This Week's 'Lost': Sawyer's True Character Revealed?

ABC

"It worked," Juliet told Sawyer through the Miles-medium after she died in the Lost season premiere. A great unanswered question of this season: What is it? Does it explain the reason for the flash-sideways timeline? And how?

Theories about the flash-sideways timeline abound. Two in particular stick: 1.) It makes Lost fans even more difficult to be friends with than ever. 2.) It seems to show a version of the lives our main characters have always aspired to live. Kate gets to help deliver Claire's baby, Locke gets to plan his wedding with Helen, Jack resolves his daddy issues by having his own son, Sayid gets to see Nadya happy with a family, and now, in this episode, Sawyer...gets to be a cop?

But maybe Sawyer's true nature is that of a hero. Even after everything he pulled in the first season or two—stealing guns, hoarding medicine—Sawyer was never a bad guy. In contrast to Jack, who represents some rigid idea of "good", Sawyer is all about protecting the people he cares about (usually, let's face it, meaning himself. And a hot girl or two). But, when he actually tries to protect his friends, he does a remarkably effective job.
,br> The key scene of Sawyer's Flash-Sideways: He comes home after (if you ask me, pretty justified) fights with both Miles and Charlotte and pops one of many TV dinners he has stacked in the freezer in the microwave. An episode of Little House on the Prairie joins him for dinner and Pa tells Laura, "You know if you spend your whole life based on worrying about something that's going to happen, before you know it your life's over and you've spent your whole life worrying." (Doesn't that sound like something Lost non-fans might tell their rabid Lost fan friends?)

Sawyer gets it. On the island in the original timeline, when Fake Locke sends him on a mission, Sawyer runs into bad guy Charles Widmore. He promises to help both of them, even though they appear to be enemies. Later, when Kate asks why Sawyer "runs errands" for Fake Locke, Sawyer explains his plan: "You and me are getting the hell off this island."

Did ya see that?! Moment of the week: Sawyer remains a prolific reader in the flash-sideways timeline—Watership Down, A Wrinkle in Time, and Lancelot are all found in his home, all of which he had been seen reading in earlier seasons.

Far-fetched theory I hope comes true: That locked door on Widmore's sub? Desmond's inside, needed to help Widmore navigate back to the island. He's the one Jacob was trying to get Hurley to fetch in Lighthouse.

Props of the week go to: Fake Locke, who is definitely manipulative, but surprisingly candid. He tells Kate about his crazy mother, resulting in his having "growing pains" pointing out that "Aaron has a crazy mother too."