Back to the Future, Part II: Lost Recapped

It's nice that the more things change on Lost, the more they stay the same. Case in point: the latest episode, a Kate-centric affair titled "Whatever Happened, Happened", was just as crappy as every previous Kate-centric affair. Boring even. That it was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse manages to be both disconcerting and comforting. At this point, I expect better from episodes written by the show's stewards, but it's nice that they've approximated the same bland vibe that underscored every Kate episode from season's past. Whatever issues I've had with this season of Lost notwithstanding, the one undeniable truth is that it has proved the flashback structure of years gone by feels exhausted.

And so, like last week, when we learned how Sayid got on the plane, this week, we learned how Kate wound up inside Jack's apartment, sans Aaron. And, like last week, the answer was a lot less interesting than originally thought. Good old Kate left Aaron with his grandmother, because she had to go back to the Island to find Claire. Or Sawyer. Or, well I don't know. Her motivations were muddy, unclear and lazy. In fact, so much of this episode was alternatively muddy, unclear and lazy.

Remember when Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter in an act of tremendous heroics and told Kate to go find his daughter? Well, he actually did it because he wanted to run away from his feelings for Kate! Or so said the somewhat suspiciously motivated Cassidy, Sawyer's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, who coincidentally had encountered Kate in a previous flashback years before. (That neither Kate nor Cassidy made mention of this unbelievably fortuitous coincidence felt more than a bit strange.) That's fine, of course. It makes sense that Cassidy would want to undermine Sawyer's actions in front of Kate. But later/earlier on the Island, why would Sawyer basically admit to doing that very thing? I know it's tough to infer the inner feelings of fictional characters, but I never got that vibe once. That it all of a sudden became gospel felt more than a bit contrived.

But then so did everything else in this episode. Remember last week when Ben got shot? Well, naturally he didn't die, and naturally Juliet tried to save his life. (In a hilarious bit of narcissism, Jack declined to help Little Ben and then made sandwiches and took a shower.) When Juliet couldn't save Little Ben, Kate had the bright idea to bring him to Richard Alpert and the Others, and did so with the help of Sawyer. So far, so good. But then? Upon arrival, Richard told Sawyer and Kate that he could fix Ben, but that doing so would cause him to lose his "innocence" (um, okay) and, more important, forget everything that happened. Of course! How else to patch over the massive plot hole that existed because Ben and Sayid had met previously and yet Ben didn't remember Sayid shot him when he wound up inside the Hatch in season two?

(This now patched over plot hole was so big that even Hurley and Miles discussed it at length in a terribly written back and forth that basically sounded like every blog post and talkback I've read about Lost this year.)

And really, that was it. "Whatever Happened, Happened" is noteworthy to me because I think it might have been one of the most boring episodes of Lost ever. Seriously. Did anything really good happen?

While you contemplate that, here are some other observations. Spoilers!

1.) Let's get into that Miles/Hurley conversation. Oh how I loathed it; let me count the ways: for starters, it was both pandering and cutesy. A chance for Messrs. Lindelof and Cuse to lightly rib the audience for being confused while at the same time confusing them more. Second, it was the most Miles had to do this entire season and felt like it only existed for the express purpose to give Miles something to do. Third, it seemed to too obviously foretell Miles' probable death before the year is out ("Any of us can die, because this is our present"). Fourth, as I mentioned, Messrs. Lindelof and Cuse used this conversation to bring up the continuity flaws they've created, just to wipe them away by episode's end with the "he won't remember a thing" gag. And, fifth, that this episode was written weeks ago (in a change, the first twelve episodes of the season were written without interruption), showed that they knew the time travel stuff would be annoying, wonky and maddening, and yet still went ahead with it. Hey, it's their show of course, but the whole thing just feels like one big cheat. And while Lost has always been "one big cheat", the strings holding it up are showing more than ever before.

2.) Does anyone else find it interesting that Ellie Hawking and Charles Widmore are still on the Island in 1977? (They were mentioned to Richard by one of the other Others.) Or did we all assume that already? Also, once inside the Temple, where was Richard going to take Ben?

3.) Speaking of Ben: so perhaps this is why he always says he was "born on the Island". Of course, not remembering anything in the past would make his future hatred of his father/genocide of Dharma somewhat difficult. Though maybe Richard just meant he wouldn't remember anything that happened after he got shot.

4.) Kate leaving Aaron was certainly traumatic enough to create the look on her face when she ended up in Jack's apartment. That works for me, even if the entire situation seemed hastily constructed.

5.) Really, nothing happened this week that we didn't already know or assume to know. The only big reveal--that the Others healed Ben and turned him into what he is, seemed a little too neat for my liking. Whatever the case, next week looks bananas. Let's chalk this up as another transition episode during a transition season.