'Lost': What Kate Did

If you're like me and dreading this one, trust me: it's much better than you remember. Just make it through the back story and you're golden, as the on-Island stuff is top-notch for Lost fanatics. There's a little something for everyone: mythology, romance, horsies: you name it, this episode's got it. Except for "compelling flashback," naturally. Oh well, you can't have it all. Unless you're "Walkabout" or "The Constant."

What Kate Did

4) In Short

"I don't care what Hanso Studios say, I want the film cut my way!"

8) On the Island

Aww yea, Jin. Way to hit that! He comes out triumphantly, almost as if he's just given his wife less than six months to live, if you know what I mean. Sun's afterglow is disturbed by the sight of Sayid digging a grave for Shannon.

In the hatch, Jack is tending to Sawyer, impressed that the man pulled a bullet out of his own shoulder. Sawyer whispers, "I love her," in his delirium. The "her" in question may be Kate, but it also might be someone else. (Notes below.) As for her part, Kate's high in a tree, cutting down fruit for Sawyer. After nearly sliding off the tree, she notes something odd nearby: a black horse.

She returns to the hatch, slightly rattled by what she's just seen. She and Jack fight over who will watch Sawyer and who will go to the funeral. Kate wins Sawyer duty. Jack reminds her to push the button while on watch. Jack makes sure one last time that she's OK, and then leaves.

On the beach, Eko and Ana Lucia also discuss the funeral. Ana Lucia says she doesn't think she's gonna make it. Shocker, there. Everyone else gathers around the grave, experts now at organizing these events by now. Sayid gives the eulogy at the funeral. I'm unmoved. Sorry, I'm on Team Nadia. Just how I roll. He leaves, unable to speak any more, leaving Jack to finish the proceedings.

Back in the Swan, Kate puts on some music on the turntable. She talks to Sawyer, who mumbles something under his breath. When she leans in to hear him, Sawyer's eyes suddenly bulge open, and his hand suddenly wraps around Kate's neck. He screams, "Why did you kill me?" Dude, ask Morrissey, he's wondering the same thing.

The record's over, and the alarm's sounding. Jack and Locke freak out, with Locke heading towards the computer and Jack towards Sawyer. James Ford is slumped out on the floor. Locke frantically enters the numbers, almost messing them up, but manages to hit "Execute" just before the timer reaches zero. Dude, come on, I bet nothing will happen when that hits zero.

Charlie finds Kate in the jungle, and catches her up on the funeral. She's not too concerned about his report, however; she just wants to know if Charlie thinks there are horses on the Island. Charlie's seen polar bears, but no horses. She runs off without saying a word. Later, Jack finds Charlie, asks him about Kate's location, and heads off in her direction. And it's all about as boring as it sounds.

SWEET FREEDOM!!! Jin no longer has to wear his handcuff, courtesy of tools provided by Alvar Hanso. He proudly shows off his wrists to Michael, who is interested in the blast doors surrounding the dome. Locke doesn't know anything about the doors, but offers to show Michael the film. Eko wants to watch a movie as well, and suggests Blue Crush, in honor of Ana Lucia. Sadly, the Dharma Initiative isn't fond of the work of Kate Bosworth, and as such, it's orientation film time.

Jack catches up to Kate in the jungle, exasperated by her behavior. Her asking if Sawyer's OK only furthers his angst. She breaks down, and he breaks down, and it's all very Dr. Phil as the two hug and cry. Then, Kate plants a big smoochie on Jack, which I'm fairly sure doesn't happen to often on Dr. Phil. She then leaves him standing there without a word, semi-shocked by what she's done. Jack's pretty much fine with not moving for the next eight to fifteen minutes, I'd wager.

Eko and Michael watch the movie. Locke watches these two men watch the movie. Michael has a few follow-up questions, especially about the edited splices in it, but Eko stares ahead silently. When Locke asks Eko for his input, he merely walks away silently. Good God, what is it with people walking away silently in this episode?

Kate apologizes, sorta, to Sayid at Shannon's grave sight. She asks him if he believes in ghosts. Sayid replies that he saw Walt in the jungle just before Shannon was shot. Well, then. Way to make her feel better, man.

In the dome, Michael's still as inquisitive as ever about the mechanics of the hatch. Locke moves into the kitchen while Michael checks out the equipment. Eko's in the breakfast nook. He has a story for Locke. A story I'll copy and paste below from the transcripts.

Long before Christ the king of Judah was a man named Josiah. At that time the temple where the people worshiped was in ruin. And so the people worshipped idols, false gods. And so the kingdom was in disarray. Josiah, since he was a good king, sent his secretary to the treasury and said: "We must rebuild the temple. Give all of the gold to the workers so that this will be done." But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was the secretary replied, "We found a book." What the secretary had found was an ancient book -- the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple. On the other side of the island we found a place much like this, and in this place we found a book. [Eko unwraps the book and pushes it toward Locke] I believe what's inside there will be of great value to you.

He then hands over the Bible from the Arrow station. A skeptical Locke opens the book, and to his astonishment, finds inside its hollowed pages a film reel, replete with images of one Marvin Candle. All together now: I LOVE THIS SHOW.

On the beach, Jack's working out his...aggression via an axe. Hurley thinks Jack's mad at Sawyer, noting that Sawyer usually chops wood. (Really? I thought he read a lot and made snarky comments.) Hurley talks about "transference," something he learned about in the mental ward. Jack insists he's not mad at anybody.

In the hatch, Sun asks Kate to take over temporary watch over Sawyer. She reluctantly agrees. She edges slowly over to him, and says, "Can you hear me?" Pause. "Sawyer?" Pause. "Wayne?" The last word gets a bit of movement from Sawyer's fevered body. She then talks to Sawyer as if Wayne, telling him she killed him because he was a part of her, that his existence stains her, that her attraction to Sawyer only confirms that she can't ever escape her past. And, naturally, Sawyer hears all of this. This bunk bed is just ripe with opportunities for awkward situations, isn't it?

Eko and Locke are splicing the film together. "What are the odds?" Locke asks, noting that all the pieces have come together as if destined to do so. "Do not mistake coincidence for fate," Eko warns.

Sawyer's convinced the Swan's amenities imply rescue, until Kate brings him outside. Pretty amusing, his reaction. While the two talk, Kate's horse once again makes an appearance. Kate asks Sawyer if he can see it; he certainly can. Kate reaches out and touches the horse, surprised that her hand doesn't pass right through it. Sawyer asks if she knows that horse; she says she does.

Jack brings Ana Lucia the long-promised tequila, dating all the way back to the Sydney airport.

Locke and Eko watch the "Director's Cut" of the Swan orientation film. The new scene? One in which Marvin Candle urges inhabitants to not use the computer for anything other than inputting the numbers, stating communication is forbidden and could lead to another incident. Naturally, right as they watch this newly cut footage, Michael hears a beep in the dome. It's coming from the computer, with the word "Hello?" onscreen. Michael chats up this person, though to his credit doesn't ask "ASL?" After telling this person his name, the screen suddenly reads, "Dad?"

15) Off the Island

Kate's playing with a cigarette lighter on her front porch, waiting for her drunk father to come home. She helps him into bed, pulling off his boots. Drunk Daddy flirts with Kate, and it's pretty damn gross, so gross I won't describe it here. But needless to say, one gets the impression this isn't the first time this ritual has happened. Afterwards, Kate hops on a motorcycle, and drives off. But not before she Locke-s her own house with drunk daddy inside.

Post-explosion, Kate visits a diner where her mother works behind the counter. She asks her mom how her wrist is. Kate's mother lies about the source of the injury: great, he's a sexual AND physical abuser. Double the pleasure, double the fun. Kate hands over the insurance policy to the house: Kate had taken out the policy in Diane's name. Kate tells her mother to not tell anyone she saw her, and runs off.

Kate's in a bus terminal, buying a one-way ticket to Tallahassee. Behind her, a man asks if he knows her. It's none other than the U.S. Marshal we know and love, along with ten of his finest coworkers scattered throughout the terminal. Turns out Diane gave her daughter up.

It's late at night, on a rainy road. It feels very Garth Brooks. The marshal wants to know, "Why now?" Meaning, what made this seemingly normal girl suddenly go Charles Bronson. He lays out, in monologue form, a plausible scenario involving her mother divorcing, remarrying, and getting a beating for her troubles. This tale of woe is interrupted, however, by the appearance of a black horse on the road. The marshal swerves and runs the car into a tree. She kicks him out of the car and eventually drives off, but not before she gets a clear view of the horse that inadvertently (?) saved her for the moment.

Kate visits an army recruitment office. (Hi, Sayid-on-television to her right!) Her father looks stunned to see her.  Or should I say step-father: turns out Wayne, the man Kate killed, was indeed her biological father. Turns out Sam wanted to take Kate away when she was five, but Diane would have none of it. So, Kate's known all along about her paternity, or at least since her time as a teen, since her scrapbooking project for Sam revealed the truth to her some time ago. Everybody got that? Good, since parts of this story still confuse the hell out of me. Kate flashbacks make my soul hurt at times. Then again, so does scrapbooking.

16) The Mythology

Two huge developments this week: the insertion of a tactile element into the Island's various visions and the newly inserted footage of the orientation film.

We've seen visions on the Island to date, but so far as I can recall, we've never had any of our Lostaways physically touch them. I'm discounting Sawyer's boar, since that had more to do with animal possession than physical manifestation. Just how this horse could appear remained a mystery until Season 3, when the show gave an indirect by highly suggested answer: the smoke monster can appear as manifested figures from people's past. Very soon (next episode, I think), we'll see Smokey scan Eko's mind, leading to an appearance of Yemi come Season 3.

Now, is Kate's horse unequivocally Smokey? No, but I'd put some decent wages down on that bet. The larger, and more important question, is twofold: why would the smoke monster choose this form, and was the original horse in fact part of a larger plan designed to put Kate at this moment at this time? No matter what Smokey's intent, Kate nevertheless achieves a measure of closure with her past, though certainly reaches no closure in her love triangle. As to events before the crash, one can be equally persuasive arguing everything is meaningful or arguing that only through the lens of hindsight can meaningless things achieve profound stature, if you're willing to look for it.

As for the inserted footage: we now know that this footage was spliced by a former inhabitant of the Swan, a man named Radzinsky, cut this footage from the film. Radzinsky also constructed the blast door map we'll see soon enough. These two actions suggested an anarchic streak inside him, one eventually stifled by the elaborate security systems put in place by the Dharma Initiative and the powerful nature of the Island itself. But I think it's safe to say that Radzinsky WANTED people to use the computer for purposes other than pushing the buttons.

But why? What could be gained by communicating, and with whom could one communicate? It all depends on how seriously you take Candle's warnings of another incident. If you do take it seriously, then one could imply that the Others/Hostiles used the communication systems in the way Chris Hanson does on Dateline NBC, but instead of catching predators, the Others initiated a Purge. If you don't take it seriously, then this implies that the work being done in 1980-era New Otherton depending on completely leaving its employees in the dark, almost as if they were human controls, unable to be tainted by the true nature of their work.

Lastly: we know now through the Blu-Ray extras from the Season 3 set that it was indeed Walt talking to Michael through the computer. But they refuse to confirm exactly HOW Walt used the Swan computer to communicate to his father. Add "human wireless router" to Walt's already vast repository of powers.

23) The Moment

Locke opening the Bible, hands down. The perfect end to a perfect scene.

42) In Retrospect

1. Hands up: who thinks the show set up Sawyer's daughter in this episode with his muttering of, "I love her?"
2. Loved how casual Jack is in telling Kate to press the button in his absence. He's gone from extreme cynic to casual advisor in the series of a week. A small but brilliant peek into just how insidious that button pushing truly is.
3. I got all excited when Eko talked about the Book of Law, thinking, "Aha! It's the book given to Locke as a child by Richard!" But that's not he book provided by Richard. He offered Locke the Book of Laws, which is something else. Just saying this as a way of saying I screwed this up upon rewatching and want to pass on the difference to those of you who were as fooled as I was.

108) In Summary

I went into this rewatching loathing my responsibility, but just about everything on-Island is A-1 top-notch material. It's just the backstory that sucks like a Flowbee. I miss Eko/Locke interactions in the way that I miss Walt/Locke interactions. I loved seeing a Lostaway reach out and touch one of their visions. Sadly, the answer to the title of the episode was the single worst part of the show. That's Alanis Morrisette levels of irony there, people.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.