Friday, August 24, 2007

Who Wrote This Letter to Joan Hart?














In Born to Run at the motel in the cornfield, Kate
retrieves a letter addressed to Joan Hart that has been
held for guest arrival. The handwriting looks like a
woman's as does the stationary. I couldn't find a
transcription of the entire letter, but the jist of the
letter is that Kate's mom is dying despite the doctors'
best efforts. The letter also says that the writer doesn't
know when Kate will get the letter, but that she hopes it's
soon. It's signed "Love," but Kate's hand is over the
signature. A wad of money came with the letter as well.

Any ideas about who might have sent the letter? I used
to think it might have been Cassidy because of Kate's mom's
appearance in The Long Con. But Left Behind showed us
that Kate's mom didn't know Cassidy and the letter writer
had somewhat detailed knowledge of Diane's medical treatment,
so I don't think it was Cassidy. Plus, Cassidy should be in
New Mexico, not in Iowa anymore.

I'm guessing Kate's use of the name "Joan" in this episode
is a tribute to St. Joan of Arc, the young Frenchwoman who
led troops against the British and was later burned at the
stake. According to Wikipedia, St. Joan is the patron saint of
prisoners and captives, so she's fitting for Kate.

15 comments:

Capcom said...

Could the letter have come from her stepdad? I haven't watched this ep in a long time, so I'm fuzzy on the details around the ones that you mentioned. Or could it have been from Tom? Did he work at the hospital that her mother was in?

Now that you bring it up, I wish that someone would have worked to figure out this letter as much as they did on Ben's diary and Jack's newspaper clipping.

pgtbeauregard said...

I had always thought the letter was from Tom. Didn't he set it up so that she could visit her Mother.

It would be great for someone to enlarge it so we could read it.

memphish said...

Well in the interest of full disclosure I did pause the letter on my HDTV (though not HD DVD) and get right up next to it and I could read about half of it. Amazingly, it's not one of Sledgeweb's Investigations, and I haven't searched The Tail Section to see if Doc Arzt pulled the same trick on it as he did on Ben's diary page. So based on that sad form of research, it really looks like a woman's handwriting and it's on stationary with ivy down the sides, also more girly than mannish.

I don't think it would be from Sam Austen because he like her mom was committed to turning Kate in though he graciously gave her the hour head start. I don't think he would have sent something to that motel and not told the authorities to stake it out.

I also don't think it was Tom because Kate tells him in his car that her mom has cancer. He replies that he'd heard. Not the kind of conversation Kate would have had with the letter writer. Tom did help Kate once Kate asked him to, but I don't think he sent the letter.

Capcom said...

Hmmmm, then who the heck could it be?! Maybe we could suggest to Sledgeweb, et.al., to do a computer scan cleanup or something on it?

TheOtherLisa said...

Your eye for details and great questions never cease to amaze me! I don't have a clue offhand, but its also been a while since I've watched. Is there any way it might have been a set up by the Marshall to lure her back?

Its back to work for me next week- don't know how frequently I'll get to check in and read your thoughts. Just want to tell you I've enjoyed visiting during my time off! Thanks for such a great blog.

Capcom said...

Maybe you can check in on the weekends Lisa? See you whenever you can make it back!

TheOtherLisa said...

Hey Capcom- I'll hope to to at least read. I hate posting stale comments- I'm always a few days away from "current"! Yours and Memphish's might be possible b/c they're smaller ... LoCos= nearly impossible after a few days!! But, I still enjoy the read! Thanks for the convo and company!

TheOtherLisa said...

Memphish-
In an "ah-a" moment, I realized that your potential answer is right under your nose... In your Sayid post just below you remind us that Nadia worked for a medical testing company.... while the location might not match up (at any given "time").... it would be a guess that would cycle us back around and make yet another connection? (and maybe it is Mittelos!)

Has Kate ever seen Sayid's picture or talked to him about Nadia?

memphish said...

Lisa, thanks for all the comments you've been leaving. I'm going to try to keep up the M-F pace. Comment counts aren't too high so if you have a chance on the weekends, please chime in. I get an email that lets me know when comments are made, so if you post in past earlier threads I know about it and can respond.

Nadia -- hmmm. I guess she could be reading Diane's results from Iowa in Irvin, CA and sending money back to Iowa for Joan Hart. Anything's possible.

The Marshal was suggested as well. It seems plausible that the Marshal expected Kate to make contact. There's a cop of some sort in the hall in the hospital which is why Kate needs Tom's help to move Diane out of her room. But if the Marshal had known where to send the letter, he'd have had people there as well.

That makes me wonder how the Marshal told Kate about the plane being in New Mexico later on. I guess she must have called him like she did in her I Do flashback. I'll hear the story again as soon as I get around to watching the next episode.

TheOtherLisa said...

Memphish said...."But if the Marshal had known where to send the letter, he'd have had people there as well."


Oh, yeah.... I totally missed that logical idea! Geeze! I also admit that the Nadia idea is a stretch- but with your previous Sayid post, I thought, "why not?" ;-)

Amused2bHere said...

My first thought was Tom, but you've totally debunked that idea.

Hmmm...I wonder who would know where Kate was, and known to use the alias. Maybe another waitress that her mom worked with, one sympathetic to Kate.

Oh, Darlton, we have a question for you!

Capcom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Capcom said...

Right Amused, why do we always ask Darlton the huge questions that we know they won't answer, and we never think to ask them some incidental questions like this one?! They still might not answer these kinds of Qs depending on things, but it's good for a try.

pgtbeauregard said...

Who would sign the letter "love"?

Could it be a time traveler?

Cool_Freeze said...

This really may be a clue that EVERYONE has missed the first time around.

It makes no sense to be the Marshall or Tom.

I hardly think it to be her father considering the detail of the letter.

I wonder What ELSE Kate did?

CF