Lost season 6 episode 8, aptly entitled Recon, aired this evening on ABC. The latest installment in the final chapter of the hit drama centered on James slash Jim slash Sawyer’s role on the new version of the Island and in his alternate no-crash life. Here’s a detailed recap of the action on Lost season 6 episode 8.
Lost season 6 episode 8 opened on the Island, with Sawyer and Jin on a makeshift campsite. Sawyer wakes Jin up and the latter immediately wants to escape. Sawyer tells Jin that he’s with Locke, and Jin says he’s not Locke. Sawyer knows it; he doesn’t care. Sawyer promises Jin that they won’t leave the Island without Sun. There’s movement outside, and a large group, including Kate and Claire, emerge from the jungle.
In the alternate reality, Sawyer and a woman are in bed, presumably after having just made love. The woman reminds him of a 9 o’clock meeting he has scheduled, and he runs to get dressed. A briefcase of money falls open, and he gives his usual schpiel about setting them up for lifem suggesting it’s a scam. The woman pulls a gun, and Sawyer one-ups her by telling her it’s a set-up and that the place is surrounded by police. The woman calls his bluff – which turns out to not be a bluff. Oddly enough, the door bursts open and a herd of cops enter with Miles in tow. Miles chides ‘Jim’ for going to the wire with the bust, and tosses him clothes as he calls him partner. So shockingly, in this reality, Sawyer the bad dude is a cop. Who woulda guessed?
Back on the Island, Claire packs items at the campsite and her gaze comes to rest on her weird pretend Aaron in a crib. Kate comes up behind her and asks what the thing is, and Claire tells her it’s all she had. Faux Locke calls the troops together, acknowledging that he knows they all have questions but that they need to keep moving during daylight hours. The flight attendant asks what happened at the Temple, and he tells them that the Black Smoke killed those who stayed behind. Faux Locke tells the children in the group that he’d take care of them. Sawyer approaches Kate and asks what happened to the others in their Flight 815 group. Kate asks if he’s really with Faux Locke, and he says he’s with no one.
In the alternate reality on Lost season 6 episode 8, Jim sits at his desk at the police station making call after call. He’s searching for an Anthony Cooper. Miles approaches and asks what he’s doing. Miles tells him he has a date for him for the evening. Jim resists, but Miles persists. The two men then share an awkward moment when Miles tells Jim that he feels like Jim is lying to him, but Jim denies it.
On the Island, Faux Locke leads his followers through the jungle. It’s still daylight hours. He tells them to collect water because they might be in camp for a few days once they finally stop. Sawyer asks when they’ll be leaving, and Faux Locke asks to speak with him privately. After scolding Sawyer for interrupting him in front of the others, he comes clean and tells Sawyer that he’s the Black Smoke. Faux Locke tells him that it’s an issue of Kill or Be Killed, and he doesn’t want to be killed. Faux Locke leads Sawyer to a boat and tells him that he needs him to go to Hydra Island to do recon work with the AlJeera Jetliner that went down. He wants Sawyer to find out who the others on the island are and what they want, and then report back to him.
In the alternate reality on Lost season 6 episode 8, James nervously awaits his date in a crowded but nice bar. He calls Miles, who tells him that she’s a redhead. He sees her and they meet, and we see that it’s none other than Charlotte. The duo sits at a table sipping red wine as Charlotte tells him about her career in archaeology. She asks why he’s a cop, and he won’t tell her, but she calls him on his bull and he tells her that he came to a point in life when he was either going to be a criminal or a cop, and he chose to be a cop. The scene cuts to them kissing, and then again to them lying quietly in bed. She claims to want a t-shirt from his drawer, but digs a little deeper and finds a newspaper clipping about his parents’ death. James returns with a glass of water and catches her with the information, and loses his cool. He yells and orders her to leave.
On the Island, Sawyer is on Hydra Island and sees the bear cage where he’d been held captive. He finds Kate’s shirt and squeezes it. Elsewhere on the Island, Kate and Sayid sit together. She asks if he thinks Faux Locke can get them off the Island and he says yes. Kate asks Sayid if he’s all right, and he says no, then suddenly, Claire jumps Kate and tries to knife her. Sayid refuses to help, but Faux Locke pulls Claire off and tosses her to the ground, telling her that her behavior is inappropriate. He asks Kate if she’s all right, and she very understandably replies negatively.
Back to Hydra, Sawyer finds the intact jetliner on the beach and gives it a cursory inspection. He feels the fire to see if it’s warm, and then sees a path in the sand leading into the jungle. He follows it and finds a pile of festering corpses. Someone moving catches his eye, and runs after the bespectacled brunette. He catches her, knocks her down and asks who she is. The scared woman tells him that she’s “the only one left”.
In the alternate reality, Charlie’s brother looks for him at the police station. He asks Sawyer for help, but Jim blows him off. Miles confronts Jim and asks him why he’d been in Australia. Jim gets angry and tells him it’s none of his business. Miles agrees, and tells him they’re no longer partners. Jim sees his reflection in a mirror and punches to the glass.
Lost season 6 episode 8 continues on the Island, where the woman tells Sawyer that her name is Zoe. She can’t believe he’s alive, but he tells her he wasn’t on the plane. She says she was out collecting wood and heard lots of screaming, and when she returned the others were all dead. She says she dragged them out of the sun. He tells her he’s with other people, and that he can take her back to them. She says ‘thank God’, and he tells her God has nothing to do with it. On the other Island, Kate cries alone. Faux Locke approaches and tells her that he’s sorry about Claire, but that it’s his fault. He tells her that he’d told Claire that the Others had taken Aaron. He restates his promise to keep everyone – including Kate – safe. She asks where Sawyer went, and he says he’ll show her if she goes with him.
On Hydra, Zoe and Sawyer walks along the beach and Zoe peppers him with questions. As they’re putting the boat in the water, he asks where she’d been heading, and she says Guam to see her boyfriend. He pulls a gun on her and asks who she really is, and she whistles for help. Three men with guns jump up and command Sawyer to drop his gun. He obeys, and tells them to take him to their leader.
The Island action continues as Kate and Faux Locke sit on the sand. He points to the island across the water and tells her Sawyer is there. He says he wanted to talk with her. He tells her that he understands what Kate is going through because his mother was crazy. He says that long before he had his current form, he’d had a very disturbed mother. He says that the problems could have been avoided had things been different. Kate asks why he’s telling her these things, and he says it’s because Aaron has a crazy mother. On Hydra, Sawyer is led, by gunpoint, to Charles Widmore’s submarine. They pass the sonic fence. Zoe tells Sawyer to get into the Sub.
In alternate reality land on Lost season 6 episode 8, James watches Little House on the Prairie and eats a microwave dinner alone. He watches as Michael Landon tells Laura about life and love, and seems moved by what he hears: The next scene shows him bringing a sunflower and beer to Charlotte, who is not amused to see him. She tells him that he blew it and closes the door. He leaves the flower on the ground and takes the six pack with him.
On the Island, Sawyer climbs into Widmore’s submarine and follows Zoe into a room where Widmore waits. Widmore introduces himself and asks Sawyer if he knows who he is. Widmore tells him that his people didn’t kill the dead people on the island but Sawyer doesn’t believe him. Sawyer tells him that Faux Locke sent him over, and that he’d be willing to turn him over to Widmore in exchange for safe passage from the Island for himself and the people on his boat. The men stand and shake on the deal.
Kate walks alone in the jungle. Claire appears and Kate is understandably upset, but Claire apologizes for what she did and tearfully apologizes and thanks her for taking care of Aaron. Kate tells her it’s okay as Claire sobs and the two embrace.
Elsewhere on the Island on Lost season 6 episode 8, Sawyer returns from Hydra and tells Faux Locke that all of the people on Hydra are dead. He then goes on to tell him that Widmore is there, and that he has armed guards. He tells Faux Locke the entire truth about his exchange with Widmore (idiot!) and the former thanks him for his loyalty.
In the alternate reality, Jim sits in a car. When Miles walks by, he beckons for him to get in. Miles does, and Jim hands him the ‘Sawyer’ binder that Charlotte had discovered in his drawer. He tells him the truth about what had happened with his parents, and the truth about why he went to Australia. He tells Miles that he’s been searching for the right Anthony Cooper and that he’ll kill him as soon as he finds him. Miles asks why he’d told him all that, and Jim says it’s because he knows he’ll try to talk him out of it. Just then, a car smashes into their car, and someone leaps out of the other car and takes off on foot. Sawyer and Miles go after the person, and Sawyer catches her. It’s, of course, Kate.
Back on The Island, it’s dark out and Kate stokes a fire on the beach. Sawyer approaches and asks what’s for dinner. Kate asks why he’s running errands for Locke, and he says he’s not doing anything for anybody. He tells her about Widmore, and when Kate asks what he’s going to do, he tells her that he’ll let them fight it out and they’ll leave. He says he plans to leave not via the plane, but via the sub.
So that’s it for Lost season 6 episode 8. The most surprising element of the latest installment of the hit drama is the revelation that Sawyer is a police officer in his non-crash reality. It’s logical that he’d pursue a career that would afford him the resources to seek out the original Sawyer, the man responsible for essentially destroying part of him, but it’s just a bizarre development. After all, Sawyer is Sawyer: A criminal, a grifter.
I’m also intrigued by Faux Locke’s comments about his own mother, and about how things could have turned out differently had things been… different. It’s interesting to see how he equates Claire with his own mother, and makes me fear for Claire’s future. She may be a little nutty in the head, but she’s still Claire. I think. If nothing else, we now know that Faux Locke has serious mama issues, and these very issues were likely a point of contention between himself and Jacob, since Jacob seemed to have the power to change events.
Finally, the contentious relationship between Faux Locke and Widmore is interesting. We’ve generally been led to believe that Widmore is, in some way, a bad person, but this development colors that reality: If we’re to believe – and we probably should – that non-Locke is bad, that would suggest that Widmore is likely good. It’ll be fun to see how that dynamic plays out leading up to the finale.
Tune in next week for Lost season 6 episode 9, when we’ll find out about one of the most intriguing and under-explained characters on the show: The never-aging Richard Alpert.
