By Lisa Fary
The only couple I was excited to see reunited in this ep was Sawyer and Hurley. They belong together like Han and Chewie. I want to see them get in their Millennium Volkswagen and save the Dharma Initiative from Ben and Richard. Juliet can be Princess Leia. Kate can go dance in Jabba’s palace and get eaten by a rancor.
I think I’ve figured out the formula for making a Lost ep enjoyable and not, like, stupidly annoying (this ep was good):
Don’t put Jack and/ or Kate in it.
Yes, they’re beautiful people. but as characters they are stupid. They’re secretive. They’re self-destructive. Their experience on the island did nothing to change them. Think about it. Before crashing, Kate was a selfish, duplicitous git who made bad decisions, and she still is. Before crashing, Jack was a, emotional abuser/ stalker with a daddy-complex and still is. Jack and Kate may have taken leadership roles at the beginning, but over the course of the series, they’ve descended further and further, becoming even more toxic to themselves and those around them.
Juliet, on the other hand, is the most rockinest woman on the series and should host one of those seminars with Gwen Cooper (“Sci-fi Chick Badassery: Intermediate Methods ” or “Reconnecting with Your Lost Badass: A Seminar for Disenfranchised Women Who’d Rather Not Kill Themselves”). She is focused, pragmatic. She acts without being interrupted by emo emotions, instead dealing with them at an appropriate later time.
And I liked seeing her happy. I liked seeing Sawyer happy. For a minute, I wasn’t thrilled with them together because it seemed like they were going down that rarely seen road in American television – the road of the sexually tensionless, male-female friendship. However, after all the crap Kate put Sawyer through, and all the crap that Jack (and Ben and Goodwin, etc.) put Juliet through, I was kinda glad to see them together, and seemingly healthy.
Sawyer, to me, is the real hero of this series, not just because of his heroic deeds, of which there are many, but because he’s grown into his best self. He was a Man-Kate when Oceanic 815 landed and now he’s the guy who has everyone’s back, who makes sure everyone is safe, who does the right thing.
I even found myself attracted to him in this ep because of that. I like a man of action who does the right thing. And reads.
Then bloody damn Jack and Kate had to show up at the end and ruin it all. They didn’t even have to speak. They just had to show up. I’ll keep fooling myself for the next two weeks that Sawyer’s expression of crushing joy was for Hurley, his soulmate in wacky male adventure.
And, if Kate ruins Juliet’s happy thing with Sawyer, I hope the smoke monster gets her.
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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
And, if Kate ruins Juliet’s happy thing with Sawyer, I hope the smoke monster gets her.
YES. Damn her.
Although I have to say, I lurrrve Jack and Kate, just for the fact that they're so effed up. It's become very soap opera. And people who are still holding a torch for Kate/Sawyer need to put that down because at this point, the Jack/Kate relationship is a black hole of emo and anyone who strays too close will get sucked into oblivion.
Sawyer's happy. Juliet's happy. I'M HAPPY.
And I agree, Juliet is pretty effing awesome.
AMEN, Lisa!!! I LOVED this episode for the exact same reason. I've never hated Jack until the end of last season, but Kate's been getting on my nerves since season 3. Seriously – Sawyer and Juliet FOR THE WIN. As Sawyer was talking about whether three years is enough time to get over someone, I harshly whispered at the screen "And Juliet's cooler than Kate!!" I hope he laughs in Kate's face in two weeks.
In other news – FOUR-TOED STATUE?!!!!! When are we getting back to that?
I'd love to see Sawyer reject Kate, but I have a bad feeling Lost will go for a tawdry love rhombus between Sawyer, Kate, Jack, and Juliet.
John has a theory that the four toed statue is somehow Locke. From the back, it looked like it was holding a cane. But, it also looked like it hat cat ears. Who know? Maybe Locke will become an anthropomorphic cat-god!
Lisa you kill me- awesome article! Completely agree with you on every point and you are so right: "The only couple I was excited to see reunited in this ep was Sawyer and Hurley. They belong together like Han and Chewie" . Why have I never thought of that analogy?? (well maybe because it's mean to think of Hurley as a wookie but still). The only thing that really annoyed me in this episode was a recurring pattern I see in the writing where they seem to be writing the scenes based around the commercial breaks. There is always the perfect little end cap and button for each pre-commercial scene and it is driving me bonkers! Anyway, the Richard/ Sawyer scene was my favorite and I love how they threw in the joke about Richard's eyeliner (Nestor swears its natural!), showed Sawyer's true evolution into a leader. He has bloomed like a flower! La Fleur! did I really just write that?
Ummmmm…? What!? Juliet is not cool. She's a lying, cheating and duplicitious terrible character. She has had tons of inside info about what is going on on the island, but she almost never chooses to share. She could have at least apologized for being another. They should have beat her the minute she arrived and opted to not explain everything she knows about the island!! She's an other!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus, Juliet and Sawyer have no chemistry! Watching them kiss was just plain weird. I bet you she betrays them. Seriously!
Juliet's been kept captive by Ben and The Others for three years, and she's been doing what she's needed to do to survive. Once she joined the survivors of Flight 815, she's done nothing but help them. And as for not telling them everything she knows? Well, neither does Locke. And he's NOT an "Other." I think that both what's written for her, as well as a layered performance by Elizabeth Mitchell make her continuously one of the best characters on the show. Meanwhile, Kate does nothing but "go back for Jack" or blindly take care of Aaron. She started with an interesting, complex backstory that went absolutely nowhere except to a lame love triangle that ended up not bearing any fruit.
well, Aaron is a kid, so someone has to take care of him. I don't see what's wrong about this. I mean, she is a bit obsessive but it never bothered me. And Jack, I think Jack is way cooler than Sawyer. Sawyer is mean and insulting and an all around asshole. He took 90 percent of the items of a crashed plane and horded them and didn't care what happened to anyone else. They should have really thrown him out. Yeah Jack's fucked up, but he always tries to do the right thing and he's saved a lot of people. And yes Juliet was taken captive by the others in a way, but she was still an other, and her role within the others is still vague. As far as helping the 815's. She has helped the as far as it helped her. I mean, Locke, for one, is at least half insane and he's paid for not sharing many ties. Juliet just doesn't say anything and no one cares, it just annoys me. if you like Juliet that's cool, but i hate her character, the performance is good but, errrrrrrr she just annoys me.
That was Sawyer back in, what? Season one? He's grown past that behavior. I can't see him doing that same sort of thing anymore.
You know what I don't hate Sawyer, and he has grown, I mean I don't like him either but you are right. Even still, Sawywer is a con man at heart(in my mind at least) and you can't trust him. I will always be on Team Jack. I love that he tries so hard in what ever he does and that he has such a big and open heart. Jack I do like emoish characters but what evs. Of all the men on Lost Sawyer has always intrigued me the least. Give me Sayid Hurley, Ben, Locke, or Desy Des any day.
Heh. No worries. I mean, Juliet annoyed me at first, too. My friends and I used to call her Smirky McSmirksalot. But she's grown on me.
"Smirky McSmirksalot" Wow, that is freaking awesome. That smirk!!!! Oh I how I despise it! That's really what annoys me. That smirk. Oh man. The nail on the head!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm like Sawyer with the nicknames.
Thanks, Taryn! I don't mean it in a mean way – Chewy rocks! The timing around the commercial breaks would annoy me a lot less if it weren't for the music – they're overusing the "BWAMP!"
Was I the only one hoping that Sawyer was boning the dead Dharma guy's widow and that she was actually preggers with his second Clementine?
I was really dreading the Sawliet hook-up since they've been hinting at it, but I agree with most that it was surprisingly satisfying to see both characters happy. But here's to the inevitable Love Rhombus or perhaps Love Parallelogram…wait, are all love rhombi parallelograms but all love parallelograms not rhombi? Oh that polyamorous geometry!
Nope. I fully expected to discover that he was the baby's daddy.
We may actually have a love pentagon on our hands – I forgot Ben has it bad for Juliet.