(S03E15) Some Lost episodes are stand-alone pieces of the show's mythology. Others are pieces of a larger puzzle, filling in gaps from past episodes and setting the stage for future episodes. "Left Behind" definitely falls into the second category. More of Kate's past was revealed, and new island loyalties were formed in what I am sure is a build-up to an Others-Survivors showdown (fingers crossed).
The Flashback
Kate's flashback was full of familiar songs, familiar faces, and familiar cons. "Walkin' After Midnight" was playing as Kate's car was being towed. Fresh off her escape from the marshal, she was headed back to confront her mother about turning her in. As Lost fate would have it, Cassidy (Sawyer's long con) was outside of the gas station pulling the jewelry scam. It's interesting that Cassidy, a crime victim, became a temporary criminal mentor for Kate.
Both women were at a point in their lives where they felt wronged, and both wanted an explanation. Cassidy helped Kate learn the truth behind her mother's betrayal. In a brutal confrontation with Diane at a diner, Kate finally got answers, and Diane's later behavior at the hospital was explained ("Born to Run"). I am surprised that Kate didn't permanently write her mother off after she made that threat, but there must be some good left in her.
Kate has a habit of helping people against their wishes and, ultimately, hurting them. She thought that she was saving her mother by killing Wayne, but Diane made it clear that Kate simply murdered the man she loved. It's a good thing that Kate did not wait around to get thanked for her good deeds. Kate ended up helping a pregnant Cassidy by advising her to put Sawyer in jail. Cassidy would eventually get an explanation of her own ("Every Man For Himself"), and Sawyer would learn about his daughter. For Kate's sake, I hope Sawyer never finds out that throwing him in jail was her idea.
The Beach
Speaking of Sawyer, the nickname-free loner spent most of this episode conducting a PR campaign of sorts. I thought that Hurley's banishment warning was fishy, and it turned out to be a trick after all. Without a real leader, the survivors don't strike me as being motivated enough to organize a banishment vote. Hurley had Sawyer making the rounds among the beach survivors, from kissing babies to hosting a boar BBQ. Sawyer's efforts failed to impress Sun, however. Women can be stubborn about those fake kidnappings!
It's hilarious that Hurley went to the trouble of grooming Sawyer for beach leadership, making him jump through all of those hoops. I'd like to see Hurley step up and take more of a leadership role among the survivors. At the very least, he would make a great Vice President. With Jack and the gang returning to the beach, how long will Sawyer's leadership be necessary?
The Barracks/The Jungle
Kate was betrayed quite a few times during this episode. Locke turned up in Kate's game room prison cell to say goodbye and ditch her to go off with the Others. After blowing up multiple DHARMA stations and the submarine, I am losing my patience with Locke's antics. Locke's lame apology seemed more like a way of emphasizing Kate's relative unworthiness on the island. I wonder if anyone else will find out what Kate did, now that Juliet is part of the beach group?
I'm not sure if the Others' departure from The Barracks had anything to do with the destroyed sub, but they left in a major hurry. After being gassed, Kate awoke in the jungle, handcuffed to her least favorite Other: Juliet. As advertised, there was a catfight between the women that left Juliet with a dislocated shoulder. Juliet has apparently learned from Ben's example, and lied to Kate for as long as she could.
I genuinely believed that Juliet knew nothing about the monster when it first appeared. Either way, I was glad to see the Black Smoke Monster again, and we learned a little more about it. The Monster cannot get through the sonic fence, and it was not created by the Others (Juliet said that they did not know much about it). Is there some reason the Monster could not go over the fence, like Kate and the rescue party did? Also, if Juliet had to activate the fence, how long had it been shut off? What does this mean for Mikhail's death? I suppose that the fence could have been shut off after he died, but these questions still need to be answered at some point (for my own sanity).
Once again, Kate figured out that her loved ones don't always want (or need) her help. Juliet made it clear that Jack refused Kate's help because of a broken heart, not out of concern for her safety. Jack has never confirmed Juliet's claims, but his actions this week were not very encouraging. Kate and Juliet made it back to the Barracks to rescue Jack and Sayid, and Jack immediately asked Kate about Juliet's whereabouts. He also forced Sayid and Kate to bring Juliet back to the beach. This was so not Kate's week.
A few thoughts:
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Where are the Others going? Back to the Hydra station? Another secret location?
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Sawyer was reading Watership Down again. Has he run out of books, or is he reading several books at once?
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"You sir, Hugo, are rotund." Priceless.
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Kate has a system for her aliases: saints' names. She's used Anne, Monica, Margaret, Joan, and Lucy.
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Stick a fork in Nikki and Paulo. They didn't dig their way out of their graves, and Vincent didn't save them.
See you next week for "One of Us"!
Giveaways reminder: Office, Eli Stone, Supernatural, South Park
Giveaway Thursday: Tickets to the New York Television Festival ... all of it!
I miss the media-friendly John McCain - VIDEOS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
4-05-2007 @ 1:03AM
zizzy said...
Nice review. Here's what I thought of the episode:
http://www.arrogantics.com/2007/04/05/lost-season-3-episode-15-left-behind-review/
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4-05-2007 @ 1:05AM
David said...
Here's what I thought of the episode... and I wrote it right here!
After the commericals I thought I was gonig to hate this episode, but it really turned out well. Locke went with "The Others", there was the smoke monster and even "The Others" don't really know what it is, unless that was a ly. Plus the beach storyline was fun. Good episode.
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4-05-2007 @ 1:12AM
Michael B. said...
GREAT EPISODE. Lost is back on track after the mess that was Nikki and Paulo last week...let's hope it continues.
Jack back at camp = YES!
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4-05-2007 @ 1:22AM
Bill said...
"if Juliet had to activate the fence, how long had it been shut off?"
I might've drawn too big a conclusion, but I thought Juliet shut the fence off to drag Kate out into the jungle. At least I'm assuming she woke up in the Others' village and then came up with her handcuff plan.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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4-05-2007 @ 1:24AM
Samuel McConnell said...
Sawyer is just so damn likable. I think one of the great little quirks of the show is that Sawyer isn't a reformed bad guy, he's really just a bad guy (hense the long con episonde and others) but he still pulls off the charm, and has a nice little connection with everyone. The Hurley Sawyer relationship if one of the most pleasant on a show full of strained relations.
I really wished Sawyer had pulled out a Survivor joke. We were all thinking it. . .
But on a more serious note, this episonde was oddly about Sawyer. He's starting taking care of people (and enjoying it, I didn't think he'd admitt it, but yah, he likes his new place) while Jack continues to be off in his own little Juliet obsessed world. And the flashback description of Sawyer, well its nice to see the change.
I hope Sawyer keeps on the beach, he's a better community character. On the other hand, lets get Sayid off of it, he deserves to be painting the island purple. Shannon is gone, he's not missing much.
Its classic, Kate is going back to Jack just as Sawyer becomes the responsbible one. Juliet and Jack have chemistry. Sawyer and Kate have chemistry. Sadly I doubt that's the way the show will go.
Well, Locke's an other. Changes everything, doesn't it.
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4-05-2007 @ 2:15AM
Nick said...
I love the show's self-reflexivity. Take Kate's line to Juliet: "Welcome to the world of not knowing what the hell is going on." Sound a bit like some fans?
Anyways, do we have twin moles in Locke and Juliet? Locke has really puzzled me - is his motivation for being with the Others because they stay on the island forever? That sounds pretty weak to me.
My question is where does the show go from here? People have mentioned a Survivors/Others clash, which could be very interesting to see what sides Locke and Juliet will take, but I wonder how we'll see this rumored "bad" side of the Others. Will the Survivors (a.k.a. Sayid judging from the preview) do something to Juliet? Who knows, but I'm very interested to see where the writers go from here.
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4-05-2007 @ 2:36AM
Walt said...
I missed an explanation here. Juliet and Kate are in the jungle away from the Others' camp probably some distance. Who took them out there? If it's the Others but Juliet wasn't in on it, Juliet woke first and THEN put the handcuffs on them both? Huh? If Juliet dragged Kate out there, that's an awful long way to drag someone... but here's the weird part...
Kate wakes up, Juliet wakes up, spends the night in hiding, goes back to the Others' campground, and there's Jack, still passed out from the drugging? I missed the timing issue where Jack could be out that many more hours than the girls. Sayid, too?
If it's supposed to be a mystery, fine. It just didn't jive at all when I watched it.
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4-05-2007 @ 2:36AM
Sam said...
It's nice to see that the lost writers have remembered that they can do A and B stories on different parts of the island. I was afraid going into this episode that it was going to pretty much be Juliet and Kate in the Jungle doing the whole chick fight thing.
It was nice to see the show get a little of it's ensemble feel back, even though only a couple characters were majorly involved in the plot, almost everyone got a little moment or two.
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4-05-2007 @ 2:44AM
scott said...
is locke maybe some kind of C3PO to the others ewoks?
not sure what happened with the whole cooper thing, and i guess we won't know for a few weeks yet - but the others just all taking off like that, i wonder if it's related to locke's comment about the chicken in the fridge... the island healed him and later spoke to him (or at least made him look it in the eye), and he seemed to be implying to ben that it was his lack of respect for the island that had let his tumour spread.
the others then left 'downtown', leaving those that weren't good (am i forgetting someone that jack has killed, or have we just not gotten to that flashback yet?) to be judged by the smoke monster.
are they just going deeper into the jungle to live peacefully off of the island? to show locke the 'box'? are they headed to exterminate the losties camp? but then they would be bad... how did these 'hostiles' wipe out the dharmas that were there without getting blood on their hands? or did the island tell them it was okay?
was mikhail faking it with a hidden ketchup packet?
i was hoping des was gonna ask sawyer if he had "the beast in his sights" when they were on the grassy knoll there... and do all grifters fall back on the door to door bible thing, or just bones' dad and cassidy?
so glad there aren't any repeats 'til the end...
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4-05-2007 @ 3:03AM
Stu said...
Walt, I thought the very same thing. If her reason for dragging them both out there and handcuffing herself to Kate was to "not get left behind" why didn't she just wake up Jack and not get left behind with him.
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4-05-2007 @ 3:50AM
matthew m. barnes said...
is it just me, or would it not make sense to bring the entire beach party back and take over the homes. they would have the fence to protect them from old smokey and they'd all have the luxuries that only a few got to have when they had the hatch. seems like the obvious way to go to me.
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4-05-2007 @ 3:54AM
RAL said...
Gotta say that my favorite parts was how Juliet held her own against Kate. Kate's proven herself as a bad-ass, and that takedown Juliet did in the pool room made me rewind and stare in awe a 2nd time. Juliet is SO not the woman she was before she got to the island.
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4-05-2007 @ 6:19AM
Steve said...
I believe that there are two "monsters" - the smoke monster that Juliet (& the Others) know about, and the mechanical monster Kate & Juliet hid from that Juliet had no idea what it was.
Perhaps we will have the two monsters collide at some point?
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4-05-2007 @ 6:32AM
Walt said...
They're sure making it look like there are two monsters, one real, and the other a mechanical imitation.
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4-05-2007 @ 6:38AM
Tele-Toby said...
Matthew's idea about bringing the survivors off the beach to live in the adandoned community occurred to me as well.
It might even make for another biblical parallel for Jack to lead them there like Moses, hoping that so many hikers wouldn't rouse the smoke monster before they could reach the fence.
It would certainly give them a better position from which to defend themselves should there be that hinted confrontation with the Others....
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4-05-2007 @ 7:27AM
Peter said...
matthew m. barnes - I agree. That is one of the things that is really starting to annoy me about the show. It has to be clear to them that they are going to be on this island for a while. Why would they choose to live in a hut on the beach when shelter, electricity and fresh water are available? It makes no sense that no one even considers it. I thought the same thing about the Hatch. Why didn't they make better use of its resources?
They have always made bad choices about using the resources on the island. Right from the start, I would have explored the island looking to see what was available to me. For all they knew there was an island resort or small city just over the next hill, but they never even attempt to look. They seem oddly content to spend the rest of their lives living on the beach and eating fruit.
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4-05-2007 @ 7:30AM
LC said...
I think Juliet was indeed left behind, but not gassed. She didn't go to Jack, because he trusts her (at least to a degree) and she would only be preaching to the choir. She needed to convince Kate that she wasn't just trying to play mole, which is why she dragged them into the jungle. Unfortunately for her, ole smokey ruined that plan for her.
I'm not ready to write Locke off just yet. He has some kind of bond with the Island and he is just using the others, the way they are using him, to get answers. I don't think his agenda and theirs align, so there will be a confrontation. The smoke reads people from what I can surmise and it probably saw Locke as a victim all his life, yet never doing anything evil despite all the crap that was dealt to him.
Still, I would like to see where the Monster is. It obviously is not a spirit or else it would not have been able to be repelled by technology such as the fence or the stick of dynamite Jack tossed at it. I would like to see more of that small hatch that it escaped into when it tried to take Locke in season one.
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4-05-2007 @ 7:32AM
LC said...
To add on to what you were saying Peter, why did they abandon the shelter and water of the caves? I haven't seen them there since they started using the hatch.
Maybe they will move into the houses. They needed to get back to camp together first.
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4-05-2007 @ 7:55AM
Rico said...
I'm curious: Have we ever heard that "BWAAANG" noise that the black smoke monster made as it hit the fence? I feel like we'ver heard it before, but I can't place which episode...
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4-05-2007 @ 8:24AM
Kyle Beasley said...
So why doesn't the Jack and the Losters take over the fancy Other's now seemingly abandoned houses houses? Seems like something I would do. Ah well they aren't me. Good episode, better than last week. Nice to see Ol' Smokey again.
http://kylebeabo.blogspot.com/
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