The Scourge of "LOST"

After hearing the latest rumors on who will be leaving "LOST" and who will be staying, I found myself reacting in the following manner:


The Scourge of "LOST"

After reading the recent rumors about which major character will be leaving "LOST" and who will be staying, I found myself getting emotional over the matter. I wish they would simply kill off the Kate Austen character. Just scrag her freckled butt, so I could watch the rest of this series in some semblance of peace. But . . . it will never happen.

The show's producers will never get rid of Kate. Never. She will probably be around until the very last episode. It occurred to me that even if Kate's character becomes "redeemed" in the end, I would still dislike her. I have never liked her. I used to be indifferent to her character . . . until I saw (1.12) "Whatever the Case May Be". Then my dislike of her character began in earnest.

Yet, despite the backstory given to her in episodes like "Whatever the Case May Be", (1.22) "Born to Run", (2.09) "What Kate Did", (3.15)"Left Behind", (4.04) "Eggtown" and (5.04) "The Little Prince"; Kate's lack of morals and responsibility is not the main reason why I dislike her character. Many of the other characters are just as flawed. But many fans have never gone out of their way to make excuses for the actions of other characters like they have done for Kate. And I suspect that there is a reason for this phenonemon.

I suspect that the Kate Austen character is supposed to represent the either a physical embodiment of the American feminine ideal (odd, for a character being portrayed by a Canadian actress) and wet dream of the aged 30-to-50 fanboys like the show's producers, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindehof and J.J. Abrams. Many fans already suspect that actress Evangeline Lilly was hired because she represented the "look" he wanted for Kate's character. Hell, Abrams had even had hired actress Michele Monaghan to portray Tom Cruise's wife in "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III", which was directed by Abrams. And Monaghan bears a strong resemblance to Lilly. Frankly, I wish she had been hired to portray Kate. Perhaps I would have been able to identify with the character a little more. Hell, Sun-Hwa Kwon is, in her own way, just as flaky as Kate. But her character was put into the hands of a first-class actress like Yunjin Kim. Which is why I find it easier to understand her character.

Frankly, I believe that Kate is a character that the producers should have written out of the show back in Season Three. Instead, they kept her around because of Lilly's looks and they needed to extend the much hated Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle until the bitter end. And to ensure that Kate's character remain as long as possible, they dumped the Aaron Littleton storyline on her. Why? To justify her continuing presence on the show. And if I have to be honest, they have barely done squat with that storyline. Really. We are supposed to finally discover why Kate did not bring Aaron back with her in an upcoming episode called, (5.11) "Whatever Happened, Happened". But you know what? I could not care less. I would rather see Kate dead than find out what she had done with Aaron.

But they will never get rid of Kate. She is like this disease that never goes away. Some article from the "E! Online" website had the nerve to say that many fans were glad that Kate was not being killed off. Perhaps that is true. However, the author failed to take into account the number of fans that had expressed their disappointment in the news that Kate was staying around.

God, I weep for this show!