6:8 Recon

My apologies for getting this up so late. Yesterday was Eric's birthday and I spent all day preparing for the festivities, wrapping gifts, and baking the ugliest carrot cake in the world.

Flashsideways Connections

-I love the double entendre title: "Recon" could be short for "reconnaissance", which Sawyer does in the Island story, or it could mean "con again,"  which he does as part of his police work off Island and in his interactions between Locke and Widmore.

-I love that Sawyer and Miles are working together fighting crime. (All in favor of a Sawyer/Miles spinoff cop show, say "aye"!) I also loved the fake-out where we think Sawyer is still a con man, and then realize that he's a cop... but is still conning people in that capacity.

-I wonder if Miles still has the ability to speak to the dead. Did he still spend time on the Island in this timeline?

-For all that seems better in his life here - Sawyer decided to be a cop, not a criminal - he is still out to avenge his parents' death. It is interesting though that he this time he doesn't go by the name of his parents' killer, even though he's still out for vengeance.

-Also the same in Sawyer's world - his taste in books. Watership Down is on his bureau when Charlotte goes rifling through it.

-I haven't gone back to verify this, but it seems like Sawyer has more connections with other Island characters than anyone else. In this one episode he interacted with Miles, Kate, Charlotte, and Liam (Charlie's brother).

-Sawyer looking at himself in the mirror is a great visual representation of what this season is all about - mirror images. They're not being especially subtle about it either - every character (except for Sayid) has looked at their mirror image during the flashsideways. More about that in an upcoming post.

-Funny that Sawyer still watches "Little House on the Prairie." ("You call it 'Little House'?")

Revelations

-The scene where Locke slaps Claire into submission shed a lot of light on the type of relationship they have. He says "This is completely inappropriate, I'll deal with you in a minute," as if she's an unruly child. He seems more like a father figure than a friend.  

-Locke says that he lied to Claire about the Others taking Aaron because he wanted to give her something to "keep her going". Interesting that what keeps Claire going is hate, but what keeps Kate is her love for Aaron.

-Sawyer seems to have given himself a haircut while he was in New Otherton, and his hair is shorter in the Sideways too. COINCIDENCE? (just kidding)

-Charles Widmore wants to kill Locke/Smoky! I am so confused about this, because I was sure he was on Smoky's side. 

Questions

-Maybe this fits under "Revelations", but on this show sometimes it's hard to separate the questions from the answers. Locke/Smoky says he had a crazy mother, and this "resulted in growing pains." Obviously this description fits Locke's life perfectly, but does it also apply to Smoky as well? If so, how can a column of smoke have a mother?

-Locke also says that if his mother hadn't been crazy, problems could have been avoided and "things could have been different." What we're seeing in the Sideways is the result of things being different - so which specific things are the crucial ones?

-The same question I have every week when we see these flashsideways - what exactly caused Sawyer to make different decisions in this timeline? Why would he choose to be a cop rather than a criminal?

-Which side is Widmore really on? I am pretty convinced that Jacob is "good", but I don't know if I can stomach the idea of Widmore being on the good side.

-And the biggie - what is in the locked room in the submarine? The writers keep giving us these kinds of situations where we have to guess what is inside the ________ (the hatch, the "magic box", the coffin, the container Ilana and Bram were carrying.) If the past can tell us anything at all, whatever is inside the room will end up being a person.

Moments of Pure Awesomeness

-Finally having Josh Holloway back! Yay!

-Once again, we have fire and water - Sawyer boiling a kettle over an open fire. Like mirrors, this is an image that has appeared in just about every episode this season.

-When Sawyer tells Zoe that he's not alone and can take her back to the main Island she says "Thank God" and he responds "Trust me, God's got nothing to do with it." I think he's alluding to the Jacob/God parallel, and since Smoky/Satan is the one who sent him back to get Zoe, it's not God's doing. And how great was Zoe? I loved the whole sequence with her and Sawyer. You can see on his face precisely the moment when he realizes that she's lying.

-Kate telling Sawyer that they ate "rabbit, I think."

-Is it just me, or does Claire's fake baby look like Jar Jar Binks?

Not So Awesome

-Sayid just sitting there while Claire tried to kill Kate. I hope we'll get more information about his state of mind, because the way he's acting doesn't make any sense. That's not what regular Sayid would do, and it's not what Locke/Smoky would do either.


 Your turn! What did you think of this episode?