Season 1, Episode 12: Whatever the Case May Be

It's a Kate episode with a central message of atonement and self-forgiveness. It's about faith and forgiveness as associated with one's own self-worth and divinity.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

The episode starts with sexy Kate high in a tree picking fruit. She's also being stalked by Sawyer and together the two of them discover the marshal's case in a pool beneath a water fall. Initially, Kate claims it is hers — and it did contain the model airplane that belonged to the man she loved — but it also contained four 9mm handguns with ammo.

Sawyer keeps the case at first, but can't open it. Kate, meanwhile, continuously tries to steal it. She went through a lot of trouble to get the airplane back, staging a bank robbery and then betraying the man she'd seduced to aid in the robbery. Fittingly, the safe deposit box that contained the miniature plane was Box 815.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get the case from Sawyer, he is finally persuaded by Jack, who threatens to withhold antibiotics that are treating the knife wound Sayid put in his upper arm. But he insists that Kate open the case in his presence. She reluctantly agrees, so Jack learns of the little place, which means so much to Kate. Of course, that's because it once belonged not only to the man she loved but one she killed (or more appropriately, who was killed because of her actions).

Super-hot but "useless" Shannon, as she is dubbed by Boone, helps Sayid translate the French notations on Rousseau's papers. Turns out, the translation doesn't make much sense as it is the lyrics to Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Actually, it is the lyrics to the French version, which is La Mer by Charles Trenet, a song later recorded by Bobby Darin among others with drastically different lyrics.

Continuing the theme that Rose is a life-giver, perhaps the Eve found buried in the caves, she helps coax Charlie back to life spiritually after he returns in the wake of Claire's abduction. He continues to blame himself for her predicament, but Rose — who continues to claim her husband lives — insists he forgive himself.

QUOTABLE

"It's a fine line between denial and faith, but it's much better on my side." — Rose to Charlie