"LaFleur" episode review

"LaFleur" was, in my opinion, clearly a set-up for the remainder of LOST Season 5, and a damn good one at that. Consequently, I think that in order to truly evaluate/appreciate this episode, it's necessary to understand that, its nature.

However, I do not mean to say by that that there was not any content of mythological significance in this episode -- on the contrary! More on the indigenous people living on the Island back in the Dharma days was revealed, plus other good stuff. This was a pretty bangin' episode.

Rather than write a huge episode synopsis like I did in my review of "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," I'm going to write a smaller episode synopsis followed by some theories/speculation in light of what the show's told us up until this point and where I think it's going. Without further ado, here we go...

• The episode begins after the events of "This Place Is Death" -- I know, it was a long time ago. That was the episode where Charlotte died and Locke turned the wheel. We left off with Sawyer and Juliet and the rest of the people left by Locke at the well. There was a flash and the well disappeared. Now, finally, "LaFleur" provides us with some new info as to what they're up to. The time jump that occurred sending Locke falling into the icy chamber and hurting his leg and the well disappearing was to an unspecified time in the past. Sawyer and the gang see from a distance the back of a giant statue, towering over the canopy of the jungle facing the ocean, possibly the four-toed statue we saw in the Season 2 finale?...more on that later...
• The flash where Locke turned the wheel places Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, and the rest of them permanently into the Dharma hay-day year of 1974. The group decides to trek back to the beach and build a new camp -- what will be the first leader-esque decision that Sawyer makes for the group, one which will be followed by many others in the coming years. On the way, they come across two who-will-be-revealed-to-be Dharma Initiative members, one dead. The other, a woman, is crying. Two Hostiles place a bag over her head. Sawyer and Juliet intervene, even though Daniel tells them it's pointless. Sawyer and Juliet kill both men and free the woman. The woman tells them that her name is Amy and that the man who the Hostiles had killed was Paul, her husband -- the two had apparently gone outside the safe boundaries to have a picnic or something of that nature but were attacked. Sawyer makes up an alibi and so starts the lie: Sawyer crashed with his fellow shipmates and is looking for the rest of his missing crew members. Amy tells him that they have to help her bring back Paul's dead body to the Dharma Initiative barracks and bury the two dead Hostiles, a point about which she is very adamant. On the way back, Amy disables the sonic fence and tells Sawyer and the rest that it's okay to pass. She tricks them, however, and renders them unconscious: the ol' earplug trick apparently. I actually thought that part was a bit odd/cheesy but whatever...maybe that's just me...
• Sawyer wakes up in a room alone and is confronted by the mysterious Horace Goodspeed. He asks Sawyer what his story is, and Sawyer tells him that his names is James LaFleur and that he and his team were stranded on the Island, shipwrecked, and are looking for their fellow missing crew members. He says that they were tasked with looking for the remnants of the missing slave ship "The Black Rock." Horace says that's all fine and well but tells him that, with or without the rest of his crew, he has to leave the Island the following day on the Dharma Initiative's submarine.
• The rest of the group, waiting outside, is discussing whether or not they think Sawyer's story will work. Meanwhile, Daniel has since Charlotte's death adopted a very pessimistic, cynical mindset about pretty much everything in general. He's amazed, however, when he sees a little girl running through the Dharma Initiative barracks who he perceives to be Charlotte as a child. Finally, Sawyer comes back out to the group and explains the story he came up with. The party is short-lived however, when alarms start to ring throughout the camp. Sawyer and company are rushed into a home and watch to see what's going to happen...
• Richard strolls out of the jungle into the Dharma Initiative's camp. Horace goes out to talk to him. Richard has come to find out whether or not the "truce" between his people and the Dharma Initiative has been broken, aka, he wants to know where his two missing men are. Horace goes back into the house where Sawyer is and asks what exactly happened. Sawyer goes out to take to Richard himself alone, against Horace's wishes. Sawyer tells Richard that his beef isn't with the Dharma Initiative, that he is the one who killed Richard's two missing men. He explains how he perceived the situation and why he acted the way he did, further validating his position by relating to Richard a sequence of events which took place in 1954, events which we saw take place in the third episode of this season, entitled "Jughead": how Locke strolled into the Others' camp and talked to Richard and how they had a hydrogen bomb and didn't know what to do with it. Richard is satisfied with Sawyer's story but tells him that his people still need some sort of justice.
• Horace goes to Amy and asks her for her husband Paul's dead body, telling her that Richard has requested it. However, he lets her know that if she doesn't want to let them have it then that's fine and that they'll accept the consequences. Amy concedes, though, and Richard leaves. Threat neutralized. As a token of his appreciation, Horace grants Sawyer two weeks to search for the rest of his missing team before leaving the Island.
• Three years later in 1977, two Dharma Initiative security men and a girl who probably shouldn't be there spot Horace Goodspeed out by the sonar fence on a security camera, throwing sticks of dynamite around. They go to the head of security's house to ask what they should do in the middle of the night. Who is the Head of Security? James LaFleur. Win.
• Sawyer goes out with Miles to go get Horace, who is completely trashed, and bring him back to his home. This they do, and Sawyer brings Horace back to his home, where a very concerned Amy, who is pregnant with Horace's baby, is waiting. Apparently, the two had an argument, propelling Horace onto a drunken run. Classy. (<-- sarcasm)
  
• As Sawyer is finishing his conversation with Amy, she begins to go into labor. Great timing, right? The doctor, who's actually an obstetrician, experiences difficulties throughout the night with delivering the baby. Sawyer goes and finds Juliet. He wants her to help deliver the baby. Juliet agrees to do so but reluctantly. When the doctor protests Juliet delivering the baby, Amy insists that it be her. Owned.
• Juliet comes out finally and lets an impatient Sawyer know that the delivery was a success! Everyone's okay. Win!
• Horace wakes up and Sawyer is waiting. He tells Horace that Amy is okay and so is his son but that he missed it. Horace tells Sawyer that he and Amy had had a fight and that that was why he had run off drunk. He found Paul's necklace in her sock drawer and wasn't sure that she was over him. He asks Sawyer if three years is long enough to get over someone and Sawyer assures him that yes, it is, referring to his relationship with Kate.
• Sawyer goes home toooo...Juliet! who he is apparently in love with now. She thanks Sawyer for believing in her. The next morning, Sawyer is awakened by a call from Jin: He's found them! Sawyer drives down away frr the barracks to meet them and is faced with seeing Kate again. LOST
  

Story/Narrative - I love the Sawyer Juliet dynamic and what that will undoubtedly mean and do for the immediate future of the show. I think it's incredibly interesting that the fact that children couldn't be born on the Island had had such an effect on Juliet that she had come to point where she personally felt responsible for the deaths of the children and considered herself to be the failing factor in the equation. With this in mind, it makes it all the more touching and real how important Sawyer's faith in her must be to Juliet. Awesome.

Beyond that, the show has definitely thrown a curve into the whole equation. Think about it: The Oceanic 6 and the others living of the Island have slowly lost their nerve over the course of three years, being tormented by their decision to leave the Island and afflicted with guilt about the rest of the people still on the Island and what's happened to them. Now, consider Sawyer and the gang. Assuming Daniel has, in fact, found Charlotte, I'd be willing to guess that he would not rather be ANYWHERE else. Sawyer has seemingly settled down with Juliet and is happy, finally. Furthermore, he's accepted his leadership role and blossomed! (hence, the episode title "LaFleur," which is French for "the flower" -- interesting...) All of that being said, I'm seeing a problem. The people coming back to the Island are under the impression that the people they left behind desperately need their help and are being persecuted but it would appear that the situation is in all reality exactly the opposite! Most if not all of the people left on the Island have settled into their situation and are seemingly, for the most part, content.

In addition, something obviously happened to make Sawyer and company go from staying on the Island for just two more weeks to being there for three freaking years! but what?... Sawyer is "Head of Security?" That's pretty crazy...

Let's not forget about Rose and Bernard, by the way. In the season premiere, they were separated from the rest of the group in the flaming arrow attack. Just like the Others in Season 4 who didn't appear for the entire season until the finale, the LOST co-producers WANT us to forget about Rose and Bernard! My guess, they made the different time jumps and since the jumps have stopped in 1974 were captured by the Hostiles. 5

LOST Theory/Mythology - The indigenous people of the Island had some "truce" with the Dharma Initiative. It seems fairly obvious to me that Richard and his people are in no way benefiting from the Dharma Initiative being on the Island and that they could basically deal with them whenever they might want, which leads to me question: Why are the Others (or whatever you want to call them) okay with the Dharma Initiative being on the Island in the first place? Are they getting something out of the deal? And what happens to make them not be okay with the Dharma Initiative being there? Obviously this dispute was eventually settled with the The Purge, in which apparently all members of the Dharma Initiative were killed except for Benjamin Linus.

Horace Goodspeed and Richard Alpert are both seemingly ageless and of the same element. Did you see the way Horace approached Richard? Very nonchalantly. They have some kind of mutual understanding and definitely understand between each other that the others involved are simply pawns and have no real understanding of what's really going on in relation to the Island and its importance, etc. Can't wait to find out more about this...

Also, if Widmore is the leader of the Others at this point, or so he said, why was he not the one to come into the Dharma Initiative's camp and talk to Horace and seek atonement for his two men's deaths?

Back to the Dharma Initiative, it seems like they recruit very unintelligent individuals to participate in their "work," the experiments and such. Horace tells Sawyer that he isn't "Dharma material." What exactly does that mean? There's definitely something more sinister to the Dharma Initiative and their true work than what we've been told thus far. I cannot wait to find out what that is.

Sawyer hinted in his conversation with Juliet that something will happen in the future, some event yet to occur, that will keep babies from being born on the Island and causing the women to die. My guess? The Island or Jacob or whatever ends up being the ruling entity/power (or perhaps they're one in the same!...) will punish the Others for committing The Purge and will not let new life be born on the Island.

Finally, the statue. Now, it appears that the statue was of Egyptian origin. Many people have speculated that it's either a statue of Anubis or one of Horus, both mythological Egyptian gods. I tend to favor the idea that it's Anubis. Just a little background: Anubis was the god primarily associated with the afterlife. He was tasked with protecting the dead and bringing them to the afterlife. There's more to the subject but you can research it yourself. As you read more if you choose to, I think you'll find that some of the aspects of the god Anubis are eerily relatable to the story of LOST and the recurring themes of the show. Nice...

To elaborate on the Egyptian influences on the Island, I have a theory: We know that the "exit" (whatever that means) of the Island is in Tunisia. If you research early Tunisian history, there was an Egyptian presence in the region. Perhaps at some point people could travel or simply found a way to travel from the "exit" to the Island.

Beyond that, there's definitely an Egyptian influence on the show as a whole and the writers have been pushing it. In "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," when Locke went to visit Hurley he was painting a picture of the Egyptian Sphinx. Paul's necklace was that of an ankh, which was a symbol for eternal life in Egyptian culture. Hmm... 5

BAMF moments - Juliet showed no mercy in dropping what was sort of one of her "people" (but not really) and Sawyer followed suit. Bamf! Beyond that, not much happened though. A baby was born..?...I don't think that qualifies as "bamf" however... 3

Overall Score - (5 + 5 + 3)/(3) = 4.33