The Last Recruit: Lies and Misdemeanors

Previously on Lost: confusion, speculation, expectation, dismay, misdirection. Would "The Last Recruit" be any different?

John Locke: "I think we have some catching up to do."

All right. Let's catch up. But in an episode that featured further jostling for position and Jack taking a leap of faith into the ocean, let's first have some awkward exposition:

"What do you really want to ask me?"

"Are you following us, Claire? Why?"

"I think you went to Australia, and you didn't want anyone to know you were there."

"Looks like you two have a lot of catching up to do."

"It looks like someone got their voice back."

All caught up now?

Oh, Lost. Isn't it a bit late in our relationship to be doing this? We've been together six years in a commitment based upon trust, and now all I get are Lies, Lies, Lies. To salvage this love affair, I think it's time to consult a relationship counselor. Jack? What do you think? "Well, I haven't made up my mind."

Lie #1: The well wasn't as deep as Lost led us to believe.

That's really a lie of omission. So let's go on to:

Lie #2 (Smokey): "Yes, that was me posing as your dead father. Why? You needed to find water?"

Question mark? Speaking like a true valley girl, SchLocke is telling Jack what Jack perhaps wants to hear, but the new and improved Jack is suitably distrustful.

Never having been a Jack fan, I'm loving his zen countenance these days. He, of all the candidates, is the only character to have reached some type of enlightenment on both sides of the dial - the Island World: "We're all different now," and the To Be or Not To Be World: "hearing your grandfather's will being read isn't the most fun." To paraphrase Hurley, it's all Jack, dude. He is obviously not the sucker that the real John Locke was. Smokey engages in many deceptions, but he's telling the truth when he states that Jack had been trapped on the island even before he got there. This is a hint of larger themes to come.

Lie #3 (Ben Linus): "You're still going to marry her because you're gonna be okay, Mr. Locke."

I'm sorry Locke fans; it doesn't make me happy to say this. I think Locke's doomed. Whether Desmond is going to eventually succeed in his botched assassination attempt, or there will be a great self-sacrifice on the real John Locke's part in the final episodes (four and counting), his days are numbered. Maybe he will end up swinging from that awful rope once more. And I hope I'm wrong.

Lie #4 (Kate): "I already told you I'm not a murderer."

I'd like to remind you, Miss Katherine Anne Austin, you blew up Wayne and his world. That makes you a murderer.

Lie #5 (Desmond): "I'm going to the 15th floor as well."

He may be the agent of good, but Desmond is very frightening the way he was creeping after Claire. What is it about Claire's sideways storyline this season - when all logic demands she should refuse to get into the car with carjacker Kate in "What Kate Does?" Claire hops in for a ride. When she should run screaming from the eerie Scot following her around town, she gets into the elevator with him. I guess her abandonment issues are getting in the way of good sense.

Lie #6 (Sawyer): Kate: "What was that all about?" Sawyer: "Guy talk."

Sorry, Sawyer. That's not guy talk. I've heard guy talk, and there's very little planning about smoke monsters and sailboats involved. The apple Sawyer offers Kate at police headquarters is very reminiscent of Eve offering Adam an apple, gender roles nicely reversed. Kate refuses the apple (knowledge?), refusing Sawyer. Love triangle finally put to rest? Am I looking too deeply into this? Probably, and besides Sawyer didn't know who Anakin is, and how can that possibly be? I'm taking back the apple of knowledge.

Lie #7 (Sayid): "Everything will be okay for you now."

I'm hanging on to Hurley's hint that Sayid can be redeemed like Anakin was in Star Wars, but then again, we all remember what happened to Anakin. Right, Sawyer? Sayid was very much the lying liar in this episode, but as long as he is lying to Smokey, it's okay. Best use of garden hose in the whole series in this scene.

Lie #8 (Hurley): "Claire, you look great." Self-explanatory.

And the worse lie?

"And that pilot who looks like he stepped out of a Burt Reynolds movie."

Sorry again, Sawyer. Lapidus would have to have a mustache for that honor. I would like to argue that Lapidus looks like he stepped out of Dean Martin movie.

Last night, for a brief shining moment, the two camps merged on the island, in the hospital, and, in breathtaking action, the attorney's office. Hello, Alana! How I missed you. The characters, brought together by "do you believe in fate" and by Desmond, are becoming aware of each other in a context outside the immediate event.

The argument between Jack and Sawyer about their roles on the island, the "get off my damned boat" moment, not only echoed many previous conversations on whether or not to leave the island but foreshadowed past (and future?) conversations between Jacob and the Man-in-Black ("do you have any idea how much I want to kill you?" and between issues of pre-determinism vs. free will.

A few minor discussion points:

Who the heck was that eating with Sayid at the camp? A time traveler from Dances With Wolves?

Who drew SchLocke's map — Aaron?

It's your turn to speculate, that's why we called you. We're a bit over our heads here. And remember, kind reader: "All I've ever been interested in is helping you." Believe me. Til next time and "The Candidate," starring Robert Redford, keep an eye on the camp for me.