I Do (Lost)

Flashbacks

While on the run from the law, Kate goes to Miami, where under the name "Monica" she meets and gets engaged to a police officer, Kevin Callis (Nathan Fillion). Before their wedding, Kevin's mother, Suzanne, gives Kate a gold locket that had been passed down on the female side of the family at weddings. A while after the ceremony, Kate calls U.S. Marshal Edward Mars (Fredric Lane). She does not want to run any more and pleads for him to stop chasing her. Mars guesses that Kate has gotten involved with a man, and tells her that if Kate can really stay put, settle down, he will stop chasing her, but that they both know it is unlikely that Kate will ever stop running. Later, Kate shows signs of relief after getting a negative pregnancy test, and decides to reveal the truth about her life to her husband. She drugs Kevin, places her mother-in-law's locket in his hands and leaves.

On the Island

On the main island, John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) tells Nikki Fernandez (Kiele Sanchez), Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro), Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) and Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) that Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) was killed by an animal, and decides to bury Eko where he died as he thinks the other castaways have seen "too many funerals" recently. As Locke goes to the beach to get shovels, Sayid follows him and asks what really killed Eko. Locke says that the survivors call it "The Monster", and further speculates that The Monster may be what brought them there and that Eko died for a reason, he just does not know what it is yet. After the burial, Locke sees a message on Eko's stick: "Lift up your eyes and look north, John 3:05".

On Hydra island, Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) checks Ben Linus's (Michael Emerson) x-rays and medical file, and tells Ben that the tumor in his spine will become inoperable in a week. Jack however adds he is not going to operate on Ben because he does not trust the Others' promise of freeing him, Kate and Sawyer (Josh Holloway).

After the quarry where Kate and Sawyer are working suffers an invasion by Alex (Tania Raymonde), who demands to know where her boyfriend Karl (Blake Bashoff) is, Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) brings Kate to talk to Jack, telling her that it is the only way to prevent Danny Pickett (Michael Bowen) from killing Sawyer. When Jack and Kate see each other, Kate asks him to operate on Ben to prevent Sawyer from getting killed, but Jack gets angry and refuses.

After returning to her cage, Kate and Sawyer have an argument, and she climbs out of her cage and breaks open Sawyer's, saying if he does not want Jack to save his life, he is going to save his own. Sawyer then tells her that they cannot run because they are on another island, something he did not tell her "because I wanted you to believe that we had a damn chance." Kate and Sawyer then have sex, unknowingly in full view of the cameras. At the Hydra station, Jack finds his door unlocked and unguarded, and outside reaches a surveillance room, where he sees Kate and Sawyer cuddling together on a monitor. Ben appears behind him, and after a brief exchange Jack decides to do the surgery, but wants Ben to keep his promise to let Jack off the island.

As Juliet anesthetizes Ben and Jack begins the operation, Pickett goes with another man to Sawyer's cage. Kate and Sawyer attempt to fight, but Pickett's companion overpowers Kate and holds her at gunpoint, leading Sawyer to surrender. Meanwhile, Jack sabotages the operation by cutting Ben's kidney sack, and demands that Tom (M.C. Gainey) let him speak with Kate. Before Pickett can shoot Sawyer, Tom calls over the walkie-talkie. As Pickett gives the walkie to Kate, Jack tells her she has an hour's head start, and directs her to call him on the radio when she is safe.

Production

Show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrote "I Do" as a "mini-season finale", as it was the last episode before mid-season hiatus, and would end in a cliffhanger. It also served as a climax and beginning of a closure of Jack, Kate and Sawyer's captivity on Hydra Island, with the writers saying that afterwards there would be a return to the beach and the six-episode block would be "more palatable" and make more sense, comparing them to the first seven episodes of season 2 where the tail section survivors are introduced. Executive producer Bryan Burk also said the pre-hiatus episodes were "our season 2.5. Like, this is kind of like wrapping up a lot of where we were last year", considering season three would really begin in the seventh episode.

A main theme of the episode is Kate's inability to commit to other people, always running from difficult emotional situations, and having barriers between her and her interests – physical, as in Sawyer's cage or Jack's aquarium, or metaphorical, as in her inability to settle down as Kevin's wife. Kate's marriage, which was first alluded in the season one episode "Outlaws", is meant to be a contrast with her relationship with Sawyer in the realtime events – Kate and Kevin is a heartfelt and passionate relationship where Kate tries to get involved but her lifestyle ends up on making the marriage fail, whereas with Sawyer both are afraid of intimacy and connection yet still end up together.

Nathan Fillion was cast as Kevin because the producers thought he fit as "someone to believe that Kate had actually married and settled down with" for being "really good and kinda fun and intelligent", and also because Cuse and Lindelof were fans of Fillion's work on Firefly. Fillion said that he was a Lost fan and described his experience working at the show as "a dream".

Ratings

17.15 million American viewers watched this episode live, standing as the ninth most-seen program of the week. It also had 1.1 million viewers in the United Kingdom.

Critical reception

Chris Carabott of IGN gave a 9.3 out of 10 to "I Do", describing it as "delivering some key moments in the series' history and leaving viewers with a spectacular cliffhanger ending." Carabott complimented Locke's scenes as "short but nonetheless powerful" and praised Matthew Fox's acting, saying he "steals the show with one of his best performances to date". Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Christine Fenno considered that the flashbacks "weren't as exciting as the action on the island, but they were full of fun details" and liked Jack's scenes at the operating room. Jonathan Toomey of AOL's TV Squad called "I Do" "an episode worthy of being called a mid-season finale", thinking that the romantic scenes between Kate and Sawyer worked for "the tension that existed". BuddyTV's Oscar Dahl considered "I Do" as "a worthy end to Lost's truncated Fall season", having a good reaction to the cliffhanger and saying the episode "set up incredible possibilities for the rest of the season". Not all reviews were positive, with Slant Magazine's critic Andrew Dignan feeling it was "lacking both the immediacy and urgency that keeps viewers clamoring for months on end", and being critical of the writing, particularly on most of the essential plot elements occurring in the final minutes.

"I Do" was selected as one of the "25 Sexiest TV Shows on DVD" by Entertainment Weekly. IGN ranked the episode 28th out of the 115 Lost episodes, describing it as a "turning point episode of the third season." On the other hand, a similar list by Los Angeles Times ranked "I Do" as the 91st, saying it "mostly botched" the plot point of Kate's wedding despite Nathan Fillion's presence, and feeling it was an episode that "probably shouldn't have had to have as much pressure on it as it did (acting as a mini-cliffhanger in early Season 3)".

Evangeline Lilly submitted this episode for consideration for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.