Lost: Recon or Re-con?
By Dan Birlew | Posted March 17, 2010 in Television | 7 Comments »Will the Real Liar Please Fess Up?
While this episode still wasn’t half as revealing as we’d like, things are certainly starting to come together in both universes. While Jack, Hurley and Sun join with Ilana and Richard to decide who’s going to become the “new Jacob,” Sawyer is sowing the seeds of betrayal in the Man in Black’s camp. Unfortunately the only true revelation and highlight of the episode is the preview for next week, which promises that we’ll finally get the long-awaited Richard-centric episode, which should give us plenty of new things to think about and discuss.
Sawyer finds the Ajira Flight 316 passengers dead. Widmore's work?
Otherwise, it’s become quite a challenge to figure out who is lying more: the Man in Black, Widmore, or Sawyer? The island’s former leader is probably the easiest of the three to eliminate, since we can now agree that by Widmore’s reappearance on the island everything he told John Locke in Tunisia was a lie, and everything he said to Ben during that tense midnight visit over a bottle of MacCutcheon was the truth (“That island is mine!”). Widmore was usurped and banished by Ben, and he’s back to reclaim what he felt should have been rightfully his all along.
The Man in Black proved even more sinister tonight, especially in the way he tried to get Kate to take his hand, and then the way he tried to turn her against Claire. What if Kate had taken his hand, would his touch have done something to her similar to what we’re seeing with Zombie Sayid? Thank goodness she’s a tough girl who can pick herself up just fine and dandy thank you, because I have a feeling that his touch contained more than just ballast. His half-hearted surprise at hearing the Ajira 316 passengers were dead cast serious doubts on the tears he cried about his deranged and abusive mother. After all, the entire story seemed to be geared toward convincing Kate that Claire had to be kept away from Aaron. And though Kate and Claire reconciled later, it remains to be seen whether the Man in Black’s ploy has worked on Kate.
The Man in Black tries to work his hocus-pocus on Kate.
But still we’re left wondering, is all this really about the Man in Black’s mother, and would she have any relation to Jacob? After all, in the Genesis story about Jacob and his twin brother Esau, their mother Rebekah was told that the twins in her belly were fighting and would continue fighting all their lives, and would become two separate nations. The prophecy also implied that the older would serve the younger, the two would never share equal power, and that when one fell, the other would rise. Sounds a lot like what we’re seeing on the show right now, neh? So it leads me to wonder if we’re starting to get back to the Bible story, or if the Man in Black is lying, merely using the tale as inspiration to try to convince Kate to do what he wants. After all, it was his influence by appearing as Christian Shephard that convinced Jack to leave Kate and Aaron during the three years they were off the island, so maybe he still has intentions toward Claire’s son and is sowing the seeds to pick up where he left off once he’s free of the island.
On the other hand, the Biblical story of Jacob really doesn’t explain the Bleach Blond Boy, so it’s probably red herring…
So we’re left with Sawyer; is he lying to Widmore, to the Man in Black, or to Kate? The look of almost disappointment he showed when Kate arrived with the Man in Black as well as the way he clutched her dress at the monkey cages with such a look of pain makes me want to think that he’s not entirely happy to see her among the flocke. Does this mean that his original plan was to sacrifice himself somehow, and that Kate being around makes that impossible?
Meanwhile, what do you think it was that tipped Sawyer off about Zoe? He figured there was no way she could have a boyfriend? Sheesh, even though he was right that was a harsh judgement to leap to. 
Either Sawyer's just an experienced con man, or Zoe doesn't stand a chance in the dating world.
Coming Together
So let’s review what we’ve learned in the sideways universe thus far: Locke still has a relationship with his “dad,” which we can take to mean Anthony Cooper; James is still looking for Anthony Cooper, even though he’s a cop sworn to uphold the law; the man in America that Jin was taking the watch to may have been Martin Keamy in the sideways universe (possibly Charles Widmore in the island universe) and now he’s been found by Sayid; Kate on the run has been captured by Sawyer. So all Kate needs to do is take Sawyer back to Claire, who is about to find out she’s the half-sister of Jack, who works at the hospital where Sayid’s brother is being treated, and Sayid just rescued Jin. If we find out that Jin is Anthony Cooper’s latest victim in some kind of scheme, and Anthony Cooper is Locke’s father, and Locke is working for Hurley at the same school as Ben… then you realize that the characters all have a very good chance of meeting in the sideways universe. And… what then? Do they finally realize that something is really wrong with their world and try to set it right, possibly just in time to stop the Man in Black from leaving the island? I suppose we’ll see. But hey, next week is a Richard-centric episode, so who cares about this week? 
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Exactly! Who cares about this week! Next week is Richard’s show! I think I’m going to DVR it and watch it twice because I’ve waited 5 years for this.
Anyway, Zoe paused and looked away before she mentioned her boyfriend in Guam. If nothing else, Sawyer is a good con man, so he knows when a less adept grifter is trying to play him. Those were classic “stall and lie” maneuvers on Zoe’s part. She wasn’t equipped to beat Sawyer at his own game.
Kate dodged the bad touch from MIB, but what about Claire’s creepy hug? Claire is “infected.” Kate doesn’t know this. She escaped being turned by MIB directly, but does Claire’s hug carry the same surgeon general’s warning? For Sawyer’s sake, I hope not.
Actually we watched that part twice because I couldn’t figure out why, after every other lie she told, that was the one that tipped him off. She says she was going to meet her boyfriend in Guam and Sawyer drew on her instantly. We had a good laugh about Sawyer obviously thinking she couldn’t get a date if she wanted to.
But otherwise, yeah! The Richard episode next week! Fuck yeah!
Cute, but I don’t think that’s really how Sawyer figured out she was conning him. Like the Man in Black said to Sawyer, “You’re the best liar on this island” (or something to that effect). Sawyer’s a con artist, and he was able to pick up her con through a variety of things she said and did; he may not even be aware himself of what tipped it off. It’s probably instinctual for him.
I enjoyed this episode. I’d go into it in more detail but my girl is calling me…and it’d midnight…
Okay, now it’s morning (10 hours later). One question I’m having: Why are you guys assuming that a touch from this Man in Black/UnLocke/Flocke is how he “infects” others? Why are we even assuming he’s the “bad guy” (a question I’m returning to often this season)? Something tells me he’s not quite the Sauron we’re led to believe…perhaps he’ll ultimately be re-integrated with his other half and be once again harmonious. Make sense?
By “his other half” are you referring to the Bleach Blond Boy who appeared in “The Substitute?” Interesting. But like I said in the article it’s rather hard to feel he’s a good guy when you lay out his actions side by side and look at them. And I mean ALL his actions, dating back to the start of the show, such as judging and killing Eko, manipulating Locke, convincing Jack to leave Kate and Aaron, and manipulating Ben into killing Jacob, who I have absolutely no doubt was a good guy, despite all his faults. The Man in Black’s motives are self-serving, deceptive, and murderous. And yeah, as the black smoke we’ve seen how he can infect people and turn them against one another, such as the French team and Sayid, who since fulfilling his purpose for the Man in Black is now little more than a zombie. The Man in Black is reminding me more and more of Randall Flagg toward the end of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand,’ crying his crocodile tears, still trying to manipulate the candidates into killing one another. Plus he threw the white rock in the ocean, leaving only the black. There’s no doubt we’re dealing with evil incarnate here, IMO.
How do we even know that all those people are really dead?
Okay, it may be a bit of a stretch for me to speculate that everyone’s still alive and that the Man in Black isn’t evil. Sometimes I’m the contrarian, I guess, looking for that which is not so obvious…
And no one’s saying that’s a bad thing, especially since the majority of the info the show’s given us has been red herring.