Well, friends, I’m back after my week hiatus. Sorry about the absence and let’s just dive right in to last night’s rather brilliant (except for one infuriating bit) episode, “Whatever Happened, Happened”.
If you’ve been reading me with any regularity, you know that I’m really digging this season’s vibe. I love the crazy frenetic pace, I love the time travelling, the crazy science applications, the whole bit.
But it must be said that I am a sucker for old-school, character-centered emotionally charged Lost, like back in Season 1. That’s what we got last week when we cut to the core of Sayid Jarrah and last night when we learned just what Kate had been up to during her off island exploits. I loved it. I can’t believe we’ve actually gotten two watchable Kate episodes this season. Completely shocking. Last night was nearly perfect. Nearly. And we’ll get to that little gripe later.
It’s elementary, my dear Reyes
The absolute highlight of the night was the interaction between Hurley and Miles. In a conversation that oddly mirrored many conversations being had by Lost fans on numerous Internet forums, Miles quite clearly indicated that when the Frozen Donkey Wheel was turned, the Losties have dislodged themselves in time to such a degree that their presents are being experienced as other peoples’ pasts. I tried my best to make that coherent, but if the time travel rules are still confusing you, I would recommend you just rewatch the scene again and listen closely to what Miles is saying. It would seem he’s heard this talk before, most likely from Faraday (Where is that dude, anyway?). Much like Sawyer in the early part of this season, Hurley played the part of confused time traveller very well for all of us to identify with. In short, you need look no further than the episode’s title:
Whatever Happened, Happened. Everything we’re seeing has already taken place. The Losties just have not experienced it yet. Simple as that. Okay, Let’s move on.
Kate Austen-Mother of the Year?
Ok, not really. But it had always bugged me as to why Kate felt it so necessary to look after Aaron when it was pretty clear she could have given him up for adoption or any other reasonable solution. Last night, we got sold on the notion that Kate needed Aaron. She needed him to hold on to what she had left behind, with the Island, with Sawyer, with that part of her life that she wasn’t quite able reconcile. And, when you think about it, she pulled off that motherly act for three years, which is a pretty long time. It all started to come apart however, when Kate lost him in a grocery store shortly after her rendezvous with Ben and the gang at the Marina. She eventually found him of course (With that woman who was oddly similar-looking to Aaron’s real mother Claire. What were we supposed to take from that? Are Aaron’s imprinting skills unprecedented? Does he have a psychic connection with his possibly-dead mum? This is entriely too much writing to go inside a parentheses), but the incident served as an allegory that it was only a matter of time before Kate couldn’t keep him anymore. She passed him off to Claire’s mother, and promised to return to the island to find Claire. That may be a tough task, as I am firmly in the camp that Claire went the way of the ghosts when her house in Otherville got blown up, but I digress.
Anyway, I loved the scene with Kate saying goodbye to Aaron. You had that class Michael Giacchino score swelling up in the background, it just wrecked me. Some of you may have found it indulgent or cheesy, but I was completely sold. If you don’t like it, feel free to discuss it on your own blog. Served.
“It’s wrong to a let a kid die.”
My, my, my was the DI ever in a fuss over young Ben taking a slug to the chest. Juliet did her best to save him, but needed Jack to completely stop the bleeding. This gave us a glimpse of the new (and improved?) Jack Shephard. The good doctor denounced his old “I have to fix everything” ways and vowed to just let the island do its thing. Man, he’s starting to sound a lot like his old nemesis, Locke. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Juliet confronted him in the shower after Kate and Sawyer had decided to take ben’s crisis to the Hostiles. It was such an interesting way to frame the whole Jack/Juliet tension. And it ended with Juliet asking Jack rather pointedly what he was supposed to do now that he was back. That’s something I’ve been asking myself ever since the crew got back together. I have no idea, and neither does Jack. Feel free to sound off below.
Kate Austen-Promise Keeper
So, we found out that Sawyer wanted Kate to look after his little girl off the island. And did she ever live up to it. Clementine has warmed to “Auntie Kate” to such a degree that Kate knows enough about her to pass along the details to Sawyer. That she looks just like him and that she has that ol’ James Ford attitude brewing in her. Nice. I liked that Kate/Cassidy scenes as well. I particularly liked The way Cassidy’s take on Sawyer’s actions serve to show us just how far he has come in his time on the island. We learned this of course in “LaFleur”, but it was so odd to hear her speak so harshly about this guy we’ve come to know and love.
“It’s wrong to let a kid die”-cont’d.
So, Kate and Sawyer set off to bring little Benny to the Hostiles for healing. Sounds like the first line of some sadistic nursery rhyme. Anyhow, Sawyer made it clear that he was there for Juliet, which I took to mean as the writers are telling us that they don’t intend to milk this Sawyer/Kate/Juliet thing too much. I certainly hope they stick with that. They met up with Richard, who is at this point pretty much my favorite character on the show, and paved the way for the one infuriating aspect of last night’s show. “He will forget everything and lose his innocence. He will be on of us.” Now, I think it’s cool that Kate and Saywer made a conscious effort to transform Little Ben into the diabolical Ben we know right then and there, but he’s going to forget the whole incident? Weak. Majorly weak. I love the idea of Ben knowing everything about the castaways in 2004 because he had essentially grown up with them back in the seventies. I thought it made for such a cool power play, that he had over them. Alas, it’s not so, unless I’ve interpreted it wrong, which is entirely possible. But what is cool is that even though Sayid shot Ben in order to prevent him from growing up and wreaking havoc on all there lives, he actually caused all of that to happen by pulling the trigger. How does it feel to be hit with a sledgehammer of irony?
But my frustrations were quelled when Richard took young Ben and carried him into the Temple. You know, where the damn MONSTER lives. Holy hell, that was awesome. And by the look of next week’s promo, we’re fixin’ to get some answers about what happens in that damn place.
Also, before he left, did you catch his little Other buddy tell him that “Charles” and “Ellie” should be in on what;s about to happen to the boy? This tells that Charles Widmore is the leader of the Others at this point and that Ellie (almost certainly Daniel’s mother Eloise Hawking) is at his side. Curious.
Wake-Up Call.
And then we were treated to a nice little coda with Ben (grown up version) waking up to find a suddenly alive John Locke sitting at his bedside. I personally thought this was a bit much for this episode. I would have been fine with the door to the temple opening, Richard going in and getting the “LOST” title card, but I guess the producers felt like they needed a little more punch at the end of this adventure. Either way, it was cool.
And so ends another thrilling chapter in the story that is Lost’s fifth season. What did y’all think? Were you as sold on the off-island Kate stuff as I was? Her episodes are almost always tiring and uninteresting, but this was anything but, if you ask me. Are any of you still unclear on time travel rules like Hurley is? Hit me up in the comments or via email, and I’ll see you next week!
