"Problems I'm Still Working My Way Through" - 6x08: Recon

"I'm not with anyone, Kate."

So says James Ford at the beginning of tonight's episode, "Recon." Of course, we get the exact opposite sentiment at the very end of things when he tells Kate that they will take Widmore's sub off the Island together. Does he mean it? Is he conning her, using her in some way, or should Skaters rejoice once again?

Another good episode tonight. I must admit, I am a little distracted tonight, and I just had the feeling that there was something going on in this episode that I wasn't getting, so if I'm missing something big in my notes tonight, I hope to rectify that later. But I couldn't really get into this one as I have the last few for whatever reason. I'm curious if any of you felt the same way.

So, what did I get? Let's get into it.

Sawyer's an LAPD detective, and Miles is his partner - of course. I guess the equal footing is the reason that Miles never called his once and current coworker "boss."

Sawyer was calling every Anthony Cooper in the book, it seemed. He asked one of them, or one of them mentioned to him, about being in Alabama in 1976, and his reason for calling was in regards to some unclaimed property. I haven't consulted Lostpedia on this, but I think Sawyer was in 'Bama in '76 - when his parents were killed.

Miles fixes Sawyer up on a blind date. In that conversation (besides all the talk about Laker tickets), Miles reveals that he has a girlfriend. (Fellow LAPD officer Ana Lucia, anyone?) He asks Sawyer about his trip to Palm Springs, though we later find out that Palm Springs was really Sydney. Currently, though, we find out who Sawyer gets fixed up with: Charlotte. (I know we all wanted it to be Juliet, but c'mon, it would be far too early for that momentous reunion.)

Before we get to the most successful beginning to a date ever (well, I mean, it IS Sawyer, after all), the relationship between Miles and Sawyer was interesting. The opening scene has Sawyer running the "pigeon" con on a conquest who pulls a gun on him. When he tells her that he's really a cop and has the place wired, we're with her: do we believe him? She calls his bluff, he says the magic word, "LaFleur" (LOL), and Miles and crew come busting in, shields around their necks and all. The interesting part is how important trust is to Miles. He tells Sawyer, "You can tell me the truth about anything," and later, when he hears that Sawyer kicked Charlotte out for looking at his "Sawyer" folder, Miles says, "You lied to me - we're supposed to trust each other." Obviously, as partners, trust is huge, but this seemed to be more about their personal friendship. This is different from the on-Island Miles, who has always been in it for himself. He even asks Sawyer if he "wants to die alone" when Sawyer initially balks at the blind date. He really seems to genuinely care about Sawyer.

But back to the date. Charlotte is still an archaeologist (complete with a whip, if you're lucky), and calls Sawyer on keeping his life buried. Sawyer tells her that there was a point in his life when he could've been a criminal or a cop, and he chose to be a cop. Naturally, things quickly move to the bedroom, and after things cool down, Charlotte digs up (I can keep the puns coming, just let me know) the "Sawyer" folder in his drawer. The folder is full of documents and is topped with a photo of Sawyer and his parents, and that same photo as published in the newspaper article of his parents' murder. I didn't catch the headline, but I don't think it stated anything different about the death of his parents than what we already knew. What we do learn is that Sawyer, even though he's on the right side of the law in Alt. 2004, is still hunting down the man who killed his parents. He became a cop to capture him. Sawyer is livid that Charlotte went snooping through such a personal secret - another trust issue, which goes hand-in-hand with the "con" theme - and kicks her out.

We get a quick "Easter egg" scene of Liam Pace asking Sawyer if his brother Charlie is there. Sawyer tells him that it's not his department. At first I thought this scene was going somewhere or would have some bearing on things, but since it didn't, I don't really know what it was doing in this episode, other than giving us a "No way - it's Charlie's brother!" moment.

This scene is followed by Miles laying into Sawyer about how he treated Charlotte, and about how he lied to Miles about his trip to Palm Springs; he was really in Sydney, on Flight 815. But Sawyer still won't tell Miles the truth about what he's doing, so Miles tells him that he is no longer his partner. There's those trust issues again: yes, Sawyer lies to Miles about the trip and is hiding something from him, but Miles went behind Sawyer's back to find out about his trip to Australia. So does Miles have a leg to stand on here?

Sawyer is watching "Little House on the Prairie," and we see quite an unusually extended scene from it, of Mr. Ingalls telling his daughter Laura (yes, fine, I watched it when I was a kid) a life lesson that included a line that went something like, 'those that die aren't really gone.' Afterwards, he goes to Charlotte's apartment with a sunflower (reminiscent of the daisy - I think? - he brought Juliet in 1977) and a six-pack, hoping for her forgiveness. He doesn't get it. "You blew it," she tells him, and closes the door. The next day, he is hoping for the same thing from Miles, but this time he brings something more meaningful than a flower: the "Sawyer" folder. He comes clean to Miles about his search for Anthony Cooper. To be honest, I don't remember how Sawyer explains it or how the conversation goes, but I do know how it ends - with Kate smashing into the back of Sawyer's car as she flees from the police. Of course, she is hooded when she gets out of the car, though we know immediately it's her, and of course Sawyer is the one that catches up to her, and of course this is connected to what happens with Kate and Sawyer on the Island.

On the Island, we see the Monster and his new crew, or Locke's flock (to borrow a phrase from many other online LOST fans), gathering at Claire's hut. Kate is with them - is she really that clueless? - and says hello to Sawyer. He says, "Hi, yourself." Uh oh, I think I've seen this before...  Locke tells them that he will answer any of their questions... and of course, in true LOST fashion, no one asks any. Creepy Claire, who gets creepier by the second, takes Kate's hand in what she wants her to think is a sisterly gesture , but her wacked-out, nightmare-inducing, bat-shit crazy face shows her real intentions. The Monster announces that they are going to a clearing in the jungle, and may need to camp there for four days, which sets Sawyer off. He angrily reminds him that he promised that he'd get him off the Island, and didn't mention that it would take four days. The Monster takes him aside and I think this is when he reveals that he is the black smoke monster. He tells him that it's kill or be killed - "and I don't want to be killed." He sends Sawyer to Hydra Island to check out the Ajira plane and to do some recon (ding ding ding!), because it's the plane that will get them off the Island.

As Sawyer takes off, back at the camp, Kate takes a seat on a log next to Sayid, and she finally notices that Sayid, um, isn't quite himself. "Are you okay, Sayid?" she asks him. "No," he replies. And then Claire grabs her, throws her down, and Kate does all she can to keep the knife in Claire's hand from cutting into her neck. Kate looks up at and calls to Sayid for help, but he just stares with that infection grin on his face. The Monster pulls Claire off Kate, and after she continues to rant and rave about Kate taking Aaron from her, he smacks her in the face, which shuts her up. Kate finally seems to open her eyes to what is going on around her.

The Monster talks to Kate, who is crying in the jungle, about Claire. He says that he takes responsibility for Claire's actions because he was the one who told her that the Others took Aaron; when she found out that Kate had him, it brought all of those old feelings up. He describes her as being full of hate, and it's all he can do to keep her anger and hatred from spilling over. He asks Kate if she has ever had an enemy. From Kate's face, and from her history, we know that she has: her father. He tells her that he has one, and that he has to foster hatred against him. At some point, she says, "This, coming from a dead man," to which he replies, "Nobody's perfect." He does tell her that he is going to keep all of the people there safe, including her. That remains to be seen.

In a later scene (I think), Kate and the Monster have what I thought was the most interesting conversation in the episode. The Monster tells her that "my mother was crazy. I had some growing pains, and I have some problems that I'm still working my way through." And now, he says, Aaron has a crazy mother, too. Again, he could just be blowing smoke (ouch), but he seems to have some genuine concern about this situation. There seems to be something about the way things have gone with Claire and Aaron that is bothering him in some way.

Sawyer arrives on Hydra Island, and when he reaches the cages, we have another Kate-Sawyer connection. He seems pained to see the cages again, but is it because of the terrible things that happened there, or is it due to some sort of longing for Kate? Strangely, Kate's loose-fitting, flowery dress is lying in one of the cages, which begs the question: when exactly did she change out of that dress (well, besides when she went to "visit" Sawyer)? Why would it still be in the cage? I honestly don't remember how that worked, and what she was wearing in the "Dammit, Kate, RUN!" scene. Anyway, he eventually reaches the Ajira plane, and it appears to be in pretty good shape. He notices a path in the sand that looks as if something was dragged from the plane into the jungle, and so he follows it to the object that created it: a tarp piled with dead, rotting corpses. These are the other passengers of Ajira 316. Again, my memory is failing me - I know that the remnants of the Oceanic 6 were transported to the Island in 1974, and Ilana, Ben, Sun, Lapidus, etc. stayed on the plane to crash-land in 2007, but how were all of these other people in one place to be killed like that? Were they just attacked as the Ajira Losties were trekking through the jungle? I'm foggy about how they ended up like this. Regardless, as Sawyer stares at the carnage, he hears someone running behind him, and so he chases after them. It's a woman named Zoe who says that she is "the only one left" from Ajira. And none of us are buying it.

I swore for a good minute or two that Zoe was Rousseau in glasses. Then I decided that it was the dating-video woman from the movie Singles (one of my favorite Cameron Crowe flicks), but I'm not sure.  But Zoe walks with Sawyer along the jungle path and the beach, all the while asking him questions like, "Are you alone?" and, "Do you have guns?" C'mon, lady, you're not even trying. Sawyer's had enough of her feeble attempt to con him and pulls a gun on her. But she whistles, and just like when he calls out "LaFleur" to have his backup come in in the opening scene of the episode, three men with guns come bursting out of the jungle and capture Sawyer. One of the men looks very familiar as a former child actor, but I couldn't put my finger on what show he is from. They take him down the beach to where...the submarine is located! 

As they walk him to the sub, he notices that some of the men are assembling an object that I thought looked a little like airplane landing gear, but is later explained by Sawyer to be pylons that are similar to those that made up the sonic fence that surrounds New Otherton. I don't think it's ever occured to me before, but the sonic fence and the ash both have the same effectiveness at repelling the Monster. Why? It's interesting - he is well-known by two major characteristics: smoke and sound (all those mechanical sounds, the trumpeting he does sometimes, etc.). What two things keep him away? Ash and sound. Something to think about.

Once Sawyer is brought on the sub, he meets Widmore in his quarters, and they strike up a deal. If Sawyer tells the Monster that he didn't see Widmore on the Island and leads the Monster to Widmore so that he can kill him, then Widmore will allow Sawyer and anyone he brings with him to take the sub away from the Island. Sawyer assumes that Widmore wants to kill the Monster, but at this point, can we be sure of that? I have my doubts.

The second Sawyer kayaks back to the main Island, he tells the Monster the whole truth about what he told Widmore. He lied to Widmore, and it's all because the Monster promised to get Sawyer off the Island.

But in the final scene, Sawyer and Kate are talking, and he reveals what (we assume, but...) his real plan is: while Widmore is duking it out with Locke's flock, he is going to escape the Island on the sub.

With Kate.

There will be a LOT of fans who are going to be very upset at this apparent rekindling of the Kate-Sawyer relationship, and I admit that I groaned at it myself. I still believe that there's more to it than that, though. I think this is part of his plan. I don't see him getting back together with Kate, except for how she might simply be an ally he can depend on. Then again, we had a lot of symbolic messages being sent as mentioned above, so who knows.

The Monster is very interesting in this episode, and this is what I want to focus on more in a later post after I rewatch. He seems more human than ever - his interactions with Kate, and with Zack and Emma (the two kids that came with Cindy the flight attendant), show a certain amount of emotion. The scene when he talks about him mother is equal parts puzzling and somewhat emotional. This could just be an act, but I don't know, there was something almost authentic about it. We also saw a few possible cracks in his apparent all-powerful nature. When Claire goes bonkers and comes thiiiis close to slitting Kate's throat, we see that he doesn't have her under his complete unwavering control. I thought this would play bigger when Sawyer returned from Hydra Island after making that deal with Widmore, but alas, Sawyer sings like a bird to the Monster.

Just a couple other quick points: 

Why doesn't Kate run from Locke's flock? She runs away from every other hairy situation in her life, and she decides to stick this one out?

Sawyer smashes the mirror in the LAPD locker room when Miles tells him they are through as partners - we see his broken reflection. This is yet another mirror reference which I don't think I've actually ever mentioned on the blog up until this point...

Okay kids, that's going to be it from me tonight. Again, sorry if this one was confusing, incomplete, or flat-out wrong. I was really struggling tonight, and right about now I'm wishing it wasn't 1:22AM, but what can I do? What did you think about this one? I have comments to respond to from last week, but please don't let that stop you from commenting this time!

Thanks, Good Luck, & Namaste,

~ Matt