For the third or fourth time this season, Lost has hit the fast-forward button on a plot line that would have taken an entire season in the past. We figured there was a backstory there when Jin popped out the Dharma van wearing that khaki uniform, but I had no idea that the entire story of the Losties joining the Others would go by in an entire episode. Granted, there seems to be a lot more to come-- but even as happy as I am about how swiftly paced and eventful everything was, I almost wish they'd dragged things out. Imagine even thinking that at the beginning of season three, and marvel at the turn-around this show has managed.
"I'm gone ten minutes and you're having a hootenanny!"
We spend a bit of time seeing what happened to the Losties after Locke went down the wishing well ,which basically involved a brief glimpse of the four-toed statue (!!) and then that one, final flash, which ditches them at a point in the past when that well is filled-in for good. Then we pop in for a visit at what appears be the Dance Party Hatch, where an anonymous Dharma-ite is dancing with a lovely 70s-era lady. Then bursts in Jimmy Barrett from Mad Men, another random Dharma-ite who isn't even given a name in this episode. Horace Goodspeed is out throwing dynamite into the woods, and to fix things they have to track down LaFleur. And I'd recognize that gravelly Southern drawl anywhere! LaFleur the head of Dharma security, is Sawyer! Three years have passed since that final flash, and there's lots of splainin' to do.
"It's the only two plans you people have"
The story of what's going on with Horace and the dynamite and what happened to the Losties after the final flash gets all chopped up in the episode, but we'll just take one at a time for now. The gang comes upon Faraday on their way back to the beach, and learn that Charlotte's body passed on to some other dimension when the final flash happened. While trying to get back somewhere safe, they come across a woman being attacked in a field by two grimy looking dudes with guns. Sawyer of course has to step in, and he and Juliet shoot the dudes, rescuing the woman Amy even though things are too late for her husband, Paul. Because of something Amy mentions about a truce, they have to bury the thugs and bring Paul back to the Dharma camp, but Amy tricks them with the sonic fence and knocks everyone out before they know what hit them.
"I used to lie for a living."
Everyone figures Sawyer ought to be the person who speaks for them, given that he's an ex-confidence man and all. So he tells Horace, not yet drunk and explosive here in the past, that they crashed on a boat heading for Tahiti-- and Horace tells them they can take their shipwrecked selves on the next submarine off the island. Sawyer wants to stick around, Juliet wants to bounce, and Daniel is making moony eyes at what appears to be a toddler Charlotte, but Richard Alpert shows up to complicate things before any decisions can be made. Richard wants retribution for the two guys who were killed, and Sawyer steps up to be the one making the negotiations. Luckily he's got an ace in the hole, having witnessed that weird stuff with Locke and the Jughead bomb in the tents a few years back, so Richard trusts him, probably without really knowing why. Poor Paul's body has to go back with Richard, but Sawyer and company earn their chance to stick around with the Dharma Iniatitive-- and Juliet is convinced to stay after all. Wanna guess what inspires her to stick out the full three years? I bet you can!
"Thank you for believing in me."
OK, so three years later, Sawyer's the head of security at Dharma, Juliet is a mechanic, Miles is some kind of assistant to Sawyer, and everyone seems pretty happy where they are. Miles and Sawyer go retrieve Horace from his drunken stupor out in the field, but before he can even sober up, his wife-- who is Amy from before!-- goes into labor. The Dharma doctor has no idea what to do, given that the Dharma Initiative wasn't great at bringing babies to term, and Sawyer sends for Juliet, who is totally freaked out given that she's never delivered a live baby on the island before. But she succeeds! And Jin and Sawyer are pacing outside like worried dads, and JulietJuliet comes out looking so happy, and Sawyer looks so genuinely proud of her, and well, it's just nice to see those two kids together. And you'd better like that feeling, because at the end of the day Sawyer picks a flower, comes home to a homemade dinner, and hands that flower to his new lady-- a glowing, wonderful-looking Juliet. Even though I'd said five minutes earlier I'd rather see the two of them just as bros, this pairing seems pretty ideal.
"Is three years long enough to get over someone?"
And then, of course, something comes along to screw it up. Turns out the reason Horace went on his bender was because he realized Amy was hanging on to a memento of dearly departed Paul, and he was totally jealous even though, uh, the woman is having your baby and your competition is dead. But Sawyer, who is apparently now the Oprah of the island, gives Horace a long speech about this girl he used to know and how it took him three years to get over her, but he totally did! And honestly, we believe that he's forgotten all about ol' fugitive what's-her-name, except that we also know it won't be long before Jin rushes back in the Dharma van with the Oceanic Three. When that happens, and Sawyer goes out to a cliff to meet Jin, Hurley, Jack and Kate, he gazes longingly at her in the way pretty much everyone has been waiting to see since he jumped out of the helicopter. But given what happened in just this episode, a Sawyer and Kate reunion is pretty much the last thing we should want. Oh, the tricks those writers play!
Well, it's another two weeks before we see what else happens here, but shit is looking like it will get wild. What happens when Sayid and Sun and Lapidus finally show up? Will we finally figure out all the madness that is the Dharma Initiative? And can we finally FINALLY be done with the Jack-Kate-Sawyer romance and let Jack and Kate have each other in boring matrimony? Actually, maybe two weeks away from all this stuff will be good for us. See you then!
