Lost - Eggtown

**½ / ****

Leave it to Lost’s fourth season to continue to rock my boat. Bravo. All that said, I was obviously disturbed by Kate’s hug of Aaron, awakening from his bed calling her mommy. That build to this flash ahead twist was in the making, though. Why would Jack not want to see Kate and “her son”? I guess we know, right? I think as the fourth season continued, it was obvious compromises were made so that a certain few got off the island. When Daniel has that look of guilt when Jack arrives to those on the beach with news of the freighter and a helicopter soon to take them off the island, again this was a tell that all is not what it seems. Kate on trial was to be expected if she were to leave the island. But Jack on the stand lying it up about her being heroic while trying to reinforce her “strong character”, telling of only a few survivors and how she was always there to help them remain alive definitely left me (and I can only imagine viewers of the time as well) a bit unsettled. With Kate acknowledging Aaron, what happened to Claire? That is what has been bugging me. Desmond’s vision told of Claire making it on a helicopter with her son, but as the show has gone on this appears to be questionable. Was the *universe* just telling Desmond this so that Charlie would commit to his swim to The Looking Glass? Or was this a “design flaw” in the writer’s room that never gets sowed up? It bugs me just the same. Not saying this might not happen but as the fourth season continues to sketch its portrait, this vision of Claire’s rescue might be a disregarded plot thread discontinued in favor of a shocking twist. It was shocking, that’s for sure. Jack’s inability to hardly stomach the thought of seeing both Kate and the baby together seems to indicate something quite sinister.

Kate agrees to take Miles to Ben if he tells her what he knows about her. Miles revealing a lot of details about Kate certainly establishes that those from the freighter have ulterior motives and know a lot more than they have led on. Miles wants 3.2 million and will tell those on the freighter that he’s dead. Yes, Charlotte knows of Ben, but Miles says he’ll “take care of her”. So Miles, the longer we spend time with him, reveals that he's quite an opportunist, looking to find benefits in his favor. It takes some gall to convince Kate to lead him out of the beachhouse located in an isolated spot away from the Dharma community just so he could extort funds from Ben (Miles knows who Ben is, details about him, but Locke learning of Kate taking him to Ben through Sawyer will come back to haunt him). When Locke ropes Miles’ hands across a beam in the beachhouse, placing a grenade (!) in his mouth, wanting to learn what he knows about Ben, the extortion attempt might have cost him quite a bit! Locke *reassures* him that if he’s willing to talk, perhaps Miles can avoid grenade face!

This episode unloads a lot about Kate during its running time. Her trial, with Jack perjuring himself, Kate’s mom dying but wanting not to testify against her (if she can see Kate’s “son”), and her avoiding jail time (if she stays in state); the flash ahead offers the possibility that leaving the island was ill-advised. In fact, funnily enough, Miles tells Kate she should stay on the island. However, Kate doesn’t take to doing what is wise…like how she goes into Sawyer’s room (in a Dharma house shared with Hurley, which had me laughing out loud, particularly when he chooses Xanadu as a movie selection for the night!) and sleeps with him. Their talk about Kate not being pregnant, Sawyer’s relief, and the continued angst between them regarding Jack produces a great deal of tension…with Kate eventually ditching Sawyer yet again after they argue. So what’s to say Kate will remain in state as ordered so that she can be done with her trial?

Locke’s inability to extract information from Ben just revisits (as Ben points out) a similar situation back in The Swan. Ben is left in a cell, has a face beat up, and maintains his silence. Locke breaks dishes, cooks, and plays backgammon with Sawyer. He tells Kate he’s not a dictator because if he was she’d already be dead. He does emphasize he’s calling the shots. A friend and I were talking about Locke today and both of us admitted that this Locke is really hard to like. I want to like this man, but he’s turned into a real asshole. Ben just fucks with him, too. Locke is like a psychological plaything Ben torments. He can’t find Jacob or the cabin…I wonder why. Perhaps he’s brought this on himself. Was Walt’s vision (or whatever it was) that communicated to Locke as he laid in the Dharma Death Pit all for naught? Relying on Ben to help him, Locke seems incapable of securing what he so desires. He does question Sawyer about any regrets others who followed him instead of Jack might have. Despite a helicopter and freighter, potential passage off the island, the fourth season unveils a troublesome development…the helicopter carrying Sayid and Desmond supposedly didn’t reach the freighter!

Kate’s time with her mother is appropriately strained, and her see-saw relationship with Sawyer never seems to teeter towards success…she’s just always involved with an imbalance due to decisions she makes. Drama is constant because Kate always follows impulse instead of conscientiously and intuitively contemplating what the results might be from actions made by her. She wants to do something and does it, consequences be damned. Yet, through it all, Kate seems to find escape. Because she’s always on the run, never staying still. And the irony of the flash ahead is that she is ordered by law to stay in the state…not run.

The twist at the end, if you think about it, is especially unsettling considering the clothes line scene involving Claire and Kate regarding holding Aaron. And Kate's remaining mum when Sawyer scoffs at the idea of them having a child would seem to speak to a desire to actually be a mother. Well, it was a ruse, offering the idea she was already a mother so that when she calls out his name, as they embrace at the end, it leaves us mouth agape.