Note: This entry is about the third season LOST episode “Every Man for Himself,” in which Sawyer learns in a flashback that he may have a daughter named Clementine. (Or, possibly, Cassidy was trying to con him using the ruse of a fake child.) Those of you searching for the American folk ballad Oh My Darling Clementine, please look here.

Paulo and Nikki

Remember the Poochie episode of The Simpsons, where alongside the “Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie” story arc, “Roy” suddenly appeared with the family, completely out of nowhere, and was treated as though he had always been around? It was, of course, a gag referencing shows which pull “Cousin Oliver” maneuvers on their audiences, and I got the same feeling from the introduction of Paulo and Nikki. You have Nikki yelling familiarly at Hurley, “When were you planning on telling us this?”, amd Desmond talking golf with Paulo, what’s essentially a day or two after the 2nd season finale. How hard would it have been to have an expository fifteen second “who are you” scene similar to what Ethan or Dr. Arzt got? Maybe Charlie going “Who are those?” to Hurley, and Hurley going, “Oh, that’s Pau and Nikki. They were on the manifest. Cute, isn’t she?” Or something like that.

On Sawyer and Kate

I do believe this is the first episode that I’ve heard Sawyer call Kate by her name rather than “Freckles.” Also, after Kate’s whole second season “I’m sorry I kissed you” heart to heart with Jack, I guess she’s made her decision. Remember how the tension between Jack and Sawyer was a reflection of her own inner conflict over her “good” and “bad” fathers in What Kate Did? I guess she’s coming to terms with being Bad Dad’s daughter.

Psychic Intercom

Juliet says the intercom doesn’t work, but Jack keeps hearing things from it. Wires crossed with Ben’s surveillance system, or is it some DHARMA-induced psychic ability emerging on Jack’s part, manifesting to him via his perception of his surroundings? (That is, he thinks the sound is coming from the intercom, but it’s actually how his disoriented mind interprets its own latent telephathy.) Might be related to his visions of his dead father, and the way the Island has “talked” to Kate and Locke about their tortured pasts via the unconscious Sawyer and Eko respectively.

Another Island

The “pacemaker” con was a brilliant little twist in Sawyer’s character development, bunny and all. But there’s that big question about the “other island” that Ben showed him: how did the Losties miss seeing it? The prevailing theory I favor is that if the island is contained in a closed cosmic loop (what Desmond called the “snow globe”) all one need do is walk far enough to go in a circle — or see the other side of the island.

Killers

“Because we’re not killers,” says Ben. The necks of Charlie and Nathan would beg to differ.