(S05E08) "Yeah, thanks anyway Plato." - Sawyer

I think the best way to describe this episode was safe. Nothing crazy or out of place happened and you knew how it was going to end the second it began. Think of it this way - when we first started watching Lost, it was like dumping a giant puzzle onto the floor. At this point, the entire puzzle is assembled, and for the most part, we can almost see the big picture, save for a bunch of pieces that are still missing. "LaFleur" was one of those pieces.

Picking up where "This Place is Death" left off, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Jin stood in awe as the thick rope that Locke had been using to climb into the well was suddenly merged with dry, solid ground. Wherever in time they flashed to, it had to have been pretty far back since Miles pointed out something awfully startling - off in the distance, the four toed foot had an entire ginormous statue attached to it still. However, we only saw it's backside. Seeing the front of it (and I'm sure we will) might shed some clues regarding whoever built it.

Anyway, moments later, another flash occurred after John turned the wheel. Juliet and Miles both agreed that this one was different - far more painful to endure but the end result was no more headaches or bloody noses. After they found Daniel, he confirmed that he witnessed Charlotte's corpse jump during the last flash and said that this time, "we stayed." Welcome to the next three years of your life.

The remainder of the episode, told through a handful of "three years later/three years earlier" segments, was fairly uneventful yet still necessary to ground the five of them in relation to the O6. The year is 1974 and the DHARMA initiative is in full swing, led by the intrepid Horace Goodspeed. After saving the life of Amy (Reiko Aylesworth) from some of Richard Alpert's cronies, Sawyer and his merry band take on aliases and pull a Rousseau - our boat crashed!

While Sawyer's lies were believable, I'm still a little surprised that Horace bought it all. Didn't the DHARMA initiative have all sorts of techno-gizmos and monitoring do-dads comin' out the wazoo? Wouldn't they have known if a vessel crashed anywhere near the island? Of course the other way to interpret that is that even though they did have the capability, perhaps they weren't using it to its full potential. After all, we only saw Ben, post-purge, using the DHARMA equipment for tasks such as what I've just suggested. Moving on...

While Horace is grateful for what they did, he still wants them off the island and plans to put them on the submarine in the morning. Then Richard Alpert showed up. It's revealed that the DHARMA folks and the hostiles had an uneasy truce and Sawyer and Juliet broke it when they killed the two hostiles attacking Amy. Sawyer, who's now going by Jim LaFleur, steps in and after wowing Alpert with his knowledge of the nuke and Locke's visit, Alpert agrees to maintain the truce in exchange for Amy's husband Paul, who also died in the skirmish.

The act of leadership buys Sawyer and his gang two more weeks at Hotel DHARMA, "looking for the rest of their crew" a.k.a. waiting for Locke to return. One question regarding Alpert... it's been 20 years for him (sort of I assume) since the events of "Jughead" and presumably, he's had questions aplenty. Why didn't he grill Sawyer for more answers or take him back to Hostileville for further interrogation? At this point, he's witnessed John's birth and experienced the disappointment of young John choosing the knife instead of the compass and he's now met Sawyer, someone who knows John. Personally, I would have been a helluva lot more curious.

Two weeks becomes three years of taking home a DHARMA paycheck and suddenly they're caught up to the final moments of "316" when Jin sees Hurley, Jack, and Kate. Sawyer meets up with them, lays his eyes on the one that literally got away, and boom - LOST.

Final thoughts on "LaFleur" --

• How exactly did Sawyer and Miles come to work for the security arm of the DHARMA initiative? Especially Sawyer, ahem, LaFleur, since he's department head? In Sawyer's case, I'm guessing it has less to do with the rippling biceps factor and more to do with his meeting with Alpert. It's safe to assume that wasn't their last meeting over the three years and coupled with his knowledge of the island, Sawyer probably proved to be pretty invaluable as he rose through the tan jump-suit ranks. As for Miles? Same explanation... but, you know, the whole Haley Joel Osment thing gives him a huge one-up.
• Juliet we saw working for the motor pool and Jin was doing some sort of grid search for "their people." Who was he looking for though? The fake friends Sawyer initially lied to Horace about or Locke and the O6? Either way, grid 133 was empty. Jin's English is impeccable now by the way.
• We saw Daniel working for DHARMA in the opening moments of the season premiere. So we know he's down at the Orchid excavation, but what about young Charlotte? When do we see him get all googly-eyed and start warning her about never coming back?
• Why was Juliet able to deliver Amy's baby? Did something happen during the purge that affects pregnant woman and so it's safe at this point? That still wouldn't explain why that male nurse said the woman usually deliver on the mainland. Anyway, I don't understand why no one questioned Juliet helping. As far as they know, she's a grease monkey; not a world-renowned fertility specialist. Same goes for when Juliet asked Amy to disarm the fence. Far too many moments that helped discount Sawyer's lie were left untouched.
• And speaking of Juliet, here she goes again as "the other woman." Even though it's been three years and even though they're convinced no one is coming for them, it still feels like her romance with Sawyer is wrong. Like she's taking him from who he's meant to be with.
• As for romances, if Horace is now married to Amy, then what happened to Olivia? I know we haven't seen her since "The Man Behind the Iron Curtain," but I thought her and Horace we married... or at least an item? So where was she?
• When Sawyer told Horace he was looking for The Black Rock, I couldn't tell if Horace was playing dumb or if he actually knew about the shipwrecked boat.

The final question? Is three years long enough to get over someone? Sure, absolutely - as long as you never need to see that person again. Tough break for Sawyer. Tougher break for Juliet. Lost returns in two weeks. Here's the official description:

"Namaste" - When some old friends drop in unannounced, Sawyer is forced to further perpetuate his lie in order to protect them, on "Lost," WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on ABC.