"The Love Triangle From Hell"
”THE LOVE TRIANGLE FROM HELL”
Now that the James "Sawyer" Ford/Juliet Burke romance has ended with a blast in "The Incident", fans of "LOST" are once again speculating on whom Kate Austen will choose for her permanent mate by the end of the series - James or Dr. Jack Shephard. Honestly? I no longer care. And right now, I am beginning to wonder if I ever did.
As much as I disliked Kate, I used to believe that she was better off with Sawyer. He seemed more like an equal partner than someone who would look down upon her . . . like Dr. Shephard. Then I remembered. Jack have a bad habit of treating Kate as a wayward child. How many times have viewers seen him vent his anger or frustrations upon her, treating her as someone beneath him? Then again, Jack also had a bad habit of being a pushover for Kate’s schemes and lies. After all, she did managed to manipulate him into opening the U.S. Marshal’s case in ”Whatever the Case May Be”, despite his anger at her lies. Even worse, he allowed himself to be manipulated into supporting her lie that she was Aaron Littleton’s mother.
I had figured that at least Sawyer would never have been stupid enough to be manipulated by an obvious liar like Kate. Looking back on their relationship, I realized I was wrong. Yes, Sawyer would have allowed himself to be manipulated by Kate. And he would have done so with his eyes wide open. Why? Because like Jack, he was stupid enough to do anything for her. He pretty much made that clear in ”The Hunting Party” and in one of the late Season 3 episodes, when they were sleeping together. Even Sawyer has used Kate . . . in his scheme to assume control of the castaways’ guns in ”The Long Con”. He used her to plant a suspicion about Ana-Lucia Cortez in order to distract everyone from his own scheme. But that was a rare occasion. Before Season 5, Sawyer allowed to use him. Especially for sex. What was even more pathetic about their Season 3 affair was that Kate was using him as rebound over her jealousy toward Jack’s new friendship with Juliet. Sawyer knew it and made the choice to be her bed warmer anyway. Moron.
Most Sawyer/Kate fans would see nothing wrong with this, arguing that Sawyer was a grown man who had made his own choice. Well, the Jack/Kate fans can say the same about Jack’s choices. After all, he did commit perjury at Kate’s trial to support her lies about her relationship with Aaron and to continue his own lies about her activities on the island, following their return to the States. And Jack finally did cave in to Kate’s ultimatum after their return to the States that he would be allowed to share her bed - only if he agreed to act as Aaron’s father. Thinking below his belt, Jack caved in to Kate’s demands, until his guilt over their lies led to a fight between them and his abandonment of Kate and Aaron. But it did not take him very long to help her keep custody of Aaron . . . even when the three year-old’s grandmother was in Los Angeles for business regarding her daughter’s death and Oceanic Airlines.
This also brings me to Juliet Burke. Jack had used her back in Season 3 and most of Season 4 to hide his own discovery of Kate and Sawyer’s sexual encounter in the Others’ cages. I think that Jack liked her a lot, but he was never in love with her. Yet, that did not stop him from using her. And I suspect that Sawyer did the same in Season 5. When I noticed Sawyer and Juliet’s interactions between each other in the first eight episodes of that season, I thought they made a first-rate pair and was happy to see their romance confirmed in ”La Fleur”. But recalling Sawyer’s reaction to seeing Kate again after three years at the end of that particular episode and the silent exchange that Juliet had witnessed in ”The Incident”, I now suspect that Sawyer may have used her as rebound for being apart from Kate during those three years. After all, it was Sawyer who had convinced Juliet to remain on the island, claiming that he needed her company. Perhaps he did. But if he really did love Kate more, I have nothing but contempt toward him for using Juliet . . . just as much as I have contempt toward Jack for doing the same thing. And I think I would have been happier if Jack, Sawyer and Kate had ended up in that pit before everything had blown to sky high, instead of Juliet.
Most fans would have pointed out that the Terrible Trio should not deserve Juliet’s fiery death. After all, Jacob had interacted with Jack, Kate and Sawyer before the fateful crash of Oceanic Airline’s Flight 815 in September 2004. But you know what? That would not have been a substantial argument for me. Considering Jacob’s view of humanity, I consider him to be a fucking moron. And the fact that he had ”touched” Jack, Sawyer and Kate did not impress me one bit. I still believe that their asses should have been blown to hell. Instead, Cuse and Lindehof will continue one of the most badly written love triangles in television history into the last season of ”LOST”. But I can no longer tolerate watching two men whom I hardly have any respect for, fight over a worthless bitch like Kate. No wonder I can barely muster any further interest in this series.