s5e08: LaFleur

Recap time!

We start off with a pretty big mindfuck, but one that certainly explains Jin's appearance at the end of "316," as well as where Jack, Hurley and Kate are. After a quick refresher of Locke moving the island to stop the skipping (just before which we see the full statue of which the four-toed foot was clearly a part), we move ahead three years - at which point we see Horace (remember him?) getting wasted and blowing up trees. Two Dharma guys run to wake LaFleur, the head of security, who is not a very effectively hidden Sawyer (it's easy to recognize his voice before we see him).

Sawyer/LaFleur drags the drunken Horace back to his pregnant wife Amy. She admits they fought, then goes into labor. We jump back three years (this is starting to become a kind of loose concept, "years," but hey) and find out how our crew got involved with Dharma; Sawyer saved Amy from armed men. In other words, when the island stopped, our guys were in the 60s or maybe 70s (Juliet guesses 70s or 80s). This explains seeing Daniel in the past at the Orchid before as well, now that I think about it.

Amy is slippery like all Dharmites; suspicious after Juliet recognizes the sonic fence, she tricks the group into getting knocked out by it. But I guess everything worked out, since back three years later she's having problems giving birth (the baby is breech and the island's doctor can't help her; she was due two weeks later and booked on a submarine to see a doctor on the mainland). Sawyer recruits Juliet to help deliver the baby, which she does successfully despite worrying about her inability to help women give birth on the island. We also see that Jin's English has come along swimmingly in the three years, and he's apparently checking some list of people looking for other 815ers (or so I took from it).

Back to three years earlier. Horace interrogates Sawyer, who uses all his con artist skills to make up a story credible enough for Horace to tell him that he'll put the group on the sub to Tahiti. Sawyer doesn't like this plan, but Horace tells him he's not Dharma material. Later, Daniel sees young Charlotte just before the Hostiles breach the compound; from inside a building, Sawyer and Juliet exchange a glance as Richard Alpert - same age as always - strides into the compound. "Uh oh," Sawyer says.

Since Richard is there because of the broken truce resulting from Sawyer and Juliet killing two Hostiles, Sawyer goes out to talk to Richard, convincing him he's not with Dharma by citing the events of "Jughead." Richard is suitably impressed but still needs something to show his people, so Paul (Amy's first husband, who the Hostiles killed)'s dead body is traded. Juliet is ready to leave the island via sub, but Sawyer dates us (1974) and points out that she's not going back to whatever she thinks she is. Juliet doesn't care, but Sawyer has bought two weeks from Horace by helping save Dharma from the Hostiles' wrath (the next sub arrives in two weeks) and convinces Juliet to stay that long. Three years later? She's still there, of course, and now she and Sawyer are an item. Who wants to bet that Kate showing up soon is going to mess all that up?

Sure enough, she does. Sawyer has a heart-to-heart with Horace, who reveals that Amy was still holding on to an artifact of Paul's and wonders if three years is enough time to get over someone. Sawyer tells Horace that he felt strongly for a woman about three years earlier (Kate, obviously) but that now he can't even remember what she looks like. Naturally he gets a refresher. After being awoken from Juliet-spooning slumber by a Jin phone call (during which Elizabeth Mitchell's bare back gets its contractually-mandated yearly appearance), Sawyer drives out to the beach to find Jin with Jack, Hurley, and Kate. With music swelling and Sawyer staring, we cut to Lost logo.

Back in two weeks. Two weeks? Lame. The teaser shows that at least Sayid also appears in 1977; Sun is less clear, but you'd have to assume (Jin is no doubt thrilled). Is the rest of the plane in 1977? Seemingly not, since it's at the deserted Hydra station, which the active Dharma Initiative presumably would still be using. Are Locke and Ben going to be 30 years adrift of the rest forever? Are we going to see young Ben soon (by 1977 surely he was already a Dharma member based on his flashback)? And given that every heterosexual permutation of Jack/Juliet/Kate/Sawyer has happened by now (although Jack and Juliet never actually got it on), just how messy is that little love quadrangle going to get? And I'm still wondering where exactly this season is poised to leave off.