Considering his time in the Republican Guard, it isn’t too hard to see why. Some wondered what Sayid would be doing on TV. This was the scene where she sees Austen at the Army Recruitment center.
One subtle clue thrown in the episode that many (including myself) missed the first time was the appearance of Sayid on a TV in Kate’s flashback. I would like to know more about him and how this particular case caught his interest, since it brought him, too, to the island. The dynamic they’ve shared in past episodes may be a stock relationship (the criminal and the man who aggressively pursues the criminal), but through the writing and the acting, it is fresh. It was great to see the Marshall back on the show.
How did *the* horse find its way to the island? It could be that the horse is involved in one of the Dharma Initiative’s experiments like the shark. For Kate, this horse represents freedom, as the horse provided Kate a venue to escape from the Marshall. Walt has the polar bear, Sawyer has the boar, Charlie has the moth and now Kate has the horse. Kate now joins several other characters who have some animal tied into their identity. She’s trying to figure out her daddy issues by talking to Sawyer, who thankfully wakes up (I’ve missed lively Sawyer) and by kissing Jack, which isn’t magic and just ends awkwardly. The transference of Wayne to Sawyer’s feverish system could’ve been the result of lack of sleep, much like Jack experienced in “White Rabbit”. We see it on the island, as Kate’s lack of sleep causes her to become unglued.
One of the things the writers pointed out in their commentary podcast (which I hope they do often) is that these characters have problems with people off the island, and these unresolved issues spill over to those who are on the island. This does help her settle her problems with her father, as Wayne appears to channel the catatonic Sawyer. She never thought she could be good since Wayne would always be a part of her, yet she is still drawn to Sawyer. Sgt Austen is similar to Jack as Wayne is similar to Sawyer. Are we born with a blank slate, with our personalities formed by our surroundings and experiences, or are we born with some intrinsic blueprint? Kate clearly thinks the first, but that could be disproven.īoth of Kate’s fathers parallel the men she’s interested in on the island. Kate doesn’t believe in the idea of tabula rasa, a theory developed by the real John Locke (ironically, her first episode was titled “Tabula Rasa”). It is interesting to see the philosophical ideas brought forth on Lost. She felt that because her father was a bad man, she could never be a good woman. Kate, like some on the island, believes in fate. She killed him because she found out he was her real father and her mother was too blinded by her “love” to realize what kind of person he was. Kate was never molested, raped or beaten by Wayne, although he did make some really disgusting, incestuous (even if he didn’t know it) comments to her. The end reason isn’t as obvious as we were lead to expect, which some found hard to believe. It is a rather audacious thing to do for someone who never had any run ins with the law before. Now we’re at the beginning with her original crime: killing her sleazy father. Like Jack, Kate’s flashbacks to date have been told in reverse. The actual crime, even though it is patricide, may be disappointing, but it may be interesting to see in Lost’s long term scope. By revealing it, they must’ve hoped that it would ease some worries. What Kate did is one of the biggest questions among fans (probably the biggest is how Locke became paralyzed).
The writers know how huge a fanbase Lost has and how much discussion it provokes at watercoolers and on internet forums, so they must be aware of the criticism that this season has progressed slowly. This episode details the origin of Kate’s criminal past and, unlike other events like this, the reveal happens in the prologue. As Lost is largely based on its mysteries, the writers must decide how long to keep the viewers in the dark before revealing a satisfying answer, along with what hints they’ll drop along the way.