Tabula Rasa by Sam

Our first Kate-centric episode. Of course it involves her ripping off the false arm of an Australian farmer. Why wouldn't it?

Plot-wise, we know the drill. Kate, a somewhat decent criminal, is watching the air marshal die. I liked this episode on first viewing. Second time? After the finale?

To paraphrase Jack:
"We all died three days ago. We deserve a clean slate."

Initially, I was convinced that season one was purgatory. After being told by all the Lost-sites/writers/etc that it was not purgatory...that little line, the fuckin' title of the episode? Post-finale I feel somewhat foolish for having believed that it was something past "Let's make an interesting little un-world where we can deal with our daddy-issues and move on!" It's a shame that it's shaping up to be exactly what the finale claimed. I'm considering it entirely possible that none of the island stuff ever happened. What a mess, if that's the case.

I'm a bitter-betty today. Better to take it out on Lost than on my unsuspecting husband, right?

The one moment in this episode that is sticking out in a positive way is the part where Kate asks Jack why he can't just let the cop die and he looks at her straight-up and says "Because I'm not a murderer." She doesn't correct him. He just says it and walks the hell away. Ballsy stuff.

Don't go thinking that I'm just hating on Lost for the sake of it. I love this show. I love Locke and Desmond and Eko and I love what so much of the story says about the human condition. But I'm still struggling with how reductive that ending was; I'm not swung by it yet. People finding peace? Yes, that's nice. But some of us liked the whole "keep evil at bay! save the world, save the cheerleader" thing. Reverting back to "it was always a character show" is a shiny version of "what we put our characters through was for their own good in the after life and that's about it."

Boo to that! I'm staying on the side where Sawyer really shot that cop (and fucking missed) instead of just creating a world where he could shoot one because he needed to ascend yea I'm already not interested. It's just plain cooler for this stuff to have really happened. I'll chin-up soon, I promise...