LOST, Season 5, Episode 11
Whatever Happened, Happened

Kate: In the 2007 timeline, Kate meets up with Cassidy, the ex-con-girl who worked with Sawyer. She meets her to give her money as per Sawyer's request to her before he bailed out of the helicopter when they were leaving the Island. Ultimately, Kate tells Cassidy what happened and that they've been lying the whole time about regarding their crash and subsequent 'rescue'. Kate's dynamic with Aaron is a good one. For the first time, Kate is being responsible but ultimately, will be running away again. She brings Aaron to Claire's mom who is still in LA after getting the money from Oceanic's settlement. But in giving Aaron to Mrs Littleton she also tells her about the lie they've been telling about their experience, including the fact that Claire was still on the Island. On the Island in the 1977 timeline, Kate befriends Roger Linus although she obviously knows that his son grows up to be a meanie. It's Kate who feels the need...the motherly need....to get help to save child-Ben because regardless of who he grows up to be, at this point in time he's still a child. She goes with Sawyer to bring Ben to Richard Alpert. On the way she tells Sawyer about his daughter Clementine.

Ben: Before being brought to the Others for help, he gasps to Kate "tell my father I'm sorry I stole his keys". For all of the crap his father has done to him, to still feel the need to apologize shows that at one point in time, Ben was a kind and decent person. Boy, how that changed.

Jack: Though he's done well staying quiet, he finally decides that he is not going to assist in saving child-Ben. Deciding that he'd rather have Ben die so as not to grow up to be adult-Ben, he refuses to help save him when Sawyer asks for his help. This of course drives Sawyer to bring child-Ben to Richard Alpert, which will of course put everything on course to happen as it already has. Even though Jack refuses to help, the universe is self-correcting, so Ben will live with or without Jack. (Jack isn't aware of the whole universe-self-correcting thing, but we are, and we know this is what will happen). Stupid Jack. Maybe he does screw everything up. Interestingly, Jack tells Kate that maybe the Island wants to fix things itself and that maybe he was getting in the way always trying to fix things. Jack...coming around to Locke's way of thinking? Big zinger when he tells Kate "you didn't like the old me" when she says she liked him better when he took things into his own hands.

Juliet: Works to save child-Ben's life, but is having a hard time. While getting blood from Kate to give to Ben, Juliet finds out that Kate and Jack were engaged briefly after they got off the Island. She knows she can't save Ben saying that he's in a medical situation that is not resolvable. At this point while talking to Kate, Juliet realizes that the Others may be able to do something to save him. Juliet is pissed that Jack wouldn't help save Ben. She tells Jack that Kate and Sawyer are bringing him to help.

Sawyer: Helps Kate bring Ben to the Others for medical assistance. Tells Kate that he and her would never have worked out. Also tells Kate that he could never have been a good father to Clementine.

Roger Linus: Finally starting to realize that he's been a jerk to his son (Ben) when he's talking to Kate and looking at Ben in the hospital bed. Tells Kate he had visions of being the greatest Dad ever, trying to do what he thought his wife (who died giving birth to Ben) could've wanted him to do. Realizes that Ben took his keys in order to get Sayid out of the jail cell.

Miles: Seems to understand the time-issues that are being experienced by the Losties. His grasp of this implies that he knows more than he's let on. His ability to feel spirits hasn't been used in a while...wonder if we'll be seeing something with this in the upcoming episodes.

Cassidy: Sawyer's ex becomes, for a brief period of Kate's off-Island time, someone she confides in. Cassidy thinks Kate is crazy for wanting to go back to the Island. She does provide some comfort for Kate when Kate tells her how she briefly lost track of Aaron in the grocery store. Cassidy tells Kate that Aaron needed her as much as she needed him. Regarding Sawyer, she doesn't have much respect for him assuming that the reason he jumped off the chopper had less to do with saving fuel and more to do with him having to become responsible if he returned to the mainland (she's probably right).

Other charcters
Horace / Phil / Richard Alpert / Mrs Littleton (Claire's mom)

Double Take
--Kate telling not one, but two people (Cassidy and Mrs Littleton) about the lie the O6 have been telling. (Kate then went on Oprah, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich and Good Morning America to tell even more people about the lie. She even goes on to reveal that Bruce Wayne is Batman, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, and that there are really no nuts or grapes in Grape Nuts cereal. In case you couldn't tell, I'm being sarcastic.)
--Kate and Sawyer bringing child-Ben to the Others for help

Music
--I've Got Your Picture - Patsy Cline (playing in the car as Kate was on her way to Cassidy's)
--Kate singing Catch a Falling Star to Aaron (not the first time we've heard that song in relation to Aaron)

Funny
--"You're all free to leave when you want, but I'll shoot you in the leg." Miles to Jack when Jack was asking about them being under house arrest
--The talk of how time travel works (or doesn't work) between Hurley and Miles was classic! Hurley's reference to how time travel worked in the movie Back to the Future was hilarious
--Hurley and Miles were playing Dharma-noes. HAHA! Get it? Dharma-noes? Dominoes? I kill me

Interesting
1. Miles explaining time-travel things: "You can't change anything. Your maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened. It's just, we've never experienced how it all turns out."
2. Kate donating blood for child-Ben.
3. The blond who finds Aaron wandering the grocery store looked a little like Claire.
4. Kate thought Sawyer was helping her get child-Ben to the Others, but he in fact did it for Juliet who told him that no matter what Ben grows up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die.
5. According to Richard, if he helps heal child-Ben, Ben will forget that any of this happened and he'll forever be one of them. Also interesting that he takes Ben into the Temple (where the SMonster resides.)
6. Locke to adult-Ben when he wakes up being conked unconscious from the oar swung by Sun: "Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living." The look on Ben's face seeing Locke alive was priceless.

Questions Answered
1. Kate returned to the Island because she wanted to help get Claire off the Island and back to Aaron
2. Jack returned to the Island because he was "supposed to", but hasn't figured out what that means exactly

Questions
1. What did Richard mean when he told Sawyer and Kate that Ben would be changed forever and would lose his innocence if he's helped by the Others?
2. How did Miles know that Ben turned the Island-Wheel? Nobody was in the wheel-room when he did it.
3. Where is Claire?
4. Where did Sayid run to hide and will the SMonster be the thing that finally brings him down? (C'mon...you don't think he'll be alive for long, do you?)
5. What do Ellie and Charles have to do with the Island in 1977? Richard says he doesn't answer to either of them. Are they in charge/the leaders at that time?
6. So, who does Richard report to? Jacob?
7. What's with all the black mascara around Richard's eyes? (Egyptian statues always have black rings around their eyes, too.)
8. Charles Widmore and Ellie/Eloise (Hawking)? It could be, as surmised here before, that they are the parents of not only Penny, but also Daniel Farrady. After all, Widmore was funding Daniel's research off-Island.

Tune in next week for LOST, Season 5 Episode 12 "Dead is Dead". Until then, don't shoot me in the leg if I get up to go.

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