"The Last Recruit"

Lucky 13.  Only five hours of LOST left, presented over three Tuesdays and a Sunday in May.  That's right...if you didn't glean it from the post-episode preview for the finale event, there will NOT be a new episode next week.  I repeat: NO NEW EPISODE NEXT WEEK!  Instead ABC will be airing a re-run of "Ab Aeterno" which will presumably be an enhanced version.  So LOST will officially conclude without ever completing an uninterrupted season which ABC has been promising since the second half of Season 3.  Granted, there was a (somewhat) unanticipated writers strike during Season 4 which created a hole in the schedule, however there were gaps in the schedule in Seasons 3 & 5 despite promises of "no breaks" and "no repeats."  So is there an upside to this?  There is, in a sense.  As stated above, the last three regular hour long episodes will air on May 4, 11 & 18 (all Tuesdays) followed by the two-hour series finale which will air on Sunday May 23.  So in the end, we will see the last three hours of LOST over a five day period.  So it goes, I guess.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

If there is one word that describes the way I felt while watching this week's LOST episode, it would be "anxious."  There were so many times I was just anticipating something really terrible happening.  It was a palpable sense of dread.  I suppose it's because with so few episodes left, I would not be surprised if there were a shocking death coming before the finale.  I don't know who it might be but I'll admit that I am very worried about Desmond.  I don't think that we've seen the last of him but I am concerned.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It seems that we have now passed the point of single character-centric episodes.  Damon and Carlton hinted that this would be the case earlier in the season so I expect that going forward, we will see stories in remaining episodes following multiple characters as flash-sideways threads are brought together and pieces are set on the Island stage for the final act.  Since the flash-sideways were made so important by "Happily Ever After" and "Everybody Loves Hugo," I found myself enjoying this week's multiple storylines converging and all of the characters crisscrossing with one another like never before.  As expected, we see hit-and-run victim John Locke arriving at the emergency room at the same time as gut-shot Sun and shell-shocked Jin.  It appeared that Sun had her Island flash when she recognized Locke on his gurney.  So when will Sideways Locke have his flash of the Island?  And did Jack have his when he recognized Locke in the operating room?

I was very surprised to see Sideways Claire intercepted by Desmond on her way to visit the adoption agency.  Not only that, but I was definitely not expecting Sideways Ilana to be the lawyer that he was trying to get Claire to meet.  But the gears immediately started turning in my head and I realized that Ilana was probably also Christian Shepard's estate attorney and so we would get the Sideways Jack/Claire meeting foreshadowed in "Lighthouse."  The Sideways Sawyer/Miles/Sayid interaction was very interesting especially considering its placement relative to the Island Sayid story arc.  I'll revisit that in a bit.  And of course the Sideways Kate/Sawyer interaction was nothing shocking.  As has been the case all season long, our flash-sideways stories were all left with dangling threads to be picked up again in the remaining episodes of the show.

On the Island, we got a major download right away during the much anticipated conversation between Jack and Fake Locke.  I was pleased that Jack asked Locke point blank if he was the one posing as Christian Shepard on their third day on the Island.  I was equally pleased to hear Locke admit that it was.  Very cool.  As many of us long-term LOST fans have begun to suspect, all of the castaways have been manipulated by both Jacob and the Man In Black for a long time.  Now it would seem that Jacob conducted his business off-Island while the Man in Black has been manipulating everyone from the moment they arrived on the Island. 

After a demonstration of power and an ultimatum by Widmore's people, Locke sends Sayid to take care of his dirty work with Desmond.  Like I said before, I am concerned about Desmond's future.  I wasn't so much last week, but Sayid seems like he has nothing left to lose and would have no qualms about offing the Scotsman.  However, Desmond's questions to Sayid were very prescient and seemed to indicate that he knew that Locke had promised things that could only be given to Sayid with a great price.  Was this Desmond's attempt to get Sayid to have a flash of his sideways life?  This would make sense as it really would be the kind of deal the devil would make with someone.  Nadia would be alive but not with Sayid.  Not to mention that Sayid would be in jail thanks to the quick work of detectives Sawyer and Miles.  I was very anxious, but I did find the conversation between Desmond and Sayid very moving and I even felt a little sad that this was how Desmond would die.  Since we didn't see him again, I feel like Desmond is still alive for now but I will remain very worried about his future.

I've never been too keen on any plans involving the sailboat ever since Sayid and Jin royally screwed the pooch with it in "The Glass Ballerina." But I guess since Sayid and Jin weren't involved in this plan, things worked out well.  Sawyer and Kate found the boat and rendezvoused with Jack, Hurley, Sun and Frank.  Unfortunately, crazy Clarie followed them and was allowed on the boat.  What could possibly go wrong?  And just when I started to like Jack, he had his weird standoff with Saywer prompting him to jump off the boat and return to Locke.  I have no idea who is right and wrong in this fight, or if it will even be a clear dichotomy when all is said and done, but this shuffling around of the pawns could get very tedious if kept up for too long.  In any event, Jack arrived back to Locke just about the time that Sawyer et al were greeted as unwelcomed visitors by Widmore's team.  Thankfully Jin was still with them and the very very long overdue Sun and Jun reunion finally happened.  Sun got her voice back and all is right with the Kwons...for now.

Widmore's team bombarded Locke, Jack and the Others but Locke was able to move a dazed Jack to safety.  We are left to believe that Jack is now officially on board with Locke.  I disagree.  If Jack is to be the new Jacob, he's probably right where he needs to be to help contain the Man in Black.  But what do I know?!? There are three more episodes left to move this pieces around the game board several more times before the finale.  Despite my anxiety, I enjoyed this episode even if it was a lot of set-up for future events and machinations.  I especially liked the increasing connections between flash-sideways characters.  I'm not happy that it will be two weeks before we find out what happens next but I suppose we must make the best of it.  After all, there is so little LOST left, we must savor every minute we can get!