Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lost “What Kate Does” Flirts With Boredom

Photo from ABC
It was bound to happen. After last week’s two hour exciting season premiere of Lost (”LA X Parts 1 and 2”), the episode “What Kate Does” was a bit of a snoozer and seemed to drag. Still, it provided just enough drama to keep the main story moving, even though it wasn’t as gripping as the season opener.

The episode focused on Kate (Evangeline Lily) but thankfully it wasn’t completely about Kate. In the timeline on the island, along with Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Kate follows Sawyer (Josh Holloway) when he decides to escape from the temple, Kate saying she can convince him to come back. But she has other motives, taking off and separating herself from Jin and the 2 other people from the temple that came along to get Sawyer. She catches up with Sawyer in the home he and Juliet used to share while working for the Dharma Initiative. The scene stealer here was Sawyer, who showed both his love for Juliet and his consuming grief over her death. It may have been one of Josh Holloway’s best scenes in the series. Meanwhile, in the other timeline back in Los Angeles, Kate has commandeered a taxi by holding a gun to the driver and keeping the passenger, a very pregnant Claire (Emilie de Ravin), in the back seat. When the taxi driver exits the taxi and takes off, Kate takes the wheel and refuses at first to let Claire go. But later she does, taking Claire’s travel bag with her. Kate makes a stop at an auto body shop and gets her handcuffs cut off for $200, and when she goes to change her clothes, she rifles though Claire’s bag and finds baby clothes and a large stuffed animal (a killer whale). These baby things gives Kate second thoughts and she goes back to pick up Claire to take her to her destination – the home of the people who are set to adopt her baby.

But Claire is in for a shock when she gets to the house – Kate accompanying her to the door – and finds that the adoption is off because the couple who was going to adopt is no longer a couple. Right on the doorstep. Claire goes in to early labor and Kate accompanies her to the hospital. While the doctor – who also is the creepy Ethan (William Mapother) from the island - administers the necessary drugs to slow down or stop the labor, Kate stands by Claire, seeming to care what happens. When the police come looking for Kate in the hospital, Claire covers for her and Kate makes her escape.

Back on the island at the temple, the leader of the temple people, Dogan (Hiroyuki Sanada), isn’t thrilled that Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is alive, and Sayid’s gunshot wound is almost completely healed. Dogan puts Sayid through what Sayid is told is a test, but it looks like torture. It is interesting that Sayid is the one being subjected to torture since he himself was a torturer. Things get weirder when Dogan wants Jack (Matthew Fox) to give Sayid a pill that Dogan says will “cure” Sayid of his “infection” and will prevent the infection from spreading. Jack mistrusts Dogan and, after taking with Sayid, takes the pill himself, much to Dogan’s shock. Once Dogan forces the pill out of Jack’s mouth, Dogan admits it is a poison. By the way, Dogan also speaks in English to Jack, telling Jack that speaking in his other language and needing translations helps to separate him from the people he leads. Dogan also tells Jack they were trying to kill Sayid because he believed Sayid had been "claimed," the closest English translation for Dogan’s foreign language word for it. When Jack asks "By what?" Dogan explains there is a darkness growing in Sayid and once it reaches Sayid's heart, everything he once was would be gone. When Jack asks how Dogan can be sure, Dogan tells him it happed to Jack’s sister (Claire).

Elsewhere, Jin, who is off on the island by himself, the two guys from the temple, Aldo and Justin, catch up to him and attack him, and as Jin tries to run off, his leg gets caught in a trap. As it appears Jin will be shot, gunshots ring out and Aldo and Justin fall to the ground. Jin looks up to the direction of the gunshot, and sees Claire standing there, very much alive and looking like a blonde version of (Danielle Rousseau) – and the episode ends.

I am not quite sure what I was supposed to get out of this episode. Are we to think that Claire has turned to some sort of dark side? If so, why would she be helping Jin? In the other timeline, Kate is still running from the law, but in this timeline is she guilty of what she is accused? And who exactly are the good guys and the bad guys on the island – are the temple people on the good side or the bad, and who can be trusted? And this is exactly what makes Lost a great TV show, despite the occasional lackluster episode – it keeps viewers guessing.


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