Lost Season 6: Recon (Episode 8)

All Sawyer! All the time! “Recon”, this week’s Lost episode should have been my favorite! We got to see Sawyer in LA. And find out that he is NOT a conman! Of course, we also see him get busy with two different girls, eat frozen dinners and a 6pack of beer by himself and have his police partner walk out on him. I’m torn. I loved seeing Sawyer’s life but man…did he need Juliet or what?!

This whole episode was just a little…slow for me. It felt like we took one tiny small step forward. I don’t know what was really accomplished and I don’t really know what questions to ask. Maybe I’ll feel better as we talk about the episode. Ready?

LA. Present Day. James Ford.

First of all: Sawyer is no more. He goes by James Ford. His real name. His father’s name. James is going for a little roll in the hay with a girl named Ava (do you really know any adults named Ava?!). Suddenly Ava reminds James he is late for his appointment. James jumps up, grabs his briefcase and hello-where-have-we-seen-this-before a pile of money falls out! But this trick is smarter (or is James not?) and has a gun pointing to his head before he can finish speaking. She recognizes him as a con man because “my husband is one.”

James tries to dissuade her by explaining that the place is surrounded by cops. That this was all a setup to get her husband. She doesn’t believe him. He says, “If I say the magic word, they’ll knock the door down.” And he says it, “La Fleur”. (Niiiice.) So, his cop buddies fly in and cuff Ava while James’ partner throws him HIS LAPD badge! (Sawyer is a cop! Sawyer is a cop! Sawyer is a cop!) But wait! There’s more! Because who is his partner? Well, his Island-partner, of course: MILES!

This made me incredibly happy. It seemed as if both Miles and James have decent, fulfilling lives. Sadly, this does not continue. Miles overhears James calling through a list of “Anthony Coopers” (ie. the guy that conned his mom, Locke’s dear old dad). James brushes him off as a guy who is going to get him Laker tickets. Miles says he wants in. But Sawyer was only going to get ONE seat.

Miles turns Mr. Compassionate Partner and says, “When are you going to get tired of being alone?” He then sets James up on a date. A date with none other than our favorite red head: CHARLOTTE! Yes, our very own CS Lewis. They end their conversation when Mr. Compassionate says, “You know you can tell me the truth. About anything?” To which James responds, “Why would I lie?” Why, indeed?

James’ date with CS Lewis is actually pretty good. I guess when you are both completely charming and attractive, it helps. It’s so good in fact, James brings her back to his place for some…cuddling. And after all that…cuddling, she asks for a Tshirt. She digs through his dresser looking for said T and discovers a family photo: James and his dearly departed parents. She also discovers a newspaper clipping that explains the murder-suicide of James’ parents.

When James enters the room to see Charlotte like a kid with her hand stuck in the cookie jar, he is enraged, “WHAT DID YOU SEE? WHAT DID YOU SEE?”. She claims she saw nothing. But James is too upset to care and he demands that she leaves.

The next morning at the police station (after brushing off Liam Pace, Charlie’s brother), Miles slams James up against a locker. He demands to know where James was the weekend before. He claims he was in Palm Springs but Miles shows him that he ran his credit card to discover his real location—Australia. James is ticked again: “It’s none of your business!” And with that, Miles walks out the door saying, “You’re right. Because you are not my partner anymore.”

James dejectedly stares into the mirror and then punches it. (Have you noticed this whole mirror thing? Locke in the bathroom, Jack and his scar, Sayid in the doorway, etc. What’s up with that? Is it a Through the Looking Glass reference? Or is it foreshadowing? A clue? Or just a cameo?)

That night our poor sad James is watching Little House on the Prairie while eating a frozen dinner and nursing a beer. I tried to listen to Pa and Laura but honestly couldn’t catch much of what they were talking about. Basically, Pa says that people don’t die and leave us–we always have their memories. (What does that have to do with anything?) But somehow this encourages James. He shows up on Charlotte’s doorstep with a sunflower (!) and a 6-pack (of beer..and his abs). She is shocked to see him. She tells him he blew it then slams the door in his face.

This rejection, tho’ somehow strengthened James. He finally makes his way back to Miles. He confesses his past–his notebook on Sawyer, his parents’ story and his vengeful wish: to become a cop so he could track down this con man, Anthony Cooper and kill him. Why does he tell Miles? “So you can talk me out of it.”

But before any more hugging and tears can happen, they are sideswiped by a blue car. The driver hops out and runs away. But not for long because LAPD is on the runaway’s tail! James throws the runner (hint, hint) up against the fence (hint, hint) and pulls the hoodie off the face of KATE.

{*trying not to be sad that Sawyer and Kate might get together*}

The Island.

Ben, Jack & Ilana
Roasting marshmallows around the campfire.

unLocke’s Flock.

The old-Temple-Others and old-Losties arrive at unLocke/Claire’s cozy little abode. Sawyer and Jin are already there. Poor Jin wants to escape from unLocke and Claire because he thinks they are crazy. (YEAH.) But Sawyer won’t go because he’s “with Locke”. At first I thought this was weird, why would Jin just acquiesce to Sawyer’s words? Then I remembered—the last 3 years Sawyer and Jin have spent their lives working together. Of course they would respect and listen to each other. Sawyer promises Jin they will not leave The Island without Sun.

As soon as everyone arrives, unLocke informs them that they are going on a journey. They begin to gather their belongings…Kate enters Claires “house” to help her. Until she sees Claire lovingly looking at her skeletal, furry baby. She is repulsed and Claire is not remotely embarrassed. She says, “It’s all I had.” *shiver*

Soon the unLocke’s Flock is traipsing through the jungle again. Sawyer calls unLocke out on his promise to get him off “this rock”. unLocke does not like being reprimanded in public. He takes Sawyer into the jungle to speak to him. And apparently, this emboldens unLocke. He tells Sawyer that he is indeed, “the smoke thing”. Sawyer doesn’t seem too frightened by this. (But my knees buckled just thinking about it!)

They continue their conversation and unLocke tells Sawyer he has a job for him. He wants him to go to Hydra Island (polar bear cages, anyone?) and do a little recon (hint! title of the episode!). unLocke tells him there he thinks there is someone on Hydra who wants to do them harm. Oh, and there is also a plane there.

“Why should I do this?” Sawyer asks. unLocke replies, “Because you are the best liar I know.” So, Sawyer does it. He paddles to the Hydra station, sees the plane and then stumbles across a giant pile of dead and rotting bodies. SMOKEY, anyone?!!

Suddenly, Sawyer hears running feet and he captures Zoe. Zoe, the only one left. They decide to get back in the canoe and head back to unLocke. Until Zoe, a horrible liar asks about guns. Sawyer then pulls his on her. But she has a magic weapon, too: her whistle. With it, she calls a secret weapon-ed (showered!) crew from the jungle.

This crew leads Sawyer to…(do you know I couldn’t guess who these people were?)…Widmore’s SUBMARINE. Ah yes. How could I forget about them? You know Sawyer’s got to be thinking about the last time he was getting on a sub–with Juliet. *sob* As Zoe and Sawyer travel down the hallway, Sawyer notices a locked room. He wants to know what’s inside. Zoe doesn’t oblige.

She leads him, instead to Widmore’s office. And here I love Sawyer’s unimpressed stance, face and words. He tells Widmore why unLocke sent him. He says, “We both know Locke ain’t Locke.” He then makes Widmore a deal: I’ll bring you unLocke. You let my friends off The Island and do what you want with unLocke. They shake.

This was decidedly creepy. Sawyer is suddenly doing a con on BOTH of these guys. But I’m not really understanding what Widmore’s deal is–why does he care about unLocke? As far as we know, Widmore’s problem has always been with Ben. So, how much does Widmore know about the heirarchy of The Island?

When Sawyer returns to The Island and to unLocke, he goes the way of a good conman–he tells the whole TRUTH. He tells unLocke exactly what he told Widmore. And unLocke is impressed with his loyalty. I am not feeling it, though. I felt unLocke’s drunk-on-power. And I felt Sawyer’s I-will-do-anything-to-survive. And I think this may be the course of our Sawyer and the rest of The Island Losties: whatever it takes. Just get off The Island.

While Sawyer is doing his recon, Kate and unLocke are having their own mini-series. While the flock stops to rest (or camp, or something), Claire suddenly becomes enraged with Kate and tries to slit her throat. Infected Sayid just looks on with barely a light in his eye and ignores Kate’s calls. unLocke finally comes to her rescue by THROWING Claire off of Kate and then slapping the bejeezus out of her.

This was so entirely freaky. unLocke and Claire have a weird relationship. I don’t think I wanna know more about, honestly.

unLocke and Kate have a conversation about Claire. He tells Kate about his own mother. He says, “‘My mother was crazy. Long time ago before I looked like this, I had a mother just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I’m still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided if things had been different.” But he said this with many mouth twitches and hedging. He was having a hard time saying it in Kate’s terms…or he was hiding something. Very very weird. Especially because I have no idea what he meant by this. Was he trying to have Kate protect Aaron by leaving The Island? Was he trying to scare Kate?

The next scene made the previous one even more confusing: Claire approaches Kate sobbing, “I’m so sorry! Thank you for taking Aaron!” My husband says unLocke is controlling her. This is possible. But which part—the enraged baddie? Or the sobbing mess?

When Sawyer arrives back at the camp, Kate asks him what’s going on. He says he’s going to stay out of it all and let unLocke and Widmore battle it out. He tells her about the plane. She asks if they are going to leave on it. He says, “You and me are getting the hell off this island … We ain’t taking the plane, Freckles. We’re taking the sub!”

{*trying not to be sad that Sawyer and Kate might get together*}

Things To Talk About
1. Recon. This title got me thinking. Was it just a pun because of our con man and the recon he does for Locke? Or was there ANOTHER CON going on with our sideways Sawyer? Our two Sawyers seemed like different people—one was a conman, a jerk and endearing. The other was a cop, a jerk and NOT endearing. I don’t know what I’m saying with this. But James Ford seemed (ahem) lost. Is it because he doesn’t have Juliet? Or is it because he’s still out for blood? He’s not really embracing his bad self?

2. What is Widmore’s deal? Why does he want The Island so bad?

3. What role does dead-Jacob play in this?

4. Where is this all going?!!!

Conclusion
Do you see that I have no answers to any of my questions? This is what this episode did to me. I am confused. But also very unsure. I don’t know where LOST is going. We are ending this entire series in WEEKS. I know they won’t wrap up every twist and question, but shouldn’t’ I at least feel that we are set on a course?

I’ll be scratching my head at my blog ohAmanda.com and tweeting about my questions @oohamanda. Join me!