Summary: Flashbacks show Kate robbing a bank with the help of some guys she manipulated. She turns on them when they threaten to kill the bank manager. Kate is only there for a mysterious green envelope. In the present, Kate and Sawyer find a pond in the woods and swim in it together. They find bodies from the plane in the pond and Sawyer finds a briefcase that Kate claims in hers. Sawyer keeps it but can't get it open. Kate attempts to take it from him but she is unsuccessful so she goes to Jack, telling him that the key is buried with the Marshall. Jack agrees to get the key for her but only if he opens the case with her. The case has several guns and the green envelope from the flashbacks. The envelope contains a toy plane that belonged to the man Kate killed.
The Good: The briefcase makes for a good central plot. There is a lot of mystery surrounding what is in there, and that curiosity invests us into the episode. It's also pretty fun watching Sawyer's barbaric attempts to open the case combined with Kate sneakily trying to steal it from him. Kate and Sawyer are really good together. Their chemistry is much better than Kate and Jack's, and the scene at the pond feels so natural. It's just two people having fun for a couple minutes after making a neat little discovery. Furthermore, there is a spark between them whenever they speak which makes their relationship more meaningful than Jack and Kate who just don't produce that spark at all when they talk. I also really like how the fun opening scene got more serious as the bodies appear at the bottom of the pond and the case is introduced to the story. The flashbacks are pretty enjoyable. Much like the case story, there is a lot of mystery surrounding the flashbacks. Kate is obviously involved in the bank robbery somehow but it isn't immediately clear how she is involved and why she would want to rob a bank. Watching the mystery unfold to get our answers is satisfying and things are wrapped up nicely by the end with the reveal of the toy plane. There's one other thing I really want to mention that I've been meaning to bring up for a while now: the setting. The island setting has actually been extremely effective at creating drama and tension which has been a big part as to why this show is so good. The jungle is so mysterious and it creates drama because there are so many possibilities for what could be lurking behind the trees. We have seen that idea come into play in nearly every episode as we are frequently presented with the unexpected emerging from the leaves. In this episode, the unexpected was Sawyer who was apparently following Kate. There were some other small moments that worked well. The character interactions remain a highlight of the show. The side stories with Charlie/Rose and Sayid/Shannon are pretty unspectacular, but they are still a joy to watch due to pleasingly logical continuations of prior storylines (Charlie's near-death experience, Sayid taking Rousseau's notes), and also because of the very well-written dialogue. I also really liked the Jack/Kate scene with the buried Marshall. I absolutely love the connection of Jack burying the Marshall to him wanting to bury his father, and I also enjoyed Kate's attempted trick to hide the key. Lastly, I liked the cut from Sawyer looking for the axe to Boone having swiped the axe to help Locke. The transition was clever, plus it led to a funny piece of dialogue from Locke. The Bad: Unfortunately Kate's story falls totally flat. After 2 centric episode, it feels like we still hardly know the character and my interest in her has been falling rapidly since "Tabula Rasa". Kate's two episodes have been based more around the mystery behind her instead of giving us high quality character work and it hasn't worked for her. In this episode Kate isn't really given much outside of the scene with the toy airplane, but even that scene disappoints. The airplane is such an underwhelming reveal and it's hard to imagine any reason for Kate to take such risks just to recover that toy plane. Due to that, this feels like a case where we needed to understand the significance of the plane to fully connect with Kate emotionally. The problem is that the plane clearly means something to Kate and she is crying, but we don't understand why she is crying. It disconnects us from the character, preventing us from feeling anything toward Kate. I'm also not a fan of the plane getting all of the focus of the episode. By putting so much emphasis on the plane, the story completely ignores the fact that several guns have been introduced to the plot. Surely this is a big deal! Claire has been taken and these guns give the survivors an opportunity to not only defend themselves, but also to make attempts to bring her back. But for some reason the plane is focused on more and Claire's abduction has somehow been placed firmly in the background. It's very hard to believe that nobody outside of Charlie is affected by Claire's kidnapping. I think that's enough about the airplane, and it's time to get back to Kate. A big problem I have with Kate is that I'm really struggling to buy into the criminal aspect of Kate's behaviour. We haven't seen Kate do anything even remotely hardcore on the island, and that makes the hardened Kate of the flashbacks so difficult to buy into. It's so hard to believe that the kind, unthreatening girl on the island who flirts with Sawyer is the same person that kills, or almost kills, her 3 fellow bank robbers in cold blood. It's such a sudden shift, and the show hasn't given me enough insight into Kate to make me buy into it. I think it's really strange that Jack is still so hostile towards Kate. Last episode he was justified because he was under a lot of pressure and he let his negative emotions get a hold of him. But then why is he so rude to Kate here? He is downright awful in parts of the episode as he chastises her for always lying and being manipulative, but we have been given no reasons for him to think this way. Hell Kate actually told him something genuine last episode, so why does he still get mad at her for being dishonest? The writers of this episode seem to have misunderstood Jack's behaviour in the previous episode. Lastly, even the flashbacks have some dumb moments. The decision for the crooks to kill the bank manager is so absurd and unnecessary and it makes me wonder why they would bother. Why add another criminal charge to their records? Furthermore, shouldn't it be their top priority to just get the money and leave? Why waste time trying to kill people and why change the plan on the fly? They are just asking for things to go wrong. Additionally, the bank manager should be trained to give up all of the money and not risk any lives. There is no reason for him to resist the robbery as much as he does. It sure looks like the writers didn't research bank robberies enough for this storyline. The Unknown: Is there anything of substance in Rousseau's notes? What is the significance of the toy plane? Is Kate telling the truth to Jack? Did it belong to the man she loved or the man she killed? Or did she kill the man she loved? If that's the case, then why did she kill him? Also, is the man that she killed the reason that she is a wanted criminal? Or is there more to the story than that? What does Boone need the axe for? What exactly have Locke and Boone found? Best Moment: I'll go with Jack's "because I had to bury him" line. It's a wonderful piece of continuity that also allows Jack to reflect on his father. Character of the Episode: Kate. Conclusion: This was "Lost"'s first below par episode. There were several things to like and the story is fun to follow, but the writing is a significant step down from what we have gotten before. Kate is also proving to be a pretty disappointing character whose storyline isn't being conveyed in a way that benefits her. Let's hope that this was just a fluke and that we will be back to greatness in the next episode. Score: 57
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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