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.