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Lost: Every Man For Himself

Sawyer: "That's why you never get attached. Because once you care, that's when they can come atcha."

And they were hurting Sawyer again. Why do they keep doing that?

I was a bit disappointed that Sawyer fell for the watch. I figured out the watch. He also didn't realize that he and Kate were being monitored. Sawyer, where was your head?

But I did like the way Sawyer protected Kate. "Every man for himself," indeed. She said she didn't love him back, that she said it so that they would stop hurting him, but then she refused to leave without him. She climbed back into her cage. Come on, Kate. Couldn't you go get help or something? Try to find Jack? Don't climb back in the cage, Kate. Really.

Just like last week with Locke, Sawyer's flashbacks changed to a new period in his life: prison. (Good parallel. Prison then, prison now.) So he didn't get away with that Long Con, after all. I found it true to character and rather delightful that Sawyer got out of prison by conning another prisoner... and rather sweet that he gave all that he made out of the deal to his infant daughter.

Lots of references to Of Mice and Men. It's been years since I read it, but I seem to remember George and Lenny wanting to have a rabbit farm, and mentally challenged Lenny squeezing small, furry animals to death because he didn't know his own strength. (Hence the number eight bunny.) Maybe Sawyer has fantasies of the perfect life with Kate. Maybe Sawyer compares himself to Lenny, who truly couldn't help doing very bad things.


Ben was exceptionally creepy in this episode, but I'm starting to believe that the Others are far from all powerful. They keep losing control. Colleen died, probably because they didn't have the right equipment or medical staff to save her. They were carrying out a bizarre experiment on Sawyer, but then Pickett went nuts and nearly killed Sawyer because he was angry about Colleen's death. Is there actually a purpose to what they're doing to Sawyer and Kate? Did they capture Jack specifically because they needed a spinal surgeon, after all?

Meanwhile back at the beach, there was the continued strangeness of what was going on with Desmond. I really thought at first that he was just hitting on Claire. But no. Desmond knew lightning was going to strike, and he knew it would strike Claire and the baby. He's definitely psychic, or unstuck in time, or something else exceptionally cool and interesting. More, please.

Character bits:

Sawyer is 35, and weighs 180 lbs. If Cassidy's baby was indeed Sawyer's and she wasn't conning him, he has a daughter named Clementine Phillips living in Albuquerque.

Sawyer was in jail for nine months or so, and didn't serve the rest of his six year sentence. And it was in Florida. Agent Friedman from the Treasury Department had the words "State of Florida" on his name tag.

More new Sawyer nicknames. He called Danny Pickett "Chinatown" because of the nose bandage, and he called Munson "Costanza," "Murgatroid," and "Killer."

Juliet revealed that she was a fertility doctor. Which, again, made me think of twins.

Desmond gave up that glorious sixties tie-dye for a blue shirt. Interesting, considering all the blue shirts in Locke's vision.

Charlie called Desmond "Brother," with exactly the same accent and intonation as Desmond.

New character Paulo was practicing his golf swing. What bugged me was that he was wasting fruit doing it. Um, desert island? Yes, I know there are regular deliveries of Dharma macaroni and cheese, but still.

Sun killed Pickett's wife Colleen. Sun is now a killer, much like many other members of the cast.

Bits and pieces:

— So the Others are living on a completely separate island, much like Alcatraz. Really? Didn't see that one coming. That explained why they were on that dock that said "Pala Ferry." But what about the first scene of the season, when the plane crashed and Ben was ordering Ethan and Goodwin to go mix with the survivors?


— I really loved the scene where Sawyer watched Kate dressing, his heart rate alarm went off, and he gave himself the bucket equivalent of a cold shower.

— Did the writers give Kate pants again because they were going to have her climb out of her cage? I bet they did. Evangeline Lilly obviously did that cage climb herself, too.

— Kim Dickens and Paula Malcomson on the same show probably constitutes a Deadwood reunion. Except all Colleen did here was die, and they probably didn't even see each other.

— The cartoons that Juliet was making Jack watch had swans. That was a hatch in-joke, I guess.

— The poor bunny that Ben killed, or didn't kill, had a number eight on his back. Sawyer was prisoner number 840. The operating room was in Area Op 4.


Quotes:

Charlie: "If there's a problem, I'll fix it. I'm quite handy. I was building a church before Eko exploded."

Paulo: "You play golf?"
Desmond: "I'm Scottish."

Jack: "So you tell me, Juliet. Who am I here to save?"
Who, indeed. Jack is a spinal surgeon. They needed a spinal surgeon. The coincidence is just too unbelievable to be true. A man about forty. Ben?

Hurley: (looking at the lightning rod made of wires and a golf club) "Is that... art?"

Sawyer: "It's from Of mice and men. You'd like it. Puppies get killed."

Another excellent episode. Three and a half polar bears,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

3 comments:

  1. Great review, as always.

    In addition to the prison parallel, I saw a parallel between Ben and the Warden. Both were able to read Sawyer well enough to manipulate him into doing exactly what they wanted him to do. For a con man, Sawyer tends to get conned relatively frequently.

    I also liked the idea of Sawyer always being a reader, not just on the island. It's unexpected, but a lovely character beat.

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  2. I like Sawyer as a reader, too. (Although I'm still fast-forwarding through the flashbacks.)

    The bunny-shaking scene is so horrifying; I can't imagine doing that to an animal even if I were sure it'd be okay. It's also from Stephen King's On Writing as a fiction-writing exercise: imagine a bunny stamped with a number in a cage on a table. Now write a story.

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  3. "New character Paulo was practicing his golf swing. What bugged me was that he was wasting fruit doing it."
    Better than wasting akskshual golf balls. Solid, precious, industrial golf balls.

    Also I'm glad the "Patience, Jack. Patience" line was said in the recap because I was thinking I remembered it correctly after seeing it the first time where he says it in response to Jack insisting he tells him. But this recap is what I actually remembered, where they cut it to make it look like he says it in response to Jack asking him what does Ben want from him. And it's cheekier that way.

    ReplyDelete

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