DonnaK:  Once again, apologies for the lateness of this review. Damn stomach flu. The usual warnings…..

SPOILER ALERT!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!! LOOK OUT BELOW FOR SPOILERS!!!!!

Lost is just getting better and better for me. Gone are the days of trying to tear your hair out while screaming “What the hell is going on here?!?”. Here are the days of plentiful goodness, where we get more answers than new questions, more clarity and less confusion, greater focus and less muddied views of what lies ahead. As we gear up for the end game next year Lost is fulfilling its need to tie up as many loose ends as it can, and that trend continued this week. This was a tight, taught, well-told story with a lot of great moments in it. So… time for the patented bulleted list!

—Has anyone noticed that the direction on Lost never seems to falter these days? For the entirety of this season the direction has been rock solid and always faithful to its vision and to what has come before. The look and the feel of the show is so consistent that it often feels as if the same person is directing every episode, and that’s a good thing. Once you find out what your niche is and what kind of look sells your world to your audience in the best possible way… DON’T CHANGE IT. Too many shows don’t hold this philosophy, and they suffer for it. Lost never seems to have that problem. Good for them.

—I think it’s prudent to start our break-down with talking about Kate off the island in the future/true present time line. The “previously on” sequence reminds us about Sawyer’s daughter Clementine and his whispered words to Kate before he jumped off the helicopter. Once again, many thanks to Lost for the reminder as I had honestly forgotten about that helicopter moment. Once off the island, Kate visited Cassidy, Clementine’s mother, and got an earful about Sawyer from her. This is clearly a woman who likes to hold grudges. She’s still angry at Sawyer for leaving and tries - rather successfully - to plant the idea in Kate’s head that Sawyer jumped off the helicopter to get away from Kate. Now… everyone who watched that scene knows full well that isn’t the truth. Jumping off that copter ripped Sawyer in half, You could see it in his face as he made the decision to jump, and you could see the pain he felt losing Kate throughout the time jumps of this season. Sawyer wasn’t ditching anyone by doing what he did - he was saving them, the same way he’s saving them all again and again in the 70’s inside Dharma. I swear, no one gives this guy enough credit, and Kate should have known better than to listen to a minute of this.

—Why in sweet bloody hell did Kate spill her guts to Cassidy about the island, the castaways, and the escape? How idiotic of a move was that? I know, let’s all agree that we have to keep this whole ordeal a secret no matter what… but I’m just going to tell everything to this unreliable bitter woman I just met! Yeah… that makes sense. But, in a way, it does. Nearly Kate’s whole adult life has been a lie. She’s been on the run, using aliases, being hunted, and now all this, including the weight of lying about Aaron. I think the burden of this huge secret just got to her and she broke, pure and simple. In the end, it’s not like Cassidy could do much with the information - who would believe her? Still… not smart, Kate.

—Clearly over the three years off the island Kate and Cassidy grew rather close, which is odd considering they’re nothing alike and share nothing but Sawyer. Well, Sawyer and Kate’s secret that is. Cassidy became Kate’s touchstone off the island, someone with whom she could share potentially anything, and clearly that was something Kate desperately needed. Kate finally broke down and told Cassidy the truth about Aaron and Claire. Kate confessed she was going back to the island and about losing Aaron in the market. Cassidy’s suggestion that Aaron has been a surrogate of sorts for Sawyer all these years is an interesting one to say the least. Cassidy claimed that keeping Aaron helped Kate “fix it”, it presumably being the hole Sawyer left in Kate’s heart. I don’t know if I buy that one. I think Kate was rather set on keeping Aaron before Sawyer jumped and I don’t think his presence or lack thereof would have changed that. I also don’t buy that raising Aaron was Kate’s substitute for losing Sawyer. Her affair and engagement to Jack was. Jack was her rebound guy, not her son. I must say I find Cassidy’s world views a tad lacking in the wisdom department. As an aside… think back to the flash-forward when Kate was still with Jack and he caught her on the phone with someone who she wouldn’t identify. Anyone else starting to think that person might have been Cassidy? My instincts say yes.

—So now Kate feels the need to tell one more person the whole story of the crash and of Aaron - Claire’s mother, Carole. That’s one hell of a bombshell to drop on someone. However, I think Kate did the right thing here. She gave Aaron to the right person who would love him without question or reservation. She knew she was leaving and might never come back so she wanted to keep him safe at all costs, and in the process she tried to give Carole some hope that she might be able to find Claire as well. This was noble of Kate, a trait of hers that often gets overlooked. It’s certainly clear as day that she loves Aaron as if he were her own, and this was one hell of a sacrifice for her. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it with Jack, who would have never understood why she spilled her guts and probably would have yelled at her for doing so. Again… good for Kate.

—Back to the 70’s and the island for the rest of the recap. Kate got to meet Roger Linus, which sets up her big shock as she realized that the shot and dying boy was none other than Ben. It was interesting to note that after her initial shock at realizing that this boy was her former captor Ben Kate immediately went into mother-protective mode over him. She literally spent the rest of the episode trying to find ways to save Ben’s life, despite all he had done to her. It wasn’t a question of if Ben dies then none of this would have ever have happened as Hurley stated. It surely wasn’t a case of whether or not Ben as a person deserved to live or die based on what he would do in the future as Jack stated. No, Kate’s actions were those of a mother who is caring for a hurt child. This whole episode hangs on the fact that we have come to believe firmly that Kate is, in every sense of the word that matters, a mother. Since both previous episodes as well as this one firmly establish this fact, all of Kate’s actions make sense. This was good long-term plotting by the writers, who obviously have a handle on where this show is going now. Well done.

—Jack’s refusal to operate on Ben made me want to reach through the TV and slap him. I understood why Sayid did what he did when he shot young Ben - not only was it in his nature but he was completely lost in the time paradox and wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. But Jack? He has no excuse other than his pettiness and his pouting “I wanna be in charge” power-trip mentality to explain his refusal to help. I didn’t buy he excuse that the he thought he would be getting in the island’s way… although as it turned out he was right. I think he was just being a damn brat. I’ve never been a fan of Jack’s and this Emo-Jack we’ve got here isn’t helping much.

—How absolutely fantastic was the dialogue between Hurley and Miles about the time-continuum! It wasn’t just that we got the comic relief of Hurley and his humor. It was that Hurley got to ask all the questions we’ve all been asking for weeks now about how this time-stuff works. He was our voice within the show, and he asked many of the same thing we all asked as this season has progressed. He even threw Miles for a loop when he asked why Ben wouldn’t remember Sayid in the future, which is essentially the same question I’ve been asking about Danielle. Well, we got the answer for Ben, so I can only assume we’ll get one for Danielle as well. Nicely played by the writers once again.

— So Kate enlisted Juliet to help her bring the dying Ben to The Others to see if they could help save him. Clearly Kate was clearly determined to save Ben at all costs, even if it meant getting captured or ostracized by the Dharma people. Now that’s dedication for you, and if those weren’t maternal instincts kicking in then I don’t know what it was. Sawyer caught up with Kate at the fence and was determined to help her, which he credits to Juliet. I call bullshit on that one. He’s helping as much if not more for Kate than he is for Juliet. He sure as hell didn’t want to send Kate out into Other’s territory without his back-up. Don’t look now, Juliet, but I think in his heart Sawyer’s made his choice.

—On the way to The Other’s camp Kate tells Sawyer about Clemetine and Cassidy and Cassidy’s theory about why Sawyer jumped. Sawyer gave a vague answer about how he wouldn’t have been good for Kate like he hadn’t been good for his daughter. Bullshit once again. This is Sawyer covering his ass and not wanting to admit how much he loves Kate, about how much it hurt him to lose her, about how he pined for her all these years. Even now, after all of Sawyer’s “growing up”, he still can’t truly admit to his feelings. This scene was so perfectly played both both Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly - kudos to both of them for navigating such difficult emotional waters with such grace.

—Sawyer and Kate met up with Richard, who told them that he can save Ben, but Ben will lose all memory of this happening and that he will forever become “one of them”. Well, now we know why Ben doesn’t remember any of this and why he is *so* dedicated to both The Others and the island. It’s a tad convenient, but it’s one of the only ways this could really work. I do have to question something here, though. We know that Ben returns to Dharma and continues working with his father because we know he is with his father when The Others come to wipe out the Dharma people. We also know that it was then when Richard made his final pitch to Ben to join The Others, and Ben still seemed pretty uncertain to me about whether or not he wanted to go with Richard. That past segment seems to contradict what we know know is true, unless of course I’m missing something. Am I? You tell me - is this a mistake or have I missed a piece somewhere that would make everything we know about Ben joining The Others make sense?

Alright, enough rambling. Another great week for Lost, and I see only blue skies ahead. Floor’s open people! Let’s hear your thoughts and reactions to this episode, especially concerning the paradox I think may have found at the end. Am I right or wrong? Let me know!