Recon- Episode 6.08

Recon was a decent episode of Lost this past week. It lacked a little in some areas, but definitely moved the story along. We are going to keep it short this week. Let’s take a look.

Flash-sidways first, Sawyer is a cop. Didn’t see that one coming. Interestingly enough, Miles is Sawyer’s partner, just like the good ole days in the DI (Dharma Initiative) security force. It was cool to see that Saywer goes by James in this timeline and that LaFleur, his fake last name in the DI, was the code word for his sting operation.

Apparently Miles’s dad, Pierre Chang, made it off the Island before it sunk, or never went to it, or Miles has someone else he refers to as “dad.” I say this because his dad works at a museum with Charlotte. Due to this connection, Miles sets Sawyer up on a date with Charlotte. Things go south when she goes snooping around in his dresser and finds a book about Sawyer’s parent’s murder. He snaps on her, then tries to reconcile with her later, possibly days later, and she tells him that he blew it. On a completely different note, we also saw Liam, Charlie’s brother, in the police station looking for Charlie. (Minute but interesting crossover.)

Later, Sawyer tells Miles that he went to Australia to find Anthony Cooper, his only lead for the murder of his parents. He also admits to Miles that once he finds Cooper, he is going to kill him. At that moment a car slams into their car and immediately the driver jumps out and flees. James chases the driver down only to find that it is Kate, the person he allowed to escape at LAX in the season premiere.

And that’s it! A second unresolved flash-sidways plot, the first being Sayid finding Jin tied up in a pantry in a kitchen where Sayid had just killed Keamy. It will be interesting to see when they come back to both of these and how. I sure hope this doesn’t mean we have another Kate episode in store. Honestly, if Kate never showed up in another episode I don’t think I would mind.

On to the continuing story line that we do know, the original timeline. From the start some interesting promises are made that could affect how the story plays out. Jin does not want to be with Locke. (Thank goodness) Sawyer says he knows that it is not Locke but he just wants off the Island, however, he promises Jin that they will not leave without Sun. (Can Jin and Sun just get back together? They’ve been apart so long I’m even starting to feel sorry for them. That’s a more compelling love story that Jack/Kate/Sawyer. Kate is just the worst (Is my disdain for Kate clear enough yet?))

Locke tells his people that the Smoke Monster attacked the Temple. (They are so ignorant.) He explicitly tells Sawyer that he is the Smoke Monster, but we already knew that. Locke seems like a decent enough guy now. Sure he killed people, but he tried to explain that he was the victim. He just wants to leave the Island. I do not quite buy that he is the victim and just wants to leave the Island but he at least seems to have a purpose. I’m glad he is not evil for the sake of being evil. Most bad guys are just bad for story convenience, however it is always good when they make it where the bad guys do what they think is right but are just a little twisted. Locke seems to be this way; he is just trying to achieve his goal, sure he may do a few sketchy things like cause a genocide, but hey, he’s not recklessly killing…..(There is a lot of sarcasm in that.) He tells his people he will answer all of their questions as soon as he can. He even protects and apologizes to Kate when Claire tries to harm her for taking Aaron. Locke set Claire straight and now she is cool with Kate.

Locke sends Sawyer to Hydra Island to see who is on it because Locke intends to go there with his people, take the Ajira plane and fly away from the Island. Sawyer finds a woman who is piling all the bodies of the Ajira flight together, somehow they all mysteriously died. I have a hunch Locke killed all of them in Smoke Monster form. I think Locke really knew that they were all dead, and probably was suspicious of Widmore being there so he sent Sawyer to test him and see what he would do.

Meanwhile, Locke talks with Kate and tells her that he had a crazy mother. Is he talking about real Locke’s mother who was crazy or his own mother? If it is his own then that is very interesting to see another human side to this bad guy. Judging by how he has been civilly handling things among his own people I could see him going off the deep end and going crazy on people in the end. A psycho Smoke Monster, that would be interesting!

The mysterious woman, who was posing as an Ajira passenger, takes Sawyer captive and down into a submarine where he talks to none other than Charles Widmore. Widmore’s people are currently setting up a sonar fence system to trap or keep out Locke. (Interesting) How does Widmore know all of this about the Smoke Monster?

Widmore wanted Sawyer to lead Locke straight to them and lie to Locke about finding anyone on the Island. If Sawyer does this then Widmore agreed not to harm any of Sawyer’s people and to provide them a way off the Island. (This might be a moot point. Does Widmore even want to hurt Sawyer’s people? I don’t think so. He’s good and I’m sticking to that!) Sawyer agrees to this but does not hold up to his agreement. He goes back and tells Locke of the deal he “agreed” to and about the sonar pylons.

In the end, the “big” twist was subpar at best. Sawyer insists, as he even said at the start of the episode, that he works for no one. While Widmore and Locke fight it out Sawyer and Kate and presumably others will leave the Island. Kate points out that neither of them can fly. To this Sawyer simply replies, “We ain’t taking the plane, Freckles. We’re taking the sub.” Boom…Twist…?.... Is that a twist? Can they even pilot a sub? I guess it could be important that Widmore would not have his sub. Not a good twist though. As a friend of mine, Garin, said, the real twist was so far at the end it was after the episode when they revealed that next week would be a Richard Alpert centric episode. (More on that later.)

Sawyer has been a little aggravating to me lately. He’s just playing the middleman, not committing to anything or anyone and using everyone. I’m afraid that they are going to have him do something heroic and self-sacrificing in the end that will make me feel like I have to like him. I don’t like those cheap tricks!

Let’s talk about the next episode, Ab Aeterno. This is Latin for what I believe to be meaning something like “Counting from Eternal.” (There is probably a better translation, but I used a free online system.) This episode is Richard Alpert centric. I have wanted to see this since the first time we found out he was unique and unusual, the man that seemingly does not age.

I am interested to see how they will delineate that this is a flash-back episode not a flash-sideways. Or is it going to be a flash-sideways? I think we will be given a lot of answers tonight. We will see that Richard did come from the Black Rock as a slave. (All but already explicitly stated.) We will probably see Jacob give him his gift. I wonder if it was meant as a curse at first, maybe Jacob and Richard were not always on good terms. Hopefully we will see the dynamic between Richard, Jacob, the Smoke Monster and maybe even Christian Shepherd. It would also be nice to see more of Charles Widmore at any age. I think tonight is going to be a big night for answers!

By the way, please feel free to leave comments below. I would love to hear what you have to say about the show, theories or reactions to anything I say.
In the words of Smoke-Locke “You are so close; it would be such a shame to turn back now.”

Until next week when we have seen a little bit more Lost, Namaste.

Steven

Here are the sneak peeks ABC has put out for this week’s episode. Watch at your own risk!