LOST: Episode 5.09

Namaste

Another really great episode, don't you think? The hour flew by for me. It was fantastic to see some pieces of the Dharma puzzle start to come together, to see the Initiative in action. I'm one of those fans who loved any Dharma morsel they would throw at us, so I'm very happy that they haven't dropped this part of the story.

I have to apologize, but this one's going to be quick and dirty. I'm swamped at work and then I'm leaving for a 3-day weekend in the morning (BSG series finale viewing party!). If I leave anything important out, please call me on it!

What I think is Present Island Time

We begin by revisiting the Ajira Airways crash, this time from the POV of Frank, Sun, Sayid and Ben.  The plane hits turbulence, there's a bright flash of light, and when we return to the plane, it has lost power and is about to crash into an island mountain.  Frank, the most awesome pilot ever - and the one with the coolest line delivery ever - manages to land the plane on a dirt airstrip.  It's a rough landing, but most of the passengers survive.  Except, of course, for those who disappeared from the plane during the flash: Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid.

They have landed on the smaller island adjacent to The Island, the one where the Hydra station is located.  Ben sneaks away from the beach to check out the station, and Sun follows him.  And Frank follows her.  Ben tells them that he knows where there are outrigger canoes that they can row across to the larger Island, where he tells Sun she has a better chance of finding Jin.  Frank doesn't trust him, but follows along to the canoes.  There, while Ben has his back to her, Sun clocks him one on the head with an oar, knocking him out.  Apparently, Sun doesn't trust Ben either.  And now we know why Ben was in the infirmary.

It is dark by the time Sun and Frank reach the Island dock.  It is also really scary.  This part was one of the scariest things I've seen on this show.  There's movement in the bushes, and I'm pretty sure it was the smoke monster.  They head into the Dharma village, which has now been long abandoned.  They hear those creepy voices.  Then a light goes on in one of the houses and Christian appears at the door.  Sun asks him where Jin is.  Christian brings them both inside, where he removes a framed photo from the wall.  It is a photo of the 1977 Dharma recruits, and Christian tells Sun that's where he is, and she has a long journey ahead of her.  As he tells her this, the door swings open, and a puff of smoke blows into the room.

Whatever she has to do and wherever she is going, I hope she brings Frank!

1977 Island Time

Sawyer, Jack, Kate and Hurley are all glad to see each other.  Sawyer can't believe John was actually successful in bringing them back, and he asks where John is.  Jack tells him John is dead and when Sawyer asks how, Jack tells him it doesn't matter now.  Grr!! I hate it when he does that!!  When Jin hears that Sun was on the plane, too, he takes off despite Sawyer trying to stop him.

Sawyer gives them the rundown: It's 1977, he's been working for Dharma for three years, and they have to listen to him if they want to stay safe and not be mistaken for "Hostiles" (Others to you and me).  He tells Jack, Kate and Hurley to stay where they are while he takes care of a few things.

He goes back home and grabs clothes for them to wear.  Juliet comes home and asks what's going on.  He tells her they are back and you can just see by the look on her face how unhappy this news makes her.  Being Juliet, she offers a solution: the sub is coming in that day with new recruits, and a couple of them bagged.  Jack, Kate and Hurley can pretend to be new recruits, and they can hide in plain sight.

Meanwhile, Jin has hauled ass up to the Flame station (where the guy with the eye patch used to live) to check with Radzinsky (sp?) to see if he knows anything about a plane crashing or landing on the Island.  Radzinsky is a total nerdy control freak.  And he's building a model of The Swan Station!  And he's watching The Muppets!  And Tom Snyder! No one has seen or heard anything about a plane, but then there's a report of an intruder within the Dharma confines.  Jin and Radzinsky run out to find Sayid, with his hands still cuffed from the plane ride, running through the jungle.  Jin manages to convey to Sayid the importance of not saying anything, without giving anything away to Radzinsky, and they take him back to The Arrow and lock him up.

Juliet "borrows" the sub manifest from Amy, in an awesome scene where Juliet almost drops Amy's baby like a hot potato when she finds out that Amy and Horace are going to name him Ethan. Ha!  Jack, Kate and Hurley change into their new clothes and attend New Recruit Orientation.  Jack is assigned a job as a janitor.  Hee.  We don't know about Hurley, but if the photo above is any indication, Kate got assigned to the Motor Pool.  I bet Juliet had something to do with that.

Miles shows up at the orientation and can't quite believe his eyes when he sees who came back.  While trying to keep Miles quiet, Sawyer gets a call from Jin, who says that he found Sayid.  Sawyer's like, "Aw, come ON!"  He fixes it so that the Dharma people think that Sayid is a Hostile, and he locks him in the Dharma jail.

Jack comes to see Sawyer that night, and is surprised to find Juliet answering the door.  Jack is not my favorite character, but he does do emotion really well, and I really liked this scene where he and Juliet hug.  He really looked happy to see her.

He's walked into a cozy, domestic scene and...awkward.  Juliet leaves so they can talk.  When Jack starts to question Sawyer's ability to handle the situation, Sawyer tells Jack that he will figure things out, he will find a way to get Sayid out of the brig, but in the meantime, he needs to think things through first:

"It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, because back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead."

Surprisingly, Jack sort of agrees with him.  In fact, he looks kind of relieved.

Sayid is in his cell when a young boy, about 11 yrs old, brings him something to eat.  It is a young Ben Linus, and he is psyched to be meeting a real live Hostile.  And Sayid is wondering if now would be a good time wring his psychotic little neck...

A few things:

• Frank Lapidus is hands down my favorite new character
• Why didn't Sun flash back to 1977 with the rest of the O5?
• Frank landed the plane on the airstrip that the Others made Kate and Sawyer work on when they held them at the Hydra.  Does that mean Ben knew the plane was going to need somewhere to land?
• Radzinsky was Kelvin's partner down in the Swan Station and he was the guy who drew the blast door map.

click the image for a larger version

So what did you think?