Season 6, Episode 3: "What Kate Does"

The title of this episode is "What Kate Does" - this was interesting as I remember back in the first season there was an episode called "What Kate Did" (how I remember that, I have no idea!) - But that was when we first found out about Kate and that she was a fugitive. The title was written in the past tense (what kate DID) whereas this one is written in the present tense (what kate DOES). I think the point of this episode is to show that kate really has never changed. In her past, in the present, and even in the alternate "future" reality, Kate is always on the run. Leaving the island (or erasing her time on the island altogether) really has not had any changes in Kate's life. She is a fugitive, no matter where (and when) she is...figuring out ways to escape and run. But even despite the circumstances for her being on the run, she still is a GOOD person at heart. In the alternate reality storyline, when wanted for murder, she takes the time to help Claire and is genuine in wanting to help her. In the past, after being rescued and being back home for three years, she risks her life to go back to the island only because she wants to help Claire and reunite her with Aaron, even though it will cause her pain by giving him up. And it's the same thing in the present time on the island, she escapes from the Temple, only to go after Sawyer wanting to make sure he is okay and to help him (although I don't think he wants to be helped). This goes back to the whole idea of who on the island is really GOOD and who is not. Maybe that is why Kate is amongst those who were "chosen" to be on the island and now also to be protected in the Temple, because she is one of the "good" ones.

So, I thought this episode was kind of slow, not as much going on...this usually happens when they are saving up for a really BIG episode so I anticipate next week will be much better. But anyway, here we go. I'm going to break down the episode into two parts...the "alternate reality" storyline and the "island" storyline.


ALTERNATE REALITY:

Of course we knew after seeing Kate get in Claire's cab last week that they were going to end up with their lives intertwined after leaving the airport (I mean, that was just too obvious!) What was really interesting to me, though, was the role that Kate had in helping Claire with the preparation for baby Aaron: going to see the people who were supposed to adopt him, taking her to the hospital, giving her pregnancy-related advice, etc. All of this after we know that Kate is the one who ultimately raises Aaron as her own, after leaving the island. All along, while on the island, Claire was so taken aback by the fact that the psychic told her that someone else was supposed to raise her child. That someone else actually turned out to be Kate, whether that was by "fate or coincidence," who took Aaron for those three years she was off the island. Now here we are in this "alternate reality" where Claire gets held up at gunpoint by the woman who "raises" her unborn son. And interestingly enough in the hospital it is Kate who advises Claire that she thinks she should keep him. So, does that mean that in the alternate reality (assuming they never crash on the island), that Claire will be the one who raises Aaron after all?

I did find the whole alternate reality a little unconvincing though. I mean, come on, like Kate is going to run from the FBI in a stolen cab, then continue to drive around in that same cab trying to find the girl that she held at gunpoint, only to offer her a ride? A little ridiculous, but...it's a tv show.

Did you also notice in this "alternate reality" that Ethan Rom was the doctor in the hospital who was helping Claire after she started to go into premature labor? (And yes, Ethan still creeps me out!) Very interesting since he was the "doctor" on the island who abducted Claire to do testing on her while she was pregnant. Ironically his name is "Dr. Goodspeed" - I always find it interesting that the Others have the name "good" in their fake names (remember Goodwin?)


ON THE ISLAND:

Quite a bit going on with "the new Others" in the Temple. Basically we learn that they are trying to kill Sayid. First they drowned him (and he did in fact die), then after coming back to life, they tortured him and now want him to take a pill full of poison. However, despite all these efforts it seems that Sayid can't die. Certain people are meant to be on the island, they have a destiny and they can't die until they fulfill it. Remember when Michael kept trying to kill himself? He could not die, because the island had a purpose for him. I believe that Sayid has a further purpose that he is meant to fulfill on the island. Whatever the reason, he can't die (not yet anyway!) First he was shot (and the gunshot wound is almost completely healed), then he was drowned underwater and he did actually die, but then came back to life. He was then tortured and still didn't die. I think that no matter what they do, he won't die because the ISLAND does not want him to die. Last week I mentioned the idea that his body had been taken over by the spirit of Jacob...if this is true, that would also explain another reason why he can't die.

Now, we also learn that the people in the Temple have diagnosed him with "the sickness." We first learned of this when the french woman (Danielle Rousseau) explained to the survivors that she came to the island and her team all became "sick." She said they got infected and that she had to kill them all. Then last season when the survivors were skipping through time, they encountered a time flash where they saw Danielle and her team shortly after they arrived on the island. Some of them came across the black smoke monster and followed it down into a hole. When they came out, Danielle said "they were different." They turned on eachother and were ready to kill eachother as well as her, so Danielle killed them all, including her own husband. Based on what we saw of fake-Locke last week, I am wondering if when the members of her team following the black smoke monster down into the hole, it killed them and then "took" their bodies just as it did to Locke. The people that came out of the hole were not the same, because the smoke monster took them. Just as Locke is not the same Locke because it is not really him, it is the smoke monster.

The people in the Temple told Jack that Sayid has become infected, and that if the darkness spreads to his heart, he will not be the same person anymore. They also said this is what happened to Claire. We do see a snippet of Claire at the end of this episode, looking very much like the French woman, all disheveled and like a crazy-jungle woman. If she is "infected" as well, perhaps she also died (in the explosion in the Others camp last season) and the smoke monster took her body. I spoke last week of several instances on the island where we saw dead people who had "returned" (such as Christian Shephard, Eko's brother, now Locke) and they were not the same person. This could be what is always referenced on the island to being "sick." We also know that the hatch was originally a quarantine for those that were sick. Remember the murals on the walls in the hatch that said "Eye M Sick" and the words "Quarantine" on the hatch door? Are the sick really just those who have died on the island, their bodies taken over by the black smoke monster?

Speaking of the smoke monster, I also have a thought about Jacob and his nemesis (fake-Locke). Remember all the stuff about twins in the past (the book that Sawyer was reading on the beach called "The Bad Twin" and I also wrote a lot last year about the biblical story of Jacob and Esau - the good twin and the bad twin who were at war with each other, starting in the womb and ending when they each ruled a different land. I'm wondering if Jacob and "fake-Locke/smoke montster" were in fact brothers who ultimately ended up at war with eachother. Each fought for power over the Island. One of them became evil (an infection which spreads to the heart) and that's how he became the smoke monster. Maybe the smoke monster is the embodiment of everyone on the island who becomes "infected."