LOST 4.4 – "Eggtown"

Writers: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Greggory Nations
Director: Stephen Williams

Cast: Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Matthew Fox (Jack), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben), Ken Leung (Miles Straume), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte Lewis), Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Tania Kahale (Nanny), Traber Burns (Judge), Beth Broderick (Diane Jansen), Susan Gibney (Melissa Dunbrook), Fred Q. Collins (Bailiff), William Blanchette (Child) & Shawn Doyle (Duncan Forrester)

Kate needs information from Miles, the retrieval of which could jeopardize her relationships with Locke and Sawyer…

"If I was a dictator, I would just shoot you and go
about my day. Dinner's at six if you're hungry."

-- Locke (Terry O'Quinn)

It had to happen sometime, and Eggtown is season 4's first clunker; a Kate-centric episode that contains a few small revelations to make it palatable, but little else to sustain interest…

Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is trying to pull himself together, although it's clear to Ben (Michael Emerson) that he's just improvising and lost on his spiritual journey, having failed to find Jacob's Cabin. Prisoner Ben has since been transferred to the basement of his own house, which Locke is now using as his base of operations as leader of the "anti-rescuers".

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) asks Locke to let her speak to Miles (Ken Leung), but is denied access to him – so she instead tricks Hurley (Jorge Garcia) into revealing that Miles has been moved to a nearby boathouse. After eventually finding the imprisoned Miles, Kate demands to know if people on the outside world know who she is – as she's fearful that, if rescued from the island, she'll be thrown into jail as a fugitive killer. However, Miles is adamant he'll only answer her question if she gives him access to Ben…

Of course, flashforwards quickly reveal Kate's post-island fear does come true: as she's one of the Oceanic Six "celebrities", currently in the middle of a high-profile trial for killing her abusive stepfather, with her mother Diane (Beth Broderick) being the prosecution's star witness…

On the island, Kate goes to sweet-talk Sawyer (Josh Holloway) into helping her free Ben. Sawyer later meets with Locke for a late-night game of Backgammon and reveals Kate's plan to him, making Locke anxious enough to check on Miles at the boathouse – finding he's gone.

At Locke's house that same moment, Kate now has Miles with her, and introduces him to Ben in the basement – where Miles, surprisingly, just tries to extort money from the Others' leader. He wants $3.2 million in cash, and in return Miles promises to inform his superiors that Ben's dead. Ben agrees to Miles' strange demand, but requests a week to get the cash together -- given his current situation…

Miles keeps his end of the bargain with Kate, revealing he knows everything about her criminal past. Locke and Sawyer both return to the Barracks, finding Kate and Miles in the basement. Miles is sent back to the boathouse and Locke later visits Kate in the barrack she's sharing with Claire (Emilie de Ravin) and baby Aaron. Kate tells Locke what Miles and Ben discussed (which intrigues Locke), but he still banishes her from the group for her duplicity.

Having burned her bridges with Locke, Kate goes to Sawyer's and they spend the night together -- with Kate revealing to that, despite their fear since they slept together, she's not pregnant. Sawyer is mightily relieved, obviously not keen on the idea of fatherhood, which actually upsets Kate…

In an island-based subplot, Daniel (Jeremy Davies) plays a memory game with Charlotte (Rebecca Mader); trying to remember three face-down playing cards. He can only remember 2 out of 3 cards, not viewing that as much progress, despite what Charlotte says.

Jack (Matthew Fox) is worried they haven't heard from the departed helicopter carrying Sayid and Desmond yet, and Minkowski isn't answering calls on the sat-phone anymore. Charlotte mentions there's an emergency number they can try, and they dial it. Regina picks up on the other end, but when Charlotte inquires about the arrival of Frank, Sayid and Desmond… it becomes clear that the long-gone helicopter hasn't arrived at the freighter yet!

In the flashforward, Kate has been reprimanded in custody until her trial, and her lawyer Duncan Forrester (Shawn Doyle) thinks it's in her best interest to involve her son in proceedings – by trying to make the case about who she is, not what she did in the past. Kate refuses to involve her child in the case.

At the trial, Kate is astonished when Forrester make a move without her knowledge, by calling Jack to the stand as a character witness. To her irritation, Jack regales the court with false information about how Kate was a heroic figure immediately after the crash, taking care of the 8 survivors. Kate stands up to ask Jack to stop and the court is quickly adjourned.

In a private room, Kate's mother arrives and seems impressed to have learned her daughter was a hero after the crash. She's been close to death for the past 4 years and wants to see her grandchild before she dies – but Kate denies her access. A little later, Kate is offered a deal to end the trial without the need for a jail sentence – if she agrees to 10 years of in-state probation. Kate agrees, more than happy to just put the trial behind her and get back to her son.

Outside the court, after the trial, Jack meets with Kate and she invites him back to hers for coffee. Jack looks uncomfortable and makes excuses – with Kate understanding why he doesn't want to see her son, but until he does… she says they can't ever be together.

On the island, Locke now has Miles tied from the roof by his wrists for disobeying his rules, and frightens him further by placing a pin-less grenade in his mouth and having him bite down on the trigger.

Eggtown finishes in flashforward, with Kate arriving home to be greeted by a nanny. She goes upstairs to see her blonde-haired toddler son; who calls her "mommy", and she calls him "Aaron"…

This episode wasn't particularly memorable, although no episode of Lost is ever without small merit – as a few clues and titbits of information are squirreled away inside the rather tepid storyline. It was intriguing to see Miles extort cash from Ben, ponder Daniel's memory problems and learn of the helicopter's disappearances, but the driving force of Kate's storyline wasn't particularly exciting.

Half the problem is that Kate strikes me as a character who has slowly dwindled in status through the show. Evangeline Lilly started the series as quite an interesting juxtaposition of girl-next-door and ruthless killer – but her crimes were slowly given context to show her in a better light, and since then she's basically just bounced between the affections of Jack and Sawyer.

I wasn't particularly concerned or interested about Kate's fate after the island, regarding her atonement, although the final revelation that she's adopted Aaron should help invigorate her on-island character slightly. But anyone who didn't guess the identity of Kate's son must have been asleep, so the final "surprise" didn't hit with as much punch as the writers perhaps hoped.

Overall, Eggtown isn't a total waste of time, but it's certainly one of those episodes where the driving narrative isn't terribly involving, and it's only really worth watching for the occasional surprises in the subplots.

Burning Questions

-- Where has the helicopter gone? Does its "disappearance" demonstrate more time-dilation problems between the island and the outside world? Did Frank follow Daniels' exact bearing, as he warned? Or is Regina lying about the helicopter's non-arrival?

-- Why isn't Minkowski answering the phone on the freighter? Is he being prevented from doing so, or does he consider the "rescue mission" a failure and isn't so interested now?

-- Why does Miles want $3.2 million (that exact figure), and what does he know about Ben?

-- Why does Daniel have a problem remembering things? Has he been progressing from a mental illness? Will the island's regenerative abilities heal him?

-- When Jack lies about the events after Flight 815s crash-landing on the "deserted island", who are the "8 survivors" he mentions? Who are the 8 people he'll admit to having survived the crash? From what we know to be true, should we assume that there are therefore still 40-odd survivors of Flight 815 left behind on the island – as only the "Oceanic Six" escaped to falsify what really happened?

-- Is Aaron considered one of the Oceanic Six? What happened to his real mother, Claire? Precognitive Desmond envisioned Claire escaping the island with Aaron by helicopter – will that still come true? Will Claire die soon after her escape?

-- Why doesn't Jack want to see Aaron, and does he know Aaron is his nephew, and that Claire is/was his half-sister in these flashforwards? And who does Kate pretend Aaron's father is to the outside world? Sawyer?


24 February 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm