Lost 1.22: "Born to Run"

[Ms_Macphisto]

@Dewey Finn

Re the toy airplane, I think the timing is this. First, Kate and Tom buried it in the lunchbox at the age of 16 or so. Later, she returned in her late 20’s and dug it up with Tom. She left it in the car when he died, and somehow, sometime later it wound up in a bank vault. She participated in a bank robbery and killed several accomplices simply to retrieve it. Later, the marshal had it or confiscated it from her and put it in the Halliburton case, from which she retrieved it. That’s one important toy airplane.

Oh, and the speculation that she killed her father in self-defense seems plausible.

That sounds about right to me, though from the way their voices sound on the tape in the time capsule, I’d put their age more at around 12 or so. Plus from the quick glimpse of the lunch box lid as Kate cleared the dirt off, it appeared to be a New Kids on the Block lunch box, which I’m fairly sure no self-respecting 16-year-old would have owned in 1989.

Of course, even if there’s a fairly rapid succession from visit home to bank robbery to plane crash, it raises the problem of Tom apparently being some kind of boy wonder to be a doctor already, but that seems to be a fairly common problem on tv.

[Pazu]

vivalostwages: thanks! We came in right at the scene with Kate and her mom.

Seems to me that the last place you would want to be caught in a monsoon would be on a raft in the open ocean…

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

Please fill me in: weather bulletin at 10:35 into the ep. Tom’s car, “I’m sorry”, “I’m sorry, too”, lasted about a minute.

[look_ninjas]

Danielle’s coming back! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Sorry. Just felt the need to share that.

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

A dark episode. Probably because of all the pain Kate has caused and continues to cause to people around her.

I can’t believe how much some of us think alike. Repeats and my thoughts below, but first some points not yet raised:

Favorite lines:

Art, to Sawyer: “You’re a damn hillbilly!”
Sawyer, to Michael, about Jin: “Sulu packing a suitcase full of salted fish!”
Jack, to Locke: “Discretion, John.” (Third time the phrase was used, in their battle of one-upmanship justifying their respective secrecy.)
Sawyer, to Kate: “Cause there ain’t anything on this island worth staying for.” That had to leave a mark.
Charlie still uses “TurnipHead”.

Planted coincidence: Kate’s alias is “Joan Hart (or Heart)”. The license plate Kate switched to is Ohio - “The Heart of it All”.

Something I don’t get, while Tom and Kate are digging up the box:
Tom: “It’s not fair, you know - you coming back - here - home.”
Kate: “I know.”
Did she get her (speculated) stepdad sent to prison?

A creepy point: Jin still has the handcuff on. When he finds out Kate has had the key in her pocket (OK, I made that up) the whole time, yet another guy will hate her.
Points I would have mentioned had I been the first poster:

Excellent use of a redshirt, Art. Provided info needed to drive the plot, and eased the look-the-redshirt-is-gonna-die feel to the episodes. Did I spot a couple more child redshirts?

Hurley: “How am I supposed to keep straight who knows what around here?” as a favorite line.

Kate: “Do you really think I’m capable of that?”
Jack: “I don’t know what you’re capable of.”
All of the early speculation as to whether Jack or Sawyer gets into her pants first is proved moot as both seem to actively dislike her now.

“Track 2 - Monster Ate the Pilot” on Charlie’s **“platinum” ** new album as a favorite line.

Walt psyches out at Locke’s touch - maybe they should have everyone touch him and figure everything out at once?

The questions about Diane/Kate’s Mom. Kate’s first mention of her was as “Diane”, not Mom. StepMom? Foster Mom? And Diane’s last name was Jansen (Young Kate’s was Austin), adding the possibility of a StepDad. I’m at a loss why she started screaming for help.

Walt saying “Yes we do (have to leave)” Listen To This Child! He Knows Things!

Young Kate wanting to run away, and Tom “knows why”. I’m thinking some kind of step-parental abuse (not necessarily sexual), which led to psychological screwups and her criminal career.

8/15/1989
Old License plate: Nebraska 7-C153N. New License plate: Ohio DPN 924A.

[John_Mace]

I like the idea that Kate was abused and killed her dad. But I got the impression that she put her mom thru hell for some unjustified reason. If she had really been abused, she wouldn’t feel all that guilty.

Good episode, but not as much plot advancement as I had hoped for. It’s pretty clear that Walt has a premonition of bad things to come, and now wants to get off the island. Jack should’ve suspected Kate right away (re: poisoning) considering what she did to him last week. I loved the mental jousting between Jack and Locke.

I’m surprised Mike would want to take Walt on the raft. There’s probably a better chance that they’d die at sea than be rescued.

CFL next week!! Can hardly wait.

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

I am determined to find *The Lost * before It’s Too Late. So, if anyone has a globe, get a piece of string, tape it on so it goes from Sydney to Los Angeles, and let me know the coordinates where the string crosses the major latitudes and longitudes.

[Larry_Mudd]

@Oslo Ostragoth

“Track 2 - Monster Ate the Pilot” on Charlie’s **“platinum” ** new album as a favorite line.

Refresh my memory, folks.

The monster ate the pilot in episode two (also called “Pilot,”) right?

I wonder what the other tracks on Charlie’s platiinum album will be?

“Ooh! Ooh! Listen! Track 7-- Locke Took My Heroin.” strum strum strum

“Check it out! Track 10! This is a little ditty I call Ethan Stole My Sweetie (And Strung Me Up, The Jerk.)” plinka plinka plinka

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

@Larry Mudd

Refresh my memory, folks.

The monster ate the pilot in episode two (also called “Pilot,”) right?

I wonder what the other tracks on Charlie’s platiinum album will be?

“Ooh! Ooh! Listen! Track 7-- Locke Took My Heroin.” strum strum strum

“Check it out! Track 10! This is a little ditty I call Ethan Stole My Sweetie (And Strung Me Up, The Jerk.)” plinka plinka plinka

This could be a great thread in itself…

[Askia]

Larry Mudd. I am inspired by your example.

Track 1 - Ran Out Of Bandages
Track 2 - Flushed Horse
Track 3 - Hugo Reyes, Locke and Sawyer *
Track 5 - I Keep Almost Dying
Track 6 - Jin, No Chaser
Track 7 - Monster Ate The Pilot
Track 8 - Turniphead Littleton
Track 9 - Evil Thug Hijacks Aussie Nativity (E.T.H.A.N.)
Track 10 - Peanut Butter Foreplay
Track 11 - (hidden track) - Running Through The Jungle

• Track 3 originally entitled, Hurley, Squirrelly and Surly

[zuma]

@Dewey Finn

Re the toy airplane, I think the timing is this. First, Kate and Tom buried it in the lunchbox at the age of 16 or so. Later, she returned in her late 20’s and dug it up with Tom. She left it in the car when he died, and somehow, sometime later it wound up in a bank vault. She participated in a bank robbery and killed several accomplices simply to retrieve it. Later, the marshal had it or confiscated it from her and put it in the Halliburton case, from which she retrieved it. That’s one important toy airplane.

Oh, and the speculation that she killed her father in self-defense seems plausible.

Any speculation on the plane? Obviously it is more than just a sentimental reminder to Kate about Tom. Someone took the trouble to put the toy plane in a safe deposit box (and the plane was the only thing in the box), and Kate found it important enough to steal the key from whoever owned the box, and rob the bank to get to it.

[Odinoneeye]

I’m still not sure that the plane was in the safety deposit box. When Kate took the envelope out, it looked too thin to have the toy plane in it.

So either…

1. There was something else in that envelope that we don’t know about.

or

2. The props department goofed.

I was under the impression that the flashbacks in this episode took place after the bank robbery and that was why the cops were after her. Her mother screamed because she knew about the robbery and assault and was afraid of her daughter.

Of course, I could be wrong. I have been once or twice before. Ok once.

[rockle]

@John Mace

Jack should’ve suspected Kate right away (re: poisoning) considering what she did to him last week.

Did Kate actually poison Michael? I got the impression from “The Lost Minute”[sup]TM[/sup] that Sun did the poisoning, and the intended target was Jin (it was Jin’s water, after all – he handed the bottle to Michael). It was only Kate’s idea, and it served a double purpose: (1) it would have kept Jin on the island with Sun, thus (2) freeing a spot on the raft that Kate could “step up” and fill.

Clearly, Walt’s role in all of this is bigger than we realize. I have wondered all along if The Others weren’t actually looking for him, instead of Claire and/or Turniphead.

[Trion]

@zuma

Any speculation on the plane? Obviously it is more than just a sentimental reminder to Kate about Tom. Someone took the trouble to put the toy plane in a safe deposit box (and the plane was the only thing in the box), and Kate found it important enough to steal the key from whoever owned the box, and rob the bank to get to it.

OK, I have some speculation.

I’ll say right here that it’s not the most emotionally satisfying piece of speculation around, but it does fill in all the blanks.

Young Tom gets himself a toy airplane while on a trip somewhere. It becomes one of his favorite toys and gains special sentimental value to Kate.

Eventually Kate runs away from home after accidentally killing her abusive (step)father. (Abusive (step)father courtesy of Little Nemo’s friend.) Years later she returns after hearing that her mother is dying of cancer. Her and Tom dig up the plane and Tom is subsequently killed in Kate’s escape from the police. Kate runs. She would like to have the plane, but she doesn’t think of it while fleeing and when she does think of it later, she at least knows that this sentimental toy will wing up with his family.

And it does wind up with his family. Unfortunately they aren’t doing so good. They no longer have a doctor’s income for support. But they do catch a break. Turns out that the plane is an Ultra-Rare Collector’s Item. They won’t be able to put the kid through college with the money they get from it, but it’ll help.

So they sell it to a collector, who puts it in the safety deposit box. Kate finds out and decides to get it back. It has meaning to her. Sure, she’ll have to rob a bank, but she may have robbed several banks by now - what’s one more? Besides, it is worth money!

Which brings us to the bank robbing episode and the circle of life is complete.
Like I said, no big mystery in this scenario. But the plane has served as a nifty little red herring.

[av8rmike]

Maybe I’m missing something blindingly obvious, but why did it suddenly become so important to Kate to Get Off the Island? The marshal captured her in Australia and was returning her to the U.S. when the plane crashed. Anyone still looking for her in the U.S. would probably assume she’d died in the crash. Kate goes to the trouble of finding and disfiguring the dead woman’s passport to assume her identity when, presumably, she is rescued. I understand that leaving is probably more attractive than staying on Crazy Island, but why did she want to leave so badly?

[Spoke]

@Little Nemo

A friend who I was watching it with figures that Kate was being molested by her father and killed him.

More “daddy issues.”

[Draelin]

@av8rmike

Maybe I’m missing something blindingly obvious, but why did it suddenly become so important to Kate to Get Off the Island?

As I understand it, once the rafters are rescued, the entire world media will descend upon the story, and upon the island (once it’s found again). The last thing Kate wants is her face plastered all over the newspapers and TV. By being on the raft and using an assumed name, it’s possible she can slip away before the story breaks. If she stays on the island, it’s likely that the authorities will come looking for her, specifically.

And I can be added to the list of people that think Kate was being abused somehow … but that doesn’t quite explain why her mother was so afraid of her. What I’m wondering is who sent the letter she picked up at the hotel? It clearly wasn’t her mother. Was it Tom? It seems Kate’s been on the run for much longer than we had thought–way before the bank robbery, at the very least. In addition to that, during the Great Beach Confrontation and Demasking, she says she’s going to jail for what she supposedly did. Which brings to mind what the marshal said to her on the plane, about the higher-ups “believing her story.” And knowing we’re not going to get any more info on this until at least September is going to drive me nuts. sigh

[AncientHumanoid]

The plane is a Totem, it houses Tom’s soul.

Or, Kate is bonkers.
Claire and Charlie are becoming more comfortable with intimacy. She’s cutting his hair, they’re both talking about the future assuming each other is there. I like that they are obviously attracted but kind of shy and unsure, just like real life sometimes is.

[Monstre]

@av8rmike

Maybe I’m missing something blindingly obvious, but why did it suddenly become so important to Kate to Get Off the Island?

If the raft group makes it to a ship, they will tell authorities and media about the other survivors on the island. If Kate is with the first group (on the raft), she will have a better chance of slipping away before the media hailstorm begins.

If there is a rescue on the island due to the raft group making it to safety, rescue teams will arrive to the island amidst lots of media attention, which means more likelihood that she will be recognized and apprehended by authorities before making it to any mainland. If she’s on the raft, there are no guarantees, but her odds of slipping off into the crowd and avoiding the media attention are better.

And my contribution for Charlie’s new CD:

Track 15: “I Shot the Asshole (But I did not shoot the TCM)”

[Little_Nemo]

So Kate’s major guys are Tom and Sawyer?

It’s a good thing this isn’t a NBC series. We’d get a West Wing crossover flashback with Kate babysitting for Toby Ziegler.