Won’t You Take Me To… Eggtown?

Tonight. Lost. “Eggtown.”
9/8c. ABC.

Poorly constructed Lipps, Inc. references aside, I am eagerly anticipating tonight’s Kate-centric episode. So…

Let’s talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it
Talk about it

That was the last one. I promise. Quick note - I'm traveling for business all day Thursday (yes, someone employs me). If you comment, it doesn't get posted until I click "publish" (not sure why I have to do that). So be patient, your comment will appear as soon as I have a wireless connection, probably Thursday evening. And don't worry, I've arranged to be left in glorious solitude from 9-10 EST so that I may enjoy LOST. That arrangement cost me the respect of most of my coworkers, but I'll stand by it. Okay, onward!

Kate Austen: Great Felon or the Greatest Felon?
Tuesday’s post pretty much exhausted the topic of Kate and her status as a member of the Oceanic Six. I won’t rehash it, suffice it to say I won't completely assume that she is one of the O6. If you need a refresher or missed us on Tuesday, click here to read that bad boy. And thanks to all the readers who have been depositing their two cents in the comments section – we love to hear from you, it’s like getting a Christmas card, but it’s about LOST so I actually want to read it.

I also discussed the man that Kate cryptically referred to in last season’s finale, implying that someone was waiting for her at home. Speculation points at Sawyer, a child (be it hers, she and Sawyer’s or Claire’s) or maybe Ben Linus.

Instead of beating those dead horses, let’s look at where Kate has been and where she might be going tonight.

Evangeline Lilly (Kate) herself admitted that midway through Season 3, she felt the strain of redundancy on Kate’s storyline: Murder. Run. Repeat. Make out as needed.

Luckily for actors and fans alike, the writers artfully injected new life into the stories of both Kate and Jack with last season’s nail-whittling finale. They’re both off the Island. Jack wants to go back. Kate doesn’t. Jack has nobody. Kate has a “him.” Most importantly, Jack is a mere shadow of the man that Kate so trustingly looked up to and followed on the Island. Also, the Island ordeal didn’t seem to take too much of a toll on Kate’s physical appearance. Not important to the storyline, but a solid bonus nonetheless.


So with a hearty dose of Billy Mays-endorsed cleaner applied to the rust on Kate’s storyline, we look ahead. You can debate amongst yourselves if Kate is truly among the O6 or actually undercover, with an assumed identity. Though, as Dharma Blog readers D’Ann and John pointed out, previews for Eggtown show Kate hounded by paparazzi, thus casting doubt on the possibility that she’s living in anonymity (See? We do read these things). With that in mind, we’ll proceed under the assumption that Kate is indeed an O6.

The obvious first question: why would she leave the Island? She has nothing to go back to. And the Island affords her the under-the-radar lifestyle she has sought since murdering her Pa. Minus the smoke monsters, electric fences, murderous indigenous tribesman and VD-ridden Southern conmen; Kate’s got it made. Her vengeful captor (the U.S. Marshall) even passed away soon after the crash.

But hold on. Kate’s the first one to grab a gun and a knapsack every time the Losties have picked a fight or responded to a threat. We have theorized that the O6 may not have gotten off the Island on their own terms, instead brokering a deal with the freighter crew to return to the mainland, lie about the rest of the people on Oceanic 815 and swear never to return. Sounds like a fight to be picked, and a perfect challenge for Kate.

And in a show steeped with themes of redemption, Kate is certainly someone who could use some. Maybe returning to the mainland is her opportunity to do just that.

Though right now, Kate is settling in to Othersville alongside Sawyer. Perhaps she’s deciding which night of the week will be Taco Night (oh wait. Probably not). So between now and the LAX rendezvous she’s gotta ditch the minivan and Oprah’s Book Club meetings and get herself off this Island. That’s where Eggtown comes in. No, I have no idea what the hell an “Eggtown” is, but tonight’s episode should start to fill in the blanks and (begin to) show how Kate makes the transition to becoming an O6. And whatever Eggtown is, it has got something to do with that. I asked Maggie what "Eggtown" might be, and her well-honed woman's intuition informed me that she thinks Ben is harvesting Kate's eggs and keeping them in a place he calls... you guessed it... Eggtown. Until Maggie told me that, I thought I was the crazy one. Who knows, maybe she's right. But referring to a freezer as "Eggtown," seems uncouth, even for the Others.

Winging It

Last week, I noted that Johnny Locke would have to soon take some desperate measures in order to give his team the leg-up on the Jack Pack. We got that in the form of Locke’s Linusesque kidnapping of Charlotte Lewis and subsequent prisoner exchange for Miles the Ghost Whisperer. Side note: I am saddened that Jennifer Love Hewitt was not chosen for the role of Ghost Whisperer. She has the experience (a miraculous 6-season run on CBS as the Ghost Whisperer), she is all kinds of hot and using her would've allowed the writers to tie the whole narrative of Party of Five into LOST by reuniting two of the Salinger siblings. Wait, does that mean Claire and Jennifer Love are sisters? That Christian Shepherd gets around. And I’ve derailed.

The long and short of it is Locke is operating without a blueprint right now. For the first time in life, the Man of Faith is putting his in himself. There’s no deceptive daddy, no bug-eyed Island demigod, no Island power (Jacob, smoke monster, Taller Ghost Walt) to guide him. He’s making like Bon Jovi and Livin’ on a Prayer (and yes, that’s two 80s song references in one post; a Dharma Blog record).

How does Locke play into tonight’s episode? Well, Kate’s aforementioned transition from suburban sweetheart to off-Island uber-hottie is going to begin under Locke’s watch. He’s led his troops to Othersville, and he’s the mayor, baby.

Locke’s leverage is still a prisoner, but now it’s Miles. Tonight’s Tivo-ready preview reads, “Kate's need to get information out of the hostage may jeopardize her standing with Locke – as well as with Sawyer.” That makes enough sense. But it still doesn’t answer the question: why does Kate rejoin the ranks of the Jack Shepherd Rescue Mission?

Possible answer: she listens to Hurley. We’ve already seen Poppin’ Fresh take a much bigger role in Season 4, even resorting to some trickeration to ensnare Sayid. We also know that eventually, Hurley regrets his initial decision to follow Locke (God, I’m beginning to love the flash forward model); we just don’t know why yet. Maybe Kate and Hurley find common ground by experiencing something that makes them distrust Locke.

For a man that has always operated with the air of being steps ahead of everyone else, Locke is certainly scrambling now. He is becoming frustrated, misguided and unsure of himself. And if we’ve learned one thing from Locke’s flashbacks, it’s that when he’s unsure of himself, it quickly snowballs and renders him directionless and vulnerable. With Locke, when it rains it pours. And for a man that can predict the rain, an unexpected storm sure seems to rattle him.

The curious section of Eggtown’s Tivo Preview is the part that alludes to a rift between Kate and Sawyer. Could the Island Bonnie & Clyde be on the outs? Their relationship has been strained ever since Sawyer’s murder of Anthony Cooper left him emotionally spent. But what could Kate do to tonight to “jeopardize her standing” with the Human Nickname Machine? I don’t know where to begin speculating, so I won’t. But pay attention to that tonight.


The Great Escape of Benjamin Linus
Thanks once again to flash-forwards, we know that Ben is operating his empire from off the Island. But how? Last week, someone remarked that Ben has been almost physically unrecognizable this season, with cuts and bruises littering his mysterious visage. He’s a prisoner to Locke. Sawyer has had a gun to his head more than once. And ole Crazy Rousseau’s liable to straight murder his ass any minute now.

It seems the writers are painting a picture of despair for Linus, if only to give him an even bigger hole to climb out of. He has been to the brink of death several times in the two seasons we have known him, but now he’s a prisoner in his own house, without resources like Richard, Tom, Pickett or Jacob to bail him out.

Soon, they’re going to have to show how Ben breaks away from this thing. Hopefully that’ll start tonight. I (partially) named my dog after Ben Linus, and seeing him get his ass kicked every week is somewhat unsettling.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
With each episode, I have known with some certainty whether I’m seeing a flashback or a flash-forward. But the lessons of LOST history teach me to second guess everything I know. I can safely assume that Through the Looking Glass, The Beginning of the End and The Economist were flash-forwards while Confirmed Dead was a flashback. But had it not been for Sayid saying, “I’m one of the Oceanic Six” in the opening scene, I would question if what we saw in The Economist wasn’t actually a flashback.

And I think we’re in for that kind of switcheroo sometime this season. In the same way that Through the Looking Glass was supposed to be interpreted as a flashback until the very end, I think the writers could soon give us a flashback that, until the end, seems like a flash forward. Make sense? Picture last week’s episode. It would mean that Sayid had been working with Ben before the crash, and that all of his actions on the Island up to this point were carried out with the ulterior motive of serving captain Linus. I know, last week was indeed a flash forward. But once the O6 have been revealed we won’t really have as much of a frame of reference for our flash-forwards. I, for one, would love to see the writers pull an end-around and give us a flashback that looks like a flash-forward. It won’t happen tonight (I don’t think), but it could happen sometime this season.

In Summary... The Return of the Haiku
How could I have forgotten to end each post this year with a haiku? It was a staple of last year's Dharma Blog, so today it returns. Ahem...

Join us as we learn
One more Oceanic Six
And drool over Kate

Enjoy Eggtown tonight. And because I already mentioned the little guy earlier in this post, here’s a new picture of my pup Linus (he comes home next week, after a month at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm).
Namaste.
.charlie