LOST - The trials of Kate

Source: 'LOST recap: The trials of Kate - Entertainment Weekly

Philip K. Dick's Valis In this trippy novel, one of Dick's best and most personal, ''Valis'' stands for ''Vast Acting Living Intelligence System.'' Sounds like the way Locke or Ben might regard the Island.

Locke putting the grenade in Miles' mouth Pretty cool — and kinda ridiculous. Locke suffered some challenges to his leadership in this episode, including a crisis of self-confidence. I guess stuffing an explosive into a bad guy's mouth is one way to feel like a man again. Sawyer is right: Locke is going Kurtz on us. The horror...the horror...

The Faraday-Charlotte card game The task involved Daniel correctly guessing what three overturned cards were. But the key line there is C.S. Lewis asking him, ''What do you remember?'' My interpretation: Daniel Faraday is a time traveler — or thinks he is a time traveler — and he's recovering memories of his past experience on the Island. Speaking of time travel:

The meaning of the title ''Eggtown'' I researched many options, include the significance to mythological ideas like the ''world egg'' and the ''cosmic egg.'' There could be a connection to the book Cracking the Cosmic Egg, too. But inspired by Locke's conspicuous mention of killing a chicken, I decided to investigate the Wikipedia write-up on the chicken and the egg. It has some interesting things to say about the theory of causality and ''the Grandfather Paradox,'' two important ideas in time-travel lore — and that's where we're headed next week.

Lost Season 4 Episode 4 Eggtown On Island Recap

Lost Season 4
Episode 4 Eggtown
On Island Recap

We start off with Locke making some breakfast, and soon he goes into the vast maze beneath Ben's house, where Ben is being held (where Anthony Copper was last season). Locke brings Ben a book to Ben, and he says that's he's already read it. Locke give the LOST fans a nice shout out by saying you might catch something you missed the second time around. Ben plays his usually mind games with the sometimes weak Locke and it gets to him. Ben brings up the cabin, Jacob and even that John is coming to him for help. "You're more lost than you ever were," says good ole manipulative Ben.

Sun and Jin are discussing where they should live when they get to America. Jack, Charoltte and Daniel arrive and the beach and are introduced to everyone. They LOSTies keep trying to call the freighter but Minkowski does not answer.

Kate Scooby Doo's Hurley into telling her where Miles is being held. He's in a new location, the boat house. Which doesn't have any boats near it at this point. Miles wants 1 minutes with Ben and says he'll tell Kate what she wants to know. Claire and Kate are hanging up laundry and Claire asks her to pick up Aaron who is a little fussy, but Kate won't do it. Claire picks him up and makes the comment that she never thought that she would be a good mom, but she is.

Kate goes to Hurley and Sawyer's house and they talk. Sawyer asks her to tell him is she wants to use him, and she does. She wants to bust Ben out to let him talk with Miles. Sawyer goes to Locke to play backgammon, a very popular game on the island. He tells him of Kate's plan, and they run off to check on Miles. He is gone. Kate has him and has taken him to see Ben. She gives him a minute. Miles tells Ben that he will lie and tell his employer that Ben is dead for 3.2 million in cash in one week, and that he'll take care of Charoltte. Ben and he obviously know things that we don't and those on the island don't know either. Miles does tell Kate that he knows all about the passengers of flight 815, he knows her back story. Locke and Sawyer arrive and Kate is told to go home.

After she tells him that Locke is making her leave, Sawyer says "I unbanish you." They spend their last night together, from the looks of it anyway.

Charoltte is urged by Juliet and Jack to call the emergency number. She does and talks to Regina. She has not seen the helicopter of those aboard, and it's already been over a day since they left the island. This is not good.

John goes to the boat house and pulls the pin on a grenade and sticks it in Miles' mouth and walks out. John, the quasi dictator, has walked off the plantation, so to speak.

Kate tells Sawyer that she's not pregnant, and he is happy. He thinks she's using this as an excuse to run off to Jack and leave him. I thought she was pregnant with his baby up to this point, since last May actually.

QUESTIONS:
Again, what is Ben able to do and where is able to go?
Is there really a "Magic Box?" Can he teleport?
What does Miles know?
Why didn't Minkowski answer the phone?
Is that a live grenade?

Lost Season 4 Episode 4 Eggtown Off Island Recap

Lost Season 4
Episode 4 Eggtown
Off Island Recap

This is a Kate centric Flash Forward also featuring future Jack. Kate is identified specifically as one of the Oceanic 6 with the fame and notoriety. She is put on trial for the laundry list of ways she's broken the laws. I thought she'd get off because she was now rich like Sayid, but it wasn't that at all. She was remanded to federal custody. Jack testifies and lies for her saying that she saved the lives of the 6 survivors of the crash and attempting to save 2 others that initially survived the crash. Her sick mom, who I thought was already dead, came to visit here and sad that she's had six months to live for 4 years now. She wanted to make a deal to not testify so she could see Kate's son. Kate wanted no part of that. Her mom doesn't testify which is the main part of teh prosecution's case, and the make a plea deal. Kate is sentenced to time served, 10 years probation, and she can't leave the island. She's about to leave through a back exit, when Jack (driving the same vehicle as crazy bearded Jack) comes up and talks with her. Which made me briefly think that this was his baby that she was going back to. He still loves her and wants to go for coffee, but he doesn't want to see the baby, so Kate won't do it. Kate goes home and who we assume is the nanny is taking care of her son, Aaron.

QUESTIONS:
Why Aaron with Kate?
Why and How does everyone think he is her son?
Is he considered one of the Oceanic 6?
What happened to Claire? I think she's dead.
What happened to Kate's mom to make her live so long, was Jacob involved?


MY THEORY:
I called into Jay and Jack's Podcast with this tonight after the show. I think that since all of Desmond's flashes involve death, Clarie on the helicopter was a flash of her death not rescue. Desmond had a flash in which Claire drowned, and all of the flashes for Charlie involved death (lighting, drowning trying to save Claire, arrow, drowning), Naomi would have died in the tree had she not been given treatment and eventually died. I think Clarie will die as well. Let's just hope Des doesn't have any other flashes of our beloved LOSTies anytime soon.

101 - "Tabula Rasa" - New Beginnings

Air Date: 10/6/04

"I don't want to know. It doesn't matter, Kate, who we were -
what we did before this, before the crash. It doesn't really --
3 days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over."
Jack (Talking to Kate about her criminal past)

Jack is trying to care for the the severely injured U.S. Marshall. As the Marshall comes in and out of consciousness, he tries to warn Jack about the fugitive he was transporting. He keeps telling him "dangerous, she's dangerous." The Marshall gets Jack to take a piece of paper out of his pocket. The mug shot of Kate is revealed and Hurley and Jack are the only ones who know.

Sayid and those who went into the jungle with the transceiver return, but do not share the information about the French message that's been cycling for 16 years, fearing that would hurt camp morale and hope for rescue. Locke tells young Walt that a miracle has happened to him, and to them all.

Kate is on the run and goes by the name "Annie." She was taken in by a farmer, who she helps around the farm, until he learns about the $23,000 reward and turns her in to the authorities, which is why she was on the plane with the Marshall.

Kate offers to tell Jack what she did, but he stops her and tells her, "we should all be able to start over." These words are comforting and cryptic at the same. The plane crash onto this mysterious island has given everyone who survived a new beginning, a blank slate. However, to the outside world it's like they all are lost at sea, and any rescuers would be searching in the wrong part of the ocean.

Do you need a new start? Are there deep dark secrets from your past? Ever wish for a clean slate? We are offered a new beginning in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is willing to forgive us our sins and wipe our slate clean of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). If we receive Him as Savior and confess Him as Lord, we become "a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17)." We really can start over.

Flashes Before Our Eyes:
Kate on the run from the law in Australia.

What in the World Moments!:
We learn that Kate was the one in the custody of the US Marshall.
Sawyer tried to kill the Marshall, but Jack has to finish him off.

New Questions, New Hints, New Answers:
What did Kate do?
What did the Marshall say to Kate?

Part I - "Pilot Episode"

Air Date: September 22, 2004

"Well, fear's sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a 16 year old kid, a girl. And at the end, after 13 hours, I was closing her up and I, I accidentally ripped her dural sac, shredded the base of the spine where all the nerves come together, membrane as thin as tissue. And so it ripped open and the nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I: and the terror was just so crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. [tear comes down his face]. So I just made a choice. I'd let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing, but only for 5 seconds, that's all I was going to give it. So I started to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up and she was fine."

Jack - talking with Kate about fear

RECAP:
A man wakes up in the jungle and is very disoriented. A golden retriever walks by him, which seems strangely out of place. He stands and reveals he's wounded and has a little bottle of alcohol, the kind you would get on a plane. He starts running through the jungle and sees a pair of shoes hanging in a tree. He quickly comes to an opening, and see a beautiful beach. He can hear a woman screaming and some mechanical noises, so he takes off in that direction and sees the wreckage of a plane crash.

He gets some of the survivors including a bald man in a blue and white shirt to help him free a man from under one of the landing gears. Next, he sees a pregnant woman screaming. She tells him that she's having contractions and is 8 months pregnant. He tells us her, "You're going to be okay." He gets a overweight man with curly hair to help the pregnant woman. Another man is suddenly sucked though a jet engine and then it explodes. He leaves the pregnant woman's side, and the overweight man says, "hey, what's your name?" The hero of the hour replies"Jack."

A lifeguard is trying to help an African-American woman, but is performing CPR wrongly. Jack has to help the lady and when the young man suggests, "Maybe we should do one of those hole things. You know, stick the pen in the throat? " Jack sends him an a errand to find a pen, to get rid of him. Jack saves her life and then sees that a wing is about the fall on the overweight man and the pregnant woman, he rushes over and saves them as well.

Soon after Jack finds some things in the wreckage and wanders off alone, we takes off his jacket and shirt and we see tattoos and a gapping wound on his back. He asks a beautiful woman that walks up on him to sow him up. He reveals that he is a doctor. The first twelve minutes of LOST are some of the most exciting television moments ever filmed in my opinion.

Charlie and Sayid are the next people that we learn names. Sayid is trying to build a signal fire and asks Charlie to help him make it big. The would-be life guard spends a lot of time with a blond woman, he calls her Shannon. She won't even think about anything but the rescue boat. The African American man apparently found Walt, but he doesn't respond to him when he talks to him. The Asian couple have decided to stay sepereated from everyone.

The beautiful woman that sowed up Jack is concerned about the man that was sitting next to her on the plane crash. Jack thinks that they were at about 40,000 feet when they hit an air pocket and they dropped about 200 feet. He blacked out, but the beautiful woman didn't black out. She knew the back of the plane broke off, and she saw the front of the plane broke off. Jack took a couple of flying lessons and has some ideas he thinks that going to the cockpit might help them get rescued. We learn the woman's name, Kate. Then strange noises in the jungle occur. It sounds like something large and metallic is moving through the jungle, it looks and sounds very strangle with trees being tossed around. Charlie sarcastically says, "terrific."

We see a the plane flying the air and see Jack looking out of the window. He's flirting with the stewardess, and she gives him some alcohol. The African American lady that he resuscitates was sitting a couple of seats over. Charlie comes rushing by with another stewardess following him saying "sir, excuse me." Turbulence hits the plane. Jack says, "It's normal." We find out that the lady is married and her husband went to the bathroom. "Don't worry it's going to be over...." And then plane starts nose diving and the oxygen masks drop.

The next time we see is Jack back on the island, standing on the beach. The other survivors are discussing the weird sights and sounds from the previous night. The African American lady says that she's from the Bronx and that there was something really familiar about the sounds. Someone suggests monkeys.

Kate showed Jack were the smoke was coming from and she is insistent that she is going with him to find the cockpit. She goes and finds some hiking boots off a dead body.

the African Man says "whatever it was it wasn't natural." The overweight man suggests that they do something about the dead bodies in the fuselage. Jack tells the group that he's going to look for the cockpit. Charlie says that he wants to help, so he follows along.

Kate thinks that Charlie looks familiar. He tells her that he thinks he knows what it is, he says that he's in a band called Driveshaft, and starts singing a song "You All Everybody." Kate is familiar with the song and says that her friend Beth loves Driveshaft. Kate keeps referring to the band in the past tense, but Charlie keeps correcting her, saying at the that "They are good; they're in the middle of a comeback." Jack leads them on into the jungle, it appears someone is watching them. The golden retriever is revealed in the brush. Then as the Charlie puts it "end of the world weather" starts with "day turning into night."

Charlie, Jack and Kate find the cockpit, and one of the pilots is still alive. At this point it had been 16 hours since the crash. He tells them that 6 hours into the flight the radio went out and that at the time of the crash they were over 1,000 miles of course, so any search party would be looking in the wrong place. Charlie disappears and it appears that something bad might have happened, and then he burst out of the bathroom. The strange noises and movement from the night before ban heard right outside of the front section of the plane, and as they are looking for what it was, the pilot put down the transceiver and then gets violently ripped out of the plane as strange loud noises are made in the jungle. Then something pushes the front section of the plane down.

Our three adventurers tare off through the jungle with something or someone chasing them. It seems whatever it is, is closing in on them when Charlie gets entangled in some roots. Kate is sacred to death and can barely scream, "Jack." She takes Jack's advice about fear and counts to 5, and then suddenly Charlie pops up behind her and scares her again. None of them saw the "thing" even though it was right there. The rain stops, and Kate says that we have to go back for Jack. Charlie says that there a certain gargantuan quality about this thing, and Kate replies, "Then don't come."

While looking for Jack, they stumble across the pilots wings in the mud, and the pilot in the treetops, whatever snatched him out was obviously not a normal predator. Jack says that he didn't see whatever it is, and that he dove into the bushes. Charlie asks an important question,"How does something like that happen?"

Flashes Before Our Eyes:
The Plane Crash.

What in the World Moment!:
What made those noises and moved those trees?
What violently snatched him out of the plane, killed him and threw him into the tree tops?

New Information, New Questions, New Answers:
Jack is doctor who has perform spinal surgery. He has many tattoos, and likes a strong drink.
Charlie is in the bass player for the rock band, Driveshaft.
Driveshaft has a popular song called, "You All Everybody"
The Plane's radio went out went out 6 hours into the flight and no one knew where they were.
When they crashed, they were 1,000 miles off course (toward Fiji).

Why was Jack in the jungle, instead of on the beach?
Why did the radio go out?
What caused the plane crash?
When did Jack take flying lessons?
Who is Kate's friend Beth?
What is in the jungle that killed the pilot?
Will a search party find them?

DISCUSSION:
Jack is leading the way in the first piece of the LOST mosaic. From the first image of his eye to him saving at least 5 lives on the beach (trapped man, African American lady, pregnant lady, baby, overweight man), to leading the way to the front of the plane and finally saving Charlie from whatever that thing is in the jungle. And along the way, Jack encourages with his actions and his words. The conversation with Kate about fear is one of my favorite moments in this episode. Jack shares about a terrifying moment in his life, when he rips the a girl dural sac. Not too many hours later, his words give Kate the strength to face another terrifying time with something chasing them in the jungle.

Fear can easily be contagious. We see many examples of both in the Bible. When Moses sends 12 spies into the Promised Land to survey it, 10 of those spies return with a fearful and faithless report about giants in the land, and their report quickly spread throughout the camp and all of the Israelites hearts melt with fear.

We are commanded to encourage one another in Hebrews 3:13, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Webster's defines encourage "to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope." We all need some inspiration, some courage and some hope. Jack is able to give Kate those things in sharing a little of his own dealing with fear in his past.