The Ed Zone

Lost – ‘Left Behind’ – 3.15

Thursday April 5, 2007 | 8 comments (now closed)

I’m sort of divided on this episode. While I enjoyed the island developments, the flashbacks left me cold. In fact, Kate’s last few flashbacks have grown tiresome. It might have something to do with the fact that as we parse through the details of “What Kate Did” we learn that it really isn’t THAT shocking.

I remember that early episode where Kate robbed a bank, shot her accomplices and ran off with a safety deposit box (which contained a toy plane). It was so pregnant with possibility. With such a large manhunt assembled to find Kate Austin, I was holding out hope that she had some major secret. Since then, it’s been pretty routine, with her frequent run-ins with Frederic Lane’s dogged marshal playing like a shadow of the Tom Hanks-Leo DiCaprio dynamic in Catch Me if You Can.

Last night’s flashback did nothing to sway my opinion. The only thing that we learned was Kate once teamed up with Sawyer’s baby momma, Cassidy. That was another element that slightly bothered me. The chance encounters have long been a hallmark of the series but never have they crossed this tightly (unless you count Claire and Jack as half-sibs). I just really hope that there is a ‘design’ for all this Six Degrees action. I have the utmost fate that there is a plan – and to be honest, I have grooved on all the other cross-connections, but there was just something about this little love connection that rang a little too convenient.

That said, the island action was fantastic. The story moved along and we got some qualified intel to expand our understanding of the island’s inner workings.

All right – on with the observations.

1.   How did such a sweet, innocent fertility doctor become such an ass-kicking warrior. When Kate tried to get the jump on Juliet, Juliet proved that her Kung-Fu was much stronger than anything Miss Austin could muster. Also, Juliet confessed that she has dislocated her shoulder 3 times previously so she may have had some rigorous combat training on the island.

2.   That early meeting/goodbye between Locke and Kate was interesting. As Locke put it “…I made a strong case for you. I told them you were a decent person… Then they told me what you did. They’re not a very forgiving people.” Hmmm, on that last part, maybe there is something more to what Kate did. I can’t imagine that they would be all that bent out of shape at Kate for killing her abusive Daddy – especially since they are all buddy-buddy with the same John Locke who just liberated Mikhail’s brains through his ears and blew up their sub. There’s got to be something more there.

3.   Red Rover, Red Rover – Send Locke right over. Red Rover, Red Rover – Send Juliet right over. Looks like both sides are even. I forget. How do you even win at that game.

4.   The monster makes his appearance in a Kate-centric tale. In other words, Smokey and the Bandit.

5.   Regarding the monster, two interesting things came out of this episode. Although Juliet confesses of knowing about the monster, she has no idea of its nature, meaning it is not controlled by The Others. That should put those Internet Geeks and their nanobot cloud theories to rest once and for all. That also lends more credence to my theory that the creature is tied to the island and may be symbolic of pure good and evil – a judging force.

6.   It appears this may have been Juliet’s first run-in with the creature as it began taking snapshots of her mind on that first encounter. That may not bode well for her character. The last person (Mr. Ecko) who got that treatment ended up a human piñata.

7.   The fact that the sonic fence repelled the creature was curious. High frequencies could prove disruptive to machines. Hmmm – maybe it is ‘manmade’ after all. Oh great, here come those nanobot theories again.

8.   While I appreciated two chicks brawling in a raging monsoon followed by a brief bout in the mud, would it have killed Lindelof to write in a vat of Jello somewhere?

9.   So what do you think, has Juliet really been Left Behind or are Jack and Juliet being ‘Left Behind’ on purpose? The key in her pocket is telling.

Next week, the Juliet-centric ‘One of Us’.