Whatever Happened, Happened
Greetings Lostaways,
Another good filler episode in my opinion, though I think I’m getting a bit too demanding here (aren’t we all?) I take it back. It wasn’t an omgwtf episode, but it was good. And a just “good” Lost episode is better than most TV shows out there anyway.
As a Kate-centric episode, I was expecting some sap, and we got some, though not in the way I expected.
As we guessed, Sawyer’s whisper to Kate on the helicopter was a request to go find Cassidy and Clementine. The two women are reunited, bond over their dysfunctional relations with Sawyer, and giggle over lattes. Cassidy’s obviously hanging on to bitterness towards Sawyer that Kate hasn’t yet developed, but that doesn’t stop Cassidy from becoming her new BFF. Three years later, mere moments after Kate flips out at Jack at the marina, Aaron does a wee bit of a vanishing act in the supermarket. Kate finds him being lead away by a recognizable (or is she?) blonde. Though it turns out the woman is not Claire, it was just enough of a spook to get Kate on edge. I almost half expected Aaron to disappear completely, or to never have been there all along. Wouldn’t it have been great to see supermarket security footage of Kate walking in alone? Creeeeeepyyyyyy. Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed this. Check out what DarkUFO has to say, and really, click on the link to read the whole article, cause there’s more. “Humor me for a minute, and watch Kate and Aaron in the supermarket. She asks where the juice boxes are, gets distracted by Jack’s call, and then loses Aaron. Watch the look the stockboy gives her when she tells him she lost her son: as he says “excuse me” his facial expressions register confusion, not concern for someone who just walked by with a little blonde boy in tow. Rewind to when Kate first asks the question, and the stockboy never even looks at Aaron. In fact, no one looks at Aaron in the supermarket at all, except for Kate. As she frantically runs through the aisles the next scene is shown, not surprisingly, in the store’s giant mirror. Suddenly Kate sees Aaron again, this time seemingly being led away by Claire. We know Claire is supposed to raise Aaron, and the island is showing Kate this. It’s slapping her in the face with the fact that she’s living a lie. It leads Kate back to Cassidy’s house, where Clementine answers the door. “Hi Auntie Kate!”, she says. She doesn’t say hi to Aaron. She doesn’t even look at Aaron. Strange too, because Aaron apparently rang the bell. Later on, Kate gives Carole a picture of Aaron on a tire swing. Immediately she asks “Where is he?” Kate answers her question with “two doors down”, but Carole continues to stare at the photo. Where is he indeed.”
Kate decides, with the help of crabby Cassidy, that she’s afraid of Aaron being taken away because she took Aaron. Kate decides to leave Aaron with Mrs. Littleton and go back to the island to find Claire. I can’t tell you how RELEAVED I was to learn that this was the reason Kate went back to the island. Not because wishy washy Jack asked her to, not because burly Sawyer is there, but to actually do something good for someone else. Though in many ways I feel that Kate will end up with Aaron in the end anyway (the psychic telling Claire she’s not supposed to raise the baby, Kate delivering Aaron herself, the idea that Kate is pregnant right now) I’m glad Kate is finally doing something for another, rather than her predictable self.
Doc Jensen has some ideas on what the whole Marina sequence means for each of the characters. Apaprently, there is a boat in the background named “Illusion” and that signifies that the lives that the O6 have been living off-island are exactly that. They must return to the island to their real selves and real destinies. “You know how at the beginning of the episode, when Kate was singing ”Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away” to Baby Aaron? (So cute in that car seat, wasn’t he?) Well, ‘’shooting stars” are actually comets or asteroids. As it happens, the planetary catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs – usually ascribed to an asteroid hitting the Earth – is known as the K-T Extinction Event. And did you catch Aaron’s motel room number? According to Kate, it was ”two doors down” from Mrs. Littleton’s room, which was K10. Ergo, K10 – 2 = K8 = KT = An episode about the fading away of Kate’s old self and the emergence of her new self, and the foreshadowing for an apocalyptic event by season’s end that will wipe away the castaways’ shared reality. Obvious, no?”
Now for Maternal Instincts: 1977 Version.
Jin awakens to find Ben shot in the chest. OMGWTF! Yet we kind of know this kid will survive. Though Vozzek69 has noticed something interesting about what the Lostaways can see, or not see, “Only what they need to see. Or more specifically, only what they need to be shown. Which is why when Jin turns little Ben over, the bullet hole in his zip-down hoodie is now on the exact opposite side of his chest – on the other side of the zipper. It’s not even close; it’s a complete mirror image of the spot where Sayid drilled him precisely through the heart. Continuity error? Maybe on 24. But this is LOST, and we’re seeing exactly what the island wants us to see, through Jin’s eyes. But through the eyes of Sayid? For him the bullet went right through the kid’s heart – no need for a coup de grace. And this, my friends, is how the island isn’t so much manipulating the events or happenings we see from week to week. What’s being manipulated are the perceptions and experiences of the characters on LOST, and yes, even the flashbacks.” For another interesting Easter Egg, check out this numbers reversal:
Back in the infirmary, Juliet has trouble stopping the bleeding and Roger freaks out over the injury of the son he doesn’t even care about, and in the meantime, Hurley, Kate and Jack are locked up inside a house with Miles, seemingly so that Sawyer can attempt to control the situation (poor guy, his friends come back and everything is fooked). Doc thinks Sawyer and Jack have effectively reversed their roles: “Sawyer’s all Mr. Respectable now, the kind of ”Live together, die alone” leader Jack used to be. Meanwhile, Jack is back on the Island searching for destiny and his fulfillment, and while I don’t make that bad (not yet, at least), last night he came off looking a little…well, a little like Old Sawyer to me. In the same way Jack used to go barging over to Sawyer’s tent on the beach demanding help from the con man (Band-Aids, pills, etc.) and instead only getting bad attitude and ”What’s in it for me?” selfishness, now it’s Sawyer barging into Jack’s home, demanding that he apply his surgical skills to Young Ben, and getting a big self-centered ”No” in return. Yeah, yeah, there was a little more to Jack’s response to that – there always is, with anyone – but let us note this conspicuous role reversal. Jack is the new Sawyer. He even went shirtless last night! Wonder where that may lead? Sweaty cage sex? A Dharma library card? Crazy nicknames?” I did especially like the mini Jack-Kate convo in the kitchen. Kate chastised him for making sandwiches (mmm sammiches) while important things are happening. She says, “‘You know I don’t like the new you. I liked the old you. The one who didn’t sit around and wait for things to happen.” To which he replies, “You didn’t like the old me, Kate.” SHAZZAM! Sometimes that girl needs to be called out on her BS.
In one of the most hilarious pieces of dialogue in Lost history, Miles and Hurley discuss the time travel paradoxes that we’ve all been wondering at home. I post the transcript for you below:
MILES: What the hell are you doing, Tubby?
HURLEY: Checking to see if I’m disappearing.
MILES: What?
HURLEY: “Back to the Future,” man. We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he’ll never grow up to be big Ben, who’s the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can’t be here. And therefore, dude? We don’t exist.
MILES: You’re an idiot. [Takes a seat at the table]
HURLEY: Am I?
MILES: Yeah. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t change anything. You’re maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened. It’s just…we never experienced how it all turns out.
[Hurley looks at Jack, confused.]
HURLEY: This is really confusing.
Later…
HURLEY: Let me get this straight.
[Miles is pacing.]
HURLEY: All this already happened.
MILES: Yes.
HURLEY: So this conversation we’re having right now…we already had it.
MILES: [Claps his hands] Yes!
HURLEY: Then what am I gonna say next?
MILES: I don’t know. [Shakes his head.]
HURLEY: Ha’! Then your theory is wrong!
MILES: For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it’s happening right now.
HURLEY: Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then…why don’t I remember any of it?
MILES: Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn’t a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now.
[Hurley's face tightens in confusion as he thinks, Miles stares at him.]
HURLEY: Say that again.
MILES: [Pauses in exasperation and pulls out his gun and holds it out for Hurley to take.] Shoot me. Please. Please!
HURLEY: Aha! I can’t shoot you. Because if you die in 1977, then you’ll never come back to the island on the freighter 30 years from now.
MILES: I can die because I’ve already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present.
HURLEY: But you said Ben couldn’t die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the Others.
MILES: Because this is his past.
HURLEY: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn’t he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?
[Miles blinks and looks around. Hurley raises his eyebrow.]
MILES: Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.
HURLEY: Huh. [Crossing his arms.]
When Juliet realizes she can’t fix Ben, she lets it slip to Kate that maybe the Others/Hostiles (who the hell is who anymore?!?) can. This I find interesting, since the Hostiles seem to be camping out in the jungle and we’ve never seen the inside of their alleged “Temple” yet they have better medical equipment and knowledge than the Dharma Initiative?? Hrmm. Juliet helps Kate sneak Ben into a van and out to Hostile territory, yet when Sawyer shows up to help, he makes it pretty clear that he’s doing so as a favor to Juliet, not for Kate. It’s another reminder that Sawyer’s comfortable life with Juliet and Dharma has been going on quite a bit longer than any with Kate and the 815ers.
To summarize from Lostpedia, “The Others escort Sawyer and Kate into the jungle, where Richard emerges. Richard recognizes Sawyer, but asks why Kate is there. After Sawyer asserts that Kate is with him, Richard asks if the boy is Benjamin Linus. Sawyer asks if Richard and Ben have met, which Richard does not respond to. Richard explains if he takes Ben, he will not remember any of this, will lose his innocence, and will “always be one of us.” One of the Others tries to stop Richard from taking Ben, saying that Ellie and Charles won’t be happy, but Richard asserts that he doesn’t answer to them. After Kate hands over Ben, Richard carries him through the jungle alone. He approaches the wall of the Temple, passing by a large hole in the ground. After a pause, Richard pushes open a stone door and takes him inside.” We’ve got to assume that it’s Jacob to whom Richard answers to, and that they believe that Ben does have some sort of destiny within their group. Though I’m wondering what he means by “lose his innocence” and why Ben won’t remember anything. Is that just a cleaver way of avoiding the “oh that’s the guy who shot me!” introduction to Sayid in 2004? Doc comments “Lost innocence? What, does getting healed come with an installation of evil spirits? Or is does Richard hang out with strippers or something? (The Temple = the Bada Bing! of the Hostiles) In the Bible, the fall from innocence was a result of eating from a tree that gave Adam and Eve forbidden knowledge. Is that what Ben’s going to get? Knowledge of his future? Regardless, once again, the castaways are being made to understand that their participation in past events is shaping the future that they have already experienced. They have themselves to blame for the thing that is Benjamin Linus. We are the causes of our own suffering. Think about your life.” Dark UFO has another question: ” ‘He won’t remember any of this’… Richard’s words here are intentionally non-specific. Obviously this means Ben won’t remember being shot, but after his trip to the temple just how far back won’t Ben remember? Could it be possible that Ben won’t remember anything at all? If so, this would explain his long ago assertion that he was born on the island. But also if so, wouldn’t this render his past childhood flashbacks of Annie null and void, making them useless in future Ben-centric episodes? And if Ben suddenly has no past knowledge of his life before the temple, would he still be able to seamlessly assimilate back into Dharma society, wait another 15 years or so, and then execute his role in the purge? Or is this HOW he does it, without any guilt or remorse, other than for Horace? Man, that’s a lot of new questions.”
Aaaaaand finally, just as Benjamin seems to be getting the medical attention he requires, future (current?) Ben wakes up. What does he see when he does? John Locke, alive and well. “Welcome back to the land of the living,” John says. Land of the living indeed….can’t wait for next week.
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