Lost: "Recon" Recap

Recon. Re-Con.

This episode was also known as "Saywer finally pulls a hat-trick." Of course I am referring to the fact that Mr. Ford finally completes the spectrum of lays and has relations with one lady of every hair color; the big (random) flavor of the week was the late Charlotte Lewis (also of the C.S. Lewis tree of references), who in turn, offered nothing of value except passionate lovemaking and a tiny bit of info that she still fell into the archaeology gig. Sawyers' alternate digs, however, place him in different professional circumstances: he is a con-man for the law rather than a fugitive. Why is this important? Because Sawyer, to Miles (his partner, and loyal flunky in both worlds), explains that he at one point had an important choice in life: become a criminal or cop. In the alternate realm, James Ford chose the nobler of the two professions, yet all that "good" he has done in the name of justice has not rid him of his lust to find the con-man that destroyed his family.

One can infer from the fact that James Ford still endured the traumatic death of his father and mother, that Sawyer's fork in the road happens after Jacob touches him - or doesn't - at his parents' funeral as a child; more simply, Sawyer's alternate reality resets to when he had a choice as a confused child, whether to con for good, or evil.

Thus, did the island, and Jacob, still have an affect on Sawyer's life? Or, did the absence of Jacob allow for Jim Ford to edge toward good, rather than evil?

There was nothing really revolutionary about this story, compared to others in Lost cannon. What it established was its place in line with the rest of season 6's alternate lore of divergent and semi-redemptive stories. I say "semi" because it was probably not an accident that this story ends with Sawyer running into to alternate-fugitive Kate, because so far both of their off-island stories have been the most open-ended and unresolved: Kate was still on the run, and Sawyer was still in search of his family's con-man murderer (conmurderer?). Sawyer re-con's in his alternate life, and he maybe be re-conning everyone on the island.

Big question: because of Locke's implied relationship with his "too-be-invited to the wedding" father, is there a new Sawyer in James' past, or will it still turn out to be Locke's father?

"Recon" Off-island

* Sawyer lays on the old "whoopsy-suitcase" con the same way in both realities, but to different effects and desired outcomes; the point is that he is both in control of the the con in one reality and the arrest in the other, but more specifically it is to set up and underscore Darth Locke's faith in Sawyer and his ability to lie and detect lies.

* Charlotte = hot. It's amazing what happens for the complection when blood isn't spewing out of every orifice because of a time-warp. She finds a file (was she aleady looking for it?) in Mr. Ford's baggage labeled, "Saywer." The two ways to read this scene is either Charlotte was looking for this information, or whether this was part of a typical Sawyer con. Going back to the instigator of the date, multiple interpretations can be inferred from Miles offering up a "date tonight," including the veiled reference to whether or not James wanted to "die alone," (instead of live together). Are we to believe that Miles' friend Charlotte, who "works with his father at the museum", is not a police target and a potential Sawyer-con, or was the whole eventual odd sexing and morning-after meltdown a sincere (and awkward) one-night stand?

* After Sawyer's failed attempt at reconciliation (or follow-up BJ) with Charlotte, thanks to his tipsy revelation watching "Little House on the Prairie," he reveals the "truth" to Miles about his spelunking down in Australia; we didn't learn if he had murdered this time around, but Sawyer's soul-bearing lead to a run in with an awful stereotype: chick-driving. Yes, Kate did nothing but perpetuate the stigma that females have one weakness. I wonder if Sawyer's holding cells are called the "polar bear cages."

"Recon" On-island

* Hey - that's where Sawyer was last week when mass slaughter was going on at the temple - he was tending to Jin! Poor Jin, he is always either half blown up, or a prisoner. Smokey reveals to Sawyer, probably not to his great shock, that he is the smoke monster. For some reason, I didn't quite believe the MIB this time around; I mean I know everything points to him at least having control of the pillar of black death, but its starting to seem, especially out of Darth Locke's mouth, too obvious that new-Locke and the smoke are one and the same.

* A week ago, I was convinced, but the full-on disclosure by the MIB to Sawyer has me questioning whether or not the circumstantial nature of Smokey's recent assaults are due to the fact that the MIB is controlling the monster, rather than actually being the monster. This could also explain how Ben was able to call upon it at one point, but the jury is out rather than unanimous in my mind. OK, I know we had the first-person POV in Locke's episode "The Substitute," but there still could be a cool swerve waiting in the wings.

* Why does Darth Locke send Sawyer away? He claims its because Sawyer is the "best liar he knows," but obviously he anticipates an encounter with Widmore. The question that the audience needs to be asking is for what, or whom, is Widmore working for? Widmore, I believe, was too accepting of Sawyer's offer (and maybe-con) of bringing fake-Locke to be judgement at the hands of Widmore. Widmore easy-acceptance begs the question why he and he small horde didn't join Jack's posse, which leads me to believe that his presence on the island is either for Locke (and anti-Jacob) or for his own unknown purposes. Widmore had left the island several times at will to have and establish a family before his exile at the hands of Ben, so why would he come back? Either he had indeed fallen from Jacob's grace, or had been a victim of Smokey's influence over Ben and and Ben's consolidation of power over the Others; thus, if the latter is true, Widmore should be seeking revenge and a re-establishment of his power on the island.

* "Sayid, are you alright?" Kate was then interrupted by a crazed knife-wielding Claire going for the jugular. Sayid watched quite passively (and maybe hopelessly, or pilled out), as Claire's knife edged nearer to Kate's throat. Ultimately, Smokey comes to the "rescue," hurling Claire off with ease and then, quite literally, slapping some sense into her as only Chuck Norris could appreciate. Once again, this episode will play well for those of you Smoke-fans who enjoy his brand of full-discloser; Darth Locke tells Claire that she had disappeared, so Kate HAD to take Aaron. Ultimately, this scene leads to both an apology by Smokey to Kate for lying to Claire. His awkward and ironic reasoning: Claire had to be fed hate to survive in the absence of her baby. Star Wars link: hate and suffering = the dark side. Come on people, how cut and dry could the force be?

* This also leads to Creeper-Claire apologizing to Kate, but in an episode devoted to a con-man, this played more like an elaborate mind-game with Kate to win her over after Smokey was noticeably surprised by her presence in his camp. Call this a "Plan B" for the monster if you will, but this was the first time that Smokey has admitted to lying outright, which should set off alarm bells for all you Darth Locke lovers out there. In the end, these were brief, but great scenes that highlighted where our Smokey recruits are. Someone get Sayid a 5 hour energy shot - maybe he won't be so stabby.

* Sawyer reveals his gambit to Kate: he is trying to play Smokey and Widmore against each other to give them enough time to commandeer the submarine. Who the hell would pilot that submarine anyway? It made me wonder whether or not the all powerful one - the one most in need of a physical and cosmic man-chest support (he has chick-tits), Darth Locke, was also yanking Sawyer's chain about wanting to fly the plane off the island. If Smokey loved pilots so much, why kill the only one left alive in the first episode? Why let the new pilot, Lupidus, meander over to Jedi-Jack's camp? Hell, why couldn't he just Smoke his way off? It could have been the Sawyer episode, but I don't trust a damn thing or motivation the came from either Darth Locke or Widmore; ironically, the only one I did trust in the end was Sawyer - which I guess was the point. We all hoped and guessed that Sawyer was just on "recon," but maybe this long-con still isn't as cut and dry as we think it is. Perhaps we are still at the mercy of Sawyer and his devilish southern drawl.

Lost: "The Incident"

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

Thanks to babelfish translations, Ricardo Alpert tells Illana, "He that will save us."

...

Long ago when I first saw the line of ash and then the cabin for the first time, I postulated that perhaps the island was an eternal prison for an evil being, or Jacob. The extreme version of this story would be the Lucifer one; the island was the place on Earth that the fallen angel Lucifer fell when he was cast out of Heaven.

In "The Incident," we got a new twist in the war between good and evil to control fate. It has long been established in Lost that there seemed to be two dueling sides vying for the island, and thus perhaps the world. Was it the Others vs. Dharma? Widmore vs. Ben?

Apparently this duel, this time loop has been in motion for much longer than any of us anticipated. Enjoying a fresh-fish taco, Jacob stares out into the Ocean and upon the incoming Black Rock and probably it's long expected cargo, Ricardo Alpert. And then he is joined by his opposite, the Man in Black.

You see, Jacob isn't the only powerful force on the island. As Locke once explained to Walt via backgammon, for every white piece - there is black. There is evil. The Man in Black (MIB lols) hates Jacob so much for his belief that humanity can be saved. All he sees out of men is their desire to control, destroy, and make war. Still, Jacob beckons more of his chosen few to the island.

For what? Well it seems that Jacob has been weaving a tapestry in the shadow of the statue; literally though, it seems the man in white has been carefully weaving certain events and people together. Jacob travels the world touching lost souls at their exact time of need, thus binding them to the island so that they may enact free will within the waves of time and change themselves, and maybe change the final outcome: humanity's destruction by their own hands.

The MIB despises humanity, for he knows how this every loop ends in men destroying themselves. More importantly, he despises Jacob for his faith that men can break the cycle of destruction through their choices, through the illusion of free will. How many times has Jacob done his little experiments with incorrigible men? The MIB is sick of it. Endless loops - endless times having to go down to the wheel and reset it all before everything is destroyed.

"It can end only once. Everything up to that point is progress."

Progress? An eternity of living multiple lifetimes, watching the same events unfold. All the while Jacob weaves his timeline tapestry, ferrying his chosen saved to the island, while the MIB is forced to feed on the damned. A thousand lifetimes, and all MIB wants to do now is end it:

"You know how much I want to kill you right now?"

Ah, but there is a catch. It seems these two opposing demi-gods cannot directly slay each other. Disgusted, MIB returns into the jungle - returns to his cabin. His hatred festers. He begins to actively plot, so much so that Jacob is forced to bind him behind a wall of white ash so that he cannot spread his influence and discord.

"I will find a loophole."

...

The big revelation in Season 5's finale was that Darth Locke (as I have come to call him) actually is way more Darthy then we thought. In fact, he isn't even John Locke at all. It seems the Man in Black finally found his loophole. I am sure we will eventually find out how the MIB broke free of his cabin bondage - how the ash turned black. The important part is that he is free. Ben is just some sort of apprentice-level manipulator compared to his new master, easily falling under Darth Locke's spell and becoming the loophole by finally killing Jacob.

Yet the MIB should have known. Things seemed a little off when Ben told him that his dead daughter appeared to him and made him promise to do exactly what Darth Locke said. He was surprised - could it really be that easy? The MIB didn't even have to convince Ben to kill Jacob.

"They are coming."

From his dying lips, he sputtered the last words to his nemesis. Checkmate. Everything finally ended for Jacob; yet the chosen - the destined - were about to be summoned via an atomic bomb.

Jack the Shepherd and his tribe are coming.

Jacob had planned for this all along. He had been there in all their lives, touching them, binding them to the island and weaving their fates together. They were his ultimate end game in case the MIB had ever found his loophole. Disgusted by this realization, Darth Locke scowls and kicks Jacob's body into the fire.

...

Some people I have talked to said they were pretty upset that we didn't get our answer on whether or not Jack changed the future.

I think that we did though. I believe Faraday was ultimately right before that whatever happened, happened. Like Miles said, the castaways probably are the ones that caused the incident in the first place, because they had to. Akin to what happened to Desmond after the hatch imploded, I think through Jacob's grace (and Juliette exerting her free will), the castaways will be transported back to the present so that Jack and Locke (well the MIB) can have their ultimate showdown.

You see, I think the swerve is that the real game-changing "incident" wasn't in 1977. I believe the real incident was when the MIB finally broke the cycle and killed Jacob. Everything after that point is going to be different. It's funny, because it seemed destined from season 1 that Jack and Locke would ultimately be the driving opposing forces in Lost's conclusion. Locke the man of destiny against Jack the man of science.

Yet the real Locke is gone. Dead is dead. It sort of sucks, because you felt like the new Locke was a BAMF, that he had finally realized his potential. The only caveat to him maybe being REALLY dead is that Jacob not only touched him, but brought him back to life; we'll see.

No the real people of destiny appears to have been Kate, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Hurly with Jack probably assuming the leadership role of a lifetime.

Jacob's death has signaled the end of the eternal backgammon game with the MIB, as well as the end of the time loops. Lost can and will end only once. The tapestry is complete (can't wait to see the finished product) and Jacob's hand picked team will either exert free will and make the right choices that will save themselves and the world, or they fail before the MIB's hatred of humanity.

So how do you think it will end? Was Jack the destined one all along? Will Ben become Sith-apprentice to his new (or maybe destined) master? Is the real Locke truly gone forever? Is the monster and the MIB one and the same?

There is a war coming.

Lost: "Follow the Leader"

The penultimate setup to the season 5 finale was a veritable Rubik's cube of information: how do all these events line up in time? Or do they?

Perhaps the best way to break this episode down is by the "leader" characters and their motivations.

Jack
Jack has taken up Faraday's mantle as a man on the mission to change time forever. Unfortunately, Jack also has taken up the mantle as the resident crazy-person. Where Jack 4 season's ago was running around doing all he could to save dying castaways, Faith Jack of season 5 is hell bent on detonating a H-bomb. My how things have changed. Looks like my idea of the journal being more important (a variable) seemed to somewhat payoff as it is now Jack's new bible. Just follow the word of God (Farademeology), and you save the world.

The Doc's position is pretty much utilitarianism (established by John Stuart Mill, a follower of the school of John Locke) which states that morally, the best action to take is one that benefits the most people. Jack believes it is his "destiny" to detonate the bomb, because by doing so, he erases all the pain and suffering the castaways and those that have died because of the plane crashed have endured. Faith Jack doesn't seem to care about the bonds he has made with Kate and the rest of the Losties, as what is the right thing to do is to try and save all those people that have senselessly died. Sayid seemed to agreed, because lets face it, his life has been pretty crappy since the plane crash. Kate takes offense, as Jack pretty much pulls the ultimate boyfriend douchebaggery: come off as a crazy lunatic while admitting that his life would be better without the crash. Who knows if Jack will actually be able to go through with it. If you believe that what happened, happened - it is obvious he can't. It also seems incompatible to the show's designs to have a veritable "erase button" that negates all the progress these characters have made on the road to redemption. I feel a swerve coming on, as I still hold out some hope that Jack has something up his sleeve.

I mean blowing up an H-bomb? At the exact time the electromagnetic energy is released? If things go badly, then Jack potentially kills more people than he intends to save by changing time.

Crazy maybe paradox alert:
Also, if Jack stops the plane from crashing, then he stops himself from coming back in time and stopping the plane crashing. My head just asploded.

Locke
Jedi Locke made his return with a vengeance. Not only does this new version come with updated confidence, but he also has a built in island-receiver that allows him to pinpoint the exact time and location for when he'll see his limping time-twin pop out of nowhere. This event also answered the question whether or not the characters could exist multiply at two different places at the same time. Locke worked his leader mojo all episode, establishing himself as the all-knowing, all-seeing man with a plan. It was funny to watch Ben still try to play Locke, trying to butter him up. Locke's presence and unpredictability seemed to truly phase Ben and even Alpert. I think Locke's gambit to kill Jacob might be purely for show, or a way to make Ben and Alpert play whatever cards they holding close the vest.

Locke once said that he wouldn't change the past, because the summation of those experiences is what made him the man he is today; that being said, I found it a little hard to believe that he would then admit to Ben that he cared little if at all for Jin and the castaways stranded in the past. Again, I think Locke is playing Ben by doing the complete opposite of what Ben is expecting him to do. It's also curious that Locke is openly demanding empirical evidence of Jacob's existence when he was so ready to believe in him before.

My guess? Locke already knows that he is Jacob. Or rather, Locke already knows that he will become Jacob. Similar to the way he knew exactly where he would pop out of time before, I think Locke will literally become the false God that Ben and Alpert have been parading around and brainwashing people about. Give them a miracle they won't forget.

Alpert
Even though this episode was Alpert-centric, it was more a time jumping history of Alpert giving the, I think fake, "wtf" face. I still can't trust this guy has no idea what's going on/happening. It seems whatever game Alpert is playing was immediately threatened by Locke's behavior, so perhaps we'll shortly see just who or what exactly he is. His allegiances seem to change with the wind, and maybe the trick to figuring out what Alpert it wants it to try and piece together the reasons for him initiating the leader changes between Widmore (or Eloise?), Ben, and now Locke.

Also, how did Alpert and the others get Jughead down under the ground in those tunnel/ruins? Those tunnels seemed pretty darn ancient, which made me wonder weather or not those had been built with the foreknowledge of future events; that is, the ancients built the tunnels knowing that one day they would be used for Jughead.

Eloise
She didn't seemed to phased by her son's death. In fact, she seemed to be pretty gung-ho to lead Jack and crew down the tunnels. We also didn't get the last conversation between her and Widmore, but it seemed to me like she has him pretty whipped. I wonder weather or not she gave him some special Intel or instructions to do something while they were down in the tunnels. Also, great cleavage.

LaFleur
Got the snot kicked out of him. Seems obvious that he drew the wrong coordinates to where the others are in hopes of getting off before they figured it out. I think Kate's return to the sub will prompt him to try stop Jack to preserve his state of redemption and love for Juliette. My bet is Juliette does something crazy and jealous-like to ruin things. Kate, always blowing up homes, literally and figuratively. Also, way to leave Hurly, Miles, and Jin high and dry. Jerkface.

Nah, I am pretty sure he's got something cooking up his sleeve.

Other Things
Radinzki getting all hopped up on rage. He REALLY wants to tap into that electromagnetism. I wonder why?

Hurly's epic history fail.

Sun's eye-rolling, "Can Jacob tell us how to get to Jin?" moment. Jeebus.

Can't wait to find out what "The Incident" really means.

- Claymhor

Lost 4/1: "What Happened, Happened"

Cannot say I was overly blown away by this episode; Kate's stories never seem to phase me that much. I can't tell if it is that I have lost interest in her because her character is too transparent and her actions are too predictable, or because I am a raging, heartless sexist. Every girl I have talked to loved this episode, so it's hard to complain.

Interesting tidbits:

Jack: is a pussy. You know I want to believe that he is playing some cards close to the vest, that he may be planning or knowing more than we think he does, but his "wait for fate" approach is tedious. Maybe that's the point though; maybe Kate's series-aware reference to how she doesn't like the new Jack is a pointed effort to tell the audience that we aren't supposed to like him. Hopefully it pays off later down the road.

Sawyer: He openly in front of Kate pretty much told her that he does what he does to protect his and July's happiness on the island. You know...until she dies.

Kate: so she turned out to be the catalyst and fated shepherd of Ben to the others. I am sure old-Jack will take umbrage - and then the new one just won't care.

Alpert: We had a reference to "Ellie" (Eloise Hawking?) and Widmore by the Others and their questioning of Alpert's motives, to which Alpert himself replies that he does not answer to them. Did he omnisciently hold in his hands the new heir to the leadership, thus breaking his fealty to Widmore? Of course his last words to Sawyer and Kate had to be extremely vague, as to leave the audience with several different interpretations:

1. Ben's "loss of innocence" - does this go hand in hand with he'll always be one of us? What we will do to him to heal him will forever alter him physically, or attune him to the island? Does healing him also gift Ben with the knowledge of future events, making him a slave to uphold the timeline that creates him?
2. Loss of Ben's memory - Alpert also mentions that by going through the island healing ritual in the mythical "Temple", young Ben will lose the memory of the events. Does he lose the memory of ALL event predating his shooting, thus answering Hurly's time-boggling question of how Ben doesn't recognize Sayid in the future? His relationship with his father, and the way he kills him in cold-blood during the purge seems to suggest that he does retain old memories (and grudges). Perhaps future Ben will shed more light (and consequently more darkness) on what happened after Alpert took him down into the temple. This may have something to do with why Alpert specifically asked Sawyer for the body of of the slain Dharma initiative member in payment for the deaths of 2 others.