LOST Recap, Season 6, Episode 8: “Recon”
What follows is a recap of LOST Season 6, Episode 8: “Recon.” Lots of spoilers ensue.
Check out the guest blogger’s LOST-themed blog at thelostloophole.blogspot.com for daily LOST-related updates.
It’s been three long weeks since we last saw James “Sawyer” Ford, and he made his return in a big way this week. Both on-island and off-island action centered on everyone’s favorite bad boy during “Recon,” the eighth episode in the final season of LOST. Let’s begin with the off-island action.
Many loyal LOST viewers aren’t fans of the new flash-sideways action this season. But tonight’s episode proved that the flash-sideways can be just as exciting and mind-bending as the on-island action. We begin with Sawyer, who goes by his given name, James Ford. It appears that he’s up to his old tricks, conning pretty women with his good looks and smooth talk. But in the biggest flash-sideways twist of this season, we learn that James Ford isn’t a con man, but he’s a police officer. His partner is Miles Straume, who worked on DHARMA security with Sawyer when they were stuck in 1977 on the island during Season 5. Also, James’s safe word was LaFleur, the name he went by when he was a member of the DHARMA Initiative.
Miles sets up James on a date with a friend, who turns out to be Charlotte Lewis. She’s still an archaeologist, just as she was when she came to the island on the freighter in Season 4. She and James hit it off, until she discovers a folder in James’s dresser labeled “Sawyer” (she also noticed a battered copy of Watership Down, a book Sawyer read on the island). James is so enraged at Charlotte’s discovery that he kicks her out of the apartment at 3:00 am, essentially ending any chances he may have had for a relationship with the redhead.
We learn that while James Ford is now a cop instead of a con man, his past is still the same. His father murdered his mother and killed himself because of a con man, who at the time was known as Sawyer, but now goes by the name Anthony Cooper. James is looking for him and eventually confides in Miles that he will kill Anthony Cooper when he finds him.
Two other previously viewed characters popped up in the flash-sideways: James runs down a hooded Kate, who is once again, running from the law, at the end of this episode. Another honorable mention goes out to Liam Pace, who was at the police station, inquiring about his brother, Charlie Pace. You’ll remember that in Season 6, Episodes 1 and 2 (“LA X”), Charlie was arrested on Oceanic 815 for drug possession. The alarm clock at the beginning of the episode was also notably set to the time 8:42 (two LOST numbers). This flash-sideways was stuffed full of on-island reminders!
Let’s take a minute to recap the flash-sideways twists we know about so far:
*Hurley is lucky, not cursed;
*Jack is a father;
*John Locke is engaged to Helen, and has a relationship with his father;
*Sayid is not with Nadia;
*Ben has a PhD in Modern European History;
*and Sawyer is a police officer, not a con man.
All of these are pretty meaningful changes for our LOSTies, except for Kate, who seems to be living a similar life to her original timeline.
Also, it appears that there is something going on with mirrors in the flash-sideways. Jack, Kate, John Locke, and James Ford all took very long looks into mirrors during their flash-sideways. This is also the second episode in a row featuring a microwave dinner. I’m guessing the mirrors are probably more important than the TV dinners, but you never know with LOST.
On the island, Sawyer and Kate are reunited when Flocke’s new set of followers from the Temple, including Kate and Sayid, meet up with Sawyer and Jin, who were camped out at Claire’s rustic home. Claire is still as creepy as ever, glancing longingly at her strange skeleton-baby and holding Kate’s hand just minutes prior to attacking her. Sayid, who seems to be in a strange trance-like state, just sits back while Claire beats on Kate. Flocke pulls Claire off of Kate and later admits to Kate that he had a crazy mother and knows how difficult that can make life. Aaron has a crazy mother too now, and it seems that Flocke thinks Aaron would be better off with Kate.
Flocke sends Sawyer to the Hydra Island, where he meets Charles Widmore’s people. They take Sawyer to the submarine to meet Widmore and Sawyer discovers a double-padlocked door. (What in the world could be behind that door!?) Sawyer tells Widmore that he will bring Flocke to the submarine as long as Widmore will allow Sawyer and anyone he brings with him to leave the island. They shake on this deal and Sawyer returns to the island to meet with Flocke. Sawyer spills the beans, telling Flocke the plan to take him back to Widmore where they’ll change the plan and capture Widmore and his people. We’re not sure what Sawyer’s true plan is, because, as Flocke pointed out, Sawyer’s the best liar on this island (next to Ben, possibly?).
What we do know: Sawyer’s still (seemingly) loyal to Kate. On the Hydra Island, he comes across the Polar Bear cage where he and Kate consummated their relationship and said “I love you” for the first time during Season 3, Episode 6 (“I Do”). He finds Kate’s dress and holds on to it longingly for awhile. At the end of the episode he tells Kate that he’s getting her off the island: And the love-quadrangle continues.
So: the plot moved forward on the island, and we learned much more about one of our favorite LOSTies off the island, which made for a really solid episode. With only eight episodes to go until the end of the series, I’d say we’ve climbed to the top of the roller coaster hill and we should all brace ourselves for the free-fall down the hill that is about to ensue. Next week: Richard Alpert‘s story will (hopefully) all be revealed and make sense in “Ab Aeterno.”
Other LOST Season 6 recaps:
Episodes 1 & 2: “LAX Parts 1 & 2″
Episode 11: “Happily Ever After”
Episode 12: “Everybody Loves Hugo”
Episode 13: “The Last Recruit”
Episode 16: “What They Died For”
Katelyn is a graduate student at Michigan State University is East Lansing, MI. In her free time she loves to spend time watching and writing about LOST. Check out her LOST-themed blog at thelostloophole.blogspot.com for daily LOST-related updates.
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