Behold, the episode which prompted me to join the Kate Hate Club for the rest of Season 4! Seriously, if they had t-shirts available I would've bought a dozen.
Let's start with the island storyline, which is a bit more interesting and a lot less infuriating. Locke's got Ben locked up in the Barracks, Miles is tied up in a distant boathouse. Questionable decision by Locke to have Miles so far away and unguarded, but that's another matter.
We learn why Kate decided to stay with Locke's group — to see if the science team knew of her criminal history. Miles is happy to divulge that info in exchange for a meeting with Ben, so Kate kicks off her Barracks Manipulation Tour. Sawyer diverts Locke's attention long enough for Kate to arrange the Miles/Ben meeting, and yes, Miles knows everything about her. She's so screwed.
Speaking of screwed, she'd have one more romp with Sawyer (post-banishment) before getting offended again and stomping her feet all the way to the beach.
And now, the flash-forwards (FFs). Sawyer was apparently right, there was nothing waiting for Kate in the States except a trial and a pair of handcuffs. Kate and her lawyer are getting trounced until Jack appears to testify on her behalf. Major points for her character in the eyes of the jury.
And then it happens. The scene which convinces me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kate Austen is a hopeless lunatic. Her mother (Diane) meets with her and suggests she doesn't want to testify. No apologies from Kate, not for killing Wayne or inflicting all this suffering in her final years. No, instead Kate offers more anger and frustration.
But that's not the kicker. Diane asks to see her grandson, a perfectly normal request and a kind extension of an olive branch. What does Kate do? She changes her facial expression into a near-scowl and says, "I don't want you anywhere near him."
I think the first time I saw this scene I shouted a few obscenities toward the screen. How in the world did psycho Kate think she was justified in making Diane out to be some sort of villian? Diane may have exercised poor judgment in staying with an abusive man, but Kate made it exponentially worse with years of pain and suffering. For her to act like Diane was somehow being unreasonable in wanting to see Aaron is flat-out disgusting.
Even with the above rant, I'm not going to say this was bad writing UNLESS it was intended to make the audience support Kate in some way. It damaged her beyond repair in my eyes, even if she did get some of that good will back in the final two seasons.
My frustrations toward Kate begin and end with Kate and don't extend to Evangeline Lilly, who is clearly a wonderful actress. She had a lot of ground to cover in Eggtown, from a formally dressed woman on trial to renegade Kate striking deals with Miles to vulnerable Kate sharing intimate moments with Sawyer.
But when it comes to one line in the dialogue, one line that made me despise her character completely, I'd love to know how it was intended by the writers versus how Lilly executed it.
KATE (to her mother): I don't want you anywhere near [Aaron].
If Lilly had delivered the line with a hint of vulnerability, or some kind of wink-wink acknowledgement to Diane that there was more than meets the eye with Aaron, I might not have been so agitated. But she said it angrily, clearly sending the message that Diane had a lot of nerve to want to see her own grandson. If that was Lilly's decision, it irrevocably damaged her character in my eyes. If that was Sarnoff and Nations' decision, it falls on their shoulders.
Holloway and O'Quinn were the other solid pillars of this episode, each with their respective humorous moments. I especially liked O'Quinn's exchange at Locke's doorstep:
LOCKE: You may think this is a democracy, Kate, because of the way Jack ran things. But this is not a democracy.
KATE: Then I guess that makes it a dictatorship.
LOCKE: If I was a dictator, I would just shoot you, and go about my day. Dinner's at six if you're hungry.
Good stuff.
I'm a little surprised they went with veteran director Stephen Williams on this one. It's extremely dialogue-heavy with virtually no special requirements for visuals or effects. There were a ton of one-on-one conversations in this episode, so whether it's Locke/Ben, Locke/Miles, Sawyer/Locke, Kate/Sawyer, or Kate/Locke, I suspect there's not an extreme level of difficulty in shooting those scenes.
Deductions for the scene where Locke slams a tray full of food against a "concrete" wall. The wall actually bends and shakes upon the tray's impact. The tantrum could've been cut without sacrificing much, so I'm surprised this goof made it to the final cut.
I'm never anxious to rewatch episodes that frustrate me toward a character. I'm also not a fan of court trials in a TV series, as I've never seen one that I thought was truly compelling. The good news is they didn't torture us with an extended arc covering Kate's trial. That would've singlehandedly ruined Season 4 for me.
I'd say that there was significance in Kate not going to prison but even that might not be a safe assumption. It would seem that if Ben/Eloise really wanted the Losties to go back to the island they'd make it happen, whether Kate was in prison or living in the suburbs.
I won't knock the lack of atmosphere in Eggtown because it clearly wasn't the objective. Emotional impact WAS the objective, I'm just not sure the writers got the one they expected. Perhaps controversy is what they were aiming for, in which case mission accomplished.
The problem is, Eggtown is probably a better episode than I'm giving it credit for but it's tainted by feelings toward Kate. It's amplified by the fact that I know I'm watching a flash-forward, indicating she'd learned absolutely nothing during her time on the island. She was just as self-centered and psychotic after rescue as before, so my willingness to invest in Kate hit rock bottom in this episode.
