This episode hearkens back to Lost season 1 in a number of ways. First off, it starts with a shot of Locke’s eye as he wakes up in his cabin in the village. Also, there is essentially no sci-fi in this episode. (They may be saving that for next week.) We are given an hour of the characters we love and hate doing the things we love and hate about them.
This week’s flash forward centers on Kate and her trial upon returning to the real world. She is clearly much less comfortable facing a trial by jury than she was facing down any of the life and death trials of the island. There will be no running, now, though. She has a baby boy to take care of. (This is presumably the “him” that she refers to during her airport meeting with Jack.)
The DA takes on Kate’s trial personally, intending to make Kate’s mother the star witness. Kate’s lawyer urges her to bring her son into the courtroom to play on the jury’s emotions, but she shoots that idea down cold. Her lawyer’s next tactic: a surprise appearance by Jack as a character witness.
Through his testimony we learn the Oceanic Six cover story. The plane crashed in the water. Kate managed to get eight survivors to shore on a nearby island, deliver first aid, find water and keep them alive. In short, Jack paints Kate as the hero he was. Later dialog shows that this is their well-established story.
Kate’s mom comes to visit her before she is to take the stand. She says her doctors have been giving her six months to live for two years now and her eminent death has given her perspective. She does not want to testify. She does, however, want to see Kate’s baby. Kate is still hurt from her mother’s past betrayals, though, and refuses to allow it.
Kate’s mother lives up to her word not to testify, and the DA’s case falls apart. She is forced to offer a deal that leaves Kate out of jail but on probation for ten years, during which time she may not leave the state. Although her lawyer is ready to try for a better deal, Kate jumps at the one offered. She wants to be free to take care of her son, and she’s not going anywhere anyway now that she has him to take care of.
Jack meets up with Kate after the trial and says he still loves her. She invites him to follow her home but he wants to get coffee sometime instead. It seems that Jack doesn’t want to be around the baby. Kate will have nothing to do with him until he changes his mind.
Back on the island, most of the time is spent following the group at the village. Things are not going well, there. Locke is fast on his way to showing he makes a much better medicine man than a chief. Ben immediately gets under his skin and Locke doesn’t know enough to avoid letting Hurley in on things he wants to keep secret.
Kate wants to know if the freighter people know her criminal past or if she might be able to slip back into the real world without facing it. Miles uses this to get her to arrange a meeting with Ben. When Miles gets his chance to talk to the man himself, he offers to report back that Ben Linus is dead in exchange for 3.2 million dollars. Ben acts as if it is impossible at first, but later seems to concede he could come up with the money and might consider it.
When Locke finds out about people running around behind his back, he decides it’s time to instill some discipline. To that end, he shoves a grenade into Miles’ mouth and pulls the pin out. If Miles opens his mouth, the grenade handle will lift and that will be then end of him. With that done, he pays Kate a visit and lets her know she is no longer welcome in the village. Since we know Hurley won’t be in the village much longer either, it looks like Locke is going to become very choosy about who he keeps around. Ben may start to look like a pretty reasonable guy by comparison.
Sawyer takes an interesting turn this week as well. He informs Locke of Kate’s plan to break Miles out for his meeting. At the same time, he lets Locke know that Hurley is the one that couldn’t keep Miles’ location a secret. Is Sawyer going to be become Locke’s right hand man?
When Sawyer finds out Kate is banished, he says he’ll make sure she stays. That goes astray the very next morning, however. Kate doesn’t want to sleep with him and says she knows she’s not pregnant. Sawyer is overjoyed to hear that news and Kate is horrified at his reaction. She won’t stay with him. She even delivers a well-deserved slap when Sawyer suggests it will just be a matter of time before Jack turns her down again and she come crawling back to her bad boy. It seems Sawyer now has plenty of reason to become embittered against Jack and his group.
On the beach, Charlotte is playing a memory game with Daniel. It seems that Daniel is able to remember the values of only two out of three cards after a fair amount of time has passed. Look for this scene to become very important in light of episodes still to come.
After a day of being unable to contact the freighter (Minkowski still isn’t answering the phone), Jack gets Charlotte to call an emergency-only number. Regina picks up and when Charlotte asks to talk to the four who returned on the helicopter, Regina says they never arrived. So where is the chopper? Sayid was on it, and we know he has to survive.
At the end of the show, Kate returns home. It seems that Oceanic did take care of the Oceanic 6 because Kate lives in a very nice house and has a nanny to take care of her son while she is at trial. Kate hurries upstairs to the boy’s bedroom. He looks to be two or three years old, talks very well, and has blond hair. And his name is Aaron.
Wow. How did that happen? Is Claire going to see Charlie again much sooner than she thought, or does she find some reason to send Aaron back while she remains on the island? In typical Lost fashion, an answer about the Oceanic 6 brings even more questions.
This episode was clearly written for those who enjoy watching the group dynamics that were the original strong point for Lost. It felt just a bit shallow because no one did anything out of character. Locke was frustrated, Sawyer was looking out for himself and Ben was manipulative. There was even a line of dialog where Ben remarked on how similar the situation was to the time when he was locked up in the Swan. Kate, however, did show some advancement towards being able to pick a spot to take a stand rather than following wherever the wind blows. There have been better episodes of Lost, but there have also been much worse ones. And if the previews are any indication, next week’s episode of Lost will erase any disappointment this one may have given.
