I have a request for the writers of Lost.
Could you stop making Kate suck?
Remember back in the beginning of the first season when she was competent at things -- sure, a little easy to spook, a little flaky, but then again, all the characters back then had issues (except Sayid, who has always been a bad-ass). Kate could control a situation, either by taking charge or by manipulating others. People looked to her for help, and she even would volunteer for missions that would help the castaways potentially get off the island.
In one of her flashbacks she shot a guy.
Then she fell in love with Jack and Sawyer, and the entirety of her personality could be boiled down to two topics:
1. I did something bad before I got on the island, and I'm afraid people will find out.
2. I don't know if I love Sawyer or Jack, so I'm going to cry instead of making a decision.
Plus she has grown increasingly incompetent as the seasons went on. It started with her running around frantically when she thought she had highly volatile dynamite in her backpack. Then in season 2 she gets herself captured by a) a drunk Scotsman, b) a dude wearing a fake beard, and c) the same dude with the same fake beard. In season 3, after crying when she's supposed to be escaping, she manages to get away thanks to the help of Sawyer and a 16 year old girl. Then she does lots of nothing for a while, then gets captured by a black woman who is ultimately irrelevant to the show, gets captured by the Others when she starts crying to Jack when she should be rescuing him, and then gets tricked and then saved by Juliet.
Finally we're to the 4th season, and Kate now is so stupid that when she comes across two suspicious people sneaking away from camp, she bends over with her back to them as if to ask them, "Would you please render me unconscious with a sharp blow to my skull?"
Dammit writers, every other major character on the show either started as competent or became competent. Charlie was a heroin addict who became a hero. Sawyer was a swindler and murderer who became a hero. Sayid and Jack started as heroes. Locke wavered a bit, but he's back to hero status. Hurley is the most consistently heroic character on the show.
Why the hell can't you let Kate get over herself, grow the **** up, and stop crying every other episode?!