Spoilers. "Namaste" immediately sated a bugbear I had with "316" three episodes ago, as the thrilling teaser shows us Ajira Flight 316 crashlanding on the Hydra Island, as a concurrent white-flash spits four of the losties onto the main island in 1977. Interestingly, pilot Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) managed to land the plane on a fortuitous airstrip -- last seen being constructed through manual labour back in season 3. So, were the Others under instructions to build the airstrip so that Flight 316 could land safely in three years' time? I suspect so, and I'm excited that some of Lost's long-forgotten questions are being answered using time-travel now...Back in '77, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) is reunited with Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and manages to get them enrolled as part of the DHARMA Initiative as newcomers aboard an incoming submarine, faking their induction papers with the help of Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell). What's interesting about Sawyer is how three years as leader of his merry band, not to mention holding a position of respect as "LaFleur" amidst DHARMA, has turned him into a sharp, canny, respected alpha male...
In one of the episode's best scenes, Jack visits Sawyer in his home and the power-play between them has noticeably shifted in Sawyer's favour during their three years apart: Sawyer's the one romancing Juliet, he's successfully infiltrated DHARMA to keep his quartet safe, and despite the fact Jack did succeed in getting people off the island (as promised), he's been forced to crawl back and must now accept Sawyer's help in providing them cover stories. Intriguingly though, Jack actually seems quite accepting of Sawyer's authority, perhaps relieved he's no longer the one everyone turns to for answers. That burden of responsibility has been lifted, and his demotion to janitorial duties after the DHARMA processing cements his change in status.
We also get a few fan-pleasing answers and excellent foreshadowing during this episode. As suspected by many people last week, it turns out that Horace and Amy's (Reiko Aylesworth) newborn baby is Ethan -- whom we know will grow up to become a dead-eyed Other who helps Ben (Michael Emerson) with his "Purge" and infiltrates the survivors of the Flight 815 crash to steal Claire's baby.
Jin (Daniel Dae Kim, relishing the lack of pidgin-English now) also introduces us to Radzinsky (Eric Lange) at The Flame station. He's a bearded geek we only knew by name before now, making a scale model of "The Swan" -- a construct he'll become imprisoned inside with Gulf War vet Kelvin, inputting numbers every 108 minutes to prevent unspecified catastrophe, both afraid to go above ground because of poisonous gas and "the hostiles". Radzinsky is also the man who'll draw that secret Blast Door map Locke discovered in season 2, before he committed suicide with a shotgun blast to the cranium, to become a stain on the ceiling.Here, Jin finds Sayid (Naveen Andrews) running through the jungle with his wrists still bound -- but, when Radzinsky makes his presence known, Jin's forced to pretend he doesn't know Sayid and they both deliver him to LaFleur. Sawyer is likewise unable to admit he knows the interloper, so both are forced to pretend their friend is one of the hostiles (whose presence so close to The Flame has broken a truce with the indigenous islanders), and lock him in a storeroom.
Over on the Hydra Island, the survivors of Flight 316 are effectively stuck in a reboot of the Lost "Pilot" episode. It's quite amusing to consider what they must all be thinking (and how blissfully ignorant they are of the bigger picture), but probably a wise idea to keep them confined on the less-magical ancillary isle. Beyond a few DHARMA buildings and bear cages nearby, there's not much for the newbies to get into mischief with -- or is there?
Interesting to note that passengers Caesar (Said Taghmaoui) and Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) don't know each other (after widespread speculation that they do, and were trying to get back to the island themselves), but the narrative leaves them alone, for now, and instead focuses on the three people who know what's going on: hero pilot Frank, Ben (his abandoned armsling a ruse, or has the island healed him?) and Sun (Yunjin Kim).
Ben is keen to return to the main island using some outriggers left on the shore away from the crash-site -- but, while Sun agrees to help him make the crossing to find her husband Jin, she instead takes an opportunity to brain Ben with an oar and paddle away with Frank's help instead.
Arriving at the main island's barracks by nightfall, it becomes clear to us that they're in the present-day -- as the area is decimated by the smoke monster's attack on Widmore's mercenaries last season. It's still not clear why Sun wasn't whisked back to the '70s with the rest of the Oceanic Six, but perhaps the appearance of Christian (John Terry) is a clue. Here, Christian is found waiting for them inside an empty barrack and shows Sun an old photo of her friends taken in 1977 enrolling with DHARMA -- cryptically telling her she has a long journey ahead.My guess is that Sun will be instrumental in uniting her time-nomad friends in the present-day, but cause a great tragedy in the '70s as a result. The season 5 finale is called "The Incident", after all -- and that's a term Marvin Candle uses in his DHARMA videos about an event that necessitated The Swan station. Christian is perhaps a tool for the island to ensure its own timeline stays uncorrupted. The threat of paradox might also explain why Ben wasn't sent back to '77; the island can't risk him meeting his younger self in the past, as the climax reveals a young Ben (Sterling Beaumon) is present on the '70s island. Incidentally, the return of "the whispers" in Sun's scenes at the barracks now feel like strong evidence there's some degree of temporal overlap on the island -- so Sun was effectively hearing past-echoes of people from '77, perhaps?
Truly, I can't fault this episode too much, although it essentially just filled gaps in our knowledge and smoothed rough edges from earlier in the season. I really love the shift in dynamic between Sawyer and Jack (how long will it last, though?), while having the island narrative split between '77 and '08 is a great idea (as half the cast are essentially interacting in what would, pre-season 5, have been flashbacks), and we still don't have the full story regarding current events (e.g: Ilana and Caesar's identities, or the exact circumstances behind why the Oceanic Six all returned on Flight 316, why Ben was so badly injured, etc.)
Writers Paul Zbyszewski and Brian K. Vaughan seem particularly adept at stitching the mythology of Lost together; so much so that I would hazard a guess that comic-book writer Vaughan's major contribution to the show (since he arrived in season 4) has been helping producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof piece all their elements into one piece -- with the benefit of fresh eyes, fanboy adoration, and the necessary high-concept sci-fi writing nouse. We're beginning to see the fruits of their labour now. Isn't it exciting, yet rather alarming, to consider we're approaching the home-stretch of season 5 and there's only one season left to go?
Questions!
- Why are The Numbers being broadcast in 2008?
- What is the long journey that Christian tells Sun she has ahead of her?
- Who is the person seen briefly behind Sun in the Processing Center? Claire?
- Why didn't all of the Flight 316 passengers end up in the same year?
- What happened to Daniel Faraday?
- Why was Radzinsky overly-concerned about anyone seeing the Swan model and plans?
- Does Ben remember meeting Sayid?
- Did the modern-day Others know that Hurley, Jack and Kate were in the DHARMA photo from 1977?
22 March 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Paul Zbyszewski & Brian K. Vaughan
Director: Jack Bender
Cast: Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Ken Leung (Miles), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Michael Emerson (Ben), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Reiko Aylesworth (Amy), Sterling Beaumon (Young Ben), Jeff Fahey (Frank), Patrick Fischler (Phil), Dan Gauthier (Co-Pilot), Bran William Henke (Bram), Eric Lange (Radzinsky), John Terry (Christian Shephard), Zuleikha Robinson (Ilana), Said Taghmaoui (Caesar), Sven Lindstrom (DHARMA Photographer) & Pierre Chang (Francois Chau)
