WHAT HAPPENED
Sawyer found himself born again in the Dharma Initiative past. The island that cured Rose’s cancer and allowed Locke to figuratively and literally walk again has given Sawyer new life as the “head of security,” plus friends that trust him.
There are two types of LOST episodes: “Crazy Mystery Science” episodes and “emotionally-charged adventure story” episodes. “La Fleur” was definitely vintage latter. It’s the episode type that keeps its mind-bending mysteries in the background; not invisible, but rather turned away from the drama lest they overwhelm us and the story. Consider Juliet and Sawyer in 1974, she built up his heroic character by backing his “stupid ideas” — and then in 1977, he returned the favor by rebuilding hers when he called upon her to deliver the baby boy (her terror over possibly facilitating more Island-baby death was superb acting).
Then, of course, just as that hunk of man Sawyer lets us know he’s fully committed to Juliet, our old friends show up. Sawyer’s Kate-gaze at the end of the episode solidified our love quadrangle. Nice.
HELPFUL TIMELIINE
”I think it’s over. I think John did it,” says Juliet. It appears the time skipping has come to and end and where did it stop? In the ’70s of course! Where else?
The episode fluctuated between:
1974 — Which showed how the Left Behinders came into contact with The Dharma Initiative.
1977 — Which revealed that the Left Behinders had seamlessly integrated into Dharma society.
Note how the 1974–77 years equals the 2005–08 years. I wonder if we can/should tease out that symmetry even further. The Left Behinders’ Dharma drama very much echoed the Oceanic 6’s off-Island ordeal, complete with a cover-up lie, a dead body to haul around, and a con man-turned-shepherd. (Ben equals Sawyer here.)
THEORIES TO DISCUSS
1. 1974 (or ’77?) is when/where the castaways were always and immediately supposed to have gone when Ben turned the donkey wheel last season. They didn’t because of two mistakes that required elaborate course correction: Locke not turning the wheel, and the Oceanic 6 (plus Desmond and Lapidus) leaving the Island. Discuss.
FACTS CONFIRMED
1. The Four Toed Statue. They did it. The writers appeased us and brought us the (supposed) rest of the statue. It Looks Egyptian. Skirt, but no shirt; so despite the long hair, I’m thinking male. Those appear to be ankhs in the hands (symbolic of life in general and eternal life, certainly appropriate here) … possibly the Egyptian deity Horus? Think Goodspeed here. The Island appears to have once been home to an ancient civilization, and that Egyptian connotation reminds us that Egyptians were fixated on the afterlife and the possibility of resurrection. Brings up an interesting theory about Richard “eyeliner” Alpert. Is he Egyptian? From National Geographic: ”Both men and women in ancient Egypt wore a sort of eyeliner. The paint was made of minerals mixed with water, ground on palettes, and kept in tubes. It was worn for adornment and perhaps also to reduce the sun’s glare.” Maybe? Think about it.
2. Have you noticed how LOST Season 5 resembles LOST Season 2? Season 2 emphasized the “Man of Science/Man of Faith” conflict and introduced us to the Dharma Initiative mythology. Season 5 also features lots of faith/reason, lots of Dharma. When you consider that Season 4 mirrored Season 3 (split group story lines; a climactic attack on the castaways; similar coffin/”We’ve got to go back” cliffhanger), what you have is a saga that’s doubling back on itself. Does this mean Season 6 will emulate Season 1?
3. We learned through Charlotte grieving Daniel Faraday that Charlotte’s corpse (and all who pass) stayed behind in the time period she died.
4. Horace Goodspeed, well played by Doug Hutchinson, is a new favorite. That’s a fact.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Faraday, after dead Charlotte disappears, kept muttering: ”I’m not going to do it …” What is he not going to do?
2. Meeting Sawyer and knowing the time travelers had landed in 1974 must have been a game-changer for Alpert. I wonder how this information will affect his war on Dharma? Does he become more reticent due to the threat of catastrophic paradox? Is that why the Island brought the castaways here — to change its outcome? A developing story line, to be sure.
3. Maybe the Island’s anti-baby policy was inspired by an event that has not occurred yet? Then again, the Dharma internist said they usually do all their baby deliveries on the mainland.
4. Horace Goodspeed and Amy (what happened to Horace’s first wife Olivia?) have a boy. Who is the boy? Doc thinks it may be Caesar, the guy who’s hanging with Locke on Hydra Island. Who do you think it is?
5. Ben likely arrived as a child in the early ’70s, so where is young Dharma Ben in 1977? Is he already off with Alpert in the woods?
Post away!
[Note: In this column, many weeks I borrow from other LOST sites, primarily Doc Jensen and EW.com. I’ll try to put as much of myself in these as I can, but EW gets to screen the episodes in advance and I certainly don’t … so … much love to the Doc, we couldn’t dig in quite the same without you.]