5.08 – LaFleur

[pocket1_pita]

So here we are at the mid-season break. And not only that, but we now have less than 30 episodes of Lost left to tell the story. So what we have just seen in the last 3 episodes is the beginning of the endgame.

Jack tells us the story of the people who left the Island Sawyer tells us the story of the people who stayed on the Island, and Locke tells us the mythology. Jack’s episode, 316, told us the end of O6 story. This is the hinge of the story we’ve been watching since S3, and the beginning of the last chapter. Over the rest of the story we’ll see several flashbacks that tell us more about why each of them chose to come back to the Island. I expect that to be paired with an on-Island story that mirrors the theme. It was also the turning point for Jack as a character and hopefully the version of Jack that we see for he rest of the show is an improved version who can be the hero we know he is capable of being. Locke’s episode, TLADOJB, was the turning point for Locke (I hope). I expect the resurrected Locke to be a better version of Locke too. And we all know that this version of James Sawyer LaFleur Ford was a better version of the Sawyer we’ve all come to love.

As I have stated repeatedly – I have always loved Kate and Sawyer together and for the first 3 seasons and even into the 4^th season I was pretty sure that they would end up together. Simply because they had the better chemistry. I loved watching them onscreen. And I can’t stand Jack and Kate together. They seem to really bring out the worst in each other. But like everything in Lost the storytellers surprised me. They showed me something I wasn’t expecting to see and I liked it even better than I expected to like it.

Sawyer was – incredible – in this episode. Wow! I swooned all over the place. I’m totally in love with him. My two favorite characters are Sawyer and Juliet so to see them both featured so strongly in this episode and also in what really looked to be a good relationship was awesome. I didn’t really see this one coming at all. Up to the moment they kissed - and James gave her that little growl and pushed her up against the sink and I melted into a little fangirl puddle - I totally thought they were roommates. Who in the world ever thought that Sawyer would eclipse Sayid as Best Island Boyfriend? He believes in you! He brings you flowers! He uses his superpower of lying to save your life! And Juliet is also the perfect Island Girlfriend – she’s a tall gorgeous blonde mechanic/obstetrician who’ll shoot a man dead if he shoots at you first and she has dinner on the table by the time you get home from work.

Knowing that James and Juliet are in Dharma times at the same time as Ben puts a new spin on his actions for me. First of all, was this when Ben’s creepy little obsession with Juliet took root? I’m wondering if there’s more going on with Ben and Juliet than I’ve been assuming. Did he even bring her to the Island to solve the Island Fertility Disorder at all? Maybe he knew perfectly well there was no way to solve it by means of science. It has the feeling of a curse to it. Is it possible that the appalling love triangle/quadrangle we’re been sitting through is actually a key plot point? I would love it if that were the case. What if it’s Ben who has tried to nurture feelings between Sawyer and Kate in order to come between Sawyer and Juliet? I always wondered at some of the bizarre things he did while they were on the Bearcage Island. Why dress Kate up in a sexy girly dress like that in front of Sawyer to try and manipulate…. Jack? And place her in situations where her vulnerability is emphasized? Doesn’t that seem more like a way to manipulate Sawyer?

I’m starting to feel more and more certain that Ben dies before the endgame. If he is not the major antagonist – and it is starting to look more and more like he isn’t – then his story must be pretty much over. He doesn’t have any alliances and he can’t be reformed at this point.

When we flashed to the 4-toed Statue I actually let out an audible moan much to Candy, Bruno and Pita’s amusement. That statue is SO Egyptian. Pita says Anubis, but it could be any of them. I so called this. Lost of Egyptian gods are portrayed in animal form. I believe my initial guess was Bast. I would also like to again point out that Richard Alpert wears eyeliner.

Speaking of Richard Alpert, the more times he shows up the weirder it is. He really looks exactly the same each time. And I don’t think he is a time traveler. I do wonder why he was wearing hippie clothes and had long hair that one time he met Young Ben in the jungle. Was he meeting some groovy Dharma babe for brownies? On his way to a Dead show?

So what kind of crappy one-sided truce is this anyway? It’s not broken when the Others shoot Paul, but it is broken when Others get shot? That sucks. The Others must be a lot stronger than the DI. I wonder how they got to be so strong. Do you think that Widmore is their leader now? It looks like much of what Richard knows about the Losties and Locke has actually come straight from them. He was really surprised at what James told him. It really sheds new light on their treatment of the Losties when the plane crashed and how they interacted with them. They already had long files on each of them because they’d known about them and possibly watched for them for many years.

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