3.15 Left Behind

Kate is still locked in the pool room at the Others’ complex. When she hears the door rattle, she hides behind it and swings a metal stick at Juliet when she enters. But the spry Juliet ducks, and flips Kate over like a pack of cards, temporarily damaging her back.

Locke visits Kate, only to tell her that he is going with the Others. He infers that he has been invited to do so, and says that they are not happy with what Kate did in her past.

Some time later, Kate watches as the Others gather outside and don gas masks. A smoking cannister is tossed into her room, and she passes out. She awakens on the jungle floor, handcuffed to Juliet. Juliet says she was also abandoned.

Kate drags the unwilling Juliet back toward the Village of the Others, ostensibly to rescue her friends. Juliet tells her not to go back for Jack, as she already broke his heart – he saw her romantic interlude with Sawyer. They tussle, and Kate accidentally dislocates Juliet’s shoulder. While apologizing, the smoke monster appears. Kate and Juliet hide in a thicket of thin trees (that looks exactly like the thicket that everyone has been hiding from the smoke monster in, even going back to season one). When the monster goes, the pair head for the village. The monster returns, and they run and fall in a big mud pile and get covered with mud. Then they have to run through a huge pit of jello – no, I was hoping that would happen but it didn’t. Instead, they reach the barrier of the Others area. Juliet brings Kate in and then turns it on, repelling the smoke monster. She also brandishes a hidden key to the handcuffs, which she now uses. She says she hid the key in the hopes that she wouldn’t get left behind again. She also admits being familiar with the smoke monster (although earlier, she acted like she had never seen it before) and that she knew it would be repelled by the barricade.

At the semi-deserted village, Juliet goes to get Sayid and suggests that Kate get Jack. Kate enters Jack’s apartment and finds items strewn everywhere, including Jack, who is still unconscious on the floor. Jack wakes up, and while still groggy, is subjected to another teary, screwed up face apology from Kate, this time for coming back to rescue him when he didn’t need to be rescued. Jack is able to walk, and together, Jack, Kate, Juliet, and Sayid head for ‘home’, with Jack overriding Sayid’s objection to Juliet coming with them.

Hurley tells Sawyer that he is about to be voted against and banished, forced to move half a mile down the beach. Sawyer appears unperturbed, and rejects Hurley’s suggestion that he make amends. But after trying his hand at cleaning a fish, Sawyer changes his mind. He seeks out Hurley and agrees to make nice. He compliments Claire’s baby, gives her a blanket, hunts boar with Desmond, and puts on a boar-b-cue complete with beer and fixins. But when Charlie mentions that there is no vote, Sawyer realizes he has been conned into being nice by Hurley. Hurley’s motivation is to make Sawyer take over the reigns as leader, in the absence of Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Kate.

Kate’s flashback backstory:

Kate’s car breaks down while she is fleeing the Marshall in Iowa. At a gas station, she bails a woman out who is trying to scam a customer. It’s Cassidy (who was scammed by Sawyer some time ago). They become friends. Cassidy agrees to help Kate get a meeting with her mother. Kate wants to find out why her mom turned her in. Kate walks up to her mom’s the house and is promptly arrested. But wait: it’s a trick- it’s actually Cassidy, dressed up to look like Kate – to suss out the place. Kate does get her meeting – in the toilet of the diner where her mother works. Kate’s mom says she loved the man who Kate burned alive, and it obvious that she still hates Kate for doing it. She threatens to turn Kate in if she ever sees her again.

Cassidy drops Kate off at the gas station, but not before revealing that she is carrying the baby of the man who scammed her.

Comments

Cassidy never actually mentions Sawyer’s name, but it is possible that one day, Sawyer might mention Cassidy’s name to Kate, and Kate might make the connection.

This is the second time that Hurley has scammed Sawyer. He also fooled Sawyer into thinking that Sawyer could beat him at table tennis.

Nits

While waitressing, Kate's mother uses the expression, ‘no worries’ when talking to Cassidy. This is an Australian expression that is not used much in America (at least the last time I checked).

Why can’t that smoke monster find people when they hide behind thickets of small trees? Last time I checked, smoke could go just about anywhere it wanted.

What’s with Sawyer? This guy is supposed to be a con artist, a charmer, and he doesn’t know how to at least pretend that he likes people? Wouldn’t he be doing that kind of thing all the time in his profession?

When the smoke monster is approaching the women in the rain, there is something red and rectangular shaped off to the left of the screen (just briefly). It’s probably someone wearing a red shirt.

When Sawyer talks to Claire, Aaron gets upset and starts crying. However, in a much earlier episode, it was the sound of Sawyer’s voice that made Aaron stop crying. This would have been a good story for Sawyer to tell to Claire if he wanted to impress her with small talk – but for some reason, he doesn’t remember this happening.

Quotable Quotes

Juliet: I hope you're not dragging me all the way back there for him.
Kate: Excuse me?
Juliet: I hope you're not going back for Jack. Because I was standing right there when he told you not to come back! And now that you've ruined his chance to get off the island –

"Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell's going on."
- Kate to Juliet