Wednesday, January 22, 2014

LOST Rewatch: Born to Run

Credit: tle1lost.wordpress.com
Previously . . . on LOST: we learned a lot about Jack and his relationship with his dad. We learned about Kate and her troubled, criminal past. We learned about Charlie's rock god/junkie status. We learned about sad, young Sawyer. We also learned about John Locke's sad life and miraculous Island present. We learned about Sayid's time with the Republican Guard. We were told the sad tale of Michael and Walt. We learned about Boone and Shannon's slightly icky personal history. He got to know the charmed and cursed life of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes.

Is that everybody? Yeah, without actual verification, I do think that covers all the non-Socks.*

But really, what everyone REALLY WANTS is more about Kate. Our Miss Kate--the prettiest ex con on the Island. Kate, the patron saint of runaways. Kate . . . Kate . . . beautiful, conflicted, confusing Kate.

So, since that is what everyone wants, that is what this episode is going to deliver. And in delivering it, we learn via Flashback that Kate once had dyed blonde hair, was sneaking back into Iowa, and wanted to meet up with her childhood friend Tom (who is now a respectable doctor at a Cedar Rapids hospital with a wife and kids).

Why is Kate sneaking around? She needs to see her mom, who is in the hospital that Tom works at. Kate uses her childhood memories and her adult wiles to get Tom to work Mom onto the MRI machine . . . and to secretly let Kate speak to her. Kate's mom, however? She's the one person in all of the world who just doesn't want to talk to Kate or look at Kate or know more about Kate.

So, why is Kate's mom not getting the memo about how awesome Kate is? At this point in Kate's story, that is unclear. But Katie flees the unwanted attention of a screaming mom and hides out with her pal Tom. They decide to dig up an old time capsule that they mutually created back in the mid-90s when they were children.

(Pardon me while I pause for a second and think about how old this previous sentence makes me feel.)

When they dig it up, we learn via taped cassette that these two were childishly planning to marry someday. (Back before Kate got all "interesting" and fugitivey, I guess.) We also learn that Tom placed his toy airplane in the capsule--which is left in the back of the car.**. Unfortunately, adult Kate decided to run from the law again and as she does so, she gets adult Tom mixed up into it. He gets in the car and gets shot by the police as Kate tries to ram his car past a police barricade. Nice.



So . . . yeah. Kate is the best. She should all totally like Kate.

Back on the Island we meet someone ELSE we should be liking: Dr. Leslie Arzt. Formerly a Sock, he's now front-and-center, berating the rest of the main Lostaways about how little they know of global wind patterns and seasonal shifts and how all of this adds up to totally needing to launch Michael's raft yesterday to ensure the wind and the currents take them north to the shipping lanes.

I like Dr. Arzt. I sure hope he sticks around.

Also, in present Island time, Kate is realizing that if Michael's raft rescue does work, they will all become global media celebrities. Her fugitive past doesn't work well with that idea. So she tries to get Sawyer off of the raft first through her typical persuasions and later by spiking a water bottle to make him sick. (Remember how she drugged Jack's juice in the previous episode?) People don't suspect her at first, but Jack--who is now familiar with Kate's crap--eventually figures it out. Kate's runaway plans don't work this time and Sawyer remains a member of the raft crew, along with Michael, Walt, and Jin.

And that is the major stuff for this episode. Next time . . . the season 1 finale. Things are hurtling to a dramatic cliffhanger!

***

*Back when LOST was being premiered live, I listened to various show-related podcasts as well as carefully reading the Entertainment Weekly stories about each episode. From all of this research, and more I learned that the showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse took to calling all of the background extras "socks." Why? To quote Hurley: "Why? Not telling."

**We learn in a different Flashback scene that the plane migrated from the aftermath of the car crash/death of Tom (via the U.S. Marshall) to the New Mexico safety deposit box that was robbed in the episode "Whatever the Case May Be." The U.S. Marshall planted the plane there to lure Kate back into his clutches.

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