Season 5, Episode 11:
Whatever Happened, Happened
In flashbacks, Kate visits Cassidy, and reveals that Sawyer asked her to look after Clementine when he jumped off the helicopter. Cassidy is unimpressed, feeling Sawyer chose to stay behind out of cowardice. Kate confesses to the Oceanic Six's lies, and that Aaron is not her son. The day before Ajira 316 departs, Kate meets with Cassidy, and admits she needed Aaron as much as he needed her. Kate meets Carole Littleton, and tells her the truth about the Island. She leaves Aaron with her, and promises to bring Claire home.
In 1977, Jin wakes up, and brings the wounded Ben back to the Barracks. Horace deduces that Sayid's escape was an inside job, with Sawyer figuring out that Ben let him out. Kate meets Roger shortly before he finds out Ben has been shot. Juliet tries to operate on Ben, but has little success. Sawyer asks Jack to help, but he refuses, saying he is happy to let Ben die. Kate donates blood to Ben, but his condition continues to worsen. Juliet tells Kate that their only hope is to bring Ben to the Others. Sawyer helps Kate get past the sonic fence, and the two meet Richard in the jungle. He agrees to heal Ben at the Temple, but tells them he will always be one of the Others now.
In 2007, Ben wakes up, and is shocked to see John Locke looking down at him.
Tropes in this episode include:
- AB Negative: Kate reveals she's a Universal Donor and volunteers to give young Ben some of her blood via transfusion.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Kate is upset with Jack for refusing to fix Ben’s injuries.Kate: You know, I don't like the new you. I liked the old you, who wouldn't just sit around and wait for things to happen.
Jack: You didn't like the old me, Kate. - The Bus Came Back: Cassidy returns in flashbacks, having not been seen since "Left Behind".
- Call-Back: As Kate is carrying Aaron to Cassidy's house she quietly sings "Catch A Falling Star" to him. In "Raised By Another" Claire asked a couple who were going to adopt Aaron to sing the song to him.
- Children Are Innocent: Kate, Sawyer and Juliet all argue in favor of saving young Ben, regardless of what he will grow up to do, on the basis that at this point in time he is still an innocent child and doesn't deserve to be punished for things he hasn't done yet.Jack: That kid is Ben.
Juliet: That's not Ben yet. He's just a kid. - Deal with the Devil: Sawyer and Kate hand Ben over to the Others to heal him, knowing that this will result in him growing up to be the man who will cause them so much pain in the future, but considering this to be a better alternative than allowing an innocent child to die because of things he hasn't done yet.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Hurley spends most of the episode hilariously failing to understand how Time Travel works, but even Miles has to admit he has a good point when he points out that Ben should have remembered Sayid shooting him as a kid when he first met the survivors.Hurley: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn't he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?
Miles: Huh. I hadn't thought of that. - Friend to All Children: Jin is appalled to find that Sayid shot Ben, and immediately rushes him back to camp without a moment's hesitation.
- Honorary Aunt: Clementine Phillips greets Kate as "Aunt Kate" when she shows up at Cassidy's house.
- Ignored Epiphany: Roger has a Heel Realization after Ben is shot, and admits to Kate that he's been a terrible father. As we already know, this lesson won't stick.
- Internal Reveal: Kate tells Carole the truth about Aaron and leaves him with her.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When agreeing to take Ben to the Temple, Richard explains to Kate and Sawyer that he won't remember "any of this" when he wakes up, explaining why he doesn't remember Sayid shooting him as a child when he meets the survivors in the future.
- Mundanger: Kate panics when she briefly loses sight of Aaron at a grocery store, which any parent of a young child can tell you is a legitimately terrifying experience. It comes across as an extremely mundane fear in comparison to the supernatural horrors the characters have faced on the Island.
- Refusal of the Call: When Sawyer calls on Jack to save the young Ben Linus, he chooses not to.
- Ret-Gone: Discussed. Hurley checks to see if his hand is disappearing, á la Back to the Future, thinking that Sayid killing the young Ben will cause the survivors to be erased from existence since he won't grow up to turn the wheel and send them back in time in the first place. Ultimately averted, since Lost operates within a Stable Time Loop, and Sawyer and Kate succeed in saving Ben's life.Hurley: We came back in time to the Island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he'll never grow up to be big Ben, who's the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can't be here. And therefore, dude? We don't exist.
- The Reveal:
- The favor Sawyer asked Kate before jumping off the helicopter was to visit Cassidy and look after Clementine for him.
- Kate is revealed to have returned to the island so that she can bring Claire home.
- Secret-Keeper: Kate tells Cassidy the truth about what really happened to the Oceanic Six, and that there's still survivors on the Island.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Juliet doesn’t even wait for Jack to get dressed after showering to chew him out for not caring about a young Ben’s injuries. Jack retorts he came back to the island because he cares, but this doesn’t do anything to placate Juliet, accusing him of coming back for himself. That one is unfair, as Jack couldn’t have known she and Sawyer were happy.
- Wrong Time-Travel Savvy: Hurley bases his knowledge of Time Travel on Back to the Future, which uses Alternate Timelines, and completely fails to understand how a Stable Time Loop works when Miles tries to explain it to him.
