"Recon"

Great episode of LOST tonight. I liked the story, the pacing and the information revealed. All in all a strong episode.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

First I have to mention that Sawyer's shorter hair was extremely distracting to me throughout the entire episode. I'm not sure what the story is with that but it just looked strange. This is not a real gripe, it's just that his hair has been fairly consistent throughout the past few seasons and to see such a change was very odd. But that is neither hair(!) nor there. I really liked the sideways storyline in this episode but I must admit that I figured out the story arc very earlier on. Surprisingly that did not diminish my enjoyment of the episode though. I found it very satisfying even though his blind date turned out to be with Charlotte rather than Juliet but as usual I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was definitely conned in the beginning of the episode even though I jokingly told Roxi that Sideways Sawyer was a cop before the reveal. I loved that "LaFleur" was the code word and that Sideways Miles was his partner. Just like old Dharma times! When Sideways James was making phone calls to Anthony Coopers, I had a suspicion that even in this world, his parents were dead and he was trying to find the man who was responsible for it. According to Miles, his dad (Pierre Chang?) is still alive and works at the same museum as Charlotte. So here we have another member of the DI who came back to the real world for the as yet to be disclosed reason. I wonder if Sideways Miles was born on the Island or if he has any memories of it.

I was really expecting for Sawyer to "go Dutch" with Juliet on his blind date but alas it was good old Charlotte. And with her snooping we got the reveal that this James Ford has the same sad past. Nice to see him admit it all to Miles but a little scary to see his intensity when he said he was planning to kill Anthony Cooper. I wonder if Sideways Sawyer killed Sideways Frank Duckett when he was in Australia. I knew that there had to be some crazy end to the sideways story and it came when Sideways Kate came running onto the scene. We're left with James catching Kate and recognizing her from the airport....which raises the question: if he noticed her handcuffs in "LA X," why didn't he do something about it then? Answer: because it would have tipped the writers hand that he was a cop which was something they wanted to be revealed now not then.

More characters are crossing into sideways stories each week. Is there going to be some critical mass where all the characters are in the same place at the same time again? Will this create some kind of nexus that reconciles our two storylines? It seems that something is up but what is it?

Back on the Island, it was nice to see that Jin is recovering, but that's all we got of him. I wonder when the Jin and Sun episode will be. Fake Locke is playing a different game with each of his followers and I'm finding it very interesting what information he chooses to reveal to each of them. He admits to Sawyer that he is the Black Smoke, yet he tells everyone else that the Black Smoke killed all the temple Others. He talks to Kate about his crazy mother (truth or lie?) so that she can understand what Aaron will be up against when he is reunited with Claire. I'm not sure what parts of his story to believe but I don't think he's being entirely truthful.

When Sawyer went to Hydra Island to do reconnaissance, I expected some but not all of the Ajira passengers to be dead. I was pretty sure that Zoe was not who she said she was and that Widmore was involved in some way. There have been so many misdirections and twists in this show, when Sawyer mentioned that he knew who Widmore was, I honestly didn't remember that they are all under the (mistaken?) impression that Charles Widmore sent the freighter to kill all the Oceanic survivors. Of course Widmore did little to clarify with his vague comment about how little Sawyer et al understand. It was very interesting to see the temporary sonic fence being assembled around Widmore's teams' base camp. Does that mean that Widmore from the old days of the Island was involved in the construction of the original fence or did he just learn it's importance because it was already there?

I was pretty sure that Sawyer was working a long con on Fake Locke since "The Substitute" but this episode sealed the deal as he seems to be stringing both Locke and Widmore along so that he can get off the Island. And for some reason he told Kate that she is going with him!?! That seems like a bit of a departure from the Sawyer that was despondent and rudderless back in "What Kate Does." I'm not sure how Sawyer plans to achieve his goal but I fear that there will be some collateral damage along the way. For the record I think that either Kate or Sawyer will be shot while they are in an outrigger canoe in pursuit of the outrigger canoe that time-flashing Locke and company were using in "The Little Prince." Recall that time-flashing Juliet shot someone on the pursuing outrigger. For a while now, I've thought that it would be the ultimate irony if she unknowingly shot and killed Sawyer but now I'm starting to think it would be ultimate karma if she unknowingly shot and killed Kate.

There's probably plenty that I've forgotten to mention, but that's all I have for tonight. Now I have to compose myself and not get my expectations up too much for the next episode of LOST. I've been waiting for next week's story for a very long time...I really hope it doesn't disappoint!