LOST Episode 8 - Recon

I enjoyed this episode more than most people seemed to. “Recon” very much functioned as a filler to tie in between the epic “Dr. Linus” and the upcoming Richard centric “Ab Aeterno”.

We meet Sawyer in LA, doing what he does best... fornicating with a hot girl. You know what comes next... he’s late for a meeting, quickly puts on a shirt, suitcase opens with lots of money, girl pulls a gun on him... wait, what? Rewind that! So she asks “how stupid do you think I am”, to which he replies “Pretty damn stupid” and says he’s a cop, using the magic word... LaFleur!!... as team Miles busts in and arrests her. So Sawyer works with Miles fighting crime (excellent LOST spin-off idea I might add). Sawyer is also known as “Jim” in this time-line, giving us the idea that his parents were never conned (remember, John Locke has a good relationship with his father). Jim is calling a bunch of Anthony Coopers though, which is suspicious. Miles sets him up on a date with his hot archaeologist friend who turns out to be Charlotte. After telling her that he chose being a cop over a life of crime, she does what every woman seems to do... jump him in the bedroom. One Sawyer sex scene later... she finds a folder containing an article about how Sawyer... erm... Jim’s father killed his mother and then himself. Sawyer flips and angrily kicks her out. The next day Miles confronts him on why he went to Australia (he checked Jim’s credit cards... clingly alert), which he refuses to tell, so Miles dumps him. We see Sawyer on the couch, alone, eating and watching “Little House on the Prairie”, an episode which is talking about death and how the ones we love will always be with us in spirit, a very poignant moment. He confesses to Miles about how he’s been looking for “Sawyer” since he graduated the academy, a powerful moment which is interrupted by none other than Kate hitting their car and then running like the Smoke Monster’s chasing her. Sawyer catches her, recognizes her from the airport, and looks turned on, which is too bad, because I’m pretty sure she’s under arrest.

On the island, we find UnLocke returning to Sawyer and Jin as he announces to everyone that the black smoke killed everyone at the temple but they’re going to be fine. Claire and Kate share an awkward moment in the presence of the racoon creature, and later on Claire tries to kill Kate while Sayid watches apathetically. UnLocke throws her off, shows off his pimp hand with a firm slap across the face, and tells her to play nice. Seems like UnLocke is running a pretty interesting day care center. Back in Sawyerville, UnLocke reveals himself as “The Smoke Thing” to him, and straps him with the task of visiting Hydra Island and finding out what happened to the Ajira survivors. He finds flight 316 alongside a pile of rotting people. Along the way, he runs into Tina Fey’s long lost sister, who identifies herself as Zoe and says that she found all the people dead, and is the last Ajira survivor. Her story goes south when she begins to ask Sawyer if his people have guns, and Sawyer, recognizing a con person when he sees them, pulls a gun on her. Unfortunately, Sawyer is no match for her team and he is taken captive. He is brought to the sub, where we see a locked room. Sawyer talks to Charles Widmore, who we discover is NOT on UnLocke’s side, as he seems a bit confused when Sawyer brings up Locke’s name. Sawyer tells Widmore he’ll tell Smokie the coast is clear so he won’t know they’re waiting, but then rows back tot he regular island and tells UnLocke everything. Clearly Sawyer is only working for his own team, and we discover this because he tells Kate that while everyone else is fighting, they’re using the sub to leave the island.

So Widmore is apparently on his own agenda. We see his people building sonar fences like the ones in DHARMAville. It seems like they are to keep the Smoke Monster out, but did Widmore build the fences in DHARMAville and was he ever a member or affiliated with them? We only see him as an Other on the island. Another question is what’s behind the locked door? People have theorizes that it’s Desmond, Eloise, Aaron, Walt, Faraday (who is dead...) but I’m not so sure it’s a person. It might be a device that could be used to destroy the smoke monster or kill everyone on the island like he originally intended to do. Remember, his only goal has been to control the island and gain back his power. Smokie also reveals he has a mother and has “problems” he’s still trying to work out. This begs the question: Did Jacob bring the original Man in Black to the island or did he bring his mother to the island and was the MIB born there? It also begs the question: Is Smoke just lying and manipulating everyone? The last island question concerns how the Ajira survivors died. We know that UnLocke talked about “dealing” with the survivors in the season 5 finale, so I think he probably had something to do with their deaths. They seemed to be dead far too long for it to have been Widmore’s team. There are some irrelevant questions like why did Sawyer let Kate go at the airport if he’s a cop. He obviously found her hot and was being a gentleman, and also didn’t want anyone finding out he was coming from Australia when he was supposed to be in Palm Springs. Other than that, LOST fans can eagerly anticipate what may become the highest rated episode ever... Ab Aeterno! Finally we get some answers on Richard Alpert! It’s going to be very epic!