What Kate Does

Surprisingly, viewers greeted the third hour of Season 6 with a heavy dose of animosity. I’m going to chalk that up to a definite letdown after a stellar premiere and generally unreasonable expectations about Season 6 as a whole, but I will admit, I wasn't entirely thrilled with everything that was going on as I was watching live on Tuesday night. But after reading a few recaps, a second viewing, and a little thought, I've come to appreciate "What Kate Does" as a strong stand alone episode that reflects Kate's new priorities along with a great setup for the rest of the season.

On the Island, our main story tracks Kate as she, Jin, and two Others – Aldo (an old favorite), and some dude named James – mount an expedition to bring Sawyer back to the temple. For a reason known to the Others but unknown to our Losties, it's absolutely essential that he return. Perhaps to prevent him from being "claimed"? I really don't know. What I do know is that Kate's prison break skills are is as fine a shape as ever, as she quickly put Aldo and James out of commission and took off on her own. Kate has her own priorities, as does Jin; he wants to find Sun, here motives are a little more ambiguous.

When Jin said, "Who do you care about, Kate?” at first I felt we were meant to fill in the blank with "herself". However, I now feel the answer is clearly "Aaron". At first I thought that she took off into the jungle for Sawyer, so that she could have another chance to be with him. And that's a tired storyline to say the least. But when she finds him, she confesses that the reason she chased after him this time was out of the hope that he would join her in her search for Claire, that maybe reuniting Aaron with his mother would make something good out of Juliet's death and all the other horribleness caused by the Oceanic 6's return to the Island. This made me realize something – the Kate that crashed on the Island in 2004 is gone. This new Kate might still be a runner, but she not just running away anymore, she's actually running toward something. And that's a Kate I can get behind.

The moment on the dock between Kate and Sawyer was tough to watch. Sawyer's in so much pain right now, it's hard to see him coming back to join the group any time soon. When he told Kate that he thought maybe some people were meant to be alone, then flung the engagement ring he planned to give to Juliet into the water, the room started to get a little dusty for me. He’s totally lost, and it looks like he's headed right into the latter part of the "Live together, die alone" motto. I said last week that Sawyer appeared to be regressing back to the man he was before the crash, the one who lived by the “every man for himself” philosophy, and after this week I believe that even more strongly. But I sure hope he snaps out of it. It’s already hard enough to accept that Locke’s whole life was a waste, and that Sayid appears on the path toward damnation. I don’t think I could deal with Sawyer’s remarkable (and extremely satisfying) transformation from con man to great man wiped away. I just couldn’t. Because of all that, he might be the Island character I'm most excited to follow this year. I really have no idea where he's going. But I’m going to stay optimistic.

Back at the temple, the Others, led by the mysterious (aren’t they all?) Dogen, run the newly resurrected Sayid through a series of tests, which we find out were to determine if he had been “infected”. He fails. Dogen then attempts to convince Jack to give Sayid some pill he made out of some strange herbs. Jack doesn’t give it to him. Instead, in what might be his most straight-up-badass move since pouring his own blood into Boone, Jack swallows the pill himself. Brilliant! Dogen jumps up, gives Jack a swift punch to the gut, a few Heimlichs, and Jack spits out the pill. He tells Jack that the pill was poison. So were the Others trying to kill Sayid before this “infection” problem got out of hand? I think that’s pretty likely.

But what is this “infection” anyway? We heard Rousseau ranting about a “sickness” back in the day, and that stemmed from a run-in with Smokey at the temple wall. Perhaps this is the same sickness, and there’s a connection between the healing pool and the smoke monster? Or are we only seeing that connection because the healing water was murky? But then how did Claire become “claimed” when we have never seen here near the temple? We did see her with Christian Shephard, and with theories abound that he’s actually a manifestation of the monster, maybe that’s our connection. It’s quite the twisted pretzel we have on our hands. But I still don’t see how the monster could have “claimed” Sayid when we’ve seen it Fake Locke form on the other side of the Island. And last season, didn’t we see Christian in the Dharma barracks while MIB Locke was sitting on the beach sucking on a mango? I don’t think we have the pieces to come up with an answer to this yet, so let’s just move on.

The cliffhanger left us with Jin caught in a bear trap with a Rousseau'd-out Claire pointing a gun at him. She had just shot Aldo and James, and looks ready to fire at Jin, but after Jin called out her name, it seem pretty clear to me that she recognized him. I really like the apparent parallels between Rousseau and Claire. Both left alone in the jungle, both missing children they’d given birth to on the Island, along with the history we witnessed between the two characters – it’s all another example of the cyclical nature of the Island. I love that kind of stuff. Plenty to dissect from a literary standpoint. I’m sure they’ll go more into this in the coming weeks. After all, it’s been three Island years since we’ve seen Claire, and if she’s been “claimed” like Dogen said, she could give us a peak into what the hell is going on with Sayid. We certainly have a lot of catching up to do with her.

Off the Island, we find ourselves in the midst of another story of Kate running from the law. But instead of the typical Kate flashback where she only laments the fact that she has once again put the lives of people she cares about at risk to further her selfish motives, we see Kate actually make amends to the person she has wronged. In this case, that person is Claire. After throwing her, pregnant and terrified, out of the taxi, Kate returns to offer her a ride to wherever it was she was going. Claire accepts, and the rest of the story follows the two women as Claire struggles with her pregnancy. I actually enjoyed having Claire around again. It was like back in Season 1 when she actually served a purpose to the story instead of just nagging Charlie and screaming about her baybaaaay. And throwing Ethan into the mix was a nice touch. I especially loved the “ I just don’t want to stick you with a needles if I don’t have to” line.

At first, I found some aspects of this story perplexing, even downright unbelievable. I mean, why would Kate return to help a total stranger? And why the hell would Claire accept a ride from a person who just threatened her at gunpoint? But the more I've thought about it, the more it seemed to me that there is something bigger going on in this alternate world that’s pushing these people - all of the 815ers - back together. I don't know if it's some sort of subconscious memory or destiny or what, but we've now seen several instances where our characters have given confused looks when confronted with people/moments/circumstances that resemble what we've seen transpire on the Island. In "LA X" Jack flashed such a look when talking with Desmond, and again when he bumped into Kate outside the bathroom. In this episode, Kate showed a similar sense of remembering when she took the stuffed whale out of Claire's purse, then again when Claire shouted out Aaron's name at the hospital. Then Claire explained that she said that name because it was as if "she knew it or something".

I refuse to believe these are all just coincidences. And I refuse to believe that the writers have just gotten sloppy. They're not going to undermine the credibility of these characters just to give us some cute situation where Kate and Claire get to spend some time with each other while 2008 Kate looks for Claire on the Island. Like I said before, there's something bigger going on here. By the end of this season, we'll be looking back on the choices these characters made and it will all make perfect sense.