That was my exact reaction upon watching this episode yesterday. To be honest, I am not a fan of Elizabeth Sarnoff written episodes, and while I do enjoy the mythology, I was not keen on following around Fake Locke and continuously seeing the real John Locke being kicked around like a soccer ball.
Unfortunately, that is what we had to put up with in this episode. Since each episode contains so much I will simply focus on one character, but since Flocke is both Fake and Locke, guess that means two characters this time around.
The episode begins with an ALT-Flash and Locke driving up to his house in his handicap wheelchair. This is the beginning of an episode full of FML worthy events for John. The ramp doesn’t work, he’s just gotten back from Australia, he’s tired and cranky, and in an attempt to just let the chair fall off the ramp, he is flung from the chair into the grass where sprinklers proceed to attack him.
Not a good welcome home, in any case. Helen (!) runs out to help him, and next we see Terry O’Quinn playing ducky in the bathtub while Helen rambles on in the background about them getting married. Judging from what we saw last week of a potential marriage and what we know of Lost (Sayid and Nadia, anyone?) married couples don’t really end up well, engaged couples even less, and not!engaged couples (even after three years, heh heh) even worse.
Here is where we witness something interesting with this Alt-Locke. When Helen removes the card and tells him to call Dr. Jack Sheppard, she says “What are the odds? Maybe it’s destiny.” Maybe it is John. The old John Locke would have snatched up that card and called Jack immediately. This John is far more cynical, more man of science, if you will. He doesn’t think it’s possible to fix him.
Back on-island, Flocke is zooming himself around the Island using Smokey Metro, and is drawn to a house playing rock music and things smashing inside. Is it me or did anyone else imagine punk rock Sawyer in this moment? No, just me? Moving on.
After terrorizing Richard and seeing some kid who could have been an inspiration for Lord of the Flies, Flocke returns to the ugly yellow house where Suliet met its birth and demise. I thought it was a big strange that Richard couldn’t see the boy, but then again, it wouldn’t be the first time. Way back as far as “Man Behind the Curtain”, it seems if you see things on-island that are not there, you are very important.
Maybe you are a “candidate”?
In any case, Flocke enters Sawyer’s house which looks like Motley Crue was its last tenant. “Search and Destroy” plays on the record player, which seems to echo Flocke’s mission in life. Is he “searching” out Sawyer to “destroy” him? Sawyer is very important, if you talk to Dogen and Lennon back at the Temple. He’s on the list, Jacob touched him, and they definitely didn’t want Smokey boy to find him.
Oh dramatic irony, how we love you.
Sawyer is sitting in his dirty underwear, drinking, moaning about his long lost love. Okay, not really, but you can tell that that is what he was thinking. I am getting really sick and tired of how we are supposed to feel for Sawyer when we weren’t shown anything to feel sorry for, to be honest. I can’t buy a three-minute implied relationship as reason for his total decay as a human. Sorry, Lost writers, but you dropped the ball there.
In any case, his grief is enough for Flocke to have a field day, playing on it and saying that he can answer all his questions. Sawyer knows that he is not John Locke because John Locke was scared, even when he pretended not to be.
This is in contrast to the ALT, where John Locke isn’t scared. He is at peace with the fact that he is in a wheelchair and seems more pissed off at the world than scared by it and his place in it. Kind of like…well, kind of like Flocke is. A cynical, glass-half empty man. Just like Sawyer is now. Two peas in a pod.
Sawyer is drinking, and I’m half-expecting him to be walking around in a feathered boa and heels for all his diva-like tendencies in this scene. He says that the reason he’s on the Island isn’t for some greater purpose, as Flocke implies, but because a lot of bad stuff has happened to him, so that’s why.
Well, since he has nothing else to do and Flocke won’t leave his house (which isn’t his house, it’s just a place he lived in, according to Flocke) then Sawyer gets up and goes to put some pants on. Yes please, Sawyer dear, put some pants on. Change your underwear while you’re at it, please. Unless Juliet didn’t do the laundry that day.
They set off on their trek to parts unknown. In the ALT, Locke continues to have the Day from Hell when Randy (what a douche!) fires him for missing a conference in Sydney. He leaves the building with his little box of stuff and finds that his van is blocked off by a massive yellow Hummer. Where have we seen that Hummer before? Oh, I know, one Hugo Reyes. Sure enough, Hurley pops up when Locke can’t even get revenge on him by lowering the handicap ramp down onto the shiny yellow siding.
Since Hurley is such a happy go-lucky guy this time around, he’s more than willing to aide Locke and gives him the number for a temp agency. This scene didn’t really do much for me, but it is interesting to note that in the regular timeline, the “connections” that the Losties had, in this case, seem to be coming true. Hurley and Locke shared Randy as a common link, and now because of him, they meet. Will it be like this for everyone? I hope so, because there are some characters who have connections that I would love to see meet up in the ALT.
Back on-island, the kid shows up, and Sawyer sees him! Is he “special” in the words of Richard, back in season three? He saw someone on-island who might be dead. Flocke is surprised that Sawyer sees the kid, and he takes off. The kid leads him deep into the jungle and here’s where it gets interesting. The kid says “You know the rules. You can’t kill him.”
Who is the “him”? Sawyer? Jacob? Aaron? I think this kid is young Jacob. The Island, when it isn’t Smokey appearing as someone has manifested what appears to be a character’s conscience. Walt showing up to Shannon when she was feeling guilty for letting Vincent run off. The horse appearing to Kate when she was thinking of Wayne and her feelings for Sawyer. Even Ben’s mother ,when he needed and wanted her the most.
Flocke is responsible for killing Jacob, so maybe this is just another Island hallucination. In any case, the kid tells Flocke something he can’t do so I guess we all know what that means….yup. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” Flocke screams, echoing his current avatar’s favored catchphrase.
Personally, I think the “him” that the kid was talking about, is not Sawyer, but rather Jacob. You can’t kill Jacob’s spirit, but you can kill his body. He is still there in some form, on the Island, protecting it from the Man in Black/Flocke. Is this form Sayid? Or just in the form of all the Losties who were brought there to perhaps take over Jacob’s work? We’ll see.
Flocke returns to Sawyer, and plays the whole “I didn’t see anything” card, which Sawyer just shrugs off. Before Flocke shows up, Richard appears, in a rather comical scene as he is always so composed and know-it-all. Now he is terrified, telling Sawyer to get out, that all Flocke wants is to use him, and then he will kill him. Sawyer doesn’t really care.
For someone as smart as Sawyer is, he is awfully stupid here (at least on the surface, knowing this show, he's got a plan going on). He knows that Richard has all the answers, and he knows that Richard has been around a very long time through some strange force. So you would think he would put two and two together that if Richard is freaked out by this guy, then there is reason to worry. Or it would have at least crossed his mind that someone walking around in the body of John Locke might not have such a good goal in mind, and it might even involve killing Sawyer.
But Sawyer is so “consumed with grief” that he doesn’t care (on the surface, at least. He could be forming a plan). Although it was nice to see a bit of the old seasons’ past Sawyer with the “Of Mice and Men” reference and pulling the gun on Flocke. Only here, Flocke manipulates him again, bringing up (vaguely) the death of Juliet and manages to walk out unscathed, leading Sawyer away. Oh Sawyer.
In the ALT, we meet up with Rose, who is relatively the same as present-day Rose. She kicks Locke’s ass and says she will help him find a job that fits his needs. She echoes what Locke should probably be doing, by telling him that she got past the denial part of having cancer and is just living her life. Locke seems to take the words to heart.
Now if only they could apply to Sawyer and his grief… (I know, I know, I'm giving him such a hard time, sorry).
Back on-island, at a cliff, Flocke leads Sawyer down a rickety old ladder. “Jacob’s Ladder”, anyone? I thought of it briefly when seeing the episode but I don’t know what it really means here or if it applies in anything other than name alone. Sawyer has a bit of a Juliet-moment, almost falling to his death but unlike her, he grabs hold of Flocke and actually manages to hold on.
They get to the bottom of the cave, where the first thing we see is a set of scales with a black and white stone. Both are even right now, but Flocke takes the white stone and pitches it, claiming that it is an “inside joke.” Well we get it. The Man in Black won, evil beats Jacob. Moving on to more interesting things, Flocke belittles Jacob, and shows Sawyer a list of names all scratched into a wall with numbers (some including THE NUMBERS) and says that that is why he is here.
All the names are “candidates” for the position of Jacob, and include such notables as Reyes, Jarrah, Locke, Sheppard, Kwon, and number 15, Ford. Where are Austen and Littleton? Flocke doesn’t even know if it applies to Jin or Sun Kwon. Was Jacob sexist? Apparently.
Flocke said that the names are meaningless. That they are people Jacob has poked and prodded and manipulated to end up on the Island to protect it. Protect it from what? Well from nothing, says the Man in Black, the Smoke Monster, the black stone. Flocke is lying his ass off here (maybe), to get Sawyer to help him. He says that Jacob poked and prodded Sawyer here, probably at his most miserable moment, and all the choices he then made were what led him to the Island and are why he had such a terrible life.
Basically, Flocke is saying that Jacob represented destiny (I think). That the Losties had no free will here. This seems in contrary to the talk that MIB and Jacob had on the beach. Jacob seems to stand for Free Will. He gave Sawyer the pen, but Sawyer continued to write the letter. He gave Jack the little push of confidence, but Jack was the one that listened. The Losties all had free will, even after Jacob pulled the strings a little. Kate didn’t have to keep stealing and getting away with murder.
What I find incredibly ironic about this scene, is that Flocke is saying that Jacob gets people at their most vulnerable and miserable and then twists them so that all of their choices ultimately aren't even their choices. This is exactly what he is doing with Sawyer now. Sawyer is at his most vulnerable and miserable and Flocke is devouring him whole, getting him to make choices that are not even his choices. It's what Flocke is pushing him and manipulating him do. To join his team.
Flocke says he is trapped that he wants to go home. That Sawyer has three choices. He can do nothing like John Locke did (then he crosses out his name. I guess Locke is no longer a “candidate” as he is dead), accept the job and become the new Jacob (maybe your name gets circled? Or you get a gold star?), or the third option, which Sawyer seems keen on taking before he even hears it, or you can help Flocke get off the Island and go home.
Sawyer takes door number three, and “hell yes” he is going to go home. To a home where nothing awaits him. This moment for Sawyer reminds me of last week’s moment on the dock, when he said some people are meant to be alone. He’s just tempting fate. This sudden urge to go home even when he has admitted that there is nothing there for him, hopefully indicates that he will stay on the Island and not be alone. God knows he deserves a little bit of happiness in his life that is NOT associated with denial and moving on.
Flocke smiles, happy that he has a new recruit. He’s got what he wanted. He has one of Jacob’s Candidates on his side. Now he can begin his path of destruction. Does he need more people? Who else is he going to recruit? If we listen to Dogen, it sounds like he might already have two others on his side, Claire and Sayid, as they are being consumed by darkness, “claimed”, if you will.
Like his ALT counterpart, Flocke is riding the waves of cynicism and is satisfied with what he is creating and doing. Locke, in the ALT, accepts that he is in the wheelchair when he hangs up the phone on Jack’s assistant, and tells Helen that he will never get out of that chair, and she should accept that as well. He gets a job he likes, as a substitute (episode title!) and even looks to be making a new friend in the likes of Benjamin Linus, European History teacher who doesn’t like when people don’t change out the coffee filter (this was the best part of the whole episode).
Much like Locke is the substitute in the ALT, Flocke is nothing more than a substitute as well. Sawyer might even simply be substituting for someone else. Walking away from this episode, I get the feeling that Flocke is even more baddie than we think him to be, and that Sawyer better start watching his own back (even though he really has had little practice seeing as Juliet was always there doing it for him) because before he knows it, he might be getting his name crossed out as well.
Here another reviewer for the Blog, I can say she's very nice girl and I always loved to read her review on forum so i thought, why not to post it here too ? let's me know what do you think of Magali's review :)
WHAT KATE DOES- RECAP AND REVIEW by Magali
The recap idea started when Lyly asked Helena who asked me, over on the Outlaws forum. I balked at it initially but figured that what the heck? If anyone online can write a review than so can I. So this is purely a fan’s perspective on the show. I don’t claim to be an expert on anything, I’m just a huge fan of Lost. Since so much goes on into one episode and I can spend hours talking about it, I will just pick the central character in the episode and go from there.
This week we saw more dimensions to Kate, so I figured I would try to tackle her and leave the mythology stuff with Jack and Sayid to other, more experienced writers.
I RUN TO YOU
When we first met Kate, she was a cute-as-a-button fugitive who killed her father and was pretty good at running away from law enforcement as well as her emotional issues. Now, five seasons later, we see Kate still has maintained some of that desperate need she had to run away. On-island, Kate runs away from Jack, only this time, she is also running to something—Sawyer.
Armed with her persuasive skills she brags about to Lennon, Kate sets off with Jin (also running towards someone, his wife, Sun) in order to find Sawyer and drag his grieving-for-Juliet ass back to the Temple, because apparently it is “very important” that he stay there with them. I don’t know if the Others know this, but if they just maybe tell everyone what is the frak is going on with the Island, then perhaps our Losties would be more inclined to listen. Ignoring Dogen’s quiet request to stay, Sawyer runs off to parts unknown, opening the door for Kate to hunt him down.
While trekking through the jungle we see that Kate has not lost some of her fugitive skills, and promptly exercises them on an unsuspecting Aldo and clueless Jason the Other. It is important to note that when Jin demands what she plans on doing when she finds Sawyer, she says “We’ll have to figure that out together.” She also makes it known that she has no intention of returning to the Temple.
Now, let’s stop here for just a moment.
Back at the Temple before we started this Journey in Search of Sawyer, we had to witness a Jack and Kate moment. I am not going to lie. I liked this scene between them. I thought it was very old-school Jack and Kate, flashing us back to season one when they had their little heart-to-hearts on the inner-workings of the Lostie leadership. Jack wants to make sure Kate is safe and if it is a good idea that she is going out to find Sawyer.
Kate lets him known rather clearly that she will be fine, and for him not to worry about Sawyer, seeing as the last time Sawyer saw Jack he threatened to kill him. It is interesting to note, that Kate is holding back some vital information. Sawyer changed his mind, in the premiere, and was content to see Jack suffer for killing Juliet rather than die for it.
Why would Kate hold that back? Could it be that she doesn’t want Jack butting in on her, pardon the pun, affairs? Whatever her intention is, it works, because she turns Jack around to go make sure Sayid is safe and convinces him that she should go out looking for Sawyer. Looks like her persuasive skills worked there pretty well.
Now we come to a nice Jack and Kate scene, with pretty music (even if it is in a dark room) and Jack, it seems, leans in ever so slightly to kiss Kate goodbye, but Kate turns away before he can make his move.
Let’s take another step back, this time to season two. In the episode “What Kate Did”, Kate kissed Jack for the first time. We can speculate on her true reasons for doing so, but it seemed that she was trying to force herself way back then that she had feelings for Jack and they were the same as her feelings for Sawyer, who at the time, was in a coma-like sleep after being shot in the shoulder.
This time, in another episode about what Kate does or did or didn’t do, there is another Jack and Kate “kiss”…sort of. They didn’t kiss. Kate knows her feelings for Jack, she doesn’t need to play along with his. She doesn’t lead him on, and turns away, leaving him behind much like she did in the season two episode, to go back to Sawyer.
Now, back to on-island season six Kate.
Kate leaves Jin, who doesn’t understand and wants to go find Sun. This is fine with Kate, because she is going to find Sawyer and they can figure out what to do next, together. Quite the contrary to Jack. She didn’t want to work out anything together with Jack. However, she does with Sawyer.
She tracks Sawyer all the way to Otherville, and to the house he shared with Juliet. Can I comment on how ridiculous it was that Sawyer hid a ring in a bag in a box under the floorboards under a dresser in a room in a house on an Island? It’s like some warped Russian doll. He must really have not wanted Juliet to find that ring. Was she a nosy person? Well, we’ll never know because right now she is buried six feet deep and covered with dirt.
This scene was so poignant on so many levels. First, Kate witnesses the true extent of Sawyer’s feelings. I have no doubt she knew he loved the woman. She knew they were living together, that they were planning on leaving on the sub together. She was right there when Juliet was hanging by a fingertip and when she fell. And she was also there, helping Sawyer into the rubble of the hatch and watching him carry out Juliet’s body.
But this is something else entirely. This time she sees him in deep mourning, and turns to leave. It isn’t going to work. They can’t figure things out together, because Sawyer is too devastated. She goes to leave, but Sawyer hears her.
It is heart-wrenching that Kate could not see Sawyer’s face as he cried over the little bag he pulled out of the flooring, just as this time Sawyer cannot see Kate’s face when she says that she was worried about him. There is a lot going on in this scene. Sawyer unsure what to make of Kate showing up. Kate unsure of where to go from there.
Well they end up going to the dock where Sawyer and Juliet have had many a moment. If we can make a simple analogy, the sub dock is to Sawyer and Juliet fans as the cages are to Sawyer and Kate fans. A place where they’ve had some big moments or at least, one big moment.
In this scene, I truly believe we see how far Kate and Sawyer have both come, and yet we see how far they also have to go. These two are nowhere near being redeemed just quite yet.
Kate proceeds to apologize for coming after him, and tells Sawyer that she came after him so they can find Claire together. Because that way she can get Claire back to Aaron and then “everything” might not have been for nothing. She then says she is sorry, again.
You already said that, Sawyer tells her. This time she is sorry for Juliet. If she hadn’t convinced them, then Sawyer and Juliet would be back in the 70s betting on the Cowboys and buying Microsoft stock. Now Juliet is dead, because of her.
Kate is taking the blame here. This is quite the leap for someone who in “What Kate Did” was blaming Wayne’s evilness for why she blew him up. She was saying she did it for her mother, she did it to protect her, save her, but nope, Diane said. You did it for you. Kate couldn’t admit it. She didn’t admit guilt for directly taking her father’s life.
Yet in this scene, she is taking guilt for Juliet’s death, when Juliet was the one that chose to go back, who chose to ultimately follow Jack.
This doesn’t work for Sawyer, who blames himself. He doesn’t blame Kate, he doesn’t blame Juliet, he doesn’t even blame Jack anymore. He blames himself. Why?
Because he asked Juliet to stay, on that very dock, right where Kate is sitting.
This could not be more symbolic. He said “right where you’re sitting.” That might as well have been an anvil that Juliet was Sawyer’s replacement, like little Aaron was Kate’s Sawyer replacement. The two of them had crutches, people they used to fill the wounds left behind by the other.
Kate knows what he’s talking about. Whether Sawyer meant the “you understand that, right?” to mean that she knows what it is like to be alone, or she knows what it is like to ask someone to stay for you, or if he meant it as her departure is why he didn’t want to be alone.
Whatever it is, Kate knows, because she lets him continue talking. He says some people are meant to be alone.
The moment Sawyer said that, I think he just fast-tracked himself to a happily ever after ending on-island. Whether this is with Kate remains to be seen, or if it means he will just finally be at peace with himself and not being in denial or torturing himself for things out of his control. He then says he was going to marry Juliet.
He throws the ring into the ocean, symbolic of ridding himself of this weight and then tells Kate she can make it back to the Temple by nightfall, and leaves. Kate stays and sobs, devastated.
Now, I know some are out there parading and cackling about how this is the end of Sawyer and Kate, but I believe it is just another stop along the road for them. They both have been alone all of their lives. They need some sense of happiness. Do you hear that Damon and Carlton? They need to be happy! They have been miserable their entire lives. Now it’s time for some karmic payback.
The entire scene at the dock was heart-breaking. From Sawyer’s crying to Kate’s crying to him admitting that Juliet was his replacement for Kate…it didn’t stop.
Time will tell if Damon and Carlton intend on making these two a couple once again, or happy for that matter. They did succeed in showing that Juliet was nothing more to Sawyer than Aaron was to Kate, and that he blamed himself and not Kate. This isn’t about Kate at all. It is about Sawyer’s issues.
And Kate, grown-up Kate, doesn’t fight it, and lets him leave, and she goes off, numb, either to find Claire or return to the Temple. Somehow I don’t think she is going to the Temple. We’ll see next week.
Like any Lost episode, whatever the flashback, flashfoward, flashsideways is about, there are both certain similarities and differences. In this Alternate Universe Flash, Kate is once again on the run, and unlike on-island, she isn’t really running towards anything or anyone (that we know of). Instead, she picks up Claire, feeling bad for abandoning her on the side of the road when she finds Claire’s bag is full of baby stuff, including the stuffed toy that Aaron would hold in the season four episode “Something Nice Back Home” when Mommy Kate was fighting with her soon to be ex-fiance , his Uncle Jack.
This Kate shows some differences. She is tougher, harder, almost…meaner? In any case, she softens enough to go with Claire to the hospital and stay with her during the crisis with Baby Unborn Aaron. She has someone she is fighting for, someone she is trying to help.
Claire, who is receptive and asking for help, which is in stark contrast to Sawyer on-island, who wants anything but help from Kate. Kate returns to being on the run after she helps Claire, similar to on-island Kate returning to aimlessly wander (that we know of) when she can’t bring Sawyer back.
Who knows what will happen when on-island Claire (with a crazy wig!) finds out that Kate took care of Aaron in those three years, while Claire was being consumed by “darkness” according to Dogen (maybe Smokey took her over?!) but I think it is safe to say that this version of Claire doesn’t look like she needs anyone’s help….and Kate, for the time being, will continue to run.
At least this time, she has grown, and is no longer running from things, but towards them.
