LOST: Perpetual Mixed Feelings
Fans of Jack and Kate have no question been battered and bruised, tortured and left in despair. We know that feeling well. So the copious amounts of domestic glee, kissing and touching, loving and talking of marriage, are so welcome we almost don't know what to do with ourselves. I've already been saying it but will continue to do so - that proposal scene is one of my new favorites. The sweet, quiet way he wakes her up while he's still all dressed up in his suit; the way she's concerned and listens to him and reassures him, like she's always done; the way she tears up and visibly cries out of love and joy; the way he's got the ring in his pocket because this is something he was clearly prepared for; the way she immediately accepts because there can be no doubt; the way they grab onto each other and hug.
The first couple of purely fluff scenes almost made my heart jump out of my chest. I kind of couldn't believe it. Mmm... the shower scene and the hallway scene could just about make anyone melt. And I have an affinity for men with children, so seeing Jack read to Aaron while Kate watched - no wonder she jumped him in the hall. I would have too. So I can appreciate with the best of them what these kind of scenes mean to us considering we can basically count the previous Jate fluff scenes on one hand.
I understand that things would get angsty. Jack and Kate aren't supposed to be back in the real world, they're supposed to stay on the island, it was all a mistake. This dark period for Jack has been foreseen in TTLG. But there were so many nagging details that made me sad and unable to fully appreciate what we've been given. The doom of the statement from Jack's doctor friend: "I thought engagements were supposed to relieve stress, not create it." The ominous tones resonating from that scene where Kate's on the phone when Jack walks in and he's suspicious and starts putting walls up. The fighting because Kate won't open up to Jack about what she's doing and why. It's not romantic, but understandably Jack has doubts, and by keeping it a secret, it all seems bigger than it is. Why Sawyer must come up at all anymore.
I just don't get it. They've both had very similar trust issues; why can't they come together and bond over this instead of it being a source of division? And I can understand Jack's demise into rock bottom - he's seeing his dead father, he's haunted by Hurley's cryptic message from Charlie, he's wracked with guilt about leaving some of his people on the island, which we know how destructive that is for him. I don't really understand why a Kate and/or Sawyer issue has to add to his stress. For once, why couldn't they write Kate as a pillar for Jack during this time? She can see how he's falling, but ultimately he's so lost to himself that she doesn't know how to help him, so that's why she pulls away. For the life of me I simply cannot fathom why Sawyer must be a factor at all... AGAIN.
I think Skate is as done as it can be. Looking at it logically, once Sawyer gets back to the beach in the "present," the Oceanic Six will presumably be leaving fairly quickly, so I don't see much chance for Skate presence there. And by the time the Six get back to the island, Jack/Kate will have gone through all of this, being in love and together and engaged, so I can't see Skate happening then either. So I'm not threatened, just a little annoyed.
Another tiny detail that bugs me is that while I can't reinforce enough how lovely it was to see "Jack and Kate at home," I feel like we missed a step in between. The first time they had sex, the transition into real couple-dom, all of it that led from where we've seen them from the most recent present on the island to Eggtown to here. It's picky, I know, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was hoping we'd get more of this development on-island because that is the present we know. In some ways this "future" still seems kind of plastic and not real.
That brings me to the island story. Yes, watching Kate care for Jack, seeing her help carry him, watching her cry over him, is touching. I know she was overwhelmed which is why she left and Bernard had to come find her to report on Jack. But I wish we could have had a scene where she goes back to his bedside without Juliet there where she would finally tell him something, give him something, while he's secretly awake and hears it all. It never feels quite there.
I do not pride myself on being impossible to please. I don't want to be considered overly pessimistic and negative, and the absolute last thing in the world I want to do is bring anyone down or make it seem as though I need coddling. Because I'm fine. I will undoubtedly re-watch those happy Jate scenes more times than I can count. I guess for me it just feels incomplete. I'm critical because I'm so invested and sometimes it's still hard for me to reconcile what I see to what I dreamed of. I am in it for the journey, but I can't help but wish different decisions were made. Maybe I've gotten to a place where I expect too much, but I do not think that the writers can write Kate anymore at all. I feel they've lost sight of the person she was in S1 and that they've stopped trying and she's mostly a predictable tool now.
I believe that Jack and Kate can make it through anything, that they are Adam/Eve on the island, and that is where they belong. But some of the choices along the way leave me more than a little dissatisfied, and right now it feels a lot like Star Wars III when you see it coming and just want to scream, NOOO.
The first couple of purely fluff scenes almost made my heart jump out of my chest. I kind of couldn't believe it. Mmm... the shower scene and the hallway scene could just about make anyone melt. And I have an affinity for men with children, so seeing Jack read to Aaron while Kate watched - no wonder she jumped him in the hall. I would have too. So I can appreciate with the best of them what these kind of scenes mean to us considering we can basically count the previous Jate fluff scenes on one hand.
I understand that things would get angsty. Jack and Kate aren't supposed to be back in the real world, they're supposed to stay on the island, it was all a mistake. This dark period for Jack has been foreseen in TTLG. But there were so many nagging details that made me sad and unable to fully appreciate what we've been given. The doom of the statement from Jack's doctor friend: "I thought engagements were supposed to relieve stress, not create it." The ominous tones resonating from that scene where Kate's on the phone when Jack walks in and he's suspicious and starts putting walls up. The fighting because Kate won't open up to Jack about what she's doing and why. It's not romantic, but understandably Jack has doubts, and by keeping it a secret, it all seems bigger than it is. Why Sawyer must come up at all anymore.
I just don't get it. They've both had very similar trust issues; why can't they come together and bond over this instead of it being a source of division? And I can understand Jack's demise into rock bottom - he's seeing his dead father, he's haunted by Hurley's cryptic message from Charlie, he's wracked with guilt about leaving some of his people on the island, which we know how destructive that is for him. I don't really understand why a Kate and/or Sawyer issue has to add to his stress. For once, why couldn't they write Kate as a pillar for Jack during this time? She can see how he's falling, but ultimately he's so lost to himself that she doesn't know how to help him, so that's why she pulls away. For the life of me I simply cannot fathom why Sawyer must be a factor at all... AGAIN.
I think Skate is as done as it can be. Looking at it logically, once Sawyer gets back to the beach in the "present," the Oceanic Six will presumably be leaving fairly quickly, so I don't see much chance for Skate presence there. And by the time the Six get back to the island, Jack/Kate will have gone through all of this, being in love and together and engaged, so I can't see Skate happening then either. So I'm not threatened, just a little annoyed.
Another tiny detail that bugs me is that while I can't reinforce enough how lovely it was to see "Jack and Kate at home," I feel like we missed a step in between. The first time they had sex, the transition into real couple-dom, all of it that led from where we've seen them from the most recent present on the island to Eggtown to here. It's picky, I know, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was hoping we'd get more of this development on-island because that is the present we know. In some ways this "future" still seems kind of plastic and not real.
That brings me to the island story. Yes, watching Kate care for Jack, seeing her help carry him, watching her cry over him, is touching. I know she was overwhelmed which is why she left and Bernard had to come find her to report on Jack. But I wish we could have had a scene where she goes back to his bedside without Juliet there where she would finally tell him something, give him something, while he's secretly awake and hears it all. It never feels quite there.
I do not pride myself on being impossible to please. I don't want to be considered overly pessimistic and negative, and the absolute last thing in the world I want to do is bring anyone down or make it seem as though I need coddling. Because I'm fine. I will undoubtedly re-watch those happy Jate scenes more times than I can count. I guess for me it just feels incomplete. I'm critical because I'm so invested and sometimes it's still hard for me to reconcile what I see to what I dreamed of. I am in it for the journey, but I can't help but wish different decisions were made. Maybe I've gotten to a place where I expect too much, but I do not think that the writers can write Kate anymore at all. I feel they've lost sight of the person she was in S1 and that they've stopped trying and she's mostly a predictable tool now.
I believe that Jack and Kate can make it through anything, that they are Adam/Eve on the island, and that is where they belong. But some of the choices along the way leave me more than a little dissatisfied, and right now it feels a lot like Star Wars III when you see it coming and just want to scream, NOOO.