* I have to wonder whether the High Priest's diagnosis of Claire as claimed is accurate. I suppose it's possible that he had the opportunity to observer her up close and personal at some point, but just because she has gone all native in the jungle doesn't seem like enough to conclude that she's sick to me. It seems more as if she is the new Rousseau--driven to paranoid insanity by the loss of her child, and hellbent on getting it back and/or destroying the forces responsible. In Rousseau's case, that force was the Others. But in Claire's case, it is the Monster. It seems as if Claire could be a valuable asset in the fight against Black Robe.
* The producers specifically requested that people stop calling it "bizarro 2004" or an "alternate timeline". My response: fair enough, especially since I am a fan of it so far. From now on, it will be referred to on this blog as "2004X".
* Jeff Jensen from EW has coined "Locke-ness Monster". Clever.
* I don't like to brag about being right (especially since I'm wrong so often), but there were a lot of people convinced that Sayid had been imbued with Jacob's spirit after his seeming resurrection. Yeah, not so much.
* The backlash in the fan community to "What Kate Does" really surprised me. It was certainly no "LA X", but people are comparing it to "Fire + Water" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" (another episode I don't hate anywhere near as much as the consensus, but that's another story).
Kate is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't in the eyes of so many. It's pointed out that she's a murderer--but so are Sawyer, Sayid, Locke, Ben. She and Jack are blamed for the love triangle, which I don't like any more than you do--but Sawyer is safe from that criticism. When she acts selflessly, as in coming back to the Island to find Claire, people seek selfish motivations to ascribe to her. When she acts selfishly she gets hammered--but Sawyer can be selfish for 3 1/2 seasons and the first three hours of the final season and he gets a free pass.
Now if you like Sawyer because you think he's a good-looking man, fine. But don't pretend that he's virtuous or that Kate has no redeeming qualities.
* I like the theory that Jack and Kate share that odd look as Kate escapes in the cab because at a parallel time in 2004 they have now met. I don't buy the theory (it would cause all of the 2004X Lostaways to remember each other in no time, story-wise), but it's a good thought.
* Right before Claire shoots them both, Jason says "He's one of them". Aldo replies "He might be one of them". Obviously the connotation of "them" runs a lot deeper then the way it would have been used by Others in the past to refer generally to Lostaways. Jacob's chosen people? A group that's been foretold in some way? There's no real way to answer these questions, but they're worth asking.
