Knowing we have to wait until February, THIS is what they leave us with:
1) Jack tells Ben, Juliet and whoever else is listening to go to hell. He’s not going do the surgery, not now, not EVER. Jack doesn’t trust that if he saves Ben’s life, the Others will let them go. Would you? But Ben will surely die if Jack doesn’t help. In fact, Ben has maybe about a week before the tumor will be inoperable. Suffice it to say, Ben is obviously disappointed in Jack’s decision. “Well, you won’t have to be disappointed for very long,” Jack says defiantly.
2) The Others figure the trick to getting Jack to cooperate is to bring Kate in the picture. Juliet escorts her into the abandoned aquarium, and although separated by the glass, Kate and Jack clearly have a moment. But Kate’s not there for a tearful reunion. She’s there to beg for Sawyer’s life. She tells Jack if he doesn’t do the surgery, the Others will kill Sawyer. Or at least this is what Ben and the the gang have told Kate. But clever Jack isn’t falling for it. Why is Kate so gullible? As Ben watches on the TV monitors, Jack screams he still isn’t going to do the surgery. Ben quietly informs Juliet to get Kate out of there. Ben’s truly evil, I think.
3) Kate is taken back to the lovely outdoor facility, and is looking pretty exhausted to boot. In fact, the bold trio is looking a bit haggard. But there’s fight left in Kate. She tells Sawyer she saw Jack and about the whole deal with Ben’s fat tumor. Sawyer’s life is in danger. Hormones raging, she slips between the bars of her cage once again, opens Sawyer’s pen, and tells him to run like hell. This is when Sawyer breaks the news to Kate they’re actually on a seperate island. “Unless you’re a mermaid or have a boat, there ain’t no where to go.”
4) In a flashback, Kate, calling herself Monica, gets married to a good, small-town cop. She loves the good cop and wants to stop running from her past, so she calls that U.S. Marshall–the same idiot who has been chasing her all this time–and pleads with him to stop hunting her down. “If you can stay put and really settle down, I’ll stop chasing you,” the Marshall tells her. “But we both know that isn’t going to happen.” Guess he’s right. After checking a negative pregnancy test in the bathroom of the good cop’s perfect little home, Kate breaks down and confesses to hubby she’s a fugitive running from the law for blowing up her abusive step father. She can’t be a wife or a mom–and she ceratinly can’t do taco night. Is she trying to convince him–or herself? Kate drugs him so she can escape. She kisses him and her idyllic life goodbye. How sad for Kate.
5) But Kate clearly hasn’t given up on love. Back in the cages, Kate blasts Sawyer for not telling her they’re on a seperate island. But her anger turns to affection, and the two finally succumb to their passion–cue the cheesy music and the soft camera angles. How tacky. In the aquarium, Jack here’s a voice on the intercom telling him to try the door. He does, and it’s conveniently unlocked. Jack walks out of his tank and as he passes by a wall of TV moniters, spies Kate and Sawyer in a not-so-intimate post-coital cage cuddle. It worked. Ben comes up behind Jack, and the good doc turns and resignedly agrees to do the surgery–if Ben honors his promise to get Jack off the island. Ben gives him his word.
6) While Jack preps for surgery, Juliet gives him a furtive glances, her eyes saying, “Kill him, Jack… and make it look believable.” But angry Pickett isn’t in the mood to watch the surgery and decides to go kill Sawyer, regardless of whatever “deal” was struck. He drags Sawyer out of his cage, with Kate screaming and crying. Cut to the operating room, where Jack has just sliced Ben’s kidney as strategic ploy. With Ben’s life in his hands, Jack demands to talk to Kate or he’ll let Ben bleed to death within the hour. Zeke hands Jack the walkie talkie. At the cages, just as Pickett is execute Sawyer, the walkie talkie on his belt starts squawking. He reluctantly hands the device to Kate. Jack tells her to run, that she has a one hour head start. But hell no, she won’t go–not without him. Black out.
They are going to leave us for three months riding on THAT cliffhanger? The only thing we found out about Locke and the rest of the Losties is, in burying Mr. Eko, Locke sees etched on Eko’s walking stick a message, “Lift your eyes up and look north.” That’s it. It disappointing, especially after last week’s dramatic episode…