Secrets & Lies
Last season, we spoke about the positives and the negatives of the ever-present triangle with Kate, Jack and Sawyer. Year three was about Sawyer and Kate; season four swung back to Jack and Kate. Did you know that was coming?
Evangeline Lilly: I was given a heads-up, because when we were shooting the finale – the last scene of season three with Jack and Kate in the future – Matthew and I had a lot of questions. We needed to know where the characters were headed. I didn’t know exactly how, but I did know to what degree. I think knowing that going into the fourth season obviously made it easier to play it, and to play it convincingly. There is this really unfortunate, fickle yo-yo that Kate does that I get really angry about. I am surprised that the audience sympathizes with her because she is so fickle, and that is an unattractive quality in a person. So I guess I was preparing for that, and trying to make sure that in all of the moments played last season with that triangle, that you really believed there was a difference between ‘one versus the other’ that what Kate is going through with Jack is significant. I tried to play that on the island so that it ended up being convincing on the flash-forwards, when you see the accumulation of that.
The journalists asked Kate some accusatory questions at the Oceanic Six press conference – how much do you think the truth about Aaron will affect Kate in season five?
I feel like there is a measure of what she is doing – and how she is behaving – that is a coping mechanism. She can’t keep up this façade for much longer. I don’t think that when Jack comes to her and says, “We have to go back,” in season four’s finale – and when Kate slams on the breaks, turns around and screams at him for all that she’s been through– I feel like that might be a pivotal moment. It seems like it’s where the strings start to unravel in her sweater of maternal living, just when everyone else that has come from the island is desperately struggling to hold on to their sanity. I feel like Kate will eventually unravel. And although she is maternal, that maternal instinct can only run so deep when it’s not her child.
Is Kate set for a big fall next year?
I didn’t see it happening in season four, although I do anticipate something breaking her in season five. Now, I don’t know if that will actually affect the other characters – like becoming a paid mass killer, ending up in an asylum or addicted to over-the-counter drugs. But I think there will be moments where Kate starts to disintegrate and she has to face where she comes from. I think that may end in her agreeing to go back to the island. I don’t know if they will even be able to accomplish that, but I feel like that will be her breaking point. And it won’t be so much destructive as constructive: she’ll realize they have to do this, and that she’s going through the same hell as everyone else. Kate’s just in some serious, serious denial.
I also see her bond with Jack is actually stronger than the bond with Aaron, even though it doesn’t appear to be that way right now. I feel like watching Jack deteriorate and reach his low – pushing her away and then her pushing him away – I feel like that is what will bring her to her knees. It will be her bond with Jack.
Read the full article in issue #20 of The Official Lost Magazine.
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