Episode 306 - Do you wish it was February? "I Do."

(As always, thanks to ew.com for this image of Sawyer of and Kate)

So Kate (Monica?) loves Sawyer (James?), while still maintaining a connection with Jack, some time after marrying Kevin. As Hurley (Hugo?) would say - dude.

Not a lot of big reveals in the so-called "fall finale," but plenty of character development. The flashbacks belonged to Kate, but the episode really belonged to Jack.

In flashback, we learned that Kate, some time after the mysterious black stallion enabled her escape from the marshall, had shacked up with a Miami-Dade Police officer named Kevin (played by "Firefly's" brilliantly understated Nathan Fillion), whom she married under the alias "Monica." We later learned that Kate believed she was pregnant, only to have a test confirm otherwise (the test she mentioned to Sun last season). Believing she finally had a chance at a normal life, she called the marshall and pleaded with him to stop chasing her so she could settle down out of love. Not the brightest move, but at least she was smart enough to use a kitchen timer to hang up before the call could be traced. Once the pregnancy test came back negative, however, Kate realized her on-the-run nature was incompatible with being a cop's wife (and with, as she put it, "taco night,") drugged Kevin, confessed, and fled, running away from her honeymoon to Costa Rica aboard...Oceanic Airlines!

I truly hope Kevin eventually discovered who Kate really was and has been searching for her ever since. Nathan Fillion is a great addition to any ensemble cast, and it would be great to see him team up with Penelope Widmore...

Back on the main island, in a somewhat weakly-scripted aside, John Locke, Sayid, Desmond, Niki and Paolo bury Eko. Locke takes a detour with Sayid while picking up shovels to dig the grave so as to retrieve Eko's prayer stick. He tells Sayid that "the monster" killed Eko, that the monster may have been what brought them to the island in the first place (guess he's not satisfied with the "Desmond forgot to push the button" explanation, either), and that he believes the monster killed Eko for a reason - he just doesn't know what that might be. At the makeshift funeral, as Locke marks the grave with the prayer stick, he reads the same bit of scripture we all clearly saw falling from the sky after the implosion - "Lift up your eyes and look North." Again, the great tracker Locke literally had a sign fall out of the sky only to not spot it until something awful happened. Locke may in fact believe that Eko's death was just meant as a way for him to receive this message (which would be awfully egocentric), but we'll have to wait until after the Superbowl to know for sure.

But on to the main action (and boy, was there some action - nothing like sex and violence to make you want to skip Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, the football playoffs and Groundhog Day). Jack first tells Ben the spinal tumor will probably be inoperable and fatal within a week, but that he has no intention of operating (he seems to enjoy "playing God" over his captor, doesn't he?) During a work detail, an alarm voice, the same one we've heard when the Swan hatch went into lockdown, alerts the Others that there has been a "compound breach." Danny already knows who it is - "how did she get in?" he asks - before Alex assualts the group, taking out a couple of Others with her slingshot. She gets into a standoff with Danny (rock vs. bullet?) and demands to know where Karl is. He holds his ground as Alex is grabbed from behind. As they drag her away, Alex screams to Kate that they'll kill her boyfriend "like they killed mine."

As this disturbance ends, Juliet asks Kate to put on a hood to help them convince Jack to perform the surgery on Ben. Calmly and cooly, she lets Kate know that Sawyer will be killed if she can't convince Jack.

Kate is led to Jack's cell, and they exchange a wonderfully tender moment - Jack asking if they've hurt her, Kate struggling to keep from telling Jack that they've hurt her by hurting Sawyer. When she asks Jack to do the surgery, he knows she's been coerced. When he demands to know what they did to make her help them, she tells him Sawyer will be killed if he does not. His angry refusal was a powerful moment - was he jealous of Sawyer? Convinced they were dead either way? Sick of being manipulated? And all along Ben is watching, none too pleased.

Once back at the cells, Kate tells Sawyer the Others' whole plan - that they want Jack to perform the operation, and that Sawyer will be killed if he does not. Again she slips through the ceiling bars on her cage and, as she breaks the lock on Sawyer's cage, begging him to run, she is devastated when he tells her that they're on a second island, with nowhere to go. Realizing their predicament, they finally consummate their long flirtation. In the afterglow, Sawyer asks Kate if she meant it when she said she loved him. Her response was a non-committal kiss, to which Sawyer replies he loves her, too.

Back in the tank, the mysterious squawk box awakens Jack. A voice (that I thought sounded like Alex's) tells him to try the door. To his surprise, it is unlocked. He finds his way down the hall, grabs a pistol from an unlocked armory (only one gun?) and is just about to leave when he spots Ben's control room. There he sees Kate and Sawyer canoodling, just as Ben arrives. In his delightfully creepy manner, Ben tells Jack he's surprised - "I would have thought she'd have chosen you, too" - and realizes this can't help to move Jack to save Sawyer's life by saving Ben's. However, Jack turns the tables and tells Ben he'll do the surgery the next morning.

As Ben is prepped he asks if Alex asked about him (indeed she had, when Danny wouldn't talk about Karl, though more in a "take me to your leader" way than in a "how's the tumor" way). Juliet responds she was "taken back home", leaving us to ponder just what kind of discontent there is in Otherville, whether Juliet is on the same side as Alex, and where all this will lead. Ben goes under and Jack starts cutting.

From the gallery, Danny Pickett, believing Jack has lost his leverage, lets his rage seep through and storms off to kill Sawyer as revenge for Colleen (which seems really misdirected, since Sawyer was in the cage when Colleen was shot on a boat). When Tom tries to stop him, Danny mutters what will probably be the most important line of the episode, if not the entire mini-season: "Sheppard's not even on Jacob's list." Is this "Jacob" guy the "Him" we've heard about? Is he Mr. eyepatch? What is this list? What does it mean to be on it? And why is our main protagonist not on the list?

As Danny pulls Sawyer from the cage and demands that Kate watch him execute the con man, Jack is busy springing his plan into action. As Kate pleads with Sawyer to stand up and fight (he doesn't because he won't let his final act be one that puts Kate in danger), Jack intentionally nicks Ben's kidney sac and demands to talk to Kate. Tom radios Danny just before the trigger is pulled and tells him to give Kate the walkie or Jack will let Ben die. With two sets of Others watching, Jack (who already told Tom and Juliet that Ben will bleed to death if not patched up within the hour) tells Kate she and Sawyer have an hour head start before the Others go looking for them. He instructs her to call him and relate the story Jack told her just after the plane crash (the one about how much he wanted to run from his first surgery) to let him know she's alright. She refuses to leave without him, but Jack ends the mini-season by screaming, "RUN!!!"

One final mention goes to Juliet - the look she shot Jack when he announced what he'd done to Ben was fantastic. Although only her eyes were showing, she was clearly saying, "umm, this is not the 'surprise' death we planned for Ben, and I don't think I can cover this one up." (For that matter - my wife points out that Juliet could have instructed Jack not to perform the surgery on the terminally ill Ben if she just wanted him to die, so what is really up with her plan?)

So we wait for 13 weeks to see if Jack will let Ben die, if Danny will let his rage overcome any loyalty he may have to Ben and kill Sawyer, and if Kate and Sawyer will escape without Jack.

But, loyal readers, fear not. I have some posts planned for the coming weeks (including the rest of my top 30 TV shows, since you'll all need something else to watch while we wait). In the meantime, I have a big request. Please post any questions you want "Lost" to answer for you as comments to this post. I plan to organize, discuss, and speculate about these during the break.