Season 1, Episode 22: Born to Run

Kate is kind of devious, but I tend to go for the crazy gals anyway, so she floats my boat fine. And while we already know she's like Sawyer in certain ways, criminal ways, we also learn she shares some of Jack's troubles. She just can't let go, and she does some stupid stuff for love.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

With her mother on her deathbed, Kate returns to Iowa to see her one final time and needs help from a ravishing young doctor (hm, coincidence?) named Tom Brennan — the love of Kate's life and her childhood sweetheart. He agrees to help, but in the downtime the two go and dig up a time capsule they planted under a weeping willow tree in a pasture. Inside the bitchin' New Kids on the Block lunch pail, among various other childhood memories was Tom's plane. The two share a kiss in the car before heading to the hospital for a few minutes with dear old mom.

But the goodbye doesn't go as planned for Katie, that's what Tom calls her, when Diane panics and begins hollering for help. Kate, still a fugitive, must flee again and does so in Tom's car, which he refuses to get out of when they are cornered by a deputy leaving the hospital's parking garage. Undaunted, Kate drives through the cop-car barricade and Tom is shot and killed in the process. She grabs his plane and flees on foot, but will come to blame herself for Tom's death.

On the island, the jockeying for a spot on the raft begins. Kate tries to talk Michael into giving Sawyer the boot, since he had bought his way onto the first raft and didn't necessarily deserve a spot on the second. But when Michael's water is poisoned one afternoon, Sawyer and Kate are pitted against each other in trying to curry Michael's favor. When Michael decides to boot Sawyer from the raft, presuming he poisoned him, Sawyer rats out Kate's fugitive past — and the fact she plans to assume JoAnna's identity in order to run if rescued — to the entire group and she becomes the newest pariah when she admits she was on the plane in the marshal's custody.

Jack has figured out it was neither Kate nor Sawyer who poisoned Michael. It was Sun, but she was trying to make Jin sick so he wouldn't leave on the raft. She fears he will die at sea, but fears never seeing him again more. Jack, using his discretion, opts not to tell the others, while Sun opts not to tell Jack it was Kate's idea — a clever back-up strategy to get on the raft. Sawyer ends up back on the four-person raft.

Meanwhile, Locke has Sayid bring Jack out to the hatch. Both Locke and Jack continue to distrust one another, but the truth is that both are keeping secrets from the larger group when they feel it is appropriate. Jack, like Locke, wants to open the hatch. He believes much-needed supplies can be found inside. Sayid, however, thinks it was sealed and handle-less for a reason and that it's best left alone.

Walt issues an ominous warning when Locke grabs his arm. He'd gone to Locke to tell him that he didn't poison his dad, suspecting Locke might think he did since he had burned the first raft. But when Locke touches him, he freaks out and tells Locke not to open it. The "it" isn't clear, but we assume it is the hatch. Of course, "it" could also refer to something Locke may have to open in Season 6 too, but for now we'll assume it was the hatch. Walt confesses the arson to his dad, but has changed his mind and now wants to leave, fearing the future on the island now more than moving again apparently.

QUOTABLE

"When I was a little girl, I thought that once I found the man I loved I would be happy forever." — Sun to Kate