Lost: Kate Has Men Issues Part 47

This week is all about Kate so I hope everyone got good and drunk before watching otherwise you’re in for a long hour.  As we know, Kate has abandonment issues with men and this week she expands her repertoire into boys . . . no, not like that.

Our flashbacks look at Kate and Aaron after they left the Island.  In short, Kate held on to Aaron as a substitute for her lost companionship for Sawyer who was stuck on the Island.  It’s a little confusing and creepy but psychology is like that.  Anyway, she reconnects with fellow con-artist, Cassidy, who is the mother of Sawyer’s daughter, Clementine.  (No word on whether she grows up to join the Reno Sheriff’s Department.)

When those lawyers start making inquiries about Kate’s parentage over Aaron, Kate freaks out and realizes that she must go back to the Island for Aaron . . . to find his real mother Claire.  Kate leaves Aaron with his grandmother (Claire’s mother) and, as we already know, heads to Jack’s house for one more booty call before they head back to the Island.

Juxtapose all of that with Kate in 1977 Dharmaland, seemingly the only person concerned about saving young Ben Linus’s life after Sayid shot him.  First off, I can’t believe Sayid is so bad of a shot that he didn’t kill Ben instantly.  This just supports my belief that he knew ahead of time that he was supposed to shoot Ben.  Juliet, resident mechanic/makeshift doctor, tries to find the bullet but she just makes a mess of Ben’s innards.

Sawyer confines Jack, Kate, and Hurley to a house with Miles guarding them.  We then get a fabulous exchange between Hurley and Miles about time traveling.  Hurley thinks he’s going to disappear now that Ben has been shot (a la Back to the Future), but Miles explains that no one is going to disappear because Ben was always shot as a child.  After Sawyer and Kate plead with Jack to save Ben’s life, Jack will not help–if he’s going to die, then he dies.  Jack points out that in the relative future (but Jack’s past) he already saved Ben and that’s enough for him.  I kind of like his reasoning.  And I kind of like the new Jack more than I liked the old Jack.  Oh who am I kidding, I still don’t like him much even with the gratuitous shot of him in the shower when Juliet also gets rebuffed when she asks Jack to help save Ben.  But it’s a nice twist that Jack all of a sudden has reverence for fate and the Island.

Kate, still the answer to the question no one asks or wants the answer to, is going to help save Ben; you see, she’s projecting her feelings for Aaron on Ben.  Anyway, Kate donates blood to Ben, and while waiting for her sugar cookie talks with Roger Linus, who’s realizing how awful a father he’s been to Ben since the kid stole Roger’s keys to break out Sayid the evil one.  It’s good to see that Roger is determined to be a better father if Ben pulls through, and I just hope Kate’s not attracted to him and his badboy ways.

Back at the house arrest, non-arrest, Miles and Hurley are still debating how time travel works on Lost like a couple of fanboys.  In short, time isn’t a straight line any more for the time travelers so what’s the past to everyone else is their present.  Put another way, you can shoot time travel Miles in 1977 and he’ll die but it won’t stop future Miles from traveling back in time in 2004.  Draw a chart if you’re still not getting it.  Anyway, the one good question Hurley asks is why does Ben not remember Sayid when Ben is captured by the Oceanics in 2004.  We’ll get to a quasi-answer in a moment.

With no other way to save Ben, Juliet tells Kate that the Hostiles might be able to help.  So Kate takes Ben and heads off to the jungle.  Sawyer catches up with her and helps her until the Hostiles surround and capture them.  They ask for Richard Alpert, who magically appears as if he knew he was supposed to be there at that time.  He says he can save Ben but it comes with two consequences: (1) he will lose his innocence but won’t remember anything that happened and (2) he will always be one of the Hostiles thereafter.  Some people might read this as saying Ben is going to get raped by some strangers; I hope that’s not the case.  We don’t know what happens, though, as Richard carries Ben off to the strange temple where the smoke monster lives.  They go in and that’s all we know for now.

One interesting tidbit, Charles Widmore and Ellie appear to be in charge now (is Ellie’s son Daniel with her?), but Richard does not answer to them and does not need their permission to take Ben.  Apparently he answers to a higher authority.

We end with Ben waking up in the 2007 Hydra Station triage, only to be welcomed back to the “Land of the Living” by John Locke.  From the previews, this sets up what looks like a Ben-centric episode.  In a word: Awesome!

Season 5, Episode 11: Whatever Happened, Happened (originally aired April 1, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Cop Out by Robin Reed.

For more on Lost, click here.

Wednesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC