"I'm a professional. I used to lie for a living."-- Sawyer (Josh Holloway)
Spoilers. Season 5 begins a second phase with "LaFleur", following recent episodes detailing how the Oceanic Six got back to the island, and how Locke's "suicide" instigated that homecoming. Here, we catch up with Sawyer's (Josh Holloway) gang seconds after they watch Locke vanish down the Orchid well, as a time-flash seals the hole and transports them to an ancient period in the island's history... where a prominent statue can be seen in the distance, facing out to sea...
The statue was a fun nod to fans desperate for details about the weird four-toed statue (first seen in season 2's finale), and an enjoyable tease that we still only see it from behind. But, the figure appears Egyptian in design and looks to be carrying two ankh's (a symbol for eternal life, that also adorn a necklace later on.) Online speculation insists the statue is jackal-headed Egyptian deity Anubis (god of the underworld), but I quite like an alternative theory that it's hippo-like deity Tawaret (mainly because the four toes fit that idol better, and Tawaret is also the goddess of motherhood, which has some significance to this episode.)
Anyway, seconds later Locke has reset the donkey wheel in the underground chamber he finds himself in, so another white-flash dumps Sawyer's posse in 1974 -- permanently, it would seem. As is common for season 5, the episode again plays with chronology, as a title card makes it clear Sawyer's group will spend three years stuck in the past, having joined the DHARMA Initiative. "LaFleur" itself explains how we arrive at the sight of our heroes wearing DHARMA jumpsuits and living in the Barracks as trusted personnel...
After the jump to '74, Sawyer, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Miles (Ken Leung) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) find Daniel (Jeremy Davies) in the jungle, grieving the death of Charlotte (whose body has apparently vanished, as only the living can move through time.) From there, Sawyer and Juliet rescue a woman called Amy (24's Reiko Aylesworth) from two gun-toting Others they're forced to shoot dead.Amy leads her rescuers through the DHARMA sonar fence, but despite having apparently disabled the fence, she passes through having actually protected herself with ear plugs, leaving her rescuers incapacitated on the ground. However, the group's heroism in rescuing Amy from the "hostiles" ingratiates them to her husband, Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison). Despite being suspicious of the losties arrival, Sawyer uses his conman skills to invent a plausible back-story for their appearance -- calling himself "Jim LaFleur" and claiming his team were shipwrecked on the island during a thunderstorm, while trying to locate a British ship called "The Black Rock."
Horace grows to trust Sawyer, particularly when Sawyer helps his people settle a dispute with the "hostiles" -- led by Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), who arrives at the Barracks very unhappy that DHARMA appear to have broken their truce by killing two of his men. Fortunately, Sawyer is able to persuade Alpert that he isn't part of DHARMA and didn't know about their truce (by referencing events in "Jughead" with the hydrogen bomb and Locke's appearance/disappearance) Alpert is satisfied and, for his help, Sawyer's gang are given permission to stay a full two weeks (ostensibly to look for their "missing crewmen"), but clearly the gang become trusted members of DHARMA and stay years. Sawyer even loses his designer stubble and hooks up with Juliet romantically after persuading her to stay (lamenting the fact he can't even remember Kate's face three years), with his loose plan being to wait for Locke.
Incidentally, I've never considered them a potential couple until now, but Sawyer/Juliet worked incredibly well. Sawyer's character has also benefited from being extracted from love rival Jack and hot/cold Kate, forced to become his group's leader and doing a damn good job, by and large. In many ways it's a shame to see Sawyer reunited with his friends at the end, although the moment had the required emotional kick.
Interestingly, a pregnant Amy is able to give birth without any problems, much to Juliet's relief -- signaling that whatever event causes modern-day pregnancies to fail has yet to occur to the island. But am I alone in speculating about the baby's identity? Lost loves to throw temporal conundrums at us, so did we witness the birth of a prominent character? The birth takes place in 1977 and Flight 815 crashed in 2004, so is there a 27-year-old whose parents might be the Goodspeed's? Speaking of time-related fun, Daniel predictably notices inamorata Charlotte as a red-haired little girl in one nicely-played sequence.
I'm still not sure if I'm excited or wary about season 5's developments over the past month, particularly now Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) have been reunited with those they left behind. It's very interesting to think that Sawyer's group and Jack's group each have three years worth of memories spent in difference decades -- most of which is still a mystery to the audience. In many ways, the Lost has essentially found a way to justify a return to the original flashback format -- although even weirder (and yet to be confirmed) Locke's group are likely stuck on the island in the present day.It's a veritable tangle, and now that the time-jumps have stopped, I'm not sure how the writers are going to unravel it all. But, you do get the strong impression that time-travel stands a chance of explaining the majority of Lost's mysteries. It's just such a precarious house of cards that I'm holding my breath the show doesn't cough at the wrong moment. I'm already having a tough time swallowing how the Oceanic Six were teleported to the island after flying overhead aboard Flight 316, and don't even mention Lazarus Locke...
Overall, this episode was solid fun (particularly if you've always wanted to know more about DHARMA) and undoubtedly illuminating, with some nice emotional beats and a good performance from Holloway. It was also encouraging to see an expanded role for the excellent Doug Hutchison (X Files, Green Mile) and 24 cult icon Reiko Aylesworth. While I'm still a little unsure about the direction we're headed in, I'm keeping the faith. At the very least we can look forward to big answers regarding DHARMA now that the characters are part of the Initiative (surely!), and it's fun to speculate on how Lost's twisted timeline will be expanded on. For example: surely Sawyer's group know Ben in this era? Will they be present during his gas-attack Purge of DHARMA? Just how entwined in island history are the survivors of Flight 815? And what is Locke's role in all of this?
Questions!
- What is the statue? Who built it, when, and why was it later half-destroyed?
- What is the nature of the truce between DHARMA and the Others?
- Why were the Others so brutal in their treatment of Amy and Paul? What's the significance of Paul's ankh necklace?
- Why were Amy and her son able to survive the delivery, when women are unable to carry a child to term later in the island's history?
- Who is the baby boy born to Horace and Amy? Did we witness the birth of a significant character, perhaps?
- How did Richard bypass the sonar fence, and why does he want Paul's corpse?
- What happened to convince Horace to let Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Daniel, and Jin stay on the island?
- Are the losties still part of DHARMA when The Purge occurs?
- Where are Rose, Bernard, and the other 815 survivors? Including Vincent the dog!
- Why did Jack, Kate, and Hurley return to 1977 and not the present day? Is Locke group in the '70s or the present?
- What happened to Horace's first wife Olivia?
8 March 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Kyle Pennington
Director: Mark Goldman
Cast: Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Matthew Fox (Jack), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Jeremy Davies (Daniel), Ken Leung (Miles), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Doug Hutchison (Horace Goodspeed), Reiko Aylesworth (Amy), John Skinner (Other #1), Carla Buscaglia (Heather), Christopher Jaymes (Doctor), Kevin Rankin (Jerry), Patrick Fischler (Phil) & Molly McGivern (Rosie)
