When Locke and Kate spoke in Left Behind, he told her that he had put in a good word for her, only to find out what she had done in her past life. He said they don't forgive easily (right?).

But today, we saw him go directly from Cooper in the cell to say goodbye to her. He didn't stop to read her file or say anything to Ben on her behalf.

So when exactly did that take place? Or did it? If not, then why did/how could Locke make that stuff up?

Continuity error? Or was he just b-s-ing? I'm not sure what that was about....

For now, they've left out the scene where Locke reads Kate's file.

I'm guessing he read about her killing Wayne. That'd be the ho-hum version, not really worth the screentime..
A more fun version would be if, as long speculated by some, she's his telephone "helen".

Locke did tell Sawyer that they had files on all of them...I imagine he must have seen them. When Richard gives him Sawyer's file, his reaction is more to the fact that it's Sawyer's, not that it's a file of his entire life. Seemed like he already knew at that point that they had them.

Good point. I'm curious why Ben offered to let him say goodbye to Kate but not Jack or Sayid.

For now, they've left out the scene where Locke reads Kate's file.
Maybe so - but since he didn't get Sawyer's until after they left Otherville, it seemed odd that he would have already seen Kate's. :shrug: Probably not a big deal.

We didn't get every detail of Locke's missing time. I imagine that there was a conversation with Ben when Locke was going to see Kate. He spoke about her virtue and Ben hit him with the police record...

I thought it was just the writer's way of giving us a timeline of when these events were taking place. It did come off as a little strange though... since they didn't show him talk to anyone about making a case for Kate. Made me think: Wow, Locke, you sure went to bat for her, gave it your all!!! Just wasn't that important to show is my guess.