Lost Rewatch On VHS: Whatever Happened, Happened

 

1.     Whatever Happened, Happened

VHS NOTES: We see trailers for Fast & Furious, the fourth movie in that franchise that only now seems to be coming to an end. We also see a trailer for the DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire which just a few weeks earlier took eight Oscars including Best Picture. We’re also told of the series finale of Life on Mars and an ad for the failed Bob Saget vehicle Surviving Suburbia.

 

This is a good time to discuss Kate, not just because this episode centers on her but because from this point on the chatter about Kate on the show, never heavily in her favor, began to tilt decidedly against her.

I feel much of this is due to the often toxic masculinity that fuels so much of the discussion of the great shows on Peak TV. By this point both Mad Men and Breaking Bad were in their second seasons and already both Betty Draper and Skyler White were becoming the focus of the loathing that so often comes of the wives of antiheroes on Peak TV even though in many cases their only crimes are not being supportive of the monstrous behavior of their husbands. We will learn in this episode that Kate’s reasons for the island were by far the most unselfish of those who came back and much of her behavior once she returns to the island this season is that of the moral high ground to the horrible activities her friends are doing. Yet to this day the perception remains that Kate is the monster. I once took this very argument on a Lost message board last year and was met with the line: “Nah. I still hate her.”

Perhaps the reason that this is the case is because of the underlying love triangles Kate has been involved in since the Pilot. Her relationship with Jack and Sawyer was defined in both treks that happened; in the first Kate followed Jack, in the other Sawyer followed Kate. The two men represent the duality of Kate’s own nature: Jack is the ‘good person’ she thinks she doesn’t deserve and Sawyer the outlaw she is closer to in nature. In the first season Kate would always trail after Jack and he would frequently treat her with contempt, while Sawyer chose to pursue her. When Sawyer left on the raft Jack and Kate got along better than before – until Eko showed up with Sawyer draped over his shoulders and we realized why.

The triangle was basically set aside during much of Season 2 as the hatch took priority but it was pushed to the center after the Others took the three of them at the end of the season. Jack was the only one they needed but Ben knew that he had to be able to manipulate him, so he took Kate to keep Jack in line and he took Sawyer so he could keep Kate in a line. When Kate and Sawyer hooked up at a moment of desperation in I Do, it broke Jack’s heart and he told Kate and Sawyer to leave him and never come back. Kate refused to accept this as reality and immediately took a trek across the island to save Jack – only to learn Jack didn’t need saving and that by doing so she’d destroyed any hope of rescue.

By this point Jack had met Juliet and despite himself was clearly attached to her. By the second half of the season he had been willing to trust Juliet enough to bring her back to camp with him even though everyone told him they could not trust her – and it turned out they were right. Kate was now on the outside of a love triangle and she chose to focus her anxiety on Sawyer – who didn’t object that hard.

In Season 4 when the freighter came the triangle came into focus. Jack sent Kate with Sayid to Locke’s camp because he thought Sawyer’s affection for her would stop him from hurting anyone. He was shocked when Kate decided to stay and played house with Sawyer. Kate chose to reject Sawyer’s advances and this time he did take it personally. By this time Jack and Juliet were getting cozy but Juliet knew Jack was in love with Kate. When the time came to get on the helicopter, Sawyer sacrificed his chance as rescue to save Kate – and she never forgot it.

In civilization Kate became Aaron’s surrogate mother,  something she got more happiness from than either Jack or Kate. Eventually Jack and Kate ended up raising Aaron together and Jack asked Kate to marry him. But eventually Jack’s guilt and drinking got in the way and the relationship ended disastrously. Meanwhile on the island, Juliet and Sawyer spent the next three years in Dharma fell in love and seemed to be happy – and now the Oceanic 5 have exploded that. Furthermore any chance that ‘Lafleur’ might be able to contain the situation they’re in having got shot to sunrise when thirteen year old Ben was shot by Sayid.

Much of the comedy in this episode comes from Hurley’s terror of what will happen if Young Ben dies and Miles’ stubbornness that it’ll work out. But let’s look at it from a different perspective and see why each of the four members of the two triangles reacts differently to Ben’s shooting and how they chose to handle it.

Jack’s decision to do nothing is seen as a sign that he has decided to just destiny takes his course and has come around to Locke’s way of thinking. That’s partially accurate but there’s a different context beyond what he tells Kate. (For the record I thought that was a good enough reason in 2009.) Jack met ‘Benry’ the same time Locke and Sayid did and while he never trusted him, his contempt for Locke stopped them from working together to figure it out. He was abducted and held prisoner by Ben and made a deal with the devil himself to get off the island – and had it literally blow up in his face. The next time they met at the end of Season 3 Ben told him that the people who were coming to save the castaways were actually evil and Jack reacted by beating Ben to a pulp. It turns out Ben was right but rather than acknowledge that possibility (or Locke’s agreement) he took his people to be saved, primarily to get away from Ben.

After everything went to hell over the last three years Ben came to Jack at his lowest point and once again he made another deal with the devil, this time to go back to the island – with a promise of no return. He learned just how capable Ben was of manipulating his friends to get what he wanted but he still followed Ben and got on Ajira 316. Jack tells Juliet near the end of the episode why he came back to the island but he admits he doesn’t know why. But for him to have traveled all this way through time and space just to end up back exactly where he started must feel like a cosmic joke.

It's worth noting the one point in this episode where I can have sympathy with those who hate Kate comes when she tells him that she liked the ‘old Jack’, he reminds her, with pinpoint accuracy, that she didn’t like the old him. And he’s dead on. Their entire experience on the island was Kate challenging Jack on every decision he made, whether it involved following him into the jungle after he told her not to, deciding not to listen to advice about not coming back to find him (the right call) or whether to do anything. And it’s worth noting that even though Kate is doing the right thing, it’s still not what Jack is doing.

Sawyer didn’t meet Ben until he was abducted and their first real interaction was when Ben beat him up and tried to con him about a fake pacemaker in his chest that would explode. The con left an impression and it said a lot about how much Sawyer wanted to survive that he chose to go with Locke even though Ben was with him. He spent much of Season 4 either beating him to a pulp, threatening him with violence and when Keamy’s men attacked the barracks intended to throw Ben to the wolves. (The fact that Ben would have left him to die no doubt didn’t help things.) We don’t blame him when he asks Juliet why she wants so badly to save Young Ben, and its clear that the only reason he’s doing this is because she asked him, not Kate. It’s worth noting that since ‘Lafleur’ has lived in the Barracks for three years he knows everything that’s going on between Roger and his son. Given what we know about James and his own parents, you’d think he’d be more helpful towards Young Ben and its speaks volumes that he’s done nothing – and that he has so little sympathy for it when Kate tells him says a lot too.

Juliet’s reaction is by far the hardest to parse because she knows better than any of them what a monster Ben will grow up to be. She’s only on the island because of him and she spent the first three years of that period being emotionally blackmailed by the adult Ben. Indeed, the last time Ben was on a surgical table Jack reminded us that Juliet had said she had offered to help him kill the adult Ben. She later denied it but we never doubted for a moment she meant it. Even when she went on her mission for him at the Tempest she was still in a case of terror because she knew how monstrous Ben was and told Jack that he was better off not being close to her.

Now she is working the hardest of anyone to save his life. Sawyer has just told Miles to lock Jack up to keep them from being asked too many questions. Less than a minute later Juliet tells James that they need a surgeon and Sawyer goes to Jack, even though this will lead to those questions being asked. Then despite whatever Miles and Hurley have been discussing she tells Kate that Ben is going to die unless they receive intervention from the Others. She helps Kate put him in the van and then sends James after her to help. Juliet is clearly taking the Hippocratic Oath very seriously in this episode, even though she knows what will happen to Ben.

Of the four major figures Kate had by far the least interaction with Ben on the island: Ben gave her a dress and had tea with her at the start of their experience and then basically ignored her for the rest of their time on Hydra Island. They barely talked in the two seasons between then. The first time Kate even saw Ben was when she realized very clearly who was responsible for the machinations to have Aaron taken from her. She walked away and clearly had no intentions of talking to Jack or ever getting on the plane.

The flashbacks tell the story of why Kate came back. They start by following two major storylines: Kate’s friendship with Cassidy in Left Behind and Sawyer having father a child with her in the one in Every Man for Himself. Kate goes to see Cassidy with Aaron at one point and its clear that the bond they formed briefly has lasted three years.

Kate is apparently the only member of the Oceanics who never committed to the lie the same way. It’s clear in the second part of the flashback that she’s told every part of what happened to them on the island and why they’re lying about it. Cassidy is not sympathetic to Sawyer; she claims that the sacrifice he made was not done out of some nobility for his friends but because he was afraid to return to civilization and face his responsibilities. Sawyer seems to assent to that when Kate brings it up but considering that Sawyer has always been good at lying to himself it’s impossible to read him.

Regardless of all of the nitpicks as to why it would make no sense in the context of the larger narrative why Kate went to seek Cassidy out; it makes a larger sense: Kate has had her heartbroken by Sawyer and she needs someone to commiserate with. That may be the real reason she lies to Jack about going to see Cassidy in Something Nice Back Home; as much as the two of them are bonding about Sawyer, I don’t think Cassidy would think very kindly of Jack. And when you consider that Kate has spilled her guts about everything that happened on the island, Jack actually had a reason to be angry as to why she was seeing him. He’s dealing with the ghost of his dead father because of the burden of the lie, and Kate’s having playdates with the person who knows every dirty detail. (Considering her reaction when she hears about Jack’s decision to go back to the island, she probably doesn’t think much of him either.) Like most of the survivors Kate has almost no real friends in her life and we all know how messy her situation with her parents are. Everybody has been dealing with the burden of the lie in their own way; this is the way Kate has.

Kate has been trying to convince herself for the last three years that motherhood is the role she is suited for. When Ben tells her that Aaron isn’t really her son, it triggers her to run from the marina and the madness. Then she goes to the supermarket and Aaron runs away from her. Like all real moms she panics – and we’re all thinking this is the maneuver Ben will use: unless you get on the plane, we’ll hurt Aaron. She’s clearly thinking that until she finds her son – and he’s been following a woman who looks so much like Claire it’s frightening.

The scenes that follow are some of the best work Evangeline Lilly does all season, really in the whole series. She visits Cassidy again and she tells her what she’s known almost since this began: that’s she been waiting for something like this happen ever since they came back. In Finding Lost, Nikki Stafford says shouldn’t the real reason Kate lied was because she thought Claire’s mother was dead. That doesn’t hold water because Kate’s known that Carole Littleton was alive since Christian’s memorial and she made no effort to make contact with her.

No Kate did need Aaron. That’s the lie she’s been holding on to even more than the one the Oceanics have been telling, one she stood firm to past the trial, past months in lockup, prioritizing it even over her relationship with Jack. She needed to be Aaron’s mother and she needed Aaron to believe it. But somewhere in his brain he knows who his real mother is. So Kate decides to do something noble and pure. She decides to leave behind the one thing she truly loves so she can reunite him with his mother. The final scene is absolutely heartbreaking because we know that Kate is preparing for the possibility that she may never come back but she needs to risk – maybe sacrifice her own life- to reunite Aaron with his real mother.

And now she’s in the Dharma Initiative with no direction forward. I don’t know if she came here looking to patch things up with Sawyer, but no matter what anyone says in the guide it’s clear from this episode and all the rest that he has committed to Juliet.

So why does Kate focus so heavily on saving the life of the young Ben Linus? I think part of it is because she doesn’t know him as well as the rest of them – and because she meets his father. Jon Gries gives a layer to Roger we haven’t seen in either of his episodes before. In his scenes with Kate at the start, there’s a kind of camaraderie with her that we didn’t think he was capable of. Then he sees his son has been shot and his reaction is pure grief. Throughout the episode Roger looks scattered and broken in a way that we don’t associate with the drunken bully we’ve seen before.

I agree that Roger is not a saint but in a season which is looking at the perspectives of how so many of the children have been changing over the years, we get a different version. Roger shows a self-awareness in grief that we didn’t think he was capable of, realizing that he has failed as a parent in a way he never dreamed. He’s a horrible father, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love his son. For Kate the wound of losing Aaron is days old. With no clear path forward to finding Claire, she decides that Roger shouldn’t have to lose his son. (Apparently she doesn’t know that Ben will never return the favor.)

So she and Sawyer bring Young Ben to Richard Alpert who we haven’t seen in a while. It’s not clear why Richard has decided to help the young Ben Linus but it’s clear he has the authority to do it. So we follow him go to the Temple we have seen before and walk into it…

…and then we cut to the present. Is Ben in the present having dreams about his past? Dreams about Dharma and his childhood? Or is he sleeping the sleep of the just, thinking that all his sacrifices have been worth it? What is clear is that when he wakes up and sees Locke sitting by his bed, telling him: “Welcome back to the land of the living”, there’s a look of both surprise and terror on his face that seems genuine. Whatever he thought was coming when he returned to the island, it sure as hell wasn’t this. Which makes us wonder: what does Ben really know?