Lost 1.12: "Whatever the Case May Be"

Written by Damon Lindelof and Jennifer Johnson
Directed by Jack Bender

In which Kate happens upon a briefcase containing a secret from her hidden past and Sayid tries to get Shannon to decipher Danielle’s notes and maps…


Status Report

Sooner or later, every serialized story must have a transitional installment, a portion of the story that is purely intended to move all the pieces into position for the next major revelation. In television, it’s rare for writers to make transitional episodes exciting for the audience, because the viewers come to expect a constant series of twists and turns. Patient storytelling often comes head to head with an impatient audience.

This episode, essentially the absolute mid-point of the season (which is supposedly 23 episodes, since the pilot was split into two parts), is perhaps the most bold version of a transitional episode one can conceive. Instead of trying to force the story into seeming less transitional that it is, the writers stand to their convictions. Even the main hook of the story, the locked briefcase containing a clue to Kate’s past, implements a transitional element of the arc. The writers don’t avoid the problem; they accept it and challenge the audience to accept it in turn.

Anyone who watches a horrible special effects film understands that the quality of a story is usually found in between the action set pieces. It’s how you get the characters from point A to point B; as the cliché goes, it’s the journey, not the destination. This is an episode filled with steps on individual and shared journeys, and as such, the success or failure of the episode lies solely on how well the writers craft each step.

The trade-off is a relatively minor advancement of the overall plot arc. Considering the fact that the arc is so closely connected to the character arcs, this is not entirely surprising. Within the confines of the “higher power” theory, the sudden rising of the tide appears to be intentional. If the goal of the higher power on the island is to force the survivors into the jungle, thus forcing them to undergo the transformative trial in search of redemption, then it would make sense that the beach refuge would suddenly disappear. As the characters themselves note, the tide comes up much more abruptly than it should, which implies some outside force. Granted, the survivors eventually just move to a different beach, but it is part of a process, a steady effort to force each man and woman into facing their inner demons.

Turning to the characters, the focus is on Kate and her considerable attempt to keep her past hidden. It’s interesting to see how her own inability to trust undermines her goal. She needs Sawyer to help her get the case out of the water, but rather than act smoothly around him and minimize the importance of what’s inside, she makes every mistake in the book. When she gets Jack involved, she falls into the classic trap of every liar on the planet; the deeper it gets, the more difficult it becomes for her to pull off the deception.

Contrast this to her dedicated deception during the bank robbery. Everything she does is perfectly calculated to advance her goal of getting into the vault and opening that safety deposit box. It’s quite clear by the end of the episode that she used every resource at her disposal to fool her compatriots into armed robbery. The flashbacks also confirm something originally speculated in the pilot: Kate not only knows how to use a gun, but how to feign ignorance.

In keeping with the transitional nature of the episode, the writers only explain part of the Kate’s story. Essentially, Kate orchestrated a bank robbery in order to take possession of an item that belonged to a man she loved, who was also someone she killed. There are no other details given, so the context is still missing. The writers explain what happened, but say nothing of why. It’s very easy to feel cheated in this case, because the writers don’t gloss over the fact that they are leaving out important details. They stick with the established character development for Kate, and as such, she doesn’t offer anything more than what she deems necessary.

It’s rather difficult to speculate on how a small toy airplane would justify several crimes and compromising oneself. It’s likely that Kate didn’t kill the man she loved out of malice. The airplane could be some kind of “Rosebud”, an item of profound personal meaning for the man that she killed. Or rather, that she had to kill, because that’s what the subtext of her explanation suggests. If that’s the case, then she could have committed those crimes for his memory more than her own personal gain, and if so, it makes absolute sense that she wouldn’t want to talk about it. A pain and grief so deep would constitute a rather convincing reason for shutting the rest of the world out, and it also explains her desire to get away from the world, as seen in “Tabula Rasa”.

For all that the writers reveal more about Kate’s past, that’s not the point of the episode. It’s more about how the discovery of the case and Kate’s single-minded desire to gain possession of what’s inside drives the dynamic between Jack, Sawyer, and herself. Within the subtext is the hint that Kate sees the same qualities in Jack that she loved in the man she killed, and it cuts her deeply when he acts outside of those qualities.

Jack is no fool, and as obvious as Kate is being, he’s wary enough around her to know that she’s not telling the whole story. Even so, he lets Kate play him against Sawyer, something that he’s a bit too eager to oblige. On some subconscious level, Jack probably understands that Sawyer is his opposite number. Sawyer brings the worst out in Jack, and it’s not at all a mistake that Sawyer is always involved when Jack turns violent.

It’s also very clear that Jack was giving Kate the benefit of the doubt when it came to the key and opening the case with him, hoping that she would live up to his trust. When she tried to palm the key, the disappointment was all over his face. Some of that trust was lost, and by the time he realized what it was that Kate was lying to everyone over, his opinion of Kate plummeted. Appropriately enough, Jack’s reaction sparked an equal disillusionment in Kate; it’s almost as if she expects him to accept her actions without judgment, and it bothers her that he couldn’t do that.

Sawyer faces a completely different level of frustration in this episode. He does everything possible to get under Kate’s skin in the beginning of the episode, appealing to her more playful and impulsive side. Then he finds out that she might be hiding something of potential value, and he can’t keep himself from wanting to take possession of it. And it galls the hell out of him when Jack seems to get the upper hand. Sawyer does, however, know enough about Kate to warn Jack about the consequences of trusting her. There’s no sign, of course, that Sawyer is willing to move off that beach anytime soon.

Sayid seems to be recovering from his experience with Danielle, and now he’s turned to the obvious task of decoding the notes and maps that he stole from her lair. He’s still questioning his experience in the jungle, when he heard the same voices that Danielle warned him about, but he’s trying to move forward in a logical manner. That said, his early confidence has been sorely shaken, and his impatience is a symptom of his desire to reconcile his experiences.

Charlie is also trying to recover, between coming back to life and failing to protect Claire from Ethan. His conversation with Rose is clearly important on several levels. As predictable as it was for Rose to bring up religious faith, it fits very well with the theme of the series and what Charlie has been missing from his life since joining Driveshaft. Some part of Charlie is probably terrified that he has lost that connection with his own belief, and it’s hard for him to accept that he can turn back to faith after years of setting it aside.

Boone seems to be taking on a more prominent role, and in turn, Shannon’s behavior is coming into focus. Boone is swiftly becoming Locke’s lackey, and it seems that he’s doing everything to keep the discovery made in the previous episode from the rest of the survivors. This increases the likelihood that Boone will get into some trouble in the next episode, when he and Locke finally try to open the metal hatch.

Shannon’s lack of concern for anyone else on the island is challenged in this episode, finally paying off on her characterization as a spoiled rich kid. At the same time, Shannon seems to be putting on an act, because there’s a hint in her demeanor that her life has been a lot harder than she’s letting on. All of that seems connected to Boone, which brings up a few questions about their relationship. The shot of Boone watching Shannon sing “Beyond the Sea” in French was disturbing, and one wonders if he was somehow involved in pushing her into some kind of internet pornography. Just what kind of internet wedding thing was their mother involved in, anyway?

The rest of the characters have very little to do in this episode, other than help everyone move stuff from the beach near the fuselage to the new camp. Hurley, Michael, Walt, and Jin are completely absent, and Sun is only there to demonstrate that she’s still gathering natural remedies and listening to everyone’s conversations. Locke only shows up in one scene, but it’s very disturbing. He seems even more convinced of his dominion over the secrets of the island, especially after Claire’s abduction, which exposed the holes in his knowledge.

The only major advancement in this episode is the new information about Kate and her criminal past, and even that is simply the catalyst for strained character interaction within the budding love triangle of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Everything else is setting the stage for the episodes to come, especially in terms of the situation with Claire and the secret held by Locke and Boone. The result is an episode that is as purely transitional as an episode can get, with all the requisite drawbacks that such an episode must inevitably have.

It’s hard to imagine how the writers could possibly avoid that problem. The season takes place over 40 days, according to the producers, and that means that only 1-2 days can be covered per episode. Anything that would normally take several days to unfold, like a search for a missing woman or translating some arcane scribbles, must necessarily lead to moments of transition over the course of more than one episode. In this case, several plot threads all hit the transitional phase at the same time, and the result is an episode that doesn’t have the same punch as the episodes that came before it.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode covered a great many transitional elements for several character threads. While more details were revealed regarding Kate’s past history, that was more a device for causing conflict within the love triangle than providing context for Kate’s circumstance. Much of what happened was predictable in comparison to the episodes that came before, and as a result, this was not as powerful an episode as one has come to expect.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Season Average (as of 1.11): 8.0