By Mike and johnnysweeptheleg
We hope you enjoyed last night’s episode, “LaFleur” — because it’s going to have to tide you over for two weeks. That’s right, there’s no new episode next week. The show returns March 18 with an episode titled “Namaste,” and judging from the photos posted on ABC’s press website, it’s an installment that will knock quite a few questions off our list.
Let’s not get too far ahead ourselves, though. We still have issues that need to be resolved from this week’s episode. For instance, does anyone have any theories as to who Horace and Amy’s baby could be? (Jacob?) Or what’s up with that statue? We’d love to hear them because, frankly, we don’t have a clue.
johnnysweeptheleg’s Lost in a Moment
Thank you John Locke for turning that wheel and sparing us of the perpetual nosebleeds.
Episode “LaFleur” plays out like a game of Lost tennis. We volley back and forth between 1977 and 1974 the entire show. It’s been three years since Locke has spun the wheel on the island Wheel of Fortune home game, leaving Team Sawyer to fend for themselves in his absence.
Methinks the writers have been watching too much Friday the 13th, with the episode opening like one of the film series’ forty-seven sequels. Dharma “camp counselors” Jerry and Rosie decide to party in a control room, even though it’s prohibited. Back home, Jimmy Carter has just become president and when they haven’t been sleeping with each other, Fleetwood Mac’s found time to release Rumours. So crank the loud music and crack open a can of that Dharma beer, you kids, because good times are here!
Until Phil, the no-fun “counselor” shows up and scolds them. I’m sorry, but since his run on Mad Men, I only want to see this actor playing Jimmy Barrett. Evidently, this actor cannot, contractually, play any character in present time. Before Jerry’s able to persuade Phil to join in on the party, a drunken Horace Goodspeed appears on the monitors. Goodspeed is good and drunk, throwing dynamite at trees. Because, well, who doesn’t light dynamite like a good stogie and chuck it at trees when going on a bender? This is the very moment where Jason Voorhees would usually show up in his hockey mask. Instead, they go to another guy who sounds like he should be wearing a goalie mask – LaFleur. James LaFleur, also known as Sawyer, is Goodspeed’s sober friend and gets the heavily-inebriated Goodspeed back home safely to his very pregnant wife who, you guessed it, goes into labor.
So how exactly did “James LaFleur” and gang come to live with the Dharma Initiative? For that, we have to go back to 1974, which is where Locke’s last turn of the wheel has left the rest of the survivors. After hearing gunshots, Sawyer and team encounter the island rednecks who have shot a man and are in the process of killing a girl before Sawyer and Juliet diffuse the situation. By diffuse, I of course mean playing live-ammo laser tag with the two men. Instead of being thankful, the woman – Amy – asks who they are. Those damn Dharmas – never appreciative of anything. Yes, Jenna Elfman, you’re included.
On the march back to camp, Sawyer claims they were shipwrecked. However, Amy becomes suspicious when Juliet yells for Faraday to stop before getting fried by the sonic fence. Instead of turning the fence off, she flips it to stun mode, and tricks them into walking into the trap, leading Faraday to flop around on the ground screaming, “Don’t taze me, bro!”
While they black out, we jump back to 1977, where Amy is going into labor. Newly nerdy looking Sawyer talks to the intern, who explains that women usually give birth on the mainland and that Amy’s two weeks early. Since the intern can’t deliver, Sawyer goes to Juliet, who has been posing as a mechanic. Even though she hasn’t had any success delivering babies on the island, for Sawyer, Juliet agrees to put down the socket wrench for a scalpel. The result is Amy giving birth to a baby boy; and knowing the track record for child birth on the island, what must be a special baby at that.
Rewind three years to 1974, and Sawyer has refined his shipwreck speech for Goodspeed, even throwing in references to the Black Rock wreckage in the jungle. This excuse suffices, and Goodspeed tells Sawyer his team will be sent on the next sub ride to Tahiti. Suddenly, alarms go off, and Dharma goes into lockdown mode. Why?
Because Richard Alpert has entered the Dharma grounds. He meets with Goodspeed, who appears to be the voice of Dharma in 1974. Alpert is upset that their truce was broken. Goodspeed returns and Sawyer delivers the line of the season, trumping Lapidus’ line two weeks ago.
“Your buddy out there, with the eyeliner. Let me talk to him.”
Sawyer approaches Alpert and explains that he was shot at, returned fire, and killed the two men. But because he isn’t part of Dharma, no truce has been broken. When Alpert wonders who he’s with, then, Sawyer spills all. Sawyer tells him he knows about Jughead, the bomb, and wonders whether they buried it. He tells him he knows a bald man limped into their camp twenty years ago, and then vanished. This is enough to make Alpert WTF in his pants. He wants to trust Sawyer, but his people still need justice.
Justice comes in the form of wanting the body of Paul, Amy’s husband who was killed by the island rednecks. Goodspeed, who at this point is just friends with Amy, tells her they will deal with the consequences if she doesn’t feel comfortable with this. But she agrees.
And Sawyer’s lawyering earns him another two weeks on the island. Juliet is still considering taking the next sub out, however, to see her sister. Sawyer reminds her that it’s 1974 out there … and asks her to stay two more weeks, for him.
Cue 1977, and two weeks becomes three years. In that time, the island has seen the wussification, I mean, new sophistication of Sawyer, who has begun drinking Dharma Merlot, hand-picking flowers for his bedmate, Juliet, and comfortably saying “I love you.” After three years, Sawyer and Juliet have settled. They’ve settled into the same bed, and settled on each other as the runner-up to their first options of Kate and Jack, respectively.
After finding out he’s a dad, Goodspeed reveals to Sawyer the real reason for his dyn-o-mite bender, which is that he found an old keepsake in Amy’s dresser, from her deceased ex-husband, Paul. “Is three years long enough to get over someone?” he asks Sawyer. “Absolutely,” says Sawyer, though his eyes say otherwise.
The next morning, Sawyer is woken to a phone call for Jin. The call puts a hop in Sawyer’s step that should give Juliet cause for concern. He gets to the valley, to find Jin pulling up in the van with Hurley, Jack, and yes, Freckles.
The Dharma barracks just got a little more crowded.
Questions Answered
What year is it on the island now? 1977, three years after Sawyer became LaFleur and he, Juliet, Miles and Jin moved in with Dharma. Hmm, maybe Sawyer should have chosen Greg as his pseudonym …
When, how and why was Charlotte previously on the island? In the 70s, assuming the girl Faraday saw was really her. Regardless, we know she grew up on the island.
Are we crazy for thinking Faraday and Charlotte might be related? Yeah, probably.
Are the time jumps finally over on the island, now that Locke has moved the wheel? Everyone on the island seems to think so. Who are we to disagree?
New Questions To Be Asked
Is Amy and Horace’s baby someone we know?
What is the deal with that giant four-toed statue?
Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley end up in 1977, while the rest of the Ajira 316 passengers seem to be in a different time?
Is young Ben on the island yet?
At the time of the purge, Horace is married to Olivia … so what happens to Amy?
Check back in two weeks for a preview of the next episode, “Namaste.”
Photo credit: ABC/MARIO PEREZ
