I liked this episode more than I probably should have. And Jen? She says “LaFleur” is comfortably within her top ten favorite episodes of “LOST” ever. While I wouldn’t go quite that far, obviously “LaFleur” clicked for us — even when it probably shouldn’t. After all, last week’s episode only covered a couple of weeks, chronologically, yet felt both rushed and by-the-numbers. Tonight we get an episode that not only spans three years, but jumps back and forth relentlessly. It played games with our expectations, and it gave us even more new characters. But somehow it worked. It had heart. It had velocity. It had everything from the four-toed statue (sort of) to Jin speaking English. And Sawyer? Why hasn’t this guy been in charge from the beginning?
While we’re largely treated to a Dharma Initiative history lesson, the shadows of the larger arc are always looming. Faraday promising himself that he “won’t tell her” (hoping to prove false his assertion that “whatever happened, happened”) to the fantastic encounter with the mysterious Richard Alpert. Juliet reminds us that her people, her time, were post-Dharma… and that both “The Incident” and “The Purge” lay ahead.
But the character interactions were the best part of “LaFleur.” And Josh Holloway sold every scene. From blowing Richard Alpert’s mind to settling down with Juliet, from selling Horace a tall tale to rising to be the town sheriff, Sawyer shined. I lamented, when we saw Sawyer and Juliet spooning in bed, that we were moments away from Kate showing up and ruining it all. And when Sawyer finally saw Kate step out of Jin’s van, Jen said, “If Sawyer leaves Juliet for Kate now, I’m going to stop watching.”
Well, not really. But it’s surely a testament to the performances of both Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell (who looks great as a mechanic, by the way) that we needed only that scene on the dock by the sub to believe just how well things worked out for them “three years later.” One episode sold them as a couple. While the “love triangle” (or quadrangle or whatever) will inevitably return, for the moment I’d like to pretend it won’t.
There are more than a few questions raised by “LeFleur,” of course. Why did Alpert want Paul’s body? The Island obviously works some magic with the deceased. Where does the smoke monster fit in? Alpert suggests with some dismay that the sonic fence is an effective deterrent, so perhaps it’s working in concert with the hostiles. Do we know who Horace and Amy’s son is? Jen’s of the opinion we haven’t met him yet, which is less satisfying but opens up more possibilities. I guess, if you believe Daniel, the baby was always meant to be born, but part of me likes the idea that Juliet’s intervention did change something… for better or worse.
Notes and Notions:
- The mention of “The Black Rock” was great, too. Though now I’m wondering where Charles Widmore is by this time. He said his people protected the island for three decades before Ben exiled him. If that period began around when we first met him as a young whippersnapper in the 1950s, he could conceivably still be around in the 1970s. Right?
- Loved the “needle drop” using the reel-to-reel tape player (“Candida” by Tony Orlando & Dawn). How many more music playback devices are left?
- I really enjoyed Miles’ snarkiness this episode, especially as Sawyer had to mostly elevate himself to leading man. His complaint about “the only two plans” (the beach vs. the Orchid) was quite apt.
- The Ankh necklace that Amy saved from Paul was a nice touch of symbolism. Signifying “eternal life,” its Egyptian roots also line up nicely with the motifs suggested by the back of the statue.
- Sawyer was overflowing with nicknames, but Jen’s favorite was “Enos,” which is a “Dukes of Hazzard” reference.
- Jen was also happy to see Kevin Rankin, who plays Herc on one of our other favorite shows, “Friday Night Lights.”
- So Horace and Amy had a baby. But what happened to Olivia, the woman Horace was with when they discovered Ben’s mother in Portland?
What did you think? Please comment below, send us an e-mail at lost@hawaiiup.com, or call the LostLine at (808) 356-0127 by Friday, March 6.
Hi guys
First time I have posted – never have enough time to read all the comments!
I was reading about the birth of Ben and now think that the fact that horus was there to save him was no coincidence, but in fact the same story line as Lock. Maybe, Ben was picked to be the leader from the word go and Horus was sent to save him….
Folks over at the Fuselage are calling the James & Juliet relationship “Suliet” but I like ones that use James or Ford since he is not bound to the “Sawyer” persona any more.
How about the triad of Mut (means “mother”), Amun (means “the hidden one”… could it be Jacob?) & Chons (‘master of time’) You can find a brief description at http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/mut.html & a picture of Mut at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mut Her hieroglyph for her name is a white vulture which could also be seen in the timer hieroglyphs in the hatch.
People keep complaining that the writers messed up the Charlotte timeline. Maybe they didn’t. We never saw the little girls face; we just assumed that Farrady was right in identifying her as Charlotte.
Hey gang – sorry about the long post – but as we’ve got 2 weeks between episodes I thought I’d write some thoughts down. It turned into a bit of a rant though…. apologies…
Let it Lie
What’s with the lie? I know that the whole point of lost is that people don’t ask questions, but I still don’t get why the Oceanic 6 had to lie. Jack said that it was because Widmore was trying to find the island and kill them – but did Jack think that Widmore was just going to believe his story and somehow call off his evil search to exploit the Island
WIDMORE – “I have spent 30 years looking for the island, and I wish to kill everyone on there!! Bwahahahah!â€
JACK – “Um…there is no island. We crashed somewhere else.â€
WIDMORE – “Oh. Guess that’s my mistake then. I’ll call off my 30 year search for the power of a time travelling island, and go back to making pregnancy testing kits. Sorry to have bothered you.â€
So why did they lie? To keep everyone else on the island safe? But Widmore and Ben, the two people they know as dangerous, know all about the island anyway. Who were they keeping it safe from? And given the smoke monster, the Others, the sonic fence, the medusa spiders, the polar bears, the dynamite, the hatches, and the fact that the island freakin’ disappeared in front of them, what makes them think that they’re safe on the island anyway?
Of the 71 people who survived the crash, 36 have died, and about 20 are unaccounted for. That’s not great odds. Surely the best way to keep them safe would be to get the might of the worlds logistics to go and get them (remember, they don’t know anything about time loops, wormholes or Hawkings weird theories yet.) Jack says they have to lie, because Locke asks him to. But what the freak does Locke know? Locke says that they shouldn’t leave the island, but Jack doesn’t believe that to be true, yet he believes he has to lie about it?
And how come everyone believes the Oceanic Six?. The press conference was a cool scene, but why didn’t anyone ask about the Plane wreck, and why Charles Widmore (or Benjamin Linus) would plant one there? Internet/lost fans can be conspiracy nuts, I know, but surely a faked plane crash would set some alarm bells ringing with someone?
So why lie? If they told the truth, the worst that would happen would be that some people won’t believe them, and head out to find the island, and rescue their friends. Who knows what whoever found the island would do with it? And why do they care?
The alternative is to live with the stress of lying the whole time and end up a junkie/in a mental asylum/on the run with the kid you stole/working as an assassin/an evil Korean bitch bent on revenge/nicknamed Goober.
Jeremy Bentham we hardly knew ye.
Was it me, or was ‘the life and death of Jeremy Bentham’ the most pointless episode ever. It didn’t actually tell us anything we didn’t know already, except for the fact that Ben killed Locke. Although I guess it did tell us how rubbish Locke is at doing stuff.
Locke was so convinced that the O6 weren’t supposed to leave the island, and that they had to come back that he stayed behind on the island, went down a well, broke his leg, disrupted the space time continuum, ended up in Tunisia, and tracked down the oceanic six. Sounds like he really really wanted the O6 back on the island, doesn’t it? Surely he had some compelling argument to get them to come back
LOCKE “Hey Sayid, come back to the Island.â€
SAYID “No thanks, ‘m enjoying hammering this nail into this bit of wood.â€
LOCKE “No problem, call me if you change your mind.â€
Not exactly a compelling argument and probably why we never saw John Locke working in politics. He did basically the same with the others, except Walt, who he didn’t actually ask to come back. What happened to the importance of the mission? It was only 15 minutes ago when Locke was telling everyone that this was the most important thing ever, and now he’s just giving up?
Now were this me, and I was told that if I didn’t bring them back, something terrible was going to happen to the world, I might enquire of Christian/Widmore/Ben what exactly this catastrophe would be so I could use it to persuade the Oceanic Six. Kate would be more inclined to listen to Lockes plea if she was told she had to come back or the world would turn to marshmallow (or whatever) rather than just “Because I have a feeling.†I mean seriously – what would it take you to take a flight you knew was going to crash? If one of your friends “had a feeling†that you weren’t goping to die in a horrible fireball, or get drowned and eaten by Sharks?
And why did Locke try and kill himself?
There are two answers. Firstly, he was so depressed that he thought he was such a loser, that he wanted to top himself. This is a weird decision, because a) he didn’t try very hard, and b) it’s not like he’s working to a time limit at the moment. He hadn’t even tried Sun (again, if it was so important to get them all back, why agree not to bring back Sun so easily?) He hadn’t asked Widmore for help yet.
The other reason might be because Alpert said he had to die in order to get them to come back. Now this is weird too. I’m not sure there are very many good reasons to kill yourself, but I’m damned sure “because a 1000 year old hippie in guyliner told me to†is anywhere near the top of the list. If you were going to kill yourself in order to convince someone to do something, surely you’d want at least some idea what was going to happen after you’ve carked it. It’s a mighty gamble just to hope it all works out fine. If dying is in Johns destiny, and I the islands plan for him, then surely its going to happen at some point anyway, so why accelerate the process? Why not just get a motorbike, a bottle o Jack Daniels, head to Vegas and go out with a bang? (Again, remember Locke isn’t on a time schedule here – the island is jumping in time, as it turns out, hes actually got 33 years to get them to go back before he hits present time on the island.)
And with Lockes death, we also have the compass problem. Remember the compass problem – like who gave the compass to whom first? Well it’s the same with Locke dying.
Alpert told Locke that he needed to die. How did Alpert know this? Well it stands to reason that Locke (or someone with Locke) told him after he returned to the Island. So if Locke told Alpert to tell Locke he needed to die, so when he comes back he can tell Alpert…..well it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. Unless Alpert is messing around with Locke, in which it’s a really horrible practical joke.
Its all Bushes fault.
Another thing that has been skated over and not mentioned….I can’t believe no one has made a big deal out of the fact that THE US GOVERNMENT KNOWS ABOUT THE ISLAND. Back in the 50’s there were US Soldiers on the island. There was a hydrogen bomb. Now are we supposed to believe that the US Military just lost a platoon of soldiers and all their equipment, including an 8 megaton bomb, and just never bothered looking for it? Hydrogen bombs aren’t car keys, and not the sort of thing you don’t go looking for.
Anyway, this would mean that the Commander in Chief of the US Army (Eisenhower) would know about the Islands existence, and the existence of some Island natives who killed a US Army platoon. (A declaration of war…) This would logically mean that details of the Island are in the possession of the US government. I knew it would all come down to Bush in the end.
Wherefore art thou Juliet.
This one struck me after watching LaFleur. JULIET KNOWS WHAT THE CHUFF IS GOING ON. Juliet has lived with the others, and must know something about what is going on. She knows that Alpert is ‘really old’ – which means she must have asked at some point. So she must know what the deal is with Alpert. Are you telling me that this isn’t something that came up over dinner and a glass of Dharma Merlot during those three years with Dharma?
CATS HAVE FOUR TOES!
At first I did not think that the statue was Bastet, but then I remembered that cats have four toes.
WHY THE FOUR-TOED STATUE PROBABLY ISN’T A PARTICULAR GOD OR GODDESS:
I remember that some time ago, Damon & Carlton said on the official Lost podcast (or in some other interview) that they didn’t care if the statue had four toes or six … just so long as there weren’t the normal five.
That tells me this is a mythical being/representation of their own creation. It may borrow from existing lore, but I don’t think the statue will be revealed to be a SPECIFIC Egyptian god or goddess.
I hope someone is able to find the interview spot; I bet it came just after we first saw the four-toed statue on Lost. Cheers!
I also like the Bastet/Sekhmet theory with the Wizard of Oz reference and that the two represent the balance of protector vs. destroyer of life. And I could see a parallel to Juliet as the fertility goddess and Kate as the one who turns everything to cr… okay, maybe that’s going too far.
The Watchmen idea is interesting, because it definitely seems to be a big on ancient Egypt which led me to looking into Ozymandias (aka the Greek name of the Egyptian Ramesses II). And it turns out a fella named HORACE Smith wrote a poem called “Ozymandias” in 1818 and there are some really familiar images…
In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
“I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone,
“The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
“The wonders of my hand.” The City’s gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
I just read “gigantic leg,” “nought but the leg remaining,” “forgotten Babylon,” some Hunter” (Locke?), “London,” “powerful but unrecorded race once dwelt in that annihilated place” and saw a lot of Lost. And the “Wolf in chace”… Ben! In Genesis, Benjamin (son of Jacob whose mother died giving birth to him) is described as a wolf: “Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.”
Far-fetched, I know.
note: Namaste is a salutation often used in Yoga classes. One translation is “the light in me honors the light in you.” also substitute “divine” for ‘light’.
About the statue, one thing came to mind when reading the prior posts. Perhaps the reason we did not see the face of the statue is because it will be of someone we know (Locke? Jack? Juliet?)
My crazy observations:
Juliet is one of my favorite characters. But I believe now that she is in the 70’s she is a goner. This is why. Ben is obviously drawn to Juliet because she “resembles” someone “young Ben” was close to in the past (like the 70’s). This person is apparently deceased and would not shock me if it was in fact Juliet back in this time frame. Plus what a great catalyst to set Sawyer off.
What is the current “others” leader roster.
Whitmore
Ben
Locke
Walt?
Did Locke actually die in the initial plane crash in season one. Island hits the reset button on him which explains why he can walk.
Last one… Richard Alpert is actually a fanatic Ohio State Alumni and this is why he hates the Darma initiative since it is a University of Michigan research project. Ok, that was my cheap shot at UM as I am a Buckeye….
Here’s my thought– I think just the OTHERS can’t have babies on the island. We’ve had other babies born, just not to the OTHERS. Perhaps it’s because the undead can’t give birth to new life? Just an idea.
LeFleur, where did Lock get the gun in the Pitt?
To those who think the resurrected Locke is the Smoke Monster, I don’t think that is the case. First, if the resurrected Locke is also the Smoke Monster, why would he need to change his shoes from the ones that Jack put on him. The Smoke Monster would just fit into the shoes. Second, why would he then ask Ben, why he killed him. Wouldn’t the Smoke Monster know why Ben did it, especially if the Smoke Monster judges past actions.
I think the Ben comment – I can’t control what comes out of the jungle – followed by Locke emerging from the jungle, was a play on words and foreshadowing Ben having to follow Locke, as portended by Alex/Smoke Monster.
Also, I think it was Ben who originally broke the rules of the Island by saving Alex and refusing to kill Russeou. The Island wanted them dead and Ben did not do it. Eventually they were both killed. Here Ben broke the rule of obeying the Island and began his quest to supplant Widmore. And explains why Ben finally admits he is the one who broke the rules.