Lost - LaFleur

**** / ****

LaFleur gave me, as a Lost fan, so much to really enjoy. It briefly engages us with the giant statue that used to belong to the boot discovered by Sayid previously while boating towards a failed attempt to outwit and engage the Others. From behind the statue, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Jin look over at it momentarily before Locke was able to nudge the time wheel back in place and halt the time hiccups. I admittedly wanted more time spent wayyyyy back in the time on the island our small crew remains just for a small period, and a back view of the statue whetted my appetite. Instead the final time jump leads our crew to 1974, during the Dharma Initiative’s difficulty with Alpert and his “hostiles”. Learning of a truce, Sawyer must correct a “mistake” he made so that his Oceanic (and freighter) crew can remain on the island instead of being shipped off to Tahiti on a sub available, according to Dharma’s leader, Horace Goodspeed.  Sawyer and Juliet kill two of Alpert’s men, interrupting their seemingly eventual murder of a woman with a bag over her head named Amy (Reiko Aylesworth). Amy’s husband had been murdered, so Sawyer and Juliet went to protect her from the two Alpert representatives. So Richard Alpert arrives on the Dharma compound, having passed through the sonic shield without a problem (he later claims that his followers also can, only failing to do so according to a truce between the two parties), wanting answers for his missing men. Sawyer must confront Alpert who doesn’t recognize him, mentioning the buried warhead and Locke. In order to make things right, Alpert requires Amy’s husband’s body.

The show goes back and forward three years. Sawyer, Miles, Juliet, Jin, and a distraught Daniel (broken by Charlotte’s loss and disappearance once they jump to 1974) accompany Amy to the Dharma compound, and remain there for three years, awaiting the return of Locke, and the Oceanic Six. Eventually we know that Jin will find Kate, Jack, and Hurley, so it is a matter of time before there is a reunion. With Sawyer telling Goodspeed his name is Lafleur, and that those with him are from a ship called Black Rock (clever) that didn’t make it, he provides new identities because trying to explain that they are from 2004 could be a bit hard to swallow! So Sawyer negotiating the body of Amy in exchange for the location of Alpert’s men, the truce is salvaged. So Goodspeed allows them to remain if they so wish or leave. Juliet is talked into staying by Sawyer. This would lead to their own relationship/romance! I was definitely cool with this. Juliet even gets to finally deliver a healthy baby boy…I just loved this scene. Juliet’s face, such relief and joy, having been encouraged by Sawyer to step up and help, provides such a satisfactory moment. She had lost so many mothers and babies. Juliet working on machinery when Sawyer seeks her help, seemingly fully functioning as certified members of Dharma, is so surreal. But Dharma eventually welcomed them into the community.

Goodspeed does honestly tell Sawyer he is not “Dharma material” but three years later, he’s the one having to scoop the drunk leader up after dropping a lit stick of dynamite on the ground to explode. Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, and Miles appear to have integrated significantly into the Dharma compound. It is quite jarring actually, seeing these folks from 2004 having adapted to a 1974 island compound. Daniel, though, wounded and hurt, seeing Charlotte as a child gives him a respite from the ache. He tells his fellow time travelers that the island is no longer a record on skip, no longer dislodged. When they are is where they will remain. Sawyer convinces Juliet to stay and the results is a love affair potentially undermined by Kate’s return. Sawyer feeds Goodspeed a crock of bull regarding forgetting Kate’s face and eventually letting her go, but not long after the two lock eyes, with all the feels returning immediately. So whatever happens afterward, Juliet gave her heart and love to Sawyer, and Sawyer to her…but Kate emerges to thwart their idyll.