Tonight's episode reminded me of something Bodhi once said to his fellow ex-presidents in Point Break: "All this does is UP the stakes of the game." I enjoyed this one. I loved the stuff on Hydra Island. I loved the fact that NotLocke referred to the island as Hydra Island. I like how Sawyer doesn't really trust NotLocke or Widmore. I really enjoyed the Sideways story as well though I kept waiting for Juliet to show up. The stakes are raised. There's going to be a war. I'm glad Jack and crew are pretty much away from all of this insanity. HERE WE GO!
Sideways Sawyer did not choose the life of crime he chose in the Island narrative. The backstory is relatively the same for James Ford. A con man conned his father out of everything he had, slept with his wife and his father reacted by killing his wife and his mother. The con man seems to be the so and so Anthony Cooper. What we saw with Sawyer in the Sideways was a man who has not dealt with this trauma (obviously). He did not have Anthony Cooper waiting for him in the brig of The Black Rock nor Locke burning his file (symbolism for burning the past/letting go etc and just go back into the archives and read the episode of the day for The Brig!). But he's actively seeking Anthony Cooper because he wants to kill him. He went to Australia to follow a lead and found the lead Anthony Cooper. Silly me, I actually thought Sawyer really was just clearing up an unclaimed property thing with Cooper but nope. This raises the question about the person Helen referred to when she told Locke that their wedding should be small and that his father could be there. A photo in Locke's former office was of him and Anthony Cooper. HMMM. I digress though. It's nice that Duckett did not lose his life in the wee hours outside of his shrimp stand in the driving rain. I'll tell you though: Sawyer's Sideways story reminded me a bit of Ana Lucia's (we even had Miles in the role of Mrs. Lucia when Sawyer actually told Miles why he lied about Palm Springs, the reason for the Sawyer file and for traveling to Australia). Am I digressing? Maybe. The seach for the real Sawyer is not corrupting his life as it did in Island narrative. He's a man of the law. Instead of pulling cons, he is STOPPING CONS! The teaser of the episode tricked me. For a moment I thought we were getting a retread of what we saw in Sawyer's flashbacks from "Confidence Man" and "The Long Con." But no. The lady was wise to his tricks, admitted that her husband was a con man so she knew the tricks; however, he told her the room was bugged, that she was the stupid one and that he only needed to say the magic word (LaFleur) to call the cops in. She didn't believe him. He was telling the truth. The night didn't end well for her.
Besides trying to exact revenge on the man who took his parents from him, he decided to give in to Miles and meet his female friend. Miles doesn't want Sawyer to die alone which is why he suggested setting Sawyer up with a friend of his. The lady in waiting? Charlotte Lewis. No Faraday to be found. Maybe Theresa and Faraday are enjoying a happy relationship with eachother. I digress. Within minutes of meeting eachother, he and Charlotte were getting intimate. Charlotte did manage to get a glimpse into the real Sawyer. She didn't buy his Steve McQueen Cop movie line regarding Sawyer's career choice. He told her he reached a point where he could've chosen a life of crime or a life or become a cop. After some fornication, Charlotte asked to borrow a t-shirt. She also wanted to snoop or, at least, it seemed like it. Sawyer flipped when he saw her with the Sawyer file and kicked her out at 3AM. He later attempted to make things right by bringing a six pack of beer and a gigantic dandelion. She wasn't impressed and sent him on his way. The final scene was of Sawyer telling Miles the truth about his recent behavior and then a car crashed into his. Sawyer and Miles pursued this person as this person fled on foot. They eventually trapped her and we saw it was Kate. Sawyer was intrigued.
ON THE ISLAND, Sawyer is hell-bent on getting off of the Island. The episode opened as he boiled water for Jin to take. He and Jin were hanging out in Claire's shelter (possibly babysitting Squirrel baby? I kid). Jin wanted to flee as fast as possible but Sawyer gave him his word that he won't let Jin leave unless Sun is with him. Of course, the end of the episode made it seem as he's concerned with only getting himself and Kate off of the Island on that submarine. Anywho, Sawyer got a bit angry when NotLocke told the group they'd be spending a few days hanging out on the Island. Sawyer wants to leave immediately so NotLocke explained why they couldn't leave yet and gave Sawyer the task of exploring the new arrivals to the Island. Sawyer did just that. He found a woman who called herself Zoe. She pulled an Ana-Lucia on him. He saw through her lies and, eventually, those who with her showed themselves. He was brought to the man in charge, Mr. Charles Widmore. To be honest, I don't think either of them were being very honest with the other. I'm not sure if it's possible for NotLocke to be fooled. We'll see though. Sawyer is the expert con man. He pretty much told the truth to NotLocke AND Widmore. I'm sure Widmore's waiting for the metaphorical shoe to drop.
As for Widmore, he claims that he and his people did not kill the remaining survivors of Ajira 316. He didn't expect Sawyer to believe him. I don't really believe him. I don't trust NotLocke either so there that is. Widmore's the same dude who hired Keamy! COME ON!
Claire tried to kill Kate in this episode. Besides the knowledge that Kate took Aaron and raised him for 3 years, the breaking point might've been when Kate wondered what Claire was doing with squirrel baby. Kate begged Sayid to intervene but he just sat there. NotLocke came over and threw Claire off of Kate. He yelled to her that she had wandered off and Kate had no choice but to take Aaron off of the Island because she could not be found. He even slapped her and then told her to sit down. NotLocke wanted some bonding time with Kate. He told her that he once, a long time ago, had a crazy mother and that his mother gave him some issues. Hm. To digress a moment: I've been seeing some parallels to Shakespeare's The Tempest. This reminds me of Caliban and his mother Sycorax. Prospero killed Syrcorax and made Caliban a slave. I see a lot of Prospero in Jacob and some in Ben. End digression. The story seemed to say "Kate, you might have to kill Claire." It seemed to suggest that NotLocke feels Claire is beyond saving and that she's a lost cause for Aaron. Kate's desire to rescue Claire seemed to go away following the attempted murder. Who could blame her? Kate didn't seem to trust NotLocke at all. Near episode's end, Claire apologized to Kate and hugged her. Kate seemed completely confused. We never heard what NotLocke told Claire. Claire seemed genuine enough but I'm a softie for Claire. I'd totally forgive her. I'm glad Sawyer's there with Kate because he won't let anyone harm her.
Time for some other thoughts:
--Interesting that Sawyer seems to have set his sights back on Kate after 1 day of grieving for Juliet. He clutched the dress Kate once wore in the cages. Not sure how I feel about this. It's been 1 day since Juliet died. He clutched that dress in a way that suggested it was not simply thinking back to the good ol' days when Pickett wanted to murder him, Ben messed with him psychologically, being forced to do hard labor, etc. She's Juliet, Sawyer!
--Sayid, Sayid, Sayid. Damon Lindelof said a mighty interesting thing in the latest Official Audio Podcast about the turn Sayid has taken. It gave me hope for Sayid but then tonight took away some of that hope. Essentially, Lindelof talked about whether or not being told you're evil means you're evil. Would Sayid have chosen a different path if Sayid was told the opposite of what Dogen told him? We'll never know. Kate asked Sayid if he was allright and he said "no." He didn't do anything when Claire tried to kill her. I'm sad about this, folks. I'm a huge Sayid fan. He's just completely different, now. But, he's not beyond saving. We've got Jack, Hurley and the rest of the good guys coming to save the day. I assume so. At least Sayid knows something is very, very wrong with him. Self-awareness isn't terrible.
--LIAM! It's been nearly 3 years since we last saw Liam, Charlie's brother. It was good to see him again as he tried to bail his brother of prison.
--I'll explain my comment about Zoe going Ana Lucia on Sawyer. Remember season two's "Orientation"? In that episode, Eko throws Sawyer, Jin and Michael into the pit. A little while later, Ana Lulu is thrown in as well. She completely fooled all three of them. She pulled some recon herself. This time, Sawyer wasn't fooled by Zoe because he's seen it before. He also didn't seem too invested in doing good recon because he was completely honest with Widmore. I just found the parallels interesting even if I still dislike Ana-Lucia immensely.
--I'll be honest. I wasn't a fan of Man in Black slapping Claire. He's a dude who can become a pillar of deadly black smoke and she's a girl whose become this way BECAUSE OF HIM. At least he took some blame about making Claire the way she is. He gave her something to hate so that she could keep going after being separated from Aaron by him. A few questions: why exactly did Smokey need Claire? Why couldn't she simply get on a helicopter with Aaron like Desmond saw in his flash? I did think the scene between Claire and Kate, when Claire asked for forgiveness, was touching. Again, I'm a softie for Claire so I pretty much take everything at face value with her. I would totally hug her and forgive her even if she did try to stab me in the neck. Also, shouldn't that have been the time to tell Claire that your mother is with Aaron, Kate? Did that slip your mind? There's nothing that would take the crazy out of Claire more than hearing that Aaron's with her mother. Why? Claire DOESN'T KNOW SHE'S OUT OF THE COMA! That would've been an awesome thing for her to hear. But alas, Kate did not mention it. I also thought that Emilie de Ravin conveyed Claire's sadness about losing Aaron really well. I thought it was a terrific scene.
--I wonder what's locked up in that sub. As I told the world last week, STEVE thinks Widmore has destructive plans for the Island. Could a LIVING MAN be locked up in the sub? I doubt it though it'd remind people of Anthony Cooper and the metaphorical magic box that fans couldn't accept was simply a metaphor. Oh, LOST fans. You do create some stupid theories. The living man would be Desmond. I don't think there is a man in there. I think Widmore got the message after Desmond left his office in "Jughead."
--I did enjoy Sawyer's concern for Hurley and Jack. Perhaps he has forgiven Jack. If he's moved on to Kate, he should forgive Jack. It'd be fair.
--I thought it was nice of Smokey to comfort Zack and Emma. I still don't trust Smokey but it was nice of him to think of the kids and reassure them that harm would not come to them. It was a very Locke thing to do. Locke usually hung out with Walt and played backgammon with him or he would teach Walt how to throw knives. Interesting. It's not the first instance of true Locke shining through in some way in Smokey.
--I still think Desmond's coming to the Island. Do I really think Jacob wanted Hurley to assist Widmore in finding the Island? But then again, he didn't want Hurley to assist. It was something for Jack to experience. My point: Desmond's coming. He's too cool to stay on the sidelines.
--Jodi Lynn O'Keefe guest starred as the woman in the teaser. Who is she you ask? She used to star in a bunch of teen comedies in the late 90s/early 00s. She was Freddie Prinze Jr's ex in "She's All That," the object of Shane West's desire in "Whatever It Takes," and she made an appearance in Halloween H20.
--I thought Evangelline Lilly was wonderful in this episode. Terry O'Quinn also brought his A-game yet again. Holloway was no slouch either.
--Jack Bender directed this one. Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso wrote it. Good work by all.
--I'm looking forward to next week's Richard centric episode. It's been a long time coming. The season's also really mobilizing to insanity. As Bodhi said, this episode has upped the stakes of the game. One could argue that Man in Black represents Bodhi and Jacob is the Johnny Utah figure. But who is Pappas? Sayd could conceivably be the Rosie figure. I think I'll stop with the Point Break stuff now.
TO THE RANKINGS!
A pretty quiet week of rankings. STEVE has put Smokey in to the Top 5. I have Jin at 6 now. Claire's been moved to 7. Miles down to 8. STEVE has a new no. 18. My top 5 remains the same. Not much more to add except CHECK IT OUT.
AFTER EPISODE 8
RANKED: 3/17/2010
CHRIS
1. Jack
2. Desmond
3. Ben
4. Locke
5. Hurley
6. Jin
7. Claire
8. Miles
9. Sayid
10. Kate
11. Sawyer
12. Richard
13. Frank
14. Sun
15. Ilana
16. Jacob
17. Man in Black
18. Widmore
STEVE
1. Desmond
2. Jack
3. Kate
4. Miles
5. Man in Black
6. Ben
7. Sawyer
8. Sayid
9. Jin
10. Frank
11. Sawyer
12. Sun
13. Jacob
14. Claire
15. Ilana
16. Locke
17. Widmore
18. Hurley
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