So the bare-chested Sawyer (weird that the transported-from-the-1970s-Sawyer is bare-chested, no?) got an episode of his own.
Were there surprises in the new episode? In the sideways-flashing/uncrashed Sawyer’s life, he’s a detective whose partner is Miles. Sawyer was set up on a blind date with Charlotte (Daniel Faraday's daughter) and it went poorly after she snooped in his bureau drawer. There we learned that his dad STILL killed his mother and then himself after James’ cheating mother got conned (even though, as we know from the Locke sideways-flash, Locke was pondering inviting his “father” to his wedding). In fact, Sawyer, er, Jim Ford, was still trying to track down said con man, Anthony Cooper.
Is said con man Locke’s father? Is the con man someone else? What are we to make of the fact that Kate’s car crashed into Jim Ford’s? And, why in the world, in the post-crashed/post-Jughead world would Kate’s dress from her booty call in the cage with Sawyer have been left behind in the cage for Sawyer to find? Wasn’t she wearing that dress when she ran away while Jack was operating on Ben?
I’m trying not to read too deeply into all of this because, as I mentioned when I commented on the frustratingly boggling Locke episode a few weeks ago (still HATE the fact that the character histories we’ve talked about for years have been shelved, at least in the sideways-flashing lives), I’ve stopped trying to make this all make sense because the writers don’t have sufficient time to tie up the loose ends and make it seem reasonable. (If they do, I’ll write up a HUGE blog post saying how very wrong I was.) However in order to try to enjoy the remainder of this series, I’m going to have to put those irritations aside, like the writers did with the character histories they carefully created, and just roll with it.
As for the rest of the episode “Recon,” I engaged in more eye-rolling at the whole Charles Widmore/sub/armed Widmore henchmen thread. Yes, I’m intrigued by the overarching Widmore/Ben/Desmond/Penny story and how that factors into the Island’s lore, but – and I feel like I’ve been repeating myself a lot on this matter – but I’m growing weary of having yet another group of gun-toting people with vague motivations take more of the Losties hostage and leave behind a trail of dead bodies. I thought we were nearly done with this nonsense when Dogen and his sidekick were killed. But with only eight episodes left there’s not much hope that this unfortunately expanding circle of people is going to become smaller, more focused and more intriguing. It looks like it's just going to widen to encompass armies, like a dead post-Jughead Locke/Man in Black/Smoky army, a Widmore army and a loyal-to-Jacob army (which welcomes Ben, kind of, despite the fact that Ben killed Jacob)?
I’d be so much happier with more storylines like the one from “Dr. Linus” last week where we saw Ben become redeemed and where larger, more cerebral issues regarding destiny and fate were explored (Was Ben always going to be evil, regardless of what happened to him or did life's events make him that way? What role did his trip to the Temple when he was a mortally wounded child have on him?) But, alas, that doesn't seem to be the route the writers are heading.
What did you think of the Sawyer-centric episode? About him being a cop -- instead of a con man -- but still obsessed with hunting down the man who conned his mom? About the growing armies on the island?
Image credit: ABC.
