What Kate Does
Encyclopedia
"What Kate Does" is the 106th television episode of the American Broadcasting Company
's Lost
and third episode of the sixth season
. It was written by executive producers Edward Kitsis
and Adam Horowitz and directed in September 2009 by Paul Edwards
. "What Kate Does" was first aired February 9, 2010 on ABC in the United States and on CTV
in Canada. Kate Austen
is the character the episode is centered on.
In December 2007, Kate Austen
chases after James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
), who escapes from the Others' captivity in the island's temple and is grieving over the death of his love Juliet Burke
(Elizabeth Mitchell
) just hours earlier. In flash sideways to September 22, 2004, Kate assists a pregnant Claire Littleton
(Emilie de Ravin
) while on the run as a fugitive.
The title alludes to the second season episode "What Kate Did
". "What Kate Does" was watched by eleven million Americans and received mixed reviews by audiences and critics alike.
(Evangeline Lilly
) flees LAX in a taxicab she has hijacked, in which a pregnant Claire Littleton
(Emilie de Ravin
) is a passenger. The cab driver (David H. Lawrence XVII) bails and Kate lets Claire go, keeping all of Claire's possession in her haste. She drives to a chop shop, where a mechanic frees her from handcuffs. While searching for a new outfit, Kate learns that Claire is pregnant. She returns to where she left Claire, returns her luggage and offers her a ride. She drives Claire to the house of Lindsey (Jenni Blong), the woman who was supposed to adopt her baby, but Lindsey's husband has left her and, devastated, she no longer wants the child. Claire goes into labor on the doorstep and Kate takes her to the hospital, where Claire's doctor is Ethan Goodspeed (William Mapother
). The police later come looking for Kate in the hospital, but Claire covers for her, allowing Kate to escape.
", Sayid Jarrah
(Naveen Andrews
) has come back to life after apparently dying. The Others, led by Dogen (Hiroyuki Sanada
) and his translator Lennon (John Hawkes
), wish to speak with Sayid, privately. Jack Shephard
(Matthew Fox
), however, wishes to go with them and starts a fight. James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
) seizes the opportunity to obtain a gun and announce his departure from the temple, explicitly telling Kate not to follow him. The Others send Kate, Jin-Soo Kwon
(Daniel Dae Kim) and two of their own, including Aldo
(Rob McElhenney
), to bring Sawyer back. Meanwhile, Dogen brings Sayid to a room, where ash is blown on him, followed by being given an electric shock and then burned with a poker. Dogen later explains to Jack that he has diagnosed Sayid as being infected and gives Jack a pill for Sayid to take. Jack refuses and takes the pill himself, which Dogen hurriedly forces him to regurgitate, revealing that pill is in fact poison. He explains that the infection, upon reaching Sayid's heart, will remove any trace of the person he once was, and adds that it has happened to Jack's half-sister, Claire.
In the jungle, Kate, Jin and the Others come across a trap; Kate activates the trap and overcomes the Others. Jin and Kate split up; Kate follows Sawyer's trail, while Jin begins to search for his wife, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim). Kate finds Sawyer at the Dharma Initiative
's barracks, in the house where he and Juliet Burke
(Elizabeth Mitchell
) had previously lived for three years. He retrieves an engagement ring
he had hidden and later talks with Kate at Dharma's dock. He explains that he planned to propose to Juliet and that he blames himself for her death, saying that he convinced her to stay on the island with him because he was lonely. Meanwhile, Jin is caught by the Others, who want to kill him instead of taking him back. Suddenly, someone shoots them and Jin is shocked to see that the shooter is Claire.
awarded "What Kate Does" a score of 64 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews"; however, this was down significantly from the previous episode's 89 and Bonnie Covel of About.com
noted that " 'What Kate Does' brought us a bit of negativity. In general, fans just didn't like the episode".
"What Kate Does" was largely considered to be a step down from the season premiere in pacing, revelations and writing; Mike Hale of The New York Times
described the episode as "contemplative", "anticlimactic" and "subdued" and the flash sideways as "kind of boring and seemingly pointless." Chris Carabott of IGN
, who gave the episode a score of 7.3 summed up that " 'What Kate Does' slows the pace down significantly from last week and focuses on telling a character-driven story. This is a welcome change; especially after the heavily plot-driven season five. However, with questions to answer and so much ground to cover during this final season, a better balance between plot and character wouldn't have been such a bad thing." Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
wrote, "Maybe I'll enjoy the 2004 scenes more when we get to some other characters … but this week it was largely a distraction from all that was happening on the island. And even the island scenes were only sometimes satisfying." Further explanations for the generally less positive reception came from Entertainment Weekly
' s Jeff Jensen with "Lost has a habit of following up its premiere extravaganzas with scaled-down follow-ups that seek to ground the audience and orient them to a more deliberate pace to the season" and Todd VanDerWerff of the Los Angeles Times
explained, "Kate episodes … have notoriously tricky relationships with [fans]. Kate's one of the show's most important characters, for sure, but she's also one of the series' most obvious missed opportunities … Lost isn't very good, period, at creating female characters … the show doesn't quite know how to write a woman of action who's also in love … many of the show's Kate flashbacks are just plain silly … there have been a lot of pretty dire Kate episodes." Whitney Matheson of USA Today
said that she "wanted to stab Kate with a hot poker" after watching "What Kate Does".
Josh Holloway's supporting performance as a grieving Sawyer was commended by Carabott of IGN, who said that his acting on the dock as he cried and revealed to Kate that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him was "one of Josh Holloway's best scenes of the entire series." Holloway's acting was called "wrenching" by Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, "[t]errific" by Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
, "stellar" by Chuck Barney of the San Jose Mercury News
, "moving (sometimes)" by Rob Cohen of The Huffington Post
, "so palpable" by Noel Murray of The A.V. Club
("Grade: B") and "believable and moving" by VanDerWerff of the LA Times, who further said clarified that "There's no better actor for man tears in this cast". Sean Stangland of the Daily Herald speculated that Holloway might be worthy of a Primetime Emmy Award
by the end of the season. Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger felt that Holloway's presence excelled the lead performance as Kate by Evangeline Lilly, whom he identified as "one of the less compelling members of the cast", opining that "Being in Josh Holloway's orbit tends to bring out a spark in Lilly that isn't always there opposite other characters and the scene at the dock was a strong example of that." VanDerWerff of the LA Times agreed that Lilly was believable in the scene and commented that Lilly has improved as an actress since the show started, but has been relegated to playing a character in a tired love triangle for much of the show's history. James Poniewozik of Time
was more positive toward her, writing that "Lilly is playing her exactly right, as someone who's always had to balance a desire to do the right thing with circumstances that have forced her to look out for her self-interest." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly admired Lilly's subtlety and said, "you believe this woman, who can be so adorable that she can withstand Sawyer’s nickname of “Freckles,” is entirely capable of killing someone." Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger also commented, "I quite like the gravity and mystery of Hiroyuki Sanada's performance as Dogen, and I was even more intrigued by how un-Sayid-like Naveen Andrews seemed, seeming so timid and confused and in pain … as Sayid the torturer was himself tortured"; Poniwozik of Time also appreciated Andrews's work.
Jack's character development was another highlight for critics, including Carabott of IGN, Murray of The A.V. Club, and Jonathan Toomey of TV Squad. Jensen of Entertainment Weekly explained, "The New and Improved With 70% More Likability Jack that brought some dazzle back to Kate's eyes was clearly a man who had learned some lessons about how the Others do business." Jensen commended how Jack "confessed the limits of his knowledge and power" and his actions in all subsequent scenes from the episode. Poniewozik of Time was annoyed by the Others refusing to answer questions, but stated that "here I'm willing to forgive that for setting up the genius scene of Jack surprise-popping the poison pill." In contrast, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times
said, "Another thing I find supremely annoying about Lost: its insistence on returning again and again to the show's most uninteresting characters, including damaged, self-pitying control freak Jack." Deggans was negative toward "What Kate Does", stating that "Episodes like this one can make real Lost fans feel like dopes. Already, you're taking heaps of abuse from friends who accuse you of slavishly following a series which makes no sense—then along comes a 60-minute workout like this one which proves their point all too well." Daniel of TMZ
, who gave the episode a "D" grade, reacted uniquely with "The only thing in the history of Lost that has seemed more out of place than the part in Jack's hair was Nikki and Paulo
. I can't take anything he says seriously."
Ryan McGee of Zap2it
stated that it by no means compared to "LA X", but stated that it "contain[ed] scenes of incredible beauty, based on character work and stakes earned over five seasons [that] made it a fine, if imperfect, hour." McGee also commented that the scene in which Claire arrives at the hospital and is helped by Ethan as "freakin' outstanding" and called "What Kate Does" "one of the funniest in the show's history. Aldo, Hurley, and Miles all got off plenty of zingers, which will be necessary in a season in which both mythological and dramatic stakes are raising higher and higher each week." VanDerWerff of the LA Times, Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, Jensen of Entertainment Weekly and Mark Medley of the National Post
also found the episode to contain humorous lines.
This episode was watched by 11 million American viewers and 1.57 million Canadian viewers.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
and third episode of the sixth season
Lost (season 6)
The sixth and final season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing in the United States and Canada on February 2, 2010. The sixth-season premiere was the first to climb in the ratings year-over-year since the second season, drawing 12.1 million viewers. The season...
. It was written by executive producers Edward Kitsis
Edward Kitsis
Edward Lawrence Kitsis, also sometimes credited as Eddy Kitsis, is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on the popular American television series, Lost and Once Upon a Time.-Life and career:...
and Adam Horowitz and directed in September 2009 by Paul Edwards
Paul Edwards (cinematographer)
Paul A. Edwards is an American cinematographer, camera operator and television director. He has worked as a camera operator and cinematographer on various mainstream films and has also directed several episodes of many series, including Lost and Fringe.- Cinematographer :* The Master * Eye of the...
. "What Kate Does" was first aired February 9, 2010 on ABC in the United States and on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
in Canada. Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
is the character the episode is centered on.
In December 2007, Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
chases after James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
Josh Holloway
Joshua Lee "Josh" Holloway is an American actor and model from Free Home, Georgia. He is best known for his role as James "Sawyer" Ford on the American television show Lost.-Early life:...
), who escapes from the Others' captivity in the island's temple and is grieving over the death of his love Juliet Burke
Juliet Burke
Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Her character was introduced in the third season premiere.- Prior to arrival on the island :...
(Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell , is an American actress/modelwho is known for her roles as Dr. Juliet Burke on ABC's TV series Lost and as FBI agent Erica Evans on V. She has starred in such films as The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Gia.-Early life:Mitchell was born Elizabeth...
) just hours earlier. In flash sideways to September 22, 2004, Kate assists a pregnant Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
(Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin born 27 December 1981)is an Australian actress. She is commonly associated with her roles as Tess Harding on Roswell and Claire Littleton on the ABC drama Lost....
) while on the run as a fugitive.
The title alludes to the second season episode "What Kate Did
What Kate Did
"What Kate Did" is the 34th episode of Lost. It is the ninth episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Paul Edwards, and written by Steven Maeda and Craig Wright. It first aired on November 30, 2005 on ABC. The character of Kate Austen is featured in the episode's...
". "What Kate Does" was watched by eleven million Americans and received mixed reviews by audiences and critics alike.
2004 (flash-sideways timeline)
In flash sideways, Kate AustenKate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
(Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...
) flees LAX in a taxicab she has hijacked, in which a pregnant Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
(Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin born 27 December 1981)is an Australian actress. She is commonly associated with her roles as Tess Harding on Roswell and Claire Littleton on the ABC drama Lost....
) is a passenger. The cab driver (David H. Lawrence XVII) bails and Kate lets Claire go, keeping all of Claire's possession in her haste. She drives to a chop shop, where a mechanic frees her from handcuffs. While searching for a new outfit, Kate learns that Claire is pregnant. She returns to where she left Claire, returns her luggage and offers her a ride. She drives Claire to the house of Lindsey (Jenni Blong), the woman who was supposed to adopt her baby, but Lindsey's husband has left her and, devastated, she no longer wants the child. Claire goes into labor on the doorstep and Kate takes her to the hospital, where Claire's doctor is Ethan Goodspeed (William Mapother
William Mapother
William Reibert Mapother, Jr. is an American actor and former teacher, perhaps best known for his role as Ethan Rom on the television series Lost.-Personal life:...
). The police later come looking for Kate in the hospital, but Claire covers for her, allowing Kate to escape.
2007 (original timeline)
Following the events of the previous episode, "LA XLA X
"LA X" comprises the 104th and 105th episodes of the American Broadcasting Company's Lost, marking the premiere of the sixth and final season. It was written by show runners/executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by executive producer Jack Bender...
", Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
(Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
) has come back to life after apparently dying. The Others, led by Dogen (Hiroyuki Sanada
Hiroyuki Sanada
is a Japanese actor.-Life and career:Sanada was born in Tokyo. Originally aiming to be an action star, starting with shorinji kempo, he eventually took up Kyokushin kaikan Sanada began training at age 11 with actor and martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club where he developed good...
) and his translator Lennon (John Hawkes
John Hawkes (actor)
John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
), wish to speak with Sayid, privately. Jack Shephard
Jack Shephard
Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and protagonist of the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Lost follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survive and escape, slowly uncovering more of the much broader...
(Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
), however, wishes to go with them and starts a fight. James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway
Josh Holloway
Joshua Lee "Josh" Holloway is an American actor and model from Free Home, Georgia. He is best known for his role as James "Sawyer" Ford on the American television show Lost.-Early life:...
) seizes the opportunity to obtain a gun and announce his departure from the temple, explicitly telling Kate not to follow him. The Others send Kate, Jin-Soo Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon, better known as "Jin," is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Daniel Dae Kim.- Prior to the crash :...
(Daniel Dae Kim) and two of their own, including Aldo
Not in Portland
"Not in Portland" is the 7th episode of the third season of Lost and the 56th episode overall. It first aired on February 7, 2007 on ABC. The episode was written by Carlton Cuse and Jeff Pinkner and was directed by Stephen Williams...
(Rob McElhenney
Rob McElhenney
Robert Dale "Rob" McElhenney is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Mac on the FX TV series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
), to bring Sawyer back. Meanwhile, Dogen brings Sayid to a room, where ash is blown on him, followed by being given an electric shock and then burned with a poker. Dogen later explains to Jack that he has diagnosed Sayid as being infected and gives Jack a pill for Sayid to take. Jack refuses and takes the pill himself, which Dogen hurriedly forces him to regurgitate, revealing that pill is in fact poison. He explains that the infection, upon reaching Sayid's heart, will remove any trace of the person he once was, and adds that it has happened to Jack's half-sister, Claire.
In the jungle, Kate, Jin and the Others come across a trap; Kate activates the trap and overcomes the Others. Jin and Kate split up; Kate follows Sawyer's trail, while Jin begins to search for his wife, Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim). Kate finds Sawyer at the Dharma Initiative
DHARMA Initiative
The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science...
's barracks, in the house where he and Juliet Burke
Juliet Burke
Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Her character was introduced in the third season premiere.- Prior to arrival on the island :...
(Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell , is an American actress/modelwho is known for her roles as Dr. Juliet Burke on ABC's TV series Lost and as FBI agent Erica Evans on V. She has starred in such films as The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Gia.-Early life:Mitchell was born Elizabeth...
) had previously lived for three years. He retrieves an engagement ring
Engagement ring
An engagement ring is a ring indicating that the person wearing it is engaged to be married, especially in Western cultures. In the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America, engagement rings are traditionally worn only by women, and rings can feature diamonds or other gemstones. In other cultures...
he had hidden and later talks with Kate at Dharma's dock. He explains that he planned to propose to Juliet and that he blames himself for her death, saying that he convinced her to stay on the island with him because he was lonely. Meanwhile, Jin is caught by the Others, who want to kill him instead of taking him back. Suddenly, someone shoots them and Jin is shocked to see that the shooter is Claire.
Reception
The episode has received mixed reviews. Critical review aggregate website MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
awarded "What Kate Does" a score of 64 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews"; however, this was down significantly from the previous episode's 89 and Bonnie Covel of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
noted that " 'What Kate Does' brought us a bit of negativity. In general, fans just didn't like the episode".
"What Kate Does" was largely considered to be a step down from the season premiere in pacing, revelations and writing; Mike Hale of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described the episode as "contemplative", "anticlimactic" and "subdued" and the flash sideways as "kind of boring and seemingly pointless." Chris Carabott of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, who gave the episode a score of 7.3 summed up that " 'What Kate Does' slows the pace down significantly from last week and focuses on telling a character-driven story. This is a welcome change; especially after the heavily plot-driven season five. However, with questions to answer and so much ground to cover during this final season, a better balance between plot and character wouldn't have been such a bad thing." Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
wrote, "Maybe I'll enjoy the 2004 scenes more when we get to some other characters … but this week it was largely a distraction from all that was happening on the island. And even the island scenes were only sometimes satisfying." Further explanations for the generally less positive reception came from Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
explained, "Kate episodes … have notoriously tricky relationships with [fans]. Kate's one of the show's most important characters, for sure, but she's also one of the series' most obvious missed opportunities … Lost isn't very good, period, at creating female characters … the show doesn't quite know how to write a woman of action who's also in love … many of the show's Kate flashbacks are just plain silly … there have been a lot of pretty dire Kate episodes." Whitney Matheson of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
said that she "wanted to stab Kate with a hot poker" after watching "What Kate Does".
Josh Holloway's supporting performance as a grieving Sawyer was commended by Carabott of IGN, who said that his acting on the dock as he cried and revealed to Kate that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him was "one of Josh Holloway's best scenes of the entire series." Holloway's acting was called "wrenching" by Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, "[t]errific" by Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, "stellar" by Chuck Barney of the San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
, "moving (sometimes)" by Rob Cohen of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, "so palpable" by Noel Murray of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
("Grade: B") and "believable and moving" by VanDerWerff of the LA Times, who further said clarified that "There's no better actor for man tears in this cast". Sean Stangland of the Daily Herald speculated that Holloway might be worthy of a Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
by the end of the season. Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger felt that Holloway's presence excelled the lead performance as Kate by Evangeline Lilly, whom he identified as "one of the less compelling members of the cast", opining that "Being in Josh Holloway's orbit tends to bring out a spark in Lilly that isn't always there opposite other characters and the scene at the dock was a strong example of that." VanDerWerff of the LA Times agreed that Lilly was believable in the scene and commented that Lilly has improved as an actress since the show started, but has been relegated to playing a character in a tired love triangle for much of the show's history. James Poniewozik of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
was more positive toward her, writing that "Lilly is playing her exactly right, as someone who's always had to balance a desire to do the right thing with circumstances that have forced her to look out for her self-interest." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly admired Lilly's subtlety and said, "you believe this woman, who can be so adorable that she can withstand Sawyer’s nickname of “Freckles,” is entirely capable of killing someone." Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger also commented, "I quite like the gravity and mystery of Hiroyuki Sanada's performance as Dogen, and I was even more intrigued by how un-Sayid-like Naveen Andrews seemed, seeming so timid and confused and in pain … as Sayid the torturer was himself tortured"; Poniwozik of Time also appreciated Andrews's work.
Jack's character development was another highlight for critics, including Carabott of IGN, Murray of The A.V. Club, and Jonathan Toomey of TV Squad. Jensen of Entertainment Weekly explained, "The New and Improved With 70% More Likability Jack that brought some dazzle back to Kate's eyes was clearly a man who had learned some lessons about how the Others do business." Jensen commended how Jack "confessed the limits of his knowledge and power" and his actions in all subsequent scenes from the episode. Poniewozik of Time was annoyed by the Others refusing to answer questions, but stated that "here I'm willing to forgive that for setting up the genius scene of Jack surprise-popping the poison pill." In contrast, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
said, "Another thing I find supremely annoying about Lost: its insistence on returning again and again to the show's most uninteresting characters, including damaged, self-pitying control freak Jack." Deggans was negative toward "What Kate Does", stating that "Episodes like this one can make real Lost fans feel like dopes. Already, you're taking heaps of abuse from friends who accuse you of slavishly following a series which makes no sense—then along comes a 60-minute workout like this one which proves their point all too well." Daniel of TMZ
TMZ.com
TMZ.com is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between America Online and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. However, it is still affiliated with AOL News and has the AOL News logo affixed in...
, who gave the episode a "D" grade, reacted uniquely with "The only thing in the history of Lost that has seemed more out of place than the part in Jack's hair was Nikki and Paulo
Nikki and Paulo
Nikki Fernandez and Paulo are fictional characters on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific...
. I can't take anything he says seriously."
Ryan McGee of Zap2it
Zap2it
Zap2it is an American website and affiliate network that provides news, photos and video, local TV listings and movie showtimes. The site is produced by Tribune Media Services , part of the publishing division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
stated that it by no means compared to "LA X", but stated that it "contain[ed] scenes of incredible beauty, based on character work and stakes earned over five seasons [that] made it a fine, if imperfect, hour." McGee also commented that the scene in which Claire arrives at the hospital and is helped by Ethan as "freakin' outstanding" and called "What Kate Does" "one of the funniest in the show's history. Aldo, Hurley, and Miles all got off plenty of zingers, which will be necessary in a season in which both mythological and dramatic stakes are raising higher and higher each week." VanDerWerff of the LA Times, Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, Jensen of Entertainment Weekly and Mark Medley of the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
also found the episode to contain humorous lines.
This episode was watched by 11 million American viewers and 1.57 million Canadian viewers.