So this may or may not have been Days 18 and 19 on the Island, and we know like 21 of the 47 people alive on the Island, although I'm obviously starting to lose my confidence in my abilities to keep track of these things.
We start this episode with Kate having climbed up a tree to get fruit. I don't know if her survival skills have developed further on the Island, or whether she was always this capable, but it seems like she's a lot different than the Kate we were introduced to in the Pilot. I don't know if this is inconsistency, like the writers preferred to make Kate better equipped for survival, or whether I believe that her behavior in the first episode makes sense with her situation after being betrayed by the old man in Australia. Anyways we get her instinctively throwing a rock at an unseen intruder which turns out to be Sawyer with one of the best lines of the series so far.
"Me Kate! Me throw rock!"
This was not a perfect episode by any stretch of the imagination. I came out of this episode very frustrated with some of Kate's behavior, and not loving the way Jack handled the situation. However, this episode converted me to being a full blown Sawyer fan. I'm not willing to abandon my Jack/Kate shipper fandom yet to join the Sawyer/Kate shippers, but Sawyer is currently my favorite character in the series. Every time he opened his mouth in this episode I found myself laughing. His delivery was spot on for all of his dialogue, and I think I could watch a full episode of Sawyer trying to open that suitcase and failing miserably. He's taken a step back from being the villain or antagonist of the series, and made a major step forward to being the comic relief. I'm reminded of the way Spike's role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed during Season 4, and as a huge Spike fan, any comparison to his character is a sign of greatness.
"Physics my ass."
So I'm not sold on the Sawyer/Kate ship yet. The reason being that I didn't quite buy the swimming scene. On the one hand, I was grateful that the writers once again found a way to have Kate strip down to her underwear. I think if I was a writer on this show I would make that a priority for every episode, but I was convinced that the whole swimming scene was a dream sequence one of the two was having about the other. It just didn't feel natural for Kate who has expressed nothing but disgust for Sawyer to be stripping down and flirting with him so much. It was hot, don't get me wrong, but it just felt like a plot contrivance to get us to the whole briefcase plot.
On the other hand, maybe the discovery of a new water source will lead to a replacement for the Beach Tribe, since the beach is flooded. I had a feeling that the survivors wouldn't be able to stay on the beach the whole series, and the flooding (is that the proper term for the tide swallowing up the beach?) helps move all the survivors into the jungle where the action is.
I was not a big fan of the briefcase plot, although Kate's flashback to making out with the bank robber does sort of explain her attraction to bad boys like Sawyer. That whole flashback sequence was my least favorite one of the series so far, because I felt like more than anything it muddled up Kate's character. That's probably what the writers were going for, and maybe it makes her a more interesting and complex person, but I just felt confused by it. The Jack and Kate tension has also seemingly dissolved into open distrust between the two, and I just feel uncomfortable watching it. The two of them started out with so much heat, and now their scenes feel awkward. I will admit though, that I'm curious to find out more about Kate's backstory though. I hope the writers found a good way to handle her past, and it doesn't end up feeling awkward or cliche.
That miniature airplane creeps me out. I don't know what I think it means, and I'm just going to guess it doesn't end up meaning anything. I've heard that Lost leaves a lot of mysteries unsolved, and I'm guessing that miniature airplane is one of them.
Jack needing to bury the pilot was a nice callback, and probably my favorite moment between Jack and Kate in a while. I enjoyed watching the Sawyer/Jack standoff, but I felt uncomfortable with the fact that Jack would threaten to do something so horrible.
I like that Rose returned to series in this episode. I didn't think much of her plot with Charlie, although I guess the writers wanted to include religion and faith in the series. I approve of the effort to include religion in the series, as it is an important part of human society. I don't have too much to say about it.
I still hate Boone. How dare he make Shannon feel useless! What are he and Locke up to?
Shannon was sun bathing again! Awesome!
I am giving this episode a bonus point for the completely unexpected romantic tension between Sayid and Shannon. I totally did not see that coming, but I'm all on board to ship them. Sayid looks like he's so much more attracted to Shannon than he was to Nadia. I hope that isn't just me be racist. I hope the writers decided to do something with this, and didn't decide to just play it off as nothing. Oh and also I predict that the song melody has something to do with solving the math. I saw Battlestar Galactica. You can't fool me.
Rating: 8 out of 10
I'm giving this episode a positive review because of the bonus point from Sayid/Shannon, and because I really enjoyed Sawyer in this episode. I was not a huge fan of the Kate/Jack plot in this episode, and nothing else really grabbed me. I'm interested to know more about Kate, but I'm starting to get kind of weary of all the flashbacks. Are there going to be flashbacks in every episode for the whole series? That doesn't sit well with me, and these people are stranded on an island with a mysterious monster. The series doesn't need to rely on flashbacks to tell a good story. I'm going to give a bonus point to the first episode in this series that doesn't contain a single flashback. Please hold me to that.
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