Lost: Trial and Aaron

I'm not the biggest Kate fan in the world.

I mean, Evangeline Lilly is pretty, but Kate is really stupid on the Island sometimes, and no matter how hard her flashbacks try, I just don't find her that interesting.

So when I saw the previews for this week's Kate-centric episode, I was a little dubious. And while it certainly wasn't one of the best episodes of "Lost" we've ever seen, I definitely enjoyed looking at Kate's future a lot more than her past.

While this episode was ultimately frustrating because it was one of those installments that introduced a ton of new mysteries to be solved at a later date, there WAS some good character development stuff to be had.

At the forefront of that was Kate, of course, and her love triangle with Sawyer and Jack. In fact, I didn't really think this was much of a triangle, since I felt that, despite the fact she's been shooting daggers at Juliet all season, Kate clearly cared for Sawyer more. After last night's episode, I don't think that's the case.

In the future, Kate was on trial for her laundry list of pre-plane crash crimes. We'd gotten hints of it, but we found out for sure that the Oceanic Six are some sort of megacelebs (it's still sorta weird seeing Kate with makeup) when clean-shaven Jack showed up to perjure himself at Kate's trial and basically give her credit for doing everything he did (being the Island's hero).

What was most interesting about this scene, obviously, was Jack's claim that only eight people survived the crash, with the other two dying before the Ocean Six could be rescued. It's apparent that the Oceanic Six have all agreed on some fake story they're telling the rest of the world and that they're hiding the fates of a significant amount of the castaways. Also, why would Jack say that only eight survived the crash, only to die before they could be rescued? I'm assuming the U.S. Marshal could be one of the two that died after the plane crash according to Jack's story, but who would the other be?

Of course, that was far from the only whopper in Kate's flash forward, as we found out that her son was actually the one that Kate was worried about getting back to when she met Jack in the season 3 finale. Kate's mom was desperate to meet her grandson and offered to back off her incriminating testimony for the chance to meet him. I never really understood how Kate's mom could turn her in for killing her abusive asshole of a husband, so I was delighted to see that Kate's mom changed her mind on her own after Kate refused to let her see Aaron.

Oh that's right, did I mention that Kate is claiming Aaron as her own son. This actually wasn't difficult to guess from the Island scenes where the camera lingered on the baby a little longer than normal, and Kate was hesitant to the idea of being a mother. Still, this brings up the inevitable question of what could possibly eventually happen to Claire to separate her from her son. Also, why was Jack so hesitant to see Kate's son? I'm assuming he'd know it was really Aaron, and maybe he has some guilt over whatever went down. Or maybe eventually he finds out that Aaron is sort of his nephew and the whole thing kinda weird him out.

Though this was Kate's episode, back on the Island, Sawyer and Locke had strong showings.

During the opening scene when Dictator Locke was preparing breakfast for Ben, the first thing I noticed was that he was wearing a white shirt (as opposed to that yellow-ish/brown joint he's been rocking for most of the show's run). Of course, it wasn't long before Ben got in his head again about not knowing what to do "being lost". Even though it's sad for the character, I like the fact that no matter how badass Locke gets, he's still a deeply insecure guy with daddy issues (Ben's face after messing with him yet again was priceless).

Last week, I lamented that Sawyer may not be long for this world, and I'm still feeling that way. I enjoyed the scenes with his odd couple roommate Hurley ("Xanadu", Hurley?!). After a bit of resistance, he and Kate even got to play house for a bit. Of course, it turned out that she was using him to help her free Miles so he could talk to Ben, but I liked the fact that Sawyer sniffed it out and called her out on it.

What didn't go over so well was Kate (who really is constantly running), after being banished by Locke, trying to sneak away after a night of no sex (Sawyer is such a gentleman), causing Sawyer to get angry and (probably accurately) claim that she'd come running back as soon as Jack did something to piss her off. Harsh? A little. Accurate? Probably.

Here's the point: in the Island Kate's had no problem at all using Sawyer over and over again (which he allows because he loves her), but in the flash forward, it seemed like she couldn't bear to have Jack lie for her as she interrupted his testimony. We know that Jack loves Kate (he told her last night), but does she really love him? Or does she at least love him more than Sawyer?

Anyway, like I said, not the most electrifying episode, but it certainly opens up opportunities and questions for later in this season and maybe even years to come.

So what'd you think of this episode? More specifically, what'd you think of all the mini-mysteries thrown out there? What happened to the helicopter Frank, Sayid and Desmond are on? (looks like we'll find out next week). What was up with the card experiment Charlotte and Daniel were doing? Why would Miles specifically ask for 3.2 mil to lie about Ben being dead? (and not 3.3 or 3.4 or whatever) Why does Sun not want to go to America anymore? Finally, where is Elizabeth Mitchell's screen time? (she was great last year, and has yet to really do anything so far this season).