Captain Sawyer LaFleur

Why is there no Lost this week? Don't we go so long between seasons so this doesn't happen? Well, I suppose you'll have to accept my long overdue recap instead.

Like Locke's episode the week before, "LaFleur" features fake names (Jeremy Bentham, Jim LaFleur) and fills in missing story pieces we skipped past originally. But unlike in the Bentham episode, those missing pieces were actually unknown, giving us a nice answer to what happened to the left-behinders in those missing 3 years.

Now Dharma converts, everyone seems completely different yet oddly appropriate. Miles, in his brief scene, seems to have gone from sarcastic and difficult to a good little Dharma bee. Juliet's switched career paths from baby doctor to mechanic. But the most comfortable change is in Sawyer. The former con man is now head of Dharma security. As far as I can tell, that makes him a bit like a small town sheriff, watching out for the drunk guy throwing dynamite and making house calls. Who knew that would be Sawyer's calling?

Of course, just like the Oceanic Six, they got to that point through lying. It's a nice parallel, though it does seem funny how the Oceanic Six agonized over their lie for a full season, which, to be honest, probably didn't affect their daily life all that much, while the lie here is far more invasive. I mean, Sawyer claimed he was a ship captain and Juliet has to fix cars! Yet rather than stress over the lie, they all seem....content.

Which is why, despite all the new info, the episode seemed merely nice until the end. With Sawyer happily keeping Dharma safe and cuddling up with Juliet, it took Kate's arrival to shake things up. Sawyer certainly was asking for it with his speech about how he couldn't even remember her face (hint: freckles). I've never found the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle particularly compelling, but this episode actually has me looking forward to how this now-quadrangle will resolve.

Also, welcome to Michelle Dessler and Jimmy Barrett to Lost. Michelle (sorry, Amy) seemed like a nice pregnant lady, but she's up to something. She tricked everyone with the fence, and who knows what she was doing with the Hostiles before Sawyer rescued her. Jimmy doesn't have much of a part yet, but I assume he'll do more than should "Let's call LaFleur." After all, this is a former Utz spokersperson we're talking about.

Finally, did anyone else notice Faraday was MIA in the 3 years later scenes? I would say that means he's with the Hostiles, but the premiere showed him in a Dharma jacket. Did he figure out how to use the frozen donkey wheel to send him back in time to save Charlotte? Or did Jeremy Davies just have another week off? Maybe we'll find out next week.