the tindog coffeehouse

Once again, some random thoughts about last night’s episode of Lost:

• “Claire?”
• The episode was titled “What Kate Does”. So what does Kate do? She runs. She runs when she’s on the island and when she’s off, just like always. Kate has always been a 1-dimensional character, so honestly I was less interested in what she does than in Sayid and Claire. This episode was really more about them.
• Doesn’t it seem like Jack, Sawyer, and Kate have regressed since last season? In Season 5 Jack had grown from a cynical man of science to a hopeful man of faith. Now he’s back to cynical. “What’s that?” “It’s a baseball.” “What’s this?” “It’s tea.” “We’ll just see where trust gets us.” Meanwhile, Sawyer had evolved into a respected leader while stuck in 1977, yet he’s now back to the angry, selfish loner he was in Season 1. And Kate, who we thought had learned to stop running while caring for Aaron, is back to her old ways. I’m not sure this is a good thing. If Lost is ultimately a story of redemption, these characters have taken several steps backward.
• Meanwhile, Sayid also seemed out of character. The Iraqi torturer and cold-blooded assassin for Ben Linus — who had been tortured himself numerous times — now screamed and begged for mercy when strapped down by Dogen and Lennon. Was that a purposeful change in direction, or am I just being picky?
• I never quite bought the chemistry between Sawyer and Juliet, so I don’t really care that Sawyer is so heartbroken. Maybe I’m just not a romantic. Or maybe it goes back to the whole character regression thing. I don’t know.
• Hello, Ethan Rom. Or Dr. Goodspeed. Interesting juxtaposition between the old Ethan, who took a sinister pleasure in prodding preggo Claire with needles on the island, and the new and improved Dr. Goodspeed, with a sickening sweet bedside manner and a willingness to put away the needles.
• Interesting to see Claire and Kate’s reaction when Claire called the baby “Aaron”. Like they both remembered him. Ethan Rom: “He’s going to be quite a handful.” Yep.
• Jin wasn’t going back to the Temple, he was looking for the Ajira plane and Sun.
• Dogen: “We were brought here. You know what I mean.” Everyone on the island is brought here for a reason. But who brings them? The island? Jacob?
• Dogen on why he uses a translator: To separate him from his people so that it’s easier for them to accept his decisions. The opposite of Jack’s mantra: “Live together, die alone.”
• Jack tells Sayid point-blank that he didn’t save his life, but Sayid is unfazed. He swears his loyalty to Jack and even agrees to take the pill if Jack tells him to. We’ll just see about that if the “infection” really does reach his heart. I think Hurley was right: Sayid is a zombie. (Hey, it’s the fabled Lost zombie season after all!)
• So Claire’s heart turned to darkness. That explains what she was doing in the cabin with Christian. Guess that also explains what happened to her when the Dharma house exploded: She died and was resurrected like Sayid, but infected with the same “darkness”. So it’s more like the Star Wars zombie season. Or something like that.

Previously:
Lost thoughts, Feb. 3rd