Last night this episode was 'meh.' Today it's 'Meh!'

So I thought last night’s Lost had a really strong first half (maybe 2/3s) and a somewhat weak last half (or 1/3). So my notes are so sparse because I was so engrossed by the beginning and unimpressed/really didn’t have much to say about the end.

However, that’s not to say it was bad. After all, while not my favorite episode, it did offer the return of Josh Holloway (who, of course was great) and we saw some fine, fine acting by Evangeline Lilly as well. (Seriously, her stuff on the Island was fantastic.) Onto my notes…

SidewaysSawyer’s code word is ‘LaFleur.’

He’s looking for the real Anthony Cooper. Are we to assume that he still killed someone in Australia? (I’m thinking not.) Are we to assume that Sawyer still equals Locke’s dad? (I’m thinking he has to, but the truth is still hidden from SidewaysLocke.)

How creeptastic was Claire randomly holding Kate hand? (Very.)

When Miles sets Sawyer up on a blind date and says that she “works at the museum with my Dad.” Does that mean Pierre Chang got off the Island too? Who DIDN’T get off the Island?

There’s that missing outrigger that Sawyer takes to Hydra Island. Closer and closer to finding out who the time-travelers were shooting at last season (in ‘The Little Prince’).

Sawyer being sent by MIB to check out the Ajira plane and do recon could mean that MIB, not Jacob, ordered Ben to build that runway. (And my theory that Ben was always working for MIB but didn’t know it looks more plausible.)

Charlotte is still an archeologist. I wonder if she’s still looking for the Island?

SidewaysSawyer on why he is a cop: “I got to a point in my life when I was gonna choose criminal or cop – and I chose cop.” But what makes this life different? He is obviously still obsessed with finding Anthony Cooper; he still wants revenge. Did he never write his letter to the real Sawyer in this timeline? (Because Jacob wasn’t there to give him the pen.) Will he never be able to get over his thirst for revenge because of this? Could the explanation of the timelines simply be that this is what would have happened to their lives without Jacob’s influence?

I’m not sure that Sawyer had a good way of handling this grief – in either timeline it always leads to obsession. Is this the flaw that he must overcome? Interesting that those in MIB’s camp – Sawyer, Sayid, Kate – have not overcome their issues in the Sideways stories. (Not sure about Claire yet.) And Jack and Ben, who are in Jacob’s group, have overcome some of their issues to find peace.

Watership Down on Sawyer’s dresser. Kate’s dress still in the polar bear cages. Sawyer watching ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ Some nice callbacks. (Though many insist they are trash, I still kinda like the 6 episode pod that began season 3.)

And because the ep had a few unsettling moments, how about Sayid just sitting there while Claire attacked Kate?

Liam’s appearance caught me by surprise. That was fun.

“I am not a dead man.”/”My mother was crazy.”/”Problems that could have been avoided had things been different.” – MIB. I’ll chalk these up to intriguing quotes right now and revisit them when I have an actual theory on what they mean. But at least the castaways aren’t the only ones with parental issues.

I’m also wondering if MIB already knew about Team Widmore and just sent Sawyer away to get rid of him, knowing that Claire would react badly to being around Kate, and without Sawyer there to protect her, MIB could “protect” her and would have some one-on-one bonding time with Kate.

Widmore’s team is setting up pylons! Do they want to keep MIB out or trap him in?

What’s in the locked room on the sub? Desmond? Penny? Both?

Widmore did not know about MIB as Locke. Interesting, and makes me think even more that he’s on Jacob’s team. (I shall not use the phrase “Team Jacob.”)

You know, after writing all this stuff down, it seems to me that I actually did really like this ep, but compared with last week’s awesomeness, it was a bit of a let down. The beginning is still much stronger than the end (because I saw Sawyer’s re-re-con coming and also because as soon as we saw someone running, I knew it would be Kate), but still a solid ep.