Lost - Whatever Happened, Happened

*** / ****

I was really impacted by Kate’s final scene with Aaron in the off-island flash ahead, as she must achingly say goodbye. It hit home, that whole impact of pure love between a mother and her child…Kate might not have been Aaron’s birth mother, but that didn’t dull the agony of her split from him. I think that Evangeline Lily’s best work on the show is in this episode. I just do. Pure love in its most emotionally wrenching form is relayed through Kate’s separation from Aaron, a child that came into her life in the most unorthodox of ways, but nonetheless left an indelible imprint on her heart. I felt that in Kate’s tears, her movements, face, all of that debate behind those eyes; Lily’s work really posits all of that in this episode. Before returning to the island, Kate goes to Cassidy (Sawyer’s ex-flame with whom he has a daughter he never met) at Sawyer’s request, with money and an apology for his actions towards her, and Claire’s mother to tell her the truth about those left behind on the island, and, more importantly, Aaron. So Claire’s mom looks on with an appropriate expression of disbelief as Kate fills her in, leaving Aaron in her protection while forming a friendship with Cassidy, who knows Sawyer all too well. Calling Sawyer a coward for leaping from Lapidus’ chopper, the excuse of doing so because of weight issues, Cassidy confronts Kate with a very sensitive issue that has been a lingering series character melodrama that never ends. Kate and Sawyer (with Juliet and Jack often pulled into it), that vicious cycle that just repeats itself over and over. Juliet also confronts Jack on the island in ’77 about why he returned, considering her three years with Sawyer was going so well.

Juliet and Sawyer’s relationship was freed from Jack and Kate’s presence during those three years, allowing them to embrace each other without them threatening the idyll that was harmonious once they integrated within the Dharma Initiative. Jack and Kate returning to the island just complicated matters, particularly when Kate and Sawyer have time to reminisce and reawaken those never-dying feelings. Juliet just knows that having Sawyer’s heart without Kate inadvertently interfering could suffer now that the two will be around each other every day. Jack’s inaction, not quite knowing why he needed to return to the island, is perhaps just another reason Juliet feels frustrated, somewhat blaming him for Kate returning to disrupt her harmony with Sawyer. I must admit, all of this romantic unrest is kind of not my particular interest in the show, although I imagine if you enjoy primetime soaps, this will be up your alley. After a while I want folks to make up their minds. Kate and Sawyer are either together or not…I just wish they’d figure it out. I’m getting kind of over it.

 Jack just kind of seems adrift as of this point during the fifth season. He won’t agree to help rescue Ben, when Juliet and Sawyer come to him in need of a surgeon, raising their ire. He takes a shower instead. Jack and Kate are asking questions and Goodspeed is often wondering why they are so vocal and around being that they are “new recruits”…Sawyer having to make sure they subdue their presence is becoming increasingly difficult. He just wants Miles to watch them with a gun, holed up in a house so they won’t get in trouble. Jack, not used to being reduced to a lackey, appears out of place. At least he’s not hooked on pills and booze, but he’s not on anyone’s favorite’s list during this time on the island. Kate goes on about not liking who is at this moment but Jack considers to her that she has never really liked him. All of that “Kate loves Sawyer not him” drama surfaces yet again. I feel that these two should just call a spade a spade and move on from each other. It hasn’t worked out and appears as if it never will. And yet Kate and Sawyer doesn’t exactly last, so all of them seem to remain in a holding pattern. Look, I don’t mind a bit of romance here and there, although it isn’t really of that much significant interest to me once a writing team drags it endlessly through multiple seasons without eventually paying it off in some way. This is five seasons of Kate moving back and forth between Jack and Sawyer…my mind just begs for resolution here. I do feel for Juliet, though. She never really had Jack’s heart although he attempted to try something with a kiss, but Sawyer and Juliet appeared to have built a life with each other. Now that is torpedoed, and Jack is confronted by Juliet with a question of why he’d ruin something special for her, the return to the island sure seems to have been a bad idea!

I thought Miles and Hurley discussing time and how it all works—particularly regarding attempts to influence a different result that what happens—was a real delight. Miles, bless his heart, tries to give Hurley an answer that makes enough sense, but Hurley challenges all the theories. Without Daniel around, Miles is left to try and explain how it all works. The question of why Ben doesn’t recognize Sayid during the torture in The Swan, from Hurley to Miles, leaves a nice hook that gets an answer at the very end…a temple, overcome from overgrowth, Alpert carries the limp child body of Ben inside. Alpert warns Kate, along with Sawyer carrying Ben’s dying body, that if he acts in curing the child of the bullet inside him, he’ll “lose his innocence” and never be the same. There you are: a loophole closed as only Cuse and Lindelof could. So Ben, as an adult, wouldn’t remember what happened prior to the injury so that when he meets Sayid in the future he doesn’t recognize him. Problem solved. As irony would have it: instead of Ben dying, altering the future, Kate requests Alpert to save him. Sawyer doesn’t interfere, both agreeing that a child shouldn’t die. But the Ben that leaves that temple, as Alpert fully forewarns, truly does some reprehensible things. My question to Lost fans: should Kate and Sawyer, for allowing Ben to be taken into the temple and survive, shoulder some of the blame?

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1_ Kate and Ben's father having a few friendly moments, like sharing an exchange regarding their menial jobs in the Dharma Initiative, and later in the surgery room when she's giving blood while he agonizes about losing his wife and being a bad father really remind me of why I enjoy time travel plots so much. Interaction that wouldn't seem possible is possible.

2_Juliet trying desperately to keep Ben alive, while Kate agonizes about how nothing is working, while Jack fails to do anything, truly speaks to their humanity. Sure all of that, none too subtly, correlates with having to give up Aaron.
3_Ben waking up to Locke alive was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae. Locke is always there to remind Ben that getting rid of him is easier tried than successful.
4_Sawyer telling Kate they'd never work out, reinforcing his relationship with Juliet, should be an indication that their on-again/off-again would reach an end, but soap fans know better.