O heaven! were man But constant, he were perfect.

Last week I attended Two Gentlemen of Verona at Seattle Shakespeare Company. In the beginning of the play, Proteus is madly in love with Julia. His friend Valentine (the other gentleman) leaves Verona and asks Proteus to join, but Proteus won't leave Julia. He's too in love. But then Proteus' father demands he leave and join Valentine. He cries and carries on. He gives Julia a ring (in this version he had to first extract it from his own nipple) and vows to love her eternally; she gives him a ring. He arrives in Milan and reunites with Valentine, who introduces Proteus to his own new love, Silvia. Proteus instantly falls in love with Silvia and schemes to separate she and Valentine. Both Julia and Silvia are stunned at Proteus' inconstancy.

Here is where Lost comes in. Watching this week's episode, Recon, I was struck by how much Sawyer is like Proteus. He is madly in love with Juliet (Shakespeare!) and has a ring he meant to give her. She dies and he wails and cries on the beach and wipes his salty tears on Kate's sleeve. The next day this is forgotton and he's all "How YOU doin'" to Kate on the beach. And in the flash sideways he's knockin' boots with not one, but two other women.

Sure, it's not 100% fair to condemn him for violating Juliet's memory in a flash-sideways. But his undercover name was "LeFleur" so he still has loyalties to some memories/impressions from other timelines.

Now I was never a big Juliet fan myself, and I realize that in this very column I begged for her death, but for Sawyer to completely forget her in a couple episodes is just harsh. Just like Proteus would not leave Verona because of Julia, Sawyer would not leave the island because of Juliet. And now she's long forgotten and he's ready to go down ... in the sub ... with Kate.

I never believed Sawyer really loved Juliet -- and neither did Juliet for that matter. This episode was the proof. Juliet, had you read "He's Just Not That Into You" you might still be alive today.