What a pleasant surprise. "LaFleur", written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Kyle Pennington, whose only previous episode together was the mediocre disappointment "Cabin Fever", and one of whom doesn't exactly have the best track record as a writer on "Lost" (in fact, she is responsible for a large number of the show's worst moments), ended up being another great episode, not that this season is lacking for great episodes- all but two of them have been, but none as unexpectedly good as "LaFleur".
"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" picked up right where "This Place is Death" ended from Locke's perspective, and "LaFleur" shows us what happened to Juliet, Sawyer, and company right after the second-to-last flash left them in a time when the Orchid well didn't exist. They only stay in this time for a very short while, but they stay there just long enough for us to catch a glimpse of something we've been waiting to see for a very long time: the four-toed statue. Well, A statue, presumably one with four toes. Still quite rewarding. Then, after Locke turns the wheel the final flash occurs and Sawyer and company end up three years before the time during which most of the rest of the season is going to take place, presumably (aside from the scenes with Locke, Ben, and the rest).
The episode then alternates between this time and 'three years later'. It's pointless describing in detail what happens in the episode, as that information is easily available, but I will say that I felt that this episode did the best job possible in introducing us to the Losties-in-DHARMA storyline, and that Horace seems more interesting than before, and Amy might end up being an intriguing character. There are a lot of loose ends though, the most frustrating of all is the question of what happened to Rose and Bernard. I understand the actors are guest actors, not regulars, but seriously, did the writers forget about them or think we wouldn't notice or what? All in all an excellent episode which sets the latter half of this season up very well, brings to an end the 'flashes', which were becoming increasingly annoying, and even gives us an oddly touching conversation about loves from long-ago with Horace and Sawyer. Good stuff. Even the Sawyer/Juliet relationship feels surprisingly natural, and is thankfully devoid of juvenile flirtation and games. I'm disappointed in the writers for choosing to do this now, considering the ending to the episode, where Sawyer meets Jack, Kate, and Hurley again, means that we'll surely see some love quadrangle nonsense soon enough.
But who cares? Sawyer actually got to do something this season, we saw the four-toed statue again, and the Losties-in-DHARMA storyline holds a hell of a lot of promise.
