RECON

And let this be the very first image I see in every episode henceforth!

Okay, I was going to do this long drawn out recap, but since we've all watched Recon at least three times (I'm on my 8th viewing), I'm just going to tell you what I think. Let's start with the side time, as always.

So, James is still bent on revenge against the man who caused his father to commit murder-suicide. Only in this time he is a cop and his partner, oddly enough, is Miles! And James is going out on blind dates with Charlotte, but assumes she's snooping when she opens the wrong drawer looking for a t-shirt. So far, the only difference in this man from the Sawyer we know is his chosen profession. He even still watches "Little House"

Eventually, like in the original time, he trusts Miles enough to confess his deep dark secret and his quest for revenge against the man who changed his life forever. In doing so, I think his need diminishes and he is able to move forward in his life.

When LOST first started, I viewed Sayer as a angst riddled teenager with a "rebel" complex and unable, or unwilling, to grow past that fifteen year old who opposed all symbols of authority. As LOST has progressed so has James' ability to move past his stunted past and grow into a man with a heart of gold, empathy and the ability to open himself to the love he deserves. I feared for him after he lost Juliet, but now know that he had to lose her to know that the love they had was something that transcended both times and both planes of existence.

And how interesting is it that Miles' father sets James up for a blind date?

At first I thought Recon meant a reconnaissance mission. You know, the kind where someone goes ahead and then reports back to the boss what obstacles lay ahead. Then I realized the secondary meaning. The first Sawyer centric episode we ever say was "Confidence Man", and since I'm still hoping that Season Six is mirroring Season One (or as close as you can get at this point), I remember just what Sawyer was really, really good at...conning people.

Sawyer started out on his own, leaving his friends behind at the temple and claiming that none of them were his friends. But I also knew that, after all is said and done, the James Ford of today would not abandon people like Miles and Jin and Kate. At some point, he will come back around and realize that they need him as much as he needs them, and we see this beginning to happen when he tells Kate his plan.

Right now we see three different camps. There's Smocke's group of people. I think they number about 23 or 24, and likely are the largest number wise. Many of them are with Smocke out of fear more than any sort of loyalty. Emma and Zach really have no choice since Cindy, duty bound I guess to keep them as safe as possible, made a decision for the three of them. We know that Smocke has lied to Claire about Aaron's where abouts and perhaps he did it to drive her crazy, I'm not sure.

Speaking of crazy, it is no coincidence that Smocke claims to have had a crazy mother, has taken the form of a man who also had a crazy mother and is now telling Kate that Aaron has a crazy mother. Not sure where Crazy Danielle comes in, but there's an awful lot of crazies on this island! I'm wondering how Claire will come out of this one or if it's already too late. Her brain cells have been bumping into each other for so long that they've caused irreparable damage. You could just see Kate thinking" "I am so NOT giving Aaron back to that nutzoid!"

Maybe even Sayid has gone crazy, since he sat there like a lump and watched Claire try to kill Kate. I am not liking him very much and have stopped feeling sorry for him. He has embraced his evil overlord a little too easily after fighting to find some good within for so very long. Disappointed, I am.

Sawyer's plan became pretty clear as he spoke to Chuckie in the sub. Or so I thought. He assumed that Widmore wants to kill Smocke because of the sonic fencing Widmore's men were erecting and Widmore was happy to let him think as much. And he may be right, but I'm not feeling it. And that Sawyer then went back to the main island and informed Smocke about his deal with Chuckie did not surprise me. Sawyer stated very clearly early in the episode that he was aligning himself with no one. The plan? Pit Smocke and Chuckie against each other and while they're busy, he takes off in the sub. Do you really think this plan is going to work smoothly? Me neither.
Have you ever hear the phrase, "The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"?

This is where Jack and the others at the beach camp may come in. Since they have no idea of Widmore's presence as of yet, these seven people could be the deciding factor as to who wins the upcoming clash of the LOSTaway Titans. Think about this for a moment. We have Smocke and his terrified band of not-so-merry men, women and two children. He has yet to tell them what is happening (hmmm, shades of Jacob?). We have James planning to pit Smocke and Widmore against each other. I seriously doubt any of the people in either Smocke's or Widmore's camp are a "candidate."

So, who do we have left?

Sun

Hurley

Jack

As soon as the "candidate" realizes there's a certain job to do, I think his or her actions will end the war. The island will either self destruct or return to it's former existence. Or maybe it will do both (remember it WAS submerged in the side time). Of course, I could be wrong (as is usually the case).

DID YOU NOTICE?:

There was no "Previously On LOST" at the beginning of this episode.

Recon aired on 3/16, referencing Ajira 316, and it's the first time we see that plane since Namaste.

Sawyer is back to using nicknames. He called Kate "Freckles" and Widmore "Chief"

Ava, the woman he was in bed with in the side time, called him "Dimples"

The first words Sawyer speaks in the side time and the last words he speaks in the original time are "Son of a bitch"

The code for his back up that he was in danger was "LaFleur"

The three books on James' dresser in the side time were Watership Down, A Wrinkle In Time and Lancelot, all of which he has been seen reading on the island.

QUESTIONS:

What is inside the locked room on the sub?

Who, or what, killed the Ajira 316 survivors?

Why didn't Sayid help Kate?

Does Widmore really want to kill Smocke?

Why did cop-James allow fugitive-Kate to escape at the airport in LA X?

Who is Miles dating?

Who is in the picture taped to the inside of James' locker?

QUOTABLE QUOTES:

Ava: You're a cop?

James: Surprise.

Kate: So, you're with Locke now?

Sawyer: I ain't with anybody, Kate.

Sawyer: I'm sorry, I forgot my manners.

Smocke: I forgive you.

Sawyer: You got a whip?

Charlotte: Maybe

Kate: Sayid, are you alright?

Sayid: No

Sawyer: You didn't really send me over there to find passengers from that plane, did you?

Smocke: No.

Sawyer: Well in case you're interested, they're all dead.

Smocke: Well that's terrible. What happened?

Sawyer: I don't know.

Smocke: Well what do you know, James?

So there you have it. Do you think Sawyer's plan will work and he and Kate will be able to leave the island? What about Jack and his group? Where do they fit in to this scenario? With Ben in their camp we can pretty well be sure that Chuckie isn't going to be visiting anytime soon.

When do you think we'll see Chuckie in the side time? What do you think he's been up to?

FEW MORE THOUGHTS ON DEAD IS DEAD

I've been thinking about Illana's question to Frank Lapidus. A lot. It's begun to consume me. And then I visited Mistaking Coincidence for Fate and read his take on Illana, had a that's what I was thinking moment and pondered even more.

"What lies in the shadow of the statue?"

In LaFleur we got to see the back of the statue when Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Jin were flashing back and forth through time. Our glimpse was very brief but screencaps were posted on Dark UFO, Lost Media's Photo Gallery and everywhere else on the LOST internet.

But it was where they were standing when they saw the statue that interests me. Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Jin were at the temple wall. The same place where Montand lost his arm and the very same place where Richard took an injured young Ben to be healed.Locke took Ben to face his judgement beneath this mysterious place.

Ben explained that the Others built the wall to keep the temple hidden.

"We built the wall to keep people like you out. The temple is located a about a half a mile from here" Or something close to that.

In any religion or faith, the temple is a haven, an important place to go for worship and, in times of need, shelter. It is where we go when we seek spiritual guidance and the strength to cope with hardship. It is where Ben told Richard to take their people, the only place on the island he knew where they would be safe. It was where he had sent Danielle, Karl and Alex.

I think Illana is looking for the temple. And, like Jay, I think she brought reinforcements in the form of other passengers and whatever is in that cargo crate.

However, I'm still trying to figure out who she is working for. At one time I entertained the thought that Ben had hired her to bring Sayid to Guam on the simple proof that only those in the Lamp Post knew which flight provided the best opportunity to get back to the island. Oh yeah, and the fact that I believed that only Ben knew that it was Sayid who killed Avelino in the Seychelles. There are some good arguments that it's Widmore who hired her, but how would he know which flight the O6 were planning to take? Which brings me to Eloise Hawking.

We are aware that she knows Whidmore from their time on the island. The very nature of their relationship is fuzzy at best, and we have been given hints here and there that they may have been a team at one point, leading the Others as a couple. However, there is the small matter of the births of Daniel Faraday and Penny Widmore. We now know that Charles frequently left the island and had a child with a woman on the outside. What we don't know is how Ellie came to be off the island and working in the Lamp Post.

Something tells me that she and Widmore do not have as close a relationship as they once enjoyed. Okay, that's blatantly obvious, but what if Ellie is also planning a return to the island? Aside from the O6 and Ben, I think she's the only other person who knew that Ajira 316 was their best chance of getting back to the island.

It's not perfect, but there it is. Let me know what you think.