Lost: ‘What Kates Does’ Review

There were three warning signs for the Lost community, advising us not too get too riled up for our (technically) third episode of the year. First up, after the two-hour bombardment of awesome WTF-ery in the premiere, everyone knew it would be time to settle into Lost’s bread and butter; episodes with a single character as the centerpiece. The second reason for hesitation came from the title, “What Kate Does,” indicating a Kate-centric episode. And  finally, a big red flag was waved for anyone on Twitter as the episode was already airing on the East Coast. A single tweet from exec producer and Lost mastermind Damon Lindelof advised people complaining about “filler” to switch over to NCIS: Los Angeles. While people complaining about geeky stuff is exactly why the Internet was created (I think), things always get deadly serious when it results in a recommendation for LL Cool J/ Chris O’Donnell television programming.

Despite the apprehension, I was very relieved that “What Kate Does” was a solid episode, containing little filler and lots of killer. But most importantly, the episode gave me a personal breakthrough, as I’m finally ready to forgive Kate for breaking Captain Mal’s heart in Season Three, and  for generally appearing to be flakier than the current Snowmageddon, as we’ve watched her over the years, jump from Jack to Sawyer to Jack to Sawyer to Jack to Aaron to back to the Island to look for Claire.

The eureka moment where we got critical insight into Kate’s born-to-run psyche began when Jin and Kate were about to go their separate ways, after taking down a couple of Others (Hello again, and goodbye, Aldo!). Jin, acting as a viewer surrogate, asked exactly what most people have always wanted to ask Kate through their television screens:

“Who do you care about, Kate?

Once you catch up with Sawyer — then what?”

Although the second question is kind of a dig at Kate’s apparent wishy-washiness, Jin’s first question is really the most important one asked of the fugitive in probably the entire run of the show, especially considering the way “What Kate Does” played out. We get to see exactly what Kate cares about; just about everyone but herself. Like many things on Lost, it’s easy to confuse things that are usually polar opposites. In this case, the line between running away from your problems and altruism can seem thin. Although her decisions don’t always seem to be logical, Kate’s actions throughout the series have proven that she cares more about those close to her to the point where she’ll sacrifice herself, put herself directly in harm’s way, and even kill, to prove it — no matter what universe she’s in. Playing with the Season Six flash-sideways format, we got two Kate stories where she does exactly that.  In the Island-verse, Kate tracks down James and attempts to console the broken-hearted rogue, while in the LA X–verse, Kate helps Claire with Aaron-related matters, after feeling bad about the whole taxi-jacking-at-gunpoint fiasco.

There were a few not-so-subtle hints thrown out that Kate might not actually be a murderer in in the LA X-verse.  If Kate still winds up an escaped convict, even though she didn’t kill anyone, it seems like we might be encountering some interesting paradoxes, finding out if these characters can ever truly change, or make decisions of their own, or if their part in the world is already planned. The winds of fate also played an interesting role in the LA X-verse as we relived some very déjà vu-ish Island moments with Kate and pregnant Claire running around Los Angeles, culminating with Ethan’s reappearance. Even off The Island, Ethan is a doctor who plays a critical role in helping Claire with Aaron. Consider me very interested in how other previously seen major and minor characters may still be connected in a world without Flight 815 crashing on The Island.

The episode’s strongest scene took place in the Island-verse, back at the Dharma dock, after Kate finally caught Sawyer rooting through his old belongings, buried underneath the floorboards. James’ confession about feeling guilty for Juliet’s death, and that he believes he’s destined to be alone,  was a heartbreaking admission that further showed how far the man we first knew as Sawyer has come. (Although with all the seething guilt and remorse he’s carrying, it’ll be interesting to see if he starts slipping back into pure Sawyer-mode from Season One. His line about Sayid coming back at the beginning of the episode was a razor sharp indictment about how unfair Island life can be.) Kate’s attempts at consoling James also seemed like a conscious call-back to Season One’s “live together, or die alone” theme, and although she seemingly did little to help with words, by being by his side she helped more than he would ever admit.

But in both worlds, the episode did show what us very literally what Kate has always done. That’s what makes it a (finally) solid Kate-centric episode, as we get to see her in two universes, hard-wired to selflessly help and care for others.

Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the trust-issue shenanigans going on back at the temple with Sayid failing (or passing) the Irony Test (ex-torturer being tortured), and Dogen raiding Morpheus’ medicine cabinet for the Grey Pill. Another layer of revelations is bubbling to the surface, but, like the Temple’s pool, it’s still muddy. After last week’s Sayid cliffhanger, we find out that he is not a zombie, but that he is “infected.”  What exactly that means is up in the air, but with Dogen’s comment to Jack about everyone on The Island being “brought” there, the logical conclusion seems to be the next player to be “claimed” in Smokey and Jacob’s game will be Sayid.

Interestingly, Dogen implied that the people Jack had failed to protect, or that he felt guilty over, were also at risk of the infection growing. And if the sickness is falling to Team Smokey, as seems the case from the flashback of Rousseau’s confrontation with Robert last season, Team Jacob has a lot of reasons to be worried, especially with the Titanic-sized guilt Shep carries around.

[One of the more confusing moments came after Dogen tells Jack his sister is “claimed”, then we see Claire doing her best Rousseau impression at the end –are we supposed to assume Rousseau was also Team Smokey, too? ]