Aaron, Ben and confounding Kate…
I am sure that someone will do a much better job (ahem, Dabs) making a really well written story out of the story we saw in Whatever Happened, Happened. I spent much of the show engrossed/laughing/unnerved by all the talk of past/future/present, etc.
The undercurrent though wasn’t so much about Ben to me. It was the very well timed flashbacks for us to learn about what happened to Kate and Aaron. Roger (who yes, I think is crushing on Kate) made the profound “a boy needs his mother” statement right smack in the middle of the tension of what is going to happen to Ben and who is going to save him…
— Hurley: if Ben dies, we never get back here in the first place…
— Miles: we KNOW he lives so we don’t have to freak out…
— Jack: I’ve already saved him, I’m not going to again….
— Juliet: He’s dying and I know some people who can help him…
— Kate: Forget about Ben, I just left “my” kid with his actual grandmother because I think his mother is alive and I’m going to go get her…therefore, I am highly emotional and Ben’s just a kid who had a rotten childhood…so he’s worth saving, he’s worth taking to Richard…he’s worth “losing his innocence and becoming one of us.”
NOW HOLD ON.
We’ve lost track of Aaron and the Aaron ‘prophecies’ and the Aaron connections to the island and the freakish Claire “don’t you dare bring him back” visit. (Which followed Claire leaving Aaron in the jungle in the middle of the night.)
Something is not right here. The correlations between Aaron/Ben mother issues are paramount to what we saw tonight. Kate CHOOSING FOR BEN to be saved by Richard, was pretty short-sighted despite her actual foresight of what he becomes. (I’m not saying she shouldn’t have…) She doesn’t know what Richard meant by his (hello, alarming?!?) method of helping him. She was only on the island for 100 days, and in that time, pretty well stayed distracted and consumed with hiding her past.
She CHOSE how Ben would be taken care of just like she CHOSE to not only ‘take’ Aaron originally, but then to just give him to Carole! Sure, say that it’s Aaron’s grandmother. BUT, this is Christian’s mistress, this is someone Kate really has NO clue about. Kate’s inability to see past herself has created quite the set of past/current/future circumstances. For Ben? Absolutely. Now, too, for Aaron?
What is Aaron set up for?
Hopefully not the same trip down to the smokey temple…where his innocence will be altered and his memory erased and he is permanently “one of them.” But unfortunately, I’m just not convinced that he’s safe and sound having cookies and milk at grandma’s house.
Geez. Kate, you were right when you said you didn’t really have maternal instincts.
One Kate scene was outside continuity.
Clare’s mom asks, “why didn’t you tell me when you first came back?” or something like that … but when Kate first came back she had every reason to believe she was dead or in a coma and wouldn’t even know her name or where to look.
What if Clare’s mom IS still in a coma/dead and the woman’s a plant – either by someone who wants Aaron, esp Ben (who had gave Kate an excuse to go back to the island and not worry about Aaron … whose either not necessary or will be brought there later … or maybe is somewhere in the tailies of 316 … )
Kate is an idiot. Jack has been accused of acting without thinking first and Kate is just as bad, maybe worse.
Perhaps it’s her stoopid behavior that made her a necessity on 815 to so the future restored itself (and let’s face it, no one would miss her, esp. after ‘What Kate Did’).
Jack wouldn’t have helped Ben, Ben died, end of story and there is nothing on Weds. nights – but Kate sold the poor lad’s soul to the devil ‘cuz she’s a maroon and now we can rub our hands, pop some corn and see what happens next.
aaron is with his grandmother now, just like walt.
Kate did with Aaron what Kate always does…she ran away! When he was missing in the story, she got worried and “didn’t want to do this anymore.” So she found someone to take over her burden and she ran. She ran right back to where she knew she be someone else.
kimberly, Kate has always made decisions on behalf of other people, and acted upon them. She thinks she knows what is best!
She did this with her own mother when she killed Wayne, and she did this on ‘the island’ in the past.
We can only hope that placing Aaron with his grandmother WAS the right decision. If not, we may see Aaron again in ‘the temple’ at a later date!
Thanks to waycurious for that last thought!
IF Carol IS his grandmother and not a shill from Ben or Widmore.
We’ve seen Claire with her mother in flashbacks, so I assume that is proof enough she is Aaron’s grandmother, although she can still be working for Ben/Widmore, I guess.
Poor Kate… She just can’t do right. She lives in fear. She was fearful that she wasn’t capable of taking care of Aaron and decided to let him go. It’s obvious to me she isn’t a bad person, I don’t understand why the fans hate her so much. She has good intentions, but makes bad decisions. That’s what a result of free will, you can’t foresee what impact your decisions have, you can just hope for the best.
Or it is destiny, like waycurious said, and she was always meant to screw everything up (:
Either way, poor Kate…
whatever, she may make bad decisions but shes hot enough that people will forgive her. hahaha
She can carry a lot of stuff.
Miles, I mean, Highbrow…I was waiting for a comment like that from you…thanks for not disappointing!
Eko, way to pick up on the same tie between Walt with his grandmother and Aaron. I thought about that after I posted this.
So Dabs, you bring up what I believe is one of the main character arcs for Kate – she is doing what she thinks is best for others. It is very similar to Jack, and ultimately, self-centered. Jack has a savior complex, and Kate’s _______? (Anyone can fill in the blank here.)
She is so conflicted, truly she is one of the last to find redemption on a show where redemption is central. We have seen so many changes in other characters, but Kate continues her pattern of choosing what is best for others, motivated by something missing in herself. If some of these acts ARE her path to redemption, it is very interesting considering that so many of the people that she thinks she is doing the best thing for end up being further damaged!
So Dabs, you bring up what I believe is one of the main character arcs for Kate – she is doing what she thinks is best for others. It is very similar to Jack, and ultimately, self-centered. Jack has a savior complex, and Kate
Too bad for Evangeline Lilly… character redemption doesn’t speak too well for an actors employability on this show.
She didnt kill her abusive stepfather until she found out he was really her father.
Everything about her stems from this.
Her whole life she has tried to be opposite of him, and in the long run, turned out very much like him…his personality, in a mentally abusive manor.
She ditches everyone, she runs, thats what she does. She may have gone back to the island for Claire, but I havent heard one peep of Claires name from her mouth.
She went back for Sawyer…and I think Sawyer is a bad liar. I think he still cares about Kate. Just the same, as I think Kate still cares about him, and Juliet still cares about Jack.
But Jack, he is truly Lost. What is he “supposed to” do? What is his motive for returning? It seems out of guilt at this point, does he hate Ben enough to stay in Dharmaville when everyone else leaves, if that is what happens?
One other thing. It seemed to me, when Sawyer was sick, and seemed to possess the spirit of Kates father, or at least to her he did, she seemed to find some kind of peace in that whole scenario. When she finally broke down, at poured her heart to him…snap….Sawyer was back…whether it was actually her imagining or not, it seemed as if she overcame…something
That’s a good call AES…that scene is seeming to be more and more important now.
Nice Miles, nice.
Thanks.
I agree with AES about Kate not going back to ‘the island’ for Claire or anyone else. Kate went back for Kate!
Much like Jack went back because his life was all but destroyed, so did Kate. But, at least Jack has opened up somewhat to Locke’s dying message. However, his failure to assist a dying child, tells me he isn’t exactly on the road to redemption anytime soon!
Once Kate lets go of Aaron, she has nothing in her life, so she returns in hopes of whatever scraps she can make of her life. I think she has found out, early on, that nothing from her past on-island life is left for her.
Perhaps, this total destruction of her ego will set her on a new path. One where she will find HER purpose and then she can finally find some fragment of redemption.
I know it isn’t the main idea of this thread, but I can’t stop thinking about waycurious’ comment about the real Carole Littleton still being in a coma. I remember thinking when I was re-watching past seasons recently that it was a different actress who played her in the “Christian gets Ana Lucia to go to Sydney with him for protection while he visits his mistress in a drunken stupor” flashback, and also when Claire is visiting her mom in the hospital.
I just figured they couldn’t get the same actress, or wanted to re-audition her character when it got a more prominent role. It probably is that, but it’s still fun to think that the Carole who Kate gave Aaron to is a Ben plant who will bring Aaron back to the island just like Claire told Kate not to do in her dream.
It IS a different actress (I just looked it up). Susan Duerden plays her now but Arlene Newman-Van Asperen played her in “Par Avion”
(Talk about a name that goes all the way around the theatre markee ) Lostpedia.wikia.com attributes it to the coma part being considered a non-speaking/extra role and then they had to cast an actress for the talking part … but with the glut of people who’d want to be on Lost it seems one would cast the same person …