Lacking any over-arching thematic elements I wish to discuss in great and exhaustive detail, and after a day full of exhausting meetings where I ramble on and on about important iniatives that could better the organization and being met with blank stares, I feel like writing most of this recap will need to be vis a vis auto-pilot. Apologies; I should be back to my old, rambling self next week. For now, just insert my standard ranting about the love triangle/parallelogram/octagon between Jack, Juliet, Kate and Sawyer (we may want to throw Hurley in there after his bro-mantic hug with Sawyer) here.
Okay, maybe a couple “thematic” paragraphs. One theme I’ve talked about before is that of the redefining of roles between some of our castaways (I still refer to them by that moniker, for some reason it feels right; they’re all still “lost” in their own way). Jack is no longer driven to lead; in fact, he’s admittedly relieved he doesn’t have to call the shots anymore. He no longer has to bear the burden of everyone looking to him for answers he doesn’t have. People got killed with him in control, all under the banner of “Getting Off the Island.” And after all the hardships, deaths, misery, turmoil and effort to get back to reality, where do Jack and his Oceanic 6 compadres find themselves but back on the Island…by choice!
Sawyer’s now taken on the role of leader, albeit a “thinking” one, as opposed to the reactionary style Jack exhibited. Who knows where they’d be today if Jack had taken Locke a bit more seriously instead of living in a state of denial about the nature of the Island and their place on it? Instead of warring with the natives, an ultimately losing proposition, perhaps there could have been a tenuous but bloodless truce between the 815 survivors and the Others. Of course, with Ben involved, that might’ve been impossible, but it’s a nice thought. Perhaps Sawyer and company can change things for the better now that they’re stuck in 1977. He and Juliet seemed to be pretty happy and content members of the Initiative before the Oceanic 6 came back. Sawyer seems to view the return of Jack, Kate and Hurley as a harbinger of bad things on the horizon; they could “screw up everything we got here,” as he puts it. If he’s that attached to his current life, would he really do nothing to stop the eventual Purge?
Alright, let’s get on to the bullet points before I pass out.
Ilana said “Jarrah”, as in Sayid Jarrah, her prisoner.
Thanks, Worf.
I think Claire was also in the rec room with Christian. (Watch the episode again, because my screenshot doesn’t really show it that well.)
Dear God, spelling and grammar errors galore in this post. My deepest apologies. I shall not correct them, for posterity’s sake, as proof of my having been 72% asleep during its composition.