Lost: Season 5, Episode 8 Review: LaFleur

LaFleur
Original Airdate: March 4, 2009
Writer: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Kyle Pennington
Director: Mark Goodman

The final piece of the trilogy explains the long standing question at the heart of the return story: how did the past three years play out for the Island Five? Going into this season and knowing only Locke got off the island, what happened was wide open to debate. The first five episodes this season showed us roughly four or five days, with them shifting through the island’s greatest hits, but after Locke realigns the wheel, they wind up decades in the past. Despite that, things turned out really well for them. Here we see what happened through the lens of Sawyer, a character long overdue for an episode.

Although he is one of the more compelling & integral characters of the series, Sawyer hasn’t had a centric episode since the “mini-season” at the start of season three. To put it in perspective, Locke & Jack have each had four centric episodes in that gap (not including Jack sharing the centric stage with the Oceanic Six), and most of the central cast have had two to three. This gap is due in part to those left behind taking a back seat to the Oceanic Six last season, but now with those cards finally revealed, it’s about time to return to this character.

Sawyer’s progressed a lot since his last episode. After facing and killing the real Sawyer in “The Brig”, it was suggested late in season three that he was heading down a dark path. Instead he has become the selfless hero, retrieving Claire during the ambush, jumping out of the helicopter so the Oceanic Six could be rescued & being the glue keeping the Island Five together during this ordeal. So this episode continues that trend as the former drifter settles down with a real job and adult responsibilities.

The final temporary shift takes them to the earliest known period, as they are in viewing distance of the statue. That brief moment certainly flared a lot of frustration among viewers awaiting any type of follow up with this hint for two and a half seasons. It has little to do with the current action, but since the time jumps are over, this was likely slipped in here as a reminder that they haven’t forgotten that tangent and it will be followed up on in the future. It also ties to the mirror of season two, the only time the statue (or at least a foot) was seen before.

The shifts stop in 1974, where they encounter some Others ambushing a couple on a picnic in hostile territory. Surprisingly they can alter this moment, killing the two Others and freeing a woman named Amy (Reiko Aylesworth, always nice to see former 24 alum getting work) who works with Dharma. As mentioned in my “316” review, it makes sense with the mirroring themes from seasons past that Dharma would come back in a big way, and having them go back is a great way to tackle that as the hatch told as much as it could in season two.

The aftermath reveals another layer to the Dharma/Others relationship: a truce. Presumably since they didn’t have nuclear weapons, The Others decided not to eliminate them from the jump like the US Army in 1954. However, they do 15 years from where the castaways end this episode. So what happened that caused The Others to abandon the truce? All we know is that Ben denies making the call when The Purge happened. Unless they’re really slow to react in retaliation for what happened in 1974.

When Richard confronts Sawyer, they reach an agreement to stop the bloodshed if they claim Paul’s body. I’ll be brief because I don’t know if there’s any explanation for why they did this. It may be related to the Smoke Monster, it could be some incidental element to the story.

The Island Five and Oceanic Six’s last three years have interesting comparisons and contrasts. Both lied to assimilate or re-assimilate into a larger culture, but from what little is shown, the Island Five’s three years play out much better than the Oceanic Six’s. They fit in superbly and the only known danger at this point is the Purge, which according to Vision Horace doesn’t happen until 1992. So whatever event the Oceanic Six needs to prevent to save the leftover 815 survivors hasn’t happened yet or it was a long con to get them back.

Sawyer, while he could use his real name or the Sawyer moniker, takes the name LaFleur (for sake of consistency he’ll continue to be referred to as Sawyer). Nicknames and aliases are key parts of Sawyer’s character in a way of cloaking the reality of those around him as well as himself. Unlike taking the name of the man he credits for ruining his life to be bad, Sawyer as LaFleur continues the trajectory he’s been on by becoming the friendly, but no nonsense head of security in the Dharma Initiative. Ultimately, Sawyer’s arc for the rest of the series appears to be with him resolving who James Ford is: Sawyer, LaFleur, a combination of either, or neither.

Amy is effectively the gateway for the Island Five to the world of Dharma. Saving her life definitely helps their standing, although they are quick to get them ready to be shipped out, an event that obviously doesn’t happen. Since it is Lost and there is always room for speculation for anything not explicitly said, there was a lot of theorizing over why their two week stint turned into one where they worked for Dharma for 3 years. Despite them making peace with the Others, Horace still is ready to ship them off when the sub returns, so why did they stick around? Whether this will ever be answered is unlikely.

After Paul’s passing, Amy and Horace fell in love and got married. This caused a lot of discussion about Olivia Goodspeed. A lot of people, including myself, assumed the two were married and thought Amy & Horace would have some scandalous implications. However, looking through the transcript to “The Man Behind the Curtain”, at no point do they mention that Horace & Olivia were married. They could be siblings. I’ve heard rumors that the actress who played Olivia didn’t want to come back, so they accidentally avoided a possible problem two seasons ahead of time.

Horace’s feeling over living in the shadow of his wife’s dead husband parallels the Kate/Sawyer relationship. Obviously Sawyer loved Kate, but with her out of his life for three years and living in a perpetual holding pattern of a return that as far as he knew may never happen, he grew close to Juliet, and like many others, I became a fan of this pairing. (A quick note: while I’m not a big fan of shipper nicknames, I prefer Juiler (pronounced jeweler) for the Sawyer and Juliet pairing.) Horace wondering if someone could move on after three years is an obvious connection between the pairing. Sawyer claims you can, although he really only convinces Horace, because his look at the end suggests otherwise.

The big story of the 1977 side is Amy’s birth, which has some huge ramifications. This is the earliest known birth on the island, but with the circumstances, it is the first where conception likely occurred on island. This could mean that whatever happened that kills all other pregnant women on the island (except for Claire) hasn’t happened yet, but they do mention that usually women are sent off island to give birth in Dharma. It’s also a turning point for Juliet. For three years with The Others her profession of giving life ironically turned into one drowning in death, one she gladly moved away from when they joined Dharma. To have a successful birth was obviously a major moment for her that it seems odd that it isn’t explored much here.

Another big character piece of the Island Five is Daniel coping with Charlotte’s death. He lost her in several ways: her death kept her from shifting, so he didn’t even get the closure of a funeral on top of having no idea where in time her body is. His loss is compounded when he runs into the 3 year old version of her. He’s also noticeably absent in the 1977 sections of the episode.

Controversy arose over the retcon that made Charlotte 8 years older than stated a season ago. It even resulted in a public relations fiasco between Rebecca Mader and the producers over how the original error made it to the final cut. While many people have complained that the timelines were often really confusing this season, the part that bugs me more this season is that the writers aren’t good at math. Charlotte doesn’t look like she’s in her mid-thirties. They stated that originally she was going to be much older, but they had to rewrite that when they cast the role. So while this piece may add more evidence to a bigger plan, sticking to it after that first plan was altered is just a nerd headache.

Effectively this is the final episode in a trilogy bringing the characters back to the same time line, as well as the last episode of the refresher era. Adding the flash forward element helped rejuvenate a formula many people felt had grown stale as season three progressed. Now the present has caught up with the future, which is fitting as there is only a season and a half left. It’s a fitting halfway point for the season, one many people expected would take an entire season to do. If only they had more time for these three years.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 7 Review: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
Original Airdate: February 25, 2008
Writers: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

Looking at the title it’s clear this second part of the catch up trilogy will answer a major question that has been lingering for a season and a half: how did Locke wind up in the coffin. The answer overall is straightforward, or at least was guessed by fans who’ve been thinking about it. Like “316”, this episode has its centric character facing elements of his past, albeit with a much darker outcome and leaving them on the island (or at least one of them) ready for further instructions.

Locke pulling the wheel sends him from some pre-well period to about two weeks before the events of “316”. Widmore had “the exit” staked out, presumably after Ben’s arrival two years previous, with cameras. Luckily for Widmore, Locke’s injury buys him enough time to make it there for the proposition. This set up begs the question: what was going to happen if someone other than Locke came through, but it may assumed that somehow Widmore knew he was coming eventually.

It’s interesting to see Widmore’s perspective about the return mission. Although the secret was meant to keep him in the dark about those left behind (who it turned out weren’t in the present anyway), he knew they were lying, probably the whole time as well. It’s not too surprising that his resources could get to the truth about it, but what is interesting is that he believes that the Oceanic Six need to return to the island as well and gives Locke a blank check to do whatever he feels necessary to accomplish his mission.

Widmore also introduces an element that will play a huge part in the series’ endgame: there’s a war coming and there will be presumably huge consequences if Locke fails. While it adheres to the good versus evil motif that’s always been around, it’s hard not to think of The Stand again, where the survivors of the plague pick sides in a similar battle. The difference here is that the sides are much greyer. Ben’s no angel, but Widmore has done a lot worse, and through the perspective of one of the most conned characters in the series, we’re no closer to figuring out which side is the good side.

Although Locke heading to The Orchid was like he was during most of the first season, they reminded us of the conflicted, doubting Locke when they flashed to the night Locke pounded on the hatch window desperate for an explanation as to why Boone needed to die. At the heart of the episode is Locke as the perpetual dupe. Tell him he’s special and he’ll do anything asked, even if there is a troubled history. He’s been manipulated and conned by almost every important person in his life, so he finds himself a key figure in a war between two characters whose moralities are at best grey.

Through Locke’s quest, Locke touches upon the two figures of his past who didn’t try to take advantage of him: Helen and Walt. Helen died of an aneurysm a year and a half after the crash (to be truly nerdy, if only she died the day “Lockdown” originally aired), or at least that’s what Abaddon says. Some have theorized, like a caller on Jay and Jack, that Helen isn’t dead. With Widmore’s money, it’d be easy to throw a tombstone in a cemetery. Locke isn’t going to dig up the grave and check. Those who believe it was staged believe that Locke would give up the mission if he had a chance of reconciliation. While that may be true to a degree (I doubt Locke would ever give up on the island), Helen might’ve been the only person who could pull Locke back. Kate even brings up not being loved as one of his driving motivations.

In his scene with Walt, a few morsels are revealed. Abaddon implies that Walt is one of the people who needs to return. It would be pretty disappointing not to have Walt return, as the mystery surrounding him and his abilities is one of the greatest uncashed checks the series wrote in the first season, but it doesn’t happen here, and no implication is made to suggest he was on 316. Time is running out, but their revisiting Walt repeatedly hints that he still has a huge piece to play in the series.

It seems that the turning point in Locke’s descent is Abaddon’s murder by Ben (although not seeing the gunman is going to lead to speculation). A lot of people were upset over this. They expected to learn a lot more about who Abaddon was and what they got here were little hints that he had a similar role to that of Mrs. Hawking, getting people where they need to be, but not more. The obvious explanation for killing him is because Lance Reddick is on Fringe. However, without knowing anything about production and personal schedules, Reddick is only in about 5 minutes of each episode of Fringe and is hardly one who could not be in an episode or two without disrupting the flow of the show. Regardless, it’s not like he can’t return via flashbacks or something else.

His death is the culmination of the persuasion tour, which obviously failed miserably. No one is on board with this idea, from Sayid content with trying to redeem himself, Kate living in suburbia to Hurley recoiling when he sees who Locke is with. What left something to be desired was Locke’s pitch. Locke isn’t much of a saleperson, and Abaddon didn’t do much to push him to convince the others, the latter of which cheapens the high stakes of bringing them back.

The closest he gets to success is getting under Jack’s skin by relaying Christian’s message. Of course, this piece of news compounds the visits Jack’s received by “Christian”, and all of it eventually leads him to where we found him in his first flash forward. However, Jack here doesn’t seem as unglued as he’ll become in only a few days. This downward spiral was originally perceived as a gradual descent from living happily with Kate to popping pain pills like candy; here Locke’s arrival is shown as an accelerant to this problem.

Jack returns the favor by crushing Locke’s hopes. Early in the episode, Locke said all he needed to do was convince one person to return and the rest would follow. Of course, he meant getting Jack on board: if he could convince his biggest skeptic than everything would work out. Jack is on his way to rock bottom, but he’s still spiraling down at this point, and ultimately crushed his spirit.

Locke’s attempted suicide is a tough scene to watch. Although Locke had been constantly duped, part of him never gave up hope (which helped make him such a great victim) until this moment where he’s ready to throw it all away. For him to get to that point, he’d have to be completely destroyed emotionally, and O’Quinn is fearless in going that far in showing it.

Ben arrives right on time and no sooner talking him off the ledge and getting some information, strangles him and makes it look like the suicide that was going to happen had he not been there. There’s been a lot of speculation over why Ben killed Locke. It seems that learning about Mrs. Hawking was the tipping point. By killing Locke, he takes away Widmore’s pawn and, as we’ve seen, uses it to persuade Jack and Sun to come back. Ben knows Widmore is in an “arms race” of sorts to get them back, so in war, he made his power play. Hawking may be a more neutral player, and may have been as helpful had the Six arrived with Widmore in tow.

Throughout the series the producers have said that “dead is dead”. No one on the show who dies is coming back to life because it would cheapen the high stakes. Of course the dead still show up via the Smoke Monster and through visions and dreams. However, Locke isn’t that, leaving the writers to explain their motives besides not wanting to lose a fascinating character. It’s pretty hard going back to write about this in retrospect while adhering to my policy not to post significant spoilers for upcoming episodes for future readers who will watch the series in repeats and DVD so discussion of this may be sparse until the finale.

Seeing Locke’s resurrection (if you will), it’s hard not to think of another of this decade’s defining sci-fi works Battlestar Galactica (SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen the complete series) and its treatment of Starbuck’s death and return. Unfortunately the closest answer fans could get was that her return was God’s retcon, leaving many fans unhappy with such a cheap cop out (among the cop outs of that finale). Without going into what the case of Locke’s return is, thankfully they do something that appears far more interesting.

It’s also been mentioned by the producers that this episode and “316” were swapped, the second time this has been done (while they now say it was season one’s “Solitary” and “Raised by Another”, it was clearly season three’s “Glass Ballerina” and “Further Instructions”, but that’s another issue). I think the flow of the episodes would work better the way they were originally produced. “This Place is Death” flows into “Jeremy Bentham” (the island storyline) and the cliffhanger from “316” goes to “LaFleur”. However, similar arguments can be made for the opposite.

While many of the blanks were already filled by fans, this episode begins to push the big conflict that should take us to the end of the series. O’Quinn is great as usual and the acting raises the episode, but this Locke episode lacks something that would put it over the top among his best outings. It’s still good, but it could’ve been great.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 6 Review: 316

316
Original Airdate: February 18, 2009
Writers: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Stephen Williams

Jack’s desire to return to the island and his guilt over not having listened to Locke have been his driving motivations for most of his flash forwards, so in this episode he revisits much of it as his dream of returning to the island comes true. That said, this information has been so clear that devoting the whole episode to it and not much else feels like over kill. This is what happens when the character heavy format works against them. They need to devote an episode to a character and while the premiere was more plot heavy, that’s something they don’t want to do too often. This episode, and the two following, bridge the flash forward gap, and with the three major parties involved, it was probably best for their formula to split it up among the Oceanic Six, Island Five and Locke than as three subplots in as many episodes (it’s also probably more cost efficient if they had to pay guest stars for one episode than three).

“316” picks up where “This Place is Death” left off with Jack, Sun, Ben & Desmond meeting Mrs. Hawking, who prepares to begin the long awaited return. Hawking informs them that their mission is to board a plane that will fly over where they think the island will be within 36 hours. It might’ve added some stakes with them not knowing for sure that it’d work, but the prologue took a lot of air out of that. Those expecting it to take a season to get them back might’ve been pleasantly surprised to see it only took a third of the season, but they undercut that moment for the sake of the “how did we get here” prologue, which in this circumstance doesn’t make sense to do.

Hawking’s conclusion comes from the latest (to the viewer) Dharma station The Lamp Post, the first not on either island, whose function is to locate the always moving island. Besides the question of how they were able to continue to operate this after Dharma was massacred, how it was built is also up for speculation. With the twist at the end, some have speculated that Daniel was the “very clever fellow” who built it. However, if they traveled back to when Dharma was already there, Daniel could really only offer calculations to finding the island since Dharma would have to be there to get him off the island.

Instead of being the leader, Jack is tasked with the heavy lifting of this assignment: getting Locke’s body, setting him up to be a proxy to his father, and getting him on a plane despite not having any legal right to do so. That Jack would go so far out of his way to do this shows how much he’s changed. In many ways this is the episode that makes Jack a believer. He’s stubbornly refused to believe anything that Locke said and now he blames that attitude for Locke’s death. Everything he’s done in the flash forwards from “Through the Looking Glass” onward (which, hard to believe, was only a week earlier in the timeline) has been to redeem that mistake.

This could explain why “316” was chosen as the flight and episode number. Three-sixteen is connected to the most famous Bible verse John 3:16, the “Christianity sound byte”. It reads (King James Version): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” It could be read that Locke is Christ, the island is God, and Jack is “whosoever believeth in him”. The flight being a metaphor for Jack’s faith.

Of course, the plan to return has one more voice of disapproval, with Desmond adamantly refusing to do more than deliver Daniel’s message. In a nice visual metaphor of “the rules” not applying to him, Desmond walks around the pendulum locating the right spot for the island to show up, but doesn’t interact with it. Hawking warns that the island “isn’t done with [him]”, but not much else is explored because of, as expected, the character focus on Jack.

As Jack prepares to return, he finds out his grandfather is acting up in the nursing home. This is a nitpick, but it’s one that took me out of the action: no way is Ray old enough to be Jack’s grandfather. He would have to look at his youngest in his eighties, and the actor is only four years older than the actor playing Christian. Couldn’t he have been Christian’s older brother? Somehow, the similar dilemma between the ages of Terry O’Quinn & Kevin Tighe (8 years) doesn’t bother me as much, but maybe that’s because there’s only one generation between their characters.

A lot of people have claimed that Ray is somehow important to the mythology, but really his role is a plot device to get Jack to face things about himself, specifically his father and his desire to escape. I can understand why people are trying to link him to something bigger, but it doesn’t seem likely Ray will ever figure into the show again, making this element jarring. Then again, watch me eat those words in the final season.

They didn’t want to wait all season to get them back, so in that rush everyone suddenly is on board except for Aaron. Hurley is now enthusiastic and bringing a guitar case. Sayid is being extradited to Guam like Kate was on Flight 815. Kate, without Aaron, drops all her reservations about the return. The biggest mystery is a bloodied Ben popping up just as the plane door closes. A lot of people complained about all these elements being too rushed. Like those complaining about the sci-fi, I wonder what these people have been watching the past four and a half years. Did they not think that there wouldn’t be flashbacks to connect the dots? I’d only agree with them as far as their reasons probably could’ve made up for the lagging Jack bits like the prologue and his grandfather.

Obviously the writers wanted us to notice Caesar, the man who offers his condolences to Jack and is one of two people in the front section of the plane we haven’t seen before. The obvious connection is that he is tied to one of the opposing forces of the show: Ben or Widmore. At this point, it’s expected that some will roll their eyes at another new character introduced on the show, which is bursting with its huge ensemble.

If the Oceanic Six’s arrival to the island must be as close to the original as possible, why is Ben there? His arm in a sling may represent Locke’s handicap, but he came to the island first by Dharma submarine, which may be another wrench thrown in their plan. Ben has to return to the island for the sake of the story, but they forget a big piece Ben said last season, that whomever moved the island couldn’t return. What did he mean by that? Yes, Ben could’ve been lying, but what for, and why emphasize it as they did?

I could go on for all the comparisons to the original flight. Sun representing herself and Rose (holding the ring of her absent husband she has faith is still alive), Jack representing himself and Charlie (addict), Hurley miming Charlie with the guitar and himself down to the comic book Walt took, Sayid being lead like Kate, Jack having a relationship with his nephew’s adopted mother (a little like the non-incest Boone & Shannon). However, this is wide open for a lot of interpretations and is probably going to drag the review down. What would be worth discussing is why Jack didn’t tell everyone else about proxies. Is this him going down the route Locke took, where believing entitled him to keep secrets to the determent of others? Regardless of number of proxies, it’s not enough. With the Island Five in Dharma times, would their return in a perfect proxy bring everyone back to the same present timeline in 2008? Literally anything could’ve happened, which may be a nice question to leave unanswered.

The nice return of the episode was a shaven, sober Lapidus as the captain of the flight. This may give some credence to him needing to return as well, and it ties into 815 as he was the original pilot. However, it seems weird that he wouldn’t want to turn the plane around since he quickly surmised that they “weren’t going to Guam”. Yes they were friendly and didn’t have any weapons on them, but clearly the plane wasn’t going to its intended destination and he had to think about everyone on that plane. If only they had a few minutes to explain his motivation for not doing anything.

Hurley is the only person concerned about those unfortunate red shirts. Hurley, of course, wants to prevent anyone else from being on board to the point of spending tens of thousands on unsold tickets. Ben on the other hand, doesn’t care about anyone besides them returning, something that somehow surprises Jack. In his haze, Jack has conveniently forgotten that Ben is Ben and will do whatever it takes in what he sees as the island’s best interests until reminded here.

Half the Oceanic Six are accounted for by episode’s end, but none remember any crash. This draws parallels to Oceanic 815, as Kate only remembered that crash (at least judging by flashbacks). The Oceanic Six (well, some of them) were plucked out of the plane like The Rapture, only returning to the island.

Much like the Harry Potter books mirror themes, seasons of Lost mirror themes and elements. Seasons three and four connect with many pieces of Others history revealed. This season’s corresponding season is the second, which was heavily involved in Dharma by explaining the hatch. So what better way to illustrate Dharma fully than to take us to when Dharma was operating, as seen with Dharma Jin confronting the three?

This episode is effectively the first of a trilogy of episodes bringing everyone back to the island and in the “present”. Here we take the Oceanic Six from the cliffhanger in the church to the return of (at least) three of them to the island. It suffers a little bit from not enough unexplored territory to warrant a whole episode, but not playing good plot points because they’d fit into character centric episodes, some of which could’ve been put in while excising some of the lesser elements.

Overall Score: 7/10