Top Ten Cases: All Time Top Ten Episodes of Lost - #10

Number 10: Episode 4x04 – “Eggtown”

Featured Character: Kate
Major Events & Revelations: Kate is raising Aaron as her son; the Oceanic Six are lying about their ordeal

Okay, before you accuse this list of losing all credibility for including a Kate episode, hear me out.

I actually did enjoy this episode, as it showed that even while he’s supposedly in command, John Locke is still susceptible to the manipulations of Ben, even when he’s tied up in a basement. And who could forget the visual of Locke putting a live grenade in Miles’ mouth, forcing him to continually bite down on it or face death? Talk about overcompensating after being humiliated by your nemeisis.

But really, in my view, the episode belongs to the flash forward. Yes, it was a Kate episode. And yes, that makes most viewers cringe. Not to mention that it focused heavily on the convoluted (and to some at the time, tiresome) Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle, with the island escapades honed in on Kate and Sawyer, while the off island future placed its attention on a potential real world relationship between Jack and Kate. I never minded the triangle, so it didn’t bother me. And I always wanted Jack and Kate to end up together, so the glimmer of happiness and hope in both of their eyes (beneath each of their stubbornness and hesitation) was a nice moment for me.

Above all else, “Eggtown” set forth a number of significant events that molded the rest of the season and the beginning of the next. It was in this episode that we learned, via Jack’s testimony (set to appropriately chilling music), that the Oceanic Six are lying about what happened following their plane crash. Of course, this made us speculate if we’ve been asking all the wrong questions since the prior season’s finale. On top of having to wonder how they got off the island, we were now wondering who is included in the Oceanic Six (at this point we only knew Jack, Hurley, Sayid, and Kate – but also knew that Ben was off the island), and why they had to lie about what had occurred. Was it because nobody would believe them? Or did they make a deal with somebody? Or did they do something so horrific to get off that they were forced to lie about their experiences? And by lying about what happened, which ensured that those left behind wouldn’t get rescued, did that mean that everybody else was dead?

And of course I can’t ignore the major reveal at the end, that Kate is now raising Aaron as her own son (which, in and of itself, is a great allusion to the "raised by another" threat that has always loomed around Aaron and Claire). This only solidified the question of what these people did to get off the island, and what happened to everybody that was left behind?

Yeah, it was a Kate episode, but it also set the foundation for the intrigue that surrounded season four, quite possibly one of the strongest seasons of all six.

Click here for my original review of the episode


Watch this episode in its entirety: