For those hording toilet paper

• Sayid returns from his “leave of absence” with quite a lot to tell Jack, Kate, and company but he’s wounded with a knee injury, collapsing seemingly from a combination of factors from exhaustion to hurt. He has met Danielle, the French woman who sent out the distress signal, and now knows that they are not alone on the island. That led to Hurley also approaching Jack with concern about Ethan not being on the plane. It is the rug under our feet…danger could be among you and just accepting that anyone walking within your camp might not be wise. The census proved that Hurley was right…there should be an order to things.

While Michael heads south after a brief tense-filled exchange with Locke, his son informs Sawyer that Sayid returned. Sawyer obviously doesn’t forget what Sayid did to him so an exchange is obvious. What I liked about the exchange between Walt and Sawyer is this conversation about Ethan. Why would a person need to lie about his name? I really liked Josh Holloway’s work in this scene. How he smirks at Walt at the end of that question. Kids don’t really have that filter and a lot of what they feel isn’t deluded by any sense to be deceptive or secretive. Life hasn’t deprived them of that ability to just take everything on face value. I admittedly especially like these little scenes and appreciate a show that takes the time to point out little character details. And Lost has maintained a fast pace but gives us proper character interaction and development just the same. With so much pointedly developing Jack in “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”, to not just avoid certain characters like Walt and Sawyer, and give them not just a scene involving interaction but have it mean something and not just be throwaway, it carries weight with me.

And Sawyer, even as he might have his share of issues with Sayid—he takes the moment upon first return meeting to bask in the glow of karma’s retaliation on Sayid for what he did to Sawyer—listens to what he has to say about Danielle and her talk of “others on the island”. Lost, to the credit of Creative, won’t just allow Sawyer to be another version of Herschel of The Walking Dead. He surprises because there is underlying layers to him…he isn’t just some racist stereotype. With his grin and concession to Hurley in “Raised by Another”, just letting “Stay Puft” have the manifest without aggression, and his willingness to listen to Sayid in Cowboys, Sawyer isn’t just some Impulse Machine. Sawyer has the ability to stop, consider, and react. He does so with Sayid, someone he genuinely doesn’t like. I think he even refers to Sayid as “you Islams”, so all his imperfections—even as he doesn’t even care or consider the possible distaste in his words—are laid bare still. But he’s not just completely this cretin…perhaps a lot of the surface of Sawyer appears to prove otherwise, but those in the writer’s room seem set on surprising us from time to time.