"LaFleur" (Season 5, Episode 8)

I must be going through Locke withdrawal after the last two episodes, but tonight's "LaFleur" didn't really impress me. Maybe because it didn't offer up any revelations or because it seemed like a very special Valentine Day's episode (other than Amy and Paul's picnic gone horribly wrong).

Best Line

• "The beach? What? You didn't get enough flaming arrows shot at you?" Miles responding to Sawyer's suggestion as to where they should go.
  

Did You Notice?

• One would assume that the four-toed foot relic seen by Sayid, Sun, and Jin in the Season 2 finale was once the giant statue seen in this episode. Although only shown from the back, many details (the pointy ears, the skirt) bear a striking resemblance to Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead.
• Why in the scenes of Locke turning the frozen donkey wheel was there no sign of Christian?
  
• The song on the reel-to-reel is "Candida" by Tony Orlando and Dawn, which was released in 1970.
• Rosie's T-shirt had the band name Geronimo Jackson written across it in a stars and stripes pattern.
• The Dharma security jumpsuits had a logo with a star in the center, not unlike a sheriff's badge.
  
• Is it coincidence that Goodspeed's first name Horace sounds like the Egyptian god of the sky, Horus?
  
• Do you suppose Horace got the dynamite from the slave ship, the Black Rock? Sawyer did make mention of the vessel as part of his cover story three years earlier.
• Why did Sawyer have his" last name" on his Dharma jumpsuit when traditionally it's the first name that's stitched there.
• Fans of "24" should have recognized Amy as the same actress who played CTU's Michelle Dressler and wife of Tony Almeida.
• Was Faraday's mumblings of "I'm not gonna tell her" referring to him telling the young Charlotte to leave the island?
• The Dharma motor pool had a logo with a wrench in the center as seen on the water tank as Sawyer goes to get Juliet.
  
• If things proceed as we've seen, Amy's baby is the first (and last) baby to be born on the island until Aaron is born. Or has Juliet's successful delivery changed the future of births on the island? Since this is the 70's, Amy's baby son would now be in his 30's. Could he be someone we've met already? Sawyer? Is this why he was suffering nose bleeds?
• I thought it was heartbreaking when Faraday saw his recently lost love Charlotte's younger self. Was this so overwhelming for him that he broke down and that's why he wasn't seen again in this episode three-years-later segments?
• So the sonic fence has no effect on Richard Alpert and the island's natives?
• I loved Sawyer's remark to Horace about talking to his buddy with the eyeliner. Another Egyptian reference: Kohl was used as an eyeliner to ward off evil spirits.
  
• Amy's husband Paul's necklace was an ankh, the Egyptian hieroglyphic for eternal life. This along with the four-toed statue and the hieroglyphics seen in both the countdown clock in the Swan hatch and on the temple walls all seem to imply an Egyptian connection.
• For possibly the first time on the show, Sawyer is reading a book with no cover, making it impossible for us to identify it. Significant? You can't judge a book by its cover?
• What happened to Horace's wife, Olivia, the island school teacher who taught young Ben? And speaking of young Ben, his character is scheduled to appear in four episodes this season.
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• The events in this episode occurred over a 3 year period.
  
• Phil was only gone for 10 minutes when Jerry and Rosie had their "hootenanny".
• Jerry states that it's 3 in the morning when Phil suggests waking up LaFleur.
  
• Amy's baby was 2 weeks early.
• Juliet pointed out that she had lived in the Dharma town for over 3 years.
• Horace stated that the sub would return in 2 weeks.
  

Previews - "Namaste", which appears to follow up with Ben and Sun but also has Sayid showing up in the 70's, will be the next new episode in two weeks. Why the rerun next week? I have no idea. I had thought that the late start in January and the shortened season meant we would have consecutive weeks of new episodes with no reruns. Oh, well. See you in two!