"LaFleur"

I don't know what the LOST community will think of the new episode of the show but I have to say that I really liked it. It definitely continued to slow the pace of things, but I think that it is necessary at this point in the story.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this was a Sawyer episode since it has been a remarkably long time since he has had one (can you believe it was "Every Man For Himself," the fourth episode of Season 3?!?). As we all expected, Locke fixing the wheel caused the time flashes to stop but not before Sawyer and company got a rear view of the elusive four-toed statue! What a tease to only give us a brief view and then flash to 1974! If there weren't already an end date for the show, I would wager that another two and a half seasons would pass before another four-toed statue reference. Then again, just because there are only twenty-seven episodes left doesn't necessarily mean we will learn that much more about it either...

I was happy to learn that those that remained on the Island experienced a full three years just as those that went home but it will be interesting to see why Jack, Kate and Hurley returned to the Island in 1977. And what about Sayid and Sun? We're all assuming Sun was the woman that took off with the pilot after the crash of Ajira 316, but someone on a podcast I heard last week made a good point: the pilot referred to in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" might have actually been the co-pilot and not Frank.

Like I said before, I really liked this episode even though it wasn't action packed. I think I liked it because it gave us another look at the Dharma Initiative and the Island's recent past. And if there is no "time machine," we will be seeing a lot more of the Dharma Initiative in future episodes. I guess I also liked it because it is intriguing to think that some of the survivors of Oceaninc 815 are so involved in the recent history of the Island.

It's been a while since we've seen Sawyer in full con-man mode and he slipped right back into as if he had never stopped. I never would have suspected him to be the titular "LaFleur." So he, Miles and an English-fluent Jin are part of the Dharma security team. And Juliet is a mechanic?!? Interestingly though, there were no 1977 mentions of Daniel Faraday. It was sad for him to see the child version of Charlotte in 1974. I wonder if he was the scary old man that Charlotte remembered before 1977 or if that is yet to come. I would expect that it is yet to come.

And the big item that I was expecting all episode but wasn't revealed until near the end...Sawyer and Juliet hooked up. Of course it was sad to hear Sawyer tell Horace that three years is long enough to forget someone knowing that he was about to see Kate again. So does he still love Kate? I think that he must, otherwise he would have told Juliet where he was going when Jin called him. Kate's face may have faded a bit from his memory, but those feelings couldn't have faded so quickly. If he is still in love with her, what is this going to do to poor Juliet. I'll be honest...I've never really cared much for Juliet. Maybe it's because of her constantly snarky, condescending attitude or that it still seems like she is holding things back until she has to tell everybody something about the Others, but I just don't like her much. I've only felt sympathetic for her once before and that was when we learned that she had been tricked into staying on the Island by Ben in "Not In Portland." Despite my history of dislike for Juliet though, I felt a bit sad for her. Sawyer could be the second guy in three years to forsake her for Kate. That would just suck for her.

I loved Sawyer's conversation with Richard Alpert. I've always thought Richard was a mystical time traveler. How else would he know so much about the future and never age? He's still mystical because he appears to have eternal youth, but he is not all knowing. He is all remembering. The more we see of past interactions with Locke and Sawyer, it seems that Richard only appears to know the future. We've always thought he knew Locke was special but it all started when Locke appeared to him in 1954 and told him he was going to be the leader some day. Locke disappeared, Richard waited two years and sure enough, John Locke was born just as he told Richard he would be. Twenty years later, Sawyer has a conversation with Richard and refers to 1954 events with Locke and says he is waiting for Locke's return. Suddenly Locke seems very important to Richard. Flash forward to Locke meeting with Richard in the Other's camp in Season 3. Richard says they've all been waiting a long time for him. Richard sure seemed to know a lot about Locke, but it's only because he'd already met Locke before and heard about other people also waiting for him. This is likely more than fate, but my thinking about Richard has totally changed now.

I liked the Sawyer's isolated meeting with Jin, Hurley, Jack and Kate. This is reason that I think this episode slowed the pace a bit. We are nearly to the halfway point of the season and a new beginning to the show. Now what? It was very important for the Oceanic 6 to return to the Island, but to what end? The survival of Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, etc. was at stake, but what do Jack, Hurley and Kate do now? Time will tell. And what the hell is with the week hiatus? ABC is all about broken promises apparently! Last year they promised no breaks and then the strike happened leading to several weeks off. This year they said, "No breaks...seventeen straight episodes." Well here we are with a rerun of "LaFleur" next week before the next new episode on March 18. What gives?!?