Preview: La Fleur

It is Wednesday! Welcome to the first of your biweekly visits to the Dharma Blog. 

After last week’s intense The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (check out Charlie’s review below if you missed it last week), tonight will take us back to the island…and likely start where we left off: at the reunion of now-Dharma-employee Jin with Arija 316 survivors Jack, Hurley and Kate in the lagoon. Oh, boy.

Tonight: La Fleur
My trusty Time Warner Cable Navigator tells me that tonight’s episode is called La Fleur. My rudimentary French tells me that ‘la fleur’ means ‘the flower.’ Hmm. Whatever could this episode be about? Well, the episode description is as follows: “Sawyer perpetuates a lie with some of the other island survivors in order to protect themselves from mistakes of the past.”

We all make mistakes.

(Especially Jason from The Bachelor.  Don't EVEN get me started...)

So let’s think about that description. What are they referring to when they say the ‘mistake of the past?’ What did Dharma really mess up that might pull our survivors down with them? Perhaps it is connected to the “Incident” that Marvin Candle referenced in an orientation film. Maybe it is a reference to Ben’s Purge? And what about the pregnancy issues on the island? Are we going to see the early stages of this crisis? What I want to know is how could Sawyer’s suggestion/idea that our survivors lie help them avoid said mistake?

The fact that Sawyer is included in the episode description pretty much tells us that this is going to be, in many ways, a Sawyer-centric episode. So, perhaps we need to think about on-island Sawyer…what he has seen, what he has experienced, and what he knows…and how those facts could connect to a ‘mistake of the past’. What springs to mind for you? 

I’ll tell you what I’m thinking about: Sawyer’s knowledge about Jughead. I realize that it may be too quick for the writers to bring Jughead back into the mix, but wouldn’t it stand to reason that Sawyer would freak out if someone were to alter Jughead to the point that it endangers everyone…nay, the whole island?

Okay, here’s my prediction. One of the shots of Sawyer in the promos shows him wearing a Dharma suit. So, perhaps the skipping survivors have become Dharma workers (this is ‘the lie’) in order to protect the island and/or the future from the ramifications of a Jughead explosion (this is 'the mistake').

Crazy talk, I know. What’s your idea?

Can you help me? I’m seriously confused.
Even though it’s only one sentence, this episode description is pretty interesting because it seems to fly in the face of the motto “whatever happened, happened.” I don’t get how Sawyer can protect the survivors from “mistakes of the past?” Weren’t they either a part of certain events, or not a part of them? It seems like our survivors choosing one path or another would have an impact on the future. Shouldn’t the universe course correct and eventually reach the inevitable outcome, even if our survivors attempted to avoid it?

Maybe this whole idea needs to be fleshed out a little bit more. The truth is, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Mrs. Hawking and Daniel Faraday have conflicting theories. We’ve been given proof for and against both of them…and I’m not sure what I believe. 

Mrs. Hawking says “the universe has a way of course correcting itself.” 

Daniel Faraday says “whatever happened, happened.” 

According to what Daniel says, it is impossible to change anything in the past (unless, apparently, you’re ‘special’ like Desmond). According to what Mrs. Hawking says, you can temporarily change the past, but it will eventually catch up with you and make things happen that were supposed to happen (like Charlie’s inevitable death).

Initially, I thought the conflict between Hawking and Faraday’s theory represented a bigger conflux of the concepts of fate and free will. However, the more I think about it in terms of what is happening to the survivors on the time jumping island, it seems like there really is no such thing as free will. Faraday would say they can’t change the past, and what will happen, will happen. Mrs. Hawking says that even if they try to change the past, the universe will course correct. So if these are the only two options, what the heck are the survivors supposed to do?

My gut says that we already know what the overall outcome will be of any actions that take place tonight since we already know what the island is like in 2004.

Right?

Honestly, I feel like tonight’s episode is going to shine some light on this topic. I’ve prepared myself for the reality that my gut is probably wrong on this one. I’m guessing everything is going to change.

On the Guest Star list…
There will be a boatload (planeload?) of guest stars this week. Most have ambiguous names…and we have really no clue who they are or why they are there. That is, except for the man cast as “Other #1.” (I’m going to go with my gut that he is, in fact, an Other.) But really, I’m guessing that most/all of the additional guest stars are Dharma workers. Are they people we have met before? Maybe. I’m waiting with bated breath to meet a young Amelia (the older woman who came to Juliet’s house for bookclub on A Tale of Two Cities). What about Annie, Ben’s best friend from childhood? And how about her parents? How about a young Goodwin? Or a young Ethan? Or a middle-aged Ellie? Gosh, the possibilities are exciting.

There is a new character named Amy listed on this week’s press release. She will be played by 24 alumna, Reiko Aylesworth. (I know for many of you that the union of 24 and Lost has been a long time coming…just like the The Wire fans were pretty excited when Matthew Abbadon showed up.) I know Charlie is very thrilled for her arrival.  Now, here’s an interesting excerpt from an interview with Aylesworth earlier this week…very telling, I think:

TVGuide.com: So, who is Amy?
Aylesworth: Good question. I’m trying to think of how I can describe her without giving anything away. You come upon Amy in the midst of the biggest crisis of her life. Actually, two of the most intense moments in her life are in this first episode.

Veddy veddy interesting, eh?  Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?  What's wrong with Amy?

Now, there are two familiar guest stars this week: Richard Alpert and Horace Goodspeed. Again, if the skipping survivors have become Dharma workers, the inclusion of Horace Goodspeed makes sense. It’s actually the inclusion of Richard that is more interesting. Since Horace Goodspeed (along with most of Dharma) died in the Purge before Oceanic 815 crashed on the Island, it really isn’t a big deal to have our survivors interacting with them in the 1970’s. However, any Alpert interaction with our Survivors would suddenly raise a TON of questions about the prior four seasons of Lost, since it would indicate that when 815 crashed on the Island in 2004, Alpert (…and the Others…) already knew some of them from the 1970’s.

Complicated, huh? I mean, the ramifications of any interaction tonight are bizarre. Did Alpert instruct the Others to leave Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and Jin alone in 2004 to ensure they end up in the future…well, actually, the past? Or did Alpert know that attacking/killing them would be useless since ‘whatever happened, happened’…and since they obviously ended up living on the Island long enough to, well, skip back to the past?

Watch and learn, my friends. I know I will!!

"Oh, good Lord!"
Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, has said that tonight’s episode will be an important one for her character…and make you feel sorry for her and say “Oh, good Lord!” (That’s a direct quote from an interview this week.)

So, for all of you Juliet haters (you know who you are), suck it up tonight. She’s going to be around…maybe quite a bit.

Short, but sweet.
And there you have it! Discuss away! Looking forward to a lively comments section throughout the day.

Namaste,
Maggie

P.S.:  Sorry my post was a bit delayed today.  My job is starting to interfere with the blog.  Crazy, I know...  :)