LOST: Episode 5.06

316

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
~ John 3:16

We're not going to Guam, are we?
~ Frank Lapidus, with easily the best line of the night

I cannot believe they are back on the Island already, this early in the season!  There must be some serious shenanigans waiting in the wings if they didn't leave something this momentous for the finale.

So this was another Jack episode that I liked. I really didn't care for Kate - and that may be because most of her story was not shown and we only saw her mooning about - but I liked Jack for a change.  (and I really dig the longer hair)

On the Island (we're not supposed to know it's the Island yet, though)

In a scene eerily reminiscent of the opening of the Pilot, Jack awakens on the ground, in a dark suit and tie.  As he gets up and tries to figure out where he is, he hears yelling that I could totally tell was Hurley.  It is Hurley, and Jack saves him (and a guitar case, huh?) from drowning.  Of course he does!  They find Kate unconscious at the edge of the lagoon, and bring her around.  They're all like, "WTF just happened?"

Off Island - "46 hours earlier"

Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond all follow Mrs. H down to basement of the church.  She leads them to a steel door that has a Dharma logo on it. (!)  She opens it and they enter a room with a map on the floor, and a swinging pendulum in the middle.  There are also various computers and chalkboards with formulas on them.  She tells them that the church sits an a "pocket" of electromagnetic energy, similar to pockets that exist all over the world, and that are all connected.  She talks about "a man" (Alvar Hanso?) who discovered that he could use these pockets to locate the Island, which is also on a pocket but which is always on the move.  He called the church site "The Lamppost".  She says that using the tools in that room, they can tell not where the Island is, but when it will be, and they have a short 36 hrs before their window of opportunity closes.

Desmond can't believe they're all considering going back to the bloody Island and angrily tells Mrs. H that Daniel needs her help and that he's finished with the Island. When she tells him that the Island isn't finished with him, he tells her she can stick her bloody precious Island where the sun don't shine!  And then he storms out.

Mrs. H tells Jack, Ben and Sun that there's an Ajira Airways Flight 316 flying from LA to Guam in 36 hours that will pass right over the Island and their "window" of time, and they need to be on it.  She speaks to Jack privately, handing him Locke's suicide note, which is in a closed envelope addressed to Jack, and which he refuses to read.  She also tells Jack that he must reproduce as closely as possible the conditions under which they first arrived at the Island, or the results this time could be unpredictable.  She tells him that Locke in his coffin will be a proxy for his father's coffin and that Jack needs to put something of his father's in with Locke.  Sun leaves the church first and then Ben tells Jack he will see him at the airport.  First, however, he needs to keep a promise to an old friend.  Oh no.

Jack gets a call from the old people's home that his grandpa Senator Matheson has been acting up again.  When Jack goes to see him, he finds his father's shoes.  He asks grandpa if he can have them and grandpa says yes.  When Jack gets home, he finds a morose and practically semi-conscious Kate lying like a dead person on his bed.  He asks what's wrong and she says she's going back to the Island with him, but without Aaron, and he's not allowed to ask any questions about Aaron and then she starts making out like crazy with him.  The next morning, she acts like she hates Jack's guts and does the walk of shame when he gets a telephone call.

It's Ben on the phone, and he ain't doin' too good.  He's on a pay phone at a marina (oh no) and he is beat up BAD, and is covered in blood (his own, I hope!) and holding his arm.  He needs Jack to pick up Locke's body and bring it to the airport and get it on the flight.

If Ben just killed Penny I will track him down and kill him myself.

Anyway, the airport.  A bunch of things happen at the airport:

When he overhears Jack talking to an airline clerk about transporting his dead friend to Guam, a nice little guy behind him in line offers his condolences.  We are so going to see that guy again;

Hurley is there somehow, reading a comic book like he was in the Pilot, and buying up as many seats on the plane as possible so that if it does crash, as few people as possible will be killed or hurt - he's also carrying a guitar case;

and Sayid shows up, too, but in the custody of a woman who appears to be a Us Marshall (like Kate in custody in the Pilot), and wearing the cast offs of a Miami Vice drug dealer.

Once they are all onboard - including Ben, who shows up last minute with his arm in a cast - the pilot makes an announcement and whadya know, it's Frank Lapidus!!  The plane takes off in a wonderfully scored, beautifully shot moment, where you see the apprehension on everyone's face.  Once they are in the air, Ben convinces Jack to read Locke's suicide note, telling him that he is not to blame for Locke's death.  Jack opens the note, which simply reads, "Dear Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL"  That ought to help with the guilt. Yeah.

The plane hits some turbulence, then hits a LOT of turbulence, then the bright light flashes, and then...

On the Island

In a replay of the opener, Jack wakes up on the Island, jumps in the water and saves Hurley, and revives Kate.  They all hear the sound of a car or truck approaching.  The blue Dharma van then drives up to the edge of the lagoon, looking brand spanking new, and a man in a Dharma jumpsuit climbs out, walks up to Jack, Hurley and Kate, and points a gun at them.  I totally thought it was going to be Horace.  But it isn't - it's Jin.  Jin!  Working for Dharma!

Some notes:

• Did anyone else notice that the black and white photo that Jack was looking at in The Lamppost station (I suppose we can call it a Dharma station, right?) is an Army photo from 1954?  Must be from the Jughead bomb days.
• I like that Jack is becoming less of a Doubting Thomas, and it's especially bitter sweet after seeing what Locke wrote in his suicide note.
• I take it we are going to see what happened with everyone else offscreen in another episode.  I bet Charlie appeared to Hurley, and told him to go back and to bring his guitar case as a proxy for him.  I'm not sure what's up with Sayid, except he looks like he got pulled from A Chorus Line rehearsals.  And did Claire appear to Kate again?
• It seems as though at least Jack, Kate and Hurley have landed during the Dharma days, which is when the final Island flash must have landed Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Daniel and Miles.  They must have infiltrated Dharma somehow.  I wonder what happened to everyone else on the plane?  Do we ask where they are?  Or when they are?
• As a whole, the episode really just exists as set up for future events, but I think I liked it  because it was filled with some pretty neat moments: the plane's great takeoff scene, which I already mentioned; Frank's line "We're not going to Guam, are we?"; Jack's happiness at seeing Sun at the airport; Ben's "My mother taught me" line; the scene where Jack puts his father's shows on Locke; the revelation of Locke's note; and the revelation of Jin.  Definitely enough to make it enjoyable for me.