S6Ep13 - The Last Recruit

Hello my dear friends -

Ever work at a restaurant? Back in the day I used to waitress at The Olive Garden -- or, as I preferred to call it, "The O.G." Mmm, breadsticks. Anyway, whenever anyone was running behind on their orders we would say they were "in the weeds." That expression came back to me this morning as I wrestled with how to explain that I will not be writing recaps for the next three Lost episodes. My excuse is that I'm very, very much in the weeds right now with my book project. I'll be going into total lockdown (pun intended) mode until it's done -- no daylight, no fresh air, no phone calls, etc. I'm even having to scale back my work for redbox and am taking a week off for the first time in twenty months -- that's how serious this situation is. Dah! After my manuscript is in, I will emerge from the depths of my condo looking like some sort of Gollum-ish creature. No, I will not post pictures.

What I plan to do instead of writing recaps for the May 4th, 11th and 18th episodes is post about a paragraph's worth of my thoughts either immediately following the show or the next morning. That way it'll give anyone who wants to leave an opinion or theory about that specific episode a place to do so... and if I ever get a moment to breathe, I will try to add a few additional thoughts in the comments section -- but no promises. I do, however, promise to write The Mother of All Recaps for the series finale.

In the meantime, here is my take on "The Last Recruit." I had this 90% written the day after the show aired, but then things got away from me.

"The Last Recruit" was one of those episodes where the time just flew by because the hour was focused on getting characters in certain places rather than the overall mythology of the show. It seriously seemed like only 20 minutes had passed by the time the end credits rolled. So there's not a heck of a lot to say theory-wise. I still really enjoyed the episode, though it didn't live up to the crazy-high expectations I had based on that kick-ass Willy Wonka preview.

I'll tackle the alternate timeline first.

- If, as I speculated last week, Des had mowed Locke down in the hopes of inducing his Island memories through a traumatic experience, then his plan worked. Did you catch how Locke said Helen was the woman he "was going" to marry... rather than the woman he is going to marry? That's a sign he's seen the other side, in my book. Same goes for Sun... she'd been shot and thought she might have lost her baby, which was certainly enough to trigger visions of the original timeline. That's why she was freaking out and yelling, "Oh no, it's him!" when being wheeled into the hospital next to Locke (which was a totally cool scene). She thought it was the MIB. When she was out of surgery later, however, she seemed to be back to normal after she found out the baby was OK. But if she runs into any of the 815ers again, will that trigger another memory?

- Over at the police station, Sawyer was flirting it up with Fugitive Kate and musing over how many times they'd run into each other. I'm sure tons of Skaters cheered when Sawyer said, "It's like something wants us together" (or whatever the line was -- close enough). And did you notice how he was eating an apple and offered it to Kate as well? Is that a hint they're going to turn out to be the Adam and Eve skeletons? Then he learned about how Sayid escaped from what would go down in the record books as the Good Eggs Massacre, and he and Miles set out to find their prime suspect. I'm wondering if Kate will be gone by the time they return. I'm thinking she will be.

- Alt Sayid is totally weak and I was not digging him in this episode. His hair is a disgrace, he doesn't wear tank tops, and he was basically brought down by a freakin' garden hose. I mean, come on. What happened to Badass Sayid? He doesn't exist in the Sideways Timeline. I actually prefer Dead Eye Sayid. And now it's clear that NO version of Sayid is meant to live happily ever after with Nadia, dammit.

- Elsewhere in the sideways world, Des is stalking 815ers once again. This time he's found Claire, and he convinces her to talk with his attorney friend before she goes in to sign her adoption papers. If I were Claire I would've kicked his creepy butt down the escalator. He was coming on pretty strong, no? But whatever... she agreed, and since I was spoiled by the beginning credits I knew the lawyer would most likely be Ilana. And wouldn't you know it, she'd been looking for Claire in an attempt to settle Christian Shephard's affairs. I don't really know if that's why Des brought her to Ilana, or if he was just trying to get her to reconsider giving Aaron away, but regardless, the detour served to get her face-to-face with another 815er. That never seems to be enough to trigger a vision, though. Maybe she'll randomly go into labor the next time she and Jack reconvene with Ilana and then she'll be like, "I remember you! And I remember ME... with some sort of dead rodent on my head... what tha... ?"

- Jack has to make a quick exit from the will reading in order to attend to Locke. Whom he recognizes after looking in yet another mirror... this one underneath the operating table, very similar to how Ben was laid out for his spinal tumor surgery back in the infamous "KATE! DAMMIT! RUN!" episode (shout-out to Josh G). So call it -- will Jack make Locke able to walk again or not? I'm guessing he will, because then Locke will be one more 815er who is getting everything he ever hoped for in the alternate timeline. If he can walk Helen down the aisle in this life, is that really worth giving up in order to be called "a sucker" by the Smoke Monster? No. Unless something (or someone) convinces him that he will save the world by doing so. I should also mention that when Locke wakes up from the surgery, I believe he will have all of his Island memories still intact. The question is whether or not he'll "remember" anything AFTER the point he's killed by Ben. As in, will he be able to access the thoughts of the MIB since he's parading around in his form?

On to the Island.

- Things kicked off on a very awesome note with the much-anticipated Jack/Fake Locke discussion. We got confirmation that the MIB had been masquerading as Christian the whole time. He also told Jack that all he'd ever been trying to do was help Jack leave the Island, but that had been impossible while Jacob was still alive. Now that Jacob was gone, they could all bust outta there... but it had to be all of them leaving together. Jack was like "OK..." but inside his head he wasn't buyin' it. Especially after the MIB called Locke a sucker for believing that the Island brought them there for a reason. Since Jack is now a Man of Faith, the MIB had essentially just called him a pitiful punk, too.

- On his way back to the main camp, Jack ran into Claire, who attempted to bond with her long-lost half-bro. But he told her politely that he wasn't exactly on her and Fake Locke's side just yet. And she was like, "Ha, ha, joke's on you." She believed that the second the MIB spoke with Jack, Jack was a goner.

- Then Zoe strolled into the clearing and showed off Widmore's Explosion Skillz by decimating part of the jungle right behind them. It reminded me of that scene in The Princess Bride when Fezzik (Andre the Giant) threw a boulder near the Man in Black's head (AAHHHH, I just realized yet another Lost/Princess Bride similarity... and not even the one I was originally pointing out!) and said, "I did that on purpose. I didn't have to miss." Fake Locke was not fazed and destroyed her walkie-talkie the second she left. "Here we go," he sighed.

- That's when everyone started cutting deals left and right, and my husband pointed out that the music sounded very Imperial March-like. Maybe because of Hurley's awesome dark side/Anakin lines. Anyway, Fake Locke announced the plan, and then Sawyer filled Jack in on the Plan B while Fake Locke was telling Sayid to go finish off Des.

- Am I nuts, or did the preview show Sayid's gun firing down into the well? 'Cause that didn't happen. Instead, I'm pretty sure Des guilted Sayid into NOT shooting him. Or else, you know, we probably would've seen Desmond's death scene, don't you think? So between Sayid NOT killing Zoe over on Hydra and now not killing Des, I'm wondering if there's perhaps a glimmer of He of the Black Tank Top left in those dead eyes? I hope there is!

- Same goes for Claire... everyone had counted her out, but then she ended up choosing to sail away with her original peeps instead of run to the MIB and tattle on them. Though I did like her "he's gonna be really mad" warning. And kudos to Kate for sticking to the original reason she came back to the Island. I was happy to see that.

- So everyone's on the boat, but then something doesn't sit right with Jack. "If that thing wants us to leave... maybe it's afraid of what will happen if we stay." I did NOT see him jumping off the boat and swimming back coming at all. The Mad Doctor is BACK, folks!

- The other group makes it to Hydra and out of nowhere comes Jin in a blindingly white t-shirt for his three-years-in-the-making reunion with Sun. I KNOW I was not the only one who feared they were going to get zapped by the sonic fence. I could barely watch that scene I was so worried.



But the hubby and wife duo didn't get to celebrate for very long, because then Widmore's team threatened everyone at gunpoint while also beginning to bomb the bejeezus out of the main Island.

- Speaking of... Jack makes it back to shore and then immediately gets blown sky high (though he miraculously remained in one piece). Fake Locke carries him into the jungle a ways where they appear to be out of imminent danger for the moment. He assures Jack that he'll be safe because "you're with me now." This brings me to my last point -- are we supposed to gather from this episode's title that JACK is "the last recruit"? Cause, um, I didn't really count Hurley, Sawyer, Kate or anyone else outside Claire and Sayid as technically being "recruited" by the MIB. Usually the episode titles make sense to me, but this one didn't.

Clearly, Jack is NOT on the MIB's side. If anything, he's just going to pretend to go along with him in order to stall... hoping that the Island will reveal whatever it was that he was brought there to do in the first place. The Island better hurry up! And while I'm on the topic of the Island -- I really pray this series doesn't end over on Hydra. That just wouldn't be right.

I'll leave you with what I thought was the best of the fan-made Lost finale commercials in a recent contest ABC held. This one didn't win, though, which is a damn shame. The winning clip will be aired during the finale, so stay tuned for that.

OK, that's it... I'll be back within 24 hours of the May 4th episode to post a quick summary of my thoughts.

Until then,
- e

S6Ep12 - Everybody Loves Hugo

Hello my dear friends -

Let's kick off with a few notes concerning my last write-up. Many of you pointed out that when Des was looking at the Arrivals board, Flight 815 actually did have a status ("Arrived") -- it was simply flashing. That's what I get for examining screencaps out of context! Others schooled me in the fact that MRIs do not involve radiation, but rather powerful magnetic fields (which obviously is what would've triggered Des's flashes). And finally, in response to me doubting that Faraday could've connected the dots between his journal scribblings and the fact that he must've detonated a bomb in another timeline, some people suggested that he could've experienced flashes that filled in some of the gaps, but he just didn't share that with Des. I agree that's a reasonable explanation and so I am now at peace with the matter. Phew.

OK, on to "Everybody Loves Hugo." I was happy with this episode because not only did I really enjoy it, but I also felt it didn't introduce a ton of new theories, which makes me feel less guilty about cutting my recap short. Because it's all about me, you know.

Here's my take on this latest hour:

- Did you guys know that in the slide montage at the beginning of the episode, the dog pictured with Hurley was Jorge Garcia's dog in real life, Nunu? He writes about and post pictures of Nunu all the time on his blog. I cheered when the little pooch got his moment in the sun.

- I did NOT see Ilana's violent end coming at all. I think I jumped two feet in the air when she blew up. I have a feeling I am in the minority on this one, though, because even my husband (read: not a crazy hardcore Lost fan) was like, "That was pretty obvious, the way she was tossing around the dynamite." I guess I just figured that since we never got the story on why she was all beat up in that Russian hospital, her time wouldn't be coming to a close in the near future. Now I'm assuming we'll never know what her deal was before Jacob came to visit her.

- That pouch Hurley nabbed from Ilana's things contains Jacob's ashes. I'm figuring that they'll come in handy in the eventual showdown with the MIB.

- Speaking of... Fake Locke is pleased that Dead-Eye Sayid brought Widmore's weapon -- Desmond -- back with him. Des does not appear to know that Fake Locke is not the Real Locke. I thought about this long and hard, and I am SURE everyone's going to jump all over me if I'm wrong, but I think that there really is no reason for Des to assume the bald dude who cut him loose from the tree is anyone but the same John Locke he knew from his previous stint on the Island. Because right before Ajira 316 left, Desmond was in Oxford, trying to track down Faraday... which led him to Theresa and eventually Widmore and then finally Eloise at the Lamp Post Station hidden underneath the church in LA. When Des showed up at that church, he barely talked to the 815ers, so it's not like they would've clued him in to Locke's death. He went into the church, heard like 5 minutes of what Eloise had to say and stormed out. A day or so later he was shot by Ben... and then Widmore abducts him and hauls him back to the Island. So I don't think he has any suspicions about Fake Locke. I mention this because I think it's important when discussing a certain theory a tad later...

- Fake Locke doled out a key piece of info in this episode: that all of the 815ers who returned on Ajira 316 have to be together again in order to leave the Island. I do think it's key they're all together, but I think he's lying about the reason. As I've said before, I don't think he has any intention of leaving on that plane with those guys. I think he has every intention of killing them all, as they're Jacob's "candidates." But the key to his plan must be that he has to do away with every last one of them in order to succeed at escaping (or whatever it is he's trying to accomplish). And that would be easiest to do if he could take them out together in one fell swoop somehow. I don't think he's "allowed" (thanks to the nebulous "rules") to kill them directly, either. So he must have found yet another loophole.

- Fake Locke viewed Des as a threat, so he took him for a nice little moonlight stroll into the depths of the jungle. On the way they saw that Freaky Kid from earlier in the season, who I'm assuming is Young Jacob, though that doesn't really make sense. I just can't think of a better theory. Who else could fluster the MIB so badly? I just can't figure out whether or not that kid is really there or if he's an apparition. I mean, both Sawyer and Des saw him, too. It makes no sense. Freaky Kid kind of looks like Peter Pan, don't you think? (That's it! I've got it! The Island is Never Never Land and the survivors are the Lost Boys! As a Disney fan I am ashamed I didn't figure this out sooner.)

- When the MIB and Des ended up at the well, I thought that the MIB was going to ask Des to go down there and turn the frozen donkey wheel again. I thought that once the MIB learned about Des's electromagnetic-resistance powers he realized that Des could help him escape from the Island, and the FDW was one way to go about it. But once again my husband saw what was coming way before I did. "He's gonna push him down that well." Then it happened like two seconds later. D'oh! And we were delivered yet another ultra-creepy face by Terry O'Quinn. How can he just turn so eeevil-looking at the drop of a hat like that? It scares me.

- Richard was TOTALLY FREAKING OUT the entire episode, which I found hilarious. It's like now that he cares about saving the Island again, he really cares. He was hell-bent on blowing up the Ajira plane, but Hurley put a stop to those plans... and destroyed the Black Rock in the process. I think that was the right call. None of us need to see anyone else go the way of Arzt.
After Hurley lied and said that Jacob told him they needed to go talk to Fake Locke, Richard called him out on it and said that he was headed to the Hydra and that he'd appreciate it if the others stayed out of his way. Ben and Miles were like "We're sticking with the ageless guy."

- So, um, the whispers were quickly explained out of the blue... by Michael, off all people. I'm totally fine with the "answer" that was given -- that the whispers belong to people who died on the Island who aren't able to "move on" -- but it totally does not address why Sawyer heard phrases from his OWN LIFE, like "It'll come back around," when he had his whisper encounter in the Season One episode "Outlaws." Or why the whispers have been heard off-Island. But I never really got too worked up about this particular mystery in the first place, so I accept the given explanation and will cross this one off of the Mystery List.

- While I thought the tail end of Jack's "I gotta chillax" speech seemed a little forced and solely for the benefit of "normal" viewers who hadn't figured that out for themselves already, it was still kind of cool to hear Jack admit that he's a Man of Faith all the way now. Though I had to laugh when Hurley countered, "But what if you not making the decisions gets us all killed?"... because that's kind of what I was thinking. Whether or not you like Jack's character, I challenge you to re-watch Season One and tell me with a straight-face that he didn't do a damn good job of leading the crash survivors through all of that initial craziness. It was INSANE how much he took on his shoulders in Season One... almost comical when you think about it. So we'll see how the 815ers do without him in control. Unless now that he's seen Fake Locke he won't be able to hold back any longer. Which leads us to...

- The final Island scene rocked. Once Des was pushed down the well and Hurley, Sun and Jack started headed toward the MIB's camp, I thought, "Oh crap... the MIB is getting exactly what he wants. Almost nothing is standing in his way now." He's got all of the candidates (minus Jin, whom we must assume is important or else Fake Locke wouldn't care about Widmore having him) and they came to him willingly. Widmore's weapon is out of the way. How will the MIB be stopped? Wouldn't it be hilarious if Hurley just opened up that bag of ash and threw it at him? Would he dissolve like the Wicked Witch of the West? But seriously, though, it is quite possible that the MIB might be killed by Jack's stare. That was an intense glare-a-thon goin' down in those last few moments, even though it ended with Fake Locke smirking. I loved it. (Though I did find myself a little sad that it wasn't Jack and Real Locke facing off again... or joining forces like I'd always dreamed/hoped would happen. Sigh. I haven't given up all hope on Real Locke re-emerging somehow, some way, through the MIB, though. Especially after the MIB was engaging in some very Locke-like wood-carving activities earlier in the episode.)

- As for the sideways flashes... I was never a big Libby fan, but was very touched by how they told the story of her and Alt.Hurley's budding relationship. Poignant, indeed. And I loved how Des is the new Jacob and attempted to give Hurley a push in the right direction (which worked) to help him remember the Island timeline. When Libby and Hurley had their kiss, the look on Hurley's face afterward definitely got me choked up. I'm digging how all of this is coming together.

- EXCEPT that I didn't enjoy seeing poor Locke get mowed down by Des. It was kind of funny that Ben was thinking Des was a sicko high school student stalker, though. And did you notice how Alt.Des mentioned that his son's name was Charlie (even though he has no son in the Alt timeline)? That's more proof of what I said last week, that he totally remembers everything in both timelines now. Anyway, when he ran over Locke, I was like "WHAAATTTT THE HEEELLLLLLL!?!?!" I was very upset and confused. My initial thought was that Des did this in order to get Locke and Jack reunited again (at the hospital). But now I think Des did what he did in order to inflict a traumatic/near-death experience upon Locke, as we know from Charlie's experience that such an ordeal can trigger memories of the characters' other lives. And if you watch the end of that scene closely again, you will see Locke's eyes darting around, like he's watching fast-moving scenes. So I suspect that maybe Des's plan worked. But another theory is one my husband brought up to me after I was finished with my What the Hell rant mentioned above. He said he thought Des was trying to KILL Locke because he knew he'd turn into the MIB in the other timeline. But if you really think that theory through, it doesn't make sense because: 1) there's no reason to believe Des knows the guy who looks like Locke isn't Real Locke back on the Island, as I discussed earlier, and 2) how would killing Locke in the sideways timeline help anything, even if Des was aware of the MIB's presence? Real Locke is already dead in the original timeline. Therefore, I'm sticking with the simplest explanation, which is that Des is trying to get all of the 815ers to remember their Island experiences, and he knows that either extremely bad events (getting run over by a car) or extremely happy/emotional events (being kissed by a hot chick) can bring about those memories.

- There were two "brotha!"s in this episode.

Let me end this post by saying that while I enjoyed "Everybody Loves Hugo," I gotta admit that the preview for next week's show was my favorite part of the night. Don't worry, I am not going to spill the scenes that were covered because I know some of you consider the previews to be spoilers. All I'm going to say is that I immediately recognized the cracked-out sing-songy wailing it was set to as Willy Wonka's (Gene Wilder) speech when he and the Golden Ticket winners were cruising through the Tunnel of Doom in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (though technically I believe what was used was the band Pendulum's remix of Wonka's speech in the song "Through the Loop"). Have no idea what I'm talking about? The Lost preview clip is here... and a clip of Willy Wonka scene in question is here -- the speech starts at the 1:18 mark... thanks to Franco C for the link. Anyway, I watched that preview and though, "Holy crap, that looks NUTS." If the episode ends up sucking I'm just going to watch the preview again ten times in a row and call it a night.

One last Lost-related thing for ya... check out the site lostathon.com if you've got a second. Three dudes are going to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end (they're timing it so that they'll run right up to the series finale on May 23), non-stop, in an attempt to not only break a Guinness World Record but also raise $100,000 for charity. It makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it, but more power to 'em if they can pull it off! Thanks to Anna at fourtoedfoot.com for cluing me in about this.

And lastly, I want to give a shout-out to LLL reader drallabg, who shared the tale of his harrowing heart surgery in the comments section of my last write-up. I hope you are doing well, dear sir, and that you're back to 100% in time for the finale. Namaste!

- e

The April Contest Winner(s)!

Hello my dear friends -

Wow -- reading through everyone's favorite lines from Lost was like a fantastic trip down memory lane. And here I was silly enough to think that I'd keep seeing the same five or so bits of dialogue over and over again. You guys covered nearly every season and character -- I loved it! Though I do believe the top vote-getters were "Not Penny's Boat," "Guys, where are we?", "We're not going to Guam, are we?", "You've got some... Arzt on you," "You guys got any milk?", "Jesus is not a weapon," and "We have to go back!" (Not calculated scientifically, just my observation as comments were coming through.) Hurley and Sawyer seem to have churned out the greatest variety of memorable lines.

So I've actually got three winners to announce: the LLL reader who was randomly selected out of 196 entries and will receive one of the five winning Design Contest t-shirts from CafePress, and two others who -- unbeknownst to them -- ended up picking MY favorite scene in the series, so I'll send them each one of my last-remaining Dharma Beer koozies, if they're interested.

Drumroll please...

The winner of the t-shirt (and I'll throw in a koozie, too) is: Steven

His favorite line was one of the most popular from the series premiere, Charlie's "Guys, where are we?"

The commenters who have the same favorite scene as me and therefore are welcome to a koozie if they'd like one are: John Trew and RodrigoSnz... and the scene is:

Locke: Why do you find it so hard to believe?

Jack: Why do you find it so easy?

Locke: It's never been easy!

If you want to revisit that scene from Season Two's "Orientation" for old time's sake, here it is (at the 2:10 mark). I literally cannot watch it without my eyes welling up, honest to God. For me, it encapsulates everything I love about the show, and is applicable to situations in my own life as well.

Congrats again to the winners... please send me a comment through the site with your email address so I can contact you and we can go from there to get you your prizes.

To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this contest... perhaps we'll get some more favorite lines out of tonight's episode? I think the chances are high!

- e