It's a little ironic that Left Behind is a Kate-centric, for at the end of the day Juliet's story is the one that is advanced the most.
Flashback: Kate bails Cassidy out of a con-in-progress that's falling apart. They end up swapping stories and having a few drinks, then become a watered down version of Thelma and Louise. Cassidy puts her butt on the line in order for Kate to catch up with her mother, but the meeting doesn't quite provide the closure Kate was hoping for.
I'm glad Kate and Cassidy became buddies but I'm really not sure how they stretched these flashbacks over an entire centric. As is the case with most other characters, the flashback material was starting to wear a bit thin. Luckily Damon and Carlton are smarter than I am and figured out how to get past this.
On the island, the Others gas the barracks and leave Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Kate behind. Oh, and the surprise — Juliet was left behind too and handcuffed to Kate. This sets up the most interesting part of the episode by a long shot, and I don't just mean their brutal fistfight.
Kate may have won their little scuffle in the mud, but Juliet wins the war. Kate learns that Jack knew about her crazy cage sex with Sawyer, and while she's stunned from the news Juliet delivers the crushing blow:
JULIET: The reason Jack told you not to come back wasn't because he didn't want you to get hurt, it was because you broke his heart.
After narrowly escaping the Smoke Monster, Kate and Juliet return to the barracks and find that the Others have completely vacated the premises. Jack and Sayid join up with them, but only Jack's convinced that Juliet belongs in the mix. This trigglers a brief (and the only) mini-arc where I was quickly breaking ranks with Jack; more details on that in episodes to come.
Evangeline Lilly is a wonderful actress and critical element of LOST, but I have to say she was outshined a bit in her own centric this time around. In the island storyline I'd say Elizabeth Mitchell seemed like the primary focal point.
I think I understand it, though. How many times can you really ask Lilly to dig deep down and find that raw emotion from her situation with her mother? She still pulled it off quite well in Left Behind but I sensed that she was becoming just as fatigued with the storyline as anyone else.
Elizabeth Mitchell showed us a few new shades of both herself and Juliet. She could obviously hold her own with physical acting (that is, the scenes where she wasn't subbed by a double), but she also rode the thin line of honesty versus deception. I dare say I think Ben would be proud of her deceitful ways, lying to Kate about the handcuff key and her knowledge of the Smoke Monster.
Good performances by Kim Dickens (Cassidy Phillips) and Beth Broderick (Diane Janssen), not to mention Holloway and Garcia in their own sub-storyline about "the vote" that wasn't.
Minor deductions for the con scene at the gas station. I swear there must be some unwritten rule that all scenes at gas stations must feature terrible acting.
The obvious highlights in visuals/FX reside in the Kate/Juliet trek through the jungle. The fight scene was impressive enough but then they added a healthy dose of the Smoke Monster. Loved the way Smokey lunges toward Juliet (with the audience right behind her) only to be thwarted by the sonic fence.
The mini-montage on the beach is nicely done, showing Sawyer making the rounds at a boar roast and exchanging niceties with fellow survivors. Sun burns a hole in him with her eyes from afar, slamming the brakes on an otherwise uplifting sequence.
I'd say the rewatchability ratio is roughly 60/40, that is to say Kate's flashbacks aren't all that interesting to me after one or two times around. No, it's not "Kate hate" as some might presume, it's the fact that we genuinely needed to move past this part of her backstory.
There's quite a bit of significance in Jack's sudden alliance with Juliet, since it would ultimately lead to her joining the crowd at the beach camp and eventually "turning" for the better.
The unfortunate part of Left Behind is that it seems to want the audience to feel for Kate, but I just can't. When the protagonist irritates you more than her counterparts that's a bit of a problem. Again, to be clear, this isn't a knock on Lilly at all.
In the flashbacks, Kate is incredulous that her mother would even mention the possibility of an apology.
"I'm not sorry," Kate says as she wells up with tears. And this is what frustrates me to no end, to think that parts of the audience out there might actually be cheering for Kate at that point. I will never endorse or understand her world view, this notion that unapologetic vigilante justice is ever acceptable.
Kate tears up again when Juliet gives her the verbal smackdown, when she learns that Jack knew about her romp with Sawyer. Here again I felt like the intent was to make me sympathize with her but I felt absolutely nothing. If anything I was convinced that Kate was the biggest spoiled brat I'd seen in a while, that she and Sawyer were perfect for each other.
I only include this rant to demonstrate that frustration toward a character doesn't bode well for Intangibles. I'm far less eager to watch episodes that dredge up frustration and ill feelings toward characters than, say, uplifting episodes like S.O.S.
