S2Ep9: What Kate Did (Kate's fourth flashback) - 11/30/05

My dear friends,

Hello and Happy New Year. It has been a long time, no? So long that after watching this episode 3 times AND reading the transcript when it originally aired, I still couldn't really remember the details of what happened, so I had to read the transcript yet again just now. I will provide a quick recap so that we are all on the same page. If you have a better memory than I do, you can scroll down to the next heading in all caps to bypass the recap.

RECAP
The episode begins with a shirtless Jin emerging from his tent, much to the delight of female fans everywhere. He is closely followed by Sun. Hurley gives Jin the thumbs up. Jack is tending to Sawyer's bullet wound in the Hatch. Sawyer is mumbling incoherently about Kate and says that he loves her. Kate is off climbing trees in the jungle, and then sees a random black horse. We cut to a flashback where she helps put some drunk creepy guy named Wayne to bed and then rides off on a motorcycle as the house Wayne is in explodes. She then goes to a diner where her mom is working and there are innuendoes that Wayne is abusive to Kate's mom. Kate also implies that she has done something to take care of this problem and hands her mom an insurance policy and then leaves.

Back in real time, Kate takes over watching Sawyer in the Hatch so Jack can go to Shannon's funeral. Sayid makes a lame speech at the funeral. Sawyer is possessed by Wayne and freaks Kate out so she bolts. Jack and Locke find Sawyer sprawled out on the floor when they return. Charlie finds Kate back in the jungle. We get another flashback of Kate trying to escape to Florida via train, but the Marshal captures her. Back in the hatch, Locke finally cuts the d@mn handcuff off of Jin. Michael realizes there are "blast doors" in the hatch.

Jack finds Kate wandering around confused in the jungle. They kiss and then she runs away looking all horrified. Back in the hatch, Michael, Eko and Locke watch the Dharma Initiative tape. Kate is now by Shannon's grave. Sayid tells her that he saw Walt. In another flashback, we see the Marshal and Kate in a car that swerves off the road after nearly hitting a... drumroll please... black horse. Kate takes this opportunity to kick the Marshal out of the car and drive off, thus beginning her life as a fugitive.

Back in the hatch, Michael starts checking out the vast computer system, while Eko schools Locke on the story of Josiah and the Book of Law. He then passes Locke the Bible he found in Hatch Lite and we see that there is a cut-out holding a roll of film in it.

We go back to Kate's flashback and see her visit her dad in an Army office. Her dad knows the Marshal is looking for her. Kate tells her dad that in the process of making a scrapbook for him for his birthday, she realized that he could not be her biological father, and that she therefore knew that Wayne was. Her father confirmed that this was true. Back in real time, Kate whispers to Sawyer about how he reminds her of Wayne and how that disgusts her because she's attracted to him. Sawyer wakes up and thinks they've been rescued because he hasn't seen the Hatch before and is confused by the fact that he's in a bunk-bed. He is dismayed to find out they are indeed still on the island and makes several humorous comments on the subject. It should also be noted that Sawyer's hair is utterly wacked out. Both Sawyer and Kate see the black horse in the jungle, so it was not a figment of Kate's imagination. Kate pets the horse and then it runs off.

Meanwhile, Jack and Ana Lucia waste precious alcohol on the beach. Back in the hatch, the episode closes with Eko and Locke watching the newly spliced video - which pretty much still doesn't say anything we haven't heard before. It just reiterates that they shouldn't use the computer for anything else other than entering the code... and if they do, it could result in another "incident." While in the other room, the computer starts beeping even though the clock is only at 51 minutes, and Michael basically starts instant messaging on the computer:
MONITOR: Hello?
MICHAEL [typing]: Hello?
MONITOR: Who is this?
MICHAEL [typing]: This is Michael. Who is this?
LONG DRAMATIC PAUSE
MONITOR: Dad?
Around the country, viewers simultaneously gasp one of three things: 1) "Whoa." or 2) "Say whaaaaaaaa?" or 3) "D@mn this show for not being on again for 6 weeks!"


On to episode comments...

R.I.P. SHANNON RUTHERFORD
Not only did we finally say goodbye to Shannon, but we also bid adieu to the total lack of chemistry that was "Shayid" (a term created by the crazy boarders, which is just as good as TomKat or Brangelina, don't you agree?).

KATE - SMOOTH CRIMINAL? OR: EVEN MORE DADDY ISSUES
I have mentioned before that several characters have "daddy issues," (Jack, Locke, Walt, baby Aaron, Sun, to name a few) and now we can add Kate to that list as well.

Moving on to the big event covered in Kate's flashback... I'm probably going to create a few enemies with this statement, but I really don't think what Kate did was THAT bad. I mean, if I'm supposed to believe that she is this criminal mastermind that's been on the run for several years, I really was expecting her Original Crime to be something just totally insane that had no justification whatsoever. There had been such build-up to it. But attempting to put an end to her mom's suffering by blowing up a house that just so happened to have her alcoholic, abusive stepfather/actual birth father in it? I was underwhelmed. Somehow in the years that followed she became skilled enough to coordinate bank robberies and elude Federal agents and local police, as well as clever enough to create disguises for herself and still keep in touch with whoever it was that sent her the letter in "Born to Run" telling her that her mom was in the hospital?... it just doesn't add up.

But there is a much bigger, darker side to Kate that we learned about in this episode, according to this message board post: "I think the most shocking aspect of Kate's backstory was that she is a scrapbooker. That speaks volumes."

In all seriousness, you should read this very detailed profile on the character of Kate, which pieces together everything we know about her so far in chronological order. Then at the bottom you will see links to the other characters' profiles. I was getting all excited thinking that I could quit working for The Man and get a job writing Lost character profiles for Wikipedia until I realized it is by and large run by volunteers. : (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Austen


IT'S ABOUT TIME
I'm glad Jin finally got that handcuff off. That's all.

KATE-JACK-SAWYER LOVE TRIANGLE
So now we know that Kate feels that since Wayne is her birth father she herself will never be "good," and therefore is not "good enough" for Jack in her mind. Yet she will also not allow herself to follow through on any attraction to Sawyer because he reminds her too much of Wayne. Well then I see no more purpose for her on the show. However, since I don't think she's going anywhere any time soon (and since Ana Lucia has taken over as my Most Hated Character), I will say that I think this whole concept of "good people" is playing and will continue to play out since apparently The Others only kidnap those who they think are good as we saw with The List in "The Other 48 Days," and since it was also a theme in this episode.

SAWYER/WAYNE
Was Sawyer somehow really possessed by Wayne? If yes, then at what point did the possession begin? Was it Sawyer talking about Kate when he said "Where is she?" and "I love her" at the beginning, or was he talking about someone else from his past that we don't know about yet? Or was he already Wayne at that point? Was he ever really Wayne and did he ever really say "Why did you kill me???" to Kate, or was that all a hallucination much like Jack seeing Zombie-Dad? I have no answers for you, only questions. Sorry.

BLACK BEAUTY
There was much discussion on the boards about what exactly the black horse represented, if anything. Boarders pointed out that the black horse represents famine in the Bible (one of the four horses of the Apocalypse). Somehow I do not see the connection there with this episode. More logical theories are that the horse represented "innocence" or "hope" or was Kate's savior in some way. Other people thought that perhaps Kate willed the horse into existence as it saved her before in her life and she needed help again now. This could be a possibility as we think we've seen happen on the show before (Walt willing the polar bear into existence, Jack willing Charlie back to life, etc.).

BLAST DOORS
Here is my prediction: At some point, the blast doors are going to go down - and some people will be trapped inside. Extremely creative thinking on my part, I know.

I'LL FORGIVE YOU IF YOU MISSED THIS ONE
Because I did, too - and I KNEW it was going to be there (sometimes I can't avoid spoilers)! Sayid was on the TV monitor when Kate went to visit her dad in the Army office. I have seen it blown up and from slightly later screen captures - it's definitely him. We have not seen this part of his history in his flashbacks yet, but I am pretty sure there will be another Sayid flashback coming up soon.

WHAT ABOUT POOR EX-MUTE CHICK?
I just wanted to point out that no one has thought twice about the fact that Cindy disappeared into thin air the previous day. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

LOCKE AND EKO
I have to admit that I was a tad worried when Eko started telling his story to Locke, because if they turned him into some religious fanatic I was going to be mad. But it was all good, thankfully. Everyone is loving the Locke and Eko interactions... I hope TPTB (the powers that be) don't turn them on each other.

Regarding Eko's big line of the night, "Don't mistake coincidence for fate" - people were divided as to what he actually meant by this. The best way I could sum up the debate was that the general consensus was that while both Locke and Eko of are a similar nature and therefore aren't going to be in opposition as much as, say, Jack and Locke are, that Eko has more true spiritual faith while Locke is believing in the Island and fate. Some people thought, as I did, that when Eko was telling the story to Locke before he revealed the hidden film, it was actually meant to serve as kind of a warning about worshipping "false idols" as Locke is kind of worshipping the island.

ORIENTATION VIDEO
There was controversy amongst the nerds on the boards who claim that Dr. Marvin Candle (the narrator of the Orientation video) looked different in the spliced footage, so that therefore that footage was not meant to be part of the Station 3 video that Locke was watching, but rather another video in another hatch (supposedly there are 6 stations across the island). I have seen the comparison - the biggest difference to me is that his hair is parted differently.

Here is where I need to wonder: are people reading too much into this? The producers of this show are only human - they probably shot the extra scenes later and didn't exactly match up everything exactly. But then again - this is Lost - and TPTB are smart and KNOW everyone examines every little detail... so were the slight differences in Candle's appearance on purpose? Once again, no answers for you.

CLARIFICATION ON THE COUNTDOWN CLOCK
According to some posters on the boards who I definitely trust, the clock only counts minutes until it gets down to 4 minutes and the buzzer starts going off. THEN it starts also counting down seconds. So the clock did not "freeze" at 51 minutes at the end of the episode when Michael noticed the message like many people (including me) thought.

GHOST IN THE MACHINE
Who knew that really old computers had instant message technology loaded onto them? This had to have been the beta version of AIM or something. Regardless, the "Dad?" at the end WAS freaky and definitely a surefire way to ensure viewers return after the 6-week hiatus. This is yet another example of why I am so glad I'm not into the hard-core spoilers anymore because several people on the boards knew that scene was coming and therefore it was no big surprise to them. After my initial shock, all I could think was that you KNOW at the very last shot of the episode Michael was pursing up his lips to once again yell his trademark
"WAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!"

A few of the posts on this subject were so hilarious to me that I had to pull them into the write-up because I know not everyone has time to read the boards, and I thought that all should be entertained, so here are the top three:
1)
"It would have been funny for Michael to type: "OMG!!!! WALT! WTF!!!"

2)
>: OMG WALT IZ THAT U
>: YEA DAD ASL PIRATES TOOK ME LOL LOL LOL"

3)
"Love that the Others look like something out of "Deliverance" and don't wear shoes, but they have e-mail. WTF?"


So the question at hand is just that... Is it really Walt typing, or is it The Others? Or someone else? And what is going to happen now that Michael broke the "do not use the computer for anything else but entering the code" rule? I really have no idea on this one. I find it hard to believe that Walt is just hanging out somewhere else playing on a computer, and find it more likely that they are somehow being watched and that someone is playing with Michael's head. What will be interesting to me is if Michael tells anyone about it. If he does and the word gets spread around, will Sayid (or now Kate) tell Michael that Sayid thinks he saw Walt the previous day? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE:
Locke: Hello again.
Eko: Hello.

EKO: I have something I think you should see. If you don't mind, I will begin at the beginning. Long before Christ the king of Judah was a man named Josiah.
LOCKE: Boy when you say beginning, you mean beginning.

[Jack chopping wood, as Hurley approaches.]
HURLEY: Hey. [Jack doesn't answer] So, Rose's husband's white, didn't see that one coming.

KATE: [after long speech to 'Wayne' who she thinks is inside of Sawyer]... And every time that I look at Sawyer -- every time I feel something for him -- I see you, Wayne. It makes me sick.
SAWYER: [finally wakes up] That's about the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

LOCKE: ...I mean, think about it. Somebody made this film. Someone else cut this piece out. We crash -- 2 halves of the same plane fall in different parts of the island -- you're over there, I'm over here. And now, here's the missing piece right back where it belongs. What are the odds?
EKO: Don't mistake coincidence for fate.


NEXT EPISODE: 1/11/06

Remember when I said I'd heard of two different things that the next episode could be about? Well from the look of the previews, I think one of them was right. I believe the first episode of 2006 will be entitled "The 23rd Psalm" and will be the highly anticipated Eko flashback. For you heathens out there, the 23rd Psalm is the "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" one, which at the very least you should've recognized from Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" because they played it approximately every 11 minutes in 1995. From the scenes shown, it appears that Eko will face The Monster. I will only say this: IF THEY DARE KILL OFF EKO.... well..., ok, realistically, I will still watch the show, but I will have to at least organize a sit-in or something. I will not tell you what the other thing was I heard the episode could be about, in case they do it in the future.

Finally, I'm kind of mad at the writers for not showing us the initial words between Jack and Ana Lucia after they met in the jungle, or the first reactions of the original Lostaways to seeing the person who just killed Shannon. Cop out.


HE WAS ROBBED
Golden Globe Nominations for Lost:
Best Drama
Best Actor in a Drama (Matthew Fox/Jack)
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama (Naveen Andrews/Sayid)
WHAT? NO TERRY O'QUINN/LOCKE NOMINATION???? I DEMAND JUSTICE!!!!!!


Until next time,
- e