"Lost": Turning Points
By Sarah Carlson
April 5, 2007
After the love-it-or-hate-it episode last week, last night in "Left Behind" we were treated with a Kate-centric episode that brought back memories of the good old days of "Lost": Kate picking fights and running from the law in the past while the survivors are having fun on the island in the present. Several new developments unfolded: The Others left their encampment, and Locke went with them, but not before they knocked Kate out by throwing a gas canister in her holding room. She woke up in the jungle handcuffed to Juliet, and the two tried to make it back to the Others' living area without strangling each other -- or getting attacked by the Smoke Monster.
The flashbacks showed Kate attempting to get in touch with her mother, Diane, who had given her daughter up to authorities for killing her father. She enlisted the help of Cassidy, a woman she caught conning fellow travelers. They each knew the other was up to no good and bonded over their shared aversion of the law. Cassidy helped Kate avoid the U.S. Marshals guarding Diane, and when Kate confronted her mother on why she had so easily betrayed her, Diane said she had hoped Kate was there to offer an apology. Diane told Kate that despite his abusive ways, she had loved her husband and couldn't accept how Kate had killed him in cold blood. Kate didn't kill him for Diane; she killed him for herself. You can't help who you love, Diane said, a notion Cassidy echoed as she told Kate about her unnamed ex -- Sawyer, who conned her out of her money and who is the father of her unborn child.
Kate and Juliet had a few handcuffed tussles on the way to the Others' camp -- a punched face here, a dislocated shoulder there -- but the real dosage of pain came when Juliet informed Kate that the reason Jack didn't want her to come back was because she broke his heart by sleeping with Sawyer. The two drew lines in a strange turf war over Jack, but Juliet wouldn't answer why the Others left her behind. Their conversations never lasted long, though: Smoke Monster kept showing up. Juliet at first acted surprised by the giant cloud of smoke that chased them and flashed lights in their eyes, but by its second appearance, she admitted the Others were aware of the monster but had no idea what it is -- only that it doesn't like their electronic fences. She also revealed she had had the key to the handcuffs the entire time, but lied out of fear of being left behind again.
Meanwhile, Sawyer was scared of being left behind himself. He was told by Hurley that the survivors were planning on voting whether or not to banish him from their camp, and it was up to him to make amends with his fellow castaways or be doomed to survive on his own down the beach. Sawyer went hunting for boar with Desmond and threw a barbecue that raised everyone's spirits, only to learn that Hurley tricked him into being nice. No vote was planned, but now that all the group's leaders are gone, Hurley said, it was time for Sawyer to set aside the sarcasm and step up to the plate.
When Kate and Juliet reached the camp, Juliet went to find Sayid and Kate found Jack in his room -- he'd also been left unconscious -- and told him that the Others had disappeared. Kate's tear-filled apology for coming back to find Jack after he'd warned her not to, thus ruining his chances of leaving the island, was heartbreaking, especially when it was made clear that Jack has moved on. He still cares for her, but when he asked if Juliet had left with the Others as well, Kate's expression changed slightly. She realized their relationship was different; she had been trying to rescue the idea of Jack, an image that changed once they were first captured by the Others. Her rescue attempt wasn't for Jack's own good, but for her own. She can't help that she loves him, but they can't go back to the way things were.
"Left Behind" provided the dramatic shift needed to set up the final episodes of the season and help the characters grow. Jack's, Kate's and Sawyer's captivity changed everything, and now that Juliet is heading back to live with the survivors and Locke went to live with the Others, we'll see where loyalties lie and if any of their relationships will heal.
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