I am not 100% clear on the timeline, but perhaps Claire went missing during all of the flash forwards and flash backs after the island went skipping when Ben left the island.

The 2 reasons we think something is different about Claire is because of what we now know about the MIB being able to take over the body of a dead corpse on the island and also because of what Dogen said to Jack in the episode.

Perhaps nothing is wrong with Claire and she was trying to help out her friends.

I suppose we’ll find out soon….

Great to get some answers on what happened to Claire, but “Safe Landing” Claire didn’t see any development either. Unless we consider being dumb enough to willingly get back into a cab with someone who pointed a gun at you one hour earlier “character development.” Not to mention (again, willingly) giving her one of your credit cards!

No one said we want Darlton to answer all the mysteries in an hour long episode. But since we’re being told “THE TIME. FOR QUESTIONS. IS. OVER.” then, yes, with just 15 hours of Lost left I do think it’s time for the answers to start coming. Fast and hard. Aside from what’s happening with Sayid and Claire on the island, nothing else was moved forward last night and it felt like “Been there, done that, drank the Dharma beer” instead.

Please don’t try to say Lost hasn’t been doing any character development of late. That’s not true. You can’t blame people for wanting the answers to come when we’re so close to the end. What, are they going to save it all for the last few episodes? That would be impossible, given how much there is to answer. Let’s say that we never get a reveal about why Walt’s special (just an example). If we don’t get that, it’ll make an episode like “What Kate Does” all the more infuriating.

I’m still ’til the end, but I sure hope “What Kate Does” wasn’t a sign of things to come.

The Lost mythology has been rich and fascinating, and it’s what made me a fan. Yes, great characters too… But KATE is NOT one of those great characters. She’s a bore, continues to make dumb decisions, and many of us are tired of watching her run back and forth between Jack and Sawyer. So what does Darlton do? They throw another Kate episode at us, one that’s pretty much like all the others in a lot of respects. 15 hours to go, tons of questions left unanswered, and that’s what we got.

The second half was an improvement, and I’m intrigued to find out what’s happening to Sayid (and apparently happened to Claire too). But it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for all the Kate Krap. It’s amazing how much contempt there is for Kate, and Kate episodes, when you read fan reactions online, yet Darlton seems to think we want more of the Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle. Why is that? Do they just have constant hard-ons for Kate themselves? Maybe they should talk to their doctors about these Kate erections lasting more than 4 hours.

Further, while I found the island timeline stuff more interesting it still wasn’t THAT good last night. The Temple folks are just plain goofy. Dogen looks like he walked out of a bad kung fu movie, and the oh-so-creatively-maned Lennon (Honestly? They named the dude Lennon? What an insult to John Lennon’s memory) just seem like bad caricatures. We’re still getting that ask a question, get a weird non-answer from an Other crap. That was OK in the early seasons, but it’s not OK now. Not with such little time left.

Sorry for rambling and griping so much, but I really couldn’t believe what I was watching last night. This doesn’t bode well for the final 14 episodes. At least we got Flocke/Smokey, Ben, Richard, Frank and Sun again next week. The absence of those characters are another reason why “What Kate Does” was such a dud.

Funny, how after watching that episode I still can’t tell you what Kate does that was so damned important!

Unless it was a slow sinking effect, which allowed for island residents who weren’t at ground zero to escape. It would be kind of interesting if that were the case, because what would a normal world be like for the people you mention who are so tied to the island.

I always felt that even while with Jack off island that she had a more powerful connection with Sawyer. Her relationship with Clementine (Aunt Kate) confirmed this for me. I suppose there’s time to keep the triangle going, but I felt it a fitting end to deny Jack a kiss when leaving to find Sawyer, then left crying and heart broken as she realized his heart belonged to another.

However, it still felt like a deliberately slowed down episode with too much secret hoarding to the point that characters like Dogan started to come off as cryptic to a fault.

I also felt the plot writing (not the dialogue persay) has gotten a little sloppy. There were several instances in the Kate/Claire story that felt like they weren’t even trying to have logical cohesion.

As for ‘the sickness’, it didn’t initially dawn on me that what Dogan was talking about with the Others is the same thing as the sickness Rousseau mentioned.

I’m sure they are related though, but isn’t it still possible that perhaps Sayid is Jacob’s vessel, and this group of Others only know of the ‘darkness’ infecting individuals.

I go into a little more depth on that in my own write-up here:

http://www.atomicpopcorn.net/lost-6-3-what-kate-does-has-consequence-in-sideways-world/

Good review though, and I hope that what you say about the context of the alternate world does payoff these smaller details we are seeing now.

There were more more than a few groans every time we heard the flash sideways sound effect signifying the return to the AR story during last night’s episode. Meaning we were upset to be leaving the Island. I don’t need answers in every episode, but the writers have so many crazy things working that it frustrates me every time a new story-line/mystery/plot is injected to this already crazy and complex show. I know, I know, it’s only one episode, but it was weak, very weak! Too many great open plots to be worked through for me to care about Sawyer crying, good acting or not!

I can get on board if you think the cause of the island sinking is the neutralization of the electromagnetic energy.

that makes some sense..

however if that is the case than in the ALT timeline there is the real possibility of no Widmore, Penny, Hawkins, Ben, Richard, Others, etc.

To Lycanthropist: I think it is safe to say that the Jughead explosion caused the island to sink. The whole point between detonating the H-Bomb was to neutralize the pocket of electromagnetic energy at the center of the island. Obviously this is not your run-of-the-mill island, and the only reason that it stayed above water, healed people, and could move was based on this pocket of energy. Once it was neutralized there was nothing left to keep it afloat or what have you. Whether it sank immediately or over time, who knows.

To Uncle Beaver: DharmaVille and the DharmaShark were already there in 1977 when the bomb went off, there is nothing that they showed under water that proves that it didn’t sink immediately.

Either way that was only a throwaway hypothesis… the question itself remains.

Like Lindeloff and Cuse said: The ramifications of the Jughead detonation won’t ONLY affect a few characters, we’ll have to see exactly how different life would be without the Island.

something else did.

There’s obviosly something wierd and creepy going on with the way MiB/Smokey “infects” people. So I’m glad they’re easing us into how and why this is done, instead of just telling us with a one-line answer.

when Kate starts diggin into her true emotional baggage (which it may be to late now) it gets good.

the weight she has carried since season 1 was that of her and her mother’s fractured relationship.

Her relationship with Jack and Sawyer has been so trivial and high school-esque that I have lost interest a long time ago.

I used to pull for Kate and Sawyer combo, but now I don’t think she deserves either one of them. All she does is cause trouble for both anyway.