Lost 6.8, "Recon"
Lost 6.8, "Recon"
Mar 21
(epically cool Sawyer sketch above via artist Grant Gould)
One of my favorite parts of the vast Lost landscape has been the quasi-sorta Luke/Leia/Han allegory of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle. I’m not a huge fan of the triangle itself, mind you, just the fact that the producers have always referenced that other Star Wars triangle when discussing Jack/Kate/Sawyer. Which must mean that they’re giving us subtle hints for a “OH SHIT KATE’S MY SISTER” reveal in the final episode. Cannot WAIT.
Let’s be honest; without all the Jedi nonsense and the daddy issues, Luke’s nowhere near the most interesting character in the Original Trilogy. Without the constant episodes focusing on his alcoholism, his stubbornness, his need for control, and every other personality quirk the writers can muster, Jack’s nowhere near the most interesting character on Lost.
Sawyer isn’t, either, to my mind. (For me it’s gotta be Benjamin Q. Linus.) But there is something incredibly compelling about the Han Solo of Oceanic Flight 815. This week, we get a big fat reminder of that, not just from our boy on the island but from his counterpart in the flash-sideways timeline.
In the 2007 timeline, Sawyer returns a bit to his scheming ways, agreeing to conspire with Flocke to learn more about the new castaways from the Ajira flight that brought Jack, Kate, etc. back to the island. Of course, he’s not really playing anybody’s side but his own, and maybe Kate’s, as he reveals when he’s captured by Charles Widmore and agrees to plot against Flocke in exchange for passage off the island, then turns around and flips right back over to Flocke by revealing Widmore’s plans to him.
In the 2004 timeline, Sawyer’s a cop of all things, with Miles for a partner. He gets set up with Charlotte, one of Widmore’s minions in the 2007 timeline; they sleep together, she finds a dossier of info that Sawyer doesn’t want her to see, and he flips out on her, driving her away. Turns out he’s secretly hunting the man who killed his father.
There’s a great moment in the 2004 sequence where sex bomb Sawyer goes to Charlotte’s apartment with a giant sunflower and a six-pack of beer. He expects he’ll be welcomed back with open arms; instead he’s totally shot down, left standing like an idiot on Charlotte’s doorstep. For the guy most often portrayed by Lost producers as the ultimate bare-chested sex god, it’s funny to see him suddenly on the receiving end of rejection.
“Recon” is a good reminder of why Sawyer’s always been so damned entertaining. Unlike Mr. Solo, he’s not a scoundrel quickly tamed by the good guys and eventually domesticated into Leia’s lapdog. He remains a scoundrel throughout, somewhere deep within; an honorable scoundrel, and not one without morals or a code, but a scoundrel nonetheless. He embraced the simple life to a degree back in the 1970s with Juliet, but with her death, it was a quick slide down a familiar slope to his old ways.
But he’s always charming, and he’s always funny, and he does exhibit friendships and loyalties. Even in his current position playing Flocke against Widmore, you imagine deep down he’s got ties to his friends Jin, Hurley and Miles; I don’t know if he’d betray them to save himself (his deal with Widmore specifies that it’s not just him who’ll be free, but those he brings with him). Because George Lucas doesn’t understand anything between the spectrum of Good Vs. Evil, Han Solo had to be neutered to fit into his moral landscape; Sawyer’s the very definition of grey, and that’s what makes him a great character.
