lost: notes on sawyer’s romantic future [or lack thereof]
it could be worse. you could be sayid. // abc promotional photo
Damon Lindelof was at the Star Trek DVD party last night, and one of Kristin dos Santos’s little minions asked him about Sawyer’s love life. When asked to compare Sawyer’s romantic storyline with any other story from fiction, the better half of Darlton responded:
“Wow,” said Lindelof, “Sawyer’s love life compared to any…” (He looked a little dazed at all the possible options, so we threw The Notebook, Jane Eyre and Gilligan’s Island at him as totally random starting points for thinking about the question.) “All way off so far!” Lindelof said, “Perhaps the relationship between Gilligan and the Skipper, because there’s a lot of hitting on the head with hats…OK. Serious…I think Wuthering Heights is probably a good one then. We’ve got a little Heathcliff action going on.”
It’s a slow news morning and I passed English lit in high school, so I’ll bite.
Heathcliff was madly in love with Catherine, but their relationship is doomed from the start. Although she returns his affections, she is engaged to another man, and Heathcliff never learns about her true feelings for him. She marries the other guy. Catherine dies. Heathcliff becomes crazy and mean and cruel. Heathcliff and Catherine’s children marry each other, but not because they want to–Heathcliff wants an estate. (Sad sad.) At the end, Heathcliff dies, taken away by Catherine’s ghost.
I don’t know about you, but I’d say this sounds pretty grim for Sawyer, a man who’s just lost his Catherine. (Not his Katherine.) Will we see an on-island Sawyer plagued with regret and anger? Will he take it out on the people around him? Will he ever find a way to move past his grief, or is he destined to live a life of heartache until he meets up with Juliet in the afterlife?
In my opinion, there’s no way Juliet’s death won’t permanently affect Sawyer’s life. (That opinion is easier to take when there are only 18 episodes left.)
My hope (and it may be a sick hope built on my Jate-addled brain) is that Sawyer dies in the series finale defending the camp once and for all. Sawyer takes the reins from Jack, refusing to let him handle this very dangerous A-Mission. (See, in my mind, Jack has two little babies at this point.) So Sawyer takes care of business. And he dies. And in a flash of light, we see Juliet greet him from the other side or from another dimension or whatever, and it’s less cheesy than it sounds. Or maybe it’s exactly that cheesy, but it’s awesome.
And the Sulieters get a nice moment of closure, a nod to fate and destiny.
And the Skaters are appeased because, oh, holy crap, Sawyer friggin’ died for Kate.
And the Jaters are appeased because, um, neener neener neener.
