LOST: BACK TO THE ISLAND: SEASON 6 EPISODE 8

Recon (S6, Ep. 8)

Miles: “Who’s Sawyer?”

This was not my favorite episode of Lost. I typically watch each week’s episode twice – once with my wife as it airs for the pure, un-distracted thrill of it, and again the next night after she hits the hay, writing this column as I go. After “Recon” ended, she and I had the same shoulder-shrugging reaction. Not a lot “happens” in Recon, and there’s a lot of people – walking – about – while – talking – about – stuff – that – doesn’t – seem – very – important. Some of Sawyer’s off-Island scenes are great, but more than a few of them feel slack, second-hand, even clichéd. There are nine hours of Lost left, and this is what we get? What feels like an echo of that Sawyer-goes-to-jail episode?

Lost is sometimes criticized for being a show about “people who walk places.” The castaways squabble on the beach, walk to the caves, resume squabbling, walk to, oh, say, the Black Rock and engage in a spirited bout of more squabbling, rinse and repeat. This complaint has never made sense to me until tonight, where there were a number of wordless marches through the jungle, or snippets of conversations that seemed almost purposefully circuitous. I appreciate a good tease as much as the next guy, but you’ve either got to give me some red meat on the bone or distract me with something shiny. I didn’t feel like Recon managed either of those things very successfully.

Then I watched the episode again. While I still feel like there are multiple missed opportunities in this installment, I’ve warmed to it to some degree. There are portions that just do not work for me, but there’s some good stuff here also – most of it free of enough context or firm meaning that it might feel more insubstantial than it actually is. As things play out in Lost’s final season, I suspect that this episode may look better in retrospect, because things that are frustratingly unclear now will (I assume/hope/DEMAND!) be made clear, and it’ll be easier to look back at a moment like Sayid’s eerie non-response to Claire attacking Kate and enjoy it because we’ll know what the hell’s going on. But there’s still a frustrating lack of momentum to the Island proceedings, and at this point a lack of momentum really shouldn’t be one of the show’s problems.

Making up for that to some extent are the ways in which the show’s writers continue to underline their themes without bashing us over the head with them. Miles’ question (“Who’s Sawyer?”) refers to the folder that James Ford hands him. But it more generally refers to the Sawyer we’ve come to know. Who is he?

Over the course of this story, Sawyer has gone from hard-hearted double-dealing con man to prickly outsider to reluctant member of a community to lovable scoundrel to bearish, protective defender of “his people” to broken, angry loner without a people, to possible Anti-Locke recruit to double-dealing con man again, but with an interest in the people around him. It could be said (and will be said, because I’m about to say it) that Sawyer’s journey represents a kind of loop, an ouroboros, wherein he takes from his past what he needs to survive, and takes from his recent past the experiences that have made him a “warmer” man. And while most of us had guessed that he hadn’t fallen to the “dark side,” that he was in fact pulling a con on Anti-Locke, it was nice to see that confirmed tonight, and to hear him expressing concern for his fellow castaways.

Thoughts:  

• The title “Recon” is a play on words. It serves to refer to Sawyer’s recon effort on Hydra island, and it also serves to describe Sawyer’s manipulations throughout the episode – he’s “re-conning” the MiB after conning Widmore.

• Sawyer promises Jin that they won’t leave without Sun. Will these two ever manage to spend five minutes together in the same place without something separating them?

Girl: “You’re a lousy con man.”

• Sawyer is a lousy con man in these off-Island flashes.  He doesn’t fool anyone with his smirky, too-cool attitude. That’s somehow nice to see, and I really like the reveal that Sawyer is a cop. That said I’m pretty sure that sleeping with the wife of someone you’re trying to bust is against all sorts of laws and ethical codes. And while I like the idea of Sawyer as lawman, I don’t think much of the scene that surrounds it. It feels overblown, rushed, somehow “fake.” And I don’t think that feeling is intentional.

• The time on Sawyer’s clock is 8:42 – another instance of the numbers. Those specific numbers correspond with Hugo and Jin/Sun, three characters who have yet to receive an off-Island flashback.

• Similarly, I really like that Miles is Sawyer/James’ partner. It nicely mirrors the sort of dynamic that developed between the both of them on the Island, and it gives Miles heart and sincerity, something we’d only seen in regard to his father before this season. Should they make a Lost spin-off about the buddy-cop team of James Ford and Miles Straume, it needs to be named Lafleur and Order.

• Claire’s frightening bone-baby makes a reappearance, and Kate learns that Claire’s been treating it like a real child. Why? Because:

Claire: ”It was all I had.”

That’s awfully sad. And it speaks, I think, to Anti-Locke/the Man in Black’s apparent Modus Operandi, which we’ll get into a little further down. Suffice it to say that I once wrote of the Island:

Most religious traditions teach us to divest ourselves of the ‘corrupt’ world around us and to strive for a spiritually-deeper, non-materialist life of service. That’s ultimately what the Island offers its visitors – the chance to attempt this without the trappings of the modern world, to connect and to evolve, to build community. But, dualistic as it is, the Island also offers each individual the chance to stop making choices, to wander Lost in the jungle of solipsism, to refuse change and embrace both literal and figurative isolation.

It seems to me that Anti-Locke offers that isolation and solipsism to his recruits. He seems to offer Sayid and Claire the chance to stay stuck in their anger, their past, so that they won’t have to get over their pain. And I suspect he does this not because he’s evil, but because he’s clearly not been able to move past his own.

• Anti-Locke lies to his new followers and tells them that “the black smoke” killed the people in the Temple, making it clear that these “lower level” Others don’t know who Anti-Locke really is. I’d talked a while back about what I thought the power structure of the Others might actually be, and it looks as though those ramblings were more-or-less correct. There’s an elite, who control most/all of the information, a kind of “middle management” level whose members (Ben, Richard) know varying degrees of information but not as much as the elite, and the lower level Others, like Cindy and the kids, who seem more like drones or hangers-on, permitted to live among the Others but not privy to anything too important. As I said back then:

I think the ‘regular Others’ perhaps aren’t told the full picture any more than the 815ers or we, the audience, are. They’re not told ‘We’re doing this because of *Insert Jacob’s ultimate plan here*.’ They’re told ‘you’re doing this, because I’m paying you/because I brought you here.’ As example: “Go get that weird kid who can summon birds,” “Go arrange for a bus to hit Juliet’s ex-husband. Then recruit her.” If they ask why, I suspect the answer is always the same: “Because Jacob says so.”

The leader/high priest dictates the word of God/Jacob, and the people/Others follow that word. You can see that the regular Others aren’t totally happy with this situation from the way that they react to Anti-Locke’s rabble rousing in the season five finale. Devoting yourself to a sect that demands utter faith is intensely difficult. It’s difficult if it’s a ‘religion’ in our real world sense of the word, and it’s (I imagine) just as difficult when there may be an actual ‘God’ involved. Both instances rely completely on faith, not proof.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the power structure of the Others essentially mirrors both the power structure of Dharma and the 815ers – in those instances, as appears to be the case with the Others, a few people in the ‘circle of trust’ were given information considered sensitive. The vast majority though, were there to cook, to clean, to mend…in other words, to serve those in ‘real’ power.

Anti-Locke: ”I know what happened back there was really scary, but it’s over. You’re with me now and I promise that I’m going to take care of you.”

• What I’m really enjoying about Terry O’Quinn’s performance, and about the way his character has been written this season, lies in how enigmatic Anti-Locke/the Man in Black is. We’ve been told he’s “evil incarnate.” We’ve been told that he wants everyone dead. And yet, we’ve also seen him treat children with a gentle warmth, and we’ve watched him grant the castaways real answers to some (but not all – and I think that’s on purpose) of their questions. What do you think? Do you like the way this ambiguity has been preserved? Are you tired of it?  

• Sawyer asks Kate about his fellow castaways, and it’s clear that he’s no monster. He’s “uninfected,” still clearly cares about the safety of his group, and even asks about Jack before any of the others. I was curiously relieved by this. I’m enjoying the weird, possibly-biological-or-spiritual malaise that Sayid’s undergoing, but it’d be almost unforgivably dark to have someone like Sawyer fall from redemption.

• We learn that Anthony Cooper, aka “Sawyer,” is still apparently responsible for James’ family tragedy. It seems that in the off-Island “universe,” Cooper still seduced his mother and conned his father, driving Ford’s father to shoot his wife and then himself. What does this mean for off-Island Locke’s narrative? We’ve seen it subtly implied that Locke and his father have a relationship in this reality – has Anthony Cooper repented his old ways? Has he simply hidden them? Is he still a con artist, but with a better relationship with his son?

• Another tantalizing tidbit: Miles’ dad is alive, off the Island, and working “at the museum” with Miles’ friend. That friend, of course, is Charlotte, who I was surprised to see in this episode. What’s significant about Miles and Charlotte’s friendship? They were both on the Island at one point. Are they friends because of this connection? I assume that Miles’ father was in the Dharma Initiative at one point, just as Roger Linus was.

• So did Josh Holloway get a haircut or something? It’s weirdly distracting. Is there a Super Cuts Station located somewhere on the Island?

Anti-Locke: “I forgive you.”

• I’m both amused and intrigued by the way that Terry O’Quinn is playing his role on-Island this season. His embodiment of the Man in Black is curiously mannered and almost courtly, yet also prone to moments of seeming self-doubt, weakness, anger, and homicide. I like his honesty with Sawyer about his true nature, and I like the look on Anti-Locke’s face just before his tells the truth on this. It reads two potential ways to me: (1) almost endearingly unsure, like a grown man admitting he can’t read or something, or (2) nervously calculating, as if hoping that the truth will be “the right move” here.

• Anti-Locke tells Sawyer that the Others were convinced that they were protecting the Island from him, when all he wanted was to leave. It seems to me that by preventing him from leaving, the Others may be protecting the Island – a scenario that the Man in Black conveniently omits. Since I’m listing out things I like about O’Quinn’s performance today, I should also mention that his delivery of the “kill or be killed” line (and I don’t wanna be killed) is the stuff great actors are made of.

Anti-Locke: “You are the best liar I ever met.”

• Once again, the Man in Black seems able to see through the people he encounters, and I’m reminded of the way in which we saw the Smoke Monster “scanning” the castaways in the past seasons. How much does he know about Sawyer? About all of the people on the Island? Lost has consistently featured characters like the Others, Jacob and now the Man in Black, who seem to know the castaways better than they know themselves.

• Anti-Locke sends Sawyer over to Hydra Island, where he, Kate and Jack were held in the beginning episodes of Season 3. I don’t think that Sawyer’s been back there since then, and he seems less than thrilled to go. Who can blame him? The last time he visited Sunny Hydra Island he was psychologically manipulated, beaten, and imprisoned. Anti-Locke tells Sawyer that there are other Ajira survivors there and that he has “reason to believe” that those survivors want to hurt them. This suggests to us that Jacob may have had more agents aboard the flight, but whether or not that’s the case doesn’t matter, as we’ll discover. More on this directly below.

• And as far as Anti-Locke’s temperament/general aura go, remember that this guy told Richard they’d need to “take care” of the Ajira survivors last season. Anti-Locke has no qualms with lots and lots of murder – making me wonder whether the order to start the Purge of Dharma was given by Jacob or by the Man in Black. That question will pop up again in this episode. More on it below.

• It seems to me that Anti-Locke is sending Sawyer over for one of two likely reasons: (1) He is testing Sawyer, because he’s killed the Ajira people (rendering the question of whether they’re also “Jacob’s people” entirely moot), he knows they’re dead, and either wants to see what will happen when Sawyer runs across them, or wants to send Sawyer a message and/or (2) He’s sending Sawyer off with the knowledge that Widmore’s men are over there, and he’s comfortable with Sawyer being shot or captured or whathaveyou.

• The character of Charlotte makes her off-Island appearance as James’ ridiculously-good-looking blind date. I mean – good lord. I’m enjoying the way that characters like she and Keamy have been popping up this season. It reinforces the sense that these people were more or less “meant” to draw together for some as-yet-hidden reason, and for me it hasn’t reached a level where it feels any less believable than, say, a column of smoke that impersonates dead folk or a time-traveling Island.

MORE LOST AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!