LOST: "Left Behind" [SPOILERS]

Even Iowa Has Fan Belts

The details of Kate's flashback really aren't that important, in my opinion, so we'll get the summary version.  The theme of it, though, ties directly back into the episode, which is most relevant.

We start with Kate being towed away somewhere in Iowa due to a broken fan belt, and apparently Iowa is a third-world nation and doesn't have a ready supply of fan belts(!)

Back at the service station, she runs into none other than Cassidy, Sawyer's old fling and victim!  Small world, ain't it?  Kate manages to get the both of them out of a jam, and they kinda "hit it off" and become sort-of partners for the duration of this stint.

Kate's in Iowa to see her mother.  Of course through a little disguise action they discover that the Feds are also here, and more than willing to get a little rough to get Kate.

Eventually Cassidy gets Kate's mom separated from the Feds, and Kate's able to talk to her alone.  Mom it seems doesn't have too much left for Kate, and holds her responsible for the death of Kate's dad.  Even though he was a drunk and a wife beater, she still loved him, and now despises Kate for it.  (Road to hell being paved with good intentions and all...)  If she ever sees Kate again she'll turn her over to them.  Doh!

At the end, Kate tries to get Cassidy to name her ex, which she doesn't (that's kind of getting to be a bit of a running thing, isn't it) and reveals that the "Sawyer's Baby" bit from her previous appearance wasn't yet-another-con after all.

Come On, Let's Spread the Love

Meanwhile, back at the beach (got to use it again! woo!) Hurley informs Sawyer that the rest of them are preparing to hold a vote to get Sawyer "banished" from the camp, and that he needs to make amends for his grating personality.  Hilarity ensues.

He first attempts to do a little fishing, to see how hard it would be to actually make it on his own.  Of course he can't clean a fish, and is plenty grossed out by it.  So he heads back to Hurley to try it his way.  Hurley's definitely enjoying this.

Hurley gets Sawyer to "kiss the baby" (meaning Aaron) and play all nice for an obviously astounded Claire.  "He doesn't look as wrinkled" is about the only compliment Sawyer can muster, but hey, its a start.

Of course we aren't sure that Sawyer's sincere in all of this.  We see him hunting with Desmond, who asks, "What's your angle brother?"  The angle it seems is that every con needs a bribe, and since money is useless here, he's going to use meat instead.  Now to me this shows that Sawyer's not going to change, that he's still up to his same old tricks....

At the big barbeque, Sawyer mentions to Charlie about the vote.  Charlie lets on that he has no clue what he's talking about.  We find that it's all been one big con on Hurley's part (go Hurley!) to get Sawyer to just "be nice" for a change.

The reason, is that if Sawyer's to be the "new leader" he's going to have to be on the good side of the beachies.  Sawyer doesn't want this, but as Hurley says, "I don't think Jack wanted it either. Sucks for you dude!"

Of note here is the fact that Sun is still obviously PO's at Sawyer since the revelation of his involvement in her attempted kidnapping.  That'll have to get played out soon enough.

The Return of Cerberus

Ah, let the real fun begin!  Kate's been locked in the "pub" by herself, and as Juliet comes to bring her a sandwich she attempts to ambush her.  Of course Juliet appears to be well-trained in the Jedi arts, and puts Kate right down.  "Enjoy your sandwich!" 

Then, Locke shows up.  He informs Kate that he's sorry everything went down the way it did, and that he's leaving with the Others.  Kate questions him hard about it, but Locke's not talking.  (Of course we know why he's going!)  He did say something about Kate being "one of the good ones" but that's changed now, "forgiveness is not their strong suit," and how he doesn't want to go home.  Then he leaves.  Yikes!

As Kate finally decides to partake of Juliet's sandwich, she hears some commotion outside.  The Others are all packing up their gear and getting ready to leave!  (Leave to where?! that's what I want to know! To the Hydra? Without the sub? Hmmm.)

Then a gas grenade comes through the window, and handily knocks Kate out cold.

She awakes in the jungle, in a Desmond-like moment, and unfortunately for us she still has her clothes!  Pfffft.  Once she comes around she realizes she's cuffed to something.  And that something is a still "out" Juliet.  She grabs J's pocketknife, and as she flips the blade out, Juliet snaps out of it and grabs her hand.

Now, let me ask a silly question here.  Twice in this episode alone we've seen that Juliet's got some cat-like reflexes and pretty well developed "combat" instincts.  What's happened to her over the past three years to get that developed?  As far as we know she was "just a doctor" in her past life, so maybe next week we'll get some revelation into that....

Kate tells Juliet what she saw, including the bit about Locke going with them.  This seems to put Juliet back a bit.  "Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell is going on!"

They head off on the trail of getting back to Othersville, and Juliet says something about it getting ready to rain.  How did she know this? Her knee hurts or does she have some kind of Desmond-like power as well?  Because sure enough it starts pouring.

Juliet starts ripping into Kate, about how "I hope your not going back for Jack, because you've ruined that chance."  And the big catfight kicks off, woo!  Kate gets the upper hand and dislocates J's shoulder.  Ow!

For some reason, Kate backs off, and apologizes.  At that exact moment, we hear the familiar stomping roar of your friend and mine, the Smoke Monster!  Juliet appears freaked out, like she has no idea what's going on, but Kate does, and they run like hell.

They run towards a familiar looking stand of bamboo, and hide inside.  Ol' Smokey follows them there, but is unable to get at them.  There is much roaring, and then there are three "strobe light" like flashes of light, and Smokey backs off.

Again, J feigns ignorance about what's she's just seen, and asks, "Are we safe?"  She tells Kate about Jack seeing her and Sawyer on the cameras, and that "you broke his heart", which doesn't sit well with Kate at all.  Kate puts J's shoulder back into place.  Ouch again!

They sit out the night here, and continue on the trail in the morning.  They chitchat about Jack and why he told Kate to leave, etc. etc.  And sure enough, Smokey finds them again, and they run...

... right into the "security fence."  Juliet tries to get them to cross, Kate refuses, which annoy's J to the point of her grabbing the handcuff key from her pocket.  She unlocks herself and goes to the fence, where she flips up panel, types in a code (at least part of which is "16-23") and tells Kate to get on her side.  Once she's across she arms the fence.

Just then we see three separate segments of the Smoke come through the trees and recombine into to one...and then slam into the fence, roll around a bit, and take off again.

OK, pick up your jaws now.  I think we can safely say that without a doubt, the "Smoke Monster" is most definitely the same "Cerberus" that was referred to on the blast-door map.  The "three heads" bit revealed just now gave that away.  No more speculation, that's a fact.  From this point on, Smokey, your name will be "Cerberus!"

Kate gives J a shove like, "WTF?" and Juliet comes clean, "OK, we don't know what it is, but we know that the fence stops it!"  Dude!  Now we've got a clean break between the Others and "The Island!"  Sweet!

J and K eventually arrive back at Othersville, and discover it hastily abandonded.  "You should go get Jack," Juliet tells Kate, which she does.

And now it all fits together, the flashback, and probably Sawyer's little adventure in decency...   Kate apologizes for coming back for Jack, and ruining everything.  That she was only trying to help, and that you didn't need me to (just like her mother.)

They prepare to head back to the beach, and Sayid just sort of pops up, rifle slung and ready to go.  "*She* is not coming with us."  "Yes she is.  They left her behind, too."

Conclusions

After last weeks little Outer Limits adventure we finally get back to LOST at its best.  I love it when they write ones like this, where it all fits together at the end, it's what got me interested in the show in the first place.  The whole "contained thematic" thing they are able to pull off.  Nobody writes stuff like this for TV.

But anyway.  it's Q&A time! (OK, A&Q...)

The Answers

• Cerberus (from the blast door map) is without a doubt our favorite black cloud.  The three heads gave it away.  Check that off your unanswered questions list.  Thanks, C&D!
• Juliet's been abandoned by the Others.  Or has she?  Maybe she's just pulling another "Henry" on our gang....
• Sawyer's baby is most probably real, not just another con as its been posited.
• The Other's built "the fence", and it's most probable purpose is to keep out Cerberus.
  

The Questions

• What's so damned special about that particular little stand of bamboo trees that Cerberus can't get to whoever is inside?  I know in the past different characters have wound up in there, or a stand just like it, just out of reach.  What's the deal?
• What was the "strobe light" effect that seemed to come from Cerberus?  Was it showing Juliet something sort of like what it showed Locke and Eko?
• Is Juliet really abandoned or is this a Henry-like plot?
• Where did the Others run off to?  Back to the Hydra? (and I just remembered the did have another boat, so scratch the comment about the sub from above!)
• Did anyone else hear some strange subliminal "background voices" during parts of this episode, especially when Cerberus was around?  Just me?
  

Next Time

Jack returns to the beach, we get to see the sub again (although it looked like a different one?), looks like a Juliet flashback, and a rather evil looking Ethan!  Has the buildup to the finale begun?

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