“Whatever the Case May Be”

Lost season 1, episode 12
Original air date: January 05, 2005

Backstory:
Kate enters a bank in New Mexico, ostensibly to apply for a loan. She tells the bank manager that she's taking photos of old movie houses, and he gives her some advice about where she can find a pretty one. As they're talking, masked men enter the bank and hold it up. They force all the customers and employees down to the floor and take the bank manager hostage. They ask him for the key to the vault, which he refuses to give.

After a few go-rounds, the robbers warn the bank manager that they're going to start hurting people if he doesn't open the vault. They remind him that it's not his money that he's protecting. A big guy in a ballcap scoots close to Kate and tells her that he's going to make a run at one of the robbers. He does so and the robber's gun clatters across the floor right to Kate. The guy in the ballcap yells at Kate to shoot the robber, but she says she doesn't know how to fire a gun. The leader of the masked men approaches Kate, with his gun on her, and disarms her, taking her by the throat.

As the bank manager looks on, the leader takes Kate into the back office, where they kiss and laugh about her deception: "I don't know how to use a gun!" He hits her, so that it looks like he was roughing her up back there, and they return to the lobby. The leader uses Kate as leverage against the bank manager, saying that he'll kill her if the manager doesn't hand over the key. He complies, and the robbers enter the vault, with Kate.

Once in the vault, the manager is surprised to find out that Kate was part of the team, as she demands that he open a particular security deposit box. He says he would need the owner's key as well as the bank key, and Kate reveals that she has it. Once she opens it and removes the envelope inside, much to the dismay of her partner, who thought this was a real heist.

Current:
Kate catches Sawyer following her in the jungle, as she collects fruit from trees. On their walk back to camp together, they come across a waterfall and pool, which Sawyer entices Kate to swim in with him. As they dive, they find more wreckage from the plane, including bodies strapped into seats and a steel suitcase. They take the suitcase, and Kate asks for it. Sawyer can tell that she really wants it, although she tries to play it cool, and they play keepaway for hours.

Kate finally enlists Jack's help, telling him that sooner or later Sawyer will get the case open — which he's been trying to do — and he'll find the guns, ammo and money that the marshal was carrying in it. Jack agrees to help Kate dig up the marshal's body to get the key out of his wallet, but he makes Kate promise that she's not lying to him about what's in the case and that they'll open the case together. After they dig up the body, Kate opens the wallet and says there's nothing in it, except maggots, which cause her to throw the wallet down. Jack, though, saw her sleight of hand, and confronts her about having palmed the key. He takes the key from her, and they open the case together. in addition to the guns and money, there's an envelope of Kate's personal effects, including the envelope she took from the bank vault. She opens it and takes out a small airplane. Jack pressures her to tell him the truth about what it is. She says it belonged to the man she loved, but Jack doesn't believe her, until she says it belonged to the man she killed. Jack packs up the case and keeps the key around his neck.

Meanwhile, the group on the beach discovers that the wreckage is being pulled into the ocean by a rising tide. They begin dragging it to higher ground, with the exception of Charlie, who is still moping about Claire. Rose, the woman whose husband was in the bathroom whom Jack had brought out of her funk a few weeks ago, approaches him and tells him that he needs to be part of the group. Charlie resists, but Rose keeps at him to participate in helping drag the camp to higher ground. Charlie eventually breaks down and asks Rose for help in overcoming his pain of losing Claire. Rose says she can't help him, but that a higher power can, which seems to soothe Charlie.

Elsewhere, Sayid enlists Shannon's help in translating the maps he stole from the French woman. Shannon says she can't help him, but Sayid urges her to think beyond herself, much as Rose does for Charlie. Shannon works at it until she's able to make out some of the words, but Sayid is frustrated, because what Shannon translates doesn't make much sense: "The sea of silver, sparkles that change; next to the pond, blue infinity." Shannon eventually realizes that the words were song lyrics, set to the tune "Beyond the Sea."