It’s taken me a while to get round to writing this. Kept putting it off until I re-watched the episode, which never happened (until now). I didn’t listen to any podcasts (really missed listening to The Transmission!), or post on any blogs.
I’m not going to say that What Kate Does was a bad episode. I’m certainly not going to say the word “filler”. I’m sure other people will point that finger, but it’s too late in the game for the writers to be throwing filler content together. This is a significant episode. Significant because the whole point of Lost is the character progression. There are a few answers in this episode too – though they probably won’t occur to us until we appreciate the connected questions.
It’s a Kate episode, and they never sit well with the fans. I’m not sure what I think of her – she’s a useful literary vehicle, if a bit of a one-trick-pony. She’s got tracking skills whenever we don’t have Locke around to make use of his. She’s a potential love interest to our two strong male characters. She causes contention with strong female characters. Like I said, she’s a useful tool.
But we never really engage with her story, we’ve had heart wrenching moments. Horrible insinuations about her past. Emotional turmoil, guilt, romance, all of those things – and we still don’t really like her, who knows why. Regardless, her story is important – and this episode tells us more of it.
Another important point is that this episode gives us some more Claire content. Something people were desperate to see. I think once we have a bit more information about whether or not the divergent timeline (see my previous entry for my opinions) will connect in any way to “our” losties – then people may care more about the “landies” (I just made that up). But people wanted Claire, and they’re giving us Claire. We also got a bit of fan-service in this episode, seeing Doc Arzt freaking out in front of the taxi.
“What’s up with Sayid’s resurrection” is the question on everyone’s lips, I’m sure. Certainly seems to be the question Dogan wants answers to. With his “tests”. Blowing powder over Sayid’s belly (or ashes, perhaps). Little bit of Rousseau-esque torture – as if Sayid hasn’t been tortured enough. Dogan seems convinced that whatever has happened to Sayid is baaad. He tells us that Sayid has been claimed – very congruent with my previous comments regarding the French team.
I think “claiming” is what happens to dead bodies. This is an entirely separate process to “appearing as someone else” (Fake-Locke, for example). Claimed people are actual bodies – reanimated. This is why bodies have to be buried on the island. Rousseau’s people were claimed, this is why they went wrong and why they left dead bodies when she shot them. I think Jacks father has been claimed (hence his body never turning up), and *drumroll* I think Claire was claimed after she died in the house explosion (seemed a little too convenient that she survived that.. didn’t it?). Part of me believes that “claiming” is souls of island inhabitants taking over dead bodies, and this is why babies die on the island – souls trying to inhabit bodies that aren’t ready for them. Like I said though, only part of me believes that.
Dogan wants Sayid dead, either because he doesn’t want the “infection” to spread, or because he doesn’t want an enemy in his camp. It may be too late in the “game” to take risks. He can’t afford to let Jack die, because Jack is on the list.
A few thoughts:
Aldo – They went to a lot of effort to make us dislike this guy, and get excited when he died.
Justin – I like Justin, his little puppy-dog expressions every time Aldo shot him down. Another character who could’ve really cleared up some things for us if they hadn’t killed him off.
Kate’s Taxi – Uhh, hasn’t she been on the run long enough to realise that she should be changing vehicles if the police are hot on her trail?
Sayid the zombie – An obvious shout out to the official lost podcast.
Claires birthing – Kate presence helps solidify the idea that a lot of things are still working the way they’re “supposed to”. He’s called “aaron” again. Of course! It’s a good name! It’s MY name.
Doctor Goodspeed – Fascinating! But not surprising. He was Goodspeed before he was “Rom”. There’s a good chance that he was taken off the island in the 70′s timeline, but brought back after the Swan was built. Then kidnapped by the others and turned into Ethan Rom. So in the divergent timeline, he couldn’t go back because the island sank. So now he’s here, doing what he does. Good on him, I was never comfortable with his death.
Sawyers ring – Amazing acting by Josh. Love the character development here, he really was in love with Juliet. I’m hoping for a divergent timeline reunion.
Dogan’s baseball – Interesting. This was a very intentional moment. Initially I thought Dogan to be a “samurai” type character, on the island for a long time, blah blah. Now i’m thinking he’s a WWII Officer. Baseball and typewriter would be the right era for him (perhaps someone gave him the baseball, someone he valued – even an enemy). He could well dislike English because he was fighting a war against the west. He’s obviously an experienced leader of men. So yeah, my shout is WWII Officer.
Dogan and Claire – He explains that the claiming has already happened to Jack’s sister (Claire). How does he know? Does Jacks Father (or whatever is inhabiting his body) visit the temple, did he bring Claire?
Feral Claire – They made a point of comparing the traps to Rousseau, but that she had been dead “for years”. going back to the soul-occupancy point from earlier – could Rousseau have taken over her body? Hmm. Not sure about that.
Anyway, a good episode – better on the rewatch than it was originally, like so many Lost episodes. Looking forward to seeing the next episode tonight!
Tags: lost, tv
