Explaining LOST - LaFleur

“LaFleur”

 

Yeah so I had a whole extra week to write this puppy and I’m still doing it days before the new episode. Why do I keep doing this? Some say laziness. Actually most say laziness. I know I say laziness so I’m just guessing that everyone else would follow suit in some way or another. Whatever, let’s just get into this week’s episode. Okay last week’s episode. Two weeks ago. Shut up!

So previously on LOST we had a bunch of stuff happen to Faraday and friends over the past couple of episodes. The montage ends with Sawyer holding the rope and then the episode begins from within the scene! Yes I love it when they do this. They did this during the Season Four finale rather brilliantly by starting that episode at LAX right after Jack and his crazy beard yell “We have to go back!” So this episode begins with Sawyer holding the rope sticking out of the ground and Juliet saying that whenever they are is before the well even exists. Miles thinks that’s a pretty good guess because there’s THE BACK OF A GIANT STATUE THAT ONE COULD APPROPIATELY ASSUME ONLY HAS FOUR TOES. And then other stuff happened in the episode. Let’s focus on what’s important for right now.

For those of you who are confused right now, the four toed statue was only seen one other time. Back in the awesome Season Two finale, Sayid, Jin and Sun are taking a boat ride around the island to ambush the Others. During this ride they see a giant foot and Sayid gets to say the brilliant line: “I don’t know what I find more disquieting: the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes.” Since that day almost three years ago, one of the biggest mysteries of the show is this crazy four toed statue. Now we’ve seen a good 50% of this sucker. The back. Now as you can tell from that photo, it looks rather Egyptian. A lot of people say that it looks like the Egyptian god Anubis, the jackal-headed god that’s associated with mummification and the afterlife. (Thanks Wikipedia!) It also looks like from behind our mysterious statue could be holding an ankh, just like in the picture below. (The cross looking thing). I’m sure you’re all wondering what Wikipedia says an ankh is so I’ll tell you. It’s this hieroglyphic that represents eternal life. This will come into play later, but perhaps this explains why Richard Albert doesn’t age?

Okay fine, let’s talk about the rest of the episode. As our characters stare in confusion at that statue (like the rest of us), Locke goes ahead and turns that donkey wheel which means one more flash to end all flashes. Good bye four toed state. I’ll miss you. Our characters remark about how that flash felt different, more powerful. The well is back but it’s been filled up. The characters start realizing that their noses aren’t bleeding and they don’t have any more headaches. So now what do they do? Sawyer says they gotta wait for Locke to come back for as long as it takes.

Cut to this cold title card of “Three years later.” A Dharma guy is dancing with this pretty chick when another Dharma dude, named Phil, comes in. Dharma dudes argue while pretty chick notices on one of the TVs that Horace is outside throwing dynamite blowing up trees. They decide that they got to get LaFleur because he’ll know what to do. They run to a house inside the barracks and ask for LaFleur who turns out to be Sawyer. Sawyer grabs a Dharma jumpsuit that says LaFleur: Head of Security on it.

Now we have met Horace a few times now. Twice actually. When Ben was a young boy and he was brought to the island with his father it was Horace to befriended them. When the mysterious Purge occurred that killed all of Dharma, Ben went up to Horace’s body and closed his eyes. It seemed like he was saddened by that loss. Also last season when Locke and Ben were looking for Jacob’s cabin, Locke had a weird dream involving Horace where he kept cutting down a tree over and over again. Now today he’s blowing up trees. He hates trees.

So Sawyer and Miles get into the Dharma bus and they act like they’ve done this sorta thing for quite a while. They call Horace their fearless leader and Sawyer takes their leader’s drunken butt back to his house. There we see Michelle Dressler from 24 fame. Sure her real name is Reiko Aylesworth and sure she’s called Amy on this show, but I still see her as Michelle Dressler. She’s all sorts of pregnant. She says that Horace got drunk because of Paul. Yet before she can get into that inevitably awkward story, she goes into labor. ANOTHER BIRTH ON THIS SHOW!

Yet we flashback (not literally) three years prior. They find Faraday sitting alone and talking very crazy. He’s muttering that he won’t tell her, referring to the fact that before Charlotte died she remembers a crazy man telling her not to come back to the island. A crazy man that looks like Faraday. So Faraday is starting to lose it and he says that whenever they are now, they are there for good. Concerning to say the least. Yet Sawyer says that they need to go back to the beach. Miles brings up the fact that is a stupid idea, but Juliet backs up Sawyer. So off they go to the beach…again. Okay at least Frodo had one destination in mind. We’re going to Mordor to destroy this ring. Sure they got sidetracked, but during the whole journey he’s just trying to get to this giant volcano. With LOST, it was “Hey let’s get off the island!” and then it was “Hey let’s get back on the island.” Even when they’re on the island they can’t pick a place to stay put at. These are antsy people.

Meanwhile, Juliet reminds Sawyer that it’s a stupid plan but they hear gunshot. Not an uncommon sound on this island. They mosey on over to a field where there’s a guy dead on the ground and two men surrounding a lady. One of them puts a bag over her head. Sawyer wants to intervene, but Miles says they shouldn’t because they don’t know when they are. Faraday simply says “It doesn’t matter. Whatever happened, happened.” Sawyer takes that as a sign to head on over there. A guy tries to shoot Sawyer, but Juliet shoots him first. Then Sawyer kills the other dude. They take the bag off of the woman and it’s Michelle Dressler. She’s obviously confused, but she’ll get used to it if she wants to stay on the show.

She’s crying over the dead body, but the real haunting shot is Faraday looking at the two of them as sad as she is. They figure out they are probably in the 70s due to the Dharma symbols. Michelle Dressler asks who they are and Sawyer thinks of a lie and thinks it up quick. He says their boat crashed on the way to Tahiti. Not bad. Michelle Dressler buys it but then panics. She insists that they bury the two hostiles. It seems really important because of some Truce. She also says they have to bring Paul back home, who turns out to be her husband. Now it seems like they are setting up certain rules about death on this show. More on this later. So they bury the two dudes and Jin caries dead Paul.

They keep on walking and they encounter one of my favorite parts of the island: KILLER STONEHEDGE! You may be asking, “Austin what is that? That sounds like an awesome band name. Can I use that?” This thing is the sonic fence that guards the barracks where Dharma lived/lives and the Others will one day live. Also no you can’t use that. Unless I get a significant portion of your profits. So Juliet screams to Michelle Dressler to turn it off. She says it looks like a sonic fence or something. Yeah good lying there, chief. Michelle Dressler starts to doubt these people so she presses some button and grabs something out of the box. She walks through jus t fine. Yet the rest walk through and pass out. Oh Michelle Dressler had ear plugs in. Bitch.

Three years later, she is screaming that having a baby is painful. I don’t sympathize for her at the moment. She made Faraday have a headache. So Sawyer/LaFleur is off to find Juliet because Michelle Dressler’s baby is currently upside down. Okay starting to sympathize. Apparently all of the other Dharma babies have been delivered on the main land, but this baby is early. Yet Juliet is working as a mechanic. A hot mechanic. What? Anywho, Juliet starts to panic because she has a terrible average of delivering babies on this island. Sawyer hopes that whatever has made it so no babies can be born hasn’t happened yet. Yeah what is up with that? So Juliet becomes Dr. Juliet and says a lot of medical things really fast. Like an anxious father-to-be, Sawyer is pacing outside. Jin visits him in his Dharma jumpsuit and he is speaking really good English. Only took him three years. He says he scanned another area of the island and still no sign of their people. He wonders how long he has to keep looking. Sawyer started looking for a way to avoid that direct question and luckily Juliet comes out of the house ecstatic that the baby survived and it’s a boy. Happy moment on LOST!

Three years prior, Sawyer wakes up on a couch and Horace wants to chat. Sawyer says his name is Jim LaFleur, the boat captain. He starts spinning a tale about how he and his buddies were searching for this famous lost wreckage. “A slaver” called The Black Rock. So freakin’ awesome. First off, good idea for a lie. Second off, I approve of any instance to mention the Black Rock. (For all of you who are confused, this is the giant slaving ship that is in the middle of the island that has all the dynamite that has been used. That’s also where Sawyer killed Locke’s dad. We’ve also seen Widmore off island buying the journal of the Black Rock at an auction.) Horace believes the story or enough of it. He says that he will send Sawyer and friends back home first thing in the morning on their submarine. Sawyer asks for time to look for the rest of his people and Horace says “You are not Dharma material.” Wanna bet?

While Sawyer talks the rest of them chat about how doomed they are. Juliet talks about how she used to live in this area. Faraday sees a much younger Charlotte and in a very non-pedophile way has this moment of happiness when he sees her. That means he absolutely went up to her and told her not to come back to the island. For that makes sense with these rules of time travel. There was never a time when Faraday told Charlotte not to come back and he didn’t know he had said that previously. Sawyer comes back and informs them that they are being shipped off to Tahiti. Yet sirens start a’blazing and everyone runs inside. Our heroes look out the window to see a guy with a torch walk up in the field. He sticks it powerfully into the ground and it turns out to be Richard Albert. Sawyer appropriately says “Uh oh.”

So Horace walks out to talk to Richard Albert to ask him some serious questions. Like does he wear eyeliner. (The answer is no, actually!) Horace says that if he knew Richard was coming he would have turned the fence off. Richard says that fence may keep other things out, but not us. (Note: Killer Stonehedge blocks out the smoke monster. Yet apparently not Richard. Who the hell is this guy?) Richard says that Horace has broken the Truce. They start yelling and we can’t hear them. Horace runs back and asks how well he buried the bodies. Sawyer says well enough but Horace still freaks out and tells everyone to be ready and put the fence up on maximum. Sawyer decides he’s too cool for this stress so he goes and talks to Richard. Is that a good idea? Who cares, it’s time for more info from Richard! So Sawyer goes out there and says I’m the dude who killed your dudes. (Okay with slightly better writing. Slightly.) Richard is really surprised to hear that Sawyer is not part of Dharma. Then Sawyer asks Richard buried the bomb, Jughead. That got him listening. Richard still demands some sort of justice for his men being dead so he requests Paul’s body. Paul’s body is currently lying up on a table and Michelle Dressler seemed really upset to see it go. Was she expecting it to wake up? No sarcasm, actually. She says goodbye to Paul’s body and then takes something off his person. What is it? It’s a motherfrakin’ ankh. Boom shakka lakka.

Horace talks to Sawyer and says the sub won’t be back for two weeks. He can use that time to search for their people. He goes to tell Juliet the good news on the dock. Juliet can’t think of a reason to stay on the island for two weeks. She has been trying to get off his rock for three years now. She wants off. Yet Sawyer wants her to stay. “You really going to leave me here with the mad scientist, Mr. I Speak to Dead People and Jin, who’s a hell of a nice guy but not exactly a conversationalist.” Yet he really wants someone to have his back. He just wants two weeks. Yet we all know what’s coming….

The title card that reads Three Years Later. Sawyer seems happy walking around Dharma town. He picks up a flower and takes it home to…Juliet who’s cooking him a meal. They hug and kiss and declare their love. Now here’s a relationship I can actually get behind. Desmond and Penny are all happy now unless Penny’s dead. Faraday and Charlotte died off. Rose and Bernard are literally forgotten. Where the hell are they? As for Kate, just no. She’s annoying with everyone.

So Sawyer is hanging out with Horace who is finally awaking from a drunken night. Sawyer tells him that he’s now a daddy but he missed it. He’s happy and sad at the sad time. He tells Sawyer why he got drunk and explosive. He found Paul’s ankh in Amy’s sock drawer. He wonders if three years is really long enough to get over someone. Obviously this conversation is really about Sawyer and Kate so his reply will be very interesting. Sawyer tells his story about Kate. He says that now he can barely remember what she looks like. She’s gone and never coming back. Never ever ever. Never ever EVER. So Sawyer votes that it’s absolutely long enough to get over someone. Yet I love the juxtaposition with this scene. He gives that speech while wearing a jumpsuit that says LaFleur on it. So was he lying?

We’ll soon find out because he gets a phone call the next day from Jin. He gets out of bed with Juliet—idiot—to go investigate. He takes a Dharma Jeep out to the beach and there’s the Dharma bus. Out comes Hurley, Jack who gives a great half smile, and of course Kate. Where Sawyer gives a look that we had a week or so to interpret. 

L O S T

So great episode that was a good focus on Sawyer. I always like those episodes because he is a richer character than people realize most of the time. Also we get to see him lying to everyone again, which is fun. Can’t tame this guy too much. Yet unlike previous episodes they did a good job at the end about wondering whether he was lying or not. Next week looks to be great because rumor is that the episode is about Ben. I have no idea where the show’s going but I’m still very excited.