Lost: Season 6, Episode 13 "The Last Recruit" Review

"John Locke was not a believer, Jack.  He was a sucker."

-The Man in Black

"The Last Recruit" picks up with Jack (Matthew Fox) and the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn) having a chat about his plan to leave the Island.  He also reveals that he took the form of Christian (John Terry) and claims he was trying to lead Jack to water.

Sawyer (Josh Holloway) fills Jack in on his plan to escape the Island on Widmore's (Alan Dale) submarine, but tells him he doesn't want Sayid (Naveen Andrews) or Claire (Emilie de Ravin) to come with because they've both gone off the deep end.  The Man in Black sends Sawyer and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) to retrieve a sailboat and meet back up with the group.  Sawyer tells Jack to sneak away from the Man in Black along with Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Frank (Jeff Fahey) and meet him at a different location.

Zoe (Sheila Kelley) arrives and demands the Man in Black return Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) by sundown or she will have them all killed.  To prove she means business, she has the team fire a mortar to strike just outside the camp.  The Man in Black sends Sayid to kill Desmond instead.

Jack and his people split off from the rest and follow Sawyer's plan and meet at the sailboat, but Claire follows them.  Kate convinces her to join them.  On the way to Hydra Island, Jack decides this plan is a mistake and Sawyer tells him to get off the boat.  Jack does so and swims his way to shore, where he runs into the Man in Black's group.

Sawyer's group arrives on Hydra Island, where Sun and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) reunite and Sun regains the ability to speek English.  Zoe takes the entire group hostage and fires a mortar at the Man in Black.  The explosion kills several Others and injures Jack, but the Man in Black carries him to safety.

In the flash-sideways, Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is escorted to the hospital by Ben (Michael Emerson) and they arrive at the same time as Sun and Jin.  Sun and her baby survive the subsequent surgery.

At the police station, Kate and Sawyer talk about the coincidence that they were on Oceanic 815 together and then Kate crashed into Sawyer's car.  Later, Sawyer and Miles (Ken Leung) track down Sayid for the murders at the diner and arrest him.

Claire arrives at the adoption agency, where she runs into Desmond.  He offers to get her a free lawyer to help her with the adoption contract and brings her to meet Ilana (Zukeikha Robinson), who is also the lawyer handling the estate of Christian Shephard.  She calls in Jack and introduces him to Claire.  Jack is then called to the hospital for an emergency surgery and recognizes his patient as Locke.

What Works:

"The Last Recruit" is a very well paced episode.  It's constantly moving and keeping us going towards the endgame.  This is a setup episode and the purpose is to get the pieces is place for the big stuff to follow.  Setup episodes ate typically not the most interesting, but at least this one never slows down as it gets pieces into position.

I also really like the conversations Jack has with the Man in Black, Claire, and Sawyer over the course of the episode, all of which were a long time coming.  This is the first time Jack has met the man wearing Locke's face, the first time he's seen Claire since he found out they were related, and the first real conversation he's had with Sawyer since Juliet's (Elizabeth Mitchell) death.  Though I wish we had gotten more, I like what we do get.

I also love the flash-sideways stuff.  I've said in the past that the flash-sideways storyline has been working for me a lot more than the on-Island stuff this season and that continues to be true.  The connections continue to pop up and it's genuinely exciting.  The first time I watched this, I was dying to know what this was all building to and I still get that rush of excitement on the rewatch.

Finally, it is really nice to have Jin and Sun reunite.  Even if it's not perfect, it's still a very sweet moment.

What Sucks:

To continue with Sun and Jin, the Sun forgetting to speak English subplot rears its ugly head for the last time in this episode.  At least it ends here, but it does somewhat mar the reunion scene.  This was so stupid and definitely the low-point of the show from a storytelling perspective.

Like I mentioned above, this is a setup episode.  Nothing incredibly important happens here.  That's all saved for the next episode.  This was necessary, but mostly forgettable.

I definitely wish the conversation between Jack and the Man in Black had gone on for longer.  This is something we've waited for all season and it's good, but I wanted more of the Man in Black trying to recruit Jack.  That's the title of the episode, but I don't think Jack is ever really recruited.  He just happens to end the episode with the Man in Black.

Finally, Zoe is one of the main antagonists of the episode and she spends her screen-time trying to be intimidating, but utterly failing.  Like I said before, if we had a better character in this spot, I think Widmore's team would be much more compelling.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  This one is kind of tough.  I thought about giving it to Kate for convincing Claire to join them, but I think I'll go with Sawyer.  The whole steal the boat plan was his idea and there is some logic behind it, even if they get captured by Widmore's group in the end.  This is Sawyer's 10th time winning this award, which ties him for 3rd with Locke.

Verdict:

As far as setup episodes go, "The Last Recruit" is solid if not overly memorable.  It's got great pacing and some good character driven scenes along with a lot of fun in the flash-sideways.  I still hate Sun's subplot, Zoe sucks, and I wish we had gotten more between Jack and the Man in Black, but this episode has still got it going on.

 7/10: Good