STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Holy crap is right!  I totally didn't see it coming that Sawyer had plotted the whole thing (even as he was talking about the long con w/ the lady in the flashback.  )  And when Charlie came out of the bushes I was just like "Noooooooooooooooooooooo!" 

I'm glad Charlie didn't take the heroin, but now I can see this whole incident from ever being able to be with Claire again.  He's just gone too far and he's got this as a huge secret, so he'll never be able to truly open up to Claire again.  And I definitely don't think that Sawyer's going to keep Charlie's secret forever.  I'm sure that's going to show up again sometime.

I'm not sure what to think about the fact that Sawyer's "the new sherriff in town."  It'll be interesting to see how the power struggle plays out.

Also, there's some other interesting stuff going on.  There's the classic debate on the island of religion vs. science, but last night set up another debate:  the idea that on the island, everyone can create a new identity vs. the idea that "a tiger never changes its stripes."  Jin, Sun, Locke, and Kate to some extent, have all been relatively successful at reinventing themselves on the island, while Sawyer, Jack, Ana Lucia, and Charlie haven't really changed.  And I think next week we'll see Sayid join the latter group.

I didn't expect Charlie to meet up w/ Sawyer at the end of the episode!  I was convinced that Sawyer's accomplice was Ana Lucia.  I was happy to see Charlie refuse to take the heroin statue though.  I agree with NCShopper that Charlie's secret is going to get out.  I wonder how Jin would react if he found out Charlie threw a bag over Sun's head and dragged her through the woods.  I suspect he'd get a worse beating from Jin than he did from Locke.  Doesn't Charlie look kind of evil when he has his hood up? 

I was really surprised at the ending, I thought Sawyer had sort of redeemed himself because of his experiences w/ Michael and Jin on the raft.  But it looks like he's just an ass who wants to hoard guns.  I definitely think he'll get paid back.  I can't believe he tricked Locke! I'm sure Sawyer can't keep the guns hidden for long.  People will be watching him 24/7.  So at the most, the guns will stay hidden because Sawyer won't go get any more while people are watching him, and no one will be able to have one. 

Next week's episode looks interesting.  I'm glad Sayid finally gets more to do.  He has barely had any lines in the past few episodes.  I have a nasty feeling that whoever they caught in that net isn't really an Other, and that Sayid is going to find out during the torturing and then feel extremely guilty. 

Here's the recap from Entertainment Weekly. This writer caught some other interesting things -- for instance, the woman who waited on Sawyer in the diner is Kate's mom! Read on...



DO THE HUSTLE Sawyer fooled both Locke and Jack
Greetings, kittenfluffs. I have returned. (Whitney told me y'all love being called ''kittenfluffs.'' I won't pretend to understand that, but hey, I aim to please. Kittenfluffs.)

So...anything interesting happen while I was gone?

As a matter of fact, yes. Charlie turned babynapper, Hurley fell for Libby (ain't nothing like the lure of the Other — which, I maintain, Libby is), and Eko cemented his spot in the Lost yearbook as Most Riveting Screen Presence. And this week? Well, it was a chance for Sawyer to shine. Okay, maybe ''shine'' isn't the right word. Con men do not ''shine'' — too conspicuous. Though the whole 10 pastiche at the opening tested that theory: How many sherpas and/or PA's do you think it takes to oil up Josh Holloway for a ''fresh from the sea'' shot?

But, beefcake aside (and there was an awful lot of Sawyerflesh on display this time out), what was this episode about? It seemed like an attempt by the writers to prove these characters haven't lost their edge. There it succeeded. Lest we forget Sawyer is a lying, murderous sonofabitch, we saw him pulling off two ''long cons'' in parallel: one in flashback (which included a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Kate's mom, Diane, waiting on Sawyer at a diner) and one on the island, involving an unseen and (at least for me) unguessed accomplice, Charlie. Nice to see them diving into the abyss with these characters instead of rehabilitating them.

As for motivations? That's a bit weaker. Sawyer, recently healed by Jack, got pissed off when the good doc policed his meds. He revealed a previously unaired beef: He's mad everyone stole his stuff while he was out a-raftin', getting menaced by Other pirates and Dharma sharks. You'd think he'd be just a little grateful that Jack saved his life, but this is, after all, Sawyer, a born survivor with a well-developed death wish. He's a bundle of contradictions. Did this one take him a little far? It did seem a bit petty, screwing over the whole camp because the big kid touched his stuff. And the ep never completely connected the dots between the con and the con artist. Why does the conner con? Power. Humiliation. Rage. All of which were implicit in Sawyer's choices, but the writing left a big gap where that epiphany should be. Instead, we got a warped love story with Cassidy (Kim Dickens) and more fear-of-intimacy moments. Okay, fair enough. But it didn't fully illuminate Sawyer's anger.

The closest we came was a pretty fine scene between Sawyer and Charlie in which the latter got to embody that anger — he wants to see Locke humiliated, knocked clean off his throne. Sawyer's not quite up to admitting he needs the same from Jack — that would mean admitting he doesn't have Kate in full thrall. But too much of this was left unplumbed. We were instead left with the mechanics of the con, which, quite frankly, weren't that interesting.

I did, however, enjoy the excruciating slowness of Sawyer's typing in those numbers. He's an accomplished prick, our man from the South.

As for the rest of the episode: Spring must be coming, because seeds are being planted all over the place. First there's Locke, rifling through an Ambrose Bierce short story for...what? Clues about the hatch? The real clue, most likely, is the story itself. ''Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'' is a massive parallel-reality fake-out, the 19th-century granddaddy of ''it was all a dream!'' Goes like this: A Rebel sympathizer is being hanged on a bridge by Union troops. The rope breaks; he falls into the river and escapes. A harrowing journey home ensues. He dodges bullets. He crashes through the woods. Finally he makes it home. His wife opens her arms to him...and the rope catches, breaking his neck. It was all a fantasy, and the joke is on you, dear reader. What does this have to do with Lost? Perhaps it's a clue to the dream state these survivors inhabit. Perhaps it pertains specifically to Locke, who entertains the grandest illusions of the island's inherent beneficence.

And then there's that manuscript, the one Hurley was reading before Sayid came along to play radio. (Yes, Sayid. Remember him? Gosh how I miss that guy. Oh, and by the way, Jack, if you're starting an army? Ask an army officer for help. Not a police officer.) The book is Bad Twin, by Gary Troup, a mystery writer who boarded flight 815 and is now presumed dead. From Amazon (where the ''real'' book will soon be sold, in a gloriously meta tie-in):

Paul Artisan, P.I. is a new version of an old breed — a righter of wrongs, someone driven to get to the bottom of things. Too bad his usual cases are of the boring malpractice and fraud variety. Until now. His new gig turns on the disappearance of one of a pair of twins, adult scions of a rich but tragedy-prone family. The missing twin — a charismatic poster-boy for irresponsibility — has spent his life daring people to hate him, punishing himself endlessly for his screw-ups and misdeeds. The other twin — Artisan's client — is dutiful and resentful in equal measure....Troup's long-awaited Bad Twin is a suspenseful novel that touches on many powerful themes, including the consequence of vengeance, the power of redemption, and where to turn when all seems lost.

The dueling dualities continue. Locke and Eko? Ana-Lucia and Jack? Sawyer and Kate? All light-dark pairings, all ''twins,'' in a sense.

Oh, and speaking of Sayid's new radio: Who's biting? The Lost writers must be impatient: They're dropping hints right from the mouth of Hurley. ''The signals...could be coming from anywhere,'' said Sayid, after they tuned in what sounded like an American oldies station. ''Or any time,'' said Hurley. Pillsbury, my man: You're pre-geeking us! Don't do that! You'll put us out of a job! (By the way, it's been noted: The station's initial call letter was a W, which would make it in the eastern half of the U.S. The full title: WXO, which are letters 23, 24, and 15 of the alphabet. Make of it what you will.)

And that, kittenfluffs, must be my sign-off for the night. It's good to be back. But I don't think I'll be keeping up the ''kittenfluffs'' thing, no matter how much y'all like it. One Mississippi, two Mississippi...and I'm gone.

lorelei wrote:

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I do love this show, but BIG Boo to the producers for dragging this out, I would be happy to watch internal issue episodes if only they would actually have a new show every week instead of taking these long weeks long breaks.  Is anyone suspecting that the writers haven't even decided how to tie all these things together yet?  I would be happier with the show if they were instead slowly revealing more interesting things, like info about Walt, the others, Desmond, Rousseau and the arm scratches, the "sickness," and more and more ... waiting several weeks just to learn that Sawyer is going to con everyone to get control of the guns is just not that exciting, it could have been covered by a back story, IMO.

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Just an FYI...according the producers, this show is about the characters and their stories, not about all the crazy stuff going on on this island.  One of the writers (or producers, I can't remember) was actually quoted as saying something to the effect of, "If people are looking for answers to all of these mysteries, then they aren't getting the show. The show isn't about that. It's about these characters and their struggles." 

Soooo...I don't think we're going to be getting very many answers anytime soon. 

scarlett -- so glad someone else caught the "Owl Creek Bridge" reference. My class just read that. I love how the writers leave clues like that in there. The story is also about facing reality and not being deluded with idealism and a false sense of security. Very cool tie-in!!!