Monsters of Television

“You’re with me now.”

It is a moving the pieces episode, as Jason Mittell noted. I’m not going to gripe about it, though a part of me really wants to. I defended “Recon” when it aired, but that was in large part because the episode was both narratively and emotionally needed, a breather episode as I called it, a way to regroup after the havoc in previous episodes.

“The Last Recruit” lacks the emotional necessity that made “Recon” work. Without the emotional attachment, “The Last Recruit” feels like narrative vegetables, something that’s good for the story, but that I don’t really want. Did we have lingering questions? Yes (well, question, really, and that was Desmond’s fate down in the well), but there wasn’t much else hanging in the air that we needed to recover from in the previous episodes. So “The Last Recruit” may serve, as Mittell notes, as the first hour in the show’s two-part finale structure (tramping through the jungle, getting onto transportation, things exploding) before settling into the thrilling conclusion.

The episode was all about characters converging, in both the Island storyline and in the flash-sideways. Indeed, nearly everyone has been reunited by the end of the episode in both (except for sideways-Hurley, who may still be a bit busy making out with sideways-Libby). And really the show was always about characters converging, even if we didn’t understand why. Connections drawn between characters, especially in the first three seasons, was one of the elements of Lost that audiences responded to, excited by each new character overlap and connection in the flashbacks.

And now all our main characters are meeting up with another in the alternate storyline, a rare occurrence. Indeed, the sideways-characters seem to be aware of the oddity of all of this, forcing them to pause and wonder what the hell is going on. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this just yet. I’m okay with how the flash-sideways have been playing out, and what their ultimate narrative goal seems to be (drawing the two timelines together…I think), but I still must wonder, if one timeline will replace the other (as may be the case), who’s going to make that choice?

I have been intrigued by Jack’s overall development this season, going from the Man of Science to the Man of Faith, replacing John Locke as that man. I feel that Jack has been building to this slowly, really ever since the start of season 2, recognizing Desmond in the hatch, but refusing to admit it. Indeed, all Jack has wanted is to leave the Island for seasons. But the path to get him this point has been nicely charted without feeling ham-fisted (he resists Jacob’s intentions at the start of this season). I wouldn’t say that Jack is choosing this since I feel he has so little left back in his off Island life, but as someone who loathed Jack for two seasons and then came to really appreciate the character during season 3, I want him to be happy.

Smocke isn’t even of Science (hard to say that an entity who is actually a smoke monster and can take the forms of the dead is “of Science”) but an Entity of Non-Faith (I don’t think he’s nihilistic). That the two of them end up together, I hope, leads to discussions similar to that of the season 4 finale. Such discussions may help quell fears that the show is abandoning its philosophical thorns in the favor of True Love.

Speaking of true love, Jin and Sun FINALLY are reunited. Like I said during “The Package,” I don’t really care about either of them at this point (because the show has stopped caring about them), but I’m glad to see them together, even if does magically cure Sun’s English skills. But as I’m sure many of you noted and laughed/sighed/couldn’t believe, Sun and Jin running to each other through the pylons was just asking for us to wonder which of them was going to get brain fried, further denying them their emotional closure. It was cheap (lazy?) staging, one probably meant to cause anxiety, but really only caused me to wonder why the show came to dislike them so much.

So while not thrilled with the episode, hopefully it’s the last weak episode of the season. With only 5-ish hours left, they can’t really afford to have another one.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Despite his best intentions, flash-sideways Desmond is coming across as super creepy. (Also happy that Island-Desmond talked Zombie-Sayid out of killing him. No way even Zombie-Sayid would be unmoved by the logic Desmond lays out for him.)
• Lapidus totally belongs in a Burt Reynolds movie.
• Disappointed at the lack of the Snark Trio in this episode. Hopefully they’re back next week.