LOST Rewatch: The Last Recruit

LOST Rewatch: The Last Recruit April 25, 2015

This episode starts with the first meeting of Jack with the smoke monster in Locke’s form. Jack asks him who else he has looked like. He asks him if he was the one he saw when he saw his father on his third day on the island. Smokey says that he was looking out for them. When Jack says that Locke was the only one who believed in this place, Smokey says that John Locke was not a believer, he was a sucker.

When Sawyer says that Sayid has gone over to the dark side, Hurley says that you can always bring someone back from the dark side, like Anakin – to which James responds, “Who the hell is Anakin?”

lost-season-6-recruitZoe comes to Smokey’s camp to get Desmond back. Smokey gets them to head to the other island. James is planning to get his friends and not go back for Smokey. Smokey sends Sayid to kill Desmond. Desmond asks what he was offered in exchange for doing this. Sayid says that Smokey offered to return the woman he loves to life to be with him again. Desmond asks him what he will tell her, when she asks what he did to be with her again.

Jack asks Claire why she trusts Smokey, and she says that he is the only one who didn’t abandon her. Later, Claire follows the group that rendezvous with James and Kate at the boat. Kate persuades her to come with them. They head for Hydra Island. Jack says that leaving the island doesn’t feel right, because last time he left he felt like a part of him was missing. He says that he thinks that Smokey wants them to leave because he is afraid of what will happen if they stay. Sawyer tells him that if he wants to take a leap of faith, he should get off his boat. Jack jumps in the water and swims back to the island. Smokey and his group are there when he reaches the shore. When the boat reaches Hydra Island, Jin and Sun are reunited and Sun regains her ability to speak English. Widmore’s people hold them all at gunpoint, then launch missiles at Locke.

In the afterlife, Sun and Locke are wheeled into the hospital simultaneously. Kate is in the police station being talked to by James. They are interrupted when Miles brings word of the multiple homicide in the restaurant. Desmond takes Claire to talk to an attorney before going to the adoption agency, in the same floor. The attorney is Ilana, and she says it is quite a coincidence, as they have been looking for her. Jack and David go to hear the reading of Christian’s will. Claire is there, and reveals that Christian was her father too. Jack gets a call to go to the hospital for an emergency surgery. The patient turns out to be Locke.

I loved the Star Wars reference, since the story of Anakin’s redemption is probably the most profound point of contact between LOST and Star Wars. Both are stories which focus significant attention on the redemption of those seemingly irredeemable, with prominent spiritual themes woven into the stories. And yet both nonetheless maintain a chief bad guy who is killed, and so shy away from an ending in which no retribution for wrongdoing is seen at all. This is the challenge for many religious traditions, to find a balance between themes of redemption and retribution, mercy and justice.

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