Not much to say about this week’s episode, which was decent but a bit filler-y for my tastes. My favorite Sawyer episodes are the ones that con the audience (i.e., me), so I was a wee bit disappointed that Recon was so straightforward. On the other hand — Miles and James are cops now! Charlotte and James totally bone in the alter-verse! I really dug Evangeline Lilly’s acting for once! Un-Locke may or may not have a crazy mommy! And Widmore’s doing… well, actually, I have no idea what he’s doing. But, still: Widmore! In other words, in a not-totally-spectacular episode, a lot of fun moments shone through.
Now onto the questions!
Question 1: Like the B-story in last week’s episode, Recon‘s alt-plot seemed like a pilot to a spin-off series. Which of the following Lost spin-offs would you most like to watch on a regular basis? Hangin’ With Dr. Linus? Straume & Twang (my name for USA’s new quirky cop show, starring Miles Straume & James Ford)? The Good Shephard (a new Everwood-type show about a big-city doctor with daddy issues who learns about faith and family after moving to Provo, Utah)? [Insert your own punny Kate- or Locke-based show here]?
Question 2: So, are we going to talk Un-Locke’s word for it on his mommy issues or what? Is he talking about real-Locke’s crazy mom, or is he talking about someone else? Tawaret, mayhaps?
Speaking of crazy mommies…
Question 3: What are we thinking about Claire now? Is she crazy-evil or just crazy-crazy? Did the “infection” make her go nutso, or did the supposed Aaron-napping do it? And can she ever turn back to the light side?
Question 4: Who’s Sawyer?
See you next week.
Another less-than-stellar episode for me, which was a shame. Usually I love Sawyer episodes.
Random thoughts:
– I know we’ve all been talking about some of the sideways character cameos feeling “gimmicky”… but WOW, was that point driven home this week. Why was it important for Charlotte to show up? She and Sawyer certainly never cared about each other in the “regular” timeline. You’re telling me they were “fated” to always know each other, no matter the circumstances? No way. Total gimmick. (Though the throwaway fact that she’s working with Miles’ dad? Wonder if that will come back into play… are we to assume he was on the island and got off before it sank, just like Ben and his father?)
– The way they’re re-introducing characters in the sideways world, I would not at all be surprised if Jack’s son David goes to see a concert from his favorite classical pianist… Daniel Faraday. (You all know I love LOST like no other show before it… but I think we can all consider that a shark jump of epic proportions. Which is why they wouldn’t dare do it… would they?)
– Weak ending. I guess we’ve just been spoiled of late from having so many knockout surprises and resolutions. The big twist is… Sawyer wants to leave the island by sub! Wow!
– Not emotional. The best sideways stories for me are those I can really feel on an emotional level — The Substitute and Lighthouse probably being my favorites by a mile. But sideways-James Ford is… looking for the guy who conned his parents. Again. And without any resolution to that story (impossible in the time given), pretty wanting.
– Not consistent. The Sawyer of “LA X” knows Kate is a fugitive and is on the run from the police… and helps her escape. Then he shows up here as a cop?! I know back then we were supposed to wonder if he was still a con man in the sideways world… but that’s just taking it too far, since the writers just wanted to surprise the audience with the “He’s a cop!” surprise 6 episodes later. Lame. Respect our intelligence, writing staff.
– So Locke’s dad isn’t really a con man? Or is he? I really hope that whole thread is tied-up, because based on “The Substitute,” Locke’s dad is a good guy… but I guess he’s still bad, only he’s a much more capable con man (who was not responsible for stealing his son’s kidney and pushing him out a window).
– Island Sawyer: his stuff was great. I think the best part of the episode was the fact that he tells the TRUTH to everyone he meets (Smokey, Widmore, etc.). That’s his best con of all, and Mlawski, a great example of IRONY for you!
– At least Sawyer got off another of his patented “Son of a BITCH!” lines. Wouldn’t be a Sawyer ep without it.
– Just what the F does Widmore have locked up on the sub? (Is it Desmond? Is it? Please, for the love of God, let it be Desmond!)
All in all, I have to wonder if this was better than “What Kate Does.” Disappointing. (My favorite part of the ep was… the preview of next week’s episode.)
First I want to comment on something that finally clicked with me last night. Over the past few weeks Ive been watching the alt-universe story lines thinking there was something wrong. I couldnt put my finger on it, until last night.
Okay, stay with me because this gets confusing…
When the hydrogen bomb detonated over the pocket of energy, the year was 1976 (I believe). The exact date isnt really important, but the timeframe is. Okay, therefore, any changes caused by the bomb detonation could only be foward in time. In other words, what happened before Jack changed the past (future if your standing in 1976) still happened the exact same way. Therefore, Bens mom still died giving birth (he was born before he got to the island, so the island being bombed would not change that), Sawyers parents still died (we’ll get to this in a minute), etc etc….
So, whatever happened ON the island before the blast still happened. Bens dad still abused him. Miles was still born to Dr. Chang and was evacuated from the island with his mother. He still can speak to dead people. Sayyids past, Kates past everything should still be intact up to the plane crash, they should still be the same people…..its just the future from the crash on that changed for them, while it was from the blast onward that changed for the island folk.
This would explain Rousseaus change, the island wasnt there for her to crash. Believe it or not it also changes bens past, because Sayyid never crashed therefore he never went back in time and shot ben (even though it happened before the blast). This means he was never put in the life pool and never lost his innocense.
An argument could be made for Jacks life being different, becasue Christian Shepard’s role in life changed (presumably) when the island got bombed, so through butterfly effect Jacks life is now much different. Which brings us to my point.
Even though Sawyers life should still be the same before the blast (that is, he should be a criminal, not a cop) he made point of saying when the decision arose to become one or the other he went with cop. Whats the difference this time?
Jacob never touched him. If Jacob was on the island when it was bombed, then perhaps he never made it out to touch young Sawyer, and the effects that caused never occured. We know he couldnt have touched Jack, Sayyid, the Kwons or Hurley becasue all their touches happened well after the blast. The only two that occured beforehand were Sawyer and Kate.
Kate seems to be on the same path. Even though she claimed innocense to Claire in the hospital, I believe her story is unchanged. And thats because Jacob touched her. We see in the Jacob Touch flashaback that Sawyer was at his parents funeral when Jacob touched him. We also know that the day they detonated the bomb, Sawyer told Jack that incident had just occured off the island, in regular time. Hours (or minutes) later, a hydrogen bomb was set off destroying the island and (presumably) killing everything on it.
I cant remember the exact amount of time that had passed so my timeline might not be correct, but if that detonation occured before Jacob touched Sawyer, then we can safely assume it was Jacobs touch that led him down that path. Without the touch, he became a cop (an arguably dirty cop, but a cop nonetheless).
And right when I was formulating this (during the episode) they went ahead and touched on it ever so slightly. The fact that Sawyers parents are still dead and he still went to Australia to kill the “real Sawyer” shows that not so much has changed. But something had to, for him to be a cop who lets fugitives escape (Kate) but still warns people of the dangers of being taken advantage of (Hurley). The only thing I could think that would have occured differently would be Jacobs touch.
Of course, they could take a broad stroke and explain it all with the butterfly effect theory, or by saying- the island was pulling him there and now the islands dead so it didnt pull him and he became a cop….but I dont think that would sit well w/ too many people because he still was on the flight for the same reason, he was just a different Sawyer….
More on this when I fully formulate a theory….
As for the episode it was top notch in my opinion. I would totally watch the Sawyer/Miles spin off cop drama. It seems like everyones really bringing their A-game now- Evil Locke is the most interesting character in TV history and Jack Kate Sawyer and Sayyid are hitting homeruns with every scene theyre in. (Yes, Kate too. Its just not as flashy). I thought it interesting to note that Sawyer went back to his old con-man name when he met the boat people, and LOVED the multi-layer con he was laying on (giving all his information over, as if he was trusting her, then allowing her to see he didnt, even though he knew he was surrounded, all because it would get him to Widmore, who he then gave all his info about Locke to, only to go back and give Locke all that info…..haha its awesome- hes on the top of his game right now)
A thought I had on Evil Locke too- even though some people still debate whose good and bad, I think its pretty obvious Evil Locke is bad. Hes telling everyone EXACTLY what they want/need to hear to join him- “Gee, Sawyer, everyones acting like I want to do them harm but really I just want to GTF outta here…know anyone like that, Sawyer?” “Oh, Kate, Im just worried about Aaron, b/c Claire is now crazy and she would hurt his life. I had a crazy mom, and care about Aaron…know anyone like that, Kate?” “Hey, Sayyid, all we have to do is ignore our conscience and kill people and we will get to see our loved ones…you know anyone willing to do that?” “Claire, shut up and sit down!!” (Haha that was a disturbing yet oddly comical scene).
As for the questions- Lets be honest Id watch a Nikki-Paulo spin off. After this is over theres going to be a void in my life that wasnt there before this show started. Thanks a lot LOST!!!
Q2- Everything Locke is saying is a lie. He wants to get off the island to destroy humanity on Earth, and will say/do anything in the most convincing way and take advantage of anyone he can in order to do so.
Q3- Claire is crazy-crazy and under the complete control of Evil Locke which makes her Evil-Crazy-Crazy. A dangerous mix
Q4- Sawyer is the man.
A few side notes- Sayyid still in a hypnotic trance. So very creepy and disturbing. He is a bad ass mo’fo. And he definetly was enjoying Claire trying to kill Kate just for the sheer joy of death. Man-o-man could this get any better??
RICHARD ALPERT NEXT WEEK!!!!!! HOW am I suppossed to sleep now???
Sawyer definetly doesnt care about Kate, I think hes doing the same thing Locke is, hes conning everyone in order to get off the island (and Evil Locke knows it). I think Sawyer will not make it.
An intersting theory a friend of mine proposed- What if Jacob and MIB were not the first on the island, they took over for 2 other guys and now BOTH need replacing. His prediction is the two to replace him will be- Sawyer and Jack. They have fought every step of the way over every step of the way, and will continue to do so as the new Jacob/MIB.
Sounds plausable…
@dock: the question of “when did the alternate timeline begin?” has to take into account the time-skipping by those left behind on the island. In my view, the “butterfly effect” actually started in 1954… when Locke, Sawyer, Faraday etc. met the Others (Alpert, Widmore, Hawking). Remember, if the plane never crashes… the left-behinders never travel back to 1954. The Others DON’T seal up Jughead because Daniel isn’t there to tell them to. John Locke does NOT tell Richard that he’s “special” and should be checked upon as a boy. I’m sure there are more changes than those that would have happened, but those are the obvious ones.
Therefore, with anything that could have happened in the 50 years since the Others have NO LONGER encountered a ragged band of people who somehow predicted future events, knew their identities, and told them how to deal with a hydrogen bomb (that remember, the Others did NOT know was leaking) — before disappearing in a flash of light — I think anything’s on the table as far as the “alternate history” is concerned.
And I disagree that Sawyer doesn’t care about Kate — he cared so much for her before they were separated. I can’t imagine he can turn that off — despite three years of being with Juliet and being in a fantastic relationship with that perfect partner, he certainly couldn’t stop caring for Kate.
1. Hangin’ With Dr. Linus. Only with really bad comedy. Like an Ed Wood version of comedy.
2. I think he is trying to get Kate on his side. I believe now, that when someone turns to his side, that they do not loose free will but make a conscience choice and are not mind controlled. When he pimp-slapped Claire, that made me believe that. So his stories always have some truth to them, so I believe him.
3. See #2. Pimped-Slap = turned to the dark side but not a robot.
4. Geddy Lee, its gonna be in the finale.
@dock – I *love* your friend’s theory re: Sawyer & Jack becoming the new MIB & Jacob haha! Perfect.
1) Although I would for sure watch the Miles & Sawyer cop show, I think my dream spin-off would be a Hurley & Miles ghost hunter show.
2) I’m cool with un-Locke having mommy issues, especially with the obvious parallels with the biblical Jacob & Esau… where, of course, one would expect Esau to think his mama was crazy, since she *talked Jacob into conning his dad into giving him Esau’s inheritance* and figured out the whole ridiculous plan for doing so. Kinda crazy, yeah.
Also, I don’t agree with dock’s theory on why the Lockelganger was talking crazy mamas with Kate. I think that (1)he was legitimately trying to bond with her (in a “join me” sort of way) due to her own kinda crazy mom, and (2)he was revealing something about “replacements” – I think he means Aaron to be his replacement, and he’s sort of “grooming” him by giving him a mom as crazy as his was, trying to maximize the similarities (in the same way that they tried to duplicate the circumstances of the flight 815 crash.)
3) Not sure what I think about the infection. The Aaron-napping had the most impact, I’m sure. I think she can become (and is becoming) more clear-headed and kind… if Rousseau can get marginally better, then so can she. The whole thing gives a new meaning to why Aaron was only supposed to be raised by her, though… maybe it was more because being apart from him would make her crazy, rather than any theoretical negative influence on him.
Did anyone else catch unLocke telling Kate that he took full responsibility for Claire thinking the Others had Aaron, since he was the one who told her? Does this mean that he really *is* Christian, or does it mean that he doesn’t KNOW about Christian???
4) I don’t know, man, I don’t know! Maybe it IS Locke’s Anthony Cooper, and he’s reformed himself? Maybe he’s still a bastard, but he hasn’t yet gotten Locke’s kidney, so he’s still conning him (thus their apparent healthy relationship?) I JUST DON’T KNOW!!!
1._Running Starts_, the slapstick-comedy where every episode, our heroin must create a new identity, having f*cked up her most recent at the end of the last episode. Every week ends with a shot of her running away, dropping things/clothes/whatever as she flees the scene.
2. Call me Captain Obvious, but I have a feeling Lockelganger and Jacob are brothers. And mayhap this Tawaret is their mommy. I get a feeling that the two of them probably had a constant sibling rivalry, for which they were both banished to the Island by her. (For some reason, I’m thinking of the Misers and Mother Nature in _The Year Without a Santa Clause_, but I digress…)
3. I think whatever made her crazy is also what made her abandon Aaron. Let’s not forget, she *walked away*, left him at the camp-sight. She followed “Dad” into the forest and it made her go nuts. This then made her able to believe Aaron was TAKEN from her. But no, I don’t think she’s evil- she experienced some sort of episode that altered her sense of reality, her comprehension, even her morality and personal ethics. (And may I say, while she didn’t die, I at least called the physical fight. I did like the slap, though, and the way he picked her up by her clothes and tossed her aside.)
4. I’m not smart enough to guess at that.
RE: Claire.
Building off of what dock said, I think Claire has no control over her actions. Locke ‘told’ her to kill Kate so that he could swoop in and save her, thus building Kate’s trust. And then he ‘told’ Claire to make nice with Kate, lowering her guard even further. Claire = complete puppet, and Sayyid ain’t too far behind.
As for “Aaron’s got a crazy mom, too,” the only thing I thought when he said that was that he wants Kate to dispose of Claire, and not think twice about it when he forces Claire on her again.
A good way to think of Locke’s use of Claire to manipulate Kate is Mr. Silver from Karate Kid III. In KK3, Silver has karate’s bad boy harass Daniel enough to make him want to fight and then befriends him as an ally to build a false sense of confidence, so that he can destroy him in the tournament. However I don’t think Locke wants ‘Pain, Danny-boy,’ he just wants Kate to join him. So he’s actually less evil than Mr. Silver.
And nobody in this dojo can touch Sensei Kreese for pure straight evil. Nobody. Is there a problem?
I was under the strong impression that flash-sideways’ Sawyer “rembembers” the other universe.
By the way, how did he “read” Zoe when she said she was going to Guam?
First off, hello all, first time poster, very long time reader.
Moving right along, my main response is to your second question, re: Un-Locke’s crazy mom, but to get the other three out of the way:
1) My vote is for a high stakes cook-off show in the tradition of Iron Chef, but only for Army mess officers. Challengers choose an opponent (Sergeant Major Sam Austen, First Sergeant Martin Keamy, Agent/Officer(??) Kelvin Inman, Intelligence Officer Sayid Jarrah, and favorite Lance Corporal Desmond Hume even pops in unannounced once in a rare while) and have at it. It’s clearly hosted by Chef Reyes in his Dharma chef jumpsuit. Added bonus one – we’ve seen all but Austen cooking on the show at some point or another, and Sayid and (arguably) Keamy are both shown to be chefs (yes, I’m amalgamating the two Keamys a bit here… not to mention fictional characters and a reality show, oh well). Added bonus two – search “mess” on wikipedia and the opening paragraph mentions Esau. Seriously. I was surprised too.
3) Crazy-crazy is what I think, but crazy-evil is what I hope, though I’m not entirely sure why. It may have to do with the alt – in a bizarre way it’s created this kind of safety net in my brain for all the characters; even if a character dies on the island, we still have them on the show in the alt, so I find myself rooting for as much carnage to go down on the island as possible (I know, I know, they’re not the same characters, they just _look_ the same, but judging by how much I’ve loved O’Quinn for the last 10 or 15 episodes I feel like it can be almost as good).
4) My bet is it will be Locke’s dad again, but in this timeline he never (or has not yet) needed a spare kidney. Granted, this creates piles of backstory and followup we don’t seem to have time to get to (where’s Locke’s mom? how did he meet his father if she’s not in the picture? what would go down if Locke, Sawyer and Anthony all met? etc.etc.).
With that out of the way, time to address the only real mythology dump in this episode – the introduction of Un-Locke’s mother.
First of all, assumptions: yes, I buy it outright that she exists (if I were on the island Un-Locke would probably ensnare me in about 5 seconds). And I am under the impression that he was referring to Un-Locke’s mother, not the original John Locke’s – though she was crazy as well – only because of the way he presented it: “I had a mother like anybody else” or something along those lines; it continues his attempts to humanize his existence to the Losties (and, possibly, to himself??). And finally, I’m going to take the leap and guess that she is Jacob’s mother as well – though I wouldn’t be overly surprised if Jacob turned out to be the father figure instead of the brother everyone (myself included) seems to be assuming he is, in which case Jacob could be imprisoning his _son_ Esau (we, er, might need a new name for him in this scenario) because of something he did to the mother son-Esau thought was crazy, but dad-Jacob just couldn’t bear to hurt his own son… well, other than turning him into a cloud a black smoke, making him immortal, and trapping him on a crazy island. But that’s a big theory that will be Overthought another day by this poster.
So, assuming the “brothers who may or may not be evil with crazy parent(s?) they may or may not hate, at least one of whom seems to want to escape where they are trapped” scenario, I have to say, I immediately think of something entirely different than any biblical story or myth I’ve ever read, and instead I am instantly reminded of one glaringly similar story – Myst.
Now, either you know the story well or you have no idea what I’m talking about – a brief and effective summary of the events of Myst is available on Wikipedia, if so. Either way, the parallels to this point in the story of Lost are almost staggering – a stranger lost on a very mysterious island with elaborate and ancient structures that have mysterious purposes, guided and manipulated by two opposing brothers, each directly associated with a specific color, who clearly know more than they will tell and are trapped in some way. Links to alternate worlds begin to appear. As it turns out (and this is a MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR MYST) _both_ brothers are evil and were trapped by their parents for being so power hungry, and if the player had decided to side with either one they essentially lose (by getting a bad ending). Instead, it is their father that is the true benevolent figure, and the guarding of the island. …Yeah.
I’m fully aware that I am far from the first person in the world to make this connection, but I haven’t yet seen it discussed on this site, and felt like it could use some Overthinking. The parallels seem to grow as the show goes on, and unlike many others they have _skyrocketed_ in the episodes since the season five finale. Now, I don’t expect the story to go exactly in this direction, obviously, but something similar definitely seems to be the route they’re taking. My major internal conflict continues to be whether Jacob serves the “opposing brother” or “benevolent father” role, but at the very least I’m convinced they family of some kind.
Whew. Thoughts?
@Osias: my take was that it wasn’t Zoe’s Guam answer that gave her away — it was her asking if Sawyer’s party had guns, and how many, before Sawyer asked where she was headed. By the time he asked that, he already knew something was fishy.
@Kevin: Daniel Faraday. (You all know I love LOST like no other show before it… but I think we can all consider that a shark jump of epic proportions. Which is why they wouldn’t dare do it… would they?)
I don’t see where that would be the straw that would break these random cameos in to shark jumping territory. That actually seems way more logical than Alex and Danielle randomly living in LA. Eloise has no reason to push him toward time travel work, which means he’s a genius that falls back to what he actually loves to do.
@dock: Even though Sawyers life should still be the same before the blast (that is, he should be a criminal, not a cop) he made point of saying when the decision arose to become one or the other he went with cop. Whats the difference this time?
In this case, I don’t think it has anything to do with the touch. Jacob’s never there to give him the pen, so he never writes the letter, so he doesn’t obsess his entire life.
Re: Mommy Issues
Not only do I believe UnLocke when he says it, but I think it’s a big key to both the motivation for his plans, the possible consequences of carrying them out — not so much the mommy issues themselves, but the idea that he wouldn’t have had to deal with them “if things had been different.”
Anybody familiar with the plot of _Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency_? ;-)
@Kevin: thanks!
I think someone lost in a island carrying corpses would actually ask first about weapons and even forget entirely about Guam! Maybe it was something else, like Inglorious Basterds’ tavern scene.
@Tom P: I’m sure there are ways they could make that work and not come across as stupid… in my mind, though, I just imagine them turning a Sideways-Daniel appearance into either something cheesy or, worse, a throwaway moment. (Look at what they did to Charlotte…)
If he’s a world-famous concert pianist, I don’t see how they can have him meeting up with the other characters in a plausible way, in which case it becomes a throwaway moment (Jack and his son go to see him play and that’s it)… but anything more than that and it veers into unbelievability (like “world-famous concert pianist agrees to tutor Jack’s kid”). Mind you, if he’s not “world famous” you can do a lot more with the idea — if he’s known locally but never made it big, I’m much more on board with that. The “shark jumping” moment I posited was more about him being hugely well-known.
Speaking of this: is it REMOTELY possible that the music David was listening to on his iPod in the opening scenes from “Lighthouse” —
Jack: “What are you listening to?”
David: “You wouldn’t know it.”
— was a recording of… Daniel Faraday?
My big fear is that Faraday was always knowledgeable — he was, quite frankly, an “exposition-teller.” Bringing him back in the Sideways universe in anything BUT that role might be a hard needle for the writers to thread… is Faraday all that compelling for us if he doesn’t know ANYTHING about what’s going on? (It’s not like they can bring him back in “normal” 2007…)
@Kevin: (Jack and his son go to see him play and that’s it)… but anything more than that and it veers into unbelievability (like “world-famous concert pianist agrees to tutor Jack’s kid”)
I don’t know… the first chair violinist in the New York Philharmonic still teaches lessons. They’re f’n expensive, but it’s not THAT implausible. WORLD famous I’d agree with.
Besides, if there’s a shark jump moment in LOST it’s when the time travel started.
@Kevin: Oh, and I also just assumed he was listening to You All Everybody by Driveshaft :)
@christopher- DUDE!!! Thats the first time Ive heard that and I LOVE it! Not only was Myst one of my favorite games ever, but as soon as you said it, a lot of pieces fell into place. That is a phenominal theory!
@ Kevin & TomP re: Faraday – true, he was ridiculously bright and talented… but it takes more than talent to be world famous. I think it wouldn’t be at all unreasonable for him to show up as, say, the headmaster of the school that Jack’s son is hoping to attend, or even yes, one of the teachers there. After all, he was a professor in the original timeline, too.
Question 1: Hangin’ With Dr. Linus. Michael Emerson is the best actor on LOST, Dr. Linus was one of the best episodes of LOST… Plus we would get Ben, Arzt and an occasional Locke cameo as the substitute. And who knows who else could be a teacher there?
Question 2: I think he’s talking about his own, from his past – whatever that is… But I think that his mother and Jacob’s mother are the same. And not that they’re brothers. They’re the same person. The “growing pains” he talked about, was a splitting of the two personalities.
Question 3: I think Claire is being even more heavily influenced by Lockeness than we’re told. He probably used Sawyer’s recon mission as a way to get him apart from Kate, so that he could sic Claire on her and then “save” her, hoping to pull her over the Locke-side. As such, I don’t think Claire is as much evil-crazy or crazy-crazy as she is lonely, and desperate, as evidenced by the scene in her creepy little hut when Kate asks her “What is that?” and she replies “It was all I had.”
Question 4: I’m betting it’s still Locke’s dad, Anthony Cooper… And I think that Locke’s wedding to Helen will be where a bunch of stories converge. Sawyer will be there, because he finds out who Cooper is, and tracks him there.
Man, late getting into the game this week.
Q1: Surely you’re heard of this?? I would TOTALLY watch that.
Q2: I think he’s talking about Locke’s mom, and using the half-truth to his advantage. I don’t trust Smokey any farther than I can throw him.
Q3: I think whoever compared Claire to Rousseau is onto something. I think she’s gone off the deep end, but not irretrievably so. And I agree that it’s probably Smokey’s fault.
Q4: Like the commenter above me, I’m looking forward to the scene where James and Miles storm Locke’s wedding looking for Anthony Cooper. Yes, I still think it’s the same guy, even though he’s apparently made nice with his son in this alternate timeline.
Other thoughts: The Sawyer/Charlotte hookup was completely unnecessary, and it’s really starting to feel like the writers are just willing to grab ANYONE from the seasons 1-5 timeline to fill in just about any spot in the alternate timeline story. It’s really effective when they stick a character that has some kind of ironic significance, like how they used Alex in Ben’s alt-story. Here, throwing Charlotte in there – just because – felt like a real cop-out. They were, as far as I can recall, next-to-nothing to each other. And Sawyer has now boned half the female cast members in the whole show’s history. Yay for friggin’ him.
Another thought: We’re almost at, like, the halfway point in the season, right? Who’s left, in terms of alt-stories? We haven’t seen Jin and Sun, though it’s not clear whether they’ll share a story or not. We haven’t seen an alt-flash dedicated to Claire yet, but then again, will they give us one? And if they don’t, would that be such a bad thing? We haven’t seen Hurley’s yet, and you just KNOW that that’ll be huge. Factor in next week’s Richard (!) episode, and then the fact that they WILL throw in another Jack and another Kate episode, just because they writers seem to like those characters way more than I do, and I’m really not sure what’s left for them to do. I’d love to see an alt-Desmond timeline, but do they have the time?
Another thought: I really thought there would be a lot more casualties by now. I mean, yeah, Sayid killed Dogen and Lennon without prejudice, but I didn’t really care about them OR what happened to them. None of the main characters in either timeline have died yet this season (Does Juliet count? I mean, she died like four minutes into the season, and so did Sayid, but the latter came back).
Is it too late to start a who-lives-who-dies pool?
I’ve been thinking about Charlotte showing up. Kevin, in the first comment, mentioned that “throw-away fact” that the works with Miles’ dad. I think he’s on to something. I mean, Pierre Chang is a damned *astrophysicist.* Why would he be “working with” an archaeologist? I definitely think it’s a “hint” that there’s something Dharma-related going down in the alt-timeline.
@Gen — I dunno… Miles also says something about them working together “at the museum,” so I didn’t think it was necessarily anything having to do with Dharma. Only more science stuff.
“How are we going to get off the island? Who is going to fly the plane?”
“We’re not taking the plane….we’re going to take the sub.”
NEXT WEEK ON LOST
“Who’s going to drive the SUBMARINE?”
@RD: The answer’s pretty obvious — the guy who drove the sub to the island in the first place. You think Sawyer’s not above holding a gun to the guy’s head and telling him what to do?
@Ridiculous Dialogue: Yeah, I agree with Kevin, but your comment made me lol. I thank you, sir!