Talk to the Flocke - Reactions to "Lost" Episode "What Kate Does"

Not to be rude, you know I love Evangeline Lilly with every molecule, but last night what Kate did was bore my ass.
Oh, yeah, getting to stare longingly at the object of my affection for most of the running time was great, but the episode was not. Here's the thing, we don't have to get ANSWERS (in all caps) every week. We don't even need to get Answers (with a capital A) every week. We do need answers every week. What I mean is that we need little wrap ups, delicate things, for each of the next 15 weeks. Don't tell me that there aren't 15 answers to give. There are. Don't tell me that the creators don't want this to be just about the mythology. I didn't say mythology. I need character answers too. For example, we need to see Kate move towards Jack or away from him. Her and Sawyer are done-zo. You can't turn Sawyer into emo-Sawyer for the first 3 hours of the season after RE-KILLING Juliet just to drive home emotion only to have him end up with Kate. She's had 4 years in her timeline to move to or from Jack. I need to see that answer start now. Anyway, I'm rambling, here's my thoughts broken down into our five categories:

Things I liked

• Looking at Evangeline Lilly: This cannot be overstated. I did briefly like her character's return to badassery as well, but it quickly evaporated to whiny baby again. But, hey, this is what I LIKED about the episode, so let's move on.
• Sayid's character change: He's a wuss bag now. I like that. I like that Naveen Andrews is so good that I can say, "Sayid's not acting right" even though he's given very few lines. I like the torturing of the torturer always, but the nicest part for me was listening to whiny Sayid. "Why are you doing this?" That's not my boy. When caught by Danielle, he was trying to trick her. I love this shift, which clearly shows he is not himself.
• Jack's mini-plan worked!: Howsabout that! Sure, it was a plan by which he ingested a poison pill, but he managed to get his answer! Maybe Jack just needs to have smaller, more impulsive plans in the future?
• Claire's reveal: The Claire in the flashsideways is everything I hate. Shrill, stupid, and pointless. The Claire in the island time is crazy. I like the potential here. Bonus points for bringing back "the sickness."
• Supporting cast: I love Dogen. He's a great character. What "Lost" does awesome is small, mythology figures that pop up briefly and totally rule. I also love his translator. Their interplay is great and I truly enjoy them.

Things I didn't like

• The entire Kate sidestory: Dear producers, I know that you've said that Season 6 won't be a boring, didactic exercise of sitting people down and lecturing them. But let me tell you why this episode was boring-ass filler. First, Kate takes Claire at gunpoint, gets her handcuffs cut off by some guy who never factors in to anything, RETURNS to find Claire (how?), and then CLAIRE AGREES TO GET IN A CAB WITH KATE...and then ASKS HER TO COME IN THE HOUSE WITH HER? Really? REALLY? This made sense to you. Watch as I subtract a half hour from the episode's running time: Kate takes Claire at gunpoint and DOESN'T let her out. She goes to have her handcuffs cut off and makes Claire help her. Claire gets worked up and her water breaks. Kate takes her to the doctor and goes in only to make sure she didn't kill Claire or her baby accidentally. While freaking out because the baby is coming, Claire reveals that the family never showed up for the baby. Boom. I've just taken out a nonsensical half hour that involves characters doing things they never would.
• The entire Kate island-story: Really? She chases down Sawyer...AGAIN. Points for the line where she says "I shouldn't have come after you" and he says "which time" and a free pass on the awesome dialogue with Aldo. Other than that, we get to watch mopey Sawyer, again. We get to see the two together without discussing EACH OTHER again. Boo hoo. This was a dud.

Character Stuff

• Jack - I liked his conversations with Dogen and his general acknowledgment that he is a mess right now. "I don't trust myself." True that, bro. Matthew Fox is doing a great job in this young season and isn't even yelling too much.
• Kate - See above.
• Sawyer - Emo-Sawyer is not my fave. I like angry Sawyer. I like confident, funny Sawyer. I like responsible relationship Sawyer. Weepy Sawyer is dumb. Sorry. We have enough criers on there, let's not have him do that again, okay?
• Sayid - I like that he's not himself anymore. That said, I'm going to miss that bad ass.
• Miles - Best line of the night, "Hurley has taken a leadership role, so..." Yeah. That's funny.

Answers

Not many.

• Sayid's bad: We knew he could be. We now have it confirmed.
• Claire's back: We knew she would be. We now know she's gone all Danielle on us.

That's it unless I missed something.

Reflections

• First off, I wonder if Kate remembers. The look when Claire said "Aaron" was telling, I thought. If she does "remember," I wonder what that means for the authenticity of the side story. Someone I read mentioned that the producers won't waste our time with hours and hours of a story that "won't happen" or "never happened." I agree. At the same token, I don't know that they're giving us definitively what WILL happen. I'm on the fence and will take a few more episodes to figure that out.
• I like where the whole temple people are coming from. They seem more focused and bad ass than the other others. I like that they seem instantly pro-active, and that we know Dogen wasn't born on the island. When he mentioned that "they were all called" to the island, I was reminded of how important that idea is. That said, I need more Jacob and Flocke if that theme is going to be the pervasive one of the season. Hopefully, that's all next week.
• Finally, last bitching point, let's not do the whole "everybody separates" bullshit this year, okay? We've done that for season after season. I don't mind the whole "moving pieces into place" business, but let's leave at least one group entirely collected and operating together. What makes this show work is the acting and characters. I don't want to see them apart. When Pirates of the Caribbean decided to split up Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, it was bad. Why? Because I only care about Orlando Bloom's character if he's playing OFF of Johnny Depp. Same goes for a lot of these players. I like them better together.
  

Overall, I give the episode a C-. Easily the weakest in the last 2 dozen or so for me. Not just because it was coming off of a high but because the PRODUCERS asked for this time table and I want them to use it. This was not a good use of fleeting time.