Season 5, Episode 8: "Lafluer"

So of the small sample group that is my place of work, it was pretty much split down the middle on whether "Lafluer" was a yet another Lost greatest hit, or the first snoozer of Season 5. I think I'm a bit biased, but I was a big fan. I've been looking forward to seeing how Sawyer and company were able to successfully penetrate the Dharma fraternity in a relatively short amount of time, and that story delivered for me. And for those that didn't like the episode? Well, tonight's a repeat night for Lost, so hopefully this recap will give you a bit more to chew on till next week!

Regardless of the overall reaction to the show, few can argue that seeing the rest of the four toed statue in the first scene was no less than totally awesome. As you can imagine, there are a number of theories out there that explain what it was, and instead of going through the ones that are likely not true (remember the one that said it was Sawyer?), I'll list through the best contenders.

First off, I think we can all agree that the statue certainly looked Egyptian. Also, in its right hand it was holding an ankh, the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol that means "eternal life" (paging Ageless Richard...has anyone seen Ageless Richard?). This is the same symbol that we later learned the recently deceased Paul was wearing when murdered by the Others. But getting back to the Egyptian stuff, it turns out that the ancient god Anubis has been portrayed with an ankh and headdress in Egyptian illustrations, so it could certainly be him. Oh, and Anubis was considered the "gatekeeper of the underworld" as well as the "patron of lost souls." Lost souls...interesting.


But that's not the only theory. Another contender is that the statue is of Taweret, the goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of pregnancy and childbirth. There are obvious parallels here as well, since we know that in sometime after 1977 woman cannot successfully give birth to children on the Island. We have to assume that anyway, because in this episode Amy does give birth, albeit prematurely, to her and Horace's son thanks to Juliet. And while the birth was successful, I can't help but think that it was indeed unexpected and met with some feelings of trepidation. After all, the assistant doctor told us that all pregnant women "go back to the mainland" to give birth and that Amy missed her ride a week earlier to do so. The fact that they don't even have the materials to assist with childbirth must lead us to believe that a live birth on the Island has likely never taken place...at least with the Dharma folks. Enter time traveler Juliet. With not much more than monkey wrench and a scalpel she is the key to the healthy delivery of Amy and Horace's boy. She's bucked the trend, and the boy will live after all. Goddess of fertility indeed.

In light of this we find ourselves at familiar crossroad: can you indeed change the past or, like Faraday said, is "what happened, happened?" Was the Amy's baby born only because Juliette was there to deliver him? If she wasn't there to do so, would that baby's life never had happened? These questions alone make this mystery baby significant. Not only may he be the only infant to be both conceived and delivered on the Island by outsiders, he could also be a life that was never supposed to see the light of day. As to WHO he is, I have no idea. In Lost time, he'd be about 27 in the "present" (2007), and I can't think of anyone of significance on or off the Island that fits that age. Time will tell, I suppose.

Moving along, let's talk about are old friend Lafluer. My girlfriend had made an observation early in the episode that lately everyone has been calling Sawyer "James" more and more often this season. Indeed, Locke had taken to calling him by his rightful name after their realization that they shared a common enemy in the real Sawyer, Anthony Cooper, but recently Juliette and others have often referred to Sawyer by James as well. As posed by some other folks, I think the writers are doing their best to explicitly show Sawyer's transformation from no good lying con-man to a man of worth. He truly seems at home in Dharma land, no? He's got a nice job, a great new girlfriend, and is respected by all. Even Horace looks to him for advice after losing his way with booze and dynamite. Sawyer has found comfort in his life at last, but unfortunately I think that his comfort is going to be short lived, which is too bad. Cause as we see in the show's final moments, the old gang is back, and the honeymoon in Dharma-ville is likely over. Instead of cozy wine-laden date nights with Juliette, the future holds love quadrangles, Other Wars, and probably some more time travel for good measure. Poor Sawyer...he almost made it, but apparently a happy life in the 70's is not his final destination.

[And I have nowhere to fit it in - and it really didn't reveal all that much - but Sawyer's scene with Richard Alpert was by far the best of the episode. While his transformation to "good guy/leader" was well underway at that point, he was still able to con with the best of them. Guess you don't forget a solid trade. He absolutely floored Alpert with the knowledge of Locke, the Black Rock, and more. It's not often we see the Others on their heals, so it's nice to see the "good guys" have a step up on them for once.]



Some additional tidbits before wrapping up:

-Yes, we should assume that the little red headed girl was a young Charlotte. Early in the episode we found Daniel muttering to himself "I can't tell her, don't tell her" meaning that he should resist the urge to change the past by NOT telling her to leave the Island, but I think we all know how that's going to end, right? Because after all, if Charlotte never left, then Daniel would have never met her...better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, right?



-A lot of people has asked where Ben fits into this episode's timeline. If you remember, Ben was NOT born on the Island but was instead born in Portland, Oregon off to the side of the road in the woods. The birth killed his mother, and as his father ran to the road for help he actually came upon Horace and Olivia (another Dharma person). Later, likely with Horace's help, Ben's father took them both to the Island to work for Dharma.

Now, while Ben was obviously not featured in the episode I do think that he was old enough to be on the Island during the time of the show's events (assuming he's mid forties or so, he would have been born in the 60's, which would make him roughly 10-12 or so in the time of this episode, which is right around when he originally came to the Island). And another quirky coincidence: if he was there and had learned that Juliet was the one to miraculously deliver Horace's baby in 1977, could it be possible that he retained that knowledge, making it possible for him to recruit the "future" Juliet in 2001 to solve the fertility issues that they continued to struggle with? After all, in there first appointment, Harper (Goodwin's shrink wife) uttered "I see what he likes in you, you look just like her" to Juliette shortly after her arrival on the Island. Could she have been referring to the past Juliette??? Did that make any sense???

Alright, well I think that will do it for this one. I feel that for a relatively straightforward episode I managed to thoroughly confuse myself , but at least we have another week to try and sort it out. And one final note: this recap marks my 50th post on this here blog... so a big THANKS for everyone that has read my ramblings, shared their thoughts, and passed this along to others in the last couple of years. It started out as an poorly written email to a handful of co-workers and look how far we've come; it's now a poorly written blog that some poor soul in Bulgaria has even read. Who'da thought. It's been fun and I look forward to trying to figure out the rest of this crazy shit with you guys over the next 24 episodes. Till next week!