It seems like LOST always has a new trick up its sleeve and this week’s “Recon” has more than a few as we see Sawyer play every side against the other. James Ford, party of one?

Dennis

So happy to have a Sawyer episode! Not to hate on Kate every week but, eh, hell, it’s what I do. This episode just proved how little chemistry Sawyer and Kate actually have. I loved Sawyer and Juliet but this episode has proven that Sawyer has chemistry with everyone… except Kate. I was invested in Sawyer and She’s All That’s Jodi Lyn O’Keefe! I was invested in Sawyer and Charlotte! I was invested in Sawyer and Miles! Heck, I was even invested in Sawyer and his very special episode of A Little House on the Prairie.

I’m still fascinated that the LOST writers think there’s enough people out there who still care (ever cared?) about the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle. Ooh Sawyer said he’s going to get him and Kate off the island! Ooh Sideways Sawyer apprehended Sideways Kate (who doesn’t apprehend Kate, is the question?). Still, between Ben’s side-story last week, and Sawyer’s this week, I’m happy the alterna-world is getting more compelling. What does it all mean and how do they relate? I can never answer those questions, when it comes to LOST. At least this is enjoyable head-scratching.

Speaking of which, I meant to mention in this week’s Remote Uncontrolled that Michael Emerson should net another Emmy for his performance. Well, fellow Emmy winning cast member Terry O’Quinn sure is giving him a run for that, playing whoever the hell he’s playing. And speaking of that: Apparently even The Smoke Monster has parental issues on this show. Perhaps Mama Monster was too full of hot air? Yeah, even I hate me for that pun.

Robert

Sawyer’s always been a character that I’ve wrestled with as a force on the show. He’s been the outlaw, the smooth talker, a source of never-ending nicknames, even a competent leader of DHARMAville, but he’s never truly been on the right side of things. Aside from the rare heroics (trying to stop the Others from taking Walt, trying to save Claire from Keamy’s raid,  jumping out of that chopper), he’s only ever been on his side. His new allegiance with Locke—followed by his double-crossing deal with Widmore—tells me he’s still only looking out for self, all in hopes of just getting off the damn island for good.

On the surface, that’s how Sawyer’s always been played, but I suspect there’s something bigger at work here. Just like we’ve discovered how important Kate has been to the formula (yes, that damn triangle made Jack and Sawyer do things they wouldn’t necessarily do), Sawyer surely has a purpose in all this (his playing Locke against Widmore has to be a part of the endgame, right?). Personally, I don’t think he’s ever leaving the island, but in trying to do so, I do think he’s going to give us one final act of heroism (Sawyerism?) by taking out someone important who happens to be in his way. Right now my money is on Widmore for the loss.

That would make his life as alt-Sawyer/James Ford that much sweeter, of course. His life as a detective (partnered with Miles aka The Guy Who Finds Dead People?) is a polar opposite of everything we’ve come to learn about him, but it’s still true to his fundamental character. He’s obsessed with finding the real Sawyer, he still likes him some Watership Down, and his gruff demeanor still rubs people the wrong way, but at least he’s on the side of right now. His blind date with Charlotte was a nice nod to last season (if only to let us know that she did make it off the island and still ends up an archaeologist) but it was the way it went down the tubes that revealed James Ford’s vulnerability. After pondering Half-Pint’s fear over losing her parents and hearing Charles Ingalls kick some mad prairie knowledge, he has a change of heart and tells Miles the truth about his trip to Australia and Anthony Cooper. It showed that this James Ford was a man that could screw things up and still turn back to fix them, rather than barreling through life without looking back.

Still, the biggest difference between this flash-sideways and the previous episodes is that this one left us with a hanging thread. Considering how LOST has handled season openers and finales, this makes me think we’ll eventually see what happened after James caught Kate in the series finale. But that whole ending makes me wonder if all of these flash-sideways, like his car, might get rear-ended at the buzzer. I hope not.

Chris

Only eight episodes left until the finale! All will be answered! It’s almost over! Ahhhhh! Oh ABC On-Air Promotions Department you do enjoy the taunting.

Now that we’re how-many-episodes into the season, I’m starting to wonder about the pacing of the show in its final gasp. And I know I’m not alone ‘cuz my fiancee looked over at me at the end of the episodes asking, “how is this going to end? They’ve answered nothing! Nothing happened in this episode!” It’s true, nothing much happened in this episode. Sawyer went to Hydra Island, scoped it out, appeared to be makin’ deals with both sides and came back and that’s it. The set-up to the final punchline is excruciatingly slow, and in the past I’ve been the guy that’s all “just sit back and enjoy the ride” when it comes to LOST but…c’mon! Now I’m at a point where I’m beginning to struggle to see how this show is going to resolve itself in a satisfying manner.

Having said that, just like in previous episodes this season I thoroughly enjoyed watching a new side of an established character. In this case it was Sawyer and his turn to truth-telling emotionally-stable guy was interesting and fun to watch. Even better was the pairing of Miles/Sawyer as buddy cops. I’d watch that show if they spun it off and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one! The scene at the beginning with Sawyer’s usual con turned on its head was genius, as was pairing him with Charlotte. Like the previous episodes, alt-Sawyer reached an epiphany, started telling the truth and backed away from his resolve to kill Anthony Cooper (would he have done it anyway? What happened in his alt-Sydney experience?) and even went groveling back to Charlotte after that misunderstanding. Actually I wonder if it was a misunderstanding or if Charlotte was specifically looking for that folder in Sawyer’s chest. The way she played it made it seem like she was hunting for something other than a shirt. Maybe alt-Charlotte is a con artist instead of an archaeologist.

So Widmore’s on Hydra Island. That was a turn of events that I’d forgotten about since the last episode. More questions arise from there – is he from on-island or the alt-sunken-island timeline? What’s locked away in that room? (I read a comment somewhere that said maybe Desmond’s locked away in there…) Who’s this Tina Fey lookalike and will she be this season’s Arzt or Frogurt? Is the MIB actually Aaron? Will Claire eventually kill Kate? And most importantly, will next week’s episode about Richard be the best episode of LOST ever? Hm. Yeah these episodes aren’t answering anything. ABC, you’re fired!

Scott

“Sundown” essentially resolved Sayid’s six year character arc and “Dr. Linus” recast Lost’s chief villain as one of the good guys, so it was only a matter of time before we got a “What Kate Does”-esque letdown. “Recon’s” only real surprise was that so much wheel-spinning came from a Sawyer episode, since Mr. Ford’s entries are always among the show’s finest.

But I wouldn’t rate “Recon” as a waste of time; this was all about set up after a run of episodes full of answers and great character work (I’d be willing to bet that those watching only for answers will find plenty in next week’s fabled Richard entry “Ab Aeterno”). The flash-sideways didn’t quite resolve Sawyer’s deep personal demons the way Locke’s or Ben’s did, but it did end with the stoic con man letting someone in by sharing his pain with his partner Miles. And frankly, I had so much fun watching what felt like a pilot for Ford and Miles: LAPD Nites that I really didn’t care about the narrative moving forward.

Widmore’s return to the island with another obligatory squad of heavily-armed nerds was fairly uneventful and chock full of the kind of hollow dialogue I wish we’d move past by now (“I didn’t kill those people.” WHO DID?? “You know so little.” TELL ME MORE THEN, JERK!). Zoe is a yawn of a character, more like the annoying Pickett than the bizarro psychopath Keamy. I’m thinking everyone who arrived on the sub will be dead in the next three episodes except Widmore, who will be bound and pushed around the island like Ragdoll Ben at the end of season 3.

Not as clear-cut a reaction as we might have expected to this week’s episode, but we’ve still got a way to go before it’s all said and done. What did you think?

Chris Johnston talks about video games old and new at Player One Podcast.

Looks like it’s just me (Robert) this week. Everyone’s off doing things and denying their LOST nerd tendencies, but no matter. Let’s re-cap what went down with “Dr. Linus,” shall we?

While it was good for a chuckle or two, the glimpse of alt-Ben as a school teacher in “The Substitute” relegating him to the life of a naggy subordinate seemed trite and incomplete, especially considering how integral he’s been to everything that’s happened since Season 2. I thought that might be the last we’d ever see of him, but this episode took that inkling of a thread and pulled it out to a proper conclusion, setting out to give alt-Ben a touching final bow while also moving on-island Ben towards his new place in the scheme of things.

When alt-Ben becomes frustrated by how the school is being run, he makes a play for Principal Reynolds’ job by exploiting some dirt that his Alex shares with him. It sets up a poignant showdown that mirrors the same decision he had to make in the original timeline when it was his daughter versus the fate of the island. For a moment there, I really thought Ben was a goner but his revealing plea for forgiveness and understanding strikes a chord with Ilana, with her acceptance of “I’ll have you” serving as his only relief.

Speaking of which, his role on the island—at first tempted to follow Locke out of desperation, now willing to stay with the Ajira gang thanks to Illana’s acceptance—isn’t quite clear any more. I’ve said it in past weeks that I don’t really get what’s going on with Locke and Claire (and now Sayid) and the island, and even if that picture is starting to become clearer, I still don’t care so much about what happens. I’m sure  there’ll be some big showdown and it’ll be life-or-death stakes, but I still feel like it won’t matter in the end.

Instead, I go back to my theory that the flash-sideways are going to eventually be revealed as being the  ”correct” timeline. Since the producers (Lindelof and Cuse) have said that both of these realities are “real” and neither can be dismissed outright, I can only assume—as everyone else has—that it’s a matter of two parallel timelines that have to be resolved. The “what if” question that alt-Roger poses to alt-Ben about staying on the island and how much different their lives could’ve been is maybe the first hint we’re given about where things diverged from the original timeline. That makes me think Roger and Ben left the island before things changed, which couldn’t have been because of any of the Lostie-related action from last season (and certainly not after Ben was shot by Sayid). There’s a clue in there; I’m sure of it. I just haven’t figured it out yet.

(By the way, I thought it was great to see that Ben naturally cares for Alex even though he doesn’t have the same father-daughter relationship with her. And I’m still amazed at how Michael Emerson manages to play so many sides of the same character so effortlessly. In one scene, he looks studious and caring as he cares for his alive-but-elderly father Roger, and in the next, he’s broken and frayed as he reluctantly digs his own grave. Ben has developed nicely from that mousy guy who was caught in Rousseau’s trap way back when.)

On the other hand, the B-story with Richard, Jack and Hurley also offered up some information on the nature of Jacob and what it means to be “touched” by him. Richard couldn’t live with the idea that he’d served an entity that didn’t care about him but couldn’t kill himself because Jacob apparently granted him some sort of “conditional” immortality. When Jack lights the dynamite and refuses to leave, he believes neither one of them will die because Jacob touched him too. That’s right—Jack believes it. And when the lit fuse dies out just before detonating, the question of whether everyone Jacob has touched can die is answered. Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Sayid, Sun and Jin also have this same “gift”. Again, that’s not to say they can’t be killed, but they just can’t do it themselves—like that time they tried to detonate an atomic bomb.

This week LOST focuses on Sayid and how his troubled and violent past catches up with him. Meanwhile, Smokey sends a deadly message and finds new company.

Robert

I came into this episode not expecting a whole lot and I should’ve known better. Sayid has always been a bit of a puzzle for me throughout the run of the series. I’ve always seen him as one of the characters with the most heart, but time after time he shows us that he can also be the most ruthless and cold-blooded Lostie of them all. Add to that his rather non-ambulatory state for the first four episodes of this season (and the now-dismissed theory that he was somehow a reincarnated Jacob) and I’d pretty much under-estimated what importance if any he had for the show.

This week that all changed. Not only was he back on the move and trying to figure out what had happened to him, but he’s also on a mission now, which leads to it’s own set of questions. Didn’t Smokey’s question of “what if you could have anything you want?” sound a lot like Ben’s rap to Locke about the “magic box” from “The Man from Tallahassee” way back in Season 3? Think about that for a second. Plus, thinking back to last season, remember when Sayid said he finally realized why he had to come back to the island in “He’s Our You” when he managed to escape from the DHARMA folks and pop a cap in young Benjamin Linus? That’s right. I think Ben still has his coming.

And can I say I really liked the head-fake with Sayid’s flash sideways? The idea that Sayid could lead a content life without Nadia seemed possible but not truthful to his character. Something to keep in mind is that Darlton have already said our final glimpses of these characters (not the timelines) is the most important to them and we may not like what we see. So watching Sayid regress into the killer he’s always been was pretty spectacular but also another sign that these flash sideways are the ultimate resolutions for these characters as we know them. I’ve been saying it ALL THIS TIME.

Also, in a way, I was sad to see Dogen and Lennon go so suddenly, but only because they seemed to be important to how this final season would play out. I guess not. It’s now all shaping up to be about Smokey and his posse (hey, what happened to Sawyer?) versus…somebody.

Armando

I’ll just go ahead and say it, tonight’s LOST was bad-ass! They just took it to a whole new level of Stephen King-edness. It’s getting clearer and clearer that this is somehow a battle between Good and Evil, but what is also become clearer is that just because some calls themselves Good or another Evil may not exactly mean Good and Evil the way we see it.

The more I watch of this season, the more I see how much Carlton and Damon must love comics. In comics, incarnations/personifications of concepts like Good and Evil and situations like the one the Losties are in happen quite often. And as a reader, to enjoy it you just have to accept that in this “reality” things like that can and do happen. When you mix in “real” characters to these not-so-realistic situations, you get the type of science fiction drama LOST is rocking our worlds with right now.

And again, I still don’t know what the flash sideways is but I loved it. I realized tonight that maybe, just maybe, Sayid could take out Jack Bauer. How awesome was that ending? Flocke and his crew ready for battle! I am loving LOST right now to the Nth degree. What other show has ever given us this much discussion?

Do I know how it’s going to end? No clue. Do I understand every little thing going on? Not at all. Can I turn my eyes away? Never!

Chris

Great episode, definitely bad-ass (especially the last 20 minutes). One thing stood out for me though. They’ve been showing character redemptions for the past couple episodes—Jack, Kate and Locke—but this Sayid-centric episode was different. He had a pseudo-redemption when Nadia asked him just to go home but then he was once again forced into taking action. The scene with Keamy was excellent, yet I couldn’t help wondering why in this flash sideways Keamy was no longer military (or seemingly a gun-toting maniac). Now I guess we sort of know what happens to Jin in the sideways timeline but what does that mean for Sun? And is Jin with Smokey now? So many questions! They’ve answered nothing! Argh!

I am quite glad that the temple storyline appears to be over. Dogen and that other guy met their demise in a very cool way thanks to Sayid badassery, but I never really liked the whole temple thing. I’d just rather forget that part as it really didn’t seem to be all that important to the story at large. Seemed like a bit of an excuse for Darlton to get some of their favorite actors in the show before the curtain fell.

I’m left wondering what it means for our characters when Smokey/Jacob offer our characters something—Jacob’s deal with Dogen (save your loved one but never see them again) and Smokey’s deal with Sayid (what if you could see your loved one again?). Does that mean the sideways flashes are Smokey-wins scenarios? Have we already seen the ending of the series from the beginning? Oh god, my head’s starting to hurt. Too bad that in the Smokey-wins scenario it appears that Sayid doesn’t end up with Nadia. But I figure that’s just one of many non-happy-endings we’re going to see in LOST this season.

Scott

So how’s that for a final episode? “Sundown” is undoubtedly one of LOST’s darkest and most apocalyptic entries ever. I doubt I’ll get Sayid’s creepy smile and “not for meeee” line reading out of my head anytime soon, or the aftermath of Smokey’s ethnic cleansing of the Others set to a distorted recording of “Catch A Falling Star”. For those looking for things to wrap up, last night essentially brought the resolution of Sayid’s six year long character arc: he’s a guy who has chosen violence and intimidation at every turn despite significant reservations and—faced with a final decision of selfishness or selflessness—sealed his fate by murdering Dogen and Lennon, thereby freeing Smokey to lay waste to the Temple. Dogen warned Sayid that if Smokey/FLocke/UnLocke/DreadLocke spoke a single word to him it would be too late to kill him, and it seems he was right. If he’d plunged that dagger in his chest before that thrown-off pleasantry, would everything have turned out differently? It’s impossible to know now, but the silver-tongued promises of our villain(?) certainly won Mr. Jarrah over.

I am a bit disappointed that this season’s most confusing aspect to me—the re-animation of Sayid, Christian and Claire’s dead bodies vs. Smokey’s assuming the appearance of dead bodies—wasn’t explained at all. And why was the circle of ash that has reliably kept Smokey out of the temple before now not enough to keep him out once Dogen met his demise? It’s probably related to all this Candidate business, but I could definitely use some explanation of the increasingly arbitrary ”rules” that govern the island’s supernatural beings.

As someone more interested in the mythological/religious elements of LOST than whiny character concerns of who’s going steady with who, ”Sundown’s” most intriguing element to me was the choice of many of the Others to join the side of Satan incarnate to temporarily save their own asses rather than die on the side of the good guys. Like Hebrews of the Bible unwilling to abandon God to save their own hides, Dogen and Lennon are dead but probably doing OK in the afterlife right now. Cindy and the rest of the Others who turned their backs on Jacob? Not so much.

Did Sayid’s turn work for you? Were you expecting things to work out differently for our favorite tortured torturer?

Chris Johnston talks about video games old and new at Player One Podcast. Armando Reyes talks comics, music and life on the road on Twitter.

Another perplexing episode filled with a few answers and yet more questions. This week’s Jack-centric “Lighthouse” shows us what’s different about Jack’s life after landing safely at LAX and also brings two other oft-neglected characters to the forefront for big developments on the island.

Scott

Another week, another fine final LOST episode. Like last week’s “The Substitute”, the flash sideways provided a happy but not idyllic alternate path for one of the show’s most tortured characters. Though Jack didn’t get the perfect career and family he yearned for, he had a good kid who loved him. In an early scene, we also got a bit of the two timelines beginning to merge with Jack unable to remember getting an appendectomy as a kid. I’d be surprised if we didn’t start seeing a lot more of this.

We also got a loud reminder of the petulance that makes Jack such a frustrating character when he encounters an ageless, mystical lighthouse that seems capable of incredible things and, within three minutes of the discovery, flies into a rage, physically threatens an especially charming Hurley, and smashes it all to hell. Though Jacob suggests Jack’s temper tantrum is no big deal, it’s yet another moment when it seems a firm, hard pimp slap would do Jack a world of good. There will be a lot of talk about the additional locales we glimpsed as Hurley adjusted the mirrors, but I really think it’s just Darlton showing us the massive global, time-bending reach of the lighthouse, which is now useless thanks to Manchild Shepherd.

The biggest development of this week, though, is the weirdness related to Clairesseau. Season 6 is serving as a mirror image to Season 1 in many ways, with biggies like Maggie Grace and not-so-biggies like Greg Grunberg being brought in to stage revisionist scenes from LOST’s extremely popular first season, so I’m currently re-watching it to get the full effect. I’d forgotten what a sweet, sunny presence Emilie de Ravin was early on, so it’s great to compare that to who she is now, a rugged survivalist who kills in cold blood and pals around with terrorists like Smokey. I’m hoping we get more clarification next week as to this season’s most confusing element to me, the difference between Smokey’s assuming the appearance of dead bodies and the “darkness” that literally reanimates dead bodies, like Sayid, Christian and I’m guessing Claire (I knew she didn’t make it out of that Season 4 house explosion unscathed!).

Chris

I’m just gonna say it — how great is Hurley this season? Providing awesome comic relief plus acting as the spokesman for the audience and asking some pertinent questions like the whole “You mean I did this and it didn’t work but it doesn’t matter?” exchange with Jacob at the end. I cannot wait until they get to a Hurley-centric episode because I know it’s going to be completely epic. Jorge Garcia is the man.

Overall, this episode felt like a bridge. Reintroducing Claire as a crazy person (shades of Stephen King’s Misery there, I think), Hurley and Jack leaving the temple…that was all that happened on-island right? Not a whole lot there. But what I think we did get in the flash-sideways is Jack’s realization/acceptance/healing of his “daddy issues” that the show’s been steeped in since Season 1. I wonder if that’s going to be a trend for these sideways flashes. Last week we had Locke’s acceptance of his situation instead of “don’t tell me what I can’t do” as well — very interesting stuff. The dominoes are being set up, but I wish it was clearer when things were going to start getting knocked down. I’m not really getting the point of the Temple stuff or Dogen’s usefulness other than to get Hiroyuki Sanada in the show.

Couple more random observations: I thought for sure when Jack was in his son’s room that he was gonna grab those photo booth pics and we’d have a Back to the Future style look at them later where the son was half-disappeared, but then it didn’t happen. Aw. Is Sarah David’s mom? One would assume so and I was hoping we’d get a better shot of those family photos while Jack went up the stairs but no-go. Would’ve been great to see Julie Bowen come back for a cameo. Oh and how about that appendix scar popping up, huh? That happened on-island—timelines merging?

Robert

For me, the biggest surprise (no pun) of this episode was just how instrumental Hurley was to driving the action on the island. I don’t think it’s ever been clear why only Hurley can communicate with the ghost of Jacob (or Dave or Charlie or Ana Lucia) but that’s not stopping the writers of LOST from running with the idea. I’m just glad that it actually served a purpose this time. My only problem with it came in the conversation near the end when Jacob tells him that he had to bring Jack to the lighthouse and couldn’t know why or else he wouldn’t do it in the first place and yadda-yadda-yadda. Moments like that are about as frustrating as this show has ever been.

On the other hand, getting Jack to the lighthouse is important because Jack needs to realize something about himself. What that something is exactly isn’t clear, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it could be a clue to how the show might end. Something tells me that ultimately Jack will have to sacrifice himself. Thinking back through all the seasons, Jack has always been the stubborn “fixer” that just can’t seem to actually fix anything. His determination to keep his fellow survivors safe and get them off the island drove much of Seasons 1 through 3, his regret and longing to go back drove much of Season 4 and his belief that he could “reset” everything drove us toward the climax of Season 5 to end up where we are now. For Jack, none of it has worked as he’d hoped. Most of the original survivors of Oceanic 815 are dead, only six were actually rescued with his help, he could only convince Kate to come back and nothing’s back to the way it should’ve been.

Just like the last two episodes, the flash-sideways are proving to be important to how the characters are evolving. We find out that alt-Jack’s life is almost completely different than the one we knew. He had his appendix removed when he was age 7 and has a teenage son named David who he’s having as hard a time as ever trying to figure out. And when it seems like Jack might have pushed it too far causing him to disappear, he finds out that David is only trying to live up to his father’s expectations—just like Jack did with his own father. For alt-Jack, it’s only through understanding and acceptance that he’s able to truly set things right and find a bond with his son, and since LOST famously deals in parallels and metaphors, I think it stands to reason that this is where on-island Jack might end up as well. The quest to the lighthouse to find/confront/slap Jacob turned up fruitless and ended in a fit of rage and frustration, only to cause Jack to finally stop and reflect. Wouldn’t it be something if all Jack was ever supposed to do was die (die-hard fans know that Jack was supposed to die at the end of the very first episode) rather than try to steer everything that’s happened since Oceanic 815 crashed?

So what’d you think? Not clear on what this is all leading up to, or do you have it figured out already? Discuss!

Chris Johnston talks about video games old and new at Player One Podcast.

Ah, John Locke, we’ve always loved you as a character, but something’s been different about you lately. This week’s episode of LOST, “The Substitute”, fills us in on who (and what) Locke has become and what his real destiny might be.

Scott

Though last week’s Kate-centric episode was frustratingly water-treading, I think we all knew this week’s Locke entry would recover nicely. And boy, did it. Sure, it didn’t give us every answer we’re waiting for, but it was LOST at its most urgent (Smokey’s “recruitment”), adventurous (Sawyer’s ladder problems), darkly comic (Ben’s comic genius and Smokey’s in-joke) and emotionally affecting (alterna-Locke).

We got a pretty big answer with the revelation of Jacob’s List, a big part of the show since Season 3, and maybe larger ramifications for the series as a whole. Apparently, one of Jacob’s chosen “candidates” has to assume the role of the Island’s protector in his stead, which possibly means Sawyer saved the world by deciding to stay behind when the Oceanic 6 bailed in Seasons 3 and 4. Sure, we don’t have the full picture yet, but we’re only a quarter of the way through the season and larger issues are coming into sharper focus.

This is the first time I’ve given a shit about anything in the flash-sideways. I think LOST is best seen as a series of novels that take place in the same world as opposed to a single continuous story, and if this was actually was the last of six sci-fi/adventure novels, you’d definitely be getting some kind of an alternate future or epilogue. So it’s interesting to see a different path for Locke, in which his anger has manifested itself as regret and disappointment instead of an all-encompassing obsession that drove away Helen, leading to a very human and reasonable acceptance of his disability, further leading to a content existence as a substitute teacher. We’ll see if these flash-sideways lead to anything larger, or if they link together or merge in some way, but I at least found myself involved in Locke’s other path.

If Smokey was out “recruiting” according to Ilana, I definitely think he recruited Sawyer. I think he’s trying to lure everyone on the list off the Island by convincing them that it’s just a meaningless rock so he’ll have dominion over it, sort of like Satan convincing everyone that God doesn’t exist so he’ll have dominion over Earth. If they’re going for religious allusions, Earth is just a speck in the universe the way that the Island is just a speck on the Earth. I’m wondering what his sales pitch will be to Jack, perhaps leading to one of the series’ biggest payoffs: the man of science redeemed as the man of faith.

Robert

In the week between “What Kate Does” and “The Substitute”, I think I’ve come to better understand how this season is going to play out. Last week, we saw Kate fulfill what seemed to be her “true” destiny by landing in Los Angeles and escaping custody, only to risk being caught again while tending to Claire as she gave birth to Aaron. We also find out that she might actually be innocent of whatever crime she was being accused of. I’d call that a morally satisfying ending for her character and if we never see her alternate/future life again, I’d be content with leaving it at that.

The same goes for Locke with this week’s episode, we find out that not only is his life different after Oceanic 815 landed safely at LAX, but it was also radically different before the flight ever happened. Helen was still a part of his life and maybe more importantly, Locke’s father (the real Sawyer) apparently wasn’t the cause of his paralysis. I say this because a) Helen left Locke back in Season 2 because of his obsession over his father’s chicanery and b) Helen suggests that Locke’s father would be welcome at an impromptu Vegas wedding. Those are both key differences that have yet to be explained, just like Kate’s aforementioned “innocence”, and it makes me wonder even more what was the significant event that changed everyone’s lives because it clearly wasn’t based on whether Oceanic 815 crashed or not. My best guess at the moment? Jughead.

On the other hand, we have New Locke working his way under Sawyer’s skin to find a way off the island—presumably to go “back home”—and we also learn where Jacob might have really been hiding out all this time. For me, all this Jacob/Man in Black stuff is still too wishy-washy and I’d like to see some hard truths start to come out of it. Whether it’s with Locke and Sawyer or Sun and Ben or even with the Jack and Sayid situation at the temple, I’m starting to not care what happens on the island at all any more.

I want to follow the characters and not what’s becoming an increasingly convoluted adventure. I get that New Locke is now someone/something to be feared and that Old Locke is gone forever. I get that Sawyer is a man with a wounded heart who’s setting up another long con just because. I also get that there’s supposedly larger stakes involved now like the fate of the world or something or other. But all that seems like a bunch of running-off-the-rails, pie-in-the-sky hooey now, especially compared to show’s new alter-ego that’s firmly grounded in reality.

If you’re keeping up, that’s a complete turnaround from how I felt coming out “LA X” and I think I know why. Seeing the characters find solace or some sort of resolution in the alternate timeline is I think viewers have been looking for all along, even since way back in the first season when the question was simply “how will they get off the island?” That’s an important aspect that never really happened with LOST, even when the Oceanic 6 were rescued only to find a life of despair, confusion and treachery was all that awaited them. We’ve wanted answers—real answers—and this is the closest we’ve gotten yet. I expect that we’ll continue to see all of the key characters reach not necessarily happy but satisfying endings to their stories. My only gripe right now is that these two distinct paths we’re following don’t seem to be getting any closer to converging than they were before.

Chris

One of the more interesting components of the show now is the sort of “game” that has come into focus between Jacob and Smokey (or Man in Black, or Fake Locke, or whatever you wanna call him). The whole black/white, good/evil thing has become an incredibly interesting dimension to the show, just like the whole science/faith and 815ers/Others conflicts were in earlier seasons. And it’s interesting to look back at that initial game of Backgammon Locke played with Walt in Season 1 while sort of keeping an eye on the game that’s going on here between Jacob and Smokey. Both Jacob and Smokey are using the inhabitants of the island as pawns in their own little game.

After watching this episode I went back and watched the opening of the Season 5 finale. The line “It only ends once, everything else is just progress” strikes me as becoming ever-important to the series as a whole. Though how…I dunno, I guess we’ll see. Are we going to see the one ending? Hm. The re-emergence of the numbers and the whole Jacob’s List thing, too—awesome. Loved seeing all that get dredged up again. Even if the numbers themselves are never explained, it’s great to see them pop up when you don’t expect it. Gotta wonder if Hurley played the same numbers or if perhaps one of those numbers has changed.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the episode was when Sawyer identified Smokey as “not Locke.” He knows a con when he sees one. Or, I guess as we saw later in the episode, maybe he doesn’t ‘cuz it looks like he’s going to help Smokey. Damn.

As you can see, we’ve had some surprising new reactions to the direction the show has taken, not only with Locke as a character but with the on-island happenings versus the flash-sideways reality. What’d you think?

Chris Johnston talks about video games old and new at Player One Podcast.

It seems like for the entire run of LOST that episodes revolving around Kate have always been less-than-stellar. Whether it’s because the “criminal with a heart of gold” theme feels so trite or because it’s just not as engaging as every other character arc, something about Kate doesn’t seem to sit well. This week’s “What Kate Does” seems to hold true to that and yet does something different at the same time.

Robert: I know some of us have never cared for Kate-centric episodes of LOST, but did this one change any of that?

Armando: I must say that other than the storyline at the temple and the ending, I didn’t care much for it.

Scott: Not in the slightest. What a pointless nothing episode this was. Kate is the most boring character on one of the most exciting shows in TV history. She’s a criminal with a heart of gold who runs runs runs, and she’ll end up with Jack or Sawyer. So what?

Coming on the heels of “LA X”, which beautifully launched the end of LOST with a breakneck pace over two hours, this one hour was a dull slog that played up all the worst parts of LOST: wheel-spinning narratives, static characterizations, silly cryptic statements that could be answered by a character simply asking “Why?” Seriously, Jack considered giving Sayid that pill without thinking it was poison? What else would it be, fish oil?

Then our kicker at the end was introducing Clairesseau (trademark MINE), who apparently has some kind of darkness growing within her. Though Claire was a welcome presence in LOST’s first two seasons, the writers are clearly done with her and so are we the audience, evidenced by the fact that no one noticed she wasgone all last year. Thankfully, it looks like Locke, Richard and worthwhile storytelling will be back next week.

Chris: Everyone seems to hate Kate episodes though, right? I liked it and I think this episode really demonstrated how the whole “flash-sideways” thing is going to work going forward. And I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the characters’ sideways-stories. Seeing Claire again was great, the whole naming the baby Aaron thing, that Kate went and helped her out (I thought Kate was gonna have to deliver Aaron in sideways-world too!), and cameo by Ethan(!)… this episode felt like it moved incredibly fast. I looked at the clock thinking there was gonna be 20 minutes left and it was 9:54.

SH: I’ve yet to be convinced by the flash-sideways, though. I tolerated it last week because the on-island segments were so incredible, but I don’t really care what happens in the alternate reality. It’ll matter in some way in the end, but I’d rather they spent the time on the island wrapping things up.

RC: Total opposite here. I thought the stuff with Claire and Kate was actually interesting and a nice alternative to what happened before. I agree, CJ, that this is a neat way of showing us some flipsides to these same characters we’ve known for so long.

With the scenes in the temple, I found that old feeling creeping up on me with this episode. The dialogue carried of lot of the old “don’t worry about that” responses—that, frankly, this show should’ve already long dispensed with—to what were pretty important questions. It really became frustrating in the scene where Jack attempts to swallow the pill to get answers about what it is. That alone didn’t really make sense to me and for all that trouble, I still don’t think Jack got a real answer as to what exactly it was, other than “poison” to kill an “infection” in Sayid.

Really though, I thought the best moment was with Sawyer where he comes to grips with everything that went wrong for him last season with Juliet and choosing to stay when they both had a chance to leave. I think Sawyer is my new favorite character after that.

CJ: I agree, Sawyer’s character has come a long, LONG way from Season 1. And, think about it — in the premiere we saw Season 1 Sawyer again, the swaggering, devil-may-care con artist who’s ready to fleece Hurley out of his lottery winnings or cooly allow a pretty fugitive to escape the fuzz. Stark contrast to this episode where Sawyer makes a run for it but not for some scheme or plan, but just to have time to properly mourn Juliet. The scene at the dock was great.

SH: Yes, Sawyer is definitely my dude. One of my favorite parts of the series as a whole is where it’s taken the two characters who were initially set up as villains: Sawyer, the venture capitalist who doesn’t give a shit about anyone, and Locke, who especially in the pilot was a scarred creep talking about “two sides, light and dark”. I wonder if the original plan was for Locke to be Smokey from the outset and they decided before making episode 2 to make John Locke an actual person.

AR: The Sawyer character arc has been good to watch. Ultimately, that is about the only thing I really cared about in this episode, the characters—Sayid saying to Jack that he trusts him and that he would take the pill if Jack wanted him to, seeing Sawyer’s pain and anguish on the dock.

But as far as the overall story and the second/alt/flash sideways/whatever it’s being called now, the island story went nowhere, and I’m with Scott, I pretty much don’t really care what happens in the side timeline. Where are we now in the story compared to the end of “LA X”?

I keep hoping that one of the “classic” stares we get when one of the characters ask what is going on will actually turn into some sort of explanation.

RC: I think my main problem with this episode is that it ultimately didn’t feel like we really got anywhere significant in terms of anything. That fact that it blew by so (for me, at least) fast didn’t help either. It reminds me of the last season of BSG where there were so many threads and answers that needed resolutions and instead of checking one or two off with each episode, it seemed like more was being stacked on. And in the end, it was a mad dash to the finish line with our hair on fire as the wheels were falling off.

SH: Robert, I actually thought the final Battlestar season offered a great example of gradually solving its mysteries. Characters met their fates over the course of the whole season, especially in the mutiny storyline, instead of checking off a list in the last 15 minutes of the last episode. Though a lot of the mythology was clumsily handled in the end, the season as a whole was urgent and brilliant. I doubt the rest of the final LOST season will be as lame as this episode – we’ve got Locke, Sayid and Ben-centric episodes coming up – and I hope I’m right, because it’s got a LOT more mythology and mystery to sum up than BSG did.

I do think there’s potential in the flash-sideways with the characters they’ve killed off; we know Boone, Faraday, Charlotte, Ana Lucia and Libby will all be coming back (fingers crossed for Meestah Eko!). Even then, though, it seems like silly asides instead of something really meaningful.

AR: I have my fingers crossed that this side timeline will somehow become “more important” to me.

I know. Be patient. (Haven’t we been for quite some time now?) But this felt a lot like filler. It didn’t have the “urgency” that Scott described BSG having in the end.

Also, with the tagline for the show now, “The Time For Questions Is Over” I was really hoping for something a little more hard-hitting. I’m curious to see what the masses are saying about it and to listen to Carlton and Damon address some of this in their weekly podcast.

RC: I suppose the bright side to this episode is that we won’t be getting another Kate-centric episode again, since she seemed to fulfill her destiny as a helping hand to Claire (but the right way this time). That’s why I think the flash-sideways in 2004 are important, because it doesn’t look like the characters in 2007 are really going to be able to accomplish anything more than saving their own asses when this “war” we’ve been hearing about finally comes.

CJ: In the episode’s defense though, you’ve never really had to be into the mythology side of LOST to get into the show. My fiancee loves LOST and it’s all about the character-driven stories for her. She doesn’t ruminate on the mythology side at all…and, when you read interviews with Lindelof and Cuse they really emphasize that they’re not going to answer everything and what’s important are the characters. I don’t think we’re going to get a checklist in the last 15 minutes because I think there’s going to be a lot that’s just never explained.

AR: Understood. And like we’ve all said, we know they won’t answer everything, but like Dr. Evil said, “Throw us a frickin’ bone here!”

In the end, it looks like we’re mixed on “What Kate Does”. We saw Kate’s arc coming to a close in the alternate timeline, Claire returning to the fold, and both Sawyer and Jack both individually wrestling with their past motives on the island. What did you think?

Chris Johnston talks about video games old and new at Player One Podcast. Armando Reyes talks comics, music and life on the road on Twitter.