"The Record is Spinning Again, and We're Just Not on the Song We Wanna Be On."

What an eloquent line from Daniel, who otherwise barely managed a coherent word all night. I thought Jeremy Davies was brilliant in that scene when Sawyer and the gang first returned to him, and he was just a babbling basketcase trying to fight his fated future. If he fails to warn Charlotte, will that change anything? Anyway, I just wanted to give him a great big hug. Deflated, defeated, despairing... and then Charlotte appeared, a glowing vision of doomed innocence like the little girl in the red dress from Schindler's List. It's so sad that she died just moments before John stopped the skipping; would she have made a full recovery, or was she already too far gone?

And what was up with her body pulling a Jedi trick and vanishing on Daniel? Does that explain other disappearances of corpses, like Christian and Yemi - and does it mean adult Charlotte is going to show up again? Could that be why Richard took Paul's body - to strengthen his numbers? Anyway, if this was 1974 as Sawyer said, Charlotte and Ben are much closer to the same age than I'd figured. I'm not sure we've gotten a definitive birth year for him, but I've been pinning it at around 1961. Lostpedia just says "early sixties". I'd forgotten all about Ben's little laundry list of Charlotte stats back in Confirmed Dead; he said she was born in 1979, but she was the girl Daniel saw, that can't be right. And I have no clue who her parents are in the grand scheme of things.

How excited was I to see Horace, and to realize that he's now going to be a major character?? What a guy. As of the landing of Jack, Kate and Hurley, he's still got another good 15 years left in him, so if they're really stuck in this time, we ought to be getting to know Horace pretty well. While he seemed fairly high up back when he brought the Linuses to the Island - after all, he had the authority to issue an invitation - I never pictured him as being in charge. Was he at that point, or did it happen later? If Ben was born in 1961, I figure he came to the Island around 1971. Every time we saw him in that episode, and in Cabin Fever, Horace had fairly short hair, so the extreme hair length caught me by surprise. Did he kinda let himself go in the wake of a traumatic event - say, the tragic death of his wife? Because Olivia Goodspeed was nowhere to be seen. I now have to presume that Amy is "the missus" to whom Horace referred in the dream. He was building the cabin for her. How did it become Jacob's hideout?

"Whatever happened, happened." This has been Daniel's stance all along, and it's the name of an upcoming episode; I wonder if we're going to find out that he's wrong about not being able to change the past. (Maybe that will be a Daniel-centric episode; oh, I hope so!) Sawyer killing those Others and saving Amy would certainly be a big alteration if that was the case. Heck, it looked like she was a goner, so if this is an alternate track, the son she birthed never should have existed. Could the Island's baby curse have something to do with that? Anyway, it's pretty wild to see the castaways so firmly entrenched in the Dharma Initiative. Daniel's the only one we don't see in the future, but we know he's been hanging out at the Orchid, so I'm not too worried about him. Who I am worried about are Rose and Bernard. And Vincent. After three years, there is nothing to indicate that Sawyer's folks have ever seen them again. All I can think is that they wound up with the Others, but they don't seem big on taking in walk-ins...

Richard seemed pretty leaderly both when he met Ben and when he came to talk to Horace, but maybe he's just serving as the PR guy. He's certainly a lot more calm and conciliatory than Charles. He's got better people skills. Are we to gather from his words to Horace that Richard didn't turn the fence off, he just walked right through the barrier? Might that say something about the nature of the Hostiles, or at least Richard? He doesn't age; is he really even alive? And while Horace's hair was longer this time around, Richard's was shorter, and he looked generally much more clean-cut. Was his shaggy, dirty appearance a costume a la Mr. Friendly, one he cast off because he found Horace a leader he could reason with and respect? It didn't save him from death by mustard gas, but Horace seemed generally well-liked, and even Ben appeared just a touch distraught over his death. Horace was sort of like a godfather to him, and it seems he was the only member of the compound Ben really cared about, which again begs the question of what happened to Annie. Probably the most palatable option is that her parents hopped a sub back to the mainland and she went with them, never to be seen again. But I suspect something a little more dramatic.

Richard does not appear to be all-knowing. He was confused by John's presence in the 50s, and Sawyer's recollection of those events seemed to shake him up. I liked how Sawyer just sidled up to him like they were old buddies, no trace of fear. The thing is, I do think Richard is a pretty reasonable person. But this Island conflict is pretty messy. I wonder if Richard's memory of Sawyer having killed those men factored into his decision to suggest that John delegate his dad-killing duty. Not that it would have needed to; Sawyer had racked up a bit of a body count by then anyway.

I wasn't thrilled to see Sawyer killing again, but under the circumstances, I can excuse it. He was in heroic mode for the whole episode, even as he resisted the idea of being in charge. It was strange to see him in such a clear, and rather mundane, position of authority with the DI. He looked downright domestic, whether it was helping Horace through his hangover or coming home with a flower for Juliet. He saved Amy in both time frames, and he was altogether likable. I thought his heart-to-heart with Horace was terrific, and clearly foreshadowing; that look on his face when Kate stepped out of the van showed what we all figured: Sawyer is so not over Kate. Not when she's back in his presence. It's easier to be over someone you think you'll never see again. I kept thinking that when the plane landed, only a few days would have passed for the castaways on the Island. I figured it would be current-day, with the Island's skipping just making them land there briefly. I didn't realize that it really would be three full years for Sawyer and company. (I loved the first transition to "Three Years Later", right after Sawyer told Juliet he was going to wait for John as long as it took...) A lot has changed in that time. And we're probably about to have a really complicated Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet quadrangle. Maybe the four of them are gonna turn into a bunch of swingers. It is the 70s, after all...


What's with Sawyer's choice of name? It's funny, because for the first time, he's actually encouraging people to call him by his real first name, but why the flowery last name? Did he have the Orchid on the brain? By the way, seeing the statue was fantastic. Too bad it was only there for a few minutes. I want to know what the deal is with that thing. How far back in the past were they, anyway? I wonder, too, when the Dharma Initiative built those sonic fences. Juliet sure didn't do a great job of sounding like a clueless newbie when they came upon the gate, but I'm glad she was looking out for Daniel. The relationship that has developed between her and Sawyer seems so sweet and sincere, I really kinda hate for Kate and Jack to come in and muddle things.

It's been three weeks since we last saw Sawyer and company, and that felt like a long time. LaFleur was a welcome return to old friends. Right now, they don't seem too badly off. But throw the returning heroes into the mix, and it looks like things could get a little messy - not to mention that they're gonna have to get far away from there before the Purge. Unless they can prevent it. But that might just rip the space-time continuum to shreds...