Season 4: Episode 4 (Eggtown)

Thankfully this week's episode moved in the direction of providing clarity to some of the mysteries and questions raised. This is a sharp contrast with last week's episode which seemed to raise a muliude of new mysteries and questions. That being said, my analysis of this week's episode follows.

Hard Facts
1. Kate is one of the Oceanic Six (not a surprise given previous flash forwards we've seen already).
2. Kate has a son named Aaron.
3. Ben has access to extensive financial resources.
4. Miles’ boss wants Ben dead.
5. Miles knows the identity of his own boss notwithstanding his prior protestations of ignorance to Jack.
6. Ben knows the identity of Miles’ boss.
7. Miles state that we is willing to accept a $3.2 million bribe for making a false report of Ben’s death.
8. The District Attorney takes a personal interest in prosecuting Kate for the past crimes that she committed.
9. Part of the plea deal requires Kate not to leave the State in which she is currently living.
10. There is an "official" version of the crash story which involves there having been only eight survivors of the crash and the plane having gone down in the ocean with those few survivors swimming ashore. Most of the people who survived the crash are dead or reported as such to the outside world.

A Litigator’s Observation
The trial scenes make no sense. This is a litigator’s blog so indulge me on these points.
First, the way trials work in this country has the prosecution put in its case-in-chief, i.e., its witnesses who are cross-examined by the defense. After the prosecution rests, the defense puts in its defense through calling its own witnesses. However, in LOST, apparently the defense puts in its witnesses before the prosecution is ever put to the task of proving its case.
Second, Kate’s character and qualities as a human being (or lack thereof) is not relevant to her guilt or innocence. Character witnesses are generally reserved for the sentencing portion of a case. The only possible exception would be if Kate testified on her own behalf and in cross-examining her the prosecution called her character into question. Of course, none of these things happened here making Jack’s testimony so plainly inadmissible that not even Judge Ito would have allowed it to proceed.
Third, it boggles to mind to believe that the prosecuor's case was so weak that she would have withdrawn the case after a single "star" witness -- the accused's mother -- who was terminally ill refused to teatify.
Fourth, the case is said to take place in federal court and we are told the District Attorney herself is trying the case. However, in federal court the prosecutors are known as U.S. Attorneys. Ask Alberto Gonzales, Jr., he’s from Texas and as Attorney General, fired a whole bunch of them.

I can only hope that LOST has done a better job with the science and other issues which underpin parts of the plot.

Other Observations
1. Locke is, and knows, that he is more LOST than ever. He’s LOST because
notwithstanding his repeatedly being cured of major ailments (i.e., partial paralysis and gunshot wounds) he still has no idea how the Island works or what he should do next of he continues to live on the Island.
2. The helicopter has gone missing but fear not we already know courtesy of the flash
forwards that Sayyid and at least five other crash victims reach civilization. The real question is how a helicopter with a limited fuel supply could go missing and where it went. The preview for the next episode suggests that we will soon (i.e., next episode) learnthese answers.
3. The trial scene happens before Jack’s future emotional breakdown we witnessed in
his first flash forward at the end of Season 3. Jack is still relatively well adjusted after his initial re-introduction to society.
4. Kate has sufficient financial resources to live in a well-appointed house and have a
nanny. Those resources could either have come from her share of the Oceanic Six settlement previously mentioned by Sayyid or from her spouse.
5. There is something special about Kate’s "son." Her lawyer wants to use Aaron at
trial and Kate’s previously estranged mother is desperate to see her "grandson." Jack, on the other hand, wants to go nowhere near Aaron. Let’s not forget that Christian Shepard is the child’s true grandfather since he was Claire’s father.
6. Kate’s having Claire’s baby indicates that Claire did not make it off the Island
alive. Desmond’s previous vision of her boarding a helicopter with Aaron might still be correct. Boarding a helicopter does not mean that one disembarks alive.
7. The District Attorney may have an affiliation with the Barge or Ben. The
requirement that Kate not leave the State for ten years as part of a plea agreement seemed odd to me. Then again, as noted above, the legal proceedings on LOST were plain bizarre and unconnected to the administration of law in 21st century America.
8. My previous speculation about the importance of Anna Lucia may have been
wrong. It is now more likely that Hurley had to avoid saying that he met her on the Island because doing so would have compromised the official version of events as testified to by Jack at Kate’s trial.
9. Eight survivors of the crash are referenced in Jack's testimony. Two people who are acknowledged to have survived the crash are likely, therefore, not to have made it back to civilization alive. Who those two people are and what happened to them wil undoubtedly be filled by coming episodes.
10. We still don't know what happens to the remaining crash survivors. They may be still alive in hiding on the Island or they have been killed by whatever conflict the Barge occassions. Ben's comment to Sayyidd at the end of last week's episode suggest that many, if not all, met an unfortunate end.