How did she 'know' Lars was still alive? All she had to go on, was that Carter told her "we didn't kill him", which could be taken as Carter saying, effectively, that he didn't know what happened to Lars at all. Consider that after the filling test, as far as she's concerned everyone is accounted for, except for Carter and Jameson.
Until Lars and the other Norwegian go out of her sight to bring Carter and Jameson. She never retested the other Norwegian, so from her factual evidence, she cannot discount that both Lars and this Norwegian became infected at the same time while looking for Carter and Jameson. Granted, what we see on camera tells us that he isn't infected, but Kate never proves it for herself.
Then, we get to Carter and Jameson returning from the helicopter crash. We know from Kate's later dialogue that she knows Carter wasn't a thing. The same can't be said for Jameson. At no point is he tested. So let's imagine if Jameson is a thing for a moment. He and Carter survive the crash, but Carter is unconscious. The Griggs could have managed to infect Jameson before being burned to death. Before Jameson is a complete thing, he hauls out Carter and uses the fire to keep them both warm, but not burning to death. While Carter regains consciousness, Jameson becomes totally thing. At some point though, the thing survival instincts kick in and he realises his best shot at surviving winter and getting in a position to infect the maximum amount of people, is to return to Base. He knows if he turns up alone, nobody would believe him, so he needs Carter to go back too. BUT, he also knows that the surgical plate found in the first victim, and by extension any inorganic material, cannot be assimilated. This includes Carters earring. So he knows he cannot just assimilate Carter in case someone puts 2 and 2 together, and suspect Carter of being a thing because he no longer has his earring. So Jameson thing and the real Carter both return to Base.
Kate segregated them, and from that point, till when Carter and Jameson turn up inside with a gun and flamethrower, even we (let alone Kate) are unaware what happened. From Kate's perspective, they could both be things at this point. In Carter's case, it's not obvious that she even spots his earring again from here until she challenges him in the snowmobile and burns him. Granted, at the point she asks him about Lars, WE (the viewer) are given a clear shot of his left ear and earring, but it's not clear if Kate spotted it. So again, unless she absolutely positively saw his earring from the time he and Jameson start toting weapons until she ask him about Lars (something that we don't know she does and can therefore not say for certain) we have to assume the status quo. That being that she does not know he isn't a thing, and therefore cannot trust him not to lie when he says they didn't kill Lars.
Furthermore, Lars' dog hasn't been accounted for. And any number of microrbial thing atoms could have also had a hand in Lars' being disposed of. So on the face of it, it's entirely incorrect to say that she knows Lars is alive.
In fact, we only find out during the epilogue. And if the viewer, unrestrained by the 4th wall, doesn't know, a character in the film won't know either.
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PopperTheKungFu-Dragon
8 years ago
I agree with you about not knowing about Lars, but if the thing was aware about the earring, it could just change and then put the earring on by hand. Fillings and plates are not something that can be put back, but can easily be added back once its changed.
The only mistake the thing made at the end was it put the earring back on the wrong ear because it didn't know any better.
Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried
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