LOST Episode 3 - What Kate Does

It’s hard to follow up such a tremendous two hour premiere. Episode three lagged at times but was overall a good episode. Almost no questions are answered. We know Claire is “alive”, although the Temple Others have raised more questions as to what happens to people who are exposed to the water in the Temple. So let’s dive in.

I like the name, it’s a reference to the old episode “What Kate Did” in which we find out what Kate did (killing her step-father). Here, we follow her flashsideways after escaping the comically incompetent Edward Mars. She kidnaps Claire in the cab, lets her go, then finds her again to give back her stuff. We learn that the couple in L.A. was in fact real, but the husband left the wife, resulting in them not meeting Claire, which means the adoption is off. Claire has contractions and Kate, at her own risk of being arrested, takes Claire to the hospital where we get our first surprise: Ethan is the Doctor!! Say what? I guess since Ethan was evacuated off the island during the Incident (which somehow resulted in the island sinking), he never has the opportunity to go back and ends up in L.A. Another interesting thing to note is that he uses the name “Goodspeed” (his father is Horace) when we’re used to Ethan Rom. His interaction with Claire is similar to that on the island; he is courteous and always seems to present her with a choice as to what she can do. The most interesting line to me was when Claire ended up with the name “Aaron” and said to Kate that she feels like she knew the name from somewhere, showing another instant of a character remembering occurrences on the island, though not recalling where it’s from. Theory: Kate will end up delivering Claire’s baby. It seems that things in flashsideways world are happening similar to that of the island (Charlie was supposed to die, Christian’s body is missing, Ethan attending to Claire) and we will eventually find out everything is somehow connected, though I have no clue how yet.

On the island, Sayid plays Jack Bauer and resurrects minutes after death. He is rewarded by being tortured (another Jack Bauer moment). Dogen (Japanese Other) claims to be testing him and proclaims he passed. He then tells Jack that Sayid’s infected and pleads with him to give Sayid a pill, a move out of the Ben Linus catalog of trust. Jack, being the man of science he is, doesn’t believe Dogen and tries to swallow the pill, leading Dogen to beat him up until he spits it out. We find out the pill is, surprise, poison! The supposed consequences of the spring is that people are subject to being consumed by evil? When Jack questions how the Temple Others know this, Dogen says it happened to his sister (half-sister Claire, Christian’s daughter). As this is going on, Kate and Jin run off to track an escaped Sawyer. Sawyer reveals to Kate that he was going to marry Juliet before tossing the ring into the water (one of the best scenes from this episode). Jin, abandoned by Kate and Sawyer, tries to escape the Others and is caught in a trap. The two Others are shot by a mysterious figure revealted to be (CLIFFHANGER)... CLAIRE! So, she lives...

So what’s the deal with the spring? Like many I think the water is dark because the smoke monster/dark entity now has the power over the island with Jacob “out of the picture”. We now know this is what Ben was subjected to when he was brought to the Temple by Richard in 1977. I believe, judging from what the Temple Others know, that Ben was not infected. Despite his evil demeanor, he was never killed by the Others. Also like Ben, Sayid remembers nothing from after his injury, only saying “I remember being shot.” This is also a nice LOST reference to Smokie-Locke (“I remember dying”). Regarding Claire, she is no longer the lovable pregnant girl we remember. She looked angry, deranged, and shot two people dead. It is also implied by the two others who accompanied Kate and Jin that Claire is the one who set the traps on the island. We find out the “infection” spreads gradually and is not immediate, which would answer why Claire looked even happier than normal when seen in Jacob’s Cabin with Christian. My guess on Claire is that she died when the men rocket launched her house in season 4, but she was revived somehow. Smokie (disguised as her father Christian) sought her out and made sure the spring procedure took place, thus bringing her to the “dark side”. I think this episode proved that Sayid is not Jacob nor is her the smoke monster exactly, because Smokie can only inhabit one image at a time (Locke). It’ll be interesting to see how Jack and the Temple Others address the issue of Sayid now that he is apparently possessed. Will Sayid be killed? Is Claire the new Rousseau? Why did she abandon Aaron? Why did Smokie knock out Richard? Why does Smoke-Locke seek out Sawyer next episode...

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/d/da/6x03_ClaiRousseau.jpg