Ok, this episode had way too much Kate and Sawyer bonding this episode for my taste. Hopefully, I can make it through this recap without vomiting. Anyway, enough about me. This episode was about Sawyer. We get to see a little bit of what shapes this man into the cold and callous guy we see on this island and track boar along the way.
I really feel like don't have a lot to say about this episode. Earlier episodes are going to be like that unfortunately. And this episode didn't give me much resolve either. It kind of left me with more questions. The whispers are mostly what confuses me.
I'm going to come right out and say my unpopular idea. That boar was MIB. We have seen the MIB be a boar and harass Richard. I think that is what he is doing here with Sawyer. Messing with him, harassing him, making him want to kill the boar and exemplify to Jacob that people have no progression. Since Saywer did not shoot the boar it shows that he is changing. Little by little we see Sawyer progress into a really good guy.
The whispers. I checked over at Lostpedia (whisper transcripts) and found out what they were saying in this episode and it really creeped me out. They are observing Sawyer and what he is doing. We know what the whispers are now that everything is over. But this episode really makes me question who the whispers are. We hear the voice of the man Sawyer killed. So is he on the island as a dead whisper? Or was it just MIB egging him on? Is Jacob and MIB's mother a whisper? Or was that some type of pre-smoke monster manifestation? Just a lot of questions that hit me with that answer of the whispers being the dead ones that can't move on. And I don't know if I am going to be able to fully resolve this for myself because the answer is so odd.
Locke's story that he tells also really freaks me out. How did he know what Sawyer was going through? See, this is why I really think that Locke is some what influenced by the MIB. Maybe MIB just inherently knows (after thousands of years of practice) what bothers the people who come to the island. He knows how to make it always end the same.
There are some more dead parents in this episode. Sawyer's parents obviously are dead thanks to Locke's father. I am beginning to think that this is almost a requirement. (I'd like to call this Lost Axiom #2 - since it seems as though I skipped over that number!) Perhaps having at least one dead parent gives Jacob and MIB the leverage they need to get to to the island and do what they need to do. I am not letting Jacob off the hook here. I remember how he gave little James the pen to write that letter to real Sawyer. I really think that our Sawyer would have been able to let go a little sooner had he not written that letter.
I feel like James Ford went through the biggest and most amazing change on this island. He went from being the asshole that stole everything to a really loving man living in the 70's with Juliet. Even in the final moments on the island he was teaming up and helping everyone. I don't think Season 1 Sawyer would so easily do that. He was just a kid when everything happened. He really never could get past it. I think killing Anthony Cooper helped him let go. It's morbid, but he needed it so that he could let go of his Sawyer character that he created in himself. When it was over, he was James Ford again. There was no mention of Sawyer in the Sideways, he let go. The way they presented his character and his change was just brilliant.
This episode wasn't all bad. I did really like going through the episode and seeing Sawyer's story again now that we know how he was resolved. Take the whisper mystery out of this episode and it is just a story about a little boy that never got over his parents' deaths. He doesn't seem so asshole-ish in the episode. We see him being sociable with Kate. He gives the gun back to Jack and almost has a moment with him about Christian. The episode just shows us that he can be a good guy and he can show us that there is progress.
Like I said, this episode didn't really have much content as far as the end goes. It didn't leave me feeling huge amounts of resolve. It actually confused me further on the whispers. It wasn't amazing. And wasn't into the Kate and Sawyer bonding. But I did enjoy the episode for the Sawyer story.
