Wednesday, December 16

Eggtown (S4, ep. 4)


The Rewatch Column for "Eggtown" has been inadequately placed on trial for your reading pleasure on Chud.com.

Posted by MMorse at 4:22 PM
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8 comments:

  1. litgDecember 16, 2009 at 3:49 PM

    Morse,

    I agree that the trial seems sloppy. It's almost as though the writers spent 3 seasons gleefully adding to Kate's crimes via backstory, daring each other to see how many more crimes she could commit, and then went "Oh, crap" when they realized they had to somehow let her walk away scott free.

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  2. UnknownDecember 16, 2009 at 4:24 PM

    Morse & Greg:

    Agreed as well. In fact, I think the compiled crimes- being added on after each other - were partly necessary to the overall story because, pre-meditated as it was - the initial crime was one that a jury could be pretty sympathetic too. In fact, if Kate had gone in and faced the music on the original charge, she may have gotten off. The interesting thing about Kate's story is she refused to face the music, and caused much more stress and heartache by repeating this sin.

    Two thoughts:

    1) There is one line in the episode that gives some credibility to the idea that she could get off so easy. And I believe the failure here may be in not expanding and dwelling upon it sufficiently. This would be the celebrity status of the Oceanic Six.

    Prior to this episode, we've only seen two examples that these folks are major media celebrities - Hurley's claim at the start of the season to being one of the Oceanic Six when arrested and Peter Avellino's recognition of the term when Sayid lays it out on the golf course before killing him. (and it seems clear he recognizes it for non-media reasons as he starts to be afraid).

    If Eggtown had really driven this point home. and aggressively shown shown Kate and Jack as the star celebrities with all the trappings (not just reporters outside of a murder trial), then it would be more plausible that this ironic twist of fate taking her from anonymity to celebrity might be responsible for her freedom. Instead it was a throwaway line that her defense used in the negotiation - that Kate was a media darling. After the fact, Kate is glad that Aaron's caretaker kept him away from the TV. No other celebrity nods that i can think of offhand.

    They could have played this celebrity up by integrating several details such as a prosecutor having trouble finding an unbiased jury, someone asking Kate and/or Jack for an autograph, having an Entertainment Tonight-type news clip shown, showing someone carrying a tabloid asserting how the conspirators were trying to punish a hero. Each of these things could have been details in existing scenes and not require much variation.

    You guys may still disagree. But I believe that if the show really illustrated that these survivors - and particularly the heroic woman who saved the others while pregnant and then gave birth to a cute blond miracle baby - were beloved celebrities, then it might have worked.

    The show may have sold it and the prosecutor's concessionary defeat after losing the mother of the accused. It could easily be representative of LA, the celebrity circus nature of that town and as a wry commentary on our media, legal system and pop culture.

    If you're still not with me, imagine if in Dec. 2009, Angelina Jolie was accused for the same crimes but that they were five to ten years old and all began with one misguided act of love. Best attorneys out there would be hired. Money no object. Brad Pitt came to her defense. live trial televised everywhere. What would happen?

    2) Another possibility: "The Island" needed her back and/or needed her to care for Aaron. She is the one that saved Ben in 1977, after all, which had already happened - just not to her. It simply wouldn't let her go to jail anymore than it would let Jack and Michael kill themselves.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 16, 2009 at 4:47 PM

    A mediocre episode made worse by being in between the Economist and The Constant. One of the episodes (along with "The Other Woman" and Ji Yeon") that mar season 4's mostly stellar first half.

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  4. AnonymousDecember 16, 2009 at 11:22 PM

    How do you know the grenaide Locke puts in Miles' mouth has no explosives? I just finished my own re-watch and I can't for the life of me think of where that tidbit was mentioned.

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  5. AnonymousDecember 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM

    I was wondering about the grenade too?

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  6. MMorseDecember 18, 2009 at 3:44 PM

    That may be a mistake on my part....I was sure when I was watching this episode that we'll later discover that the grenade was a dud, but I could easily be misremembering this.

    If we get info on this one way or the other I will post it in a future column. If not, I'll correct the mistake.

    Thanks, folks!

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  7. JasonDecember 21, 2009 at 10:31 AM

    I seem to remember someone calling Locke on it in a later episode and Locke admits that it wasn't a live grenade. I could be wrong.

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  8. MMorseDecember 23, 2009 at 11:51 AM

    That's what I remembered, Jason.

    Guess we'll see!

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