Lost Rewatch on VHS: Left Behind

 

“Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell’s going on.”

Besides the obvious fact that this statement is as clear a reference to the world the fan of Lost has been wonderfully emmeshed in for nearly three seasons already, there are several ironies to Kate’s remark to Juliet.  It could describe how Kate is trying to figure out what the hell happened to Locke or that she’s still reeling from Jack’s reaction to her appearance a couple of episodes back, but in the case of Left Behind, it’s that even now she still doesn’t know what the hell’s going on and that’s now that she’s literally attached to a person who can tell her, she spends all of her energy trying to go back to rescue Jack despite what just happened.

By this point in Kate’s story we’ve known that for her the old standard is true: ‘You Only Hurt The Ones You Love.”  By the time the flashbacks in this episode are over, she has been convinced by her mother that’s exactly what she did when she killed Wayne.

Diane is clearly suffering from battered wife syndrome, but not even that excuses her actions throughout the course of the flashbacks. There have been occasional revisits as to whether some of the parental figures in Lost were as bad as their children thought they were no one will ever do that for Diane Janssen. Kate spent her childhood watching Wayne beat her mother. We don’t know if he ever did the same to her but given just how rabid she denied it when the Marshal hinted at it in What Kate Did, I’m incline to think the answer is yes.  Kate’s narrative to Cassidy about what she did and why are the most honest we see a character be in these flashbacks and her betrayal is clearly very raw.  (It’s hard to know the exact chronology of the flashbacks but its clear the one hear takes place within a few months at most of Kate’s murder.) Kate has risked her freedom – and given how accurate Cassidy’s assessment of the marshal was, probably her life – to see her mother and ask why she chose the man who beat her over her daughter. Diane’s response and utter contempt for child’s wellbeing, past or present, puts Anthony Cooper to shame. And as we have already seen, not even her impending mortality caused her to change her mind one bit about her daughter.

Now on the island, she’s spends almost the entire episode refusing to face the consequences of her actions. This episode is another one of those all-too rare ones where the main plot is female-centric. Most of the story involves Kate and Juliet waking up in the jungle handcuffed to each other and trying to deal with the consequences. Both Lilly and Mitchell give emotionally raw performances that are masterclasses for the season. What’s fascinating watching the episode again is that, even knowing that Juliet is lying about almost every aspect of the scenario, I’m still inclined to be on her side for the majority of the episode.

Because while Juliet is lying about the how she got her and what she knows about, well, pretty much everything, where we know she is telling the truth is in her rage. When Kate is basically forcing Juliet to take them back to the barracks, Juliet tells her that she really doesn’t hope its for Jack. She is absolutely honest about not only what Jack said and the consequences of Kate’s actions. Kate’s decision to beat Juliet up is yet another sign of her own denial about what has happened.  Just as real is when Juliet tells Kate how angry she is that if Kate hadn’t shown up she would be on her way home by now.  I still have some debate as to just how aware Juliet is of the fate of the sub, but she wants to go home as badly as everyone else. Kate again chooses to deny that Jack meant what he said (which is keeping with Kate’s attitude towards Jack so much of the time the first two seasons) and then Juliet finally confirms what Kate knows: Jack saw her and Sawyer together and his heart is broken.

I’m even willing to go so far as to deny a fundamental point that was brought up when Juliet says she knows Jack better than Kate does. In a sense Juliet knows as much as she does based on the files while what Kate knows she knows because Jack told him.  In a larger sense Juliet is telling the truth because of the larger attitude of the survivors about sharing information. And given how much time Jack and Juliet have spent together over the last two weeks, there is a very real possibility that Jack has shared more about himself with Juliet than he has with Kate, at least so far.

Of course by the end of the episode Juliet has thrown away almost all of that credibility and reminded us that she is an Other.  She spends most of the episode trying to con Kate that she has been left behind by her people, that she was handcuffed to her and can not get free, and that she has no idea what the smoke monster is. That part, I might be willing to accept given what we will later learn there’s a very good chance that there only a few Others know the true nature of the smoke monster and that Juliet has had no interaction with it over the three years she’s been on the island. She also seems genuinely terrified when she hears it for the first time and it seems to start taking pictures of her and Kate.

And then in order to preserve their lives, she reveals she has the keys to the cuffs, knows how to work the sonic fence and knows enough about the monster that the fence can repel it. I’m honestly shocked Kate doesn’t punch her again when Juliet tries to explain her deception; she’s actually earned it this time. It also radically reshapes our perceptions of Juliet again. We’ve never truly accepting that she was part of the Others the way so many of the ones we’ve already met have been. Her actions here clearly demonstrate that, when push comes to shove, she is just as capable of the mind games that Ben is capable of.  Indeed her whole approach when she’s caught is to do what Benry did when his deception was revealed: change his story and create a new set of lies.

Before we get to the end its worth going over the other revelations in the episode. The most critical one is, of course, that Kate meets up with Cassidy, the woman Sawyer victimized in The Long Con. At the time the perception was Cassidy was a con artist herself. I never believed that in The Long Con and I don’t believe it her. If anything, I’m inclined to think her conversations with ‘Lucy’ are built on the lessons Sawyer taught her when they were together. Perhaps that is the reason she’s still running cons and is willing to help Lucy: this is the best way she knows to hold on to the man she still loves. Is it possible that her time with Kate is the push she needs to turn Sawyer in? We’ll never know for sure but by the time of Every Man For Himself, it’s clear that Cassidy has changed her mind. (She and Kate aren’t done yet.)

On the island Sawyer is dealing with another con by Hurley. In this case, Hurley is trying a far more difficult con: he is trying to convince a tiger to change his stripes. Once again we see how easy it is to con the con man, and it really says a lot that Hurley is the one who can do it. Sawyer should really know by now that this group of castaways is never the type to vote on anything, but perhaps because he is still reeling from the revelations of his most despicable act in Season 2, he believes it is possible. The looks he gets from Sun throughout the episode clearly demonstrate she has no interest in forgiving Sawyer for his actions anytime soon.

So he goes about his half-assed method of trying to be nice, which is truly hysterical because he’s just not used to it. (The scenes with Claire and Aaron are my favorite parts of it.) And when he learns the truth – that Hurley basically did this so that Sawyer could take on the role of temporary leader – he is truly annoyed and fundamentally reluctant. These scenes show foreshadowing for Sawyer’s taking a greater leadership role which will come to a natural progression in Season 5.

Equally interesting is that Hurley, yet again, reveals himself to be the power behind the throne.  As we saw in Season 1, Hurley was always good at helping people and is still the most universally liked.  This is yet another example that Hurley has the abilities to be a superb leader but he still lacks the confidence. It’s going to take even longer than Sawyer for him to get there.

The episode ends with Kate finally talking to Jack opening up and apologizing for everything she has done.  It's telling that Jack’s first words when her confession is over are not to accept or even acknowledge Kate’s pleas but to ask her to confirm that everyone is gone. What must hurt even more is the fact that Jack seems to care more about Juliet’s safety than Kate’s even now.

Jack’s decision that we go back would seem to be the sign of the resumption of the status quo.  Once the group is back, Jack will take over his role as leader and the camp which has been spinning with so many problems in his absence, will manage to find a way forward again. Except when they start to leave Sayid tells Jack “she (Juliet) is not going with us,” And Jack, who has spent the better part of three seasons defending his people against the Others, who was captured when Michael betrayed them to Ben, says without hesitation: “Yes she is.” The look that Kate and Sayid exchange is one of concern. Both have challenged Jack’s authority countless times over the course of the series but this is far different. Jack is going to bring the enemy right back into the safe haven. The rest of the camp is soon going to wonder if the only thing Jack did back with the Others was play football. We’re thinking it right now.

Oh, and one last thing. No one asks what happened to Locke. Not now, and not for the foreseeable future. Perhaps they are all too afraid that Jack has been drinking the same Kool-Aid.