Is Sayid’s body possessed by Jacob? Or Juliet? It appears not. Sayid seems to still be Sayid, though with a twist. And in addition to this, we got a provocative hint about something from last season that bears discussing. And though she appeared briefly last week when Kate hijacked the taxi, this episode more or less marks the official return of Cleer to the series.

The episode title “What Kate Does” is a callback to the Season 2 episode “What Kate Did”, wherein we learned that Kate killed her step-(or so she thought) father by burning his house down. She doesn’t do anything nearly as dramatic this time around: she steals Claire’s purse and luggage, drives to an auto shop where the proprietor (Jeff Kober, recognizable to Buffy fans as both one of the more menacing, drug-dependent vampires from the series … and Rack) helps free her from her handcuffs. She then feels guilty for stealing the possessions of a pregnant girl, and drives back to the airport to ask Claire if she wants a ride.

I want to go on record as saying that I enjoy Kate as a character, and always have. But Kate-centric episodes invariably kind of suck. It’s not always easy to figure out why this is, but it’s very easy to pinpoint where this entry in the Kate-o-pedia goes off the rails: despite the fact that she’s repeatedly had a gun waived in her face by this crazy broad, Claire not only accepts the offer of a ride from Kate (in a stolen taxi cab), but she asks Kate to join her at the door of the prospective adoptive parents of her unborn baby, and then shields her from police in the hospital after having contractions. This is nonsense, and I don’t see how anyone watching could have done anything less than smack their heads at the incredulity. Are the two cosmically connected because of the island and because Kate helped deliver Aaron before everything got turned back? I don’t know, but that kind of development was not earned.

Oh, the OB-GYN who treats Claire at the hospital is Ethan. You may remember that he once stuck her with a bunch of crazy needles, but now he doesn’t want to poke her with needles unless it’s absolutely necessary. Claire doesn’t have her baby today.

Meanwhile (or three years later, actually) on the island, Dogen takes Sayid into his office and tortures him. Sayid pleads that he doesn’t understand, isn’t withholding information, and would gladly tell him whatever he wants to know. I’m not sure whether or not we’re supposed to take this scene at face value, and it seems to me a distinct possibility that none of this torturing actually occurred. But Sayid certainly believes it did. It seems a just dessert for someone who tortured people for a living. Sawyer gets off a wonderfully bitter line to this effect: Sayid tortured children. Why shouldn’t he get another crack at life?

Sawyer takes advantage of some commotion to present his pistol and make his escape from the temple, despite Dogen’s urging. Kate agrees to go after him, and Jin goes with her. They are escorted by two Others, Justin and Aldo, who apparently can’t keep straight which information is secret and which isn’t. When Kate almost steps on what looks like a Rousseau-trap, Aldo remarks that the French woman has been dead for years (three, in fact), before being hushed by Justin. Kate springs the trap, and she and Jin take off alone into the jungle. Jin, who only wants to find Sun, leaves Kate, and she continues her pursuit of Sawyer.

When she finds him, he’s mourning Juliet in their old house. He blames himself for her death because he convinced her not to leave the island. He throws the engagement ring he planned to give her into the ocean. And then Kate cries. Have you noticed that Kate has spent most of her time on the island just following people around, either immediately behind them or tracking them through the jungle?

Dogen diagnoses Sayid with The Sickness (I guess), and prescribes one green capsule. Jack smells a rat and refuses to give it to him, and actually tries to swallow the capsule himself. Defeated, Dogen reveals that the capsule is full of green poison. Why would you want to kill Sayid? Jack wants to know. And then Dogen explains that there is a darkness growing within Sayid that will eventually overtake him, leaving nothing of the original Sayid behind — a process which has already claimed Claire!

And sure enough, while trying to escape Justin and Aldo, Jin steps in a bear trap. Before they can dispatch with him, Claire emerges from the foliage brandishing a shotgun and a hairstyle very reminiscent of Danielle Rousseau. And here’s the interesting question posed by tonight’s episode: Was Rousseau really the only member of the French party to avoid infection, or was she actually the only one that was infected? Is that why Ben took Baby Alex — to protect her?

As for the rest … blah. I’m getting really tired of seeing Sawyer storm off alone into the jungle (knowing Kate will eventually follow him). And Kate’s whole L.A. adventure just didn’t move me. As for Cleer, I’m certainly curious to know what happened to her over the past three years on the island, but like with Kate, I didn’t care all that much about what happened to her or her baby in that hospital. I wonder if the writers might not be in a real quandry here. These new and improved 2004 scenes aren’t going to be worth a damn to viewers unless we become convinced that they matter. Right now, I don’t see how they matter in the slightest.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Despite some shallow writing, Josh Holloway and Naveen Andrews give nice performances in this episode. But once again, “what Kate does” turns out to be “brings everything to a screeching halt”. And it’s too early in the season for that.

So much of Lost is about destiny: the impact our decisions have on our lives, the lives of those around us, and the lives of people we’ve never met. And we’ve known from her past interactions with Desmond that Eloise has some kind of connection with the little incidents of fate. So the revelation that she drove her son Daniel hard his entire life toward the studies and events that lead him to the island isn’t really surprising. What’s surprising is that the discovery that Eloise shot Daniel through the gut in 1977.

Yes, that is surprising. It wasn’t really surprising in the moment, mind you. Daniel is quickly established as a weapons naif, so when he’s standing in the Others’ camp pointing a gun at Richard — and surrounded by a bunch of people holding rifles — as a viewer you know it’s only a matter of time before someone realizes he’s taken his eyes off every other dangerous person in the camp and puts a bullet in him. But on a larger level, it’s surprising.

And yet … so what? I mean, I don’t get it. Eloise lives with the knowledge for thirty years that her son will die (in the past) by her own hand, and does everything she can to ensure it happens that way. Why? What purpose does Daniel’s death serve (assuming he’s actually dead — if the island can save Ben and resurrect Locke, maybe Daniel’s not food for worms just yet)? We know he planned to blow up the nuke, but surely he could have been stopped from doing that without killing him. I don’t see yet why Daniel matters. Up until now, he’s been an expository vehicle for the writers to transmit necessary time travel information to the audience. But I can’t figure out any larger rationale for his presence on the island — certainly not a reason for Eloise to send him in a crazy haze onto Charles Widmore’s freighter.

Oh, yeah. Widmore is Daniel’s father. Big whoop.

I was digging this episode, because it felt like we were going to get something really meaty out of it. Alas, that didn’t happen at all! It was a tease. And worst of all, Daniel’s plan to change history by blowing up the nuke doesn’t even make sense. Not to get too hung up on science fiction nonsense, but if Daniel successfully stopped all of the previous events of the series from happening, then he never would have been in a position to be transported back in time. And if that never happens, then he’s not around in 1977 to blow up the nuke. Hello, Dan, anyone home? You’re the guy that’s supposed to understand this stuff!

In other news, Radzinsky and his band of goons get into a shootout with Jack, Kate, and Daniel, and then discover Jimmy Barrett tied up in Sawyer’s house. The best Sawyer can muster is to suggest that the noise of a person yelling for help in the closet is actually coming from outside. Sawyer’s an idiot. And Juliet’s an idiot for letting Sawyer be an idiot.

Desmond’s going to survive, it appears. Then again, Henry Ian Cusick just got hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit, so … we’ll see how that goes. I have enjoyed the additions of both Desmond and Juliet, and I hope they continue to advance those characters. But I suspect at least one of them is doomed.

The episode did introduce a “ticking clock” in the form of the energy that’s going to be released and lead to the Swan station to become “the hatch”. One has to assume that people are going to die when that happens, and that it will cause infant Miles and child Charlotte to leave the island. Hmm… I wonder if that’s the source of Miles’ ability to talk to the dead. And maybe Dr. Chang will do something heroic in the process. But the apparent death of Daniel makes me feel a little like we’re on a snipe hunt. Something meaningful better happen next week or I’m going to be pissed.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

This was a fairly solid episode until the end. Ultimately, though, all bark and no bite.

Comment away, but please no spoilers for future episodes.