Whatever the Case May Be (5 Jan. 2005)

Kate and Sawyer discover a briefcase and the race begins to win ownership of it. Charlie is still depressed over Claire, and is given a sharp talking to by Rose.

Director:

Jack Bender

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
L. Scott Caldwell	...	Rose Nadler
Victor Browne	...	Jason - Shooter

Storyline

Jack, Kate and Sawyer fight over possession of a newly discovered locked metal briefcase which might contain insights into Kate's mysterious past. More of fugitive Kate's background story is revealed, showing her participating in a bank robbery in New Mexico just to uncover something hidden in one of the safety deposit boxes. Meanwhile, Sayid asks a reluctant Shannon to translate notes he took from the French woman. A rising tide threatens to engulf the fuselage and the entire beach encampment, and Rose and a grieving Charlie tentatively bond over Claire's baffling disappearance.

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Plot Keywords:

labrador retriever | mysterious island

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

5 January 2005 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(Episode #1.12), Shannon describes having been in France and seeing a children's animated movie about "computer fish" that ends with the song "La Mer" (known as "Beyond the Sea" in English). Although Shannon doesn't know the name of the movie, it is clearly Finding Nemo, although the French dub of Finding Nemo, like the original American movie, ended with Robbie Williams's English cover of "Beyond the Sea" instead of the French source. This show and Finding Nemo are both products of the same parent company, Disney. On the DVD region 2 release (Eurpoe/france) the french track does have the french version of Beyond The Sea, this may have only been changed on the DVD release as Williams recorded a french language version for a disc being released of combined hits for a international market, and so may not have been available for a theatrical release.

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Goofs

When Shannon takes off her top to sunbathe, she has a bottle of water and a bottle of sun lotion next to her on her right hand side. During the scene with Sayid, the positions of the bottles change repeatedly between shots and in one shot the lotion disappears completely.

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Quotes

[Kate hits Sawyer with a rock]
Sawyer: Son of a bitch! What the hell are you doing?
Kate: What the hell are you doing?
Sawyer: That's my knee! You practically busted my damn knee!
Kate: You stalking me now?
Sawyer: Stalking you? I was protecting you!
Kate: From what, Southern perverts?
Sawyer: Yeah, whatever. I can't believe you!
Kate: It's not that bad.
Sawyer: It's my knee, I'll tell you how bad it is.

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Connections

References Finding Nemo (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Main Title"
Written by J.J. Abrams

User Reviews

Another Kate episode

Amazingly enough, Lost's first 2005 episode (which at the time of its original broadcast marked a return on TV after a four-week break) feels like a so-called "filler", i.e. something that is put together in the most basic way while the better stuff is waiting behind the corner. Of course, in the case of Lost, even a filler episode is above average, since the show's mythology is consistently present in the shape of the Island.

Picking up some time after the previous episode, Whatever the Case May Be starts with Kate and Sawyer finding a suitcase while swimming. Kate knows what's inside and wants it, but Sawyer refuses to had it over, resulting in a conflict that eventually calls for Jack's help. Meanwhile, Shannon wonders what Boone and Locke are doing in the jungle every day, but soon has other things on her mind when Sayid asks her to help him translate some notes he got from Rousseau. As for Charlie, still sad because of what happened to Claire (well, that and almost dying), he gets some healthy advice from Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), no stranger to matters of the heart since her husband Bernard, who was on the plane with her, hasn't turned up yet.

As for the suitcase, hints to what it may contain are given in the Kate-centric flashbacks: while applying for a bank loan using an alias (the usual Maggie or Meg), she finds herself right in the middle of a robbery, with her own life on the line. Or not, as it turns out: the robbery was her idea all along, so that she could access a safety deposit box, numbered 815...

Aside from that final coincidence, which is never directly addressed, this is very much a character-based episode, with no real focus on the ongoing mysteries and more scenes featuring various interactions. Some of these (Kate and Sawyer) are fun but very basic, some (Sayid and Shannon) bordering on trivial, but there's real emotion in Charlie's conversation with Rose, and there's that Locke/Boone subplot which promises a good payoff. Plus, there's one revelation about Kate that is guaranteed to have long-term repercussions. In other words: textbook Lost, albeit a bit lightweight.