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Lost: LaFleur

Faraday: "It doesn't matter what we do. Whatever happened, happened."
Sawyer: "Thanks anyway, Plato."

I got a huge charge out of this episode. It was surprising. Fun. Sort of delicious. Complicated. Also confusing. But hey, way fun. Maybe I was just ready for a Sawyer episode after the doom and gloom and religious symbolism of the last episode. Or maybe I just like Sawyer better than Locke. Probably both.

Our con man completed his journey to hero. Productive member of the Dharma Initiative, protector of the innocent, security chief extraordinaire. Loved the glasses. And his name is "Flower." Sawyer named himself "Flower." That's an interesting choice for Sawyer to make.

And he was so good to Juliet. Bringing her flowers. Encouraging her to save Amy, to finally deliver a baby on the Island successfully. They were obviously happy together, too. But Sawyer was still waiting for Kate. Why else would he pass up the submarine shuttle to the real world? Why else wouldn't he tell Juliet that Jin had found Kate, Jack and Hurley at the Lagoon? Three years wasn't long enough for Sawyer to get over Kate. That's too bad, because I think he and Juliet are really good for each other.

We saw the back of the four-toed statue, but not the front. (The Lost writers are professional teases, I swear.) But it was enough for sharp fans to theorize that it was a statue of Anubis, god of embalmers, gatekeeper of the underworld, who protects the dead and brings them to the afterlife. Walking Dead, anyone? And it certainly goes with the hieroglyphics on the Temple. Anubis carries an ankh. Paul, Amy's dead husband, was wearing an ankh around his neck. Coincidence? I don't think so.



Something was distinctly funky about Amy and Paul. I think they were undercover Others. Yeah, I know, Others were supposedly abducting Amy, but that doesn't change my mind. The distinction between burying and not burying the bodies, and Richard asking for Paul's body, of all things, made me think that Paul could be resurrected. And then Amy married Horace, the leader of the Dharma Initiative, but kept Paul's ankh in the back of her sock drawer. Coincidence? I don't think so.

The other big question I have is, how does this time travel crap work? Daniel said that they couldn't change anything (which I always thought was the reason why Michael couldn't kill himself.) But if they can't change anything, then why did Sawyer's gun work? How could he kill the two men who were kidnapping Amy? Unless those guys were from another time, too. But Richard said they were his guys. I'm so confused.

The time line drove me nuts, too. Where was Ben? If he was born in the early sixties, he should have been in his teens and living in New Otherton. Maybe we'll see him in a later episode. Where was Doctor Chang? Gone already, I assume. Is Widmore the leader of the Others at this point? He said he was there for three decades starting in 1954, so he would be, wouldn't he? I was wondering about the massacre, too, but I've been reminded that the ghost of Horace said he died twelve years ago. They've got some time until 1992 rolls around.

Horace told Sawyer when they met in 1974 that he'd never heard of the Black Rock. But three years later, he was playing with Black Rock dynamite. And blowing up trees, just like the Monster. Where was the Monster? We didn't see it. Was it there back then?

It's now 1977. Three years have now passed for everyone in the cast. Will they be stuck there forever? I suppose if they're going to spend the rest of their lives on the Island without cable or the internet, it probably doesn't matter. :) At least they'll know what to avoid and when to get out of New Otherton. I think.

Character bits:

Juliet spent three years (unwillingly) on the Island, went back in time, and spent another three years on the Island (basically, for Sawyer's sake). She just doesn't get a break.



Miles called Sawyer out about constantly going from the Orchid to the beach to the Orchid to the beach. That was pretty funny. Juliet backed Sawyer up even though she didn't agree with him. How future-wife-like.

Jin had three years to learn English. Daniel Dae Kim will finally be able to act in English most of the time now. I bet he's relieved.

We saw Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles in 1977, but not Daniel Faraday. What happened to Faraday? Did he get a job in Security or the Motor Pool, too?

Faraday saw a very young Charlotte. We didn't see him talk to her, though. Probably hasn't happened yet.

Amy had a baby boy. No name. Do we know him, I wonder?

Sawyer was back in fine nicknaming form. He called Dan "Plato" and "the mad scientist," Miles "Banzai" and "Mr. I Speak to Dead People," and Richard "Hoss." Still no nicknames for Juliet, and he was pretty much married to her.

Bits and pieces:

— The episode began (again) with someone playing music. This time it was Dharma people and a reel-to-reel tape. What was the song? It sounded Tony Orlando-and-Dawn-like.

— New Dharma patch: this time, a star. Or maybe I just didn't notice it before. I thought at first that the Dharma Initiative had a space station (I'm kidding), but then I realized it was the security patch. Like a sheriff's star.

— Apparently, women on the Island could have healthy babies back in 1977, so whatever happened to make that not so hasn't happened yet.

Quotes:

Sawyer: "I'm a professional. I used to lie for a living."

Faraday: "The record is spinning again. We're just not on the song we want to be on." Interesting analogy, considering how often they start an episode with a piece of music.

Sawyer: "Let me talk to him."
Horace: "Excuse me?"
Sawyer: "Your buddy out there with the eyeliner. Let me talk to him."
That was such a media shout-out. Very funny.

Sawyer: "What about me? You really going to leave me here with the mad scientist and Mister I-speak-to-dead-people? And Jin, who's a hell of a nice guy but not exactly the greatest conversationalist?"

Sawyer: "Is three years long enough to get over someone? Absolutely."
Uh huh.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. Definitely four out of four polar bears,

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

27 comments:

  1. I loved this episode. I was sold on both Sawyer's conversion to James and his relationship with Juliet.

    I did think this week's episode was better than last week's, but I love Locke and Sawyer both, so I just think I liked it better because I like the story better. OTOH, if I never see another Kate centered or Jack centered episode, it will be too soon. Maybe that was what made last week less interesting for me, watching Kate and Jack act so badly toward Locke.

    -- Faraday saw a very young Charlotte. We didn't see him talk to her, though. Probably hasn't happened yet.

    I don't think that was Charlotte. We were told that Charlotte was born in 1979 and Faraday saw the redhead girl in 1974. I think it was to remind us that he is still devastated by Charlotte's death, but that it was just some random girl who caught his attention.

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  2. according to the lostpedia theory discussion, the pregnancy went well because amy was dharma-material (came from outside the island), and only the Other women had the problem.

    amy's baby: could it be Desmond? Or Aaron's father? That could explain why aaron is special...

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  3. I bet the statue is in Richard's likeness. Eyeliner and all.

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  4. My question is, while Sawyer, Miles, Juliet, Jin and possibly Faraday have been living on That 70's Island for the past three years, where are Rose, Bernard and the other 815 survivors?

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  5. The last two seasons have pretty much cemented Sawyer’s place as the true hero on the show. While Jack and Locke endlessly picker and argue over who’s right Sawyer is off rescuing people from exploding houses, looking out for Hugo, making heroic leaps from helicopters and diving into strange wells to save confused mystic men from themselves. A true hero.

    I love bizarre parallel between those who left and those who stayed. The Oceanic Six escaped the island and have spent the last three years being miserable about it for various reasons. Meanwhile, Team Sawyer were forced to stay and, despite that nasty time travel business early on, are now living nice, blissful lives with the Dharma Initiative.

    Billie did raise an interesting point; where was Daniel? We know from ‘Because You Left’ that he’s seen working in the Orchid station, but were three years enough time for him to get over someone he loved? I doubt it.

    Here’s a wild theory, maybe the, so far, undisclosed incident at the Swan station is a result of something Daniel did to try and change history and save the woman he loved.

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  6. "The other big question I have is, how does this time travel crap work?"

    Its basically the opposite of Back to the Future style time travel, where you can go back in time and alter your own past.

    What Daniel is saying is that no matter what they do whilst in the past, thats exactly what happened in that timeline, and that timeline is the one they've always lived in.

    In other words there is only ever one single timeline, and we're watching it and have always been watching it in Lost.

    So whilst they're all in the past they're able to do ANYTHING that they want to, but the paradox is that whatever they end up doing, its exactly what they were supposed to have done. They can't change the timeline, but that doesn't mean that their choices aren't theirs, its just that in terms of time and space, they've already made those choices.

    I have a feeling I may have just confused everyone, but I get it myself!

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  7. @ Mark: I like that wild theory. Mabye Daniel is trying something to prevent the time loops in the future, but is making them possibly through his actions.

    That would be in correspondence to Matthew`s time theory. I find this theory very pausible. The time travel is part of the past as it is part of the future.

    To know one´s destiny requires surviving it. But you can´t chance it once you know it. That would be a clever solution to the whole fate vs. free will issue the show is about.

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  8. Amy's baby is obviously VERY important. Is her baby Jacob? That would explain why Horace was building him a cabin.

    I assume no matter what Sawyer did, Amy would have gotten away somehow. They never actually implied they were going to kill HER.

    I didn't know if SAWYER actually shot or JULIET did. Juliet would have ties to the others and perhaps be allowed to kill them. (Perhaps she knew them.) Either way the universe's course correction will take care of it.

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  9. One of the things I love about this season of Lost is that they have embraced time travel with total conviction. They set themselves a set a rules and have stuck to them. Unlike Heroes where they’ve flip flop on their own time travel rules so many times to render them meaningless.

    Way back in ‘Flashes Before Your Eyes’ it was dear old Eloise Hawking who established that time is almost conscious in a sense. No matter what we do we cannot change the past, present or future. Time will correct itself one way or another. Step on as many butterflies as they like it ain’t gonna change a thing. If Charlie is meant to die, then he will die.

    The future is defiantly set.

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  10. Is it possible whatsoever that Amy's baby is Locke? For some reason I kept thinking that...

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  11. I didn't like Sawyer with Juliet, for the simple reason that he's going to dump her almost instantly for Kate. And Kate's gonna get all self-righteous and bitchy even though she uses both Jack and Sawyer for her own wims, and the writers will expect us to root Kate on because they lurve her.

    Juliet is everything Kate is not. She's strong, intelligent, consistant, decisive, astute, selfless, and just lovely in general. Any man who chooses Kate over Juliet might just be insane.

    I know who the baby is from spoilers, and it isn't exactly a big reveal that will change the course of the show. Still kinda cool, though.

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  12. Sigh that last line being "not major" is spoilery. :(

    Anyways, check this out regarding who the statue could be: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/d/d0/Tawaret_4_toes.jpg

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  13. I agree with the previous comment from Mark, and after reading other threads on IMDB, I'm more and more convinced that the statue is Taweret, female epytian goddess. I found some pretty interesting information on wikipedia.

    Taweret was een as a "deity of protection in pregnancy and childbrith", which of course is one of the major issues on the island.

    Even more interestingly (I don't whether I'm looking into it too far), but Taweret was given other titles such as Opet (also spelt Apet) meaning harem (see wilipedia) and Reret (offspring of Nut, egyptian goddess of the sky). Reret..Apet... Richard Alpert?

    Anyway, my husband came up with this theory after reading all the information on Taweret.. Anyone else agrees?

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  14. Matthew is right. The reason Sawyer's gun worked was because Sawyer shooting them was always part of the timeline.

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  15. I have a few questions after this episode. Things just aren't lining up properly. I'd always assumed that when Jack/Kate/etc. returned, it had been 3 years for them and a few weeks for everyone else. We know time moves differently on the island, and before this episode, there was never any indication (at least none that I noticed)that 3 years passed on the island too. But I can't figure out, with the whole body-washing-ashore early, Faraday's-package-arriving-late plot, whether time moves faster or slower on the island. And now we're supposed to believe that it has been 3 years for everyone, which would suggest that the island is IN a different time but moving at the same speed as the outside world, and I'm not sure why that problem would suddenly correct itself. This whole time thing is just a mess.

    And where is everyone else? Where are the other Ajira survivors, and where are Rose and Bernard? Are they doing their own 70s thing? Hopefully we find out soon, because as much as I've enjoyed these past few episodes, I always have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that not everyone is accounted for. And then there's Desmond and Penny (my personal favorites) and Ben, and honestly, everyone is just so spread out right now, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

    But seriously, if anyone would help explain the time situation, that would be much appreciated.

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  16. This episode really was fun. And unexpected. Sawyer happy and smiling, while lovely, just seemed wrong to me. And while he and Juliet were cute together, he and Kate clearly have unfinished business. I have absolutely no idea what's gonna happen next.

    Watching this episode i immediately wondered if there was a famous philosopher called LeFleur (Wikepedia came up blank), who baby boy Goodspeed is gonna grow up to be (age-wise all i can think of is Hurley, Charlie or maybe Aaron's real dad)and how exactly Kate and Co managed to end up in exactly the same time as Sawyer et al.

    Finally, my view on the statue is that its the one for pregnancy and childbirth. And has Richards face.

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  17. I didn't like this episode.

    The season 5 started in the right way but not, that doesn't follow... The time moving is really weird and this episode was so complicated! But the scenes with Juliet and Sawyer together were my favorites, they seemed so happy together^^.

    Well, the next episode look great. But I really hope that they'll not stay too long in this ''old year'' 'cause I really want them to start like before, have another life on the island.

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  18. the whole 3 years on the island, 3 years off the island thing still confuses me. something else just occurred to me, too. if the flashes are done, what was that flash that made the plane crash on the island, and why didn't sawyer and company see it?

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  19. Here are some thoughts on many things.

    First, look what I've read in another thread, and makes total sense to me: "Makes me think this could be the reason that Ben stakes a claim on Juliet - because he remembers her when he was a child. Remember when Goodwin’s wife was interviewing Juliet and said that 'of course Ben liked her - she look just like HER'. We never knew who 'her' was....perhaps it is actually Juliet. I know it’s a long shot but does anyone have a better explanation??" Too bad it was anonymous.

    Second, trying to imagine the future of the series: I doubt that the Losties are going to be in the 70's for the rest of the series, so I think that the "incident" might transport them to another time, maybe to when there was a statue or during the arrival of the Black Rock. That'd be really cool.

    Now the deeper and crazier reflexion. One of the things I loved the most about this time travel and "what happened, happened" is that it defies the (probably the most) traditional rule of storytelling and rational thought: cause and consequence. Everything just falls into place without an order, because an order would assume there is a line in space/time. The cause comes before the consequence. If there's no "before", what happens? Therefore, Locke gave Alpert the compass because Alpert gave it to Locke, because Locke gave it to Alpert. They're both cause AND consequence, so these words lose their meaning.

    Try to let this concept sink in a little, and when you're comfortable with it, follow me through the really crazy thought.

    If the compass is passed from Alpert to Locke to Alpert ad infinitum, it's never outside this cycle, right? So, it means that it has never been constructed, as it will never be destroyed. It's an eternal compass. How did it end up in this cycle?

    I don't think this needs an answer, as this kind of paradox (if it is indeed technically a paradox) is just what makes me marvelled, but if I had to guess, it was put there by someong who can change the space/time continuum, like apparently Desmond, although I don't think he's the only one.

    Makes you think, doesn't it?

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  20. When Sawyer and Juliet met up with Richard's people, Amy and Paul, weren't Richard's people going to kill both Amy and Paul? It's hard for me to understand how Amy's baby 3 years later can be an character of significance because without Sawyer's interaction, wouldn't she be dead long before? I guess at this point I need to jump on the time travel theory you guys are talking about (what happens is what was always supposed to happen), because this crap is confusing!

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  21. I haven't seen a comment that the egyptian status might be egyptian god Horus (who also carries and ankh), and interesting that there is another Horace as a Dharma leader. Horus controls the skies (which may be why the island swats airplanes out of the skies but can be readily accessed via submarine).

    BTW, this episode was awesome. And I totally agree with the poster above: Juliet is great and Kate is a trouble magnet.

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  22. I think Horace = Horus. Whose symbol is an eye.

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  23. -- We saw Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles in 1977, but not Daniel Faraday. What happened to Faraday? Did he get a job in Security or the Motor Pool, too?

    Faraday is working at he Orchid station - on the the discovery of the Time Machine Anomaly Wheel Thingy

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  24. I am just watching the series now on Netflix instant. And I know it's been forever since you've seen the whole thing unto the conclusion. But though LaFluer may very well mean flower, that isn't what the writers had in mind in giving Sawyer that name. Ever seen the Kevin Smith movie Mallrats? Security Chief LaFluer? I had to pause to take a moment to laugh my ass off silly.

    Anyhow, it been nice to have a way back connection to someone watching the series for the first time since EVERYONE I know who likes this show has already watched it all the way through. Thanks. :)

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  25. You're very welcome, James, and welcome to Lost fandom! And I'm sure you're right about Mallrats. Lost is so complex that I routinely missed at least five to ten references per episode. :)

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  26. I completely agree with Mark that Sawyer has emerged as the hero. I enjoyed this episode simply because I liked watching how our little group integrate themselves in the Initiative and live, again as Mark points out, relatively happy lives.

    And, those of you who remarked in a post a while ago about the best couples that Sawyer and Juliet were it, I defer. You are absolutely right. There is something lovely about them that was always missing with Kate. I like the Anonymous post above about the differences between Kate and Juliet and I agree, wholeheartedly.

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  27. The song at the beginning is Candida, which is indeed performed by Tony Orlando & Dawn. You guys keep discussing all the hard questions about time travel and Egyptian gods. I'll happily take the softball ones like this. (I used to have the album the song is on so I knew it immediately. :D)

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