A Case of the.... Lost - Episode 5-8

In my latest Lost: Revisited column (thanks to Josh for posting on my behalf), I excused the apparent “botched” timeline between Locke’s departure from the island and his death by suggesting that several weeks may have passed between his suicide and his interaction with Jack at the hospital. After rewatching the conclusion of last week’s episode, I’m a little reluctant to make that excuse, since all of the cuts and scratches from the car accident still looked pretty fresh. I’m pretty certain that those wounds would have healed, at least somewhat, in a month’s time.

Enough about last week. Onto this week.

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The flirtatious interaction between Sawyer and Juliet over the first twenty minutes of the episode is the perfect illustration for why this relationship should continue to flourish instead of resorting back to the tired Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle. Why not allow this budding romance to develop, while allowing Jack and Kate to resolve their issues so that they can end up together? I’m an admitted rooter of Jack and Kate (obvious much?) but I truly feel that these two need to end up together. I don’t deny that Kate feels a certain amount of sexual passion with Sawyer, but I feel like that’s lust. I have trouble imagining her saying to Sawyer, “I love you.” I can completely envision her saying that to Jack. And when Jack proposed to her and she said “yes,” it seemed right. To me, that scene would seem unnatural if it were shared with Sawyer.

And actually, during much of that period, they reminded me of a hardened version of early Jack and Kate. You had the reluctant leader forced into making difficult decisions, and the woman by his side who promised to always have his back. It’s just that these two were more….bad ass-y. Their “give me two weeks” talk was phenomenal, as well.

So, by episode’s end, we did learn that these two kids do indeed end up together. In fact, Sawyer even confesses that he barely remembers what Kate looks like, and that he’s “absolutely” over her. Yet at the conclusion of the episode, when Jin reported that the Jack, Kate, and Hurley had returned, Sawyer kept mum. And he was staring directly at Kate as the episode closed.

Honestly, I do hope that they continue with Sawyer and Juliet, because I think they have tremendous chemistry. Along with that, heroic-island Jack is the Jack that Kate originally fell in love with. I think the show owes it to the viewers to have them shack up together in that surrounding.

Anyway, there were some other interesting tidbits within this episode.

I absolutely loved how Sawyer used all he had learned about the island to construct this brilliant lie about how they arrived in the first place. I especially love that he brought up the Black Rock. Awesome. His interaction with Richard was great as well. Interesting that Dharma refers to the Others as “hostiles,” yet they have a truce with each other. And I have to wonder: When does Alpert go from a well groomed guy wearing a button down shirt to shaggy haired with tattered, dirty clothes?

We also learned that whatever happened that causes pregnant women to die hasn’t transpired yet. Great news for Kate if she is indeed preggers.

Anyway, I’m sure that if there’s one thing people will dislike bout this episode, it’s the possibility that they’ve made Sawyer too “soft.” I personally don’t mind a little character development, so I’m willing to see where this goes. Along with that, I’m not convinced we saw enough to make a solid judgment.

Oh, and who didn’t get wide-eyed when they saw the fully erected statue at the beginning of the episode. I suspect it’s possible that the final “flash,” which felt like an earthquake, may have been responsible for the statue crumbling in the first place. I have to admit, though, when Miles indicated that they had arrived someplace “a long time ago,” I got a little nervous that we’d see a dinosaur or something.

Anyway, this episode was more about letting us know what happened with the Left Behinders over the past three years, so I don’t have any “topics of conversation” questions prepared like I have for the past couple of weeks. But I do encourage everybody to send me their thoughts and theories. I’ve been very fortunate to receive a lot of feedback for the past few episodes, which have made my Revisited columns a lot easier and more interesting. So, keep ‘em coming!