"Recon" (Season 6, Episode 8)

The title of tonight's episode at face value seems to refer to the reconnaissance UnLocke has Sawyer do on Hydra Island, but as a pun ("re-con"), it could play on the various cons that occur throughout the episode: Jim Ford's sting operation, Zoe's fabricated story, and UnLocke's attempts to ingratiate himself to Kate. Nobody's actions can really be trusted in this episode.

Best Line

• "Well, nobody's perfect." UnLocke to Kate after she referred to him as a dead man.
  

Did You Notice? - 2004 Parallel Time Line

• Bedding a woman for his con was previously done by Sawyer in "Confidence Man" (Jessica) and "The Long Con" (Cassidy).
  
• The woman in bed with Jim Ford is Ava and she is played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, who you may know as Gretchen from the TV series Prison Break.
• I like how Ava uses the nickname "Dimples" to refer to Jim. How do you like it, Jimmy?
  
• Is Ava's con man husband someone important? Someone we've seen before?
• Jim's magic word "LaFleur" is of course the alias Sawyer used with the Dharma Initiative.
• Obviously, Jim and Miles are destined to be in law enforcement as their island counterparts held security jobs with Dharma.
• Anthony Cooper (aka the real Sawyer) is Locke's father. So since Locke and he are on good terms (he's invited to Locke and Helen's wedding), are we to presume he changed his ways at some point? And does this mean Jim may be an unexpected guest at the upcoming nuptials?
• Miles' comment about his dad working at the museum indicates Dr. Pierre Chang also left the island before it submerged.
• Will we eventually see who Miles' girlfriend is? Naomi from the freighter maybe?
• If Charlotte is going on blind dates, does this mean she and Faraday are still unrequited lovers?
• We previously saw Charlotte on an archaeological dig in Tunisia when she discovered the polar bear skeleton with the Dharma collar.
• In this time line, Jim Ford chose cop over criminal, although how clean of one is up for discussion. After all, he let Kate flee airport security when he clearly saw she was handcuffed.
• The three books on Jim's dresser (which Sawyer had all read on the island) are:

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams and is often seen as a social commentary using a group of rabbits as the main characters, and chronicling their search for a new place to live after they narrowly escape the poisoning and excavation of their warren by men.
2. A Wrinkle in Time, a children's fantasy novel, written by Madeleine L'Engle, about two children, accompanied by a friend, who search through space and time for their father. It involves an evil that is expanding through the universe and multiple dimensions, culminating in a happy ending.
3. Lancelot by Walker Percy is about Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer, who, when he discovers that he is not the father of his youngest daughter, kills his wife by blowing up their house (shades of Kate). He ends up being confined in a mental institution (shades of Hurley), where he then dwells on the memories of his frightful past. There is a surrealistic element, where reality blends with delirium.

• The man looking for help at the police desk is Liam, Charlie's brother and fellow member of the band, Drive Shaft.
• Mirror Moment of the Week: Jim shatters his reflection in the locker room mirror.
  
• Sawyer had previously told Kate in Season 3 that when he was sick as a child, he watched Little House on the Prairie.
• Charles Ingalls' speech from the rerun is appropriate not only to Jim Ford's obsession with Sawyer but to the theme of Lost itself: "You can spend your whole life worrying about what's going to happen. People aren't really gone when they die, because they live in memories. Memories that sustain us until we see them again."
• Sawyer had given a sunflower to Juliet last season but with better results than what happened with Charlotte.
• "Son of a bitch" is the last line spoken in this time line (when Jim Ford catches fugitive Kate) and it is also the first spoken line of this episode in the island time line (when Sawyer burns his hand on Claire's coffee pot).
  

Did You Notice? - 2007 Island Time Line

• Now we learned where Sawyer and Jin were during the temple attack: Claire's cozy (or is that crazy?) abode.
• I loved the look on Kate's face when she saw Claire's button-eyed, animal skulled substitute for Aaron. "It's all I had." Yikes.
  
• Random thought: Could children Zack and Emma, tail section survivors, end up being the Adam and Eve skeletons?
• The Hydra Station was of course where Sawyer and Kate were kept caged in Season 3 and it is the dress that Ben made Kate wear that Sawyer finds.
• I'm not sure who's the craziest right now: Sayid or Claire?
• Who did kill the Ajira passengers? UnLocke? Widmore's people? And were these folks just traveling to Guam or, like Ilana and Caesar, were they all Jacob's people on the plane with a purpose?
  
• Zoe means "life" in Greek. She is played by Sheila Kelly, who appeared in the 80's TV series L.A. Law and in real life is married to actor Richard Schiff from The West Wing.
• Kate made a point to avoid physical contact with UnLocke and didn't take his hand when he offered it.
• Zoe's whistle to her associates echoed Jim Ford's "magic word" moment to bring in reinforcements at the start of the episode.
  
• Zoe's chubby-faced associate who held Sawyer at gun point is played by Frederick Koehler, who as a child was Allie's son Chip on the 80's TV series Kate & Allie.
• Was there any truth to UnLocke's comments about his crazy mother and his "growing pains" (what's with all the old TV series references?) or was he channeling the real Locke's memories? Locke's mother spent time in the Santa Rosa Hospital (where Hurley was) for schizophrenia and he was in foster homes. Was this UnLocke's way to get sympathy and even cause Kate to be suspicious of Claire, who UnLocke probably also suggested she make nice with Kate.
• The last time Sawyer saw a sub was in 1977 when he and Juliet were trying to leave the island and start a new life.
• What is behind the locked cabin door on the sub? Or should I say who?
• Interesting how Sawyer's reference to the "bodies in the ditch" to Widmore evokes the image of the Dharma members who Ben gassed during the Purge.
• Kate's comment to Sawyer on them having rabbit for dinner is one more bunny reference in the series.
• I presume Sawyer's taking of the sub will include taking the sub captain as well. Because in addition to not being able to fly a plane, I'm pretty sure submarine piloting is not one of his skills.
  

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

• The motel alarm clock reads 8:42.
• Miles says Sawyer flew back 2 days ago.
• Zoe tells Sawyer she spent 2 days dragging the bodies of the Ajira passengers out of the sun.
• Sawyer's apartment number is 245.
• Charlotte points out that Sawyer kicked her out at 3 o'clock.
• Sawyer comments on Zoe's 6 armed com padres.
  

Previews
Next week, 8 p.m. ET: enhanced version, then at 9 p.m. ET: the one we've been waiting for:"Ab Aeterno" in which we will learn Richard's back story and find out what the island is. As Richard says in the previews, "All this? It's not what you think it is." (My latest guess based on the clue of a four-letter word with an "o" is "book".) This episode which is scheduled in a 1 hour and 5 minute time slot will also mark the halfway point of the final season.

Some upcoming spoilers from eonline:

• Someone we have not yet met will have an important message for Hurley next week.
• UnLocke is going to tell Jin how he plans to get off the island and apparently it's pretty juicy.
• There is a "package" up ahead that might be the most butterfly-inducing reveal so far this season. (Faraday coming out of the locked room on the sub?)