I meant to let you know in my last post that I have a shocking expose in the works based on my experiences at Nature's Classroom a couple of weeks ago. I realized while I was there that it all seemed very familiar somehow... I can't uncover too much about my revelations here, but I guarantee that it will make you question your very existence...
Maybe.
Stay tuned...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
One Quick Note About "He's Our You" and "What Happened Happened"...
Happy LOST Day, everyone!
I doubt that most of you will see this before tonight's episode, but I wanted to get it in here anyway, pretty much just to say "I told you so."
There has been a lot of talk on the various podcasts about Sayid's shooting of Ben in "He's Our You." And of course there would be - it was one of the most shocking LOST moments ever. Many people have been saying that it proves that adult Ben knew who Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, and especially Sayid were because he remembered them from being a kid. He knew just how to manipulate them based on what he saw of them as a child, and he knew, for example, that he could rely on Sayid to be his hired gun because he remembered Sayid as a cold-blooded killer. If he tried to kill me when I was 12, he'd have no problem knocking off a few strangers, he might have thought to himself. But there was something in "What Happened Happened" that clued me in to the idea that this is not the case at all.
In "What Happened Happened," Juliet and Sawyer bring a dying young Ben to the Others in hopes that they can save him. Richard Alpert is there and agrees to help, but as he takes Ben's almost lifeless body, he says something akin to, "You know that once he is with us, he won't remember any of this." If this is true, then Ben wouldn't remember anything before whatever healing may or may not take place in the Temple. He wouldn't have any memory of the Losties being there. And it would make Ben's statement way back in Season 2 or 3 that he was born on the island true after all; from Ben's perspective, he was born there. He would have no memory of his childhood with Dharma...except for the fact that he knows that Roger Linus is his father, and knows that Roger blames Ben for his mother's death and probably knows how abusive he was. This might throw a wrench in the works of this idea. So then we have to consider the idea of Ben being reborn on the island. Is this the "birth" on the island Ben is referring to? Or maybe it's a third possibility: Ben does remember his childhood, including all the Losties being there, but he is returned to his father and the rest of the DI crew to infiltrate them, which he eventually does about 20 years later. The Others brainwashed him to the point of killing his own father without a care (the abuse didn't help, either) as he and the Others unleashed the purge on the DI.
I don't know, just some thoughts.
Enjoy the show tonight!
I doubt that most of you will see this before tonight's episode, but I wanted to get it in here anyway, pretty much just to say "I told you so."
There has been a lot of talk on the various podcasts about Sayid's shooting of Ben in "He's Our You." And of course there would be - it was one of the most shocking LOST moments ever. Many people have been saying that it proves that adult Ben knew who Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, and especially Sayid were because he remembered them from being a kid. He knew just how to manipulate them based on what he saw of them as a child, and he knew, for example, that he could rely on Sayid to be his hired gun because he remembered Sayid as a cold-blooded killer. If he tried to kill me when I was 12, he'd have no problem knocking off a few strangers, he might have thought to himself. But there was something in "What Happened Happened" that clued me in to the idea that this is not the case at all.
In "What Happened Happened," Juliet and Sawyer bring a dying young Ben to the Others in hopes that they can save him. Richard Alpert is there and agrees to help, but as he takes Ben's almost lifeless body, he says something akin to, "You know that once he is with us, he won't remember any of this." If this is true, then Ben wouldn't remember anything before whatever healing may or may not take place in the Temple. He wouldn't have any memory of the Losties being there. And it would make Ben's statement way back in Season 2 or 3 that he was born on the island true after all; from Ben's perspective, he was born there. He would have no memory of his childhood with Dharma...except for the fact that he knows that Roger Linus is his father, and knows that Roger blames Ben for his mother's death and probably knows how abusive he was. This might throw a wrench in the works of this idea. So then we have to consider the idea of Ben being reborn on the island. Is this the "birth" on the island Ben is referring to? Or maybe it's a third possibility: Ben does remember his childhood, including all the Losties being there, but he is returned to his father and the rest of the DI crew to infiltrate them, which he eventually does about 20 years later. The Others brainwashed him to the point of killing his own father without a care (the abuse didn't help, either) as he and the Others unleashed the purge on the DI.
I don't know, just some thoughts.
Enjoy the show tonight!
Feeling LOST
Hey there, Losties,
I thought I'd give a quick update, seeing as how I've posted ziltch for the past two weeks. I am, indeed, still alive, but very busy, and I haven't been able to find the time to simply sit down and blog about the past few episodes. I have definitely been out of the LOST zone that I so enjoy being in. I've barely watched the shows in the first place, so blogging has had to come second to a few other things lately. But I haven't forgotten or given up on the blog, either. I have next week off from school, and I firmly intend to rewatch the past three (well, four after tomorrow night's "Dead Is Dead") episodes and to share my thoughts about them here when I'm through. I'll probably do all four shows at once in one big post - that way I can talk about the overall story as a whole.
Anyways, that's all - I simply wanted to let you know to keep checking back here next week, because I should be getting back on track with all things LOST very soon. Until then, enjoy "Dead Is Dead"!
Good Luck, and "Namas.....what?"
I thought I'd give a quick update, seeing as how I've posted ziltch for the past two weeks. I am, indeed, still alive, but very busy, and I haven't been able to find the time to simply sit down and blog about the past few episodes. I have definitely been out of the LOST zone that I so enjoy being in. I've barely watched the shows in the first place, so blogging has had to come second to a few other things lately. But I haven't forgotten or given up on the blog, either. I have next week off from school, and I firmly intend to rewatch the past three (well, four after tomorrow night's "Dead Is Dead") episodes and to share my thoughts about them here when I'm through. I'll probably do all four shows at once in one big post - that way I can talk about the overall story as a whole.
Anyways, that's all - I simply wanted to let you know to keep checking back here next week, because I should be getting back on track with all things LOST very soon. Until then, enjoy "Dead Is Dead"!
Good Luck, and "Namas.....what?"
Friday, March 27, 2009
5x09: Namaste - Initial Reaction
Coming to you live on location from Nature’s Classroom - Greetings from Colebrook, CT!
I am here with my school’s 6th graders on the first day of our four-day trip, and it’s really effin’ cold. I’m typing this up on my laptop at the moment without an internet connection; I need to find a fellow teacher who has a laptop with Wifi access, but for now, I’m saving this on my flash drive so I can post it here for you when I get a few minutes of valuable interwebs time. (EDIT: And that time came right now, on Friday morning.)
Considering that I’ve only watched our latest episode, “Namaste,” once, and it was at 1am last night, this will only be my initial reaction to it. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I may not get to the recap until after our next latest episode, “He’s Our You,” which is airing in just two nights. Although I’m away, I plan to watch that episode here at NC with some Lostie friends on Thursday, when it is available on ABC.com (Wednesday is out of the question, since there is no cable up here).
So, let’s get to it!
First of all, nice opening crash sequence! I loved the shot of the runway and the landing of Ajira 316. So they were building a runway, which begs the question: did the Others, and Juliet specifically, really know they were going to need a runway? For this moment? How much do/did they know? How much did what they’ve done in the 1970s (and what we’re seeing happen currently on the show) possibly change the future?
I can’t get enough of the Dharma Initiative. More, more, more. So I loved this episode for that reason – seeing Marvin Candle interview Jack, the hustle and bustle of the place; seeing it alive and kicking before its inevitable downfall is always fascinating to me.
How ‘bout that standoff between Juliet and Kate? Juliet rescued her, but I think only as a challenge. You could tell in the scene when Sawyer finally tells her that Kate, Hurley, and Jack have returned that she is irked and worried, to say the least, that Kate is back on Sawyer’s radar. So that scene in the recruitment center was Juliet’s way of throwing down the gauntlet to Kate.
We saw Radzinsky! At long last, Radzinsky, in all of his obnoxious, Paul Giamatti-like anger appears in the flesh. We’ve been told that he is responsible for the blast door map in the Swan, and now we know that he is at least partly responsible for the design of the Swan itself, as he is building a model of it in the Flame station, which obviously was built before the Swan. Was it intended for what we saw it used for, though, or was the Swan originally being used for something else? I keep coming back to the one section of the Swan that seemed hastily “built,” where concrete seemed to have been haphazardly poured over a wall (large buckets were half-covered in place on the floor with concrete, as if there wasn’t any time or thought of removing them), and was an area of high magnetism, as a key that (I think) Jack had around his neck was pulled toward the wall as he walked past it. Certainly, that couldn’t have been planned that way; so what was behind that wall? Was it an entire section of the Swan that was sealed off? Was it a room? The control panel of a machine of some sort? And of course, there has been a lot of talk since “Jughead” that the hydrogen bomb of the same name was buried there, and the Swan was built around it. I still don’t think I buy that, unless maybe the Swan’s original purpose was to take the leaking nuclear energy and convert it to magnetic energy, or that the bomb somehow reacted with the island’s natural “negatively-charged matter” to produce energy. The jury is still out.
We also know that Radzinsky supposedly committed suicide, as Kelvin told Desmond when he came to the Swan. It’s anyone’s guess what brought that on…or if it was indeed a suicide.
Sawyer is feeling awfully superior to Jack in this episode, and there was something off-putting to me about that. As strange as this may sound, it just didn’t seem like Sawyer, or at least the Sawyer that we’ve been seeing this season. It came off almost like he was taunting him, and I just don’t see that in the “new” Sawyer. He seems too content to even worry about making sure Jack knows what a big man he is. Or is it simply that he feels that Jack is a threat to his relationship with Juliet, just as Juliet is threatened by Kate’s return, and he’s puffing himself up?
Sun and Frank really were the two people who left the 316 crash scene, as was widely speculated, but because Sun was chasing after Ben, and Frank was chasing after Sun. When Sun clobbered Ben with the outrigger oar, I jumped out of my seat – I wasn’t expecting that at all! Yet again, Ben gets smacked around. Cesar, despite theories that he is an insider for Widmore or some other nefarious agent, doesn’t seem to know a lot about the island. He points out that there is a building in the distance that they should go to see, that there is another larger island across the water, and that he has some doubts about Lapidus’s story that they’ve crashed on an uncharted island. But then we see him in “316” rooting around Ben’s old Hydra station office as if he’s looking for something specific, so I still can’t get a solid theory about what he was doing on the plane. Also, Frank gives a very old-school-Jack-like speech on the beach – I’ll have to read up or go back and watch the episodes in Season 1 to try to catch Jack’s version.
And speaking of Ben… Finally, we all knew it was coming, and they did a great job all around, from the lighting to the direction to the acting, of making Ben’s first appearance with the Losties in 1977 as creepy as ever. That kid is spot-on as a young Ben. Now, what are we left to think about this? He meets Sayid, and there are no aliases or other tricks; they both introduce themselves with their real names. So did Ben really recognize adult Sayid when Oceanic 815 crashed? Or, as the big question this season seems to be, are they changing the past and therefore changing their own futures, despite Daniel’s insistence to the contrary, or did what happened really happen this way in the past? Also, Sayid had an interesting, somewhat hard-to-read reaction to young Ben. You could tell he was surprised for sure, but he also seemed curious, maybe. Will Sayid, being the pretty smart guy he is, try to change and influence Ben as a child so that he won’t grow up to be a monster as an adult?
I think that’s all I have on this one at the moment. I have not checked out any podcasts or websites for this episode, and I am actually wrapping this up without having seen last night’s episode, “He’s Our You.” (We get the kids back from the Nature’s Classroom teachers right at 9pm, just in time to miss LOST.) I plan on watching it tomorrow during the day before the Underground Railroad. (I am totally piquing your interest in NC, aren’t I?) So that’s that. I’ll continue to be out of the loop on LOST probably through this weekend as I work to catch up.
I invite you to please let me know what you’d like me to mention about “Namaste” that I forgot to that you think is important. Just post it in the comments section. Thanks!
Until next time, Namaste, and Good Luck,
~Matt
UPDATE: I watched "He's Our You" yesterday afternoon, and, well... Oh. My. God. The last scene was HUGE! I watched with David H in the Nature's Classroom dining hall, and we were both like, "What...? How...? Uh...what?" I can't wait to see it again, as well as "Namaste." I'll have to have a little mini-marathon this weekend. If I manage to stop sleeping at some point...
I am here with my school’s 6th graders on the first day of our four-day trip, and it’s really effin’ cold. I’m typing this up on my laptop at the moment without an internet connection; I need to find a fellow teacher who has a laptop with Wifi access, but for now, I’m saving this on my flash drive so I can post it here for you when I get a few minutes of valuable interwebs time. (EDIT: And that time came right now, on Friday morning.)
Considering that I’ve only watched our latest episode, “Namaste,” once, and it was at 1am last night, this will only be my initial reaction to it. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I may not get to the recap until after our next latest episode, “He’s Our You,” which is airing in just two nights. Although I’m away, I plan to watch that episode here at NC with some Lostie friends on Thursday, when it is available on ABC.com (Wednesday is out of the question, since there is no cable up here).
So, let’s get to it!
First of all, nice opening crash sequence! I loved the shot of the runway and the landing of Ajira 316. So they were building a runway, which begs the question: did the Others, and Juliet specifically, really know they were going to need a runway? For this moment? How much do/did they know? How much did what they’ve done in the 1970s (and what we’re seeing happen currently on the show) possibly change the future?
I can’t get enough of the Dharma Initiative. More, more, more. So I loved this episode for that reason – seeing Marvin Candle interview Jack, the hustle and bustle of the place; seeing it alive and kicking before its inevitable downfall is always fascinating to me.
How ‘bout that standoff between Juliet and Kate? Juliet rescued her, but I think only as a challenge. You could tell in the scene when Sawyer finally tells her that Kate, Hurley, and Jack have returned that she is irked and worried, to say the least, that Kate is back on Sawyer’s radar. So that scene in the recruitment center was Juliet’s way of throwing down the gauntlet to Kate.
We saw Radzinsky! At long last, Radzinsky, in all of his obnoxious, Paul Giamatti-like anger appears in the flesh. We’ve been told that he is responsible for the blast door map in the Swan, and now we know that he is at least partly responsible for the design of the Swan itself, as he is building a model of it in the Flame station, which obviously was built before the Swan. Was it intended for what we saw it used for, though, or was the Swan originally being used for something else? I keep coming back to the one section of the Swan that seemed hastily “built,” where concrete seemed to have been haphazardly poured over a wall (large buckets were half-covered in place on the floor with concrete, as if there wasn’t any time or thought of removing them), and was an area of high magnetism, as a key that (I think) Jack had around his neck was pulled toward the wall as he walked past it. Certainly, that couldn’t have been planned that way; so what was behind that wall? Was it an entire section of the Swan that was sealed off? Was it a room? The control panel of a machine of some sort? And of course, there has been a lot of talk since “Jughead” that the hydrogen bomb of the same name was buried there, and the Swan was built around it. I still don’t think I buy that, unless maybe the Swan’s original purpose was to take the leaking nuclear energy and convert it to magnetic energy, or that the bomb somehow reacted with the island’s natural “negatively-charged matter” to produce energy. The jury is still out.
We also know that Radzinsky supposedly committed suicide, as Kelvin told Desmond when he came to the Swan. It’s anyone’s guess what brought that on…or if it was indeed a suicide.
Sawyer is feeling awfully superior to Jack in this episode, and there was something off-putting to me about that. As strange as this may sound, it just didn’t seem like Sawyer, or at least the Sawyer that we’ve been seeing this season. It came off almost like he was taunting him, and I just don’t see that in the “new” Sawyer. He seems too content to even worry about making sure Jack knows what a big man he is. Or is it simply that he feels that Jack is a threat to his relationship with Juliet, just as Juliet is threatened by Kate’s return, and he’s puffing himself up?
Sun and Frank really were the two people who left the 316 crash scene, as was widely speculated, but because Sun was chasing after Ben, and Frank was chasing after Sun. When Sun clobbered Ben with the outrigger oar, I jumped out of my seat – I wasn’t expecting that at all! Yet again, Ben gets smacked around. Cesar, despite theories that he is an insider for Widmore or some other nefarious agent, doesn’t seem to know a lot about the island. He points out that there is a building in the distance that they should go to see, that there is another larger island across the water, and that he has some doubts about Lapidus’s story that they’ve crashed on an uncharted island. But then we see him in “316” rooting around Ben’s old Hydra station office as if he’s looking for something specific, so I still can’t get a solid theory about what he was doing on the plane. Also, Frank gives a very old-school-Jack-like speech on the beach – I’ll have to read up or go back and watch the episodes in Season 1 to try to catch Jack’s version.
And speaking of Ben… Finally, we all knew it was coming, and they did a great job all around, from the lighting to the direction to the acting, of making Ben’s first appearance with the Losties in 1977 as creepy as ever. That kid is spot-on as a young Ben. Now, what are we left to think about this? He meets Sayid, and there are no aliases or other tricks; they both introduce themselves with their real names. So did Ben really recognize adult Sayid when Oceanic 815 crashed? Or, as the big question this season seems to be, are they changing the past and therefore changing their own futures, despite Daniel’s insistence to the contrary, or did what happened really happen this way in the past? Also, Sayid had an interesting, somewhat hard-to-read reaction to young Ben. You could tell he was surprised for sure, but he also seemed curious, maybe. Will Sayid, being the pretty smart guy he is, try to change and influence Ben as a child so that he won’t grow up to be a monster as an adult?
I think that’s all I have on this one at the moment. I have not checked out any podcasts or websites for this episode, and I am actually wrapping this up without having seen last night’s episode, “He’s Our You.” (We get the kids back from the Nature’s Classroom teachers right at 9pm, just in time to miss LOST.) I plan on watching it tomorrow during the day before the Underground Railroad. (I am totally piquing your interest in NC, aren’t I?) So that’s that. I’ll continue to be out of the loop on LOST probably through this weekend as I work to catch up.
I invite you to please let me know what you’d like me to mention about “Namaste” that I forgot to that you think is important. Just post it in the comments section. Thanks!
Until next time, Namaste, and Good Luck,
~Matt
UPDATE: I watched "He's Our You" yesterday afternoon, and, well... Oh. My. God. The last scene was HUGE! I watched with David H in the Nature's Classroom dining hall, and we were both like, "What...? How...? Uh...what?" I can't wait to see it again, as well as "Namaste." I'll have to have a little mini-marathon this weekend. If I manage to stop sleeping at some point...
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
As Long As It Takes - 5x08: "LaFleur" Recap
Hey everyone!
It's been a while! I hope you don't mind - I took a little break along with the show. Actually, my original intention was to post this "LaFleur" in the days after it originally aired, and then to do some sort of special post last week during the mini-hiatus, but obviously that didn't happen. So, here's the recap!
Before I get into it, I have a bit of personal news that may or may not affect the blog. (I’m thinking “may,” since it already sort of has, but we’ll see.) I seem to have gone out and gotten myself a second job at an old haunt of mine, the Inn at Newtown. I’ll be taking tables and trying to stay on my feet for as long as I can, so come by and visit! My first night back to “train” (I worked there for about 4 years several years ago, so the training is closer to getting reacquainted with the ol’ girl) will be this Thursday (tomorrow). We’ll see how it goes. Also, you may be interested to know that it’s haunted, which is nice. (That's for you, Kim, when you actually read this in about a year because you actually got caught up with the show!)
The point is, if you thought I was bad at keeping up to date with the blog already, well then, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet (b-b-b-baby)! I don’t know what my schedule will be, or if I’ll even be working right away, but expect a pretty random posting schedule from here on in. I’ll do it whenever I can, and I promise to try to post something, in some way, shape, or form, for each episode. I’m thinking that I’ll most likely post my reactions to the show rather than the entire episode recap.
Oh, and on top of that, I definitely will not be posting after the show next week. I will be away at Nature’s Classroom from Tuesday through Friday, so any LOSTBlogging will have to be done when I get back. The hits just keep on coming! (What's Nature's Classroom? That's a whole blog in itself! Basically I live in a cabin with 250 kids for 4 days, but don't even get me started...)
Okay, now that you are thoroughly disappointed…let’s talk about LaFleur!
In the opening scene, we see Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles with the rope, after John has gone down in the wheel chamber. Juliet convinces him to stop pulling on the rope, that it’s no use, and that wherever or whenever John is, they can’t do anything about it. Miles then points out that they must be waaaay in the past. They all look up, and in the distance is a giant statue.
There’s been a lot of talk about the statue, of course. I won’t repeat every theory out there – you can check Lostpedia for all of them – but basically, since we didn’t see much of the statue, there are many possible models for it. We do know that if you look closely, it is holding two ankhs in its hands. The ankh is the same symbol that Paul had on his necklace. So naturally, the most popular theories seem to be that the statue represents one of the many Egyptian gods. One is the keeper of the gate to the underworld; another is a goddess of childbirth and a protector of mothers and children. Other theories propose that it is the pharaoh Ramses, or even that it will have the face of John Locke or Richard Alpert. Speaking of, there is also a lot of talk about what an Egyptian influence on the island might mean in terms of Richard. He looks like he is wearing eyeliner, much like the depictions of pharaohs show. (For the record, Nestor Carbonell, the actor that plays Alpert, has said in interviews that he doesn’t actually wear eyeliner; he just has dark eyelashes.) His initials are also R.A., which spells Ra, the famous Egyptian sun god.
Just as we get a look at the statue, we then see Locke in the chamber turning the wheel, and they flash again – but this time, it’s different. They think it was more like an earthquake, and Juliet feels that “it’s over.” They have stopped jumping. “I think John did it,” she says. Sawyer says the next thing for them to do is wait for the others to come back – as long as it takes.
We then see the now-familiar “Three Years Later” title card, and we are in a Dharma station. A man in a Dharma jumpsuit, named Jerry, puts on a reel-to-reel tape of a definitely 70’s-era jam, and he is dancing with a girl named Rosie, who is wearing a Geronimo Jackson long-sleeved t-shirt. Suddenly, another jumpsuit-wearing guy, named Phil, bursts in and chides them for having a “hootenanny” on the clock. “Don’t be such a bummer, man. Rosie was just dropping off some brownies…what’s gonna happen? The polar bears are gonna figure out a way out of their cages?” he asks sarcastically. While the two men argue, Rosie notices a man appear on one of the screens of a bank of TVs. He is lighting sticks of dynamite in his mouth and throwing them at trees out by the sonic fence. They realize who it is – Horace Goodspeed.
They panic – who is going to wake up LaFleur at three in the morning to tell him? It sounds like LaFleur is an important person in the Dharma Initiative. They run to LaFleur’s house to tell him about the situation at the pylons with Horace. We see the back of LaFleur’s head, and as they tell him the bad news, he turns toward us to reveal that LaFleur is actually Sawyer. “Son of a bitch,” he says as he puts on his Dharma jumpsuit emblazoned with the title “Head of Security” and walks out with them. The LOST logo swirls across the screen.
Jerry? Phil? Rosie? I know some of you (Chris T.) will recognize those first two names, and the third is a symbolic name related to them. Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh were two of the most influential members of the Grateful Dead, and it is thought that Rosie is indicative of the band’s penchant for putting roses on many of their album covers. It’s good to know there are some Deadheads in the LOST writers’ room.
After the first commercial break, Sawyer is in a Dharma van beeping for Miles, who comes out in his own Dharma jumpsuit. He gets in and Sawyer apprises him of the situation: Horace is loaded and is blowing up trees. Miles notes that Horace doesn’t drink, and Sawyer agrees, so they need to keep this all on the down-low. They drive over to find Horace passed out on the ground. They are nervous about telling Amy what has happened.
They knock on Amy’s door – Amy is his wife, and she is pregnant. As Sawyer plops Horace down on the couch, he asks her why Horace was in this state. She doesn’t want to say why, but Sawyer tells her that the news will make the “coconut telegraph” by breakfast anyway. She begins by telling him that “it was about Paul,” but then starts having labor pains.
“Three Years Earlier”… Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, and Miles are walking through the jungle and come across Dan mumbling to himself, “I won’t tell her. I’m not gonna do it.” Sawyer wonders where “Red” is, and Dan tells them that Charlotte is gone – she’s dead, and her body didn’t flash with them. A very moving scene. Dan confirms to them that the flashes are now over. “Wherever we are now, whenever we are now, we’re here for good.”
Dan says something interesting in this scene. He tells the others that “Charlotte moved, but we didn’t.” Wouldn’t it be the other way around? Wouldn’t they have moved through time on the island, while whatever was on the island stayed where it was, including Charlotte’s body? I’m wondering if that’s a clue to something else, but I don’t know what it could be.
Sawyer suggests that they go back to the beach, but Miles objects – why should they when they have no camp there? He also makes a classic Miles comment about how all they ever do is go to the beach or the Orchid, the Orchid or the beach. Juliet backs Sawyer up, but when he thanks her privately, she tells him it was a stupid idea. “But any plan is a good plan…I just hope you think of something better before we get there.” Suddenly, gunshots ring out, and Juliet and Sawyer draw their rifles. A woman is crying in the distance, and as they run to her, they see two men with the woman – one is holding a gun to her head while the other puts a sack over her head and kneels her down. It appears as if they are about to execute her. Miles says to Dan, “We shouldn’t get involved, right?” Dan replies, “It doesn’t matter what we do. Whatever happened, happened.” But Sawyer and Juliet save the day and shoot the two men. They take the sack off the woman’s head, and we see that it’s Amy. There is a man lying dead next to her, and it looks like they were having a picnic before the two men showed up. “Who are you?” she asks Sawyer.
It seems that Amy and the dead man, whose name is Paul, were there together having a picnic, but they must have crossed into hostile territory – literally. People went back and listened to the beginning of the scene and claim they heard Amy saying something about how they didn’t know they were that far over or something to that effect. But if that’s the situation, those hostiles are pretty jerky – they were only having a picnic. What’s wrong with telling them to move along? Also, people have also pointed out that there is a history of picnics going wrong on the show, most notably the picnic on the beach Hurley and Libby were in the middle of when Libby was shot and killed by Michael. Very random.
After the next commercial, Amy is mourning Paul, while Dan looks on knowingly. Juliet determines that they are in the 70’s or 80’s based on the Dharma jumpsuit Paul is wearing. They guess that the men who killed him were Others. Jin finds a walkie talkie on one of the men, and Juliet knows that they need to leave because someone will be looking for the men soon enough. Sawyer tells Amy that they need to leave. She asks who they are, and he tells her that they were on the way to Tahiti, but that’s not important. She tells him that they need to bury the bodies because of “the truce.” And they have to bring Paul back with them. She reveals that Paul was her husband.
As they walk towards the camp, Sawyer tells them that he’ll do the talking – he used to lie for a living. Juliet then tells them to stop – they have arrived at the fence. Juliet tells Amy to turn it off because “it looks like some sort of sonic fence,” and this too-specific comment makes Amy suspicious. “Where did you say you came here from again?” she asks. Juliet realizes that she said too much, and Sawyer tells Amy that she should be thankful they are helping her. Amy agrees to turn the fence off, but we see her open the panel and take something out as she does so. They walk through, with Amy going first at Sawyer’s insistence. But when they go through, they get zapped, and fall to the ground unconscious. Amy was wearing earplugs.
It’s “Three Years Later.” Amy is in labor, and the Dharma doctor there says that this one’s out of his league – they usually send the pregnant women off the island to give birth, but this baby is two weeks early, is breach, and Amy needs a Caesarian. Sawyer knows there’s only one thing to do: get Juliet out of retirement. He finds her in her Dharma Motor Pool jumpsuit, complete with a wrench Dharma logo patch, working under a car. He tells her the situation, and she panics. “We had an agreement,” she tells him. Every time she’s tried to help a woman give birth, it hasn’t worked. Sawyer says that maybe whatever made that happen hasn’t happened yet. Sawyer tells her that she’s the only one that can help Amy. Juliet takes charge in the delivery room with a supportive “you’re going to do great” from Sawyer.
Sawyer is pacing outside and Jin comes over. Sawyer tells him what’s happening with the baby. Sawyer asks Jin if he had any luck. Jin says that they “finished grid one through three today. No sign of our people.” Jin asks how long they should look, and he says, “as long as it takes.” Juliet then comes out – it worked! She delivered a boy, and everyone is okay. Juliet and Sawyer share a moment.
Despite being settled into Dharma life, they are still waiting for Locke to return. Or, to be more accurate, Sawyer is waiting for Kate to return. Regardless, they are very loyal to still be looking for their return after three years.
We see Sawyer asleep on a couch after the next commercial break, and he wakes up to see Horace standing over him. Though they don’t feel the need to tell us this time, it’s three years earlier. Horace asks how Sawyer’s head is (it hurts) and Sawyer asks about his people. Horace tells him they are fine, and that he appreciates everything Sawyer did for Amy, but there is a security protocol that they follow because there are indigenous people on the island that they don’t get along with. “So why don’t you tell me who the hell you are,” he says in his most firm folksy voice. Sawyer puts his con man hat back on and tells Horace that his name is James LaFleur – “You can call me Jim” – and that he and his crew were on their way to Tahiti in a salvage ship when a storm came, they crashed on the reef, and washed up on shore. They were searching for a famous lost wreck called the Black Rock. Horace claims he’s never heard of it. Then Horace says that if the crew that Sawyer claims they were in the jungle looking for shows up, he’ll send them along with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Dan, and Sawyer questions what he means. He tells Sawyer that there’s a submarine that will take them to Tahiti the next morning, and when Sawyer asks him why they can’t have at least a week to search a little more for the rest of their crew, Horace tells him that the only people that can stay on the compound are members of the Dharma Initiative, and Sawyer and his people “are not Dharma material.”
Outside, the remaining Remainders are sitting at a table talking as the camera circles around them. Juliet looks contemplative and is looking off at a house. She tells Miles that she used to live in that house. He is shocked and asks if she was in Dharma, but she says no – the Others took over the barracks and then brought her over on the sub. Jin asks Daniel, “No more flash?” Dan says no; “The record is spinning again – we’re just not on the song we want to be on.” Then they hear a little girl with her mom. Or should I say, “mum” – they have English accents. The girl is in a red dress. Daniel sees her as she turns and seems to wave to him. We think we know who she is, and Dan confirms it: “Charlotte.” Then Horace comes over to tell them they have a room for the night and walks away. Sawyer starts to tell them the situation, but is interrupted by an alarm sounding. The Dharma people are running around in a panic, trying to get into the houses and buildings. Phil comes over to tell the Remainders to get inside – now. They are put into a house with a woman named Heather, who has a gun and is standing by the window. Juliet and Sawyer watch out another window as a man with a flaming torch walks out of the jungle and sticks the torch in the ground. It’s Richard Alpert. Sawyer looks at Juliet and says, “Uh oh.”
Another commercial, and then Horace walks out to talk to Richard. Horace tells him that he should’ve told him he was coming so he could’ve turned the fence off for him, but Richard says that “the fence may keep other things out, but not us.” It’s about the two men that were killed. Richard says that Horace has broken the truce – where are the two men? Horace bursts into the house where the Remainders are holed up and asks Sawyer how well he buried the bodies. “Depends on how well he looks,” he replies. Horace tells Phil to call the Arrow, take the heavy ordinance, tell them they are at Condition 1, and to turn the fence up to maximum. Then Sawyer insists that he talk to Richard, “the guy with the eyeliner.” He’s the one who killed the men, and it’s a good thing he’s not asking for Horace’s permission to go out there. As he begins to charge out, Juliet asks him if he knows what he’s doing. “Not yet,” he says. Sawyer walks out to Richard, who is sitting on a park bench.
“Hello, Richard,” he casually says. He begins to tell Richard the truth about what he saw in the jungle, and why he killed Richard’s men. “Your people know that you’re telling me this?” Richard asks. Sawyer says no – they aren’t his people, and so no truce has been broken. So, Richard asks, if Sawyer isn’t Dharma, what is he? Sawyer sits down next to him and demonstrates his sheer kick-assitude. “Did you bury the bomb? The hydrogen bomb that had Jughead written on the side of it – did you bury it?” Richard is taken aback. “I also know that 20 years ago, some bald guy limped into your camp and fed you some mumbo-jumbo about being your leader, and then poof, he disappeared right in front of you. Is this ringing a bell?” Richard is incredulous. Sawyer continues, “That man’s name was John Locke, and I’m waiting for him to come back.” Richard is confused. “So, do you think I’m still a member of the damn Dharma Initiative?” Sawyer asks. No, Richard says, “I guess I don’t.” But there are still two of his men dead, and his people want justice. “What are we going to do about that?”
A classic LOST scene! I hope there will be more scenes with Richard and Sawyer from here on in.
We then see Amy next to Paul’s body. She asks if Alpert is gone, and Horace tells her no, and that they told him where the bodies were to maintain the truce. He tells Amy that they are going to need to give Alpert and his people Paul’s body. Amy is distraught. He caringly and sincerely tells her that if she doesn’t want to give up Paul’s body, they will suffer the consequences. She decides to let him go. “He would want to keep us safe.” She asks for a minute alone with Paul, takes an ankh necklace from around his neck, and walks out. Sawyer asks Horace if he needs help, and he says no, but tells Sawyer that he and the other Remainders can stay for another two weeks and look for the rest of his crew, until the next sub run.
Sawyer walks out to Juliet, who is sitting by the dock near the sub. He tells her that they have two more weeks, and she says, “Then what?” She points out that they are already saved – Locke turned the wheel, there are no more jumps, no more bloody noses. The sub is their way, her way, off the island. This is her chance to leave. But Sawyer convinces her to stay. It’s 1974, and whatever she’s going back to doesn’t exist yet. “That’s not a reason not to go,” she says. “What about me?” Sawyer says. “Who’s gonna get my back? Just give me two weeks.” She agrees – two weeks.
And of course… “Three Years Later.” Sawyer is walking through New Otherton, er, the Dharma compound, picks a big ‘ol flower, and walks into a house, where we find Juliet cooking dinner. He gives her the flower, and tells her, “You were amazing today.” She says, “Thank you for believing in me.” They kiss and exchange “I love you”s.
When we come back from the final commercial break, Sawyer is reading a book with no cover as Horace begins to awaken from his bender. He tells Horace there’s good news and bad news: the good news is that Amy had a boy; the bad news is that he missed it. Sawyer asked him what made him go get wasted and miss the birth of his son. Horace explains that he was looking for a clean pair of socks in Amy’s drawer and found the ankh she took from Paul. “Is three years long enough to get over someone?” he asks Sawyer. Sawyer then tells Horace that he once knew a girl who he had a chance with, but now she’s gone, “she ain’t ever coming back,” and he can’t even remember what she looks like. We all know who he is talking about. So is it long enough? “Absolutely,” Sawyer answers.
We see Sawyer and Juliet sleeping when the phone rings. Sawyer answers gruffly, “What?” But his face changes as he listens to the person on the other end, and he tells the person not to bring “them” in, but to meet him in the North Valley. Juliet asks what’s wrong, and he tells her nothing, but he has to go.
Sawyer drives into the valley in a Dharma jeep, where a Dharma van is parked. He gets out as Jin gets out of the van, and Sawyer watches as Hurley gets out. Then as Jack gets out. And then, finally, as he takes off his glasses, Kate gets out. They look at each other, and as the camera zooms in on his face…
LOST
Stupid Kate! She’s gonna ruin it!
I really liked this episode. A great mix of mythology and character, which are the two things that make LOST so incredible. And despite what I said in my first post about the statue reveal being my favorite part, I think I liked the conversation between Sawyer and Richard even better.
A couple last things about this one: there has been a lot of discussion about whether or not the little girl in the red dress is really Charlotte. There are some timeline problems, because, well, she shouldn’t even be there. Ben said after he shot her last season that she was born in 1979, but here she is on the island in 1974? Unless time travel is involved, which of course is possible, this just doesn’t add up. Some are saying it’s Annie, Ben’s classmate from Dharma Elementary as seen in his flashback episode. I don’t believe it for a second – I think people have this bizarre need to figure out who Annie is/was, and any girl that it could possibly be, they insist it’s her. This girl clearly has red hair, and Annie had dark brown or black hair, so unless she dyes it as a ‘tween, it just doesn’t make any sense. Any thoughts on this?
Also, who is Amy’s baby boy going to grow up to be? Timeline wise, there are only a few possibilities, and though I think he looks too old to be in his 30’s, many are claiming it will be Ethan. Possibly, but I think that’s pretty boring. Others have said Jacob, which would be slightly more interesting, but kind of a let down. What do you think?
So that’s that for this episode. Our next episode is intriguingly called “Namaste,” and I can’t wait for it!
Until I post again, Namaste, and Good Luck!
It's been a while! I hope you don't mind - I took a little break along with the show. Actually, my original intention was to post this "LaFleur" in the days after it originally aired, and then to do some sort of special post last week during the mini-hiatus, but obviously that didn't happen. So, here's the recap!
Before I get into it, I have a bit of personal news that may or may not affect the blog. (I’m thinking “may,” since it already sort of has, but we’ll see.) I seem to have gone out and gotten myself a second job at an old haunt of mine, the Inn at Newtown. I’ll be taking tables and trying to stay on my feet for as long as I can, so come by and visit! My first night back to “train” (I worked there for about 4 years several years ago, so the training is closer to getting reacquainted with the ol’ girl) will be this Thursday (tomorrow). We’ll see how it goes. Also, you may be interested to know that it’s haunted, which is nice. (That's for you, Kim, when you actually read this in about a year because you actually got caught up with the show!)
The point is, if you thought I was bad at keeping up to date with the blog already, well then, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet (b-b-b-baby)! I don’t know what my schedule will be, or if I’ll even be working right away, but expect a pretty random posting schedule from here on in. I’ll do it whenever I can, and I promise to try to post something, in some way, shape, or form, for each episode. I’m thinking that I’ll most likely post my reactions to the show rather than the entire episode recap.
Oh, and on top of that, I definitely will not be posting after the show next week. I will be away at Nature’s Classroom from Tuesday through Friday, so any LOSTBlogging will have to be done when I get back. The hits just keep on coming! (What's Nature's Classroom? That's a whole blog in itself! Basically I live in a cabin with 250 kids for 4 days, but don't even get me started...)
Okay, now that you are thoroughly disappointed…let’s talk about LaFleur!
In the opening scene, we see Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles with the rope, after John has gone down in the wheel chamber. Juliet convinces him to stop pulling on the rope, that it’s no use, and that wherever or whenever John is, they can’t do anything about it. Miles then points out that they must be waaaay in the past. They all look up, and in the distance is a giant statue.
There’s been a lot of talk about the statue, of course. I won’t repeat every theory out there – you can check Lostpedia for all of them – but basically, since we didn’t see much of the statue, there are many possible models for it. We do know that if you look closely, it is holding two ankhs in its hands. The ankh is the same symbol that Paul had on his necklace. So naturally, the most popular theories seem to be that the statue represents one of the many Egyptian gods. One is the keeper of the gate to the underworld; another is a goddess of childbirth and a protector of mothers and children. Other theories propose that it is the pharaoh Ramses, or even that it will have the face of John Locke or Richard Alpert. Speaking of, there is also a lot of talk about what an Egyptian influence on the island might mean in terms of Richard. He looks like he is wearing eyeliner, much like the depictions of pharaohs show. (For the record, Nestor Carbonell, the actor that plays Alpert, has said in interviews that he doesn’t actually wear eyeliner; he just has dark eyelashes.) His initials are also R.A., which spells Ra, the famous Egyptian sun god.
Just as we get a look at the statue, we then see Locke in the chamber turning the wheel, and they flash again – but this time, it’s different. They think it was more like an earthquake, and Juliet feels that “it’s over.” They have stopped jumping. “I think John did it,” she says. Sawyer says the next thing for them to do is wait for the others to come back – as long as it takes.
We then see the now-familiar “Three Years Later” title card, and we are in a Dharma station. A man in a Dharma jumpsuit, named Jerry, puts on a reel-to-reel tape of a definitely 70’s-era jam, and he is dancing with a girl named Rosie, who is wearing a Geronimo Jackson long-sleeved t-shirt. Suddenly, another jumpsuit-wearing guy, named Phil, bursts in and chides them for having a “hootenanny” on the clock. “Don’t be such a bummer, man. Rosie was just dropping off some brownies…what’s gonna happen? The polar bears are gonna figure out a way out of their cages?” he asks sarcastically. While the two men argue, Rosie notices a man appear on one of the screens of a bank of TVs. He is lighting sticks of dynamite in his mouth and throwing them at trees out by the sonic fence. They realize who it is – Horace Goodspeed.
They panic – who is going to wake up LaFleur at three in the morning to tell him? It sounds like LaFleur is an important person in the Dharma Initiative. They run to LaFleur’s house to tell him about the situation at the pylons with Horace. We see the back of LaFleur’s head, and as they tell him the bad news, he turns toward us to reveal that LaFleur is actually Sawyer. “Son of a bitch,” he says as he puts on his Dharma jumpsuit emblazoned with the title “Head of Security” and walks out with them. The LOST logo swirls across the screen.
Jerry? Phil? Rosie? I know some of you (Chris T.) will recognize those first two names, and the third is a symbolic name related to them. Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh were two of the most influential members of the Grateful Dead, and it is thought that Rosie is indicative of the band’s penchant for putting roses on many of their album covers. It’s good to know there are some Deadheads in the LOST writers’ room.
After the first commercial break, Sawyer is in a Dharma van beeping for Miles, who comes out in his own Dharma jumpsuit. He gets in and Sawyer apprises him of the situation: Horace is loaded and is blowing up trees. Miles notes that Horace doesn’t drink, and Sawyer agrees, so they need to keep this all on the down-low. They drive over to find Horace passed out on the ground. They are nervous about telling Amy what has happened.
They knock on Amy’s door – Amy is his wife, and she is pregnant. As Sawyer plops Horace down on the couch, he asks her why Horace was in this state. She doesn’t want to say why, but Sawyer tells her that the news will make the “coconut telegraph” by breakfast anyway. She begins by telling him that “it was about Paul,” but then starts having labor pains.
“Three Years Earlier”… Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, and Miles are walking through the jungle and come across Dan mumbling to himself, “I won’t tell her. I’m not gonna do it.” Sawyer wonders where “Red” is, and Dan tells them that Charlotte is gone – she’s dead, and her body didn’t flash with them. A very moving scene. Dan confirms to them that the flashes are now over. “Wherever we are now, whenever we are now, we’re here for good.”
Dan says something interesting in this scene. He tells the others that “Charlotte moved, but we didn’t.” Wouldn’t it be the other way around? Wouldn’t they have moved through time on the island, while whatever was on the island stayed where it was, including Charlotte’s body? I’m wondering if that’s a clue to something else, but I don’t know what it could be.
Sawyer suggests that they go back to the beach, but Miles objects – why should they when they have no camp there? He also makes a classic Miles comment about how all they ever do is go to the beach or the Orchid, the Orchid or the beach. Juliet backs Sawyer up, but when he thanks her privately, she tells him it was a stupid idea. “But any plan is a good plan…I just hope you think of something better before we get there.” Suddenly, gunshots ring out, and Juliet and Sawyer draw their rifles. A woman is crying in the distance, and as they run to her, they see two men with the woman – one is holding a gun to her head while the other puts a sack over her head and kneels her down. It appears as if they are about to execute her. Miles says to Dan, “We shouldn’t get involved, right?” Dan replies, “It doesn’t matter what we do. Whatever happened, happened.” But Sawyer and Juliet save the day and shoot the two men. They take the sack off the woman’s head, and we see that it’s Amy. There is a man lying dead next to her, and it looks like they were having a picnic before the two men showed up. “Who are you?” she asks Sawyer.
It seems that Amy and the dead man, whose name is Paul, were there together having a picnic, but they must have crossed into hostile territory – literally. People went back and listened to the beginning of the scene and claim they heard Amy saying something about how they didn’t know they were that far over or something to that effect. But if that’s the situation, those hostiles are pretty jerky – they were only having a picnic. What’s wrong with telling them to move along? Also, people have also pointed out that there is a history of picnics going wrong on the show, most notably the picnic on the beach Hurley and Libby were in the middle of when Libby was shot and killed by Michael. Very random.
After the next commercial, Amy is mourning Paul, while Dan looks on knowingly. Juliet determines that they are in the 70’s or 80’s based on the Dharma jumpsuit Paul is wearing. They guess that the men who killed him were Others. Jin finds a walkie talkie on one of the men, and Juliet knows that they need to leave because someone will be looking for the men soon enough. Sawyer tells Amy that they need to leave. She asks who they are, and he tells her that they were on the way to Tahiti, but that’s not important. She tells him that they need to bury the bodies because of “the truce.” And they have to bring Paul back with them. She reveals that Paul was her husband.
As they walk towards the camp, Sawyer tells them that he’ll do the talking – he used to lie for a living. Juliet then tells them to stop – they have arrived at the fence. Juliet tells Amy to turn it off because “it looks like some sort of sonic fence,” and this too-specific comment makes Amy suspicious. “Where did you say you came here from again?” she asks. Juliet realizes that she said too much, and Sawyer tells Amy that she should be thankful they are helping her. Amy agrees to turn the fence off, but we see her open the panel and take something out as she does so. They walk through, with Amy going first at Sawyer’s insistence. But when they go through, they get zapped, and fall to the ground unconscious. Amy was wearing earplugs.
It’s “Three Years Later.” Amy is in labor, and the Dharma doctor there says that this one’s out of his league – they usually send the pregnant women off the island to give birth, but this baby is two weeks early, is breach, and Amy needs a Caesarian. Sawyer knows there’s only one thing to do: get Juliet out of retirement. He finds her in her Dharma Motor Pool jumpsuit, complete with a wrench Dharma logo patch, working under a car. He tells her the situation, and she panics. “We had an agreement,” she tells him. Every time she’s tried to help a woman give birth, it hasn’t worked. Sawyer says that maybe whatever made that happen hasn’t happened yet. Sawyer tells her that she’s the only one that can help Amy. Juliet takes charge in the delivery room with a supportive “you’re going to do great” from Sawyer.
Sawyer is pacing outside and Jin comes over. Sawyer tells him what’s happening with the baby. Sawyer asks Jin if he had any luck. Jin says that they “finished grid one through three today. No sign of our people.” Jin asks how long they should look, and he says, “as long as it takes.” Juliet then comes out – it worked! She delivered a boy, and everyone is okay. Juliet and Sawyer share a moment.
Despite being settled into Dharma life, they are still waiting for Locke to return. Or, to be more accurate, Sawyer is waiting for Kate to return. Regardless, they are very loyal to still be looking for their return after three years.
We see Sawyer asleep on a couch after the next commercial break, and he wakes up to see Horace standing over him. Though they don’t feel the need to tell us this time, it’s three years earlier. Horace asks how Sawyer’s head is (it hurts) and Sawyer asks about his people. Horace tells him they are fine, and that he appreciates everything Sawyer did for Amy, but there is a security protocol that they follow because there are indigenous people on the island that they don’t get along with. “So why don’t you tell me who the hell you are,” he says in his most firm folksy voice. Sawyer puts his con man hat back on and tells Horace that his name is James LaFleur – “You can call me Jim” – and that he and his crew were on their way to Tahiti in a salvage ship when a storm came, they crashed on the reef, and washed up on shore. They were searching for a famous lost wreck called the Black Rock. Horace claims he’s never heard of it. Then Horace says that if the crew that Sawyer claims they were in the jungle looking for shows up, he’ll send them along with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Dan, and Sawyer questions what he means. He tells Sawyer that there’s a submarine that will take them to Tahiti the next morning, and when Sawyer asks him why they can’t have at least a week to search a little more for the rest of their crew, Horace tells him that the only people that can stay on the compound are members of the Dharma Initiative, and Sawyer and his people “are not Dharma material.”
Outside, the remaining Remainders are sitting at a table talking as the camera circles around them. Juliet looks contemplative and is looking off at a house. She tells Miles that she used to live in that house. He is shocked and asks if she was in Dharma, but she says no – the Others took over the barracks and then brought her over on the sub. Jin asks Daniel, “No more flash?” Dan says no; “The record is spinning again – we’re just not on the song we want to be on.” Then they hear a little girl with her mom. Or should I say, “mum” – they have English accents. The girl is in a red dress. Daniel sees her as she turns and seems to wave to him. We think we know who she is, and Dan confirms it: “Charlotte.” Then Horace comes over to tell them they have a room for the night and walks away. Sawyer starts to tell them the situation, but is interrupted by an alarm sounding. The Dharma people are running around in a panic, trying to get into the houses and buildings. Phil comes over to tell the Remainders to get inside – now. They are put into a house with a woman named Heather, who has a gun and is standing by the window. Juliet and Sawyer watch out another window as a man with a flaming torch walks out of the jungle and sticks the torch in the ground. It’s Richard Alpert. Sawyer looks at Juliet and says, “Uh oh.”
Another commercial, and then Horace walks out to talk to Richard. Horace tells him that he should’ve told him he was coming so he could’ve turned the fence off for him, but Richard says that “the fence may keep other things out, but not us.” It’s about the two men that were killed. Richard says that Horace has broken the truce – where are the two men? Horace bursts into the house where the Remainders are holed up and asks Sawyer how well he buried the bodies. “Depends on how well he looks,” he replies. Horace tells Phil to call the Arrow, take the heavy ordinance, tell them they are at Condition 1, and to turn the fence up to maximum. Then Sawyer insists that he talk to Richard, “the guy with the eyeliner.” He’s the one who killed the men, and it’s a good thing he’s not asking for Horace’s permission to go out there. As he begins to charge out, Juliet asks him if he knows what he’s doing. “Not yet,” he says. Sawyer walks out to Richard, who is sitting on a park bench.
“Hello, Richard,” he casually says. He begins to tell Richard the truth about what he saw in the jungle, and why he killed Richard’s men. “Your people know that you’re telling me this?” Richard asks. Sawyer says no – they aren’t his people, and so no truce has been broken. So, Richard asks, if Sawyer isn’t Dharma, what is he? Sawyer sits down next to him and demonstrates his sheer kick-assitude. “Did you bury the bomb? The hydrogen bomb that had Jughead written on the side of it – did you bury it?” Richard is taken aback. “I also know that 20 years ago, some bald guy limped into your camp and fed you some mumbo-jumbo about being your leader, and then poof, he disappeared right in front of you. Is this ringing a bell?” Richard is incredulous. Sawyer continues, “That man’s name was John Locke, and I’m waiting for him to come back.” Richard is confused. “So, do you think I’m still a member of the damn Dharma Initiative?” Sawyer asks. No, Richard says, “I guess I don’t.” But there are still two of his men dead, and his people want justice. “What are we going to do about that?”
A classic LOST scene! I hope there will be more scenes with Richard and Sawyer from here on in.
We then see Amy next to Paul’s body. She asks if Alpert is gone, and Horace tells her no, and that they told him where the bodies were to maintain the truce. He tells Amy that they are going to need to give Alpert and his people Paul’s body. Amy is distraught. He caringly and sincerely tells her that if she doesn’t want to give up Paul’s body, they will suffer the consequences. She decides to let him go. “He would want to keep us safe.” She asks for a minute alone with Paul, takes an ankh necklace from around his neck, and walks out. Sawyer asks Horace if he needs help, and he says no, but tells Sawyer that he and the other Remainders can stay for another two weeks and look for the rest of his crew, until the next sub run.
Sawyer walks out to Juliet, who is sitting by the dock near the sub. He tells her that they have two more weeks, and she says, “Then what?” She points out that they are already saved – Locke turned the wheel, there are no more jumps, no more bloody noses. The sub is their way, her way, off the island. This is her chance to leave. But Sawyer convinces her to stay. It’s 1974, and whatever she’s going back to doesn’t exist yet. “That’s not a reason not to go,” she says. “What about me?” Sawyer says. “Who’s gonna get my back? Just give me two weeks.” She agrees – two weeks.
And of course… “Three Years Later.” Sawyer is walking through New Otherton, er, the Dharma compound, picks a big ‘ol flower, and walks into a house, where we find Juliet cooking dinner. He gives her the flower, and tells her, “You were amazing today.” She says, “Thank you for believing in me.” They kiss and exchange “I love you”s.
When we come back from the final commercial break, Sawyer is reading a book with no cover as Horace begins to awaken from his bender. He tells Horace there’s good news and bad news: the good news is that Amy had a boy; the bad news is that he missed it. Sawyer asked him what made him go get wasted and miss the birth of his son. Horace explains that he was looking for a clean pair of socks in Amy’s drawer and found the ankh she took from Paul. “Is three years long enough to get over someone?” he asks Sawyer. Sawyer then tells Horace that he once knew a girl who he had a chance with, but now she’s gone, “she ain’t ever coming back,” and he can’t even remember what she looks like. We all know who he is talking about. So is it long enough? “Absolutely,” Sawyer answers.
We see Sawyer and Juliet sleeping when the phone rings. Sawyer answers gruffly, “What?” But his face changes as he listens to the person on the other end, and he tells the person not to bring “them” in, but to meet him in the North Valley. Juliet asks what’s wrong, and he tells her nothing, but he has to go.
Sawyer drives into the valley in a Dharma jeep, where a Dharma van is parked. He gets out as Jin gets out of the van, and Sawyer watches as Hurley gets out. Then as Jack gets out. And then, finally, as he takes off his glasses, Kate gets out. They look at each other, and as the camera zooms in on his face…
LOST
Stupid Kate! She’s gonna ruin it!
I really liked this episode. A great mix of mythology and character, which are the two things that make LOST so incredible. And despite what I said in my first post about the statue reveal being my favorite part, I think I liked the conversation between Sawyer and Richard even better.
A couple last things about this one: there has been a lot of discussion about whether or not the little girl in the red dress is really Charlotte. There are some timeline problems, because, well, she shouldn’t even be there. Ben said after he shot her last season that she was born in 1979, but here she is on the island in 1974? Unless time travel is involved, which of course is possible, this just doesn’t add up. Some are saying it’s Annie, Ben’s classmate from Dharma Elementary as seen in his flashback episode. I don’t believe it for a second – I think people have this bizarre need to figure out who Annie is/was, and any girl that it could possibly be, they insist it’s her. This girl clearly has red hair, and Annie had dark brown or black hair, so unless she dyes it as a ‘tween, it just doesn’t make any sense. Any thoughts on this?
Also, who is Amy’s baby boy going to grow up to be? Timeline wise, there are only a few possibilities, and though I think he looks too old to be in his 30’s, many are claiming it will be Ethan. Possibly, but I think that’s pretty boring. Others have said Jacob, which would be slightly more interesting, but kind of a let down. What do you think?
So that’s that for this episode. Our next episode is intriguingly called “Namaste,” and I can’t wait for it!
Until I post again, Namaste, and Good Luck!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
"Who Put Him In Charge?" 5x08: LaFleur - Initial Reaction
Sorry, but it was my favorite part of the entire episode!
Based on the texts I got the second this one was over, I know this has to be a good one.
Trouble is, I haven't watched it yet.
Yes, as of 11:29 pm, I have yet to see "LaFleur." You shoulda seen me doing my grades while eating dinner and ironing. All at once. But not watching LOST, because once I started watching, I knew the dinner, ironing, and grades would've fallen by the wayside, and I'm waaaaay too responsible for that. ("Can you sense the sarcasm? 'Cause I'm laying it on pretty thick.")
.....Weeell, okay, so I watched the opening scene, and now know that the title character is not only the Head of Dharma Security, but also, in fact, Sawyer. Cool.
Know what's cooler? The friggin' FOUR-TOED STATUE!!! Yep, that bad boy was standing tall right before Locke turned the wheel and brought them to wherever they have settled, which I can only assume is in the late 60s/early 70s, judging by the groovy couple in what appeared to be a sparkling new Pearl station. What a tease to show it, and then jerk us forward in time again. I'm already dying to know what possibly caused the well to be seemingly "mixed" - it was there, but also filled with dirt? But the rope was still in the middle of the dirt? Maybe because they were all touching the stones and the rope when they flashed to a time when there was no well? I think that might make sense.
I'm also guessing, again based on the mini-flurry of texts I got at 10:03, that something big happened at the end. And I'm worried that it might be the death of Sawyer. Am I right? Or someone else major. I have no idea.
So here's the deal: I'm going to watch it now like the insane person that I am, and I will add my reactions to this post when it's over. 'Kay?
UPDATE:
Whoah.
Whoah.
Well thank goodness I was wrong about Sawyer being killed.
First of all, about those texts: Toe, sorry to ignore you, but now you know that I couldn't look! I'll get back to you : )
In the episode, we saw the statue, two Losties and an honorary hostile becoming members of Dharma, some previously unknown Dharma members and the security station (not the Pearl as I initially thought), a baby boy being born, "LaFleur" and Juliet (Hey, why did she get to keep her name?) hooking up, Jin speaking almost perfect English, Faraday in total disarray after losing Charlotte - and speaking of which, a toddler Charlotte in a red dress (Dan kept saying, "I'm not going to tell her...I won't do it...I won't tell her..." when the flashes stopped), and Jack, Kate, and Hurley reuniting with Sawyer (on the down-low from Juliet, of course).
Whoah.
So, at the moment:
- First and foremost, let the debate begin: who is the baby? It seems to be the 70's (someone on the Fuselage is pretty convinced it's 1974, but I didn't read their reasoning), so who would fit that timeline? Who do we know already but we've never met their parents?
- Poor Daniel. Not only did he lose Charlotte, and not only couldn't he bury her (her body disappeared since they moved to a time before she was dead), but now he's in a time when he's going to be forced to give her that fateful warning that will ironically lead to her death. The thing is, he's now chanting, "I won't tell her...I'm not going to do it..." I wonder where that's going to lead.
- We saw "the truce," which we know must be the precursor to "the war." It seems like, whether they like it or not, Dharma and the hostiles have found a way to live together, more or less. There is definitely tension there, though.
- The conversation with Sawyer and Richard was awesome. As someone on the Fuselage pointing out, Richard was in the rare position of not knowing what was going on. And Sawyer in this scene and this episode was so crafty - the Black Rock story he told Horace Goodspeed, playing the Jughead trump card with Richard - just great, great stuff.
- I can't wait to see this one again! It seems like every single scene had something for us to chew on. I really wonder how all of this might lead to what we know happened on the island post-1970's. I wonder if the Losties will play a pivotal role in the history of the war; they sure are setting things up that way.
Which none of us will be able to do next week - it is the one and only break in the season next week, so we can all take a breather since there won't be any LOST to watch next Wednesday. But are you like me? Would you rather be watching? Of course you would!
What did you all think? Let me know!
I'll have a recap for you most likely over the weekend. I might get some screencaps up for you earlier, though. Keep checking back!
Until I post again, Namaste, and Good Luck,
Monday, March 2, 2009
Believe It Or Not: Something More Important Than LOST!
(And if I'm saying that, it must be really important!)
It is, actually, and I hope that you'll allow me to post something non-LOST here. This will be repetitive for those of you who visit my Facebook page and are actually on the team with me, but I'm trying to get the eyes and ears of as many people as I can, and since I have this particular soapbox to shout from, I'm using it!
I am part of a team who will be participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event in Natick/Framingham, MA on May 30. I am asking for the support of as many people as possible in this worthy endeavor. If you visit my page by clicking here and make a donation of any amount, you will be helping in the fight against cancer, which I know that most of you unfortunately have likely been touched by in some way. This is your chance to help make this terrible disease a thing of the past! You can also check out my team page here if you'd like to know more about us.
You will also have my sincere appreciation! Honestly, any donation you are able to make will be huge in the grand scheme of things. And not to guilt anyone into anything, but I do this blog for free...no ad revenue...no financial support...hours and hours of work...just for you... So, you know, if you enjoy reading it and have thought, "You know, I wish there was a way to repay Matt for providing me with some entertainment at work and fueling my LOST mania," here's your chance! ; )
Thank you for considering a donation, and extra thanks if you actually do it!
Peace,
It is, actually, and I hope that you'll allow me to post something non-LOST here. This will be repetitive for those of you who visit my Facebook page and are actually on the team with me, but I'm trying to get the eyes and ears of as many people as I can, and since I have this particular soapbox to shout from, I'm using it!
I am part of a team who will be participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event in Natick/Framingham, MA on May 30. I am asking for the support of as many people as possible in this worthy endeavor. If you visit my page by clicking here and make a donation of any amount, you will be helping in the fight against cancer, which I know that most of you unfortunately have likely been touched by in some way. This is your chance to help make this terrible disease a thing of the past! You can also check out my team page here if you'd like to know more about us.
You will also have my sincere appreciation! Honestly, any donation you are able to make will be huge in the grand scheme of things. And not to guilt anyone into anything, but I do this blog for free...no ad revenue...no financial support...hours and hours of work...just for you... So, you know, if you enjoy reading it and have thought, "You know, I wish there was a way to repay Matt for providing me with some entertainment at work and fueling my LOST mania," here's your chance! ; )
Thank you for considering a donation, and extra thanks if you actually do it!
Peace,
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