Wading in the Velvet Sea

The Flashback

Another one of those “didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know about the character”. So anvil-laden was this flashback, I was surprised that they didn’t go whole-hog and have her drug her hubby to the strains of “Born to Run”.

Kate has commitment issues. Kate has problems telling the truth. Kate can’t stay in one place too long because FBI Agent Javert is on her Val Jean tail. The wrinkle to this story, it seems, is only that she was one married, once content, and once willing to give up a life on the lamb…provided such domestic bliss didn’t ever involve Taco Night.

Honestly, maybe I missed the character switch from the phone booth scene to the roofied iced tea scene…Kate went from risking blowing her cover to the Feds for Mr. Happy Cop to all but berating him for giving her a life devoid of anything except love and contentment. Only things in the middle? The Costa Rica trip (she’d never be able to get a passport under a false identity) and the pregnancy scare, which upon initial two viewings seemed like she was actually UPSET, but in the last scene turned it around and all but said “ain’t no baby ever comin’ outta me”.

Only possible reason: the “Stella” defense. Making him hate her so he can move on from the experience upon waking up. In the movie “Stella Dallas”, the title character is a woman who has a brief marriage with a rich man, has a daughter with him, but later he leaves her. The mother essentially spends the movie psychologically messing with her daughter so she will voluntarily live with the father, who can offer more opportunity than she, Stella, ever could. Cue the last scene which is Stella looking through a window at her daughter’s lavish wedding, crying tears of joy, and walking away into the night. And cue a million tissues at this ending from all who watch.

The relationship to this story on the island? Well, it’s a compare/contrast with her relationship with Sawyer. I think we can safely end the triangle for once and all, with Jack getting to do the cheesy “walk in on two people cuddling happily”, albeit through the monitoring room of the Hydra station. Because they are on Alcatraz 2: Electric Boogaloo, Kate literally cannot run away from her situation. She has to stay. And in staying, has ridonkulously hot and sweaty prison sex with Sawyer.

(I went the entire flashback without mentioning Nathan Fillion, who played the cop/husband. Weird seeing him not on “Firefly”. I kept thinking, “Mal…you look weird in that uniform, man. Now leave Monica/Kate and go snog with Inara, already.” I couldn’t have been the only one doing this. Poor Nathan. )

Prison Sex

Great Tool song, no?

So she has-a da sex. They have-a da sex. And if the House and Senate still belonged to Republicans, there would be 8 millions letters from the PTC regarding the hotness and sweatiness of the sex. Did I mention it was hot and sweaty?

Kudos to the writers and actors and directors on everything leading up to, during, and after their encounter. Strong, strong stuff all around, and this is coming from the guy who made bad faces upon first hearing Season 3 would ramp up the romance and downplay the mythology. Sawyer and Kate nakedly cuddling is “home” for them, a home she never truly had with Lt. Mal. She had the trappings of a home, but never felt comfortable in it. You can tell from the various “costumes” she wears, from the pendant to the overly dressy garbs while grocery shopping…it’s the outfits of a woman trying to hide something. Therefore, the nudity serves symbolic purpose, as well as a makes-me-happy-in-the-pants purpose as well.

My Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me

Meanwhile, down below, roughly 412 head games are progressing.

Jack’s playing Ben. Jack’s playing Juliet. Juliet plays Kate. Ben plays with everyone, or maybe not. And look, there’s my brain matter oozing onto the keyboard.

It’s safe to say that nearly no dialogue up to Jack’s kidney incision can be taken at face value. Obviously, Jack did a great job at hiding his intent from everyone, even Juliet, who essentially came up with the “let’s kill Ben” plot in her video last week (again, if the video is to be believed). And if you think this level of manipulation, backstabbing, double entendre, and mixed signals is too far-fetched to be believable, then clearly you’ve never dated a Harvard girl.

As a narrative structure, yes, it’s annoying for us the viewer to not be able to pin down the correct narrative thread among the 12 possible permutations currently circulating, but you have to admit it allows the writers a lot of leeway down the line to pursue any of them, say, “Ha, that’s what we meant all along!” and have a decent amount of dialogue with which to back up their claim.

Alex-andria

OK, so there’s a security system in place on Alcatraz 2, one that can detect when intruders are coming. This particular system doesn’t grow to fifty feet tall, assume the shape of a fist, and hurl one about the island, so it’s a kinder gentler security system than the one on the main island. And who trips up the system? Good ol’ Alex, who somehow managed NOT to trip up the alarm a few episodes ago but was in too much of a slingshot happy mood to step over the wire this time. Hrm. OK.

She’s nominally looking for her boyfriend, ie, the guy who tried to free Sawyer from the cage in Episode 3-1 before being carted off. She’s none too happy, and wants to talk to Ben, and decides the best way to do that is escape from wherever they keep all the kids (ostensibly on the Alcatraz 2 island) and generally piss everyone off.

We don’t see her again in the episode…although we do hear her. Least, I believe it’s her, over the intercom, telling Jack the door to his cell is open. This leads Jack to the Hydra viewing station, where he sees Kate and Sawyer getting’ their spoon on. And right behind him? Ben. Later on, just before Ben goes under the knife, he asks if Alex asked about him. Juliet says no, and they has sent her home “last night…I don’t know where she is now.” Which leads to the question: what’s the connection between Ben and Alex?

Alex’s function has always been one between two worlds: that of the Losties and that of the Others. She’s got one foot in each camp, and while ostensibly on the side of the Losties, is firmly entrenched (read: unable to escape) in the Others. Up until this point, it’s seemed largely that her function’s that of a wild card: occasionally she pops up to give advice or a hand and then scoots away.

But what happened in between her capture on the quarry and subsequent release is anyone’s guess. Working with Ben? Trying to give Jack the germ of a plan? Hard to say. But I have faith in the producers to tell us by at least March 2009 which one it is. But here’s one thought to consider: how did we first meet Ben? Because Rousseau brought Sayid to him. Rousseau, Alex’s mother.

Things that make you go hmmmmm…

Jacob’s Ladder

Lastly, but not…um, leastly, Jacob.

Who? Oh, only the head of The Others, the aforementioned “him” by Ben in Season 2, the big cheese, the head honcho, the big enchilada. The guy pulling the strings, perhaps with only one eye, from a remote location.

The notion of one more level of Others management seemed likely for a while. Like any good society, Otherville has a bureaucracy, and any good bureaucracy needs to have its CEO safely removed from the day-to-day activities to focus on the larger picture.

And that larger picture contains, not surprisingly, a list. A list Jack’s not even on, if Pickett’s to be believed.

(For the record, I believe him, because Pickett seems about as smart as Paris Hilton’s uvula. Honestly, how did this guy land in Braniac Central? You have masters of manipulation all around you, people with vast academic minds and a keen insight into the human psyche, and then there’s Pickett, who when off-screen might spend hours trying to set ants on fire with a Dharma Initiative magnifying glass. I mean, come on. I bet no one wants to pair up with this guy when the Others get together to play Pictionary.)

So, there’s ANOTHER list, which leads me to believe Jacob is Santa Claus and The Others are merely his effed-up elves. They are making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. I won’t even try and speculate on this, since every time I think I’ve something figured out (like, say, the tumor actually being Locke’s), it turns out I am horribly, horribly wrong. But there are a lot of Losties who would get coal in their stockings, no? OK, I’m rambling.

If Jack wasn’t on the list (let’s call that THE LIST), that means Jacob and Ben have different agendas. Jack’s very presence seems solely dictated by Ben’s medical needs, that and that alone. The purpose of Kate/Sawyer still seems up in the air (thought I still support the “the Others want them to breed” theory) but seems separate from Jack’s purpose. Given how little we really know about the list Miss Klugh gave Michael last year, how are we supposed to guess the purpose of THE LIST? I won’t even try. Not important. The main point is Jacob’s existence, the proverbial Wizard of IslandOz. He’s big. He’s scary. He’s got a Franklin Planner.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Well, Jack’s come up with a plan to sacrifice himself to free the lovebirds, which no one among the Others saw coming. Kudos to Jack. Course, his last plan didn’t go over so well (you know, the one that got them all captured in the first place), but in the first six episodes of this season have done anything, they have really elevated Jack’s character. Increasingly smart, increasingly resilient, increasingly aware of how to manipulate The Others…he’s been a real surprise. He didn’t cower to Ben’s plan OR Juliet’s plan…he did things on his own terms in order to provide a chance at happiness for two people with a better shot at it than he ever could have.

Course, um, no one told him they were not actually on the Island, but on Alcatraz 2. Insert Homer Simpson’s “DOH!” right here.

But here’s how I think this plays out.

Locke’s gotten Clue 1 from the Jesus Stick: “Lift up your eyes and look North”. Now, I’m a guy who gets lost when he goes to New York City, a place that has street numbers listed numerically. So how this leads Locke and Sayid to a place where they can see Alcatraz 2, I don’t know. But it will, and during the next episode, these two will also bond with the few remaining polar bears while flashbacks show their time as a circus act. Since polar bears can swim, they ask their new furry friends for a lift over to the new island. They kill Paolo and Nikki before leaving and eat their dead flesh for sustenance on the day-long journey across the water.

As the arrive on the Alcatraz Island, Sawyer and Kate arrive on the shore. Kate radios Jack, tells him the angel-hair pasta anecdote he alluded to, and then forgets to turn the walkie-talkie off, leading to an awkward moment in the surgery room where everyone hears Kate scream “Give me summa dat prison sex!” Things get more awkward when Locke and Sayid start rubbing their nipples in excitement upon seeing such a sweaty vision upon the beach. Jack sits and stews as every person, lost in their lust, gets recaptured and tossed into cages, all fishbiscuit privileges revoked.

Sounds about right to me. How about you guys? Leave your thoughts below.