Lost girl Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) throws a come-hither, hey-big-boy-wanna-get-shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island look our way.
By Kimberly Chun
Spoiler alert for all those still sitting on the Lost finale that aired May 13 - because I love all those noisy Facebook friends that (plane-)wreck season closers for me on a regular basis.
The latest came from sometime-Guardian contributor Oliver Wang, weighing in on Lost's fifth season end-game. "Last night's Lost had some good aspects," he opined on Facebook. "The introduction of Jacob was interesting, as well as a new twist on John Locke, but Jack and Juliet's justifications for setting off the h-bomb were some of the stupidest things I've ever heard on the show." In the comments, he continued: "I should also add, the show would be so much better if Kate died. Ya'll know I speak the truth." One mob-rules comment: "Kill Kate!!!!"
I kind of have to agree with Wang and the Kate haters. How's that for waffling - and doesn't the Kate character deserves a flip-flop or two after five seasons of footloose and fancy-free Jack-or-Sawyer-or-Jack-or-Sawyer, stepfather-murdering-but-psycho-Ben-saving waffling on her part. For a character that can behind nearly anything in the name of rescue, loyalty to friends or lovers, and island community, Kate got strangely sanctimonious when it came to setting off the nuke (an act that meant trusting the calculations of physicist Daniel Faraday, played compellingly by Jeremy Davies (it helps), who determined that the '70s-bound returnees had to set off a long-buried hydrogen bomb in order to prevent the construction of the Swan station, which would later cause the crash of Oceanic Flight 815).
Kate has an ulterior motive, of course: she wouldn't want to go back in time and stop the plane crash because that would mean she'd be back in cuffs heading to LA lockup, just as she had been before Flight 815 hit its enchanted isle (a.k.a. Hawaii). Setting off the bomb would also mean she would never meet Jack and Sawyer (another no-nuker who wants to hide out, too, stuck in the '70s - yes, the plot twist might be as weirdly anti-hippie as it sounds), her two off-and-on island romances.
And frankly Jack's justification - i.e., he blew it with Kate - for setting off the bomb in order to turn back time (cue Cher, back in black Mackie) is pretty weak. The guy has been effectively ignoring Kate during their entire time back on the '70s-era island, and so it makes close to zero sense that he tells Sawyer that he wants to blow the island up because he can't have her. Yep, it sounds like a soap opera, like the stuff of a lovelorn, murder-suicide-minded unibomber - and about as believable.
Everyone knows - but few will own to it - that Lost's romantic storylines are the lamest, most obviously manipulative, and irksomely sentimental part of the series. The exception might be the older, now-hideaway interracial couple Rose and Bernard, who also reappeared in the last episode. And, honestly, after studying the regularity with which the writers like to off love interests and their respective plotlines (the star-crossed romance involving Ben's daughter was the most threadbare of the lot), I'm a little surprised Kate hasn't died sooner. Who knows - if some nonfans of this spunky, complex, and at times infuriating character have their way, maybe Kate's time will come this fall.
http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/pixel_vision/2009/05/should_losts_kate_just_die_and.html
2 comments:
Concerning: "And frankly Jack's justification - i.e., he blew it with Kate - for setting off the bomb in order to turn back time ...is pretty weak."
Umm, that wasn't Jack's reason, his reason was to save all the people he "lost", all the people that died on his watch. Kate was just the answer to Saywer's question of what Jack wanted. But it was not the reason Jack was going to blow up the bomb. It was Sawyer that said a man did what he did based on what a man wants, Jack didn't agree to that, just let him Sayer know what he wanted, and that it was too late to have his desire. So... not so weak after all, really. His reason is right in line with Jack's main trait as stated time and time again thorughout the series, he can't bear to let someone die on his watch.
Ooops, sorry for the typos.
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