My apologies for the very late LOST Analysis. Stuff got in the way, but even a week late it’s still gonna show ya some interesting details.
So, for the first time since Season Three, we get a Sawyer-centric episode. Or maybe we should call it a LaFleur-centric episode, since that’s Sawyer’s new name.
On that subject, funny how the nicknamer gets himself such a weird name, right? Of all the names he could think of, he chooses “the Flower”! And honestly, I don’t get why he couldn’t just have used his real name, James Ford. It’s not like it’d provoke a temporal paradox, stopping him from ever being conceived, or anything. It’d just mean there was another James Ford back in the Seventies, of whom there are no civil records anyhow.
I guess they just wanted to use that title.
But, anyway, last ep was a Sawyer show, and what a good one it was. First of all, we saw the four-toed statue in all its complete ancient glory (I’m not posting a picture of it; I’m sure the Internet has had enough of those already), and then Locke fixed time and with a final flash everyone jumped right to the ’70s, the time of Geronimo Jackson and moustaches.
I was kinda hoping Sawyer would grow a mustache himself (and replace that creepy, and pretty much fake, Oreo beard), but instead it seems Miles shaved his. My dreams of a proper ’70s moustache were thus shattered.
(Side note: images will soon come with the proper silly bad jokes. Just be patient, Padawan.)
As our Losties explored the great savannah of ’70s Island, they stumbled upon the popular “Others-kidnapping-women and/or children” scenario, which, as usual, was resolved with a reasonable amount of gunshots. They then met DHARMA wife Amy, whose DHARMA husband Paul had just been killed, who freaked out because the truce between Others and DHARMA had just been broken (even though the Others were trying to kidnapp her two minutes earlier). She then cunningly convinced the Losties to dig up the bodies and fooled them to cross the Sonar Fence of Doom. More on that later.
Anyway, continuing on chronologically, Sawyer wakes up to be face-to-face with whom I consider to be the DHARMA Man: Mr. Horace Goodspeed himself. And is it just me, or does he always feel like he’s kinda… trippin’?
Sawyer, professional conman, comes up with the backstory of Jim LaFleur, the valiant captain of a rescue vessel trying to find the Black Rock. Horace, very politely, tells him that he’s not wanted because he’s not “DHARMA material” – come on, Horace, can’t you at least let him make fish biscuits? – and tells him he’ll be back in the mainland by the morning. Sawyer, being more of a ’80s guy, decides he wants to stick by.
Not long after, the DHARMA Alarm comes up, warning the DHARMA workers/scientists that a DHARMA enemy, i.e. a Hostile, is coming up. And guess who it is? Why, Richard, our favorite Other! What a tearful family reunion.
Horace, again very politely (for a drug addict he’s quite the charmer), questions him on why oh why their totally awesome DHARMA Sonar Fence (trademarked) didn’t work.
So apparently the DHARMA Sonar Fence doesn’t work on Others. Curious, I thought to them it did this:
Yeah, Mikhail, nobody remembers you. Tough luck.
Even so, Richard’s appearance was good for two things. First, to provoke Sawyer into “Leader” mode, effectively convincing Richard that the truce stays up and running; second, to reveal that Sawyer has just come face-to-face to the most dreadful enemy to his witty nicknames: lack of pop culture from the ’80s onward.
Goodbye, nicknames. I’ll miss ya so much.
In gratitude to Sawyer’s awesomeness, Horace “Trippin’” Goodspeed lets him stay for at least two weeks. Sawyer feels happy, but Juliet doesn’t. Even though she doesn’t have her sister to come back anymore, she’s got Island Fever and can’t wait to finally board the submarine (y’know, the one she was supposed to board in “The Man from 
Tallahassee”, until Locke blew it to smithereens). Sawyer talks her into staying for two weeks.
Yeah, right.
Back to the future! Horace, now apparently married to Amy (whatever happened to Olivia? Y’know, the blonde he was supposedly married to? Guess she’s either going the same way as Diego Reyes or is gonna turn out to be just his sister), has a bit of late-night drunken fun throwing dynamite at nearby trees while the DHARMA Security personnel raves.
By the way, wanna know what happened to the rest of the four-toed statue? Horace did. He ka-blew it!
The DHARMA Police goes to call their boss, none other than James “Jim” Ford “Sawyer” LaFleur, who gets Ghostbuster Miles on a mission to save the trees from Horace’s wrath.
Now onto the exclusive Mythos Moment. Remember last season’s “Eggtown”? During that episode, Sawyer proposes to Kate that they live in the Barracks, where they can be at peace and comfortable, and she refuses. Well, turns out the Island rewards those that stick to it faithfully. Sawyer got his wish granted – he’s left his traumatic past behind and is a new man, living a happy life in the company of his DHARMA wife Juliet, who replaces Kate in his Dreamland-turned-reality.
Speaking of whom, another fun fact. Juliet spent three years on the Island as an Other, and then 815 fell down and her life changed; now, she spent three years on the Island as their nemesis faction, the DHARMA Initiative. And while she was miserable as an Other, she’s living a perfect life as DHARMA. Not to mention her redemption, which I’ll reflect on in a bit. If there’s a happy ending, this is it.
She’ll probably die during the season. Mark my words.
While Horace recovers from his ecohate rampage, his wife Amy is having her baby. Sawy- I mean, LaFleur convinces Juliet, who’s never delivered a baby successfully on the Island, to help. His charm eventually wins her over, and she accepts to do it. And thus Juliet has her redemption, as she manages to deliver the boy. Hooray!
Kid’s totally gonna be important for the future of Lost. The only character I can think of that he might be is Jacob, but I guess he looked too old in “The Man Behind the Curtain”, so… I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll be someone we know.
Also, the fact that apparently babies could be conceived and delivered on the Island in the past makes me wonder if LaFleur is right and something happened to prevent it. I’m inclined to say it was the Incident at the Swan station, but we don’t have much info on that yet. We’ll see later.
Afterwards, LaFleur talks to Horace about his actions, whom reveals he’s insecure about Amy having forgotten Paul, since she still has his anhk (ooo, more Egyptian things. Hieroglyphs, statues, and now an anhk? Neat). LaFleur speaks from personal experience, reminiscing about Kate, and tells him it’s enough. Because now he hearts Juliet!
Now, I ain’t much a fan of relationship plotlines (a.k.a. “shippings“), but how can you not love those two? To me, Sawyet (Sawyer + Juliet – I came with that myself!) felt like it demonstrated the maturity that relationships involving Kate can never show. I actually felt some chemistry between Sawyer and Juliet, unlike most fans, and I hope it doesn’t degenerate into another love geometric shape. I mean, please. Sawyer had sex with Kate sometimes and enjoyed their fun little game during the course of three months, but he’s lived with Juliet for three years now. Let Kate and Jack have their thing and keep Sawyet up! I want to see their babies!
Of course, it’s a bit late to say this, since English-speaking Jin calls him in the morning, to tell him the breaking news – they’re back! And LaFleur acts all heartwarmed and the episode ends.
Sawyer, just stick to Juliet. Please. Juliet has already been ditched for Kate once, she doesn’t deserve that again. Especially since she’s likely to die in Season Five.
Anyway, I guess that’s all. I might be missing something, but I’ve delayed this too much. Sorry if it was mildly confusing (I wrote it taking into account the chronology just to avoid that), that’s due to me thinking it over and over and over again for a whole week.
I hope you enjoyed it. No Lost episode this week (:(), but next week it returns with… “Namaste”. I.e., the DHARMA’s own special “hello”. I guess the returning trio are joining the commune.
I’m loving this. Bring on the DHARMA!
Pictures taken from the usual suspects – Get Lost Podcast and Lostpedia. They’ll find out sooner or later, so it might as well be later.
