Lost 6.03: What Kate Does, Part 1

I am not a Kate fan. Having to watch episodes dedicated to her is painful. She’s so worthless and vapid and one-note. She’s a girl. Surely I have many more complaints about the way they write women, but Sawyer said it best: “He’s an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids. He definitely deserves another go around.” Juliet, the super smart and smart-alecky nurturing-but-WILL-shoot-you love of his life…well, she’s just a girl, who needs her? But this is mostly a show—and one of the best shows of all time—about men and their fathers, so really, some negligent form of misogyny is to be expected. So whatever. It’s cool.

OK, upon rewatching last week’s ep, I noticed something I’m sure everyone else noticed before, but the customs lady called Sun ‘Ms. Paik.’ What’s up with that? Are they not married? That was soooo not a flub up. Awesome! I’m excited to find out what’s up with them. I’m not even going to theorize. If succeeding eps follow the path “What Kate Does” took, we may get next to NO relevant in-depth answers as to how people got where they are in Timeline 2.

And they pointed out what I suppose was the primary thing they wanted us to get from the Kierkegaard book. I was all focused on the trusting in the absurd thing, which is still a deal, but they mention it’s a telling of the Abraham/Isaac story, illustrating I suppose just what fun things can happen when one has too much faith in what is clearly absurdity. Did someone say something about sacrificing your child in the name of a man you never met? Ah, faith. Good times. Back to ‘God’ later, but probably not this entry…

Also, I neglected to say how scary it is that Hurley is wearing a red shirt. SPOILER AHEAD!!!!!!!! Supposedly the second to last ep is a Hurley ep though, so maybe nothing to worry about. /SPOILER

Sayid: He’s been claimed. WTH?! Is this the sickness from seasons past? Do you only get it if healed from the waters, or when near death, or is it transferred some other way? (I can’t wait to rewatch all the previous seasons for the severalth time and really see how all this melds together!) Will they bother letting us know how that test works? I don’t mind them not telling if it means better stuff gets told, but still, the ash-blowing thing was weird, right? Was there to be a reaction from the ash when electrified or sweated on or burned, or was it three different tests? Was he in too much pain, not enough? Did he react some weird way? What would ‘passing’ the test look like? Or is this a ‘if she drowns, she’s innocent’ thing? We’ve seen how little Ben came out. They did not apparently need to torture him to see if he was infected/claimed. I wondered if ‘forgetting’ is part of the process, then maybe you can’t remember ‘too much’ about your past or what happened. But Ben remembered his father and Dharma, so surely it’s ok for Sayid to remember a lot about his past. (Unless they DID test Ben or Ben was claimed and they didn’t know, or or or…)

Claire: Oh I love that they so blatantly set up what was going to be the fun end of this ep. We get the Aldo/Justin dreamteam letting it slip that the traps are new and there’s a new Rousseau in town, and of course the whole back story involves a Claire. Does the Island or MIB have NEED of a trap-rigging crazy woman with an accent who’s been separated from her baby? It’s fantastic that she replaces Rousseau. I’m sure I could say many deeper things about it, but it really just is perfect. And to know that this infection is what happened to Claire! So, was she put in the pool or does the sickness happen some other way? (I already asked that, but it applies again.) Did she catch it from Christian? The theory has long been that she died in the mercenary attack and that’s why Miles was looking at her so weird, but considering our latest understanding of Miles’ powers, it’s more likely he was confused by the presence of some other entity, possibly Christian (Smokey?). I don’t know still, actually. Oh, also, this means the Others are aware of Jack’s connection to Claire?! What do they know and why and how?

Miles: WTH is his deal? I first convinced myself that his weird look was because Sayid wasn’t actually dead, but is there more? Considering how he looked at the Claire situation back in S4, maybe he can sense the Smokeyness but doesn’t understand it so he never explains? *shrug*

Tearjerking: The main thing about this episode was just how freakin’ emotional it was. From Sawyer just tearing me UP with his heartbreak over Juliet, to Claire/Kate’s Aaron bonding, to even Kate/NewJack parting…these moments were excellent. They were nearly ruined by the interspersing of those HORRIBLE Kay’s jewelry commercials, but I digress…

Parallels: I bet if I had some time, I could find some good ones between previous stories and this one (I think Kate used the ‘Joan Hart’ alias when she went to see her mom in the hospital and then got Tom killed, but I’d have to check). The idea that the Island timeline is influencing events in Timeline 2 is starting to appeal to me. The idea that cool Timeline 2 Jack is getting cool beams from cool Timeline 1 Jack is a bit awesome to me. I also like the idea that Kate redeems her Timeline 1 self through her Claire/Aaron-positive actions in Timeline 2. And again, we got our main character face to face with a mirror. Nice. I also liked that Timeline 1 Claire was giving up the baby because her man left her but she was all pissed that the adoption lady was doing the same. I need to watch again already. Does Claire explain if her reasons are the same? We get no clue about Thomas, the psychic, or anything. Will we ever? Do we need to?

Jack: “I don’t even trust myself.” Good lord, he’s admitting he has no idea, can’t fix things, etc. Poor guy, though. This admission, as I have learned over and over again, does NOT enlighten you about what the right thing to do is. It just makes you painfully aware of your real position. You know you are ignorant and probably in a lose-lose situation, so you either do nothing or do something, likely wrong no matter what. Ug. But for the first time since Season 1, I actually felt real sparks and honesty between him and Kate.

Kate: Again, I’m not a Kate fan. This episode doesn’t change that. Like, I don’t even want to analyze her. She’s ridiculous for following Sawyer, she’s oblivious to the needs of others, and I don’t even care if she gets redeemed for it. Still, I don’t begrudge the episode. I appreciate what she ‘does’ in it.

The Others: They are protecting the people on Jacob’s list, or so I presume, yet they allowed Kate and Jin to follow Sawyer? Yet Sawyer was important enough for Dogen to plead in ENGLISH that he stay? Jin wants to find Sun (which it finally stupidly clicks to me that he CAN!) and gets a beartrap to the ankle! Bah! But in the meantime the Aldo/Justin doof-fest reveals that Jin ‘may be one of them’? Huh? They all saw the list being confirmed, right? Well, that can be explained away any number of ways, I suppose. I’m more interested in what the Others think these ‘ones’ are supposed to do than I am who is on the list of ‘ones’?

Other stuff: free will thru manipulation, Kate’s ep title in the present tense, Dogen’s theory of staying separate from his flock, Sawyer is in crazy pain, which always plants the seeds of the dark side. The idea that neither of these storylines is truer than the other. They both are. I do not take credit for the mention of Schrodingers Cat here, but yeah. Maybe both are true until some unknown observance smooshes the two Timelines into one reality somehow. I have no idea (but someone does and I should look it up later). I’d say it’s easier to just go with the two realities split at the mo of the bomb, but I do see the big problem with that: I really think in the end, these two Timelines will have to be one. We will have to see that it’s actually at the end of THIS Island run that Jack finds the reset button, or if that feels like a ripoff, then some ingenious way to Schro-Cat us without us feeling like one timeline was just bogus all along. This will be tricky, and again, I don’t want to speculate too much! I would be too disappointed to actually guess something right!

General notes: I’m happy with the pace they are answering things. I’m also happy with the pace they are introducing new things and trusting us to figure them out or know what to let go. For example, to some, it may be a new question when Dogen says he was brought here like the rest of them, but as intriguing as that sentence is, I don’t care in any end-game sort of way. I am perfectly happy taking it as a “Jacob called us” comment. Those kinds of mysterious comments need to be accepted with a lot less detailed expectation now. They write that stuff I’m sure because if they didn’t have a mystery question a minute, we’d all think it was boring because of our training. And it does remind us that everyone has a story and is part of the bigger story. I’m sure the answers will be published in badly written paperback form for years. I’m not clever enough by half for most of the bigger stuff, but luckily some people are. Hopefully I’ll get to read what some of those people have to say soon.

If only I were Daniel Faraday: “But I can MAKE time.”