TV Review: Lost 6.03 – “What Kate Does”
Episode: Lost 6.03 – “What Kate Does”
Original Air Date: February 9, 2010
Apparently, what Kate does is kill an entire episode of any kind of awesomeness it could have had. This episode should have been titled, “What Josh Holloway Does is Rip Your Freaking Heart Out in a Whole Whopping 5 Minutes of Screen Time,” but I’m partial to ridiculously long titles.
In just three episodes, I’ve gathered that we are supposed to glean that the Losties all seem to be connected to each other in some fashion. Despite being in the AU (Alternate Universe), they keep running into each other, forming connections, and looking at each other from afar with a look of vague recognition (similar to look of gas pains in some of them). It’s like that Six Degrees show they tried a few years ago got sucked into this one. Maybe it was the plan from the start to have them be in each other’s lives no matter what — who knows at this point.
I’m just going to get this out of the way first. I do not like the character of Kate. What I like even less is when they feel the need to focus on her. Of all the characters on this show that have changed and grown, Kate seems to be the only one who’s exactly the same person she was when the plane crashed on the island the first time around. Hell, she’s even the same person as AU!Kate.
Classic Kate fashion, when Sawyer runs she follows, despite him specifically telling her not to follow him. I imagine if anyone would have run, she would have followed. Not that I minded getting out of the Hippie commune, it’s just that she always does this. ALWAYS. She’s also the worst kind of liar there is, in that she doesn’t know when to stop. Everything out of her mouth is a self-serving lie. So while it was no surprise that when Sawyer broke out she followed, it was even less of a surprise that she lied her face off to Jack, Jin, and Sawyer about what her intentions were. She didn’t intend on coming back, and she didn’t look for Sawyer because she gave a crap about whether he was okay or not.
So when she broke down after Sawyer laid it all out for her, I was unsure how to take it. Was she bawling because she realized what a jerk (and that’s putting it nicely) she’s been to EVERYONE and that maybe at this point she really should have just left Sawyer alone? Or was she bawling because that’s what she and Jack do best: bawling at themselves in the jungle or on a dock?
Thankfully, Josh Holloway’s performance in these few minutes was absolutely gut-wrenching. It ripped my heart out. This show has had exactly two perfect, need-to-be together couples, and he and Juliet were one of them (not counting Hurley and Libby since it didn’t really have time to grow and she was shifty).
Back at Club Crusty, Sayid gets tortured. I’m not sure how getting your nips electrocuted and having a hot poker rubbed up against you determines you’re “infected” or “claimed,” but there you go. Sayid may not be a zombie, but he isn’t really himself anymore either. The head of the Other Others makes mention that what is going to happen to Sayid already happened to Claire. Which was confusing because I (and I don’t think I’m the only one) was under the assumption that the figure of Christian that’s been seen on the island was Jacob. I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure the gris-gris like circle of dust was still around the shack when Locke found Claire and Christian there and we know that Smokey the Monster can’t pass it. Maybe this is similar to the infection that Rousseau’s people caught?
I’m with you, Justin. That’s the face I think made through most of this episode. There’s so much going on, so much that I’m trying to reach back in my memory of the past five seasons for that at this point I’m feel like I’m prepping for some major test instead of watching a TV show for entertainment purposes. I mean, I have no clue at all anymore about what this show is supposed to be about or what’s happening. And that’s really frustrating.
Back in AU, things aren’t much better. AU!Kate goes back to pick up AU!Claire after she kicked her out of the cab and stole her belongings. This kind of, once again, just made Kate an irritation. Instead of understanding why a very pregnant young woman that you just terrorized at gun-point, then left stranded at a bus stop as you sped away with her belongings and money isn’t exactly forthcoming with the conversation when you come back to where you left her, Kate gets all prickly and pushy.
AU!Kate does end up helping out AU!Claire when she doesn’t have to, getting her to hospital and staying with her for a bit after she has a bit of a scare with Aaron. However, this again just feels like she’s doing it for herself and not for AU!Claire or because it’s the right thing to do for someone.
Also, Ethan is still the creepiest OBGYN ever and makes my ovaries shrivel up in fright. I’m pretty sure if I was about to pop out a kid, and Ethan showed up as the guy who was going to be down in my business, through sheer force of will I’d keep that kid in the womb until a less creeptastic doctor was available. I kind of feel bad for that actor but he does a really good job of being a creep.
The “reveal” at the end was pretty crazy but not unexpected. I mean, it’s a Lost standard to throw something like that in right at the end of the episode. Claire’s gone native, and when you go native on the island you suddenly become a crack shot with a rifle. She popped off three rounds pretty fast and neat into Aldo (who totally deserved that about ten hours ago) and then got at least one off into Justin (who I hope lives because he was awesome).
Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
