Convergence is a theme that runs through this episode.  Several characters and threads, some running for a couple of years, finally come together here, as the layers for the endgame are slowly beginning to be peeled back.

And that accounts for the episode’s weakness.  ’The Last Recruit’ isn’t as much about tying up loose ends as it is putting pieces in place for what is to come.  In doing so, and offering little else in the way of substance, it puts the story in an awkward position.

While good, ‘The Last Recruit’ just isn’t that great an episode.  On an emotional level, it’s flat except for one moment; and while that moment is a big one and has been anticipated a while, by its very nature it needs to come towards the end. The problem is that there is no uplift to get there.

Things happen, the plot progresses (Desmond in the parallel universe getting Claire to see his lawyer friend, alt-Sayid getting arrested, Sawyer taking some of the survivors on a three-hour tour), but there is very little connection on a deeper level to events.

You want things to happen and you want to have the plot ahead- and it does- but it feels all very much going through the motions. There are no big reveals (only confirmation of what we had suspected all of this time) and nothing game-changing occurs.

And that’s fine, if there is a strong human element that ties you to the material.  I didn’t find that in ‘The Last Recruit’, which is a disappointment.  While not a clunker, the episode could have been much better.  Just another cog in the machine…