What Kate Does doesn't quite know how to write a woman of action who's also in love … many of the show's Kate flashbacks are just plain silly … there have been a lot of pretty dire Kate episodes." Whitney Matheson of "USA Today" said that she "wanted to stab Kate with a hot poker" after watching "What Kate Does". Josh Holloway's supporting performance as a grieving Sawyer was commended by Carabott of IGN, who said that his acting on the dock as he cried and revealed to Kate that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him was "one of Josh
What It Feels Like for a Girl atmosphere and ambiguous air". Also from "The Guardian", Maddy Costa thought that the track was "exquisite", adding "on 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' you feel is the Madonna of old, talking about being a pop bitch and making you tingle even with its hackneyed lyrics". Writing for "Billboard", Larry Flick hailed it "a hook-laden midtempo jam [...] that should give the Britney/Christina generation of teenage female listeners a little food for thought", highlighting its "motherly, nurturing perspective". Also from "Billboard", Chuck Taylor named it "one of the more substantive – and mature – musical ventures of [Madonna's] career",