s4e04: Eggtown

I'm not a big fan of Kate episodes. In fact, aside from "Exposé," this episode was probably the worst overall since s3e06, "I Do," which was - surprise! - a Kate episode. Frankly, the writing just wasn't very good - the "surprises" were all forced in by a clunky writing style that required the characters to talk unnaturally around names just so we could hold for the big reveal at the end of the episode which a lot of people, including me, had already guessed anyway.

Locke's group is living in the Barracks and Locke has actually assumed a sort of Ben-like role, which I assume isn't an accident. But he doesn't know what to do next, a fact that Ben - held captive in Locke's basement - taunts him over. Meanwhile, Kate wants to know what Miles knows about her. Locke won't let her see him, so she tricks Hurley into revealing the location. Miles agrees to tell her what he knows if she gives him a minute with Ben. Kate finds out that Ben is under Locke's watch, so she uses Sawyer to lead Locke down to the boathouse where Miles is kept; Miles is gone, moving with Kate back to Locke's, where they break in and find Ben. Miles asks Ben if he knows who Miles is and who he works for; Ben confirms this. Then Miles asks for 3.2 million dollars to lie to his boss and tell him Ben is already dead. He gives Ben a week to come up with the money. When Ben asks why Miles thinks Ben has access to that kind of money, Miles barks, "Do not treat me like I'm one of them!" and gestures to Kate. Miles then confirms for Kate that the freighter people know she's a fugitive. Locke returns and banishes Kate from the compound, then sticks a grenade in Miles' mouth so he can't talk. Sawyer offers to keep Kate under his protection, but she acts weird and ends up leaving for the beach.

At the beach, no one on the freighter is answering, so Jack and Juliet have Charlotte call the secret line only to be used in emergencies. Regina says that the helicopter - which left the previous day - has not arrived. Worried, puzzled looks are exchanged.

In the future, a rather annoying Kate is on trial for her various crimes. Jack is called as a character witness and tells the story of 815 as it was apparently agreed upon - he does say that the plane crashed on a deserted island, but that only 8 people survived the crash, with only 6 making it back to civilization. When asked by the DA if he loves Kate, he says, "Not anymore," though he later claims to her that that was a lie. (Dammit, Jack!) Kate's mom, still alive, is wheeled in to be the star witness, but even though Kate treats her pretty bad, she ends up refusing to testify. Kate gets off with time served and ten years' probation. At the end of the episode, she invites Jack back to her house to see her son, but he won't go - and it becomes pretty clear why, as Kate greets her son with a "Hi, Aaron."

(Astonishingly, there were a huge number of dipshits on the Lost message board insisting that Kate said "Eric," even though the fact that there was a big reveal at the end of the episode should have made it clear that the baby was Claire's even if Kate's pronunciation of the name was a little muddled. This also explains Jack's reluctance to see the baby - whether he knows by then that Aaron is his nephew or not, surely being reminded of whatever happened to Claire is something he wants to avoid.)

By far the most interesting parts of the episode were the fact that the copter hadn't reached the boat (or was claimed not to have), which will be addressed in next week's episode, and the Miles/Ben conversation. The fact that Kate has Aaron in the future is interesting, but Kate's behavior in both the present and future was so generally annoying that I just checked out on her parts of the episode, which was most of it. To say nothing of the fact that I would consider myself a Jack/Juliet shipper and the future seems to make clear that that isn't happening. Bah.