Ah, Lost. Back again, perplexing as ever. Last week’s season premiere introduced a parallel reality (dubbed “flash-sideways”) in which Oceanic 815 lands uneventfully at LAX and our characters continue as if they’d never been marooned on Lost Isle. Outlandish, but the gambit has already paid off: by reminding us that fundamental to the series’ resolution is the redemption of its ensemble. And nowhere is this clearer than with Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), our troubled, troubling heroine.
Kate’s faults are legion: she’s an admitted murderer who’s also a moralistic prig. She spent years passing off another woman’s child as her own. She pings and pongs between heartthrobs Sawyer and Jack, seemingly at random. Make no mistake: for Lost to conclude successfully, its writers must solve the problem of Kate.
