Lost: The Last Recruit Review

By Dan Birlew | Posted May 4, 2010 in Television | 1 Comment »

It’s been two weeks since the last episode of Lost aired: are you jonesing yet? I am, and given that I skipped my usual recap this week due to a pressing deadline on my latest strategy guide, I thought it would be fun to review what happened in the previous episode, “The Last Recruit,” in preparation to resume the final season tonight.

First off, there’s the title to consider: “The Last Recruit” refers to the last of the Man in Black’s recruits, meaning people he needs to pull away from the Candidates in line for Jacob’s job, and pull them over to his side so that he may leave the Island and take control of the world. He’s already achieved this with Claire and Sayid, and supposedly with Sawyer although Sawyer claims to be pulling a con on the Man in Black — but we’ll have to keep watching to see if Sawyer is really deceiving the Man in Black or only carrying out his will involuntarily through his actions (stealing the Elizabeth, sneaking off with his friends, heading over to Hydra Island, et cetera). This episode proclaimed to show us the last person that the Man in Black would pick for his kickball team, so keeping the title in mind was important while viewing.

There wasn’t much new information about this episode to analyze or speculate on. In fact, one of the show’s prevailing mysteries was answered in the first few minutes: the Man in Black as Locke took Jack aside and spoke to him, and the first question on Jack’s mind was whether or not the Smoke Monster had ever taken the form of his father, who’s been seen and spoken to repeatedly ever since Season One (“White Rabbit”, 1×05). The Man in Black admitted that yes, he’s been impersonating Christian Shephard. Please allow me a moment to brag, since I called it. Now you almost have to go back and watch every episode where Christian appeared. When you add all those moments together, you get the idea that the Man in Black has been manipulating the Flight 815 survivors from the very beginning, and that he may also have intentions toward Claire’s son, Aaron.

But I digress. The Man in Black continued his string of lies, telling Jack that the only reason he impersonated Christian was to lead him to water, and that all he’s ever been trying to do is help Jack leave. But Jack was trapped by the Island because of Jacob, and now that Jacob’s dead they can all leave– as long as they go together. Yet throughout the conversation, Jack couldn’t get over the fact that the Smoke Monster chose to take the form of Locke. He almost seemed to think it a form of blasphemy, since Locke was the one man who believed in the Island and tried to keep everyone from leaving. But in the Smoke Monster’s opinion that was because Locke was a “sucker.” Upon returning to camp, Jack and the Man in Black encountered Claire, who was now fully aware that Jack was her brother and that MIB was pretending to be their father. Jack confided to her that he wasn’t sure yet if he was going to leave the Island with her and MIB, but Claire laughed it off, saying “You decided the moment you let him talk to you, just like the rest of us. So, yeah, whether you like it or not, you’re with him now.”

Meanwhile, the Locke in Sideways World (who may or may not be the real John Locke, time will tell) wasn’t faring much better than his Island counterpart. Having been run over by Desmond Hume in an attempt to force his destiny, Locke was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital. Luckily Dr. Ben Linus was in the ambulance to help Locke establish his identity and his ties to Helen Norwood. As they wheeled Locke into the hospital on a gurney, Sun was wheeled in at the same time. When she saw Locke on the gurney rolling beside her, she became panic-stricken and started telling Jin (in Korean) “It’s him! It’s him! It’s him!” Later in the episode when Sun awoke after her surgery or treatment or whatever, she didn’t mention Locke again. So obviously she experienced the same kind of near-death flash Charlie and Desmond previously shared, which awakened memories within them of their Island experience, or perhaps she realizes that the Locke we’re seeing in Sideways World is not the real Locke (as I suspect).

At the police station, police detective James Ford took over questioning his latest collar: the spunky Kate Austen. Though he was quite flirtatious (and also a bit spooked by the odds of running into Kate again), she still tried to use the fact that James helped her escape from captivity at LAX to gain the upper hand, perhaps to blackmail him into letting her go. But sticking true to his former conman roots, James sidestepped right past Kate’s pathetic attempt. Then Miles entered with news about Sun’s shooting at the restaurant. He had a surveillance image from an ATM camera obviously nearby that caught Sayid leaving the scene. The partners began working to identify him.

Back in the Man in Black’s camp, Widmore’s geologist and Girl-Friday Zoe strolled in, unarmed and wanting to talk. She confronted the Man in Black about Desmond, saying “You took something from us, and we want it back.” When he feigned ignorance, she called in an artillery strike. Obviously these missiles had to be fired from the sub, because I seriously doubt heavy artillery cannons could fit on a submarine, even if disassembled. Though the nearby jungle exploded in a ball of flame, the Man in Black never blinked… never lost his tour-guide smile. Zoe then informed him that he had until sundown to return Desmond, or they’d get a shelling for realz. She handed her walkie to the Man in Black and walked off. The Man in Black picked the stick he’d whittled and smashed the walkie. Remember, he’d whittled this stick only an episode or two before, and when Sawyer asked him what it was for he said, “I’ll know when the time comes.” Well, obviously it’s his walkie-crushing stick. And I have a feeling that sundown is going to go a lot differently than Zoe and Widmore plan, and probably closer to what happened at sundown at the Temple.

In the Sideways Universe Claire Littleton is entering an office building to visit an adoption agency, following the crap-out by the couple who was originally supposed to adopt her baby: the yet unborn Aaron. Desmond Hume followed her inside and convinced her to come speak with his attorney friend before signing on the dotted line. The attorney turned out to be Ilana, who in the Sideways Universe is free from Jacob’s service, never became a bodyguard for the Candidates, never gained whatever sexy accent she was working on the Island, never blew herself up by dropping a bag of dynamite, and instead became a lawyer. Funny coincidence is that Ilana has been looking for Claire, because Ilana just so happens to be the Shephard family attorney, and Claire is mentioned in the late Christian Shephard’s will.

Back on the Island, the Man in Black is organizing his party to move. Angered that his hand has been forced, he declares it’s time to get on a boat and go to Hydra Island. He took Sawyer aside and told him to go get the boat and meet the rest of the group further north. Sawyer in turn scrambled up a plan to get the Candidates away from the group and steal the boat together, leaving the Man in Black behind. Also to be left behind were Claire and Sayid, whom Sawyer couldn’t trust anymore.

Sayid meanwhile was given orders by the Man in Black to go out to the well that he threw Desmond into, and kill him. But when Sayid got to the well, Desmond calmly tried to talk him out of it. Flashing sideways for a moment, we see Sayid return to Nadia’s house and tell her that he has to leave. Miles knocked on the front door almost immediately, almost conveniently too quickly, if you have any idea how long it takes police to identify a visitor from a foreign nation. While Miles questioned Nadia, James tripped up Sayid’s back door escape with an ordinary garden hose. Sideways Sayid was under arrest, sugar.

While Sawyer and Kate find the boat (the Elizabeth, which was the yacht Desmond came to the Island in six years before, which was given to him by Hurley’s love interest, Libby), Jack pulls Sun, Frank, and Hurley out of the Man in Black’s marching line to sneak off and meet up with them. Unfortunately Claire follows the group of defectors. The Man in Black misses all this because he’s too busy rushing off to meet Sayid, who has returned from his trip to the well. When asked if he killed Desmond Sayid says yes, and even challenges the Man in Black to go look. Whether or not he really carried out his orders remains to be seen, but I’m betting not.

The reunion at the boat goes to hell when bat-shit Claire pops out of the jungle with her Rousseau-like rifle trained on the defectors. But Kate, who came back to the Island for Claire, manages to talk her down and convinces her to leave the Island with them, so that she can be with Aaron again. Though Claire agreed, she promised that the Man in Black would be angry with them.

Meanwhile another reunion of sorts is happening in the Sideways Universe, where Jack and his (mini-me clone) son David have just arrived at his attorney’s office following a surprise call to come in. Ilana introduces Jack to Claire Littleton, who immediately settles the mystery of why she’s in Christian Shephard’s will. But Jack doesn’t have long to welcome Claire to the family when he is called back to the hospital for emergency spinal surgery. When he and David arrive at the hospital, David agrees to wait while Jack enters the OR and looks over the x-rays of the patient, who was already in a wheelchair and whose dural sac is obliterated. Jack proceeds into the next room and obviously experiences chills as he recognizes his patient, fellow Flight 815 passenger John Locke, to whom he’d offered a free consultation in the LAX baggage claim just days ago.

Tensions boiled over on the Elizabeth as Jack expresses his doubts about leaving the Island to Sawyer, who immediately revokes Jack’s invite. And like a vampire without an invitation, Jack jumps overboard and swims back to the Island. On the beach he’s greeted by a grinning Man in Black, who doesn’t seem surprised at all that Sawyer took his boat. Because like I said earlier, Sawyer was probably subconsciously following the Man in Black’s secret plan. Meanwhile the Elizabeth anchors just offshore of Hydra Island. Only Sawyer has underestimated Widmore’s penchant for gathering file folders on every passenger of Flight 815. Knowing Sawyer’s history as a conman, Widmore has anticipated his betrayal. Zoe and the others greet Sawyer’s group with guns drawn and– guess what? The deal’s off. But even though Sawyer’s group is taken prisoner we’re finally treated to the reunion we’ve been waiting for over the last two years: Sun and Jin! At the sight of her long-lost husband Sun’s memory problem vanished, and now the two are finally conversing in perfect English. I cried like a fucking baby when the episode aired, and I cried again when we re-viewed it on DVR. Meanwhile Zoe ordered an airstrike on the Man in Black. Back on the Island, Jack and the remaining Others on the beach were shelled to pieces. But Jack survived of course, because he’s a Candidate and the Island “isn’t done with him yet.” Like he demonstrated to Richard Alpert a few episodes ago in front of a lighted stick of dynamite, nothing can kill him until he’s served his purpose. Only it looks like his purpose has taken a turn for the worse, since the Man in Black rescues Jack and tells him, “Don’t worry. It’s gonna be okay. You’re with me, now.”

Remember how I told you to keep the episode title in mind? Well now you know who the Man in Black’s last recruit is: it’s Jack. Like Claire warned him, he’s fallen under a dark influence that he may not be able to shake. But not to worry, because tonight’s episode is titled… “The Candidate!” That’s right, unless the title is the worst teaser of the year, we’re finally going to learn which of the remaining heroes, besides Jack and Sayid, is slated to become the new Jacob and prevent the Man in Black from leaving the Island. But you can probably expect that news to come late in the episode, since the previews show the indestructible Man in Black on Hydra Island, kicking ass and taking nametags as he plows through Widmore’s people. Will he finally be the one to settle Widmore’s hash? Also, expect to see Richard, Ben, and Miles stage a surprise attack on Old Smokey as he tries to board the Ajira plane. And who is the Candidate that will take Jacob’s place? How will the heroes determine who gets the job? Will it be the one who owns up to stealing an everlasting gobstopper by returning it to its rightful owner? Remember, I live in Vegas, so if you’d like to place a bet just let me know in the comments.

Tags: Lost