On Lost: "LaFleur"
What a turnaround for a character on Lost! Sawyer, who started out this show as one of the characters you love to hate, has officially made the turn as one of the characters you love and go "Awww" over. I was worried about this episode being another Sawyer and Kate "Shipper" episode but it actually made me care about a relationship that isn't Penny and Desmond's.
I know I may get some hate over this, but "Skater" shipping is over. Let's bring in the Jawyers (Juliet and Sawyer). I'm really tired of the Kate and Sawyer angle. Sawyer genuinely loves her and she seems to only run to him (and Jack) in times of distress. She's not fully into either relationship and therefore leaves a trail of broken hearts behind her. The possibility of Juliet and Sawyer getting together seemed odd at best when the possibility first arose after last season's finale. I must say now though that they seem to work really well with each other and make one of the best 1-2 punch leader combos.
Moving on from the relationships, I want to get into some theorizing from this episode. The light bulb turned on for me on Wednesday night while recording our podcast. Richard Alpert, who is excellently portrayed by Nestor Carbonell, has very dark eyelashes that make him look like he's always wearing eyeliner. (Carbonell himself has confirmed that it's merely his dark eyelashes that make him look like he has "manliner.") Regardless, I believe that his natural eyeliner, along with what we saw as the four-toed statue from behind, means that Richard Alpert is part of an ancient race that helped develop ancient Egypt.
There have been a lot of Egypt references lately. Hurley's drawing of the Sphinx last week, for example. Tunisia being the exiting place of the island -- after all, Tunisia is only a stone's throw from Egypt. How about the use of hieroglyphics in the Swan Hatch and on the ruins around the island, specifically the smoke monster's hideout? There was also the prominent showing of the Egyptian symbol Ankh, which means "eternal life." It was worn by the deceased Paul and cherished by his widow Amy. The four-toed statue looked to be holding this same symbol in one hand. Most discussions and theories point to the Four Toed Statue being a representation of the Egyptian god Anubis the jackal-headed god, who is the guardian and judge of the dead. He is often pictured holding an Ankh symbol. Needless to say, I think it's time we started brushing up on our Ancient Egyptian history and mythology. I have a strong feeling that it's going to play a big part in what is going on now and what is going to happen on the island.
While this episode was of the more lighthearted fare with a less frantic pace than the rest of the episodes this season, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the writers have added enough drama and story to the narrative by making the people that stayed behind a part of Dharma for those three years. My opinion is that it's a very smart move. I love the fact that Jin speaks English now and that three years apart from Sun will only make that reunion more special. I love that Juliet and Sawyer built a very strong relationship. A big question, however, is where have Rose and Bernard been for those three years? Did they join Alpert's crew? I think that is a very good question and hopefully we find that out soon. We are getting answers to a lot of questions and being given a lot of big puzzle pieces, but the powers-that-be are still creating more holes to fill at the same time. This is probably annoying to some viewers, but I am enjoying it a lot and can't wait to see where they take us next.
What did you think of the episode? What are your thoughts about the new Sawyer/Juliet relationship? Think that Ancient Egypt is going to play a big role on the show? Let us know in the comments below.
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Hi Jay, I like reading your theories on Lost. But...
"Regardless, I believe that his natural eyeliner, along with what we saw as the four-toed statue from behind, means that Richard Alpert is part of an ancient race that helped develop ancient Egypt."
Ancient Egyptians who helped develop Egypt did NOT look like Nestor Campbell. However, I will give you that Nestor Campbell looks just like the actors who played ancient Egyptians in Hollywood movies from the 50's and 60's. Let's not forget that Egypt is in AFRICA. After Northern Africans mixed with Mediterranean and Italian people, they got lighter...but the Italians and Mediterranean people are also darker than other Europeans....so I'm sure you can do the retrograde math here to figure out what "ancient Egyptians" looked like.
Amazed at the comments, including the ones by this author, that they "care" about this fake non-romance between Sawyer and Juliet. Or should I say the non-romance between Juliet and Jim LaFleur.
When I read comments by Lost fans that the only romances they enjoy are ones like Rose and Bernard and this chemistry free thing they gave us last week, I can only conclude this is the most romance challenged fanbase in tv land. Juliet and Jim LaFleur = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. End it. Quick.
Just to clear things up...the Statue is NOT Anubis! It's The biggest topic on the boards this week.
All the Lost writers "experts" jumped on his bandwagon without doing any research..even your pics show that Anubis is all wrong. The statue does not have high pointy ears, and a diff. type of crown (a Moduis)
Many other E.Gods to look at..and after much research on other forums...
It is either the Lion God Maahes "the wielder of knives" (Locke?)
http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d51716/d5171692l.jpg
Or the Hippo Goddess of Fertility: Tawaret
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1723/tawaret.jpg
IMO, it will be a combo of both, a male/female 'source god', and have the face of someone we know, most likely Locke or Alpert.
But whatever it turns out to be...Just Say NO to Anubis!
Perhaps Richard Alpert is from the future; you don't age until you hit your natural place in time.
See Meredith Lopez's Profile
All this time and I never really saw the links to all the Egyptian stuff, or I never put them together. I did think that the emphasis on the ankh was weird, but I didn't connect it to anything else.
What about Walt and his connection to the Island? Is anything going to come of that?
I don't remember which poster said they are not a fan of Kate's. Neither am I. I've hated her since the first season. I finally accepted that she wasn't going to be killed off. She's a selfish brat. She thinks she's badass, but really she's just an attention hog who can't stand it when something's happening that doesn't involve her, resulting in her doing more harm than good in any given situation. And when there is no "situation?" She creates it. Sawyer is better off without her, and so is Jack, even though I'm not a huge fan of his, either. (He's just so whiiiiiiny.)
Where was my boyfriend, Sayeed in the last ep? Did I miss something?
Finally, I'm curious what everyone else thought of Juliet's original decision to go back to the "mainland" or whatever, even though they were stuck in 1974. If it were me, I'd rather stay put. With my luck, if I went back to the "real world," it wouldn't matter how hard I tried not to - I'd somehow end up finding my parents and accidentally killing them, and negate my own existence. I'm klutzy like that.
LOVE Sawyer and Juliet together! I am wondering if we will see Bernard and Rose once everyone makes it back to the island. Perhaps they are with Richard and the Others......
Back when the show was more linear, before "when are we?", I wondered if Bernard would turn out to be a mastermind of the Dharma initiative. Not so much anymore.
I think they should make all the time-travel episodes a dream, a horrible horrible dream, and go back to telling the original story.
Perhaps all the people on the island are from the bloodline of biblical (mythological) figures? All these comments (with their guesses about the story line) fascinated me. I had no where near the insights-I've only watched since last year and love the show. Thanks everyone!
NESTOR - his name is NESTOR? How can such a good looking man have such name.
The only other time I"ve heard it was in that Xmas cartoon "Nestor The Christmas Donkey"
The Juliet stuff was hideous. I'll take my romances with passion and chemistry, thank you very much. Luckily it's all temporary.
For a great review of the episode, here's the best one out there, posted every week at Doc Arzt's blog:
http://www.docarzt.com/lost/lost-recaps/flower-power-508-lafleur/
You aren't kidding about this one being the best. WOW
Perhaps as well is that the island is special for those who believe and not for everyone.
I recall Locke and Rose both believed in the power of the island to heal, just as Ben believes in the island but not everyone has believed in the islands special powers. Just as not everyone believes in Jacob. Also if we are using Egyptian logic here, we might also consider the belief in dualism. That the island has to exist for the rest of the world to exist, a kind of stabilizing polarity. (some are chosen to ensure the island remains safe and thus the world endures) That is why the exit of the island is in the Arctic while the Island is a warm tropical paradise or why the magnetism of the island makes it difficult to pinpoint within the normal world.
Another twist, is that the energy centers talked about in the pendulum episode, would fit into the idea of new age thinking about Chakra centers, which relate to the esoteric cults of Egypt. Locke also visited a Chakra site in Australia. In the pendulum episode, Ben chats with Jack about the Gospel of Thomas, this gospel is often referred to as a mystical esoteric text that uses light and dark dualistic thought much akin to the ancient Egyptians view of the world. My guess is that island will eventually move thousands of years in the past and reveal more.
(The submarine is the ferry of the dead between worlds)
That statue was a wow! I can't wait to see how this series unspools its mysteries.
I love this show! I never miss an episode.
I think that the build up to an Egypt theme is there, but I do not think it's going to be specifically "Egypt" as we know it. Maybe Egypt came from whatever is on the Island, or maybe the Island took it's influence from Egypt, but it's not exact, it's not just a straight imitation/replica, more like homage and inspiration.
There are significant, purposeful differences from ancient Anubis images with our Lost one. The one from the Island has an ankh in each hand, which is significant for the God of the Dead, who also carries a crook, and the Island statue does not have the ears of a jackal, quite noticeably and purposefully, I think.
I think the Island is a destination on the Death superhighway, perhaps a layover on the way to reincarnation, or resurrection (since we have seen Locke's legs resurrected, Rose's cancer cured, and Locke himself back from the "seemingly" dead (his facial hair was still growing....maybe he's not even killable).
Can't wait to see it slowly revealed, it's so fun! Love your blog, thank you!
I agree with your thinking on this - my theory is that the Egyptian clues are a central element but they may be part of a broader theme related not only to Egypt but also to other ancient mysteries such as the Mayan pyramids and the astrological calculations attributed to that civilization, Stonehenge, the winter solstice phenomenon at Newgrange in Ireland, etc. All of that stuff is seemingly beyond the capabilities of those civilizations, but if the island has been infinitely moving through time and space, vast amounts of knowledge could have been employed at different times and different places which might explain how these anomalies happened. In any case, its an alternative to the old space alien explanations.
And thanks for mentioning Locke in the box facial hair growth, I wasn't sure it was really happening.
I like how they are using the time-shift to weave in a strong lineage story-line. Want to know if Miles is Chang's son, if Walt's mother is descended from Abbadon or Beatrice Klugh and if Charles Widmore's is Aaron's paternal grandfather? These latest episodes really reinvigorated the show.
Sawyer has been likable quite a bit on the show. But as soon as he starts to open up, he always feels guilty and finds some way to sabatoge himself...because as kate says in season 1, he wants everyone to hate him.
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