Lost episode recap – “Eggtown ” (S4E4) airdate 02/21/08

Locke brings Ben breakfast: two eggs and some melon. Ben plays some mind games with him per usual, saying that Locke is lost and doesn’t know what to do. Locke puts on a good face but takes the breakfast tray away before Ben can eat more than a couple of bites of melon. On his way down the hall, Locke heaves the tray into the cinder block wall in a fit of temper. Mr. Mouse points out that the wall actually moves when the tray hits it! Guess it’s not actual cinder block, huh. Plus, Ben hears the crash from inside his cell and knows he’s gotten to Locke.

Claire and Kate enjoy some coffee on their cabin’s porch when Sawyer stops by. He wants Kate to move into his cabin with him and when she says she won’t, he suspects a hidden agenda. He thinks it’s because she thinks she might be pregnant. She sends him away, not wanting to talk about it.

Flash-forward: Kate, in trendy movie star sunglasses, is escorted through a throng of reporters by a handsome man in a suit. I think he’s her lawyer and I’m right: she’s on trial for all the shit she pulled before the crash - murder, grand theft auto, larceny, fraud, assault on a federal officer, etc., etc. She pleads not guilty. The DA asks for Kate to be remanded into federal custody throughout the trial; Kate’s lawyer is ineffective and the feds slap the cuffs on Kate.

Back on the Island: Jin is practicing his new English by picking out places in the U.S. for him and Sun to raise their baby, but Sun wants to go home to Seoul. Jack and Juliet bring Dan and Charlotte back to the beach and introduce them to the Losties. Sun wants to know where Kate is and Jack mopily tells her that Kate stayed with Locke at the Others’ barracks.

At the barracks, Kate wants to talk with Miles but Locke won’t tell her where he’s got the little guy stashed. Locke points out that this group is not a democracy and that he gets to make the rules. Kate sulks, “That means this is a dictatorship.” Locke points out, in a pleasant tone of voice, that if he were a dictator, he’d just shoot her and get on with his day. Kate next finds Hurley walking with another breakfast tray and deduces that this tray is for Miles. She tricks Hurley into spilling Miles’s location and takes the tray to him herself.

Miles is being held in a new set, the boathouse. Kate wants to know what Miles knows about her and what she did pre-Island. Miles says he’ll tell her but he wants something in return. When Kate tells him she won’t set him free, he says he’s right where he wants to be – what he wants is to speak with Ben just for one minute, and if she can arrange that, he’ll tell her everything she wants to know.

Flash-forward: Kate’s lawyer wants her to cut a deal – his best guess for her is a 15-year sentence, 7 to serve. No way, says Kate. Problem is, Kate’s mom is the DA’s star witness and is planning to testify that Kate confessed the murder of her father (I thought he was her stepfather) to her. The lawyer, Duncan Forrester, thinks they’re pretty screwed and wants to bring “him” into the courtroom to generate sympathy. Kate says, “You are not using my son.” Hm. Didn’t see that one coming.

Back on the Island: Kate and Claire are hanging up laundry. Aaron is fussing and Claire asks Kate to pick him up as her arms are full of wet sheets. Kate hems and haws, saying that she’s not any good with babies. Claire picks him up herself and Kate gives them a funny, half-longing look. Hm.

At Kate’s trial, her attorney calls Jack as a character witness, needing the big guns since he got spanked by the DA in the opening – sadly, this spanking was figurative. A clean-shaven (for him), sober (seeming) Jack testifies that he did not know Kate until their plane crashed. The official story according to Jack is this: eight people survived the crash and then two of the eight died of injuries afterwards – thus, those remaining are the Oceanic 6. Jack goes on about how Kate gave everyone first aid, water, she’s a life-saver, blah blah blah, until Kate can’t stand the lie they’re telling and stands up. She says that this is her trial and she doesn’t want Jack to have to say any more. That’s fine, until the DA gets up for her cross-examination with only one question for Jack: “Do you love Kate Austin?” Kate gets all quivery but Jack manages to reply, “No, not any more.”

Back on the Island: Kate drops by Sawyer and Hurley’s cabin. Hurley has found a tape of Xanadu – hee hee. Kate and Sawyer have some Dharma boxed wine and he taunts her, telling her she should just be woman enough to admit that she wants to use him for something. Caught, she says: “I want to use you for something.” Mee-owr! But it’s not what Sawyer expects as she wants him to help her bust Ben out of Locke’s prison.

After the commercial, Sawyer drops by Locke’s for a game of backgammon. Locke strangely doesn’t suspect anything from the professional con man and, in fact, asks if Sawyer thinks Locke is doing the right thing. Sawyer says that he’d feel a lot less secure if he was on the beach. Locke asks what the rest of the folks think and Sawyer baas at him, reassuring him that the sheep are fine. Except for Kate. Sawyer tells Locke that she approached him about busting Ben out to go chat with Miles. Locke is quite distressed by this news and grabs his knife and his gun. He and Sawyer run to the boathouse but they are too late: Miles is gone.

This is because Kate has brought the mountain to Mohammed: she has Miles, at gun point and with his hands still tied, on the porch of Locke’s cabin. Breaking a window, she gains entry and she and Miles go down to the basement where Ben is being held. When confronted by the padlock on the door, she shoots it and with one shot destroys the lock (which any Mythbusters fan can tell you is bullshit).

Miles has one minute to speak with Ben, who is a little stunned and unhappy to see him. Ben knows who Miles is, and whom Miles works for, and how much trouble Miles’s boss has gone through to find Ben. What Ben doesn’t know is that Miles is willing to tell his boss that Ben is dead – all he wants is $3.2 million from Ben. I want to know where he got that figure, $3.2? Ben has the same question – why not $3.3 million? – but Miles seems set on that number as though he knows for certain that Ben has that amount. Ben points out that his current circumstances are a little restricted, what with being imprisoned in a basement and all, so Miles gives him one week to straighten things out.

His one minute up, Miles tells Kate that he knows everything about her fugitive status – “If I were you, I’d stay right here on the Island.” They head out but Locke and Sawyer catch them coming up the stairs. Locke sends Kate back to her cabin; she goes with no fuss, seeing a subtle headshake from Sawyer, leaving Miles in Locke’s control once more. Later, Locke stops by Kate and Claire’s cabin to talk with Kate. He says he doesn’t care why she did it, but he needs to know what Miles and Ben said to each other. She tells him about the $3.2 million deal. Locke goes hmm, then tells Kate that she’s not welcome at the barracks anymore. He wants her gone by morning. She looks gobsmacked.

Flash-forward: Kate’s lawyer brings Kate’s mom, in a wheelchair and on oxygen, to speak with his client. Kate is pretty prickly, understandably, but her mom reaches out. She’s been given 6 months to live for the last four years so she really doesn’t know how much time she has, and she doesn’t want to testify against her only daughter. Also, she wants to meet her grandson. This means that Kate’s son is a post-crash baby. (FM’s theory: Kate’s son is Aaron because Claire didn’t make it off the Island.) Kate doesn’t want her mother anywhere near her son and cuts the reunion short.

Back on-Island: Kate goes to Sawyer’s and tells him that Locke has banished her from the barracks. Sawyer says he unbanishes her and she can stay right here with him. He takes off her boots and she giggles. Then he sweetly tells her that he’ll keep her safe and the next thing you know … sweaty Kate and Sawyer snugglebunnies!

On the beach, Dan is practicing some sort of memory game with Charlotte by a beachside campfire. Although Charlotte tries to be encouraging (“That’s better,” she says), Dan can only remember 2 out of 3 playing cards and is frustrated – what the hell kind of progress is that? Jack and Juliet interrupt them, waving the sat-phone and bitching that although they’ve been calling all day (don’t kill the battery, you dumbasses!), no one on the boat will pick up. Charlotte ‘fesses up that there is another number that they are only supposed to use for emergencies. Juliet gets in her face: “It’s an emergency.” Charlotte dials, using the speakerphone per Jack’s instruction, and Regina answers, wondering why she’s using this number. Charlotte explains that the Losties want to talk to their friends. Regina: “What friends?” Um, the friends that Frank flew to the ship on the helicopter. Regina: “I thought the helicopter was with you.” Uh-oh. Everyone looks very concerned. Jack even paces a little.

In the morning, Locke pays a visit to Miles who is back in the boathouse, this time, standing with his hands tied to a rafter. Locke takes a grenade (!) out of his bag, stuffs it in Miles’s mouth and pulls the pin – Miles has to bite down on the trigger to keep from exploding. “No use having rules if there’s no punishment for breaking them.” And then Locke, having reasserted his bad-assery, leaves. Nice!

Sawyer tries to take advantage of the morning wood but Kate’s not having any hot breakfast today. He thinks it because she thinks she’s pregnant but she tells him that she isn’t. He is super-relieved (“What would we have done with a baby?”) and Kate is actually a little sad at his reaction. She tells him she’s going back to the beach. Sawyer is ticked and says that she’ll just bounce back up here to him when she gets in her next argument with Jack. Kate slaps him but looks slightly repentant after doing so. She leaves.

Flash-forward: The DA has a problem – Kate’s mom won’t testify. Kate, her lawyer and the DA meet. The DA’s first offer is 4 years of jail time which Kate flatly refuses. Her lawyer points out to the DA that his client is a hero and no jury would ever give her actual jail time. Revised offer: time served, plus 10 years probation and the condition that she doesn’t leave the state. Kate jumps on the new offer, just wanting this to be over. After she is released, there’s a taxi waiting for her in the courthouse parking garage so she can avoid the crowds; Jack is waiting for her there too. She tells him that she’s heard him give the story of the crash so many times that she’s starting to think he believes it. He tells her that he didn’t mean what he said in there, meaning he still loves her.

Touched, she asks him to follow her home for a visit, but he hedges and asks if they could maybe have coffee some time instead. Kate stiffens a bit, saying that she understands why he doesn’t want to see the baby (addition to FM’s theory: because he’s guilty for failed to save Claire from the Island and thus Kate’s son is really dead Claire’s son) but until he gets over that, there isn’t going to be any going for coffee together. Jack looks as though he would rather have a leg amputated without anesthesia than go see that child so Kate leaves in her taxi.

The taxi drops Kate off at a huge gorgeous home on some California hillside – Kate got a big settlement check from Oceanic Airlines too! The nanny greets her warmly, saying she just put “him” down for a nap. Kate goes upstairs and the little blond boy awakens enough to hug her and say, “Hi, Mommy.” Last line of the episode proves my genius theory as Kate says, “Hi, Aaron.”

Update on the Oceanic 6: Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Kate ... and not Claire, most likely. I did read somewhere that by the end of this season, one of the original Flight 815 Losties will be killed - which also lends credence to my not-Claire hypothesis. Also, we get to hear a little more of what the Oceanic 6's official crash story is and I think Kate's right: Jack is talking himself into believing that's what really happened, at least at this episode's place in the timeline.

Next time on Lost. Previously on Lost.