Next: “What Kate Does” (Episode 6-03)

Josh Holloway, you broke our hearts. Bravo. We had lowered expectations for this presumed “Kate episode,” and on most related points, we were right for having them. But for all the complaints we could readily recite from the cliché of Kate going after Sawyer actually being remarked upon to a largely flat and somewhat surreal off-island destraction — we did not hate “What Kate Does.” We both actually liked it.

And for Jen to say this about an episode with Kate’s name in the title, frankly, is no small feat for “LOST.”

On the character front, Sawyer’s crushing confession hit hard. We remarked last week that Josh Holloway’s descent into nihilism was a powerful turn, and our love for his talent only grew this week. Even saddled with on-the-nose lines like, “Do what you want with him, or anybody else,” he made us believe that this nearly redeemed man now had absolutely nothing to lose. And Dogen? Not since the introduction of creepy Benjamin Linus in Season Two have we been so confused yet simultaneously charmed by a new character. He’s mysterious and brooding, yet wry and funny… in a dignified way.

Jen thought Dogen’s pill presentation was very “Matrix.” And pointed out that Dogen’s leadership strategy, using a translator to add some distance between him and the people he leads, is something that Ben probably should have considered.

It’s a shame to think that this leader has to work with knuckleheads like Justin and (the now late) Aldo. But their two line debate over whether Jin is “one of them” or not was telling. The way Dogen was clearly concerned with Sawyer’s safe return, along with the recitation of names that Dogen called for when our losties were first brought to the temple, it’s obvious there’s something special about these specific people. Our people.

And on the mythology front, the reappearance of Claire before the final thud wasn’t even the most interesting clue. It was the diagnosis of poor Sayid, who’s not a zombie, but will possibly become one in due time. He, like Claire, has been “claimed,” and a darkness is growing within him. It seems that Claire is already lost to the dark side of the force, and the question is, who else has been so infected? The late Christian Shephard seems a good guess. These would be the agents of the Man In Black.

Claire did seem to be channeling a bit of Danielle Rousseau in her half second on screen, and she’s obviously been setting Rousseau-like traps. Also, the way Justin (or Aldo?) said Rosseau had been dead for a while seemed to suggest that perhaps our crazy Frenchwoman had a share of darkness within her as well. On the other hand, out of everyone on the island, she seemed most wary of “the sickness,” and the similarity between Sayid’s torture test and Rosseau’s car battery interrogation in Season 1 is obvious. I’m going to say Rosseau managed to steer clear of infection, just not of bullets.

One thing that stood out this week? Our friends at the temple seem to be big on free will and choice. After more than one physical scuffle with Jack, the burly guards obediently step aside when he finally decides he wants to talk to Dogen. And Dogen said Sayid had to take the pill — the poison pill — willingly. Indeed, the way Dogen asks Sawyer to stay, coupled with the way Hurley was told the alarm wasn’t to keep them locked in, suggests that our losties aren’t entirely the prisoners they think they are.

And what of the off-island storyline? There’s no doubt Kate had several moments of deja vu, from spotting Jack at the airport, to pulling the stuffed orca out of Claire’s backpack (the same whale that Aaron clutched in “Something Nice Back Home”), to hearing Aaron’s name. A name that even surprised Claire. So we get that there are links between the world where Oceanic 815 crashed and the world where it didn’t. But honestly it still seems like a distraction, a writers’ flight of “what if” fancy, particularly when the story we all thought we were following is still unfolding on the island. Sure, it was awesome to see Ethan again (talking about needles, no less), but we didn’t even see Unlocke, Alpert, Ben and friends this week. I can only hope to be wonderfully surprised with a big payoff further down the line.

  • The zombie conversation was hilarious. But Miles topped it with, “We’ll be in the food court if you need us.”
  • Dogen’s dry answers to Jack were great. “What’s that?” “A baseball.” “What’s this?” “Tea.” Reminiscent of Alpert’s explanation of a compass to Locke: “It points north, John.”
  • Doc Arzt pulls the “Taxi Driver” “Midnight Cowboy” line, “I’m walkin’ here!” Just like Sawyer did when Christian hits him with the car door in “Two for the Road.”
  • In contrast, Kate had some real clunkers. Her astonished lines with Sawyer in the temple as they looked at Sayid were, it seemed, practically a re-run of the same astonished conversation in the same dark corner as last week.
  • So is this the end of the Kate-Sawyer side of the love triangle? I hope so. I’m not sure if I can take another go ’round. There definitely seemed to be some heat on the Kate-Jack side. I don’t care who Kate chooses. I just want her to choose and be done with it.
  • It’s great to see Jin speaking English. And his desperate search for Sun is understandable. But they’ve been kept apart so long, I’m starting to forgetting the chemistry they had, and I’m afraid their reunification will be less Rose and Bernard and more “Waaalt!”
  • Locations: Honolulu International Airport (LAX), Koapaka Street (where Kate left, then came back for, Claire), Hawaii Medical Center West (where Kate took Claire) and a home in Kahala (Claire’s would-be adoptive parents’ home).

What did you think of “What Kate Does”? right now! Commenting below is the best way to submit feedback, so you can share your thoughts with fellow listeners immediately. You can also e-mail us at lost@hawaiiup.com, or call the LOSTline at (815) 310-0808. We love hearing from you.

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279 Responses to Next: “What Kate Does” (Episode 6-03)

  1. Carol from Boston says:

    @mirepoix – did you see the preview for next week? It looks like something different will happen. I don’t know if it will be a spoiler if I say what the previews showed us. So I won’t say anything but you can go view the preview on abc.com. I am surprised at the director for making such a huge mistake with the sonogram date. They know how we take apart everything (which is half the fun of the show!)

    @Team Jacob – I see your points but I won’t be convinced to join the team till I get more proof. Right now still Team Dark. ๐Ÿ™‚

    @Yann, Dharma was doing experiments, I wouldn’t call them evil, they were scientists, certainly a mass death was not called for, there were some bad Dharma people, but I can’t believe people that say “namaste” are out do do bad things.

    I guess I am in the minority here, I don’t hate Kate. She is very self centered but I do like that in many ways she is as strong woman willing to stand up for herself. Plus I wouldn’t mind being her and being able to choose between Jack and Sawyer ( or her first husband played by Nathan Fillion)

  2. Carol from Boston says:

    @nuckinfuts – ever notice the Oceanic Logo looks like an open eye? You could try Lostpedia for the eye shots. I have never noticed anything.

  3. NuckinFuts says:

    @ Rich in Cleveland – A respectable and reasonable choice in sides, sir. We shall see… When I saw the previews before the season they did say that sides will be taken…I didn’t think it would boil down to us. But it should be fun as long as everyone respects the “Others” points of view…paraphrasing something Locke said once: “To you, I’m an Other.” Let the games begin!

    Of course Sayid said, “A twelve-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm doing?”

    @ Mirepoix in Mtl –

    RE: ‘Rampage’ – I didn’t think Kate looked younger…I think it was shot now.
    RE: synchronicity – I am wondering with the fact that time on the island seems to be different from time off the island as proven by Faraday and the doc’s dead body floating up on the beach if this means that the timelines can converge becuase time moves a lot slower on the island…unless you use a specific quardinant ( spelling )
    RE: Sawyer – I think he said that he planned to go back to the Temple and told Kate she should get ready to go back too…I know he has no significant reason to participate any longer, but, I also think he has nothing to lose now. I figure that he is a man of action and will be un-afraid to start getting to the bottom of all this

  4. I just had a thought, that really has nothing to do with What Kate Does, but with Hurley. What if Hurley doesn’t see Dead People, but is able to see people from the Tangent Universe/Alternate Reality? This is the same plot device as in Donnie Darko, when Donnie is able to see Frank the Rabbit, who isn’t dead in the real reality, but dead in the future of the Tangent Universe.

    This could, of course, further differentiate his and Miles powers, since Miles doesn’t see dead people, but can speak to them, which, I would much rather not see an explanation for. But Hurley’s ability to tap into the alternate reality could really be the way that our universes merge. Just a thought I wanted to throw out there….

  5. Tony from Cleveland says:

    Ok, the majority of my post has nothing to do with “What Kate Does,” but I will state that it was an okay episode.

    It certainly held up Jen’s Sliding Doors comparison of the two realities. I recall one scene wear Kate was looking through her bag on the island and then it cut to her looking through Claire’s bag in LA. yada yada yada…

    What I really wanted to write about though is a theory on Juliet. Is it possible that Juliet is from the future? If you recall her flashback in the “Incident” episode was very modern day, if this is the case wouldn’t she know if the bomb denotation was successful and everyone is ok.

    Sorry to bring up old stuff.

  6. LReene says:

    @Tony from Cleveland – WOW, was I ever glad to see your post here regarding Juliet, and the fact that it was regarding an older episode and not “What Kate Does”. I’ve been wanting to post the following for a few days now but was hesitant for the “bringing up old stuff” reason.

    @Everyone – Ok, here is a theory I’ve had for a while now about Juliet. Although I’ve read various posts suggesting that there are others who are thinking along the same lines, I have yet to see anything that says why. It seems to be just a “gut” feeling, no pun intended ๐Ÿ™‚

    I think Juliet was pregnant, and that was not only what she wanted to tell Sawyer just before she died, but what she did tell him through Miles by telling him “It Worked”. Now to try to explain………….

    In the episode “Not In Portland”, everyone that Juliet told about her sister’s pregnancy, she started out by saying “It Worked”. She then waited for them to inquire as to “What worked”, and responded joyfully with the news that her sister was pregnant. What better way for team Darlton to confuse us all but to continue this continuity, and let Miles deliver the line no less. Most everyone thinks “It Worked” meant that the bomb did indeed reset everything (which it may very well have). But I also believe “It Worked”, also meant that she was PG.

    Also, I believe Miles could sense there was something different with Juliet when he was helping Sawyer bury her, and that was the reason Sawyer had to force him into talking to her (or actually listening to her). Remember, he first said to Sawyer “it doesn’t matter”, when Sawyer finally pushed him on the issue, he responded with “It Worked”.

    Now I think the interesting part will be, what transpired between the time Juliet banged on the Bomb in 1977, and when they found here at the bottom of the shaft in 2007? Maybe something “off island” in the sideways flashes?

    I think we are in for one wild and interesting ride this season. Right up to the very end.

    Sorry if I didn’t explain my thoughts very well here. Hopefully I got the highlights across.

  7. ShannyMac3T0 says:

    @Yann From France lol…. today’s tweet

    I will learn to hold my tongue. That being said, never put baby in a corner. And by “baby,” I mean LOST.

    http://twitter.com/DamonLindelof

    @NuckinFuts I have been saying that Locke’s eyes turn black from time to time al la Andre Linoge in Stephen King’s Storm of the Century.

  8. James says:

    Knives,

    Thanks for being a calm voice. I figured my rant would elicit some kind of extreme reaction. If I really thought it was boring, I wouldn’t watch at all, but I am still captivated. I just have too much invested at this point.

    But I want to highlight the brilliant analysis someone made above about the writing of this particular episode. I did think of the actual taxi business stuff was just silly. So I am not even complaining about the big notions like the potential of a fountain of youth. No, on the contrary, I am finding the more mundane stuff implausible.

    Are we really supposed to mourn for Sawyer when his relationship to Juliet was mostly something that happened off-camera in the three years he spent in the Dharma camp? I still thought we had a decent love triangle with Jack and Kate. I just don’t think the writer’s have earned that Juliet relationship, let alone play it to the heights of melodrama. I also felt that the choice to show a future flash with Kate and Jack in a relationship was a total mistake. It would be the equivalent of showing the two leads in Moonlighting get together. So much for all that dramatic tension.

    Now Kate just seems like vain woman who hasn’t figured herself out, not in a profound way, but in an annoying way.

    And regarding these New Others… can’t we just have a little CONTEXT. I know the characters can’t communicate the questions we all have or the show will end, but can’t they at least behave with some rationality?

    I like the free will versus determinism stuff, but why would our heros just go along with these strangers without concrete reasons why. And it doesn’t help to give our characters the silly questions to cover it up? There should be a more elegant way to exposit that information.

    Okay, so you take the guy and put him in the water. Can you explain that for me? Oh, you just killed him? Okay, that sucks. Wait, now he’s alive and you want to kill him again. I think by that point they are not going to be so obedient to these people, but there they are, acting like they are all buddies.

    Going to 77 (the year I was born) was a cool idea in the abstract, but then why not explore Dharma in a very cool way? Instead, it was just more of the same mundane stuff. The show needs to be more mysterious, like it used to be. That doesn’t mean not answering questions, it means that they need to be consistent in characterization. Or if you pull a flip on a character, like Ben or Locke, only do it once. Don’t have them flip from good to evil many times or we get confused and irritated.

    I still don’t know what Ben’s deal is. Do you? Why have they not really gone into the Native storylines by now — the eyeliner dudes?

    No worries, Knives. I am still among you. I just need a good vent because I read here so many posts where people are trying to read the riddles and the answers they are coming up with are sooo, sooo, sooo complicated.

    PS: I think Jack is a robot. Just kidding, or am I?

  9. Ann Louise says:

    “@Knvies I am on Team Dark too, I have been since last week when I rewatched the finale. MIB just wants to move on and be home while Jacob is getting a kick out of his little experiments.”

    I’m leaning in that direction. Given what we’ve seen from the Others through the seasons, how can MIB/Smokeys actions be so villainous? Jacob is the one who appears to keep manipulating people onto the Island for his ongoing experiment in “progress”. From that perspective, I can understand MIB/Smokey wanting to finally stop the cycle. If we carry the Esau/Jacob analogy, maybe MIB is trying to reclaim the inheritance that was stolen by his younger twin Jacob. That inheritance (or his “home”) being the island itself.

  10. Coolpeace says:

    @ Harold CBD : Haha, great minds ๐Ÿ™‚

  11. Knives Monroe says:

    @ James
    OMG ULTIMATE SPOILER!
    Jack is a robot!
    Gee thanks
    ๐Ÿ˜‰
    No but thanks for your response. You make valid arguments.
    I agree for the most part.
    However I sincerely believe that the show will conclude in a away that will leave us satisfied and leave us with the taste in our mouths that got us hooked in the first place.
    In the end isnt that all that really matters?

    -Team Dark.

  12. Yann From France says:

    I am with James. I am a reasonable man and bringing new Others+ bringing back the sickness (and I wonder if they mean the quarantine Dharma stuff to). And since non of them act friendly and no reponse is given yet. And when I see on this blog how far people goes with their theories and that there is 15episodes left… I said it in my first post (which was supposed to be the only one): I am afraid there will be plot holes. Look at the theories we are writing right now and does it make any sort of sense and can you fit any in 15episodes and do you feel “satisfied” by that?

    I am on neither side, their are all gamers and whatever their reasons are you don’t kill people and act like you stumped on a bee. I think as I mentioned earlier that they live in The Numbers/doom world and that they will all die and at the end the side-world where their destiny has been found will be the only one remaining.

  13. Yann From France says:

    Since it is a game and they are size on my theory lets dwelve a bit more:
    the Island is moved by ben Ben and the Others and Claire are left in the “present” while the remaining losties and Juliet (who had been marked or wasn’t a true Others as in not claimed by MIB or Jacob) skip through time.
    We now know Claire had been claimed, I guess the Others had been claimed also (but not for the same team).
    Ajira flight comes back with oceanic6, Ilana, Brahm, Frank and Ben:
    Sun, Ilana, Brahm, John, Frank and Ben stay in 2007, the others skip through time… It means that those who stayed had been claimed? Ok about Ben, Ilana and Brahm. But Frank and Sun? Sun is Paik and they work for Widmore so maybe there is something there but why Frank? A candidate?And didn’t we saw Jacob touch all those that went back in time?

  14. Yann From France says:

    Ok one thing that I did not notice and I have to share with you. Jacob wore gloves when he went to see Ilana! And he never saw Ben before. Maybe he has to speak through Richard because he CAN’T come in contact. That change the Ajira list: he came in contact with all those that went back in time and I have to check if he touched Sun (or maybe Widmore did something to her before, we will have to see).

  15. NuckinFuts says:

    @ Yann – I am pretty sure Jacob touched both Sun & Jin at their wedding.

    – Team Dark

  16. Mirepoix in Mtl says:

    Have you noticed that Dharmaville seems abandoned for much more than 3 years
    It seems as obvious by daylight than it was at night when Lapidus and Jin met Christian
    But why hasnt the jungle grown back more into it ?
    Remember that O815 never chrashed in 2004
    But wait!! The Swan has imploded anyway… without Desmonds and Locke involvement?

    I know its not in the cards for next week
    but I still feel we are not finished with the FDW
    and Sawyer may just be the one to go work things out with Widmore
    Remember what Locke told him next to JugHead…
    Could it be that Sawyer will figure out a way to bring Juliet back?

  17. HeyKir in NYC says:

    What if…
    We know that Jacob claims players for this game. What if, if those players happen to die while in play, MIB can claim them for himself. (although if they are buried, he can not)
    Hmmmmm…

  18. Carol from Boston says:

    Whether Claire is claimed or not, I wonder if she has gone partly insane due to the flashes. She never had Faraday to explain them to her. So it must have driven her crazy to find the camp gone, her baby, etc. Unless her “claim buddy” Christian explained it all to her.

    It’ll be interesting to see her talk and interact, see if there is any Claire left.

    How bad can she be if she saved Jin, unless she intended to shoot him as well until she saw him. She looked like she was saving an innocent to me.

  19. soko says:

    Claire’s from the prison planet of Australia, what does she care about hanging with a woman on the run?

    Mirepoix in Mtl needs a re-watch

    I don’t get the Kate Haters. She’s one of the better characters. I thought it had to do with jealous women or something, but now her character is going over a few guys heads as well. Can’t figure it out. Her character is so powerful and integral to all that is going on. Remember she was the lead before they decided to keep Jack alive in the pilot. Maybe because she’s the hardest to pin down that confuses everyone. The story that gets her to the island is such an interesting one. The way she hides her character while it creeps out little by little as the story unfolds is amazing. It’s okay if I get the show by myself and you all miss out. I’ll be okay with that. Keep thinking that this is filler.

  20. Carol from Boston says:

    @James – I see your point re: complicated theories, I don’t think the writers expect the audience to work that hard. They have to appeal to a mass audience. For example I usually read Doc Jensen on EW but his theories are way too intricate for them to all be right. I am not even sure if the Jacob and Esau theory is actually correct.

    All along Damon and Carlton have been orginial in their ideas so why steal from mythology?

    Of course I haven’t watched the Lost University stuff so I may be all wrong.

  21. Harold CBD says:

    Coolpeace – Yes, Newton and Leibnitz, too.

    Apart from the interesting and important argument over the significance of Kate in this narrative, one thing I have for a long time noticed about Kate is…

    The Award For Most Outstanding Nostril goes to…
    Kate Austen

    Cue scene: “What Kate Does”, about 14:35 into the episode (not counting commercials). Kate has returned to return Claire’s bags. She offers Claire a ride, which Claire initially refuses with incredulity and a bit of contempt, “Seriously?” Kate reiterates, “Do you want a ride or not?” Stop it right there, when Kate vocalizes the “ri” of ride. Her head goes back, her chin goes up, her lower teeth disappear behind her lower lip and her upper teeth show fully, and that’s where she wins the award.

    Harold CBD (Claimed By Darkness)

  22. Carol from Boston says:

    @Harold – ha! Plus love the CBD, it can be our official name. ๐Ÿ™‚

  23. Rich in Cleveland says:

    A couple of great observations there.
    @L Reene
    I don’t know exactly what it means, but the repetition of a phrase like that is never coincidence on Lost. (“It worked.”)

    @Yann
    There’s something off about Jacob when he approaches Ilana and the detail of the gloves seems to capture it perfectly in retrospect.

    How am I alone in my view on Esau? I feel like Kareem Abdul Jabaar in The Stand. “He’s coming! The dark man is coming!” Help me out here.

  24. Steven in Bathurst says:

    Geez, by the time I’ve watched the episode and read all these comments, it’s Sunday and the podcast is already on its way (I’m guessing). So I suppose I’d better make this quick.

    I’m not really in the Kate-loving or Kate-hating camp, nor have I chosen a team to go for (this isn’t football). To me Lost have never been about the characters, it’s been the story and the events that surround them, and the greater questions of the nature of the island, space and time. So the ludicrousness of the Kate off-island story never bothered me. I can see how stupid it is but I don’t think it matters. Lost has always reverted to fairly clunky plot devices, broad characterisations and the odd cliche (the worst I think was a Jack flashback doing the whole ‘trying to resuscitate a dead patient on the operating table because he’s the sort of doctor who doesn’t give up’ thing. No doubt someone with better recall can remember the episode). Some people rave about the characters too but I’ve always felt that they are secondary to what it all means. This isn’t The Wire (or The Shield for that matter).

    So in a whole ‘what does it all mean’ vogue, let me suggest something that popped into my head when I rewatched eps 1 and 2. I think the off-island stuff will happen after the on-island stuff. My main evidence, and I suppose it is a bit flimsy, is the cut on Jack’s neck. At this stage it doesn’t make sense as to why Jack had a cut there. The only way to explain it to the audience is to show us how he got it, and the only way I can see them doing that is by having it happen at the conclusion of the on-island story. So my prediction is that on-island events will result in Jack getting a cut shortly before something happening to create a new reality on Flight 815. The new reality begins at the point of turbulence that the off island characters experience on the plane and it is at that moment that Desmond, he of the special powers, appears on the flight. Before the turbulence, my guess is nothing had changed, which is why Desmond wasn’t on the plane at that moment.

    The reason I’m mentioning it now is because people seem to think that the timelines will converge, like they are happening at the same time and somehow they will spill into one another. I think it’s a little cleverer than that. My sense is that the off-island stuff has a purpose that will relate to (and directly follow) events as they play out on the island. Part of what makes our Losties special, possibly, is their ability to see through realities, to retain information from one reality for application in the next. Perhaps this is part of Jacob’s or MiB’s plan to eliminate their nemesis: destroy the other by creating a new reality without the other, using the Losties to … who knows. But I think that there will be information from on-island that will be key to off-island because the former precedes the former. And what is happening off-island may be ultimately more important than what we are seeing on-island. Perhaps this device also allows the creators to answer our questions through the on-island story and show why it all matters in the off-island story.

  25. Steven in Bathurst says:

    Sorry, meant to write that “the former precedes the latter” in the last paragraph.

  26. Bill says:

    @ Pete from Rockford. I can’t count the number of people who, over the years, have told me, “I used to watch LOST, but the behavior of the characters became so unrealistic and it became impossible to stay up with what was going on.” Realistically that number adds up to millions and millions of viewers the program “lost” along the way.

    I screamed at the TV the other night when Kate was just driving around LA in a Big Yellow Taxi — when every cop and federal agent in town would be looking for her. I know, the writers need to get characters from A to B, but can’t they do it in a believable method?

    I don’t want everything explained and bundled-up in 1-hour segments, but I do expect progression and logic. Often times LOST is void of both. I have watched the show for 5 seasons, made a trip to Hawaii, bought the DVDs, and enjoyed the season opener, BUT after watching “What Kate Does” I got really annoyed.

  27. bobdole369 says:

    Does anyone recall that in season 1 – Sayid is burned by a hot poker and otherwise tortured by Rousseau?

  28. bobdole369 says:

    err not a hot poker, shocked with electricity.

  29. gina says:

    Thank you for 6 great years and for getting my family all together to watch this great show! god bless you all

    gina

    toms river, NJ

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