Monday, March 30, 2009

John's Late-in-the-Week Post: "He's Our You"

So my wife has begun watching LOST again from the beginning, as she missed a few episodes that were vital in leading us to where we are now.

(No need to panic; I've seen every single episode).

Currently, she's nearing the middle of Season One, and Claire's (bring her back, Christian!) about to have her baby (Kate you dimwit! Only Claire is supposed to raise Aaron!). I'm looking forward to the episode when she actually does have it, as I'm excited to see whether James "I used to call myself Sawyer to fool people; now I call myself LaFleur to fool people" Ford is visible at all as an Easter egg.

I'll keep you posted.

But watching the episode "Confidence Man" leads me to rescind some of the character changing that I've seen James go through.

The example I'm considering:
In "Confidence Man," Sawyer is taken by Jack and Sayid as they "inquire"about the inhalers James supposedly has stashed away (no one ever asks for them, and he never says that he has them). Their inquiry includes hitting him over the head, tying him to a tree, and shoving bamboo slivers under his finger nails to get him to talk. In a word: torture.

Of course, James is innocent, though allows Jack and Sayid to do this partly to lead others away from who he really is.

(In a darker "revelation" I had, I feel James in this episode is a lot like The Joker from The Dark Knight in that he also seems to be allowing his own torture to ruin the hero complexis of Jack (Batman) and Sayid (Harvey Dent). Remember that The Joker was mostly interested in seeing how far he could push Batman and Harvey Dent. Dent was the only that broke (think Sayid). I know--I'm a nerd.)

This brings me "He's Our You." James leads Sayid to the Dharma "psychopath," where the roles are reversed, to allow his to give Sayid a magic sugar cube in order for him to talk. In a word, I call this sort of interrogotory: torture.

And yet, James allows it to happen. Why? To keep people believing that he is someone other than himself.

And though he seems to have changed, and I believe he has, some unwanted characteristics will be much harder to overcome.

But to do that, he did the right thing; he stayed on the island.

2 comments:

  1. So you think they'll add an easter egg of Sawyer in the bushes to that episode? That'd be fun. What would be more impressive is if they had put the easter egg in there the first time filming, showing they were seasons ahead in their writing.

    Good thought on Sawyer, though I'd say the two situations aren't exactly the same. You're right about the Season 1 incident, but for the latest one, Sawyer is allowing the torture (which, let's face it, is far less traumatic than shoving bamboo splinters up one's fingernails) because he doesn't want to lose the life he has. Yes, his identity is tied to that, but it's not just him maintaining a front for the sake of maintaining a front, like he was in Season 1. He honestly identifies with Dharma and doesn't want to lose what he has with them (and Juliet?).

    I think this will have some interesting ramifications later on.

    My two cents.

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  2. I just hope for an easter egg; and who knows what will happen when they re-release the series once it all ends? I'll let you know if they were that far ahead in the show's minutiae.

    I know the connection is a bit of a stretch, but it's a recurring theme, even if slightly different. And a recurring theme for this show is, well, a recurring theme.

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