Wait, okay more thoughts on Jate in the finale. And also on Jate in the Candidates? (That’s the submarine episode right?)
with pleasure!
i wrote a little abot about jate in "the candidate" here if you want to read it. not a big fan of that episode in terms of jate bc physically injuring a woman character so that the man character can realize Things is well, obiously sexist, but also extremely lazy and boring writing. basically in that episode kate is used to make us audience understand that the mib is lying to jack (the mib and charles widmore are paralleled in that episode) so kate being harmed is what makes jack understand that they don't have plot armor (so to speak) as he thought they had (bc he believed the mib's words). so kate in pain is used so that jack can "snap out of it" and where "it" stands for "believing every word the mib says and never questioning him because ???".
the thing i was interested to see, though, is how much of a crybaby kate is. YES, OF COURSE, I KNOW she got shot in the shoulder, it's not a boo-boo but i think it was necessary to see a version of kate that's more vulnerable and that doesn't simply shrug things off of her. and in that state of vulnerability she still looks for jack who, let's all remember, was actually her ex-fiancé, lol.
i don't agree with the motivation, but i think we did need to see a kate without plot (and hero's love) armor to make her feel more human and relatable after the cardboard cutout that she had sadly been for almost two seasons.
as far as "the end" is concerned, in part I i liked that kate started being angry at jack but i disliked the usual skate obsession LOST writers had. having sawyer and kate make flirty jokes after sun, jin and sayid died just because in the flash-forward the writers wanted to bait the viewers and make us think that kate was gonna "wake up" thanks to sawyer was poor taste.
luckily, in part II we're finally done with the love triangle shit and i've appreciated that, at least, they didn't write kate and jack in an unnecessary over-sentimental, pathetic way.
jack has made up his mind and kate is mad at him. however, she doesn't try to persuade him, she is honest with him and that last "i love you" was also a last plea to make him leave with her but it didn't work. jack left her and didn't look back. and she was so livid she jumped off that cliff without even thinking out of rage.
this might seem bleak but it's not bc kate was fundamentally wrong. as much as i'm pro "let the island sink" the writers were smart enough to conveniently remind us that other people lived on the island. other people like rose and bernard, OUR rose and bernard. people who need thst island to live. so no, jack couldn't let the island sink because the island wasn't just suffering, it was also a place of love and freedom for other people. love and freedom being the reason why jack decides to do what he then proceeds to do. he had to put the cork back on otherwise people would've died and kate and the others wouldn't have been able to leave.
so yeah it was bittersweet but i really appreciated how the romantic love story served to frame a bigger story about Love (with no labels nor adjective) and Freedom. is that fucking tragic? of course it is but jate is a tragic love story from the beginning so, sadly, the happy ending wasn't meant for them.
does that mean it was all for nothing? clearly not. i think it's important to move past the need to want to see a happy ending where by "happy ending" we mean heteronormativiy. happy endings can be complex and messy and sad and bittersweet because "happy" doesn't necessarily mean "content" but fitting, effective, too. and i humbly think that jate's ending was fitting and effective. at least it was to me.