Alex & Sawyer

This entry marks the first (of what will surely be many) pairing that someone, somewhere, out there has seen fit to address via the wonderful world of "slash fanfic", which for those new to the term, is fiction written by fans where they imagine romance (or more) between two characters on a TV show, usually between characters who don't actually have such a relationship, officially. I was actually a bit surprised that I couldn't find any slash fic for Locke and Sun, and inversely surprised that there *is* slash fic for today's Losties: James "Sawyer" Ford and Alexandra "Alex" Linus-Rousseau.

Sawyer needs no introduction, but Alex, perhaps does. Born on the Island to everyone's favorite crazy French chick, Danielle Rousseau, soon after her birth, Benjamin Linus and the Others abducted baby Alex, and Ben raised her as his daughter, apparently quite lovingly and fairly middle class. Alex grew up in something approximating a normal world, and sat around her backyard on tranquil nights with her boyfriend, Karl, making up silly names for stars. But as Alex and Karl hit their teen years and hormones kicked in, Ben became extremely proprietal about Alex, and the possibility that she might die from carrying a little Karl, Jr. , and so he threw Karl in a cage.

Alex and Sawyer first met at the end of season 2, when Jack, Kate and Sawyer were taken hostage by the Others at the Pala Ferry. Alex took bondage duties over Kate, but that's the staging for a whole other "Tales of Two Losties" entry that I'm not doing today. Sawyer ended up in that cage opposite Karl, which then became Kate's cage, after Karl tried to escape, landing himself in Room 23. A few days later, while Kate and Sawyer were doing their whole break rocking thing at the quarry/runway, Alex tried to stage a little ambush, attacking the assorted Others with a slingshot, which would earn her a Sawyer nickname of Slingshot Sally. Other Sawyerisms for Alex include Sheena (of the Jungle), Underdog and Lollipop. Alex warned Kate that she shouldn't trust the Others, as they were going to "kill your boyfriend just like they killed mine." Ah, Alex thought Kate and Sawyer were officially girlfriend and boyfriend. How cute. If she only knew.

The next day, while her dad was just, you know, having major spinal surgery, Alex helped Kate and Sawyer escape, with the agreement that they would help her rescue Karl as well. Using the old "Wookie Prisoner" gag (with Sawyer being the Wookie), the trio made their way into the building that Room 23 is in, and found Karl totally all zonked out. Curiously, Sawyer was also momentarily entranced, although Alex and Kate seemed not fazed at all. Was there something about the brain washing movie that was especially tuned against males, or was Sawyer easily entranced because he had actually already been to Room 23? Ah, yet another mystery, probably never to be officially addressed. Alas. Anyway, Alex sent Karl off with Kate and Sawyer, and she stayed behind to face the consequences of her big adventure.

The following occurred in what was probably the worst episode of season 3, "Stranger in a Strange Land", so you are excused if you didn't get to the end to see this, but back on the main island, Sawyer and Karl had a little male bonding session, during which Karl talked about his relationship with Alex. But... that's all meat for the eventual Karl/Sawyer entry, so I won't get into details. Sawyer tells Karl that if he loves Alex so much, he should go back and rescue her, but Karl says that if he goes back, they'll kill him for sure this time. And then go play some touch football on the Quad.

The Alex/Sawyer story more or less ends here. Alex, Karl and Rousseau eventually join the Losties, and go with Locke's group (with Sawyer) in season 4, and they all live in a kind of domestic bliss in New Otherton for a while, but there isn't really any Alex/Sawyer interaction. Until... Keamy blows Alex's brains out in "The Shape of Things to Come." Sawyer is there as Ben sees Alex die, and since he and Ben are not exactly best buddies, his reaction to it is that he argues that since Keamy's Krew are obviously bad asses, that's all the more reason to turn Ben over to them. Which, of course, they don't. It would have been nice to see a little remorse from Sawyer about the death of the girl who probably saved his life, but hey, season 4 was short, fast, and the story telling was sometimes a bit... economical.