Lost Episode 6-13 Review

Shows

I’ve suspected for some time that a sprawling, multi-centric episode would be necessary to begin to weave these zany sideways threads into some sort of cohesive tapestry.

Lo and behold, that’s exactly what “The Last Recruit” delivered. The hour was a zig-zagging, double-crossing high-wire act that managed to cover an abundance of narrative ground without stretching itself too thin (most of the time).

“Well, here we go.” – The Smoke Monster

The action picked right up with the Flocke contingent’s rendezvous with Jack’s bunch. The two alpha dogs retired to private quarters where Jack got to the bottom of the Monster’s shape-shifting tendencies, finding out that the Season 1 manifestation of Christian Shephard was, in fact, ol’ Smokey toying with Jack’s volatile psyche. I’ve always held on to the thought that the Christian manifestation was a separate entity aligned with neither Jacob nor the Man in Black, but it appears that the body of Jack’s father was simply the first host that the Monster latched onto to begin his manipulation of the castaways.

Jack’s meeting with Claire was warmly cute and illustrated an important notion that Claire may not have been completely turned to “the dark side.” She expressed happiness about seeing Jack again and seemed genuinely emotional. This is in stark contrast to the stoic, joyless zombie that Sayid has become (more on that in a second). Claire seems to be being more emotionally toyed with, whereas Sayid appears to have become of anything resembling a human emotion.

Claire ominously warned Jack that his willingness to hear Bogus Locke out had already sealed his fate. The episode’s cliffhanger would seem to suggest that she’s actually not that far off. Prior to that, though, Sawyer set his subterfuge in motion, hijacking the Elizabeth for a meet-up with Jack, Hurley, Sun and Lapidus.

The plan nearly went off without a hitch, as the gang were just piling onto the ship when rifle-toting Claire got the drop. Sawyer had considered her to be a lost cause, but the ensuing Kate-Claire exchange was actually one of the finer moments of the hour, as Kate successfully coerced Claire on board, claiming that Claire is and always has been the only one to raise Aaron, a strikingly effective callback to the core themes of season 1’s “Raised By Another”.

Elsewhere, I was completely into the Sayid/Desmond execution at the well. These are two of my top five Lost characters, and seeing the two exchange such weighty dialogue about the nature of love, loss and the lengths people will go to get it back was entrancing. Also, if you really think Sayid carried out the execution as he told Locke, I would suggest that you don’t know much about Lost. If Sayid, wasn’t able to pull the trigger, it would put into play the possibility that a sliver of good remains in everyone converted by the Man in Black, and that they still have the choice to follow it.

I’d like to point out that throughout Sawyer’s escapade to submarine the folks off the island, I couldn’t help but think that “escaping” is a really silly endeavor to pursue from a creative standpoint since, ya know, they already left and came back. It was at exactly this point that Jack put words to my thoughts. The real magic of the scene between Jack and Sawyer is that you fully understand where both these opposing worldviews are coming from, given their frame of reference. Jack is now in the loop regarding Island mysticism, and knows that he has come back for some reason and that there is no way that reason is just to hang for a while and then leave again. Sawyer has been trapped all along and, by his own admission, is done with the Island, whether or not it is done with him. Remember that Sawyer sacrificed his own Island liberation back in season 4 to help his friends escape, setting the stage for season 5’s time travel hilarity. Needless to say, he’s had enough and kindly asked Jack to get off the damn boat. Twice.

Jack obliged, but not before punctuating the conversation with a sincere and heart-obliterating apology about the fate of poor Juliet.

The group soldiered on and eventually met up with the Widmore clan on Hydra Island, leading to the emotional high point of the episode, the Jin and Sun reunion. I think what made the moment so effective is that in an episode where a boatload of events occurred (we haven’t even gotten to the Sideways tilt yet), I really wasn’t expecting such an emotional sucker punch so near the end of the hour. Such is the magic of Lost. Though I have to say, for a split second I thought one, or possibly both of the lovers were ticketed for a brain frying courtesy of the Widmore sonic pylons.

From there, Sawyer’s pact with Widmore hit an unforeseen snag, as Zoe put in the order to firebomb the Monster’s troupe. To what end, I’m not precisely sure, as Widmore must certainly know that such weaponry would be rendered inert against this type of foe. Regardless, it put Jack in prime position to fulfill his cosmic destiny, as the Man in Black dragged him away from the carnage.

Everything that Rises Must Converge

In the interest of not completely obliterating my word limit, I will give a relatively sparse rehashing of the Sideways events of “The Last Recruit”.

Basically, the point is that a certain amount of crisis and despair is forcing the characters into closer proximity. I don’t think it’s an accident that while the Sideways universe sees them gradually joining up, the Island world still sees them largely splintered, as you now have Sawyer’s group, Richard and Ben in the jungle and now Jack and the Monster all spread out ready to initiate the show’s final dramatic upheaval. Sawyer’s growing cache of sideways criminals now includes Kate and Sayid, as the latter was nabbed for the slayings of Keamy and his goons.

Much like last week, I was completely taken with the manner in which Desmond is used as he tracks down the 815 passengers. He intercepted Claire on her way to the adoption agency and set her in motion to reunite with Jack at their father’s will reading, overseen by Ilana. Desmond’s almost otherworldly presence is particularly enhanced by Giacchino’s score, which takes on an eerie mysticism whenever he is on screen.

Sun’s brief recognition of Locke whilst they were being rushed into St. Sebastian would seem to lend some credibility to the “Emotional Extreme” Theory that I posited last week, which basically says that a crossover moment can occur when the character is faced with a conscious-altering mental state, such as a true love or a near-death experience.

Appropriately, the Sideways saga culminated with Jack (now on much better terms with his David) prepping to save the vehicularly-assaulted John Locke. Jack’s realization of the patient’s identity served as a pitch perfect echo to this gem from the season premiere, still probably my favorite scene of this season.

While this episode was not perfect, I do believe it was perfect for what the show is in need of at the moment. The pieces are being very strategically placed on the proverbial chessboard in both timelines. I think what I like the most about this late-season surge is that I’m still very open to any number of possible conclusions the show could reach. This season has caught some flack for its early feet-dragging “filler” episodes (for the record, I only think “What Kate Does” qualifies as filler), but now that deliberate, measured storytelling approach is paying off, as we’ve successfully navigated close enough to the endpoint while still being kept largely in the dark and therefore dramatically engaged. A flashier approach may have led to all of us successfully guessing the show’s final reveals several weeks ago, and why in the world would that be fun?

So, there we are. Are you primed for the home stretch? Were you as impressed as I was at the amount of effective storytelling the writers were able to shoehorn into a single hour? Anyone doing anything special on May 23??? You know the drill, sound off.

Namaste.