Bridging the gap

I don't usually do full episode recaps of LOST, because (a) you can find them on countless other websites, and (b) if I recapped every episode, I'd lose years years of my life. YEARS. But I feel like last night's ep is worth retelling, if only for my own sanity. I've decided to include my usual "new questions/questions answered/assumptions" within the recap, so be prepared for my own commentary.

[Side Note: I caught LOST Enhanced for the first time last night before the new episode. For those of you (like me) who have no idea what that is, it's basically a reshowing of the last episode with captions that explain exactly what's going on. They give you past references and story lines, basically anything to help bring viewers up to speed. It's like pop-up video from VH1, but so much cooler.]

This episode is [thankfully] broken up into only 2 time periods: 1974 and 1977. While the story is told through flash-forwards and flashbacks (as usual), I'm going to address one period at a time; it just makes things easier that way.

The ep starts out with Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles and Daniel having just experienced a flash. It puts them way back in some ancient time, and we can see the back of a giant statue. This is presumably where the huge stone foot with 4 toes came from. Another flash, and the gang finds themselves in 1974. Everyone agrees that that last flash was different from the others, and Daniel confirms that they have stopped traveling through time. "The record stopped skipping," he says later. "Just not on the song we wanted to hear."

So the gang is walking through the jungle (because, like, what else do they do on this show?) and come across two men ("Hostiles") standing over a dead man (Paul) and a woman with a bag over her head (Amy.) Sawyer and Juliet kill the two men and rescue Amy, but she insists the bodies must be buried and Paul's remains must be taken with her. Why, I have no idea. Amy leads the group through the jungle and they come to that huge sonic fence that seems to kill people instantly. They tell Amy to turn it off, but she instead pulls earplugs out of the security box that allow her to walk through the fence unharmed. (I think I'll try this next time I want to grab an electric cattle fence.) When the rest of the group tries to walk through, they pass out. (Naturally, as they weren't wearing earplugs.) We then see Sawyer wake up on a couch with a dirty hippie standing over him. This dude's name is Horace and he questions Sawyer on how he and his group got to the island. Sawyer says his name is James La Fleur and that he and his crew were on a salvage vessel on their way to Tahiti, looking for an old slave ship called the Black Rock. (I LOVE it when Sawyer thinks on his feet, it's so hot.)

Outside, Juliet is sitting at a table with Miles, Jin and Daniel. She looks around and we realize they're at the Barracks, where she lived with Ben and the rest of those weirdos. Daniel, who is still heartbroken over Charlotte dying, sees a redheaded little girl running across the lawn and thinks it's Charlotte. (This would explain why Charlotte thinks Daniel told her never to come back to the island when she was a little girl.) Sawyer comes out to explain their cover story and tells the group that the Dharma dudes want to put them on a submarine tomorrow morning and ship them off to Tahiti. Miles, whose sarcasm I'm beginning to heart BIG TIME, asks, "How is that bad news?" Sawyer explains that they have to find the rest of their people. Duh, Miles!

All of a sudden, alarms start going off and everyone rushes inside the barracks. A Hostile has apparently been detected inside the perimeter, and we see the elusive Richard Alpert (always the same age, as per usual) approaching the barracks. Horace comes out to talk to him, and Richard makes a smart remark about how the fence can't keep him out. (Clearly he has a lifetime supply of earplugs.) Sawyer sees creepy Richard through a window and asks to talk to "your buddy out there with the eyeliner." (LOL!) Richard doesn't recognize Sawyer, presumably because when Richard travels through time, Richard doesn't remember stuff from the future. Sawyer tells Dick that he killed two of his men, and Richard asks if he's a Dharma dude. To prove he's not part of the cult, Sawyer asks Guyliner about the bomb named Jughead, and Richard looks at him like, "How did you know that secret shit?" Sawyer goes on to retell the story of how Locke strolled into Richard's camp in 1954, acting all "I am your leader," and says that he and his people are waiting for Locke to come back and THAT'S why they're on the island. Richard is satisfied with this story and believes that Sawyer doesn't drink the Kool-Aid. He then says that his people still need "justice," and somehow taking Paul's body satisfies said justice. (I would love it if someone could explain how this works, and why they want Paul's body so badly.) Richard says this is the only way to maintain the standing truce between the Dharma people and the Hostiles.

Cue the music. We see Amy standing over Paul's body and removing an ankh from his neck. Horace comes in and explains that they need to give up Paul's body, and you can see the "I'll protect you now" sparks start to fly between them. Horace tells Saywer that the sub that's leaving tomorrow comes back in two weeks, and they have until then to find their people. Cut to the dock where the submarine is... uh... docked? Parked? Sawyer is talking about finding the rest of the group when Juliet admits that she is leaving tomorrow. Sawyer looks shocked and says, "You're really gonna leave me here with a mad scientist and Mr. I Speak to Dead People?" I alternately fall in love with Sawyer and scream at the screen, "Yes you dumbass, of COURSE she's leaving the island, she's been trying to get off it for years!" End scene.

That takes care of 1974. Fast forward to 1977. Horace is out by the sonic fence getting drunk and setting off dynamite. Because that's what crazy hippies do for fun at Camp Dharma. Sawyer, aka La Fleur, who seems to be in some sort of leadership position at this time, brings him home to his pregnant wife, Amy, who then goes into labor. Sawyer runs and gets Juliet, who we find out stayed on the island and now works as a mechanic. Juliet performs a C-section on Amy and finally helps someone give birth to a live baby. (Remember how the island hates pregnant women?) Horace wakes up from his stupor and Sawyer informs him that he's a daddy. He asks H-man why he went apeshit and missed his son's birth, and Horace admits to finding the ankh that Amy took off Paul's neck in her drawer. He wonders if three years is really enough time to get over someone, and questions Amy's love for him. Sawyer explains that he once had a chance with a woman and didn't take it (KAAAAATE!!!) and that three years is absolutely enough time to get over someone. We then see Sawyer walk across the barracks, pick a flower, and walk into someone's house with a huge smile on his face. Inside we see Juliet making dinner. Sawyer walks up to her, they kiss and embrace, and my prediction that they would get together comes true.

The next morning, Sawyer and Juliet are woken up by a phone ringing. Sawyer leaves in a rush and meets Jin in the North Valley. From a distance, we see Hurley and Jack get out of a blue Dharma van as Sawyer watches. Then Kate steps out. End scene.

Best episode so far this season.