(If you don’t watch LOST, these posts will be torturous to you. I apologize in advance. Just skip them and come back later, when I will try to make it up to you.)
My brother Jordan and I are back to discuss a few things related to episode 8 of LOST’s final season, “Recon”.
(Jordan’s thoughts will be the ones in blue)
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Season 6, Episode 8, “Recon”
My 10 biggest Observations/Questions/Thoughts
1. Not my fave episode of the season. Probably because I thought the ending was kind of a dud. It’s their own fault, really, for ending off almost every show brilliantly. Sawyers, “We’re gonna take the sub” line was as anti-climactic to me as a 3-pointer at the buzzer of a 10-point game.
Really? I didn’t really see it coming. I couldn’t figure out who Sawyer was trying to dupe, turns out he was duping both of them.
Yeah, that’s true. Looks like James has finally decided not to die alone, but to live together…off the island with his friends.
And while we’re here, don’t sleep on the fact that this Sawyer episode was as much about Kate as it was about our favorite conman. Now that Juliet is definitely dead (at least in Timeline A), it feels more and more like Sawyer and Kate are destined to be together.
2. Flocke had to know Widmore was at Hydra right? He told Ben to go meet him there, but he wasn’t there himself. Was he trying to lead Ben right into Widmore’s hands? Seems like it. Not sure if that means he wants the best for Widmore, wants the worst for Ben, or both.
I’m sure that he knew Widmore would be there. I don’t know how Ben was even supposed to get over to Hydra Island but Widmore was probably going to play them against each other.
3. Speaking of Widmore, what’s up with his sonic fences on Hydra island? Presumably he’s planning on protecting himself from Flocke right? The only other possible explanation I can think of is that he wants to lure Flocke there and then trap him on Hydra.
I think it was probably that he wants to keep Flocke out.
4. And did Widmore stay in the sub because he’s banished from the island? Is he banished from the Main Island AND Hydra?
Possibly, I didn’t think anything of him not leaving the sub, but that might make sense.
5. Was Widmore expecting Sawyer? Sure seemed like it, but I don’t think it’s definitive. If he was, then the only way he could have known was if he’s in cahoots with Flocke. Seems to me like he is, and that Ben is rightfully opposed to him now that he’s decided to play for Team Jacob. The lines of this war remain foggy, though.
Was that a Twilight reference? Seemed like they knew he was coming, not sure if that means that they are on Flocke’s side.
If it was, it was unintended. I’ve never made a Twilight reference on purpose, and if I have may I be killed by a spry wolf or a hunky heartthrob.
6. We’ve already seen Flocke borrow John Locke’s mannerisms (“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”), is he borrowing his family history now too? We found out way back in Episode 19 of Season 1 that John Locke’s mother was in and out of a Mental Hospital. Flocke tells Kate on the beach that his mother went crazy. Is he opening up about his past, or just spitting out whatever he can to earn Kate’s trust?
I tend to believe that he is talking about his own past. Definitely possible that he is just referencing from Locke’s memories.
Yeah, I also believe he is giving us true info about his past. But maybe that’s just because Terry O Quinn is doing an amazing job playing the Locke Monster. Despite the fact that he is killing more people this season than an angry vampire, some people still aren’t convinced he’s evil. It’s scenes like the one he has with Kate that have folks so conflicted, I think.
7. Now that we know that Sawyer is a cop in Timeline B, why did he let Kate go when she was handcuffed back in the elevator in episode 1 of this season? Some are saying it’s because he recognized her, but I think it’s because of what he was up to. He had taken a trip to Australia that he didn’t want anyone to know about, so the last thing he was going to do in the airport was to call attention to himself by helping with an arrest while off-duty. (Remember, he even asked the cops in the elevator what the code was that came in over their walkies. Turns out he knew exactly what it was.)
Yes, that sounds about right to me.
8.What’s behind that locked door in Widmore’s sub? Call it wishful thinking, but I think it’s Desmond.
Could be Desmond. I can’t think of anything that would be cooler, but that doesn’t mean its impossible.
The only thing I could think of that would be cooler is if the door opened and it was Taylor Lautner and Walt playing backgammon.
9. Can’t say I’ve been as excited for a new episode as I am for this week’s “Ab Aeterno”. It’s Richard’s backstory and in Latin it means “From the beginning of time” or something like that. Yes please!
Is it really going to be Richard’s back story? Haven’t we only been getting flash sideways’ this season?
Good point, we haven’t been moving in time at all. Just between 2008 in Timeline A and 2004 in Timeline B. I have seen some interviews with Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard, and he has hinted that we will learn more about where he came from. So whether that means an informative side-flash or a true flashback, I guess we’ll find out tonight.
10. Seeing Sawyer’s sideflash got me thinking about a new way to look at the other Timeline. It’s clear that many things in Sawyer’s past are still the same. His parents are still conned by a man named Anthony Cooper and his father still shoots his mother and himself. But like he tells Charlotte, there was a moment where he knew he would either become a cop or a criminal, and he decided to become a cop.
If Timeline B is, in fact, a timeline where Jacob has not had any influence on the LOSTies, could Sawyer’s moment of truth be related to the letter he wrote to his parents’ con-man at their funeral? In Timeline A little Jimmy’s pen runs out of ink, and who shows up to help him finish the letter with a fresh pen? Jacob. Maybe in Timeline B he never writes that letter because his pen runs out of ink and Jacob never shows, and it has a butterfly effect on his life where he eventually chooses the right side of the law (while still holding on to the anger and vengeance towards Cooper).
I like where you are going with this. But are we going to start saying that Jacob is evil? What was his intent when touching peoples’ lives?
Well, one other instance where Jacob’s absence would seem to have a “positive” effect would be in Sayid’s life. In Timeline A Nadia gets hit by a car while Sayid gives Jacob directions near a road. Even if every event leading up to that moment was the same (which it probably wasn’t, I admit) with no Jacob there maybe Nadia doesn’t get hit and she lives.
Maybe…this one almost makes it seem obvious that Jacob is evil.
Yeah, I agree, it does cast some doubt on Jacob’s motives, and I’ll get to that in a second.
What if Jacob exists outside of time, and what if what he could see in his lighthouse was Timeline B? What if he could see the true nature of all the people he was watching, and what their lives would play out like if he never intervened? And what if, based on what he sees, he decides who his candidates are and THEN he steps into their lives and alters them so that things change and he brings them to the island?
I could see that making sense. Except that Ben killed Jacob. Which makes him seem somewhat human, but otherwise that all sounds pretty cool.
Well, I think it’s clear that Jacob and his black-shirted twin aren’t fully human (they seem to have almost unlimited knowledge and the ability to do things like make Ben’s foot-cuffs fall right off his leg.)
If you think about things as I just described them, it almost seems like Timeline B is the original. What we’re seeing in these side flashes is how it was “supposed” to play out before Jacob stepped in and intervened in their lives. How this is related to “the incident” and the creation of Timeline A, I don’t know. But like you’ve been saying, it does make Jacob seem less benevolent, considering that many LOSTies appear to have better lives without Jacob’s touch.
Definitely an interesting take on the situation. So do you think that the flash sideways’ are characters watching what their lives would have been through the mirror or what?
That’s where it gets confusing. I don’t know how the two timelines are related to each other, and I don’t know how they will eventually connect, if at all. But I do think that Juliet’s statement to Sawyer about getting coffee as she was dying was some type of a clue from the writers. There is a connection, and the answers are coming.
And more questions are coming too…this is LOST, after all.
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Tonight…Episode 9, “Ab Aeterno” (just 11 10 hours of LOST left)