4x04, "Eggtown"

*"Eggtown's" received some of the strongest negative reviews on The Fuselage since the beginning of season three. Much of the dissatisfaction originates from Kate's trial, called in one Fuselage thread, "The Worst Television Trial Ever!" That's harsh, there's certainly been worse. But it still went against the audience's expectations of what a televised trial should look like. Now for a show that already and proudly bucks every convention of network television, this shouldn't have been a problem. But there was a few too many story beats that on first glance stretched the trial's credibility, seemingly at the expense of getting to a new status quo of Kate being stuck in California.

This is what I've seen a lot of people point to: The prosecutor came across as ridiculously inept. Next, how could Kate really get off that easy? If the case against her was so strong she was the subject of a global manhunt, shouldn't there have been more evidence than just the testimony of her mother? How about the death of her childhood sweetheart, the poisoning of her ex-husband, the aiding and abetting of the robbery in Albuquerque, etc, etc. Was it realistic to believe all of that may have been forgiven by her newfound celebrity as one of the Oceanic 6, but the murder of her abusive father just couldn't? And even if the prosecutor believed that was not the case, why didn't she just risk going to trial anyway as Kate could've been nailed on at least one of the more minor counts against her.

I would agree all of those are valid knocks against the story, except the week before I'd seen something pretty similar go down on The Wire. Not to give too much away, a character who'd been the subject of an investigation for at least two if not three seasons of the show's run was finally brought to trial. Despite a mountain of incontrovertible evidence against him, he was acquitted by a jury sympathetic to his life story. The difference between the two trials was that Kate's was done in just four segments of one episode while nearly five episodes (really five seasons) of groundwork was laid in the Wire to justify the sympathies of a jury.

I think the biggest mistake may have been doing the trial story at all. I think they could've skipped it altogether and gotten to a plot point that just showed Kate got off due to her celebrity without actually needing to show a trial. Or they could've stretched out the trial to at least two episodes where a believable world was established in which she had just the amount of sympathy on her side to get off.

But really, I think it's just another case of expectations being set so high. LOST has been able to capture the flavor of nearly every genre on television. If they missed the mark with one I think that can be forgiven.

*A lot of people are pissed at Locke's new self-proclaimed dictatorship. Really I think it's the completely natural next step of his evolution: he's special, full of potential, but still raw and unfocussed. He hasn't been this groundless since his time with the Button, and the opening scene between him and Ben mirrored perfectly the time in the hatch Ben was most successful at undermining his self-confidence, all the way down to Locke breaking some dishes. I think Locke's progression may be mirroring what Ben went through before he became the leader of the Others.

*There had been a definition of an Eggtown on Lostpedia but it's since disappeared. It was a pretty good one too about eggtowns being salesman lingo for a place where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

*Aaron, huh? There was a point I knew Kate's "son" just couldn't be her own. Too much of the episode was built around denying it (with Kate not sleeping with Sawyer, Sun and Jin talking about their own baby and Kate reluctant to hold Aaron). You sort of knew the child would have to be either Aaron or Jin and Sun's. Really, it makes a ton of sense: Charlie sacrificed his life to save Claire and Aaron. Desmond's vision was correct, but the unintended consequence was somehow Claire didn't end up finishing the journey. Maybe she dies on the Island. Maybe she dies during the rescue. Maybe she's around but for some strange reason has to pretend the baby isn't hers. Regardless, Kate's former status quo as "The Runner" has been supplanted with a new one that keeps her firmly rooted. And she seems to be happy about this, the biggest reason she doesn't want to go back to the Island: she finally has a reason to stay put.

*I have no idea what's up with Farraday's card game, but some speculate he's not really crazy but maybe has a "beautiful mind" that could understand the Island's unique physics.

*Me'thinks this week's episode will focus on the now lost helicopter and what happened to it. I'm placing my bets it's a Desmond-centric episode. The title: "The Constant". Hmmm...