[Before we dive into my meanderings for last week’s Lost episode, I just wanted to give a heads up about a really cool contest from us thanks to the Lost fan portal at CafePress — check it out and good luck! – RI]
‘The Last Recruit’ may have been the most essential installment of Lost so far this season – even if it wasn’t the most solid. In a way, the episode was sort of a mini-season finale, giving us a tease of what’s to come, as well as a week to prepare for the final four episodes of the Lost saga. Ever. (Yikes!)
Also, like the premieres and finales that bookmarked each season of Lost, ‘The Last Recruit’ opted for two bigger scale stories instead of focusing on a single character. In the LA X-verse, we saw Desmond continue to bring the castaways together, while Smokey’s best-laid plans dissolved on The Island, and the castaways made fateful decisions of their own. Crazy Claire’s on board with Operation: Island Escape. Sayid most likely double-crossed UnLocke by not killing Desmond. Jack took a very-literal leap of faith. Jin and Sun were finally reunited.
Even with the season’s bigger picture coming into focus, the episode was filled with lots of smaller moments, and in both universes character motivations were reestablished and our cast started to converge, hitting their marks for the endgame. But the thing that really stuck out for me about last week’s installment was the surplus of noteworthy lines of dialogue. Speaking of which — I’m a bit behind on getting this column posted, so if I can steal a line that Smokey threw Jack’s way: “I think we have some catching up to do.”
“We’re all different now.”
One of the biggest – if not the biggest – problems with this season has been the disconnect between the characters on The Island and in the LA X-verse.
Jack’s “we’re all different now” line in the opening minutes of the episode felt sort of like an explanation – or at least an acknowledgment — to the disgruntled viewers complaining with the direction the characters have taken on and off The Island.
Yeah, all the characters have come a long way from Season One, but we’re at a point where some character developments make sense, and some… well, not so much.
It’s easy to see why Jack is no longer the gung-ho leader he once was. His decisions have gotten people killed — and he’s somehow carrying around even more guilt than before we met him in Season One. But why is Desmond now perpetually stoned? And what’s really up with Dark-Side Sayid? It still seems like we only have half-answers at this point, and as we get ever so closer to the end, we’ll take all the answers we can get.
“You could find yourself in a situation that’s irreversible.”
I found the line above — with Des warning Claire of a possibly “irreversible” situation as a reason to coax her into meeting Ilana, attorney-at-law — to be the most cryptic of the entire episode. Did anyone else think back to Jack and Locke’s encounter at LAX, with Jack telling Locke he might be able to fix him, adding “nothing was irreversible”? Thematically, it definitely links to the significance of meddling with fate that’s always been present in the show — and it might even be very subtle foreshadowing to a rift between Jack and Desmond’s philosophies in The Island-verse.
The two ideas that have driven 98% of Lost’s conflicts are “we-have-to-get-off-this-island” versus “the-Island-is-special-and-we-should-stay.” It’s been the basis of the Jack-Locke rivalry, and it even seems like an extension of the battle between Jacob and Smokey. You could probably even argue that Lost is sort of like a six-season epic fantasy version of The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
But I’m starting to think that there might actually be a third idea subtlety emerging for the castaways — and it’s one that Desmond is currently spreading in both universes.
Much has been made about the white rock and black rock on the balance representing Jacob and Smokey – well, what if Desmond acts as the balance itself, connecting both worlds, and trying to keep them both in check?
Call it the “see-you-in-another-life-bruthah” school of thought, which possibly involves getting the castaways to acknowledge that both choices can truly exist. Maybe it’s his job to act as the scale, keeping both universes in check, never tipping the scale, and most importantly, making sure nothing is ever irreversible.
“Get off my damn boat.”
Jack’s not-so-subtle literal leap of faith off of Sawyer’s boat was the turning point we’ve been waiting for from the character, and his showdown with Sawyer – as well as his apology for Juliet’s death – hit all the right notes. But the scene was also sort of a neatly flipped-version of Jack’s “we’ve all changed” moment earlier in the episode. Even though the characters have changed and evolved, we still have new characters wearing old hats.
Sawyer acted very Jack-like throughout the episode, hell-bent on getting off The Island, barking orders and fighting anyone who gets in his way. And Jack has now officially become the de facto Locke, trying to convince James that something is special about The Island and that leaving might not be the best option. There was even a nice callback to Sawyer’s bailing-out-of-the-helicopter moment in Season Four done by Jack, as he hit the water and started dog-paddling like crazy.
Speaking of taking on new/old roles, Emile de Ravin deserves a shout-out for her take on the new token crazy Island person, a role previously inhabited by Rousseau. I wasn’t totally sold on the character development until this episode and the way she played off both Kate and Jack. She did ultra-creepiness with believability, while still wearing her vulnerability from past seasons. And those ice-cold eyes of hers don’t hurt either.
”Looks like someone got their voice back.”
It’s comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one taken out of the long-awaited Sun and Jin reunion by the thought that they were going to get tragically zapped by the sonic fence (via New York Mag’s Vulture blog).
Although it’s a total bummer the scene was dampened by a distracting metaphor, Lapidus’ stating-the-obvious quip about Sun getting her voice back was even worse.
But it did reaffirm a theory I’ve been holding onto, explaining why Frank is still on The Island. Sure, it might have something to with him being the original pilot of Flight 815, who ducked his fate and is now stuck in The Island’s version of course correction. But mostly I think he’s supposed to be the Good Father Figure.
On a show full of terrible parents, I think Lapidus is meant to be a parental figure that doesn’t suck. (And, yes, I know the character doesn’t actually have children.) But much like Hurley stands in for the typical Lost geek — asking all questions we want to ask — Lapidus represents what an awesome dad would probably do on a mysterious Island, which is namely point out the obvious with cheesy swagger, look Burt-Reynolds-cool, and go eat canned food while everyone else is debating the philosophical merits of staying or leaving a fantastical island. We’re probably two episodes away from Lapidus pestering Zoe to make him something for dinner.
“You’re with me now.”
With Sayid possibly lying to UnLocke, Claire getting out of dodge, and the rest of his followers shock-and-awed during the beach-bombing, Jack is very likely Smokey’s Last Recruit. And just as Claire warned him at the beginning of the episode, Jack is with Smokey now. It’s awesome to see Matthew Fox and Terry O’Quinn teamed up for the final act – and should be fun to see the two playing flipped roles, with UnLocke wanting to get off The Island and Jack wanting to stay.
My only serious gripe with the episode was Smokey’s claim that he was Christian Shepherd all this time. It’s similar to my problem with The Whispers reveal, in that it’s hard to tell if what we’re being told is truth, or purposeful redirection. The revelation doesn’t really hold up when looking at Christian’s off-Island appearances to Michael and Jack in seasons past. Does Smokey maybe have a psychic link with the castaways? Also, Christian was the one that told Vincent to wake up Jack prior to the first scene in the pilot (as shown in the mobisode titled “So It Begins”)– does Smokey also have Dog Whisperer powers that he hasn’t shown off yet? Also also — what’s up with Christian’s appearance in the Dharma house last season, when he was already posing as Locke elsewhere? Didn’t Ilana say he was stuck in Locke’s form? Are we possibly reading too heavily into things that might just be continuity gaffes? Oh well — until next week.
[Photos courtesy of ABC.com]