Lost has never been a forthcoming show, but tonight’s episode, “What Kate Does,” is one of the vaguest episodes I can remember. For an episode that could have provided a bit more insight into the bizarre occurrences of last week’s two-part season opener, “What Kate Does” merely adds to the myriad questions that need to be answered this season. But that isn’t much of a surprise. What’s disappointing about this episode is how purposely passive it was. A line like, “There’s no time to explain,” shouldn’t have a place in a show that’s an hour long, especially when that show has been on the air for over five seasons. How much more time is necessary?

“What Kate Does” does suggest that the seemingly alternate timeline that was the centerpiece of last week’s episode is, in fact, an alternate timeline in which the characters will be able to redeem their past mistakes as well as those made while on the island. As the title of the episode suggests, Kate was the primary focus tonight, and her regret of taking Claire’s infant son, Aaron, from the island and raising him as her own was partially redeemed in the alternate timeline. The on-the-run criminal Kate formed an unlikely friendship with the still-pregnant Claire outside of LAX after Flight 815 lands, and it is Kate who winds up driving Claire to the hospital to deliver Aaron. Adding to the theme of redemption in this alternate timeline is the appearance of Ethan Goodspeed as the doctor that helps deliver Aaron. It was Ethan that held Claire down in the middle of the night and took a blood sample from her for the Others during the first season, an attack that would ultimately lead to Ethan’s death at the hands of Charlie, who was defending Claire’s honor. Ethan’s line to Claire, “I don’t want to have to stick you with needles if I don’t have to,” is therefore just dripping with irony. I don’t know if there will be any more to tell of Kate’s redemption tale, but tonight’s episode provided the appropriate closure in that regard because now, presumably, Claire will be the one to raise Aaron, not Kate.

Speaking of closure, how about bringing some of that to the island already? Now that we’ve been introduced to a temple filled with both new and familiar faces (including Aldo, an Other that had previously appeared in one episode back in season 3), it was fitting that the answers viewers have been seeking since last week are the same ones being sought by Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, and Miles. The only “answers” provided, however, were vague statements like the aforementioned, “There’s no time to explain,” as well as, “That’s not important right now,” and the always helpful, “You know what I mean.” No we don’t, Dogan. Oh yeah, you know that Japanese temple leader that knows English but for some reason needs a string bean of a lackey to translate for him? His name is Dogan. Of all the answers that were asked of the temple and its bizarre practices, that’s the one we did have time for, apparently.

What’s interesting, however, is the fact that these temple dwellers wanted to poison the newly resurrected Sayid, explaining to Jack that a “sickness” had “claimed” Sayid’s body. There is (of course) no time to adequately explain what the sickness is or what in the word “claimed” means in this context, but there’s plenty of time to be incredibly vague about it. Dogan explains to Jack that his sister Claire — who has been missing from the island for quite some time — also has (or had?) this sickness, but considering we haven’t seen Claire in years, that revelation does nothing to provide answers to what the “sickness” is. Something else interesting about the attempted poisoning of Sayid stems from a popular theory concerning last week’s episodes: many viewers’ belief that Jacob had been resurrected inside of Sayid’s body, much like how the Man in Black took over Locke’s dead body. If this is true (and I believe it is), then the temple dwellers are trying to rid Sayid of Jacob, and that completely changes the game. Last week when the temple Others heard of Jacob’s death and immediately began sealing the door, were they really sealing themselves away from the Man in Black/Smoke Monster or from Jacob, who they were afraid would find a way to “claim” someone’s body and come after them? Unfortunately, this theory doesn’t explain why the castaways (Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, etc.) were allowed entry into the temple after showing them the contents of a guitar case given to Hurley by Jacob. Since “What Kate Does” acts as such a filler episode, the only thing you can do is ponder.

Another bit of information that was hinted at during tonight’s episode was that the Flight 815 passengers of the alternate timeline seem to share a memory of the island, even though technically they had never crash landed there anymore. During a scene in which Kate escapes in a hijacked cab outside of LAX (which just so happens to contain Claire in the backseat), she looks out the window and sees Jack, and there’s a momentary hesitation, as if she recognizes him. We saw this same look on Jack at the beginning of last week’s episode. Later, when Claire is at the hospital, she calls her unborn son “Aaron” and admits that she didn’t know where that name came from. “It’s like I just knew it,” she says. It’s obvious the writers are purposely steering the audience’s thoughts toward the notion that the castaways in the alternate timeline are in some way aware of the events on the island, but there are still some missing pieces to this puzzle. For instance, what happened to Christian Shepard’s coffin?

Though he was not featured as much in tonight’s episode as he perhaps should have been, Sawyer had some unbelievably strong emotional scenes. His character has taken a major turn toward bitterness since Juliet’s death last week, and his line in regards to Sayid’s apparent resurrection is a prime example of this: “He’s an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids. Of course he needs another go-round.” Tonight he was an emotional whirlwind, even stealing a gun at one point so that he could escape the temple and head back to the Others’ barracks to the house where he and Juliet lived. Unfortunately, Kate had to tag along behind him, and that took some of the impact out of the reveal that Sawyer had planned to propose to Juliet (it became obvious that Kate and Sawyer would wind up together in some timeline or another). I’m not sure why the writers insist on giving Sawyer his best emotional outbursts in front of Kate, but nevertheless, for a man that came to the island without a care in the world, Sawyer has grown by leaps and bounds. His momentous act of tossing away the ring he would have given Juliet is a sign both of his temporary change (that he had planned on settling down) and of the probability that he will once again become a bitter loner.

“What Kate Does” neither expounds on previous notions nor discloses any significant information. As much as I felt that the episode needed to explain some of the more confusing elements of last week’s premiere, I was satisfied with Kate’s exploits in redemption for Claire and Aaron. “What Kate Does” also depicts Kate as the convict that she’s made out to be from the pilot episode, and for the first time in the series, I felt that Kate truly fit the criminal role. She still doesn’t look like an attempted murderer, but at least tonight I could buy that she is a criminal. Still, I have to retain that tonight’s episode - which some might correctly identify as filler - sidestepped bigger matters to the point of frustration. Naturally, the preview for next week’s episode showed Locke addressing Sawyer: “I promise I’m going to explain everything.” Considering that Claire finally appears back on the island at the end of the episode, I’m expecting at least to find out what she has been up to all this time. Let’s just hope next week’s episode finds the time to explain it.