Lost: Season 1 Episode 22 "Born to Run" Review

"You're gonna vote me off, Mickey?"

-Sawyer

The 22nd episode of Lost picks up with Dr. Arzt (Daniel Roebuck) warning everyone that monsoon season is approaching which will send the raft towards Antarctica rather than rescuce, which incentivizes Michael (Harold Perrineau) into wanting to launch the raft the next day.  Kate (Evangeline Lilly) tries to get a spot on the raft, but Michael, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) have all of the spots, but Michael begins to question his decisions when he realizes Sawyer knows nothing about sailing and Kate does.  Sawyer doesn't like this and tells Kate to back off.

Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) bring Jack (Matthew Fox) out to the Hatch for the first time.  Jack and Locke both want to open it, but Sayid vehemently disagrees.  

Michel becomes violently ill and Jack and Locke start investigating.  Jack figures out there was something in Michael's water bottle that made him sick.  Michael suspects Sawyer and kicks him off the raft.  Sawyer suspects Kate is the one who poisoned Michael, so Sawyer reveals to everyone that Kate was the prisoner on the plane.  As proof, he shows everyone that Kate had doctored the passport of a deceased castaway so that she would be able to escape the authorities.  Kate fesses up, but claims that she did not poison Michael.  She is left alone on the beach and Sawyer gets his spot back.  He later tells Kate that there isn't anything on the Island worth staying for and that's why he wants to leave.

Jack figures out that Sun (Yunjin Kim) was attempting to poison Jin, but he and Michael got their water bottles mixed up.  Jack promises not to tell.  Later, it is revealed that Sun and Kate were in cahoots in attempting to poison Jin.

Walt goes to Locke and cryptically tells him "Don't open it".  Later he confesses to his father that he was the one who burned the raft.  When Michael suggests that they can stay on the Island and don't have to leave, Walt replies ominously that they do need to leave.

In flashbacks, we see more of Kate's time on the run as she returns to her home in Iowa to visit her dying mother, Diane (Beth Broderick), in the hospital, but she finds police guarding her mother.  Kate gets in touch with he childhood best friend, Tom (Mackenzie Astin), who is a doctor at the hospital.  He agrees to sneak her into an MRI room to see her mother.  First they go out and dig up their old time capsule and share a kiss, even though Tom is married and has a kid.  When Kate visits her mother, Diane shouts out for help and Kate is forced to flee the hospital with Tom in tow.  With police closing in, Kate begs Tom to get out of the car and let her run, but he refuses.  Tom is accidentally shot and killed by the police and Kate escape.  She leaves behind Tom's toy plane, which she will later rob a bank to retrieve.

What Sucks:

No one can ever accuse me of being a big Kate fan and this episode is a major reason why.  Along with Kate's previous episode, "Whatever the Case May Be", this is my least favorite episode of season 1.  The biggest problem is that Kate comes off as extremely unlikable in this episode, especially on the rewatch.  At one point, Jack accuses Kate of poisoning Michael and she acts all self-righteous about it, but it turns out she helped do it.  All of her behavior in this episode rubs me the wrong way and makes me like her less.

The flashbacks are problematic as well.  We finally discover what the deal is with the toy plane and while Tom's death is sad, it doesn't add much to the show.  We still don't really know much about Kate and the vagueness of these flashbacks don't help and they don't improve the bank flashbacks much.  It's frustrating because it seems like the show wants us to like Kate, but they don't give us enough information about her to make that possible and what they do give us just makes her more unlikable.

Finally, I don't love the poison storyline.  It feels too similar to the "who burned the raft" plot, which is far superior.  The poison mystery isn't necessarily bad, it's just nothing special.

What Works:

The strongest part of "Born to Run" is Sawyer.  I really like him throughout this episode.  It's very funny when Michael asked him if knows anything about boats.  Later, his reaction to Kate trying to take his spot on the raft is entirely justified.  I'm glad he threw Kate under the bus.  She deserved it.

It is nice seeing Jack and Locke working together to try and solve the mystery even though Jack is still very angry with Locke.  They can get a lot accomplished when they work together and that happens less and less frequently as the show goes on.

Hurley (Jorge Garcia) accidentally spilling the beans about Kate being a fugitive is hilarious and I also love his line about Steve not knowing about the polar bear.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear award goes to the most useful character in an episode.  I almost gave to Jack for figuring out Sun was the culprit, but I have to give it to Sawyer because Jack kept Sun's secret.  Sawyer figured out that Kate was also a culprit and actually told the rest of the camp.  He solved the mystery so that the rest of the camp would be satisfied with the answer.  He also managed to save his spot on the raft and I can respect the move to look out for his best interests.  This is the second time that Sawyer has won the award.

Verdict:

It's a toss up between "Born to Run" and "Whatever the Case May Be" as to what my least favorite episode of season 1 is.  Kate just comes off a super unlikable on the Island and in the flashbacks, the toy plane storyline may be my least favorite of the entire show, and the poison plot is much too similar to the raft burning.  That said, I did love Sawyer and Hurley in this episode.  They provided some funny moments and I do enjoy when Jack and Locke work together.

 6/10: Okay