Lost Recap – Season 6 Episode 2: What Kate Does

By Dean Crawford

Last weeks episode ‘LAX – Parts 1 and 2’ were an interesting affair. It was heavily plot driven and full of action. Whilst the episode answered a lot of questions, as you would imagine, it also raised several more. Needless to say I was very excited about this week’s episode ‘What Kate Does’. That was until I finally twigged that this episode would be about my least favourite character, Kate. Then after 5 minutes, I lost all hope, as it would also follow my second least favourite character, Claire. Oh the joy! I know there is a lot of hate on the inter-web for Kate and the way she can come across as heartless in the show, and she gets a bad rap from a lot of die hards for the holy-trinity love triangle. I don’t really care too much for that either, but that’s not the reason I dislike her. I just think her story is boring. As for Claire, I do actually find her story really interesting. The whole first season “you alone must raise this baby” thing I liked. I just can’t stand Emilie de Ravin. She is so whiney and acts hysterical in every single thing she does. And what is the deal with her accent? I know she lived in Australia for nearly twenty years, but her Aussie accent sounds fake, with hints of American thrown in which led me to think she was American. But then you see her in things like Brick, and her American accent sounds fake! Hers isn’t as bad as her mothers accent on the show though. She is supposed to be an Aussie, but keeps on running into hints of Eliza Doolittle! “Ell-ohhhh DOC-TAR SHIP-ERRRRD, moi’ glass o’water is your sister…ya flaming mungrel” Speaking of fake accents, don’t get me started on the portrayal of English accents on Lost. JUST GET A BLOODY ENGLISH PERSON TO PLAY THE ROLE!! Phew. No that’s over, onto the episode…

The episode begins with a close up on feet hurrying in the caves as John Lennon races to the Japanese leader and tells him that “He’s alive!”. The look of shock on Dogen’s face is palpable and we know instantly that this is going to be a big deal. Sayid awakes to the excitement of everyone in the cave except Miles who still can’t understand his journey. Miles can tell something is up, as last week he couldn’t sense anything from Sayid after he died. Jack tells Sayid straight up that he died. Kate can’t fathom how this is even possible, (but apparently the fact that they can travel through time isn’t that much of an issue) but Sawyer isn’t surprised at all and his first thought is escaping. Perfect cue for a flashback on Kate.

Kate’s flash sideways is fairly straightforward but there are a few things to look into. Firstly, Kate is still the same in this time line. She is still running, still shouting, still getting into trouble. As she orders the cab driver to speed off, she makes sure Claire stays with her, but something interesting happens when she sees Jack. There is a long, knowing glance of recognition to her face. It might be because of the fact she recognized him as the guy she stole the pen from on the plane, but I think we can safely deduce after Jack’s recognition of Desmond last week, that the Losties are remembering each other, and are remember things from their other lives. The question that needs to be asked then, is why wouldn’t she have recognized him on the plane? Creative reasons? I read an interesting theory that suggested that in their original time line, Kate and Jack hadn’t yet met each other at this point and shared that moment on the beach stitching up Jack. Therefore their parallel universe hadn’t kicked in yet. So by the time she sees Jack in the taxi, they would met each other on the beach, hence the recognition. But then you could argue why does Kate feel need to help Claire give birth like she did in season one when this also wouldn’t have happened for weeks? I’m thinking destiny is destiny, and no matter what may have happened before, the end game is the same for everybody. So no matter what, Kate will always be involved with Claire and Aaron.

Kate disposes of Claire and manages to find another ex-com who just so happens to understand the complexities of removing handcuffs. Lucky for her! Even luckier for Claire though, is that Kate happens to be driving by as she is waiting for a bus to see the prospective adopters who haven’t come to pick her up. Unfortunately for Claire, they have ditched her so it appears Claire will have to raise the baby herself. This again raises similarities to her on story in Season one. If you recall, it was the Psychic, Richard Malkin, who insisted that Claire raised the baby herself. When he felt like this might not happen, he bought her a ticket to LA as he knew of a couple that would adopt the baby. This is why she was on the plane in the first place. We were lead to believe that Malkin knew the plane would crash, hence forcing Claire to raise Aaron herself. Malkin later admitted he was a fraud to Mr. Ecko when he visited his daughter who drowned. But I think this was for Ecko’s benefit and is a psychic. As for this timeline? We are still yet to find out what brought Claire to the island.

Fate rears its ugly head as Claire goes into labour forcing Kate to see her through labour just like she did on the island. And destiny is at work once again as Ethan is a doctor at the hospital and will take care of Aaron before he is born. Under duress, Claire blurts out Aaron’s name for the first time. It just came to her. So it seems Aaron’s destiny was to always be named so, and to always have Kate and Ethan involved in his birth. And it seems that Claire’s destiny, is to scream, shout and be hysterical every chance she gets.

The police arrive to look for Kate, but Claire throws them off the scent. The two biggest things to come out of this scene, and the whole flash sideways in my opinion, are A) Kate tells Claire that she should raise the baby herself, which I think she will now do. And B) Kate brings up the possibility that she may be innocent. This could be Kate’s attempt at trying to con Claire to get her onboard somehow, but as we have already seen in this timeline, things are drastically different. Take Hugo for example. He is now the luckiest man alive, which is the total opposite from his original timeline. So maybe Kate is innocent. I still feel like she would have had to have done something wrong to have the Feds after her, but something is definitely different.

As Kate leaves, one thought remained in my head the whole time, which was “would we see another Kate and Claire reunion?” If the characters are all going to repeat their actions over and over again no matter what, then doesn’t Kate have to be the one to assist in Aaron’s birth?

Now, back on the island. Sayid is alive, but not for much longer you would think after the look like Sawyer gave him. Sawyer is obviously deeply upset because if the ‘Iraqi torturer who shoots kids’ deserves a second chance, why not Juliet? There might be a philosophical answer to that question, and one that many people theorized back from day one. If you know your bible, and I don’t, Revelation 21:27 states that nothing unclean will enter Heaven. To cleanse oneself you have to enter purgatory, which is a lot how the island feels. What if Sawyer is wrong in thinking that Sayid has been given a second chance whilst Juliet has been left to die. What if Juliet has been allowed to pass on as she has come to terms with everything she has done and has absolved herself. She made amends for all her sins by sacrificing her own life in pushing the reset button and detonating the bomb. She has served her purpose and is allowed to die, much in the same way Michael wasn’t allowed to leave/die until he fulfilled his purposed and sacrificed himself. Sayid was terrified last week of dying, and was sure he was going to hell. So what if Sayid still has one more task to complete before he can be let go? Now I don’t believe that the island is purgatory itself, but the allusions that are being made and the similarities are striking.

Sayid’s joy at returning from the dead is short lived however, as the other’s have plans for him and need to ask a few questions. Unfortunately for Sayid, their style of questioning is unlike anything you would find Bamber Gascoigne attempting on University challenge, as it involves black ash, electrocuting the nipples and a hot poker on the chest. Now I am sure there are a few people reading this who would pay for a service like that, but our man Sayid is faithful to Nadia. The ensuing fight gives Sawyer the chance to escape as he tells them he is leaving and there is nothing they can do to stop him. This scene is very significant as it is the first time Dogen publicly speaks English, adding gravitas to his words. The fact that Sawyer tells them he’s leaving and they just let him is also significant, but more on that later. Sawyer tells Kate not to come after him. So this means that Kate is going to go after him. Yawn.

But in the words of poor old Sayid “Why…? Why are you doing this?”. What are these tests for? What do they want to know and how will their methods help them achieve their results? I think the second they blew the dust on him, we could tell that they wanted to see if he had returned from the dead “bad”. The ash has been used to keep the smoke monster out, so were they trying to test if the smoke monster is inside him? I can’t think what the electricity or hot poker where for, maybe to test his reaction to pain? The smoke monster can’t travel through the Dharma Initiative’s sonar fence, so maybe electricity is a way of catching him out. Either way, it turns out that Sayid is sick. He has been infected or “claimed” as Dogen puts it. If it is Jacob or The Man in Black inside Sayid, there have been hints to this already. Sayid just isn’t acting like himself at the moment. I found it very strange when Sayid became frightened and scared, not like his usual bad-ass self when they were torturing him. The way he said “I don’t have any secrets” seemed rather odd, therefore leads me to believe he does have secrets! Tell us those secrets, Sayid. TELL US!

Jack goes to find answers from Dogen and John Lennon, but in typical Lost fashion, he doesn’t get a straight answer. He tells the guards to let him through and they part for him like Moses parted the red sea so can talk to Dogen who finally reveals himself. Their conversation goes as follows.

Jack: Who are you?
Dogen: My name is Dogen.
Jack: Are you from here, the island?
Dogen: I was brought here, like everyone else.
Jack: What do you mean, brought here?
Dogen: You know exactly what I mean…

I find this conversation interesting because why should Jack know exactly what he means? Jack was brought to the island by Desmond. He subsequently came back because of his new found faith due to John Locke. Didn’t the rest of them come to the island through the Dharma Initiative? Or is he talking about Jacob bringing him to the island? Dogen seems to be quite old school, so I get the impression that he might have been around for a long time. Longer than most. So did the black Rock bring him here? I see him as a Richard type character?

They tell him that Sayid is sick and give him the pill that will make him better. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not as I knew something was up with Sayid. They tell Jack he has to be the one who gives Sayid the pill as he wouldn’t accept it from them, and it has to be his choice to take it. Choice seemed to be an issue flowing through the whole episode. Sawyer wanted to leave, so they let him. Kate has to be the one to bring Sawyer back as it has to be his own choice to return. Dogen and John Lennon wanted Jack to come and see them on his own. Sayid has to take the pill willingly. This has been a reoccurring theme for a while now, because if you remember when it came to Ben’s spinal surgery, he couldn’t just force Jack to do it. He wanted him to “want to do it”. Again, when Ben didn’t want to let Jack and Juliet leave in season 3, he couldn’t stop them. But John Locke blew up the sub for him. I think there is something going on in the island that has to do with free will and choices and influence, but I am not too sure what that is yet.

Jack does not trust the others, and thankfully demands some answers. In showing Dogen an alternative method of Seppuku, he swallows the pill himself to gaze Dogens reaction. Yep, it was poison all along! Take that Dogen! The conversation after goes as follows.

Dogen: We believe he has been claimed.
Jack: Claimed? By What?
Dogen: There is a darkness growing in him, and once it reaches his
heart everything your friend once was will be gone.
Jack: How can you be sure of that?
Dogen: Because it happened to your sister!

DUM DUM DUM!!!! I thought this was a great way to end the temple part of the episode, as you would almost be forgiven for forgetting that Jack and Claire are siblings. I’m hoping the return of Claire will mean that we are finally going to get a meeting between Jack and his father. It better bloody happen otherwise there is a very strongly worded letter that is going to be sent to somebody, I can tell you!!

The way Dogen was talking about Sayid’s symptoms was very similar to the way Rousseau used to describe her crew when they first arrived on the island. We even got to see this first hand last season when Jin ran into Rosseau and her crew during his adventures in time-travel. They too became “sick” and “infected” and it seemed as if a “darkness” came over them. This was caused by an encounter with the smoke monster. So is it the smoke monster’s fault again that Sayid is being possessed? This sounds a lot like what Richard said to Kate when he cured Ben. He said he would never be the same again. It looks as if the same can be said of Sayid. Is it the island as a whole that causes the sickness? The spring? Jacob? How did it also happen to Claire? Did she die at the barracks back in season 4 then come back to life infected? Once again, more and more questions.

While al this is going on at the temple, Kate escapes from the others to find Sawyer. She reveals that her intentions are to find Claire and try to make up for what she has done. Jin’s intentions are to find his wife. Apart from the game of cat and mouse, one thing of interest is said. Aldo, whose sole purpose was to act like a total arse hole the whole episode so we would be happy when he got shot, wants to kill Jin. He partner, Justin, tells him not too as he might be “one of them”. Hmm, very interesting? One of whom? Someone special? Is this going back to the days of Jacob and his lists? Does “them” mean the people on Jacob’s list? The people Jacob has seen during the years? Are they “candidates” like Ilana spoke of last year? We know that Sayid’s name was on the list given to Dogen, and we presume the rest of our Losties names are on there also during their role call. It seems that Sawyers name is on that list also, as this would explain his desire for him to stay at the temple. If so, what could Jacob want them for? Is there an end game that requires them all and if so, what is it? I couldn’t fathom a guess at the moment, as I’m not even sure if Jacob is one of the good guys are not.

Just as Jin was about to get shot, Aldo and Justin get smoked. By who? Well none other than Claire! There are several questions to be asked about Claire. For example, where has she been this time? Has she been traveling through time with the rest of the Losties? What about this darkness that has taken over her? Is she good or bad? To be honest, I don’t really care. I just want to see how her reappearance has affected the people around her ie. Christian Shepherd, Locke, Jacob.

So, not a terrible episode, but not a great one either. The lack of Locke (or Flocke as he is now known as Fake + Locke) was a real downer but we still got some more answers there are some more questions raised.

1. Where has Claire been this whole time? How did she learn so many of Rosseau’s tricks?
2. In the alternate timeline, what brought Claire to LA?
3. Will we see a Kate and Claire reunion?
4. Who or what has claimed Sayid? What is the darkness?
5. What does “one of them” mean?
6. How will it end?

How will it end? How will it end? How will it end……