why say that aaron is kate's son?

[sullen entropy]

i still don't understand why kate is lying to say aaron is her son. i know this was brought up in previous episodes, and that the prevailing theory was to protect aaron for some reason, but i thought that something in this episode might have shed some more light on the issue. i don't remember locke saying anything to jack about protecting aaron, nor jack discussing it on the raft before they got picked up by penny's boat.

i'm sure this will have implications later on, especially with aaron being a 'shepard'. but for the time being, it seems that it would be better to say that claire was one of the ones who died and to return aaron to her family.

am i missing something?

[island hottie]

Claire was pregnant with Aaron when the plane crashed.
The 'story' is that she died when the plane hit the water. Therefore, she couldn't have given birth to Aaron. Kate's taken on the role of 'mother' to Aaron to not only protect him, but to give more credence to their lie. There is no way she would have left the baby behind on the island, not only to give Aaron a better life but also out of her friendship with Claire.

[sullen entropy]

i'm sorry - my op wasn't that clear. i meant to say ask - why not say that claire was one of the original 8 that survived, but died sometime after giving birth to aaron.

[JThree]

Maybe because they knew if they did that they could not protect him by keeping n eye on him themselves? If the baby is known to be Claire's then someone else would get custody.

[iameve]

I'm just wondering why they didn't leave the baby with desmond and penny.. or furthermore.. Why didn't Kate just stay with des and penny? Since she was a fugitive.?

[sullen entropy]

that's a good question about kate staying with pen and desmond. no one would be chasing her since everyone thinks she's dead.

i really wondering why they would want one of them to have custody. wouldn't they assume that aaron would be better off with claire's mom or aunt? and did any of them really have a close enough bond with claire to want to assume that kind of responsiblity? jack didn't know she was his sister at that point. and you could keep in touch with claire's family if you wanted to stay in his life.

[MrsArtist]

agreed, no reason to say it was her child, and keep him away from his real family, like his grandmother. I think it is monsterous to take a child for your own selfish reasons (to protect yourself etc), instead of giving that child to those who will care for him best.

[minnesotan_grl83]

I just couldn't believe how Kate got away with saying its her child when she clearly didn't look 5 months pregnate when she got on the plane before it had crashed. People would have seen the bump? The press didn't continue asking about it.. but that is tv for ya.

Good thing they didn't.. good thing Kate has Aaron since Claire had him on the island.. and Claire didn't really have much of a supportive and loving family anyway.. if you take a look at her flashbacks..

[ellejaygee]

Kate was there at Aaron's birth, wasn't she? Wasn't she "in attendance" for lack of a better word? Maybe she felt a stronger bond to Aaron than we ever realized, and because of her fugitive status, they never would've let her keep a child that wasn't her own. I think it was part guilt, part a sense of responsibility/owing Claire, and also, maybe Kate knows she can never have a child of her own, and this deepened her attachment to Aaron. I'm not saying it's right that they didn't try to find Aaron's dad, or give custody to Claire's aunt, I'm just saying the motivations of these characters run deep (as do the writer's needs to be able to manipulate the story).

[annieone]

Kate is a fugitive. By giving her a child and enlarging her heroic role in saving everybody, they give her some protection against the law. Plus, when they arrived on the LAX airport and everyone was hugged by a relative, Kate felt very alone. She then felt a real attachment to the baby, then.