Episode 508 - "LaFleur" Shoots and Scores

Preface
In an interview before Season 5 began, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse discussed how this season was going to be the “Year of Sawyer.” Halfway through last night’s episode, “LaFleur,” we also hit the halfway point of the season. And, sure enough, James “Sawyer” Ford finally, indeed, stepped into his own, under his assumed DHARMA guise as the titular “Jim LaFleur.”

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The Tease
The full Ancient Statue! Another look at life in DHARMA!! Juliet finally delivers a live birth on the island!!! All this, plus Sawyer as leader, in “LaFleur.”

Where We Left Off
The narrative structure this season has tended to be such that we lurch forward with the story, then jump back to fill in the blanks. So it was with “LaFleur,” which picked up where “This Place is Death” left off, only this time, from the now Locke-less Team Sawyer’s perspective. We return to Sawyer, holding the rope that got lodged in the ground during the time jump that sent Locke plunging into the donkey wheel cave. Miles spots the best evidence that this jump took them to a time well before the well was even built – a massive, Egyptian-looking statue facing out towards the ocean.

Aside Number 1 – some may think I’m being too quick to just assume this colossus is, in fact, the four-toed statue of which Jin, Sayid and Sun spotted the last remaining foot way back in the finale of Season 2, “Live Together, Die Alone.” But, with only a season and a half of story left to tell, I have to think the “big” mysteries of Lost are in a contraction phase, and there’s little to gain by adding multiple giant ancient statues. Feel free to disagree, but I’m going to come right out and say it – that was Mr. Four Toes, fully realized (at least from behind).

After Locke fixes the wheel, there’s another flash, which both Miles and Juliet realize “feels” different from the prior ones. The time is now…

1974
(Although our heroes have yet to figure out when they are). Sawyer, seeing the well again, and ready to assume his new role as leader of his makeshift group of left-behinders, charges headlong into following Locke, only to find the well is filled in with rocks. Juliet - whose cool logic during the time-hopping ordeal seems to have provided most of our knowledge of what the frak’s been going on – thinks it's over, that Locke saved them. Sawyer proclaims that now they wait for Locke to come back. Juliet asks “for how long,” and Sawyer responds, “as long as it takes.”

They find Daniel, sitting alone. He murmurs that Charlotte's body disappeared in the last flash. "She moved on, and we stayed." Daniel says "whereever we are now, whenever we are now, we're here for good." He goes on to mumble “I’m not going to do it again,” or something to that effect.

Aside 2 – We see again Daniel’s theory that history cannot be changed come into conflict with his desire and attempts to, in fact, change history. As for Charlotte’s disappearance, two thoughts. One, since the island seems to be yanking specific people through time (still can’t discern what the criteria are being one of the yank-ees) perhaps it no longer needs you once you’ve died. The other thought is that, somehow, Charlotte has been erased slowly from existence, by virtue of history actually having been rewritten since Ben turned the wheel. Remember, shortly before she died, she felt her memory of her mother fading. Could her whole family start to disappear? More on Charlotte in a bit…

Sawyer wants to make for the beach. Miles doesn't like the idea. "Sure, we'll go to the Beach. Until you want to go back to the Orchid. Then we'll go back to the beach again. Those are the only plans you people ever have." (Miles has yet to discover he has become as much a part of "you people" as the rest of the group). Sawyer insists that, if they’re in a time in which their stuff at the beach isn’t there, they’ll just build new stuff. Juliet stands by James, and Miles wonders who put James in charge. Privately, Juliet tells Sawyer the beach was a stupid idea, but any plan is better than no plan. He thanks her for having his back.

Suddenly, they hear gunshots and screams. A woman we’ll come to know as Amy (Reiko Aylesworth, best known as the late Michelle Dessler on 24) is being held at gunpoint by two men in Hostile-era Others frocks, with a sack over her head, and the dead body of her husband, Paul (wearing a DHARMA jumpsuit) at her feet. Miles tries to get Dan to agree - they don't get involved, because there’s no changing history. Daniel, still devastated from losing Charlotte and losing patience with explaining time travel, reiterates, not that taking action is wrong, but that “whatever happened, happened.” Sawyer quips, “thanks a lot, Plato.” With Juliet again at his back, he goes to intercede. One gunman turns on him, but Juliet shoots him, then James kills his companion. Amy asks who he is...(providing an opportunity to be anyone).

As Amy cries over Paul’s body, Juliet explains to James she doesn't know these Others because this is before her time (and, if Daniel is right, they always had killed them, so she never would have met them). Sawyer tells Amy their ship wrecked on the way to Tahiti. They have to move, he insists, because the Others will call for help (as if the term “Others” has any meaning to Amy). Amy insists they need to hide the Others’ bodies because of a truce, and take Paul’s body back with them. They march, then Juliet shouts to Daniel to stop in his tracks - they're at the sonic fence, only it's all new and not rusty like we've seen it in the past (future). Juliet figures out to play dumb about recognizing the fence, but Amy gets there's something up. She agrees to turn off the fence. Sawyer has Amy go first, then they follow her through...only they're all knocked out. Sneaky Amy had put in earplugs!

Sawyer wakes up on a couch in the familiar barracks rec room. Horace Goodspeed, who we know several years earlier personally recruited Roger Linus and his young son Ben to DHARMA, is waiting for him. He appreciates what our heroes did for Amy. Horace explains (in an understated way) about their not getting along with the Hostiles. Sawyer, sensing his con artist skills may be useful here, introduces himself as Jim LaFleur. Thinking on his feet (or, as it were, the couch), he says his people were in a shipwreck, from a salvage vessel, searching for Black Rock. Horace hasn't heard of the ship. LaFleur says his group was looking for the rest of his crew when they stumbled across Amy and the Hostiles. Horace says they're going to have to leave by sub first thing in the morning. Only DHARMA members, he insists, can stay at the barracks, "and you are not DHARMA material."

Aside Number 3 – Is Horace lying about not recognizing Black Rock? I had always believed that Magnus Hanso’s getting marooned on the island in Black Rock was how Alvar Hanso’s family learned about the island, which was how DHARMA came to be there in the first place. Charles Widmore would certainly come to know about Black Rock in the future, and Rousseau, who would come to the island in another 14 years, seemingly discovered it shortly after her arrival. So it seems Horace must be lying, because how would the leader of the DHARMA camp not know about such an important relic on the island? On the other hand, perhaps Black Rock has not yet been marooned. Given that the ship launched in mid-1800s, this would seem impossible…unless the time jumping is not as “finished” as Juliet surmised. Indeed, we know, sometime between 1974 and 2004, Ben will trick Charles into turning the wheel. Perhaps the trick will be based on having to fix the time jumps, just as Locke did. In any case, I’m interested in seeing why Horace claims not to know about Black Rock.

Juliet, looking at her former/future house at the barracks, explains her history to Miles. Jin asks Daniel about the lack of further flashes. Daniel explains the flashes have stopped because the record is spinning again. “We're just not on the side we want to be on.” (Hey, the guy loves his metaphors!) Daniel sees a young girl with a British accent playing, and recognizes her as Charlotte.

Aside Number 4 – this girl being Charlotte represents a bit of a disconnect. Last season, when captive Ben wanted to illustrate how well he knew about the newcomers to the island, he announced Charlotte’s history, and said she was born in 1979. Yet, here we are in 1974, and Daniel thinks this little red-haired girl is his precious Charlotte. Two explanations – one, he’s just wrong, and the pain and guilt over losing his no-longer-secret crush is getting him to project onto this girl. Alternatively, as part of covering up their DHARMA past, Charlotte’s mother may have falsified records, including Charlotte’s birth certificate. Still, it can’t be easy to pass off a 6-year-old as a newborn. So ultimately, either Ben, Daniel, or (gasp!) the writers made a mistake.

Rejoining the rest of his group, Sawyer explains he chose “LaFleur” because it’s Creole, and he liked the spiciness. Miles likes the "leave tomorrow on a sub" idea. Suddenly an alarm blares. They get pulled indoors by a security tech named Phil, who tells his rifle-slinging wife to keep an eye on them. Outside, they see Richard walk into the middle of camp and plant a torch. Sawyer and Juliet exchange a frightened look.

Horace goes to speak to Richard, who makes clear that the sonic fence doesn’t keep him or the Others out (so much for the theory that DHARMA built it for them). Richard says the truce is broken and he wants his missing men. Miles really wants to get on the sub. Horace comes back and asks how well LaFleur and company buried the bodies, to which James responds, "that depends how well they look." Horace tells Phil to call the Arrow station and get the heavy ordinance ready. James asks him to hold off and says he'll go and talk to Richard (whom he called out as looking like he wears eyeliner).

James addresses Richard, who does not know him at this time, by name. Shifting from con man to incredibly honest, he introduces himself as the guy who killed the men, then tells the story about why he did it. He also explains DHARMA are not his people. Richard wants to know who he is, if not DHARMA. Sawyer asks about the Others’ burying of Jughead, and tells him he knows about Locke showing up, then disappearing. He says he's also waiting for Locke to come back, which seems to move Richard somewhat.

Aside Number 5 – this scene takes place 20 years after the events of “Jughead,” but also 19 years after Richard went to see Locke’s birth, and 13-16 years after Richard angrily determined that Locke had failed the compass test. Does this conversation with James explain why, another 30 years later, Richard will again try to get old man Locke to take over as the Others’ leader? Did he perhaps figure out that the compass test wasn’t the best way to identify his chosen leader?

Richard believes James is not DHARMA, but says his people need some kind of justice. Sawyer and Horace go to see Amy, still standing over Paul's body. Horace explains that Richard needs to take Paul's body with him to maintain the truce. Horace, passive-aggressively, tells Amy, “if you don't want to give him to them, we can suffer the consequences.” Amy relents, but requests a minute. She reaches into Paul's jumpsuit, and retrieves an ankh on a necklace. Sawyer apologizes to Amy, then offers to help Horace move the body. Horace says they can stay for two weeks, while the sub is on its next run, to continue to look for their crew.

Aside Number 6 – A number of things have come together now to suggest that Richard Alpert may be of Ancient Egyptian decent. First, we know from Juliet that he’s “old” and has “always” been on the island. We have now seen the full statue, and it sure looks a heck of a lot like Egyptian god Anubis, especially with the ankh in his hand. The temple where Smoky dwells, and the writing on the walls by the donkey wheel, all appear to be Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thanks to quick research performed, not by me, but by Jeff Jensen, I can tell you that it’s believed that in ancient Egypt, men tended to wear an eye-liner-like form of makeup. Throw in the other Egypt references – Paul’s ankh, the appropriated glyphs on the DHARMA countdown clock in the Swan, and the name of DHARMA’s leader – Horace (another Egyptian god) – and we’re clearly meant to get the hint that Ancient Egypt has a connection to the island. And I personally dig the theory that Richard, himself, may very well be that connection. Now, as for how that it possible…I can only guess. Thoughts?

Sawyer finds Juliet by the sub dock, and tells her about their two week reprieve. She wants to leave, anyway. They're saved, she notes, with no more threat from the flashes, so whether Locke comes back or not, there’s nothing left for him to do for her. Sawyer reminds her it’s 1974 (the first time we get the actual date), and there's nothing she knows back in the U.S. to leave for, but she responds, that’s no reason not to leave. She reminds him how she had been Ben’s captive on the island for more than 3 years, and, regardless of where (or when) she would be going, she just wanted to leave (very pre-conversion Jack of her). James turns on the charm – “What about me, you going to leave me with the mad scientist, and the guy who sees dead people?” Pointing out that Jin’s conversational skills leave a lot to be desired, he asks, with a grin, “who's going to get my back? Just give me two weeks. That's all I'm asking.” She agrees, and Jim LaFleur – because that’s who he’s about to be for real - smiles.

Aside Number 7 – I really like how the Sawyer/Juliet relationship has progressed. They first bonded in “Through the Looking Glass,” as both of them had something to prove to themselves when they chose to go back to the beach to save Sayid, Jin and Bernard from Tom’s attack team. They then found themselves thrown together in this misfit group of left-behinders, and I totally believe the trust they’ve formed, backing each others’ plays even as they disagree with them. You know it’s happened naturally, too, when Sawyer, of all people, reached out to Juliet this way. Too bad it might not have a happy ending (more to follow)…

1977

We get a glimpse of the glory days of DHARMA, from the perspective of a barracks video security room that looks a lot like the Pearl station. This room is manned by Jerry and Phil, only Jerry has, in typical 70s fashion, invited Geronimo Jackson-loving Rosie to party with him while he's on duty, against the rules (Jerry ironically quips that it's not as if the polar bears are ever going to escape). They notice that someone just dropped by the perimeter fence. Is that a Hostile, they wonder. No, it's Horace, who lights a firecracker, then blows up a tree. They kick out Rosie, and Phil says they need to get LaFleur. They run to the barracks, and apologize to James about the sudden security emergency. James Ford, now three three years into his long con role as LaFleur, has become head of security for DHARMA (so much for two weeks).

Miles, also part of LaFleur's security contingent, gets into Lafleur's DHARMA bus. Horace's tree-demolition spree is apparently the result of drunkenness. Given that Horace is DHARMA's leader, and nobody thinks he's a drinker, they realize they have to keep this on the down low. James decides he'll be the one to take him home, because he can tell Amy where they found him.
Amy, we discover, is now married to Horace, and very, very pregnant. Amy explains she and Horace had a fight about Paul, her late husband, when she goes into labor.

The baby is in breach (which seems to happen far more often with TV babies than in real life, right?). DHARMA women always go to the mainland to give birth, we discover, but Amy's early, which is why she's still around. The only doctor is an internist, and not at all comfortable with performing a C-Section. Sawyer goes to get Juliet, who, still there three years later (more on this shortly) has been living the life of an auto mechanic. Juliet, three years removed from her time as an experimental obstetrician, resists Sawyer's pleas for her to help, and reminds him that every birth she's tried to facility on the island in the past has resulted in the death of mother and child. Sawyer suggests the toxic fetus problem may not have happened yet. Juliet, out of excuses, takes charge, and Sawyer waits outside.

Jin arrives and asks if everything's ok. He now speaks English (three relatively crisis-free years makes for better language lesson time than four months of struggling to survive). Sawyer tells Jin he had to pull Juliet out of retirement. Jin reports he finished another grid - no sign of their people. Sawyer wants him to keep looking. Juliet comes out. It's a boy, and everyone's ok. Her first success as an OB on the island!

Aside Number 8 - as much as this was a Sawyer episode, I loved that Elizabeth Mitchell finally got some good scenes. She was one of few bright spots in the third season, but has been largely relegated to a lesser role since then. Her fine acting skills really showed through in this episode - so much so that I "became a fan" on Facebook.

As for the baby-birthing crisis not claiming Amy and her son, there can be a few explanations. One is quite simply that Amy is DHARMA, and not an Other. The problem Juliet could never solve may have something to do with what makes Others, Others. After all, they weren't yanked through time during the flashes, and, according to Richard, the sonic fence doesn't affect them either. The other explanation was Sawyer's - that the problem has not yet happened. Given that we will apparently be spending more time in the DHARMA years in upcoming episodes, I think James may have been on to something. I'm very much looking forward to learning what caused the fertility crisis, as well as what the "incident" was.

Later, Sawyer picks a flower. A dinner table is waiting for him, complete with DHARMA merlot. Juliet is cooking. He gives her the flower, and tells her she was amazing, then gives her a hug. "Thank you for believing in me," she says, her face awash with emotion. They kiss, passionately. She says she loves him, and, now three years since the time when he might have been tempted to get all Han Solo in response, he smiles and returns the "I love you."

Sawyer reads (in glasses made for him, unlike the jerry-rigged pair Jack once fashioned for him) as Horace snores. Horace wakes up with a hangover. James says he has good news and bad news. The good news – he’s a daddy. Bad news, he missed it. Horace explains he was drinking because he discovered that Amy was still keeping Paul's ankh hidden in her sock drawer. He wonders if the three years that have elapsed are enough time for Amy to have gotten over Paul. Jim has to think about that, then reminisces about a girl he could have taken a shot at, whose face he says he can now barely remember. "She’s just gone, and not coming back. Is 3 years long enough to get over someone? Absolutely."

Aside Number 9 - you really wanted to believe, for his own sake, that James meant this, especially after seeing how well he had settled into his new life with Juliet. But I think that he and Jin have continued their clandestine searches for their missing crashmates out of a hope that they'd be reunited with their lost loves. Poor Juliet!

In the morning, Jim and Juliet are spooning when the phone rings. He growls, then seems genuinely shocked when he answers. "Don’t bring them in, just meet me in the North valley," he orders. Juliet asks who it was. He says it’s Jin, and then just says he has to go.

Sawyer takes a jeep to meet Jin’s DHARMA bus, out of which step Hurley, Jack (who smiles - apparently three years is enough for even him to miss Sawyer), and Kate. The look on James's face makes it abundnantly clear - he has not forgotten her, at all.

Afterthoughts

Curse you, Kate Austin! Poor James Ford finally, after making his clean break with the kiss and dive act on the chopper, found a life he could live in happily ever after (or at least until the purge). And then, of all the time-traveling tropical jungle islands in all the world, you had to come into his. And poor Juliet! The weight of all those failed pregnancies finally lifted, she, too, actually managed to settle into a happy life on the island. What will happen to her? And let's not forget, she had confessed her love to Jack just days before he left the island, too.

As for DHARMA, there were four characters noticeably absent from the glimpses we got in this episode. Naturally, we have to start with Pierre Chang. If Horace is the leader, what is Chang's role?

Next up is Olivia Goodspeed, Horace's apparent significant other from the late 60s. Behind the scenes, I've learned (ok, Jeff Jensen reported on ew.com), that actress Samantha Mathis just didn't want to come back to the show. But, storywise, what happened to Olivia? When Locke saw the vision of Horace in an endless time loop constantly building "Jacob's" shack, he said it was for he and the Mrs. Horace's hair in that vision was the same length it had been in the 60s, and not the longer cut we spotted here in the 70s. Was that something he did for Olivia, or for Amy?

Finally, and most importantly, there's Roger and Ben Linus. I'm pretty sure the Linus boys joined DHARMA a few years before Jim LaFleur and company. Given what Sawyer and Juliet (and Miles, having talked to the dead) must know about the purge, not to mention the hell Ben would someday put them all through, why have they not taken an active interest in changing young Ben, getting him off the path of the wicked (or, more Machiavellianishly (if that's a word), just killing the little twerp)? Have they tried, only to discover that Daniel's "what happened, happened" theory keeps this from working? Can't wait to see.

Now, it's going to be a couple of weeks before we get another episode (not sure why that is, but I bet it has to do with "American Idol"). In the meantime, until March 18, when we see the fittingly entitled episode, "Namaste," I bid you all, namaste.