Lost Season 5, Episode 11
Whatever Happened, Happened
Although young Benjamin Linus was still suffering from a gunshot wound at the end of this episode, many other issues raised by his shooting were resolved — or at least addressed. As Miles attempted to explain the rules of time travel to a befuddled Hurley, he confirmed the theory that the castaways have no power to change the course of time. The island’s past is their present; they’re living through events that have already happened.
Confused? So was Hurley, in a winking acknowledgment to viewers who are baffled and frustrated by this time-skipping season of Lost. Miles seemed to know what he was talking about, but Hurley stumped him by asking why Ben didn’t remember Sayid or the other castaways. However, Richard Alpert addressed that issue when he told Kate and Sawyer that Ben wouldn’t remember anything after he was healed.
The Making of an Other
Alpert also said whatever he planned to do to Ben would destroy his innocence and make him “one of us.” So, after Sayid started Ben on the path to becoming the man he is today, Juliet, Kate and Sawyer helped him continue down that path — and Richard Alpert brought him to the end of it. All of them, except for Sayid, seemed to know what they were doing, but their motivations were different.
Juliet is simply a good-hearted person couldn’t bear to hurt a child, and Sawyer is devoted to her. Kate, meanwhile, was acting on the maternal instincts that she developed during the three years that she spent caring for Aaron. Roger Linus’ story about Ben’s motherless childhood obviously struck a chord with Kate, and her feverish need to care for Ben was an attempt to fill the void left behind by Aaron.
Mama Kate
In a series of flashbacks, the audience learned more about Kate’s time off the island and her relationship with her adopted son. Earlier in the season, Kate told Jack that she couldn’t bear to lose the baby after leaving behind the rest of the castaways. And, if Cassidy is correct, Kate latched on to the child to compensate for the loss of Sawyer.
Whatever her reasons for keeping Aaron as her own, Kate developed a strong bond with the child over the course of three years, and she was devastated to leave him behind with his grandmother. But she knew, as Roger Linus said, that “a boy just needs his mother,” and returned to the island in search of Claire.
Sawyer Grows Up
Kate has changed a lot in three years, and so has Sawyer. This episode confirmed that he asked her to look after his daughter before jumping out of the helicopter, but whether or not he jumped to avoid a relationship with Kate, as Cassidy suggested, remains unclear. Whatever his motivations were at the time, he certainly has “done a lot of growing up” over the past three years.
In fact, Sawyer seems to have switched roles with Jack, who has transformed from a strong, confident, active leader into a petulant, brooding man who can’t explain his motivations and refuses to help a dying child because he’s angry with his ex-girlfriend. Jack seems to be looking for redemption on the island, but he won’t find it by holing up in a Dharma house and making sandwiches.
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