Episode 13 - The Last Recruit
24 April 2010
Review
Present: MIB tells Jack that he was masquerading as Christian all those years ago. He says they all need to leave the island together. Zoey arrives demanding Desmond and fires a shell near to MIB's camp. MIB says it's time to go confront Widmore. He asks Sayid to kill Desmond and Sawyer to fetch Desmond's sailboat. Desmond talks Sayid out of killing him. Sawyer arranges with Jack to gather the survivors together and to make for Hydra island without MIB. He doesn't include Claire in the plan but she follows them and Kate insists that she come along. On the journey Jack decides that they shouldn't leave and swims back to MIB. Jin and Sun reunite. Widmore reneges on the deal and fires at MIB who carries Jack into the jungle and safety.
Flashback: Locke and Sun are wheeled into hospital at the same time, she seems to recognise him as MIB. When she wakes though the baby is fine and she and Jin are happy to be together and safe. Sawyer is enjoying questioning Kate until Miles calls him to track down Sayid. They arrest him after he assures Nadia that she is now safe. Desmond finds Claire at an adoption agency and talks her into meeting his lawyer, Ilana. She has been looking for Claire because she is reading Christian Shephard's will today. She introduces Claire to Jack but Jack is called away to perform surgery on Locke.
The Good: When you review the massive number of developments here, this episode basically set up the run into the season finale. It did a valuable job in cramming in so many different characters and their interweaving stories.
The Jack and Locke conversation was almost very good. It was nice to see Jack put two and two together and realise the connection between Locke and his father's bodies. The glimpses of Christian since he passed away is what has been gnawing at Jack for years. His relationship with his father had no proper resolution and the fleeting possibility that he was in some way still around has clearly been the key to Jack believing that the island is where he is meant to be. I liked the way he reacted to MIB too, definitely weirded out by seeing a dead man reanimated as well as mistrustful of this "thing."
Jack's decision to not leave the island was good as well. Not only does he think he is there to do something important but he has wisely concluded that he should probably not share an end game with the smoke monster. He and Sawyer had almost the same conversation that Locke and Jack once did. Sawyer's anger and distress at the island is completely understandable and it was nice to see the tension over Juliet's death was still present.
Personally I love Charles Widmore sitting behind a sonic fence firing missiles at MIB. It's one of the few times in the show when a character has thought through an issue and come up with a sensible and safe solution to a big problem. Why not just hide out and take pot shots? Why should he risk his neck by going anywhere near the smoke monster? Of course if those shells can't kill the monster or he runs out, then that could be a problem. Zoey's warning shot allowed for the terrific visual of MIB not flinching an inch as everyone else leapt to their feet.
In the sideways world plenty of developments happened which may be good, it's difficult to tell. Sun recognising Locke was intriguing, Ilana's return gave her something to do, Sun's baby is ok which is nice for her and of course Jack will finally get a chance to be a miracle worker. The characters are coming together for a massive confrontation and the way Keamy's restaurant led so many of them down the same path is typically clever, economical storytelling. Kate and Sawyer's dialogue was probably the best thing in the whole episode as they matched wits and flirted in a relatable unambiguous way (see Best Moment).
The Bad: There were only a couple of things which were directly bad about this episode. The most obvious was Sun's English returning at the sight of Jin. Even if it were linked to the "all you need is love" motif it still feels about as ridiculous and unnecessary as any plot you will see anywhere. I also wasn't entirely happy with Sawyer and the survivors abandoning the children Zach and Emma. They have never been in a position to rescue them before but here they could have. Surely they don't deserve to be left with MIB? And what about Miles? Didn't Sawyer or Hurley or Frank have any desire to find him and rescue him too? I do understand that Sawyer is in a pretty bitter place right now but the other survivors could have voiced some concerns.
The rest of my unease with this episode is about presentation rather than substance. The stories may resolve themselves in satisfactory ways but it's hard to argue that they have been all that they should have been. Let's start with Claire and Sayid. Again it would have been nice for Hurley or someone else to argue harder for their old friend Sayid to be included. Kate concludes that he is "different now." It's one of those deliberately vague moments where a viewer might well wonder if that is a satisfactory statement. Sayid was a good friend to all of them, he saved their lives and helped them escape the island. He even attended their birthday parties (412). Is it unreasonable to expect someone to make more effort to "save" him at this point? Perhaps it is. But even ignoring his friends' reaction it is very difficult to follow his story with anything but confusion. Here Desmond manages to activate what is left of his conscience and so he spares him. Should we be cheering? Should we be hoping he can be redeemed? It's difficult to know if it is Sayid anymore or what the "darkness" in him even means.
The same goes for Claire. Suddenly she lucidly discusses with Jack that MIB impersonated her father. Yet a few episodes ago she separated the two into my father and my friend (605). Then she echoes the words of Dogen and MIB himself by implying that just by speaking to him, Jack is now "with" him. Yet she is then willing to abandon MIB herself and escape to Hydra Island. So what does that mean? Is she not with him anymore? All those survivors spoke to him, yet are clearly not "with" him. As with Sayid, is she still really Claire? Are we hoping for redemption or dreading her eventual return to darkness? I can't help but think the writers have been too vague for their own good and it would have made for more compelling viewing if we knew one way or another.
This bleeds over of course into the flashsideways where we are just as unsure as to what to think of anyone. Claire has two reunions with Jack in this episode. On the island brother and sister finally reunite fully in the know and it didn't feel very monumental (again because is that really Claire?). Then we have them meeting for the first time in flashsideways. It was surreal seeing Matthew Fox bow his head in confusion and emotion because we have seen it before. We have seen him hear the news for the first time that he has a sister (412). Now we see it again in another universe. I watched it and was left wondering what to feel. It didn't really mean anything to me because it's already happened before. Once more I was left repeating myself - should I care about these people?
Jin and Sun have a touching scene in the hospital - meh. Desmond plays quite the stalker as he leads Claire to her meeting with Ilana - um, should I care? Jack is about to perform surgery on Locke? I want to care, but I don't. I am hopeful that it might turn into something significant, but hope isn't the emotion of an engaged viewer.
Jin and Sun's actual reunion after years apart fell a bit flat too. It had been built up for so long and when you think about what Sun went through (believing he was dead) this should have been a seminal event. The acting was fine but the scene feels like it should have been the payoff to an episode focussed on them and not just one scene in such a densely packed episode.
MIB throwing Desmond down the well now looks very much like a plot device. He could have killed him but that would have inconvenienced the story.
Finally let's revisit the opening scene. Jack says and asks all the right things. Within reason anyway. I know you don't want to piss off a monster that could kill you but Jack could have asked him about the pilot or Mr Eko or that time he tried to drag Locke down a hole. But ignoring all of that why didn't he simply ask "Why do we ALL have to leave together?" MIB laid it out as the most important thing and yet no one asks why. Jack says he doesn't know whether to trust him. Well why should he, he didn't quiz him on the details of his plan. It echoed the irritation I felt when Ben was rounding up the Oceanic Six to return to the island and no one asked why they had to go together.
The Unknown: MIB makes reference to Locke being brought back in a wooden box. Is there significance to the coffin itself in him being able to fully posses a corpse?
Widmore is somewhat within his rights to renege on his deal with Sawyer. Sawyer didn't exactly deliver MIB to him. Though now I wonder what he actually wanted Jin for. It does seem dubious whether the missile attacks will work on MIB when gun shots and knives to the chest haven't worked. Is there anyone left who hasn't spoken to him yet?
Assuming MIB can't leave the island and we haven't confirmed whether Jacob takes other forms - perhaps Christian, for the brief moment he appeared to Jack (410), really was Christian. As in the actual ghost version, like Isabella (609) come to tell Jack what to do.
Best Moment: Sawyer is pretty happy to be interrogating Kate. He asks her the same question Jack once did (506), isn't it weird that we keep meeting? She sees through his behaviour and correctly concludes that he didn't arrest her at LAX because he hid his Sydney trip from his colleagues. It was one of the rare moments in the episode where we understood simply where each character was coming from. For Sawyer this is the first time he has had a chance to flirt with her and he looked as happy and cocky as he once did on the beach. He even threw in a nice adaption of the old Casablanca line. The scene sparkled for me as an example of what the show is capable of but what it has rarely delivered this season.
The Bottom Line: The producers have been too clever by half this season and robbed much of the season of genuine emotional significance. We are way past the point of hoping everything will suddenly click into place. Even if the next few episodes are perfect the first two thirds of this season have still been a disappointment.
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