He’s Our You SE5 EP10

A twelve year old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I’m doing?

This episode marks the return of the traditional Lost format: Real time interspersed with flashbacks focusing on one character. Tonight we see Sayid, and while this episode makes some strides in telling us how Sayid grew to hate Ben, it does not tell the whole story. A good episode with a solid ending—I truly didn’t think Sayid would go through with his “mission” until the target finally dropped to the ground. Of course, he could get thrown in a pit and Walt could come to see him, so whatever. He may not be dead.

Chicken Salad Sandwich
The opening scene is in Tikrit, Iraq. We see a young boy being told by his father that he must kill a chicken to be a man. The boy cannot do it. His younger brother (we presume) comes out, lures the chicken in with some feed and quickly snaps his neck. So I guess the writers were thinking that it was going to be some kind of “OMG” moment when they revealed that the chicken killer was Sayid, but really, was there any doubt after the neck snap?

Sayid is in Russia, pursuing his prey, which he overcomes easily. He meets Ben outside, eager for his next assignment. “Where to next?” Sayid asks. “Nowhere,” Ben replies. “We’re done. You’ve killed all the people that posed a threat to your friends. Congratulations. Mission accomplished.” Sayid is at a loss. Killing for Ben is all he has known. “What should I do now?” “Go live your life. You’re free.” Ben replies.

Sayid is in Santo Domingo at the hippie Habitat for Humanity camp, trying to turn over a new leaf and be a good person. Then Ben shows up for a heavy manipulation session. He tells Sayid that Locke is dead. “I’d say he was murdered…” Oh, would you Ben? Really? “…as retribution for the work we’ve been doing. They found him and now they’re sitting outside of Hurley’s psyche ward. You need to come back and kill them. If they can find Locke they can find you.” Then he brings out the big guns, “Every choice you’ve made in your life---murder, torture-- was not really a choice at all, was it? You’re a killer, Sayid. It’s what you are.” Sayid protests, “I’m not what you think I am.” “Then I apologize.” Ben says insincerely. “I was mistaken about you.” But you can almost hear him thinking, “No I wasn’t.”

We revisit the scene at the boatyard where Sayid tells Ben if he ever sees him again it will be very unpleasant for everyone. Got that? The writers are hitting us over the head with a sledgehammer: Sayid has a grudge against Ben. Sayid wants to kill Ben. And what’s going on in the other timeline? Oh, that’s right: Ben’s bringing Sayid chicken salad sandwiches. It’s like that episode where Michelle fell on the ice and lost her memory, so DJ, Steffi, Uncle Jesse, Joey and Danny have to tell her stories of the past two seasons in flash-back form until she gets her memory back.

Sayid is drinking McCutcheon scotch in a bar when Alana shows up and starts hitting on him. McCutcheon scotch is what Widmore drinks, but not what Desmond drinks because Widmore wouldn’t waste it on Desmond. Sayid asks Alana, “Are you a professional?” “A professional what?” she responds. And I agree. As far as pick up lines go, that one leaves much to be desired. After they get over the awkwardness of Sayid’s inept line, Alana tells Sayid that Sayid looks sad and “I like sad men. What do you do?” She asks “I’m between jobs,” says Sayid, still depressed that there are no more people to kill. “What did you do?” Alana asks. “The only thing I was ever good at. And now, I’m trying to change.” Alana understands. “I know why are sad now. When you are that good at something someone is always going to tempt you into staying the same.”

So naturally, Sayid’s lame pickup line notwithstanding (and really that should have been his first clue. I mean, wouldn’t you have thrown your drink in his face, much less go back to his room, unless you had an ulterior motive?) So it looks like there's going to be some hot sex, until Alana tells Sayid to take her boot off, and instead of just doing it, he tries to be all seductive like and gives her the perfect opportunity to kick him in the face. Damn. She WAS a professional after all.

“Who hired you?” Sayid wants to know. “The family of Peter Avellino-- the man you killed in cold blood on the golf course.” “You’re a bounty hunter?” “It doesn’t matter.” Alana says.

Sayid and Alana are getting on the plane, but when Sayid sees who else is there in pre-board, he’s like a little girl. “Can’t we get another flight?” he whines to Alana. “Man up, Sayid, “Alana responds. Once they are on the plane, Sayid asks Alana if she works for Benjamin Linus. Alana seems genuinely perplexed but God knows if she really is. “Who’s Benjamin Linus?” She wants to know. “A genocidal, manipulative maniac.” Sayid answers. “Why would I work for somebody like that?”Alana wants to know, and really Sayid, when you put it that way, it just seems so distasteful. Sayid tells her he did indeed work for someone just like that.

Then that someone gets on the plane and meaningful stares are exchanged.

Dharma Time
In 1977, which for all intents and purposes could have been the very same year as the boyhood chicken incident we just witnessed, Lil’ Ben brings Sayid chicken salad and a book. Ben’s in the mood to talk, but Sayid isn’t. But that’s ok. Ben can hold a conversation all by himself. He does it all the time, even now. “Did Richard send you? He’s your leader right? It’s just a camera, they can see but they can’t hear. Four years ago, I ran away into the jungle and told Richard I wanted to join you. He told me to be patient. And if you’re patient too, I think I can help you.”

Horace comes into the cell with some pruning shears and cuts Sayid’s bonds. Taking note of the handcuffs, Horace asks, “Either you’re in trouble with your people or you’re a spy. So which is it?” Sayid doesn’t answer, which makes Horace suspicious.

Juliet is brooding over the return of Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid. “It’s over isn’t it?” Juliet asks. “Us playing house?” Sawyer doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Why do women always bring up this relationship crap when I’ve got a situation on my hands? “Nothing’s over.” He tells Jules. Then Horace shows up to voice his concerns over Sayid’s silence. “I’m just going to have Oldham do his thing on him.” Sawyer, who knows what Oldham is all about, says, “Let me have a go at him. He’ll talk to me.”

Sawyer asks Sayid how he’s doing, to which Sayid responds that he’s met Ben and he can’t understand how Sawyer can live here with him. “Yeah, sweet kid, huh?” Sawyer acknowledges. Sawyer then rushes In to Sayid’s cell and head butts him (after first apologizing, of course). Sayid wants to know what he’s doing. Sawyer explains the plan:”I’m beating your confession out of you. You’ve given me some Other info and now you want to defect.” Sayid responds with his signature line, “Now why in the world would I want to do that?” Sawyer tries to explain how this plan would be helpful to both Sayid and Sawyer, like a “win-win”: “I’ve built a life here, and a pretty good one. These people trust me. You need to do everything I say.” Ok, so maybe it’s just a “win.” Sayid recognizes that and refuses to cooperate, so Sawyer tells him he’s on his own.

In the lunchroom, Kate Jack and Hurley are swapping information and trying to get together a plan. Or maybe just trying to decide how to react to everything they see. Kate thinks she can get info out of Juliet. Hurley scoffs. “Why would she tell you anything if Sawyer wouldn’t tell Jack anything?” Kate is confused. Jack and Hurley are uncomfortable. “They’re together.” Hurly explains. “I thought it was kinda obvious. I mean, who couldn’t see that coming?”

Roger Workman comes in to swab out the jail laughing at how Sayid got caught by the inept Dharma hippies. “Yet you’re the one who mops up for them,” Sayid retorts. SNAP! We then witness a lovely domestic scene when Ben brings Sayid another sandwich and Roger Workman is there to witness it. He beats Ben right in front of Sayid. Does this insight into Ben’s formative years soften Sayid’s heart? Well, no. But we don’t know that yet, do we?

Sawyer, forced into taking Sayid to see Oldham, tells Sayid, “Last chance. Got anything to say?” Sayid does not, so it’s off to Larry’s other brother Daryl Oldham. When Sayid asks Sawyer who this guy is, Sawyer answers “He’s our you. “ And viola! A title for episode 10 is born. Larry’s other brother Darryl Oldham puts a couple of drops of something on a sugar cube and forces it into Sayid’s mouth. He tells Sayid to save his energy. “Whether you struggle or not, one thing’s for sure, friend: You will tell us the truth.”

Oldham begins questioning Sayid, asking him why he is in handcuffs. “I am in handcuffs because I am a bad man.” Sayid begins babbling, almost blowing Sawyer’s cover. Then Sayid tells them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, including the uncomfortable impending doom of the entire Dharma initiative. But what freaks out Radzinski is not the fact that they are all going to die; no. What freaks out Radzinski is the fact that Sayid knows about the Swan. How does he know about that? “I’m from the future,” Sayid says. Larry’s other brother Daryl Oldham considers that he may have given too much truth serum, “Half a dropper?” He asks Horace. “No. That was just enough,” Sayid answers and cackles like a madman.

Flash to Juliet and Kate in the motor pool where we find that the “Back off” comment in the previews was a total rip-off. Here we’re thinking we’re going to get a juicy cat fight over Sawyer and instead Kate and Juliet are all nicey-nice. Juliet says, “I didn’t know how to tell you without it sounding like me telling you to back off.” Feh. What a disappointment.

Dharma big shots are gathered in a living room to discuss the fate of Sayid, whom they are still convinced is a hostile. Plus, as Radzinski incessantly reminds everyone, he knows about the Swan and all the other stations. Horace, however, is more concerned with the violation of the truce. “We kill him. Or we consult Ann Arbor.” Radzinski wants to kill him. Sawyer tries to make the case for a defector, “He obviously has problems with his people.” “He knows things.” Radzinski protests. The argument is settled when Amy makes her case: Amy wants to kill him—for the safety of the children. “We have no choice,” Horace lamely explains. They all vote, but Sawyer does not raise his hand. Horace turns around, “I’d really like to say it’s unanimous.” So Sawyer votes yes to kill Sayid.

Sawyer visits Sayid in prison on the sly. He wants to release Sayid, but Sayid is staying put. “When I woke up in the jungle, I thought there was no purpose to it.” Sayid explains. “Now I know why I’m here.”

Sawyer ‘s buggin’ over this whole returning-to-the-island-as-destiny theory, so he approaches Kate and wants to know why Kate came back. Of course, before Kate can answer, the burning hippie bus enters the scene. Sawyer’s disgusted, “3 years, no burning busses. Y’all are back for one day…” gripe is priceless and is a line you will ONLY hear on Lost.

With all the commotion from the burning bus, Sayid is left unattended, which allows Lil’ Ben a perfect opportunity to ask Sayid for a favor. We can probably safely assume that the burning bus was a device of Lil’ Ben’s to create a diversion that would allow him this particular opportunity. “What happened to your glasses?” Sayid asks, noting that they have been damaged and clumsily repaired. “Your father? For bringing me a sandwich?” Ben nods, silent tears streaming down his face. Sayid understands. “My father was a hard man too.” Lil Ben is crying openly. “I hate it here.”Ben tells Sayid that he will let him out if Sayid agrees to take him with him—to Sayid’s people. Sayid agrees happily. “It’s the whole reason I am here.”

Sayid and Ben flee to the jungle, but a hippie bus makes them. Luckily, or not so luckily, it’s Jin. Jin’s prepared to let them go, but wants to talk to Sawyer first. Sayid can’t have that, so he—what? Knocks Jin out? Or breaks Jin’s neck? Lil’ Ben is impressed. “Wow! Where’d you learn to do that?” he asks Sayid. Who doesn’t answer in a conventional way, “You were right about me." I am a killer.” And he whips up his gun and shoots.

Now right up until Ben crumples to the ground I thought Ben was not shot. It thought Sayid shot wide at the last minute because he realized he couldn’t kill Lil’ Ben for all his loser father and miserable childhood existence with these Dharma freaks. But Sayid didn’t miss. Sayid never misses. And Ben goes down. But is he dead? We don’t really know that for sure, do we?

Next week:
More of same crowd. Still no Locke, Sun, Frank or Ben.

Namaste SE5 EP9

I’m sorry, but you have a bit of journey ahead of you.

And that goes double for us. A good solid episode that is worth the price of admission just for that little Jack/Sawyer there's-a-new-sherriff-in-town exchange, and of course, our "Gladiator-esque" moment at the end. Read on.

Crash
We open in the cockpit of flight 316. The plane is going down, Frank is at the controls. The flash happens, the plane comes to a stop and the co-pilot gets impaled. Frank goes back to check on the passengers and finds Sayid, Hurley, Kate and Jack are gone. Sun and Ben are there, as well as Cesar and Alana. When Frank asks Sun where they are, Ben answers, “They’re gone.” Where?” Frank asks. “How should I know?” Ben answers.

But the questions is not “where” are they. Hello! This is season 5! The question is “when” are they, because Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid are in 1977.

It looks like the rest of the survivors are in another time frame. They are at the hyrdra. When Ben realizes this, he skulks off and Sun follows. Cesar starts trying to take charge as Frank is telling everyone to remain calm. By the way, Cesar is pretty annoying. I vote that he should be the first casualty of the new cast. Who’s with me?

So anyway, Sun sees Ben skulk off and follows. “Why are you following me?” Ben asks. “Where you going?” Sun wants to know. “Back to our island.” Ben says as if Sun should have known. “You wanna come?”

Sun is pursuing Ben through the jungle. “Wait!” she calls. Ben predictably replies, “I’m sorry Sun, but waiting doesn’t interest me much. Over on that beach are outriggers which will get me back to the main island.” Frank wants to stop Sun from going with Ben. “You don’t think you can really trust this guy, do you?” “I have to trust him.” Sun says.

Frank doesn’t want Sun to go with Ben. “Sun, don’t go with him! The boat I came to the island on was full of commandos whose only mission was to get him!” “And how’d that work out for everyone?” Ben quips. Then Ben starts launching into his “I’m in charge of everything and I’m going to carry out my agenda no matter what you guys decide to do” bit with Frank when Sun comes up behind him and whacks him on the head with an oar. “I thought you trusted this guy?” Frank says. “I lied.” Sun replies.

Sun and Frank get to the main island and find an abandoned and somewhat worse for wear Dharmaville. Suddenly a light goes on in one of the cottages. A door slowly opens and a man comes out. “Who are you?” Sun and Frank want to know. “I’m Christian.” Sun, not realizing how creepy this is, decides to ask for directions. “I’m looking for my husband, Jin Kwon. Do you know where he is?” Christian doesn’t exactly say: “Follow me.” He replies.

Christian leads them into a room full of dusty pictures and shows them the group picture from 1977. “I’m sorry, but you have a bit of journey ahead of you.”

1977
Jin and Sawyer make plans and Hurley is amazed: “Dude. Your English is awesome.” Kate asks Sawyer, “Who else is here?” When Jin hears that Sun is with them, he takes off in the Jeep and heads to the Flame to see if anyone saw a plane land.

Radzinski is a fussy little man who runs the Flame and in his spare time there is building a model of the Swan. We also know that Radzinski was the guy whose brain stain is on the ceiling of the Swan station, as he blew his head off shortly before Desmond landed on the island and began his tenure with Mr. Krabbs. Jin comes in and begins rooting through printouts, which pisses off Radzinski good and proper. “Nobody handles any of the gear in this station except me!”

Meanwhile, Sawyer runs home to get some clothes to disguise Kate, Hurley and jack, but in the meantime, Juliet’s suspicions have been aroused. She comes across Sawyer packing his clothing care package and asks him what’s going on. Sawyer tells her that they are back: Kate, Jack and Hurley. Juliet loses her breath—is it just the impact of their return, or is it Kate? Or is it Jack? “There’s a sub coming in this afternoon. We’re going to make sure they are on the manifest.”

Amy sleeping by the sub manifest after having delivered her baby. The baby is Ethan. Not, I repeat, NOT Goodwin. I think it would have been better if it was Goodwin, but I don’t write the show, do I? Juliet plays with the baby and Amy asks her when she’s going to have one. Juliet gets that wistful look about her. “The timings gotta be right.” She says with tears in her eyes.

Time out her for a second to ask if anyone else thinks Juliet somehow knows what’s going to happen. She seems very sad as if she knows her destiny will be tragic. She is close to tears this whole episode. And next week she tells Kate to back off.

Back at the clearing where Sawyer left Kate jack and Hurley, Kate asks Jack, “So the woman who told you we had to come back, did she mention it would be thirty years ago?” “Nope.” Jack replies. “She left that part out. “ Sawyer arrives with the gear and lays out the plan. “You all are gonna be the second batch of recruits. I’ll get you jobs, you all just go along.” Sawyer is the man with the plan, but Jack is skeptical. Sawyer lays it out: either do what Sawyer says or camp in the jungle for six months. “I vote for not camping.” Hurley says. Kate agrees, “I think we should listen to Sawyer.” You can tell Jack’s not into Sawyer being in charge over him, but he goes along with it.

Radzinski sees something on his motion detector. “There’s a hostile inside the perimeter,” he tells Jin. Jin goes out in pursuit and finds Sayid. They have precious few seconds to communicate before the insufferable Radzinski shows up, at which time Jin pulls the gun on Sayid and tells him to shut up. “Say another word and you’re dead!” Sayid, no slouch when it comes to taking his cues from Jin in weird situations, does just as he’s told.

Meanwhile, Jack, Kate and Hurley are on their way back to Dharmaville. “You do realize those dudes get wiped out, right?” Hurley says to Sawyer. Sawyer tells them that he’s not there to interfere. That their friend Faraday has a whole set of rules they need to follow. “Faraday’s here?” Jack asks. “Not anymore,” Sawyer answers. Which begs the question: where is Faraday? Is he dead? Or has he gone over to the Others?

Jin calls on the walkie: he’s got a 14J—a hostile. It’s Sayid. Sawyer goes out to bring him in.

Our Lostaways arrive at intake and begin checking in. Dr. Candle/Halliwax introduces himself to Jack as Dr. Cheng, all the while bitching because the woman who was supposed to do this (Amy) had a baby last night. Jack, eager to find out what job Sawyer has “hooked him up with” is assigned janitorial work based on his aptitude tests. You can almost hear Sawyer say “Gotcha, Doc.”. Kate’s name isn’t on any of the manifests and just as the geeky Phil starts to get suspicious, Juliet arrives to rescue Kate. “Welcome to the island, Kate,” says Juliet with a smile, when she really wants to say, “Stay away from Sawyer or I’ll kill you beotch.”

Sawyer introduces himself to Sayid, “My names LeFleur, I want you to listen to everything I say. Identify yourself as a hostile so we can abide by the treaty.” Sayid, no slouch when it comes to taking cues from Sawyer in weird situations, complies. Sawyer takes him back to Dharmaville and escorts him to Dharmaville prison. Hurley sees him and says, “I guess we found Sayid.”

Jack is walking through the compound and asks Phil, “Where does James LeFleur live?” Phil directs him and Juliet opens the door. Jack thinks he is lost, but Jules invites him in. And there’s sawyer, reading his book, as usual. Juliet makes her excuses to leave them alone. “I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about. “ Sawyer invites jack in and offers him a beer. Jack, not ever one for patience, wants to know what’s next. Sawyer tells him he’s thinking about it. Jack says, “That’s funny. Because it looks like you’re reading a book.” Sawyer launches into the most delicious exchange of the night, “I heard once, Winston Churchill read a book a night, even during the blitz. It helped him think. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m thinking. Because thinking is what saved your ass today and thinking is what’s keeping Sayid safe tonight. But when you were in charge, you didn’t think, you just reacted.” “I got us off the island,” Jack protests. “And here you are, right back where you started. I got to this position by thinking. Now all you have to do is listen. And isn’t that a relief?” Jack seems surprised to find he agrees with sawyer. “Yeah, it is.” Jack goes off into the night and Sawyer follows him out so that he can exchange a secret wave with Kate who is standing on the porch across the way.

Cut to Sayid’s cell. A little kid comes in and says to Phil, “I’m just going to go in there and deliver him a sandwich.” He approaches the cell and tells Sayid, “I didn’t put mustard on it but if you’d like some, I can get you some.” What follows is an exchange reminiscent of the scene in Gladiator when Lucius approached Maximus while he’s in the cell before the games begin. Maximus knows who Lucius is, but Lucius does not know who Maximus is. The same dynamic is at play here. “Are you a hostile?” The kid asks. “Do you think I am?” Sayid replies. “What’s your name?” “Sayid. What’s yours?”

“I’m Ben.”

Brrrr. “Hello Ben.” Sayid says. “It’s nice to meet you.” But you know he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t mean it at all.

Next week:
All hell breaks loose. Juliet tells Kate to back off, Sayid figures out why he’s back on the island and it’s to kill someone (or at least shoot a gun), probably at Ben.

Le Fleur SE5 EP8

“The record is spinning again. We’re just not on the song we want to be on.”

A cool episode that opens the door for answering a lot more questions. Very enjoyable, especially the Juliet/Sawyer thing.

Now where were we? Oh yes...
We rejoin our Lostaways right where Locke left them. After the first time flash, we see what we presume to be the full on version of the the three toed statue off on the beach. But of course, before anyone can verify, there is a bigger flash and a bit of an earthquake. It seems that Locke did it; turning the wheel has cured the symptoms of Minkowski time displacement syndrome. ”What do we do now?” they ask the new de-facto leader, Sawyer. Sawyer says they wait until Locke comes back.

As they trek through the jungle, they come across a distraught Daniel, who tells them of Charlotte’s demise and disappearance. “I’m not going to tell her,” he mutters to himself. Daniel gets it together sufficiently enough to let them know that the time flashes are over and that wherever and whenever they are that that is where they are going to stay. Sawyer decides they should head back to the beach to wait for Locke. Miles is somewhat less than thrilled with this idea. “Oh sure. And then when we get bored with that we can head back to the Orchid. Those are the only two plans you people have.” But Juliet steps up and endorses Sawyer’s plan, and it’s off to the beach they go. Sawyer thanks Juliet for “having his back” and where there was only a hint of romance, now we see it begin to bloom.

It turns out they are in the Dharma seventies. They hear gunshots and shouting as they come across an altercation between some DH’s (Dharma Hippies) and apparent Others. The male DH is dead and the female DH has a burlap bag over her head and is being threatened. Juliet and Sawyer take out the Others leaving the frightened widow Amy alone. When Sawyer tells her she has to go with them, she tells them they first have to bury the Others—“The truce!” she worries (killing these Others has apparently broken it.) and that they must take Paul, her dead husband back to the barracks.

So after they do all this for Amy, she leads them to the sonic fence, which Daniel almost walks right into. Our Lostaways know what this is and luckily Juliet is paying attention and stops Daniel before he walks into it. “He would have fried his brain!” Juliet whispers to Sawyer. “His brain’s already fried.”They tell Amy to disarm it, and she tells them that she has, but what she’s really done is turn it down to stun setting and grabbed a pair of earplugs out of the fuse box. The Lostaways fall stunned inside the fence and are brought to the DI barracks.

Horace meets with Sawyer who tells them that his boat wrecked and he’s looking for the rest of his crew. Sawyer’s story about being on a salvage ship looking for an old slaver named the “Black Rock” is an especially nice touch. Horace tells him that he and the other Lostaways are on the next sub out. When Sawyer asks if he can stay to “look for his crew,” Horace tells him that only Dharma Hippies are allowed in this compound and he, Sawyer, is just not “Dharma Material”. As Sawyer is relaying this news to the other Lostaways, a little redhead flits by with her mummy, looks over her shoulder at Daniel and waves: Charlotte. The the creepy Dharma alarm starts sounding and the spell is broken. All hell breaks loose on the compound. They all run for cover. Richard is coming, and boy is he pissed.

Richard and Horace exchange words over the truce, Richard scoffing at Horace’s feeble little sonic fence which does not affect the Others. As things start to heat up, Sawyer insists to Horace that he be allowed to talk to “your buddy out there with the eyeliner” (YES! YES! YES! I’m so glad they acknowledged the eyeliner AT LAST!) “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Juliet asks.

Sawyer tells Richard that he killed the Others because he saw them with a gun, asked them to put it down, and when one of them took a shot at him, he defended himself. Adequately. Since Sawyer is not “Dharma Material” it was not Dharma who broke the truce. Richard still seems pissed off, so Sawyer then asks him about the bomb. “Did you bury jughead?” Now Richard is not only pissed, but intrigued as well. “How ‘bout the bald dude marching into your camp and telling you he was your leader then disappearing into thin air?” Sawyer asks. “His name is John Locke and I’m waiting for him to come back.” And an agreement is reached, but at the price of the body of Paul, Amy’s dead husband.

To keep the truce, Amy agrees to give Paul’s body to the Others, but she removes his Ankh necklace first and keeps it. For at least three years, as we find out later.

Sawyer finds Juliet sitting on the dock by the sub. He thinks that she’ll be happy that he’s bought them two weeks longer to sit on the island and wait for Locke. Juliet explains to him that she’s been trying to get off the island for three years. She’s leaving. Sawyer is at a loss. He can’t believe Juliet is going to leave him with “The mad scientist and Mr. I-talk-to-dead-people. And Jin, who’s a helluva nice guy, but not much of a conversationalist. Besides, who will have my back? C’mon. Just give me two weeks.” Sawyer grins his most charming grin and Juliet is a goner. Who wouldn’t be?

Three years later
Two Dharma hippies are watching the TV screens in the Pearl. Suddenly they see our old friend Horace drunk and lighting sticks of dynamite. They decide they must wake “Le Fleur “ and tell him. A knock on the door reveal LeFleur to be Sawyer, who is now apparently going by “Jim” as well.

Sawyer and Miles take Horace back to his wife, the woman the rescued three years before, Amy. As Sawyer is talking with Amy, she goes into labor. Unfortunately, the baby is a breach. It must be delivered by ceasarian section, but the lame internist that Dharma is using for a doctor says, “I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!”. So Sawyer runs to get Juliet, who is now an “Auto Mechanic”. She’s none too pleased that Sawyer is getting her back into the OB-GYN field, mostly because “every woman she’s tried to help in childbirth on this island has died.” Sawyer has faith in her—he knows she can do this, so she goes to Amy, where she immediately takes charge.

Jin comes to tell Sawyer that they have finished grid 133. “Any sign of our people?” “No.” Then I guess we go on to grid 134 then.” “How long do we keep searching?“ Jin wants to know. “Until we find them,”

A tearful Juliet emerges from the infirmary. It’s a boy and mommy and baby are doing fine.

Later on, Sawyer is returning home and he stops to pick a flower. He opens the door to his hut to find Juliet making dinner—because she lives there too. He hands her the flower and tells her how proud he is of how she delivered Amy’s baby. She tells him how much she appreciated him believing in her. They tell each other how much they love each other and embrace.

Time out here for a brief note: I know Sawyer belongs with Kate. But I have to say how happy I was to see him and Juliet together—and how happy they were together, how good they were for each other and how right they seemed together—which is exactly what the writers wanted us to feel since they bring Kate back in two scenes.

Sawyer is with Horace when he wakes up. The good news is he’s a daddy, the bad news is that he missed it. Horace tells Sawyer that the fight with Amy was about Paul, he first husband who was killed by the Others. He was looking for socks and found Paul’s Ankh necklace in her drawer. “It’s only been three years. Do you think three years is long enough to get over someone?” Sawyer gets that faraway look in his eyes and tells Horace that “I had a thing for a girl once. I had a real shot at her , too, but I didn’t take it. For a little while I'd lay in bed every night wondering if it was a mistake, wondering if I'd ever stop thinking about her. Now I can barely remember what she looks like. Her face is...she's just gone. And she ain't NEVER coming back.” Sawyer blinks and clears his vision. “So is three years enough time to get over someone? Absolutely.”

The next morning the phone rings to wake Sawyer and Juliet. We know it’s Jin and we know what he’s telling Sawyer. “Don’t bring them in. I’ll meet you in the valley.” Sawyer gets up and gets dressed and Juliet is concerned, but Sawyer tells her everything in under control.

Sawyer takes the Jeep and sees Jin arrive in the Hippie Bus. Hurley and Jack step out. They part to reveal Kate. Sawyer and Kate look at each other.

No. Three years is not enough.

Thoughts on this episode
So it's very late, my hands are numb and my brain is probably at least half as fried as Daniel's, but a couple things occur to me immediately following this episode:

--What or who is Jin searching for in the grid search?

--Who, if anyone, is Amy’s baby? If it was a girl, we could assume maybe it was the mysterious Annie, but a boy? I am without a clue….

--Am I the only one out there who loves the new Comcast commercials?

--What is the significance of three years? Not only have three years passed on the mainland, but three years have passed in Dharmaland AND Juliet was on the island for three years and wanted to go home.

--Is it possible that the “war” that’s coming has anything to do with Ben gassing the inhabitants of the Dharma Initiative? Will we see little Ben in this timeline? Will we see Roger Workman?

Scenes from next week
How do we integrate our newly arrived Lostaways into the groovy Dharma Initiative of the seventies without messing up what our original Lostaways already have.