511 recap and comments

Another terrific Ep filled with answers, including What Kate Did, how Ben "survived" an Assassin’s bullet and some more of LOST’s Rules of TT

Kate’s Flashbacks:
With Patsy Kline playing on her car radio ("The only thing different..."), Kate pulls into Cassidy’s driveway with infant Aaron beside her. I guess we’re in early 2005. As she picks Baby Aaron up, she sings "Catch a falling star" to him. Maybe she heard Claire sing him this tune.
Cassidy recognises Kate, welcomes her inside and listens to her explanation of why The Six left and why Sawyer jumped out of the chopper. Cassidy’s interpretation of Sawyer’s (and Kate’s) motives are refreshing reminders that there’s always another POV.

As far as Cassidy’s concerned, Sawyer the coward could not commit to any relationship or responsibility. She correctly guessed (or read Kate’s mind) that the money in the envelope, supposedly from Sawyer, wasn’t. Cassidy’s shrewd conclusion that Kate was lying to her about Aaron’s parentage could be keen intelligence or it could be Telepathy. Cassidy, (like Nadia) may be an Island plant - tasked with nudging Kate into some key actions and conclusions - which she most certainly did in this Ep.

"You don't have to explain it, Kate, you've got the same look on your face as I did when he ditched me. All I have for you is sympathy."

It would appear that Sawyer’s Jail Reward money never did get to Clementine.

After Kate’s 1/05 departure from Long Beach Marina, she stops at a Grocery Store to buy Aaron a beverage. Distracted for a moment by a cell-phone call from Jack, Kate doesn’t immediately notice Aaron wandering off. After some frantic calling for her "son" and running around the store in dangerously high heels, she spots him with a Blonde-haired woman who (from behind) resembles Claire. She snatches him up and exits the store. I guess Aaron never did get his juice.

The very next morning, Clementine opens the door and smiles at her "Auntie Kate". Kate and Cassidy have become BFF starting from before, during and after Kate’s on/off relationship with Jack.

When Kate tells Cassidy that during the previous night’s Panic, she half-expected (thanks to the efforts of Ben and his Lawyer) Aaron to have been snatched, Cassidy’s curiously shrewd answer to Kate’s question: "Why would I expect him to be taken" was: "because you took him". Hmm.
"Claire was gone. She left him. I had to take him. He needed me."
"You needed him. Sawyer broke your heart. How else were you supposed to fix it?"

This insight certainly got Kate’s wheels turning.

She drives to Carole’s motel and confesses that Aaron is Carole’s grand-son and that Kate had been keeping him (despite learning at Christian’s wake that Carole was alive and well) for her own sake. But the Island insists on Honesty - and for Kate’s sake - and Carole’s (and Aaron’s), she hands him over to Carole and reveals that she intends to return to the Island to find Claire (not to reclaim James).

So ... immediately after this emotionally-traumatic but nevertheless voluntary surrender of Aaron to Carole, she drives to Jack’s place, lets herself in, insists that he ask no questions and rapes him. The next day she tells Jack that they are not " together" ... not Jack and her, and not the O5 either. OK, then.

Meanwhile, back on the Island:
Moments after Sayid stumbles off in a northerly direction, (I’m guessing he’ll be captured by Family Richard and confronted by a fully-recovered, no-longer-innocent Ben) Jin is revived by Phil’s voice over the walkie. He spots Little Ben face-down, rolls him over and hears him plead: "Please help" - so he does. The wound in his chest appears to have moved from his heart to the right side of his sternum.

In Dharmaville, Horace’s immediate, correct conclusion is that Sayid was sprung with "inside" help. He naturally suspects newbies Jack and Kate, especially when they draw attention to themselves, and I’m thinking it won’t be long before Team JJJ are confronted and interrogated, tried and sentenced to death.

It’ll be fascinating to see if Team JJJ warns Family Horace about the looming Incident and/or the more distant Purge - or whether they are sent Back to the Future before saying too much. Ben’s miraculous recovery and return to Dharmaville will also be cool to witness.

Kate and Roger share a moment when he asks her to switch on the winch, realises that she’s clueless and extends a little sympathy and friendliness. My first thought was that Roger might be getting lucky tonight - until he introduced himself as "Roger ... Roger Linus", at which point, Kate did a Sayid and choking back her repulsion, managed: "It’s nice to meet you, Roger".
When Roger sees his injured son emerge from the Dharmavan, he enters Temporarily Caring Parent mode, endearing himself a little more to Kate.

As Roger accompanies his son to the Infirmary, Kate decides to check out the Security Monitoring Centre where she finds James, er Jim. Without thinking about how much attention she’s drawing to herself, she’s in "I want to know everything and help everyone" mode. Heart of Gold, but Pain in Ass for the Head of Security.

When Horace and Miles enter the Monitoring Station, he asks Jim why Kate the newbie is down where she has no business being. Quick-thinking and quick-talking LaFleur answers: "I was seeing if she saw anything suspicious, but she didn't." He tells her she can run along and she leaves. Horace lets this go, but I’m sure he’ll remember that the newbies seem a little too familiar with each other and with LaFleur, Juliet, Jin and Miles. This will end up looking like a long-term Infiltration to him.

Next up is the discovery that a set of Dharmaville keys was left behind, further proving Insider help. Horace immediately announces that the keys belong to Roger, Willy or Jack the newbie. More suspicion.

Sawyer takes Miles with him. As they walk, he tells Miles, "Alright I want you to find Jack and Hurley and Kate as quick as you can and put them in a house and sit on them."
"What for?"
"Because I don't want them talking to anybody else. Things are starting to spin out of control here." No shit, Shelock.

Fortunately, LaFleur thinks to ask Roger about his keys and Roger soon concludes that it was Ben who stole them and it was Ben who helped Sayid to escape. I wonder if he’ll be sharing that intel with Horace - or if that will even matter after it’s discovered that newbie Kate grabbed a Dharmavan and drove Dying Ben away - and was followed and helped by LaFleur. There will be a Day Of Reckoning very soon for Team JJJ.

When LaFleur realises that Dying Ben is being treated by Motor Pool Juliet (The Official Doc is out of town, natch) and that she lacks the Med Skills to save her patient, he marches over to Doc Miracle - who’s decided not to save Ben again. Ben has trained Doc M to hate him enough to forget his Hippocratic oath.

I had to laugh when Kate said: "Sawyer is just trying to do his job, Jack." because she’s the very first, in fact she’s already been the very first, to completely ignore any notions of trying to keep a low profile and "blend in".

Next up: some extensive (and exceedingly rare) Explanation:
Hugo: "We came back in time to the island and changed stuff, so if Little Ben dies, he'll never grow up to be Big Ben, who was the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can't be here, and therefore, dude, we don't exist."
Miles: "It doesn't work like that. You can't change anything. Your maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened; it's just we never experienced how it all turns out ... The good news is that Linus didn't die, so that means the kid can't either. He'll be fine." Except that IMO, Little Ben does/did die and was replaced by a Smokey Non-Living Person with (seeming) Free Will, memory, autonomy and complete personality plus Special Powers.
Hugo: "Let me get this straight ... all this already happened?"
"Yes."
"So, this conversation we're having right now, we already had it."
"Yes!"
"Then what am I going to say next?"
Miles shakes his head. "I don't know."
"Ha! Then your theory is wrong."
"For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it's happening right now." Because "right now" is our Subjective Present.
"Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then why don't I remember any of it?"
"Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn't a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and in the future occurred before these experiences right now."
"I can die because I've already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present."
"But you said Ben couldn't die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the others."
"Because this is his past."
"When we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn't he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?"
Miles thinks a moment and says, "Huh. I hadn't thought of that."
I think that 2004 Ben remembers it quite well, but is following orders and Playing his Part as per the Island’s agenda.

Here endeth the current Time Travel Lesson.

Meanwhile, Jack is going to Just Say No:
"Thirty years from now that boy's going to be a man that locks me in a cage because he needs surgery. And then you're going to come in and you're going to beg me to operate on him because he's threatening to murder Sawyer. I've already done this. I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate. I don't need to do it again." So ... it now appears possible/probable that Jack was subjected to the Hydra Island Conditioning Project precisely so that he would make this exact Free Will decision after being sent to 1977. Ben was training Jack to hate him in the same way that Ben trained Sayid to hate him. Yikes, it sure is tough to be the Island’s Bitch.

"This is our fault. We brought Sayid back. We caused this." Oh, Kate - how is it your fault that the island sucked you off a plane and sent you into the Past? And yet, it’s the "Free Will" choices that Jack, Kate and everyone else make/will make/have made that determine the outcome of Events. And yet, Someone/Something went to great lengths to select, train, educate and condition all the Players to "want" what He/She/It wants/needs them to want/choose.

"When we were here before I spent all of my time trying to fix things. But did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? And maybe I was just getting in the way?" Wow, Jack really has become a Man-of-Faith, thanks to Ben, The Island and St John. This insight would not have been possible for Jack unless he "experienced" all the "events" that "happened" to him in Seasons One through Five.

Having slapped Kate back in the face with: "You didn’t like the old me", my first reaction was: "Go, Jack!" Finally some Emotional Clarity.

Feeling sympathetic to Little Ben (having been exposed to temporary Proxie Motherhood), Kate exits the House Arrest House, does not get shot in the leg by MIles and marches over to The Infirmary to Help. The first Help she offers is her blood (something that Jack did for Boone back in Season One). This Gift buys enough time to deliver Little Ben to Ageless Richard.
Juliet and Kate share a few minutes of privacy, during which Juliet learns that Kate and Jack were (briefly) engaged and that Kate has no idea why Jack does what he does. This is a cute Feminine Bonding Moment and a pleasant alternative to the Love Squabbling that might have occurred. Then Roger bursts in, setting the stage for some more Kate/Roger bonding:

"My son stole my keys so he could bust that animal out of jail."
"Why would he do that?"
"Because of me. You got kids?"
"No" Not since three or four days ago.
"I thought I was going to be the greatest father ever. Guess it didn't work out that way."
"What about his mother? Is she still around?"
"No, she's dead. She died the day he was born."
"I'm sorry." Kate becomes even more sympathetic to Dying Innocent Ben.
"Yeah, me too. I tried to do what I thought she'd want me to do, but I guess a boy just needs his mother." Some excuse, Rog. Where were these noble thoughts when they were really needed? In fact, after the upcoming Return of the Prodigal Son - how much sympathetic understanding will you be offering your wounded son over the next few years before he chooses to gas you to death?

By the way, where’s Annie during Ben’s Near-Death Experience?

As Ben goes into Hypoxic Shock, it occurs to Juliet that Family Richard might be able to "save" Dying Ben’s life. Given what she knows/will know about the nature of Family Richard/Ben, including (I think) the little fact that they are immortal, and what the cost of this Immortality might be ... given what Juliet knows about the role of Choice and Free Will on the Island, I wonder if she’s feeling "pushed/manipulated" into making "choices" that are "willed" by Someone Else.

Kate’s good with the concept of delivering Ben to the Hostile Emergency Hospital/Resurrection Centre and together with Juliet, they transfer Ben into a Dharmavan
Juliet: "Okay, let's go ... I'm coming with you."
"No, no, no, no. If something goes wrong or we get caught, it doesn't matter for me, but you've got a whole life. And besides, if Sawyer knew I got you involved in this, he'd kill me." Thanks for thinking (a little bit) about Juliet and Jim Playing House. Too bad that all your meddling will tear all of you apart anyway, but hey - it’s the thought that counts, right?

Juliet: "Kate, Sawyer's going to find out Ben's gone and when he does, I have to tell him what happened, but I'll give you as much of a head start as I can. Good luck."
Note that this promise sounds much like the one that Kate made to Sun and Jin when they planned to leave Lostie Beach to join Team Locke in Otherville.

As Kate approaches the Sonic Fence and gets out, ready to try and figure out how to disarm it, LaFleur pulls up in his Dharmavan:
Jim turns off the Fence and asks Kate if she'd figured out how she was going to carry Dying Ben out there all by herself.
"The line's just right over there, right? The Others are on the other side?"
"They ain't right on the other side. We better get moving."
"Why are you doing this?" Kate asks. "Why are you helping me?"
"When I found out Ben was gone, Juliet told me what you were up to. I asked that exact damn question, 'Why you helping Ben?' and she said, 'no matter what he's going to grow up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die.' So, that's why I'm doing this." He picks up Ben. "I'm doing it for her." Ahh - James has indeed evolved.

As they trudge ever deeper into Hostile Territory, James and Kate catch up a bit:
"What's she like?"
"Clementine is beautiful. Looks just like you when she smiles. She's growing up fast, already has a little attitude."
LaFleur: "You and me would have never worked out, Kate. I wasn't any more fit to be your boyfriend than I am to be that girl's father."
"You seem to be doing alright with Juliet."
"Yeah. I've done a lot of growing up in the past three years." - Thanks to The Island and especially to Ben

When they are captured by the Hostiles, LaFleur tells them to take him, Kate and Ben to Richard. A few minutes later, Richard steps out of the jungle, knowing telepathically about their Mission. He may or may not have teleported to their Jungle Rendezvous location.
Richard looks at Ben. "If I take him, he's not ever going to be the same again."
"What do you mean by that?" Kate asks.
"What I mean is, he'll forget this ever happened and his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us. You still want me to take him?" Richard is compelled to Tell The Truth.
"Yes," Kate says. She has Chosen.
Sawyer hands Ben over.
A man steps forward and says, "Richard, you shouldn't do this without asking Ellie. If Charles finds out--" Secrets, always with the Secrets.
"Let him find out," Richard says. "I don't answer to either of them." He walks away.

So ... Ageless Richard can Change Ben into a no-longer-innocent and permanent member of his Family. I’m thinking that this Change occurs after death - after the dead person’s soul has been weighed by the Island’s version of Ancient Egypt’s Anubis. If the Island judges Ben a Good Person, he becomes a Servant of the Light Aspect of the Island. I’m guessing that Bad Persons (possibly including anyone who’s committed suicide) get to serve The Dark Side. When Richard backed into the Temple Wall, my first thought was that he just kinda got sucked through it. Maybe he vibrated through it like The Flash.

Note that Ellie and Charles appear to have become Leaders - possibly in an equal relationship - and that Charles would likely not have approved of Richard’s decision to "save" Young Ben. Assuming that Charles was granted Immortality prior to being tricked off the Island by Ben, it would be no wonder that he wants to "reclaim" it. In 2005 he’s already 70 years old - and he’s suffering from nightmares, afraid that The Wrong Side might win the upcoming War.

Meanwhile, back in Dharmaville, Juliet, having sent Kate off to the Sonic Fence confronts Jack:
"Kate’s trying to save him and I sent James out to help her because they actually care."
"I came back here because I care, Juliet. I came back here because I was trying to save you."
"We didn't need saving! We've been fine for three years. You came back here for you. At least do me the courtesy of telling me why."
"I came back because I was supposed to." Based on the Island turning my life to shit and then Locke committing suicide, followed by Ms Hawking telling me to take a Leap of Faith, followed by my Grandad having a pair of my Dad’s shoes just when I needed them, followed by .....
"Supposed to do what?"
"I don't know yet."

Final Scene: 2005 Ben, having been cleaned up, wakes in the Ajira Infirmary. St John is sitting beside him. When Ben realises where he is and that John is Not Dead, he looks genuinely shocked. Maybe Ben (finally) doesn’t know what comes next. Maybe Ben really thought that he would never see John again after murdering him.
Last line of the Ep: "Hello Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living" That’s rich, coming from a (former) Dead Man.