come, she could be a perfect recruit for the Reborn Locke. Especially after we see the infected Claire, the woman Kate tells Sawyer she went back to the island to find.
In fact, the Others seemed to have little problem letting Kate and Jin go tramping off into the Smoke Monster patrolled forest as long as the end result was Sawyer being back behind temple walls.
It’s side-choosing time on the island. The Losties aren’t talking about getting off the island anymore. They aren’t debating whether to push a button or not. They are all about surviving. And to survive, they are going to have to choose sides: “One is light. The other is dark.”
Unfortunately for Kate, neither side seems to want her. At least not yet. Which is why she might be very dangerous as the series comes to a close.
Other Thoughts and More Questions
- Dogen is one of the coolest people on the island. He tells Jack that he uses a translator in order to keep himself separated from those he leads. Sounds similar to the tattoo Jack received on his arm: “He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us.” I won’t be surprised if the Others’ leader meets an untimely end and Jack becomes the boss.
- Did Ben die and get claimed by the Man in Black back in 1977? I think it’s very possible. Perhaps that’s why the sweet boy who Sayid first met while being a prisoner of the Others became the lying lunatic that we now know.
- The Smoke Monster, or the Man in Black, or Reborn Locke, scanned Kate in Season 3, but did not kill her. This has to mean that he assumes Kate will join him, right?
- Why did the guards with guns move out of unarmed Jack’s way when he commanded them to step aside so he could speak to Dogen?
Filed under: General | Leave a Comment
Tags: Lost, What Kate Does
No Responses Yet to “Lost: What Kate Does”