In December 2007, Kate Austen chases after James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), who escapes from the Others' captivity in the island's temple and is grieving over the death of his love Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) just hours earlier.
In flash sideways, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) flees LAX in a taxicab she has hijacked, in which a pregnant Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) is a passenger.
James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) seizes the opportunity to obtain a gun and announce his departure from the temple, explicitly telling Kate not to follow him.
[6] "What Kate Does" was largely considered to be a step down from the season premiere in pacing, revelations and writing; Mike Hale of The New York Times described the episode as "contemplative", "anticlimactic" and "subdued" and the flash sideways as "kind of boring and seemingly pointless.
"[7] Chris Carabott of IGN, who gave the episode a score of 7.3 summed up that " 'What Kate Does' slows the pace down significantly from last week and focuses on telling a character-driven story.
"[9] Further explanations for the generally less positive reception came from Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen with "Lost has a habit of following up its premiere extravaganzas with scaled-down follow-ups that seek to ground the audience and orient them to a more deliberate pace to the season"[10] and Emily VanDerWerff of the Los Angeles Times explained, "Kate episodes … have notoriously tricky relationships with [fans].
"[8] Holloway's acting was called "wrenching" by Jensen of Entertainment Weekly,[10] "[t]errific" by Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune,[13] "stellar" by Chuck Barney of the San Jose Mercury News,[14] "moving (sometimes)" by Rob Cohen of The Huffington Post,[15] "so palpable" by Noel Murray of The A.V.
"[18] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly admired Lilly's subtlety and said, "you believe this woman, who can be so adorable that she can withstand Sawyer’s nickname of “Freckles,” is entirely capable of killing someone.
[20] Jensen of Entertainment Weekly explained, "The New and Improved With 70% More Likability Jack that brought some dazzle back to Kate's eyes was clearly a man who had learned some lessons about how the Others do business.
[21] Poniewozik of Time was annoyed by the Others refusing to answer questions, but stated that "here I'm willing to forgive that for setting up the genius scene of Jack surprise-popping the poison pill.
"[18] In contrast, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times said, "Another thing I find supremely annoying about Lost: its insistence on returning again and again to the show's most uninteresting characters, including damaged, self-pitying control freak Jack.
"[22] Daniel of TMZ, who gave the episode a "D" grade, reacted uniquely with "The only thing in the history of Lost that has seemed more out of place than the part in Jack's hair was Nikki and Paulo.
"[24] VanDerWerff of the LA Times,[11] Ryan of the Chicago Tribune,[13] Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger,[9] Jensen of Entertainment Weekly[10] and Mark Medley of the National Post also found the episode to contain humorous lines.