***Spoilers ahead***
Tonight's episode did for Kate what last week's did for Sayid, filling in the remaining gaps of her Oceanic 6 time and showing the lead-up to her decision to get on the Ajira 316 flight and head back to the Island. Not many surprises here, but it was nice to see things fleshed out and learn the answer to her current big mystery - where is Aaron? The answer? As it should be. Even though I fell for the mid-episode hinting about Cassidy, Aaron is actually with his grandmother Mrs. Littleton. Kate, with Cassidy's prodding, realized that was the right thing to do, so even though it broke her heart she turned the boy over. She also gave a good answer for why she came back -- if her true feelings were that she wanted to go back to find Claire, to do that for the child she'd grown to love as her own, I'd be totally happy with that. I'm glad she didn't come back for Sawyer, cuz it's looking more and more like Sawyer doesn't want her back at all. And that all feels right, too.
Back on the Island... the central drama was the aftermath of Sayid shooting Ben. Sayid didn't appear in this ep at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's wandering around in the jungle unseen for a few more weeks. But our fearsome foursome had some mighty decisions to make about what to do for the wounded young Ben. Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate were all firmly in the "we've gotta save him" camp... in fact, Sawyer's great line tonight was:
"No matter what he's gonna grow up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die."But, it was ye olde Doc Shepherd who refused to play along this time, and he had a great line of his own in an argument with Kate:
"I've already saved Benjamin Linus once, and I did it for you, Kate. I'm not gonna do it again."In the end, Sawyer and Kate (with Juliet's encouragement) broke the truce in order to ask the mysterious Richard Alpert to heal young Ben. By this time, Ben's already become an Others-groupie, so Richard knew the child. (But I *think* Richard hasn't been time-traveling yet and so doesn't know who Ben turns out to be.) We don't know what the magical Island HMO plan is, so who knows how he is healed. But Richard's eerie warning, and Sawyer and Kate's agreement to it, set Ben on the path to grow up to become the bug-eyed mastermind. Sawyer and Kate basically agreed to let Ben become Ben. Heavy!
One thing I loved about tonight's on-Island story was that it allowed for some pretty amazing conversations between our characters. I think we can also call this episode "Clearing the Island Air." Everyone got a chance to tell everyone else just exactly what they're feeling -- Jack told off Kate "You didn't like the old me" -- Kate told Juliet she didn't want to cause problems between her and Sawyer -- Sawyer told Kate that the two of them were never meant to be -- and, the best, Juliet taking Jack down a few pegs. Elizabeth Mitchell plays pissed off really well. It felt like each of them needed to have these conversations to get a little closure on the Love-Rhombus, and hopefully we can all put that to bed. So to speak. ;-)
More highlights:
- We learned that Sawyer had indeed asked Kate to check in on his daughter Clementine, leading to her reunion with Cassidy and, finally, giving Kate a true friend she can talk to about everything.
- Speaking of that... Kate has now told both Cassidy and Mrs. Littleton the truth of the Oceanic 6. Think this might ever cause some probs in the present day, or will they keep mum?
- Loved LOVED Hurley and Miles replaying the same conversation that millions of LOST fans have been having for weeks, as Miles tried to explain to Hurley the closed loop-time travel theory. I myself have tried a few times lately, so I'm glad the show did it so articulately and with a good Back to the Future reference. :-)
- Hurley stumped Miles with the key question -- why doesn't grownup Ben remember being shot by Sayid? Well, Richard answered that easily -- the "healing" will cause Ben to forget the whole thing. Mighty conveeeeeeeenient, writers!
- Some nice humanizing stuff with Roger Linus, Ben's dad. But do you ever look the other way with an abusive parent, even if they admit they're struggling and lost? Tough call, but I was feeling much more sympathetic towards him tonight.
- Wow, Cassidy is some kind of bitter over old convict / con man Sawyer leaving her behind. Sorry, Cass, I like you, but you were not meant to be with him either.
- In that scene where Kate and Sawyer were risking their lives to save young Ben by crossing into Others' territory, it was pretty easy to see how much they've each grown in 3 years. He now understands responsibility and looking out for people other than himself. She's become a mother and learned what it's like to be nurturing and to need to protect someone helpless. Nice character evolution.
- Apparently, in 1977, Ellie and Charles are both still important to the Others' camp. You couldn't tell if they're physically still on the Island or not, but one of the Others was very concerned Richard wasn't checking with them first. If Charles is still on the Island, I'm gonna need some explaining on when and where Penny is born. She is not 27 in 2004, right? She seemed at least mid-30's....and would remember if she'd grown up on a strange tropical Island!
And... the big final scene? Cut to grownup Ben, back on Hydra Island, being watched over in the dark by a very creepy and menacing John Locke. "Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living." Must be pretty scary to see the guy you killed, huh????
Next week appears to be a BEN episode! Bring it!
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