Kate Does It Again [Lost Spoilers]

She runs




Some terrific lines to start:

Sawyer:  "He's an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids.  Of course, he gets a second go-around."

Hurley: "Not a Zombie, right?"

Miles: "We'll be in the food court if you need us?"

But the big one, by Jin: "Who do you care about, Kate?"

Two timelines:

• Island plot a at the Temple: Centers on Jack, Sayid and Toga or Tago.  Much mystery about their treatment of Sayid--was the test to determine whether he was Jacob reincarnated?  My first guess.  Nope, he has an infection of the spirit, I guess.  Darkness spreading towards his heart?  Sayid, the aforementioned torturer and kid shooter (and assassin), already had a dark enough heart as it is. My best guess was that they feared he would be an agent of the Man in Black/Smoky/FalseLocke.  
• Jack almost falls for the old "here is your chance at redemption line," with the Lost writers playing directly to the audience with that one since there has been ample discussion of Lost's redemption theme.
• Jack, instead, pulls the reverse Sicilians (reference to the classic scene in Princess Bride).   Leading to some truth-telling, maybe.
• That it happened before, to his sister---Claire!!  So, this episode is sneakily as Claire-centric as it is Kate-centric.  And then we see Claire acting all Rousseau-esque (both of the traps must have been hers).
• Apparently, they wanted Mira Furlan who played Rousseau to come back, but she would not so they are using Claire in her place.  
• Of course, the sound in my head is of  Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi: "You have a sister!"  Which we already knew but is always jarring. 
• Island plot b in the Jungle: Sawyer, Kate and Jin all searching for different things.  Sawyer has a broken heart, Kate is looking for Claire, and Jin is looking for his wife.  
• Fun interactions with the Others--Kate keeps knocking out the same guy.  And talk about principal-agent problems--the dude wants to kill Kate and Jin, contrary to his orders.   So, he finally dies, as does the order-following buddy.  
• What Kate and Jin should have done--hang out with these Others as they would have spilled heaps of secrets over the course of a long jungle walk.  But that would not be the Lost way.
• LA plot: Strangely enough, it is the plot in LA that strains credulity more than those on the Island.  That is, Kate goes back to give the stuff back to Claire, who is still there?
• Claire gets back in the taxi?
• The wacky women bond when the adoptive-mother-to-be bails out.  Forget a phone call, there is this thing called the internet.  Funnily enough, I had a series of email conversations today with folks in Australia to prep my research trip, and we all managed to go back and forth a few times despite the time difference.  Why couldn't the quitter?  
• So now we know what happens when Claire tries to give up her baby?  Fate intervenes.
• The Artz appearance is, of course, topped by the appearance of Dr. Ethan Goodspeed (who is the son of Horace Goodspeed, the head of Dharma in the 1970s--who dies, I think, when they blow up the bomb).  For those who forget, Ethan was killed after trying to kidnap Aaron after successfully kidnapping Claire and Charlie.  But he is just the nicest, best-est doctor (and he was a doctor in the other timeline, too, if I remember correctly).  
• So, Kate goes on the run again, with Claire's credit card.  

So,  what we do know now?

• The Temple people are probably pretty good, despite problems with rogue agents.  After all, they save Jack from his self-poisoning and give him tea.  They want to keep them alive unless they are infected.
• Sawyer is a softie.  
• Dark Claire is alive.  
• Claire may not give up Aaron, but we don't know for sure.
• Kate and Claire are tied together in both timelines.
• Kate kind of remembers Jack.  This is going to be a recurring event--our gang recognizing each other, sort of, in LA alternative timeline.

 Not quite as energizing/exciting as the first episode of the season, but fun and interesting.

Your thoughts?