"316" is all about the Oceanic Six returning to the island, after only six episodes away. Jack (Matthew Fox), Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Ben (Michael Emerson) have arrived to meet with Ms. Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), the white-haired old lady who holds the key to their safe return. They're joined by Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), who's only there to pass on Daniel's (Jeremy Davies) message to his mother that the islanders need her help. A message that feels rather redundant now, no? Everyone is taken to the first off-island DHARMA station we've seen on the show, "The Lamp Post" (a neat Narnia reference), where Ms. Hawking has calculated the position of the island, which flight the Oceanic Six must take to hopefully return there -- Ajira Airways Flight 316 from Los Angeles to Guam...
In private, Jack is told by Ms. Hawking that they must duplicate the original Flight 815 crash as closely as possible -- meaning an attempt to get all the Oceanic Six on the same flight (or risk "unpredictable" results) and substitute Locke's dead body for Jack's father, whom Jack was originally transporting for burial three years ago. Jack's even told to ensure Locke carries a personal item that belonging to Christian -- so, after visiting his elderly grandfather Ray (Raymond J. Barry) to say goodbye before leaving, Jack decides to take a pair of his late-father's shoes, and slips them onto Locke's feet (a possible allusion to The Wizard Of Oz's slippers enabling Dorothy to return home?)Quite bizarrely, Jack finds that the Oceanic Six are mysteriously manipulated to assemble on the same Ajira Airways flight: Kate (Evangeline Lilly) turns up in his apartment that night, teary-eyed but promising to return to the island if he never asks where baby Aaron is; Sun agrees to return because she hopes to be reunited with Jin (but apparently leaves their son behind?); a nervous Hurley (Jorge Garcia) arrives at the airport to buy-up the remaining 78 seats on Flight 316 for unspecified reasons with a guitar case (a proxy for dead Charlie?); Ben arrives late, covered in cuts and bruises, with his arm in a sling; Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is seen boarding the flight in the custody of a Federal Marshall called Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson), in an echo of Kate's circumstances on Flight 815, and even Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) coincidentally turns out to be the plane's pilot, having originally avoided piloting Flight 815.
Ultimately, the Oceanic Six manage to return to the island (although we only see physical evidence for Jack, Hurley and Kate's return -- apparently in the '70s), as the episode ends with Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) arriving in a VW van, wearing a DHARMA overall and brandishing a rifle.
Huge developments, definitely -- so why so why did it all feel rather deflating? I think there are a number of reasons: One, the Oceanic Six have returned to the island far too quickly for my liking. They may have spent three years off-island, but it's only been a measly six episodes for the audience. We spent the whole of season 4 getting excited about their island escape, only for the characters to return after a half-dozen episodes in season 5, for tenuous reasons? Two, the convenient way everyone was placed on the same flight will obviously be explained (in flashbacks, no doubt), but it felt like a silly storytelling cheat. Three, Lost usually keeps its answers vaguely plausible and on the fringe of scientific understanding, but Ms. Hawking regurgitated a stream of dubious piffle that felt like the writers were straining to come with logical "answers". I mean, we've been led to believe the island is jumping around in time, so why would its physical location have changed? And then there's the woolly explanation that "the island" magically teleports the Oceanic Six off their Ajira flight to island-level safety (instead of necessitating another expensive crash-scene, no doubt) and the pseudo-scientific babble inside the Lamp Post about how Ms. Hawking can locate the island... that begs the question: why doesn't Widmore force her to tell him when the next "window" to the island is? He certainly knows where she lives!
Now, it's quite possible that all my concerns will be answered in the coming weeks, and I certainly still have faith that will be the case. But, what's a definite concern is how Lost doesn't appear to have a clear end-game now. The show was originally all about leaving the island (a feat achieved in season 4 for some characters), but now... those originally left behind don't want to leave the island, and the escapees have come back because their off-island lives are blighted as a result. So, what now? Where are we headed? What's the focus and goal to achieve if everyone's determined to stay on the island for the rest of their days? More than anything, I'm just worried that Lost will become rudderless and start to drift without a clear aim for everyone. I'm also slightly disappointed that the fifth season has been so predictable in a few areas (fans correctly guessing Ms. Hawking's identity as Daniel's mother by episode 3, meaning the confirmation here fell flat, for example.)Overall, I found "316" oddly disappointing in its cloudy pseudo-science (can anyone explain why Locke needs to wear Christian's shoes without resorting to mumbo-jumbo?) and emotionally distant (Jack's role reduced to waiting for a plane as things happened around him -- and nobody cares about his grandad.) We might point to "316" as the start of a downward spiral one dayl, but I really hope it's just a blip that can be fixed retroactively. Still, to end on a few positives: I enjoyed a scene set in a church where Ben basically compared Jack to Thomas the Apostle (someone who denied the resurrection of Christ), which in turn seemed to infer that Locke is a Christ figure about to perform the same miracle? And I'm sure a few other 316 passengers will find themselves on the island for various reasons, as the show likes to inject new blood into proceedings every season.
Questions!
- Why is Ms. Hawking now running the Lamp Post single-handed?
- Who is the man that Hawking says conceived of the equations that predict the island's movements?
- Does Charles Widmore know about the Lamp Post? Why doesn't he use it to get back to the island?
- What does the island still want with Desmond? Why wasn't he manipulated to board Flight 316 like the others?
- How does Eloise Hawking know that John Locke hanged himself, and end up with his suicide note?
- Why is it necessary to recreate the circumstances of Flight 815's crash? And what are the "unpredictable" results of failing to do so?
- What happens to Kate during the period when she left the rest of the group and reappeared in Jack's bedroom?
- Where is Aaron, and why does Kate demand that Jack not ask about his whereabouts?
- Why is Sayid handcuffed and being escorted on the plane?
- Who is the man in first class of Flight 316 with the Oceanic Six?
- Who told Hurley which flight to take? Why does Hurley have a guitar case?
- What happened to Ben when he left the church for him to sustain so many injuries?
- Where are Ben, Sun, Sayid, Frank, and the rest of Flight 316?
22 February 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Director: Stephen Williams
Cast: Jorge Garcia (Hugo), Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Michael Emerson (Ben), Jeremy Davies (Daniel), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana), Fionnula Flanagan (Eloise Hawking), Jeff Fahey (Frank), Sai d Taghmaoui (Caesar), Mary Mara (Jill), Raymond J. Barry (Ray), Kavita Patil (Rupa Krishnavani), P.D. Mani (Nabil), Rebecca Hazlewood (Nalini), Patti Hastie (Barfly), Glen Bailey (Magician) & Ned Van Zandt (Mr. Dorsey)
