I Am DB

Last Wednesday night at 6:36, I received a text message from my friend (and new indoctrinated reader) Dimitris. It read simply, “YEAH SUN!!!!” At first, I couldn’t make any sense of it. Then I assumed he was still celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and was sending me a senseless, drunken text. Then I realized that 6:36 on my clock would make it 9:36 in Boston, where he lives. This meant he’d be smack in the middle of Lost, and this made me wonder what awesome thing Sun was going to do exactly three hours from that moment.

CRASH INTO ME
Backtracking to fill in some gaps, the episode opened with Ajira Airways Flight 316 gliding through the night sky en route to “Guam.” What do you do when you’ve survived a plane crash and then find yourself on another plane which you actually expect to crash, and you’re simply waiting for it to happen? Is there part of you that wonders if you won’t really be so lucky this time? Are you more nervous from anticipation than you were when you didn’t know what was going on and whether you’d live or die? Do you relax and wait for the inevitable, secure in the belief that you’ll be safe somehow? I think we saw all of those feelings play out on various faces – Sun, Jack, Kate, Hurley…in the cockpit, even Lapidus knew something was going to happen, though he didn’t know exactly what.

He got his answer when the plane hit major turbulence. But unlike the crash of Oceanic 815, this incident finds the plane flying through a blinding white light. When the light subsides, the night sky has turned to broad daylight. The plane descends through a layer of clouds, and suddenly the island is looming right in front of them. Lapidus is able to avoid a collision and steer the plane toward what looks to be a runway off in the distance. But the landing is rough and the runway isn’t quite long enough, so they plow into the foliage before coming to a stop. Lapidus is injured, but okay. His co-pilot? Not so lucky. Poor guy gets impaled on a tree branch that breaks through the windshield. Based on what we see here and what we know from the episode that initially portrayed the crash a few weeks ago, everyone else seems to be alive. I was reminded of last season’s episode when Matthew Abbadon presented Naomi with photos of Frank, Daniel, Charlotte and Miles. Doubting their credentials for the mission at hand, she referred to Frank dismissively as “a drunk.” Abbadon replied, “To be fair, he’s also a pretty good pilot.”

I’ll say, after that landing. Suck it, Chesley Sullenberger!!

In the cabin, Caesar crouches by an unconscious Ilana and wakes her up, calling her “Lady,” as if he doesn’t know her. She wakes up and says a name that I couldn’t make out (Jaira? Something like that – close to, but not exactly like Sayid’s last name). Caesar introduces himself by name, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that these two already know each other. What are they playing at?

As Lapidus walks through the cabin, he finds Sun, who is bruised but okay. When he asks where Jack, Sayid, Kate and Hurley are, a dazed Ben appears and answers, “They’re gone.” Lapidus asks where, and Ben – sounding as if he’s about to drop dead of a brain injury – replies, “How would I know?”

THEY’RE HEEEERRREEE….
We’re told the next scene takes place thirty years earlier, and stupid as this sounds, it really took me almost a full minute for that to make sense as I watched the reunion scene between Sawyer, Jack, Kate and Hurley unfold. But I realized that we’re no longer tracking time in relation to when the Oceanic Six left the island. The present day is now 1977 for one set of characters and 2007 for the other set.

Once I’d worked that out, I could focus on the scene at hand. Hurley greets Sawyer ecstatically. Sawyer and Jack share a friendly handshake and Kate gives him a short but sincere hug. Dropping the usual “Freckles” nickname, he says, “It’s good to see you, Kate.” Sawyer says he can’t believe they’re really there and that Locke managed to bring them back just like he said. He asks where Locke is, and Jack breaks the news of Locke’s death. He says it doesn’t matter when Sawyer asks how Locke died, and when Hurley inquires about Sawyer and Jin wearing old Dharma uniforms, Sawyer realizes Jin hasn’t explained yet. So Sawyer tells them that he and Jin are in The Dharma Initiative. Jack assumes this means the group came back to the island. “No, we came back,” Sawyer says. “And so did you. It’s 1977.” As they try to take that in, the initial happiness of the reunion gives way to Sawyer’s realization that he has to figure out how to prevent the new arrivals’ presence from disrupting the lie he has built with The Dharma Initiative, which began the moment he and Juliet intervened with Richard’s men and Amy. Jack says they have to find the others, informing Sawyer and Jin that Sayid, Frank and Sun were also on the plane. As soon as Jin hears that Sun was onboard, he jumps into Sawyer’s jeep and speeds off, saying that if a plane crashed on the island, Radzinsky will know.

Back at the barracks, Juliet walks into what seems to be the main security station to ask Miles if he’s heard from Sawyer. Miles says no, he hasn’t been able to reach Sawyer or Jin, but then he looks at one of the monitors and sees Sawyer’s van arrive outside. Juliet goes back home to find Sawyer rapidly rummaging through the closet and throwing clothes into a large bag. She asks what’s going on and without stopping, he tells her that Jack, Kate and Hurley are back. She’s stunned, of course, and sits down on the bed. Sawyer briefly tells her what happened, all while continuing to frantically search for clothes. But I love that he takes a moment to slow down, sit next to her and say that he doesn’t understand it either, but that he needs to act fast. “I gotta find a way to bring them in before somebody else finds them and they screw up everything we’ve got here.” Maybe he took that moment because he realized he was shutting her out, or maybe it was a more deliberate attempt to quell any concerns she might have that Kate’s return poses a threat. Either way, it’s a sweet moment that reveals how far Sawyer has come. And in my interpretation, his comment about not screwing everything up suggests that he’s not simply concerned about protecting a lie, but rather something deeper than that. The implication is that he’s happy with his life in The Dharma Initiative – and with Juliet – and doesn’t want anything to jeopardize it.

Meanwhile, Jin pulls up to the Dharma station known as The Flame – the communications hub which, while under management of The Others, was manned by Mikhail, the eye-patch-clad bastard responsible for Charlie’s death. Thirty years from this time, Locke will blow up The Flame. But in 1977, it is well intact and being run by a testy, territorial fellow called Radzinsky, who has a bit of a Paul Giamatti energy about him. He is peacefully working at a table, building a model of some kind of geodome which looks like one that existed (or should I say will exist) in The Swan station (also known as Season Two’s main Hatch where the button was pushed every 108 minutes). Then Jin bursts in, immediately pressing buttons, looking at a printout, and quickly upsetting the control that Radzinsky likes to exercise over the station. Jin wants to know if a plane has landed on or near the island, or been seen in the vicinity. When Radzinsky dismisses the idea as absurd, Jin grabs him and demands that he check in with the other stations to find out.

Just after the last station reports back that no plane has been sighted, a motion sensor alarm is tripped. Radzinsky says there’s a Hostile inside the perimeter, and Jin immediately grabs his gun and runs out into the field behind The Flame to investigate, with Radzinsky not far behind. After a minute, Jin sees a figure running nearby and orders it to stop moving or risk being shot. Jin comes face to face with the intruder: Sayid, still in the handcuffs he wore on the plane. Jin asks where Sun is and Sayid says he doesn’t know, but that’s all the time they have. Radzinsky arrives on the scene, and Jin has to play the role of Dharma security dude. He levels the gun at Sayid and orders him to his knees. Sayid’s a pretty sharp guy, and you can see that it only takes a moment for him to realize that he needs to play along. Seeing as Jin is in front of Radzinsky, I kept waiting for him to wink at Sayid or give him the slightest nod – something to indicate that everything was okay. That doesn’t happen, but Sayid gets it.

Oh, and did you notice that one of the black and white monitors in The Flame was playing The Muppet Show? Love it.

MAINTAINING THE LIE
Juliet finds Amy in a hammock with her newborn in a stroller beside her. She takes Amy’s passenger manifest for an incoming submarine, explaining that Amy shouldn’t be going to work and that she’ll have somebody else cover for her. Juliet picks up the baby and asks Amy if she and Horace have chosen a name for their son yet. Amy says they’re going to call him Ethan. In yet another beautifully played moment by Elizabeth Mitchell, Juliet allows just a flicker of sickening foreknowledge to cross her face as she registers the future that awaits the baby in her arms…assuming that this is the Ethan we’re all thinking of. She holds it together in front of Amy, but she has to move on before she starts to cry.

Jack, Kate and Hurley are still waiting where Sawyer left them. Kate asks Jack if the woman who told him how to get back to the island mentioned that it would be thirty years earlier. Jack chuckles and says no, she left that part out. (Jack could have done a better job of asking more specific questions, though, couldn’t he have?) Sawyer then returns and explains his plan: a submarine is just about to arrive with a group of new recruits, and they need to blend in. As all the passengers take a sedative before the trip, no one meets until they arrive on the island, so there won’t be concerns about not being recognized. Time is of the essence if their arrival is to look natural. He says Juliet is taking care of getting their names on the necessary lists, but that if they don’t hurry, the trio will have to camp out in the jungle and risk being mistaken for Hostiles…or actually encountering Hostiles. It will be six months until another boatload of new recruits arrive, so they need to haul ass. Jack is skeptical and wants to find Sun and Sayid, but Sawyer says that Jin is working on it. Kate says they should follow Sawyer’s advice, and Hurley agrees, so Jack accepts his direction and they change into casual clothes and board the van. It’s interesting to see a role reversal in which Sawyer is the leader, the voice of reason and experience and Jack is the one who needs to follow directions and accept what he’s being told.

On the ride, Hurley brings up the 800 pound gorilla in the van: the eventual mass murder of The Dharma Initiative. Sawyer gives him a look that seems to say he’s aware but would prefer not to think about it. Hurley asks if he intends to warn them. “I ain’t here to play Nostradamus to these people,” Sawyer says. “Besides, Faraday’s got some interesting theories on what we can and can’t do here.” Jack hears this and says, “Did you say Faraday? He’s here?” Sawyer ominously replies, “Not anymore.”

Not anymore? Not anymore, like…not alive anymore? Or not anymore, like not here with us in The Dharma Initiative anymore? And if it’s the latter, was he cast out or is he self-exiled? As for his theories which Sawyer mentions, are these new theories which we haven’t heard about yet, or does he mean the theory that they can’t change the future? The one encapsulated by now familiar mantra, “Whatever happened…happened?”

They arrive in the main barracks of Dharmaville and Sawyer tells them that they’ll go into the Processing Center, watch the orientation video and wait to hear their name and receive their work assignments. He’ll be in there with them to get their backs, so they needn’t worry. But then Miles arrives and tries to find out where Sawyer has been all day… getting his answer when he sees Jack, Kate and Hurley. Like Jin, Sawyer and Juliet before him, the reaction on Miles’ face to learning of their return says, “How the fuck did they get here?” He snaps out of it and tells Sawyer that Jin has reported the capture of a Hostile. Sawyer contacts Jin on the walkie, and Jin slips away from Radzinsky, who is locking Sayid in a storage closet, to tell Sawyer who they’ve captured. Sawyer now has to head for The Flame to deal with this new complication.

CHECKING IN
Jack and Kate watch The Dharma Initiative orientation video for new recruits, hosted (of course) by Pierre Chang. Incidentally, we’ve seen this video before, in Season Three’s episode The Man Behind the Curtain, which tells of Ben’s arrival on the island with his father.

Jack hears his name called, and walks over to a registration table where Chang himself sits him down. Chang seems frazzled, explaining that the woman who was supposed to be doing this just had a baby. He welcomes Jack to The Dharma Initiative and hands him a uniform labeled Work Man. When Jack inquires what that means, Chang says, “Based on your aptitude test, you’ll be doing janitorial work.” Jack laughs, but accepts his assignment. (I assume that this aptitude test was not taken that day upon arrival, but rather is something that a real Dharma recruit would have taken long ago, off the island, and that Jack’s results are faked.)

Security officer Phil, who we met in last week’s episode, walks over to Kate, who has not yet been called. He doesn’t see her name on the list of recruits or on the sub manifest, and asks who recruited her. As she searches for an answer, Juliet steps in with a piece of paper featuring some “last minute changes.” She and Kate smile at each other, and introduce themselves.

HOSTILE REUNION
Sawyer arrives at The Flame, where Jin greets him with the explanation of Sayid running through the jungle, alone, in handcuffs. Inside, Radzinsky is wired, pointing out that the prisoner saw the model of The Swan and may have seen the survey of where they’re building it. He says they should nip the problem in the bud by killing him. Sawyer sarcastically thanks him for his input (Sawyer? Sarcastic? Really?), and Jin – playing his part well – grabs Sayid out of the closet and throws him down on the couch. Sayid takes in the sight of Sawyer but stays quiet. Sawyer paces in front of him, looking at him as he speaks. “My name’s LaFleur, I’m head of Security. Now I want you to listen real carefully to what I got to say. If you do that, you’ll be fine. Understand?” Sayid nods. “Alright, let’s start simple. Identify yourself as a Hostile.” Sayid says nothing. “The terms of the truce say you gotta identify yourself as a Hostile, or we got the right to shoot you.”

As he talks, Sawyer says with his eyes what he can’t say with his mouth, and Sayid again knows to play along.

“We do not refer to ourselves as Hostile,” Sayid finally says, “but yes, I’m one of them.”

Sawyer prepares to transport him back to the main security station in the barracks, despite Radzinsky’s vehement objections. Oh, and I love Sayid’s comment about not referring to themselves that way. Knowing nothing about the situation he’s fallen into, he still makes a point to defend himself within the ruse. It shows Sayid taking the position of an Other, but does it without being explicit. Well played, chaps. Well played.

HOUSE CALL
The new Dharma recruits gather for a photograph, with Kate and Hurley front and center, and Jack just behind them and to the side. Everyone is enjoying the picnic when Sawyer and Jin drive up with their prisoner. Jack, Kate and Hurley all watch as Sawyer marches Sayid out of the van and inside. Sayid sees them all but keeps moving. Sawyer and Phil put Sayid in a holding cell and lock him in. Sawyer gives Sayid a look that says, “Don’t worry, trust me” and then leaves him alone. I’m not sure why he didn’t take a minute here to talk to Sayid alone; there seems to be a moment where Phil has left the room, and Radzinsky and Jin didn’t come this far. Why not ask Sayid what the hell is going on?

That night, Jack knocks on Sawyer’s door and is surprised when Juliet answers. They greet each other with a hug and he says he must have the wrong house, but she says no, he’s in the right place. She invites him in, and Jack takes a moment to register that Sawyer and Juliet are living together. Sawyer looks relaxed in a chair, reading a book and drinking a beer. Juliet leaves them to talk, and Jack asks what’s happening with Sayid. Sawyer says that Sayid is safe for now, and that he had no choice but to act like Sayid was a Hostile until he can figure out what to do. Jack asks where they go from here, and Sawyer says he’s working on it. Jack points out that it looked more like he was reading a book.

“I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the blitz,”  Sawyer replies. “Said it made him think better. That’s how I like to run things. I think. I’m sure that doesn’t mean that much to you, ’cause 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.”

“I got us off the island,” Jack says.

“But here you are,” Sawyer continues, “right back where you started. So I’m gonna go back to reading my book. And I’m gonna think. ‘Cause that’s how I saved your ass today. And that’s how I’m gonna save Sayid’s tomorrow. All you gotta do is go home, get a good night’s rest, let me do what I do. Now ain’t that a relief?”

“Yeah,” Jack says as he exits. And he seems to mean it. Jack has seemed pretty mellow since his return to the island, rolling with the punches instead of trying to figure everything out and act on it – the exact trait that Sawyer was criticizing in this scene. He didn’t even protest his Work Man assignment. So while he did bristle at Sawyer’s remark about people dying under his leadership, I think that by and large he is fully prepared to leave things to Sawyer and wait for whatever destiny the island has in store for him.

Or maybe he’ll get impatient soon and start reverting to old habits.

Anyway, Sawyer follows him outside and stands on the porch, watching him walk away. He turns and sees Kate pacing on the porch to his right. They look at each other. He gives her a small wave, which she returns. Then he goes back inside. Not that they’ve had much time to catch-up, but there’s definitely been awkwardness between them. Is three years long enough to get over somebody? Still working on that one…

I’ve complained about some inconsistencies in the writing of the show, but one thing that they’ve successfully kept up for the past several episodes is Kate being so subdued. Ever since the night she showed up in Jack’s apartment agreeing to return to the island with him – ever since she showed up without Aaron – she’s not quite been herself, and the writers (as well as Evangeline Lilly) have done a good job maintaining that.

As for Jack and Sawyer’s exchange, their friendly reintroduction is over and has given way to old tensions. I love Sawyer calling out Jack’s leadership style, and directly invoking what occurred to me earlier, which is the idea that he’s now the man who has to figure out the answers while Jack has to just wait and see. But the remark about a lot of people dying during Jack’s tenure wasn’t exactly fair or accurate. And Jack’s retort about getting them off the island wasn’t quite on the level either. He got a handful of them off the island. Six out of 40-plus survivors. Better than nothing, for sure, but maybe not something to brag about either.

DELIVERY BOY
A boy walks into the security station and tells Phil, alone on duty, that he’s got a sandwich for the prisoner. Phil let’s him go on in, which seemed a little unlikely to me. He’s really gonna let some kid go into the area with the Hostile? Alone? With a sandwich? Not sure I’m buying that, but it’s a minor quibble. The boy walks up to the cell door and offers Sayid the paper bag. His identity was already obvious, but we finally see his face and recognize him as the young Ben Linus.

Ben: Are you a Hostile?

Sayid: Do you think I am?

Ben asks for his name, which Sayid gives him, asking for his in return. Upon realizing who he’s talking to, Sayid simply says, “It’s nice to meet you Ben.”

I have to wonder when this is supposed to take place in relation to the incident in which young Ben encountered a long haired, shabbily dressed Richard Alpert in the woods (Season Three’s The Man Behind the Curtain), saying that he wanted to leave The Dharma Initiative and go with him. Has that already happened? Obviously the actor playing Ben is two or three years older, and he’s filmed from odd angles that might have been designed to conceal, for the time being, the fact that he’s grown. His hair is also longer, and I’m thinking that this is definitely after that encounter with Alpert. So is Ben looking for a way out at this point? Is that why he has an interest in Sayid? And has Sayid even fully grasped that he is in 1977? He hasn’t had a moment alone with Jin or Sawyer for them to explain it to him, so how much has he been able to piece together? He would have recognized The Flame station, having been inside it before and then witnessing its destruction. So seeing it again, intact, would surely tip him off that something strange is going on.

The other thought I had after this scene is that after spending three years with The Dharma Initiative, surely Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles are well acquainted with young Ben by now. The boy walks casually into the security station and greets Phil with total familiarity. They must all know each other. So how have they all reacted to the presence of Ben? And have any of them considered preventing the boy from growing up to do the things they know he’s done?

ISLAND HOPPING
While all this has been happening, there’s been activity on the Hydra island as well. Frank calls for attention from the Flight 316 passengers and informs them that the radio is dead, but that a search party will find them soon and they should stay put. Caesar asks him where they are, but Frank says he doesn’t know, as the island is not on any of his charts. Caesar says there are some buildings and empty animal cages a bit inland, and a larger island visible from nearby. He wants to explore. Upon hearing this, Ben – who is sitting apart from the other castaways – gets up and slips away into the jungle. But Sun sees him go, and she follows. And when Frank sees her go, he follows too. Sun loses Ben in the jungle, but he appears behind her and asks why she’s following him. She wants to know where he’s going, and like the answer is obvious, he says, “Back to our island. You wanna come?”

She continues to follow him, and asks at one point if Jin is on the big island. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he says. “But that’s where I’d start looking.” He tells her there are outrigger canoes nearby which they can take to the other island. Then Frank shows up, wanting to make sure she’s okay and asking where she’s going. She tells him of her intention to travel with Ben to the other island, adding that she has no choice but to trust Ben – prompting him to give a little private smirk of satisfaction. So Frank follows them to another stretch of beach from the one they started on, and Ben removes branches that are concealing three canoes. Frank implores Sun not to go with Ben, reminding her that the freighter was loaded with commandos sent to capture him. “And how did that work out for everyone?” Ben asks as he prepares a boat. Sun says Frank should come with them, but he says he has a group of people he has to look out for. Ben thinks that’s exactly what Frank should do, and then (for some reason I’m not quite sure of) starts to indicate where exactly on the big island he’s heading – giving rough directions to a dock near the area on the island where he used to live. As soon as he’s done speaking, Sun grabs an oar and knocks his ass out cold. “I thought you trusted this guy,” Frank says. “I lied,” she answers.

I paused the DVR at this point to check the time. 9:36. YEAH SUN!!!!

That night, beneath a full moon, Frank and Sun reach the dock. As they walk from the canoe, the scene looking like something out of Friday the 13^th, there is an unnatural rustling of nearby trees. It resembles the rustling caused by the Black Smoke, but on a much smaller scale, almost like what a Baby Black Smoke might do. It quickly subsides, and only the normal breeze remains. They walk from the dock and find themselves in Dharmaville, now decrepit and abandoned. Just as Frank says that they’re unlikely to find anyone there, we hear the all-too-familiar whispering on the wind. A light turns on in one of the Dharma houses. The door creaks open and a figure slowly walks outside and reveals himself: the ever-present Christian Shephard.

Sun asks if he knows where her husband is. He beckons them inside what we quickly see is the processing center where new Dharma recruits – like Jack, Kate and Hurley a few scenes ago – were once brought. Now the place is dusty and deserted. Christian scans a wall of framed photographs, rhyming off years as he goes. 1972, 1978, 1976…1977. He removes the picture and tells Sun that Jin is with her friends. Then he hands her the picture of Dharma Initiative new recruits from ’77. There she sees Jack, Kate and Hurley. “I’m sorry,” Christian says to Sun and Frank, “but you have a bit of a journey ahead of you.” (And the award for Understatement of the Year goes to…)

How does Christian know to go immediately for the 1977 photo? Okay, that’s probably a stupid question seeing as Christian is supposed to be dead and yet seems to be everywhere on this friggin’ island. How he knows about the picture is probably at the bottom of the Questions About Christian list. (By the way, this is not the first time that an appearance by Doc Shephard Senior has been preceded by the whispering voices. Last season, as Michael was on the freighter trying to freeze the battery on Keamy’s bomb, he too heard the strange whispering. When he looked up, there was Christian, who said, “You can go now, Michael.” And then the freighter blew up.)

By the way, is it possible that the scene with Christian showing Sun the 1977 photograph sheds some light on the last scene of The Shining? Is there a door somewhere on the island that leads to the Overlook Hotel in Colorado?

Umm…probably not. But the scene definitely made me think of that final cryptic image of Kubrick’s film.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-When Juliet was in the security room talking to Miles, I got a sense of the camaraderie that must have formed between those who remained on the island and banded together. Just as the Oceanic Six had their lie, The Island Five, if you will – Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Jin and Faraday (maybe) – have been living their own lie, and they too fear exposure…though at least they seem to co-exist more harmoniously than the Oceanic Six did back in the civilized world. (Of course, “Island Five” doesn’t include Rose and Bernard, who we must assume have also been folded into Sawyer’s lie and therefore into The Dharma Initiative…although personally, I’d have a hard time believing that Rose and Bernard were crew members on a salvage vessel. And what about other survivors of Flight 815? Surely they weren’t all felled by the flaming arrow attack?)

-This episode is not the first we’ve heard of Radzinsky. Let’s take a trip way back to Season Two. Remember when Locke found a detailed, hand-drawn map of all the Dharma stations on the island, drawn on a blast door, visible only under blacklight? Okay, stay with me. In that season’s finale episode, Live Together, Die Alone, we learn about how Desmond came to the island and wound up in the hatch. After crashing on the island, he is brought to The Swan by a burned-out Dharma worker named Kelvin, who eventually tells Desmond about his former partner in button-pushing…Radzinsky. It was Radzinsky who began that map, which Kelvin continued and fnished, such as it is. It was Radzinsky who figured out how to make the blast doors come down so that he could draw the map in the first place. But Radzinsky, Kelvin explained to Desmond, eventually put a shotgun to his head. Kelvin pointed to a brown stain on the ceiling and told Desmond, “That’s Radzinsky.”  Is this really important? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s another example of one of the things I love about this show: it has created a detailed mythology which it continues to draw on, thereby strengthening the overall story.

Another simple example of that: Code 14J. This is what Sawyer and his security staff use to indicate the presence of a Hostile – in this case, Sayid. But we also heard Code 14J used in last season’s The Shape of Things to Come, when Keamy’s team forced Alex to disable the pylons, prompting a phone to ring in Ben’s Dharmaville house. When Locke answered it, a woman’s recorded voice repeated “Code 14J” over and over.

-We’re continually told that The Island is not just a mass of land, but an entity with its own consciousness, its own power and its own agenda. “Each one of us was brought here for a reason,” Locke once told Jack. “And who brought us here, John?” Jack asked. “The island,” he answered. When Michael tried repeatedly to commit suicide, it was Tom (The Other Formerly Known as Mr. Friendly) who tells him that the island won’t let him die. When Desmond attempted to storm out of Ms. Hawking’s sub-church Dharma station, she told him that the island wasn’t done with him yet. The list goes on.

If we accept that the island is exercising this power over the fate of the characters, then we have to figure that each one of them ends up where The Island wants them to be. Meaning The Island wanted Jack, Kate and Hurley to wind up together in 1977. It wanted Sayid to wind up in 1977, but not with Jack, Kate and Hurley. It wanted Sun and Ben (and possibly Lapidus, who is either part of the island’s master plan or just an unlucky guy drawn into its grasp) to remain in 2007. And then the question becomes…why?

Not just why do each of them land where they do, but why are they there at all? Back in the real world, the issue that kept coming up was that they had to go back to save the people they left behind. Sawyer, Juliet – everyone is supposedly in great danger and will die unless The Oceanic Six return to the island. But ever since Locke stabilized the frozen wheel and stopped the jumps through time, Sawyer and company have been doing just fine…the fact that they’re stuck in the 1970’s notwithstanding. Now that Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid are back…what are they supposed to do? Jack asks Sawyer where they go from here, and Sawyer basically tells him to get a good night’s sleep and go to work the next morning. Could it be that The Island’s purpose in bringing them back is to alter the future so that The Purge doesn’t take place? If The Purge happens, Sawyer and the others are likely to be killed. Is it somehow up to Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid to stop that from happening? And if it is – and if they do – then that dramatically alters the future of The Island, and makes it a very different place when Flight 815 crashes there in 2004.

I have a headache…and I look forward to it getting worse in a few hours.

Tonight’s Episode: He’s Our You

“AS LONG AS IT TAKES”
The episode begins immediately after Locke disappeared down the well in another violent flash, leaving Sawyer holding a rope that disappears into the ground. In fact, it was so immediately after that moment that I thought we were still watching the recap of that episode. That is, until Miles pointed toward something and indicated that they were quite a ways back in the past. Jin, Sawyer and Juliet follow his gaze over the tree line and see an enormous statue facing out toward the water, its back to them.

From behind, I first thought it appeared Greco-Roman…but the more I looked at it, the more I thought about the Anubis warriors from Brendan Fraser’s Mummy movies (I’m not proud that The Mummy occurred to me, but hey, I worked at ILM all through the making of the second flick. It was hard to avoid). Anyway, the Anubis vibe would suggest that the statue has Egyptian origins…which would fit with some of the other things we’ve seen on the island – mainly the hieroglyphics on The Temple exterior, on the door in Ben’s secret room when he summoned the Black Smoke and on the 108 minute countdown panels in the hatch. There are also the columns that surrounded the well down which Locke climbed. The pillars had a distinctly ancient look to them. And isn’t Egypt kinda sorta close to Tunisia, which contains what Widmore described to Locke as the island’s “exit?” What if the door between the island and Africa swings both ways? (That’s what she said.)

Bottom line: it looked pretty damn cool. Hopefully this intriguing glimpse of what is probably (but not definitively) Season Two’s four-toed statue isn’t just thrown in there to satisfy us, but rather will be explained more thoroughly later on. Because…wow.

Their viewing is interrupted by another flash, which is the most violent one yet. Miles even remarks when it stops that it was different than the others; more like an earthquake. We know this is the one that occurs when Locke turns the wheel, transporting himself off the island. After a moment, Juliet realizes that her headache is gone. They all realize the same, and that their noses are no longer bleeding. Whatever Locke was attempting to do down below, they figure it must have worked. Now they just have to wait for him to come back. “For how long?” Juliet asks. “As long as it takes,” Sawyer answers.

Three years later, we’re in a Dharma Station with a couple of security guards named Jerry and Phil, who notice something odd on the monitor. One of their own seems to be drunkenly stumbling around the large pylons that surround their territory’s perimeter. A closer look reveals the man to be Horace, a familiar face to us: he delivered baby Ben before moving to the island; he brought Ben and his father to the island and gave his father employment as a Work Man; he was among the people killed by Ben in The Purge; and he appeared to Locke in a dream telling him to find his body in order to locate Jacob’s cabin.

As seen on the security monitor, Horace has dynamite and is blowing up trees. Jerry and Phil debate whether they should go wake someone called LaFleur, who we gather would not be pleased about being disturbed…or about letting this Horace situation continue. So they run out into the Dharmaburbs and knock on the door of one of the recognizable yellow houses. The unseen LaFleur opens the door and listens to their explanation of the situation. Then we get a look at him: Sawyer. He steps back inside and grabs his Dharma uniform, identifying him as Head of Security. Upon laying eyes on Sawyer, one big question came immediately to mind: what kind of conditioner is he using to make his hair so straight and shiny, with such healthy body?

It looks like Sawyer wasn’t kidding when he said “as long as it takes.” He has ascended to a position of major authority and respect in The Dharma Initiative. Now behind the wheel of a Dharma van, he picks up Miles, also uniformed in Dharma garb. They go out to the pylons to get the now passed-out Horace, and while Miles stays to put out the fires, Sawyer brings Horace back to his extremely pregnant wife, Amy. She addresses Sawyer as Jim, and tells him that she and Horace had a fight about Paul. She’s about to elaborate when she suddenly goes into labor.

GOOD SAMARITANS
Three years earlier, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles return to where they left Charlotte and Faraday, but only the latter is there – kneeling, crying and mumbling things like, “I’m not gonna do it. I’m not gonna tell her.” He manages to explain that Charlotte died and that her body disappeared during the last flash. “She moved on, and we stayed,” he says. This prompts Sawyer to ask if they’ve stopped moving through time. Faraday says yes, it’s over. “Wherever we are now…whenever we are now, we’re here for good.”

Sawyer says they should go back to the beach, the most logical place for Locke and the others to look when they return. Miles argues that after the assault of flaming arrows, the beach doesn’t sound too welcoming, adding that their camp is probably not even there. Sawyer says they don’t have a better option and Juliet agrees, so they head off. As they walk, Sawyer thanks her for getting his back. Their banter is playful as she says, “You should thank me. It was a stupid idea.” They’re smiling. It’s cute. If they were Muppets, the next scene might show them riding bikes together through Hyde Park.

The Great Muppet Caper? Anyone? Alright fine…

They are interrupted by the sound of gunshots and a woman crying for help. Off in the distance is a body on the ground, a crying woman and two guys putting a bag over her head. Miles is hesitant to step in, turning to Daniel. “We don’t get involved, right? That’s what you said?”

“It doesn’t matter what we do,” Faraday says through his glass cage of emotions. “Whatever happened…happened.”

Sawyer’s not about to stand idly by, so confirming that Juliet again has his back, he approaches the group and calls for the men to drop their guns. One swings around and takes a shot at him, only to take a fatal bullet himself – not from Sawyer, but from Juliet. When the second guy fires, Sawyer takes him down. They tell the woman she’s safe and remove the bag. It’s Horace’s wife, Amy. Though she’s not his wife yet…

The first dead guy – the one who was with Amy – has a Dharma jumpsuit, so Juliet figures they’re in the 70’s or early 80’s. The assaulters have a walkie-talkie and Sawyer worries they may have reinforcements on the way, so he tries to keep his group moving. When Amy asks who they are, Sawyer says their boat shipwrecked en route to Tahiti. But she pleads with them to help her, saying something about a truce and that they have to bury her attackers and take Paul, her husband, back with them. (So this is obviously the Paul that she and Horace have a fight about in the future.) Amy is distraught and upset, so they reluctantly agree to help bury the assailants. I’m not sure what they did this with, considering they’re in the middle of the island without a shovel. But no matter. They finish the job and follow her lead with Paul’s body.

Sawyer: Alright listen up. When we get there, there’s gonna be a lot of questions. So just keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.

Miles: You really think you can convince them that we were in a boat wreck?

Sawyer: I’m a professional. I used to lie for a living.

They come up to the pylons, which Daniel is about to cross until Juliet screams for him to stop. She tells Amy to turn them off. Amy plays dumb, asking what she means. Juliet tries to play dumb back, saying they look like some kind of sonic fence. Amy is definitely suspicious, asking again where their ship was going. Sawyer says that since they saved her life and are continuing to help her, she can show them a little trust. So she turns off the fence and walks through. When the others follow, they immediately feel the effects and collapse to the ground. Amy removes earplugs and looks down at her unconscious rescuers.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT, THEY PULL ME BACK IN
Three years later, Sawyer/LaFleur is in a Dharma hospital with Amy, who is experiencing serious labor pains. An internist wants to know where Horace is, but Sawyer brushes off the question and keeps the focus on Amy. The internist says her baby is upside down and two weeks early. Amy was supposed to leave on a sub for the mainland for her delivery, and he doesn’t know if he can help her. He says all the babies get delivered on the mainland. Desperate, Sawyer runs to get Juliet, who he finds laying underneath a Dharma van doing mechanical work. He tells her that Amy is in labor and in trouble. Juliet stands up alarmed and reminds him that they have an agreement.

Sawyer: Screw our agreement, we gotta help.

Juliet: Don’t you understand that everytime I try to help a woman on this island give birth, it hasn’t worked?

Sawyer: Well maybe whatever made that happen hasn’t happened yet. You gotta try. You gotta help her. You’re the only one who can.

Sawyer could be right about the baby issue not being a factor yet…although the internist did say that all babies are delivered off the island. Hmm. Regardless, Juliet (whose Dharma uniform looks like it says Motor Pool) follows Sawyer and tells the internist what she needs. She’s nervous, but Sawyer tells her she’ll do great, and even Amy says she wants Juliet to do it when the internist expresses his doubts.

While Sawyer waits outside, Jin arrives wearing a Security uniform. Sawyer explains what’s happening and that he had to pull Juliet “out of retirement.” Jin’s English is solid by now, and when Sawyer asks if he had any luck, Jin says they swept grids one through three (or something like that) and had no luck. So Sawyer says they’ll move on to the next one. “How long do we look, James?” Jin asks. Sawyer repeats his answer from three years earlier. “As long as it takes.”  Juliet comes out and says it worked; she delivered a healthy boy. She’s crying with relief and Sawyer is literally beaming. Sawyer! Beaming! What a softie.

Three years earlier, Sawyer awakens on a couch after the pylon incident. He’s alone with Horace, who tells him that his friends are fine, but that they’re waiting for him to explain who they are and why they’re on the island. He also says that Amy filled him in on what happened, and he appreciates what they all did to help. When Sawyer says they have a funny way of showing their appreciation, Horace explains, “Look, we have a certain defense protocol. There are hostile, indigenous people on this island and we don’t get along with them. So why don’t you tell me who the hell you are.”

Without missing a beat, Sawyer says his name is Jim LaFleur and that he’s the captain of a salvage vessel that shipwrecked while searching for an old slave ship out of Portsmouth, England called The Black Rock. He asks if Horace has heard of it. “Can’t say that I have,” Horace answers. (Can’t say because he doesn’t know, or can’t say because he knows but doesn’t want to say?) Why were they wandering in the jungle, he wants to know. Sawyer says they were looking for some of their missing crew members and that’s when they found Amy in trouble.

Horace says if he finds any of LaFleur’s people he’ll send them along, but that LaFleur and his present company have to leave the next morning on an outbound submarine. Sawyer asks if their good deed can buy them a little time to try and find their missing men, but Horace denies him. “No, the only people who are allowed to stay on this compound are members of The Dharma Initiative. And look, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, please Jim, but you are not Dharma material.”

YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND, BABY, RIGHT ROUND
Juliet, Miles, Daniel and Jin are seated around a table outside, Juliet staring at the house she lived in as an Other and explaining to her companions her familiarity with the barracks. Jin asks Daniel if there will be more flashes. Daniel, still lost in his grief and not totally with the program, says, “No, no more flash. The record is spinning again…and we’re just not on the song we want to be on.” Then, as Dharma people continue to pass to and fro, he sees a little girl, maybe three years old, with red hair trailing after her mother. She turns and looks at Daniel, and he at her. It’s Charlotte.

Horace and Sawyer come out and join them, and Horace says someone will come by shortly to take them to their rooms for the night. He leaves them alone, and Sawyer explains his improvisation and informs them that they have to leave in the morning. Miles is wondering how this is bad news, but suddenly an alarm starts to sound throughout the compound and people scatter. Phil, the security guy from the beginning of the episode, runs up to Sawyer and the rest and brings them inside a house to hide. They look out the window and see a lone man enter the compound carrying a torch, which he sticks in the ground. The man keeps walking and when he passes under a streetlamp, he is illuminated to Sawyer and Juliet: Richard.

He waits in the now empty “village square,” where Horace walks out to meet him.

Horace: Hello Mr. Alpert.

Richard: Hello Mr. Goodspeed.

Horace: I wish you would have told me you were coming, I would have turned the fence off for you.

Richard: That fence may keep other things out, but not us. The only thing that does keep us out, Horace, is our truce. Which you have now broken.

Horace: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Richard: Where are my two men?

So what is the nature of this truce? How did these two groups first come into contact with each other? What is their arrangement? What does Richard get out of allowing Dharma to stay? Why doesn’t the electrofence keep out Richard and his people?

Horace comes back inside a minute later and asks Sawyer how well he buried the bodies. When Sawyer says it depends on how hard they look, Horace turns to Phil and says, “Call The Arrow. Tell them we’re at Condition 1. Take the heavy ordinance, and make sure the fence is at maximum.”

The last time we heard mention of The Arrow station was at the beginning of this season, when Dr. Chang was taping an orientation video for it, only to be interrupted by news of an incident at The Orchid. Before that interruption, he said that The Arrow’s “primary purpose is to develop defensive strategies and gather intelligence on the island’s hostile, indigenous population.” At the time, I didn’t think we had seen The Arrow yet, but I’ve since learned that we have. Way back in Season Two, when Ana Lucia and Eko finally accepted the truth that Michael, Jin and Sawyer were also from Flight 815, they all went to an abandoned Dharma hatch where the other Tailies – including Bernard – were staying. That was The Arrow, and if you recall, it was completely run down and virtually empty.

Back to the scene, Sawyer tells Horace he’ll go out and talk to Richard. Horace protests, but Sawyer makes it clear he’s not asking for permission. So out he goes, telling Juliet as he exits that he’ll figure something out. He approaches Richard, who is sitting casually on a bench as if waiting to pick up a to-go order of food. What follows is a great scene between these two, in which Sawyer plainly, truthfully explains that he killed Richard’s men, and why. He says that he’s not with The Dharma Initiative, so any truce they might have has not been broken. When Richard asks who he is if not part of Dharma, Sawyer takes a seat next to him.

Sawyer: Did you bury the bomb?

Richard: Excuse me?

Sawyer: The hydrogen bomb with “Jughead” written on the side, did you bury it? Yeah I know about it. I also know 20 years ago some bald fellow limped into your camp and fed you some mumbo jumbo about being your leader. Then poof, he went and disappeared right in front of you. Any of this ringing a bell? That man’s name is John Locke, and I’m waiting for him to come back. Still think I’m a member of the damn Dharma Initiative?

Richard is clearly stunned by Sawyer’s statements, and accepts that whoever he is, he’s not part of Dharma. But nevertheless, two of his men are dead and his people need justice. Uhh, why don’t we talk about the fact that your two men attacked a couple who were trying to have a picnic? Okay, I guess we don’t know how the skirmish got started. Maybe Paul and Amy were in territory they weren’t entitled to be in based on the terms of this truce. But whatever happened, it sure looked like Richard’s men were the instigators.

By the way, you gotta love Sawyer’s ability to play such a badass and still make the term “mumbo jumbo” sound acceptable.

Finally, the mention of Jughead reminds me of something interesting that I failed to mention before. In the wake of that episode, when Faraday told Ellie to bury the hydrogen bomb and pour concrete over it, there has been speculation amongst fans that the bomb was buried beneath the hatch that imploded at the end of Season Two (the hatch known as The Swan). I didn’t recall this, but early in that season, Sayid and Jack went into the crawlspace below the floor of the hatch and found a huge block of concrete that they could not get around. Their trip below the floor was prompted by Sayid discovering this same concrete block above them, behind one of the walls. So obviously, it’s pretty damn big. When Jack asked Sayid for his thoughts, Sayid answered, “The last time I heard of concrete being poured over everything in its way…was Chernobyl.” The Swan might have been destroyed, but it certainly wasn’t H-bomb level destruction. Is Jughead buried beneath that spot? And wherever it’s buried…could it still go off?

TWO WEEKS NOTICE
Horace and Sawyer find the grieving Amy, and Horace explains that LaFleur has worked things out with Richard, but in exchange for what happened they need to let him take Paul’s body back with him. Amy starts to cry, and Horace says that if she doesn’t want to do it, he understands and they’ll accept the consequences. Amy reluctantly agrees that if it will keep them all safe and maintain the truce, they can take him. Before leaving the body, she removes a chain from around his neck. It’s a small wooden symbol, which according to Lostpedia is an ankh, an Egyptian hieroglyph for fertility and eternal life. (Egyptian. I’m just sayin’…) In the meantime, Horace tells Sawyer that he and his people can stay there until the next sub run in two weeks.

Sawyer finds Juliet sitting on the dock, the submarine anchored behind her, and shares the good news. It’s a still, quiet night. She points out that the submarine brought her to the island, and for three years she’s been trying to leave. She says she’s taking her opportunity now. Sawyer says that whatever she thinks she’s going back to doesn’t exist yet, but she counters that that isn’t a reason not to go. Sawyer asks if she’s really going to abandon him with the “mad scientist and Mr. I Speak to Dead People? And Jin, who’s a hell of a nice guy but not exactly the greatest conversationalist?” He asks her to stick around and give him two weeks. Again, their conversation is light and playful. How far they’ve come from the days, just weeks ago in the show’s timeline, when he was a prisoner doing manual labor under her watchful eye.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF DHARMA
Three years later, they’ll have come even farther. The two are living together in domestic bliss. He even picks flowers for her. Who’d have thought Sawyer had such a creamy soft center? He’s like a human Cadbury egg. He tells her she was amazing that day, delivering Amy’s baby. She thanks him for believing in her, they hug, they kiss, she tells him she loves him, he says he loves her…all I can say is enjoy it while it lasts, kids.

Later that night, Sawyer is in the same room where he first met Horace, only now the positions are reversed, with Horace on the couch waking up with a headache. Sawyer tells him that he’s father to a newborn boy. Then he asks what happened to lead him on his bizarre escapade. Horace says he was looking for a pair of socks when he found Paul’s ankh buried in the back of Amy’s drawer. Sawyer can’t believe they got into a fight about that. “Yeah I know,” Horace says.  “But…it’s only been three years, Jim. Just three years that he’s been gone. Is that really long enough to get over someone?”

Sawyer looks like he understands, and a small smile comes over his face. “I had a thing for a girl once. And I had a shot at her, but I didn’t take it. For a little while I’d lay in bed every night, wondering if it was a mistake. Wondering…if I’d ever stop thinking about her. And now I can barely remember what she looks like. And her face is…she’s just gone. And she ain’t never coming back. So…is three years long enough to get over someone? Absolutely.”

Next thing we know, it’s morning and he’s asleep with Juliet when the phone rings. He answers it grumpily, and receives some news that startles him. He tells the caller not to “bring them in,” but that he’ll meet them. He jumps up to put his uniform on and tells Juliet it’s nothing, but that he has to go meet Jin. He drives a jeep along the coastline and gets out to wait as Jin’s van approaches and stops a few yards away. And out comes Hurley, Jack and Kate. They all look at him. He stares back,  barely believing his eyes.

Is three years long enough to get over someone? Let me get back to you on that.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-Although his uniform simply labels him as Mathematician, Horace seems to be the leader of The Dharma Initiative during this era. How did that come to pass? Where are Gerald and Karen DeGroot, the scientists who conceived The Dharma Initiative in the first place?

-Those with sharp memories might remember that the first time we met Horace – when he delivered Ben and then brought young Ben and Roger into The Dharma Initiative – he had another female companion, named Olivia. From what I heard, the actress who played her – Samantha Mathis, for you Pump Up the Volume fans – was not available to return. So they gave Horace a new girl.

-Where the hell are Rose and Bernard?!?

-So the flashes have stopped, and our travelers have settled into life on the island sometime in the 70’s, working for The Dharma Initiative. The implications of this are wide-ranging and mind-numbing.

Are they really stuck in this time period for good, or will they be able to return to 2009? Jin and Sun have a daughter waiting for them after all, and I have a hard time believing that at least one of them won’t make it back to her (though Sun didn’t seem to give a thought to leaving her behind and returning to the island).

What future events will be affected/changed by their presence on the island? Will Daniel alter Charlotte’s fate? Will young Ben Linus meet the 815 survivors? Now that Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles and Daniel are all part of the Dharma Initiative (and Jack, Kate and the rest may have to join up too), where does that position them for The Purge, which granted, is still years away? Will the Adam and Eve skeletons in the cave near the beach turn out to be the bodies of a pair of 815 survivors?

Whatever the answers to these questions turn out to be, this episode really feels to me like the beginning of the end. If the shifts through time have indeed stopped and everyone is settled in 1970’s Dharmaville, then this episode feels like the one that sets the stage for the series climax. The final chapter of Lost may have just begun.

STATE OF THE SEASON
With two weeks between episodes, I had been hoping to find some time to meditate on what we’ve seen so far this season and what it all means going forward. But as Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast,” and I didn’t get to give it the thought I’d hoped. (I believe the second half of Ferris’ statement goes, “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss is it”…which might hit too close to home for a guy who devotes hours every week to sitting alone at a computer geeking out over a TV show).

Anyway, the big picture stuff continues to elude me, so I have no new theories to put forth about Ben and Widmore, Eloise Hawking, Jacob, Christian and Claire, Walt, time travel, The Dharma Initiative, the JFK assassination, the Watergate tapes, the Lindbergh Baby, Jimmy Hoffa or how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. But in reviewing my write-ups thus far, here’s a recap of some questions/thoughts:

-When Jack and Ben first meet up over Locke’s coffin, Ben asks Jack what Locke told him when they met weeks earlier. Jack says that Locke told him some very bad things happened after Jack and the others left, and that those things were their fault for leaving. Now that we’ve seen that encounter between Jack and Locke – and please correct me if I’m wrong about this – but Locke said no such thing. He only said that Jack and the rest needed to come back with him.

-When Ben brings Locke’s coffin to his butcher friend Jill, he tells her to keep the body safe or else everything they’re trying to do will be useless. So even though he killed Locke, he makes the point that Locke is still a vital part of his plan and must make it back to the island. Why?

-When and how will Desmond re-enter the story?

-Will we learn more about Teresa, the woman Faraday left behind in England after his research went awry?

-Have the interferences by Flight 815 survivors on past island events resulted in the creation of new timelines? For example, when Jin stopped Rousseau from following her companions beneath the Temple, wouldn’t that have caused a splinter in the space-time continuum, seeing as Jin would not have been there to stop Rousseau the first time she landed on the island? Ditto for Locke confronting Richard Alpert, Daniel telling Ellie to bury the hydrogen bomb, Daniel meeting Charlotte as a little girl, etc.

-While my guesses are never deep or too risky, I was pleased to see a few of my mini-theories along the way bear fruit. Like the idea that Locke would realize Jack was Christian’s son, and that telling him about his father’s presence on the island would be the deciding factor in Jack trying to return. I was also right that when the time jumps stopped, Sawyer and company would land in the middle of the Dharma years – not a hard call to make given that we had already seen Faraday appear during construction of The Orchid, but still, that could have been a short, flash-induced visit. So I’ll give myself half a point.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Another great episode, featuring terrific developments for Sawyer and excellent work by Josh Holloway. Elizabeth Mitchell was awesome as well; she’s two seasons overdue for an Emmy nomination.

Tonight’s Episode: Namaste

Click here for a larger picture of the full statue. It’s pretty cool. And apparently, though it’s hard to tell, he/she/it is holding one of those ankh symbols in each hand…

MYSTERY GUEST
We begin with our new characters, Caesar and Ilana. The former is looking around in a cluttered office. What’s he looking for? Is he familiar with this place, or did he just find it? He seems to be looking for something specific. He finds a folder with a Dharma logo on the front. There are maps, and a sheet covered in geometric sketches – circles and lines, along which are written the following: space time, real time, imaginary time and imaginary space. He also finds a shotgun, which he tucks in his bag just as Ilana enters…and which he keeps hidden from her.

She says they found a man standing in the water, wearing a suit. She says no one recognizes him from the plane; in fact, she is positive he was not onboard, and says with certainty that he was not among those who disappeared in the white light. They’re outside at this point, walking along a broad gravel road, and the plane rests right alongside them, apparently in one piece (from what we can see of it). I guess that means it never got to Guam.  They arrive on the beach, where several people are gathered around a fire. The mystery man sits, concealed by a shroud. Caesar introduces himself, and John Locke removes his hood and reciprocates.

It would appear that the theory I included last week from Entertainment Weekly‘s Doc Jensen was correct: Ajira Airways Flight 316 landed on the island that houses Dharma Initiative’s Hydra station, where polar bears once toiled and where Jack, Kate and Sawyer were kept prisoner. Locke stands in the surf the next morning, staring out at the big island. When Ilana approaches, Locke asks if she has a passenger list, but she says he’ll have to ask Caesar. Locke also points toward two outrigger canoes on the beach, which Ilana says were already there. She says there was a third, but the pilot and a woman took it during the night, without telling anybody. (This makes me happy, because it means we’ll be seeing Lapidus again soon!) But who is the woman that Ilana references? Something tells me it’s not Sun…

Ilana wants to know who Locke is and how he got there. She’s friendly, but firm. He doesn’t know how to answer her, but wagers a guess that he’s dressed in the clothes he was supposed to be buried in. (This is probably way too observant, but the shirt Locke is wearing in these scenes does not look like the white shirt he was buried in. Significant? I doubt it.) He says the last thing he remembers is dying.

BENEATH THE SHELTERING SKY
We revisit Locke’s final moments on the island, turning the wheel under Christian Shephard’s watchful eye, and the next thing he knows, he’s laying on the desert floor. Just like Ben before him, he has materialized in Tunisia, and promptly vomits. But something is different this time. There are poles strung all around, with wires and surveillance cameras pointed toward him. Is he in the same exact spot where Ben appeared earlier?  If so, the poles and cameras are a new addition. Or is he in a different spot? (Ben turned the wheel in late December 2004/early January 2005, but it was October 2005 when he arrived in the desert and checked into a hotel. So what accounts for the difference in time from island departure to desert arrival? And how do those who instruct Locke to leave the island know what time he’ll end up in?)

Locke’s leg is still badly injured and he can’t move. Come nighttime, he’s still lying there, shivering, when a group of Arabs speeds over in a pick-up truck, throws him in back and brings him to a village hospital. Doctors chattering in a foreign language rush to treat him. He’s disoriented…but not so much that he doesn’t notice the familiar figure of Matthew Abaddon peering at him from behind a thin curtain!!

Locke wakes up the next morning to find Charles Widmore sitting by his bed. Widmore introduces himself, seeing as he was 17 when they last met. He asks Locke how long it’s been for him since that encounter on the island, when John walked into the Others’ camp looking for Richard Alpert. Four days, Locke answers. Widmore says the cameras in the desert are his.

Widmore: I was afraid Benjamin might fool you into leaving the island, as he did with me. I was their leader.

Locke: The Others?

Widmore: They’re not The Others to me, they’re my people. We protected the island, peacefully, for more than three decades. And then I was exiled, by him. Just as you were.

Is this true? Because in Widmore’s younger days, when we met him previously, Richard seemed to be in charge of the Others. So did Widmore succeed him? And if so, was that transfer of power peaceful? Because Richard remains on the island during Widmore’s alleged rule, yet when he meets young Ben, his hair is long and he looks more ragged than when we met him in the 1950’s. Has he been cast out of his own group by Widmore?

Locke says he wasn’t exiled; that he left on his own and Ben is already gone. Widmore first asks why he’d do that, but quickly surmises that he’s trying to bring his people back. He says that three years have passed for the Oceanic Six, and that they haven’t spoken a word of truth about where they were or what happened to them. Locke says he has to bring them back, and Widmore says he’ll do everything he can to help, “because there’s a war coming, John. And if you’re not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.” Widmore’s behavior with Locke is the most benevolent we’ve ever seen from him, but a dark undercurrent reveals itself when Ben is mentioned.

When Locke’s compound fracture is healed enough for him to begin his mission, Widmore gives him the Jeremy Bentham passport, funds, a cell phone for reaching him anytime and folders with info on the whereabouts of the Oceanic Six.

Locke: You’ve been watching them?

Widmore: I’m deeply invested in the future of the island, John, so yes I’ve been watching them. I wouldn’t mention I’m involved in this. I can’t imagine what they think of me, having listened to Benjamin’s lies.

Locke: How do I know that you’re not the one who’s lying?

Widmore: I haven’t tried to kill you. Can you say the same for him? You still don’t trust me.

Locke: You sent a team of killers and a boatload of C4 to the island. That doesn’t exactly scream trust.

Widmore: I needed Linus removed, so it could be your time. The island needs you, John. It has for a long time.

Locke: What makes you think I’m so special?

Widmore: Because you are.

Couple of things about this exchange before we move on. Widmore says he’s been watching the Oceanic Six because he is invested in the future of the island. So he obviously knows that they need to go back there. But how does their return serve his interests?

Also, Widmore’s response to Locke’s remark about the freighter is hardly sufficient. Did he really intend to have Keamy kill everyone on the island? It was Ben who kept insisting that; unfortunately we never know if we can believe Ben. Was the C4 truly just supposed to be insurance that Ben wouldn’t try anything, only to have him call their bluff? Would the island really have been torched? If Widmore’s goal is to get back there, how does destroying the place achieve that? Keamy told Captain Gault on the freighter that, according to “the secondary protocol” The Orchid was the one place Ben would go if he thought the island was to be torched. But was this idea of destroying the island just a ruse to tempt Ben to go to there? When Faraday realized that the mercenaries were going to apprehend Ben at The Orchid, he realized this meant danger for everyone on the island. Was that because he assumed that the truth behind the secondary protocol was that the island would be destroyed, when in fact it was always meant to be an empty threat?

I’m losing my thread here. The main points are that a) Widmore’s interests would not seem to be served by destroying the island, and b) the excuse he gives to Locke about sending the freighter full of mercenaries and C4 leaves an awful lot of unanswered questions.

Getting back to the scene, Locke tells Widmore that Richard said he’d have to die in order to bring the others back to the island. “I don’t know why he said that,” Widmore says, “but I’m not going to let that happen.”

A car pulls up and Widmore introduces its driver to Locke: Matthew Abaddon. There’s a moment between them, but neither acknowledges their past meeting…not even when Abaddon echoes that occurrence by setting up a wheelchair for Locke to sit in. Widmore says Abaddon is there to transport Locke wherever he needs to go, and to protect him from those who mean to do him harm.

SIX VISITS
Locke travels to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where Sayid is doing humanitarian work with a Peace Corps-like group called Build Our World. Sayid says he has no intention of returning with Locke. “For two years I was manipulated into thinking I was protecting everyone on the island,” he says, adding that he did so in service of Ben. “So who is manipulating you, John?” he asks.  He also questions why Locke really wants to go back. “Is it just because you’ve got nowhere else to go?”

After parting with Sayid, Locke travels to New York. While parked outside of a prep school, he asks Abaddon to look up his old flame Helen. Then the school begins to empty, and out comes Walt, who sees Locke and crosses the street. Locke remarks that Walt doesn’t look surprised to see him. Walt says he’s been having dreams about John, wearing a suit, on the island, surrounded by people trying to hurt him. So I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before we see that prophecy fulfilled.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, including Locke reporting that to his knowledge, Michael is on a freighter near the island, Walt goes on his way. Locke says to Abaddon that the boy has been through enough.

The meeting between Walt and Locke made me wonder why such a big deal had been made a while back about Locke traveling under the name Jeremy Bentham. It occurs to me now that the only reason this name was used repeatedly in last season’s finale was so the characters could talk about him without revealing until the end of the episode that it was Locke in the coffin. In that episode, Walt goes to see Hurley in the mental institution, and says that “Jeremy Bentham” had visited him. But during their interaction on the street, Locke never refers to himself by the name Bentham or tells Walt to call him that. In that episode, everybody kept using the name Bentham: Kate, Jack, Sayid, Hurley – they were all so committed to it. I can understand that the writers evoked the name so pointedly last year in order to maintain the surprise of Bentham’s identity, but seeing as that’s how they played it, a bigger deal should have been made in this episode of Locke being careful by asking everyone to use that name if referring to him. Now it’s just hanging out there as sloppy continuity, and if you’ve been reading these messages for a while, you probably know that stuff like that bugs me.

But I digress. Next stop is Santa Rosa, where Locke visits Hurley just feet away from the place where the big dude once conversed with a deceased Charlie. (Awwww, Charlieeeeee!!!) Hurley assumes Locke is an apparition as well, but he quickly realizes the truth. He doesn’t see how Locke is going to get everyone to go back to the island, and then he becomes distressed when he sees Abaddon hanging out by the car, watching them. Locke says they’re together, which alarms Hurley even more given his own earlier encounter with Abaddon. He freaks out and retreats inside.

Back in car, Abaddon points out that Locke is zero for three. Locke asks Abaddon what he does for Mr. Widmore. And then it comes: “You’re not really going to pretend you don’t remember that I was an orderly in the hospital right after your accident? That I was the one who told you to go on a walkabout? The same walkabout that put you on the plane that crashed on that island? I help people get to where they need to get to, John. That’s what I do for Mr. Widmore.”

Okay, at this point we have to stop again. Last year, before the two part season finale aired, I sent out one of these messages that was not tied to a specific episode, in which I threw out some shaky theories I was working on. Part of those theories have since been debunked, but some pieces are still in play. If Abaddon encouraged Locke to go on his walkabout, that means even at that point in time, Widmore knew about Locke and wanted to get him to the island. Which is one of those strange time travel conundrums – at that time, Locke had not yet been to the island, and therefore had not met 17 year-old Widmore. Unless the time travel rules on Lost don’t work that way. They must not work that way, because Widmore must have known that Locke would wind up on Flight 815, and that Flight 815 would crash on the island. So Abaddon merely had to plant the walkabout seed in Locke’s head, and then destiny would take care of the rest…right down to Locke’s trip being timed correctly so that he’d be on Flight 815. Maybe?

This also makes it feel likely that Ben was being truthful when he told Locke, way back in Season Two while he was captive in the hatch, that he – Locke – was the reason Ben was crossing the island. When he got caught in Rousseau’s net – the first time we met him and he was claiming to be Henry Gale, a balloon traveler from Minnesota – he was actually coming to find Locke. But why exactly? Because he somehow knew that Widmore wanted him, prompting him to try and beat Widmore to it? Or maybe because Richard Alpert had already been trying to recruit Locke to the island? Again, it must not matter that Locke hadn’t yet told Richard where and when he’d be born. GRRRRRRRR, TIME TRAVEL!!!!! MESSING WITH MY MIND!!!!!

Abaddon’s explanation that he gets people where they need to go also finally clarifies that Widmore was ultimately responsible for putting Naomi, Faraday, Charlotte, Miles and Lapidus together and sending them to the island. We know how Faraday and Widmore are connected, and we know how Charlotte and the island are connected (though not what Widmore has to do with her). So what about Naomi, Miles and Lapidus? Why did Widmore want them?

Abaddon’s explanation does not explain why he tried to have Hurley moved to another facility. Was he trying to entice him back to the island without using Locke?

Alright, so back to Locke’s faltering quest. He moves on to Los Angeles, visiting Kate at her house. This is a short but terrific scene, well written and beautifully acted by Terry O’Quinn and Evangeline Lilly. In fact, this whole episode is excellent in its writing, directing and acting. This was some of Terry O’Quinn’s best work ever as Locke, and that’s saying something. He might be looking at another Emmy nomination for this one. And in this scene, he does some outstanding, subtle work – his reaction to Kate’s biting remarks, his openness in telling her about Helen and the anger that drove her away…great stuff. She rejects his proposal, of course, and with each successive person refusing him, you feel worse for him.

That feeling isn’t helped when Abaddon takes Locke to Helen – at a cemetery. He informs Locke that she died of a brain aneurysm. Locke muses that she loved him and that they could have been together, but Abaddon says it wouldn’t have changed anything. “Helen’s where she’s supposed to be. Sad as it is, her path led here. Your path, no matter what you did or what you do, your path leads back to the island.” If that’s true, why does he need the Oceanic Six at all? Won’t he wind up back on the island through some stroke of circumstance? Locke must feel the same, remarking, “You say that like it’s all inevitable.”

Locke gets back in the car, but as Abaddon closes the trunk on the wheelchair, he is suddenly gunned down by an unseen attacker. Locke, still injured, maneuvers into the front and speeds off, leaving a dead and chillingly wide-eyed Abaddon on the road. But he doesn’t really have control of the car, and in the panic of his flight, he gets into a major crash. He wakes up in the hospital…with Jack sitting bedside, staring at him. It’s a brilliant reveal, and the look on Jack’s face couldn’t be more perfect. He immediately asks what Locke is doing there.

Locke knows that convincing Jack to return is the key to getting the others. He explains the accident was caused because someone was trying to kill him; someone who doesn’t want him to succeed, because he’s important. Jack can’t stomach it. “Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you’re special aren’t real? That maybe there’s nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an island. That’s it.”

As he’s about to walk out, Locke plays his last card.

Locke: Your father says hello.

Jack: What?

Locke: The man who told me to move the island, the man who told me how to bring you all back, he said to tell his son hello. It couldn’t have been Sayid’s father and it wasn’t Hurley’s. That leaves you. He said his name was Christian.

Jack: My father is dead.

Locke: He didn’t look dead to me.

Jack can’t listen to anymore, and despite Locke’s cries that he is supposed to help, Jack storms out, yelling to Locke, “It’s over!”

And so it is. Over. The look of disappointment, anger and frustration on Locke’s face is heartbreaking. Despite blowing up submarines and satellites, killing people, lying…you just want to give the poor guy a hug. And it’s about to get worse.

SUICIDE IS PAINLESS
Next we see Locke in a cheap hotel room, writing his suicide note to Jack. As he prepares a power cord so he can hang himself, I wondered: has he really given up, or is he testing himself, as he has in the past? Testing his destiny, this idea that he’s going back to the island and he has to die…

He slips the noose around his neck and is just about to step off the table when there’s a knock on door and Ben bursts in. Locke seems bewildered.  Ben explains that he had a man watching Sayid, and was informed when Locke showed up. He says he’s been watching all of them, making sure they’re safe, just as he’s doing now. He admits to killing Abaddon, claiming it was only a matter of time before Abaddon killed Locke. Ben explains that Abaddon works for Widmore and is extremely dangerous.

When Locke, still with the noose around his neck, says that Widmore saved him, Ben pushes back that Widmore is just using him to try and get back to the island. “Charles Widmore is the reason I moved the island. So that he could never find it again; to keep him away, so that you could lead. You can’t do this. If anything happens to you…John, you have no idea how important you are.”

Both Widmore and Ben are telling Locke that he is meant to lead, that the island needs him, that he’s is special and important…and once again you just feel such pity for Locke and the way he’s being manipulated and pulled in both directions by people who seem to undermine him at the same time that they build him up. Locke says he’s a failure, not a leader; that he couldn’t convince Jack or any of them to go back with him. But Ben says Jack bought a ticket to Sydney: flying at night, returning the next morning. Apparently Locke’s description of Christian motivated Jack’s desire to return to the island…contrary to what he told Kate on the night they met in a parking lot next to the airport. At that meeting, Jack told her that he believed what “Bentham” had said because it was the only way to keep Kate and Aaron safe. But Locke never said anything about Kate, so Jack was either lying to her in the hope she would agree to come, or once again the writing is inconsistent.

“John you can’t die,” Ben pleads. “You’ve got too much work to do. We’ve got to get you back to that island so you can do it.” Locke agrees to come down, and sits on the table crying. I’m tellin’ ya, the whole thing done broke my heart. He’s a wreck. Ben seems to be genuinely concerned for him, talking him through what the next steps might be in trying to get the others back to the island.

And then it happens. Locke says that Jin is alive, but that he did not want Sun to come back to the island; that he wanted Locke to say his body washed up on the beach, and that he gave Locke his wedding ring for proof. As soon as John starts talking about this, Ben’s expression changes. A lightbulb goes off, an opportunity presents itself….something happens. Ben is now playing along with Locke, who adds that he knows what to do once they have everyone together: they need to find a woman named Eloise Hawking. The look on Ben’s face seems to say, “If you know about Eloise then you know too much.” Locke can’t see this look, but can tell from Ben’s voice that he recognizes the name, and asks if he knows her. Ben says he does…then grabs the power chord and chokes Locke with all his strength. The struggle is brief. Locke is dead.

The last time Ben tried to kill Locke, it didn’t work. He would later tell Hurley, “I should have realized at the time that it was pointless, but I really wasn’t thinking clearly.” So does he think it will be different this time? After he stages Locke’s body to look like he did hang himself, tidies up to remove evidence that he’d been there, takes Jin’s ring and gives a last look around, he says, “I’ll miss you, John. I really will.” The tone of his voice doesn’t suggest that he expects to see Locke again. Yet why does he want to bring Locke back to the island? Will he be surprised to see him apparently resurrected?

DEAD ALIVE
Back on the island, Locke goes into the room where we saw Caesar at the beginning. Caesar is there again, sitting and reading from a Dharma file. Locke asks for a passenger list, but Caesar says the pilot took it. He then asks if Locke can shed any light on the mystery of several passengers on their plane disappearing into thin air when they flew through that blinding white light. He describes the passenger across from him – clearly Hurley – and a slight smile appears on Locke’s face. Locke realizes how he might have got there (though why did he end up on the small island, while Jack, Kate and Hurley are on the main island? And where are Sun and Sayid?) Caesar says all the passengers are accounted for, except for those who disappeared or got hurt. He brings Locke into a room of injured, and there, unconscious, bruised even worse than before, is Ben.

That should be interesting.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
-This episode left me completely befuddled about who to trust in the Widmore/Linus battle. I’ve always come down on Ben’s side, but for the first time that choice seems less obvious. I don’t know if I believe Ben about Widmore’s intentions toward Locke; I don’t believe that Abaddon would have tried to kill him; but I do believe Ben was sincere in not wanting Locke to kill himself and in believing that he is vital to whatever Ben wants to happen on the island.

But I don’t know how to reconcile that with his sudden decision to kill Locke. I suggested in a recent write-up that Ben seems to be doing all the things that Locke was supposed to do: Ben moves the island instead of Locke, and Ben tries to reconvene the Oceanic Six and get them to return to the island. But that is something we witness him doing after he’s killed Locke, and given the look that comes over him when Locke starts talking about Jin, it seems that the decision to try reuniting them himself may have been born in that moment. It’s like learning about Jin and the ring provides him a way to convince them all himself, without Locke. Does he think that if he gets the Six back to the island, then whatever powerful destiny awaits Locke could instead become his?

-Let me tell you what Locke needs to do to Benjamin Linus. Sit him up in a chair, tie him down with his arms and hands flat out in front of him, palms flat, fingers spread. Then start asking him questions. If he thinks Ben’s lying, cut off a finger. Ask again. If he lies or tries to change the subject by offering “answers”…cut off a finger. Hell Locke, cut it off even if you think he’s telling the truth. And then cut off his hands at the wrists. And maybe an arm at the elbow or shoulder. Just start goddamn mutilating the son of a bitch. Maybe it will finally get some truth out of him, and even if not, I’ll bet it would feel great to just hack off some of that asshole’s appendages.

But that’s just me.

-I was definitely disappointed by the fate of Abaddon. He’s such a great, intriguing character. I hoped he would have a bigger role to play in the ultimate gameplan, and in fact I expected lots of him in Season Six. I wonder if that had been the original intention, and if they had to alter their plans because the actor, Lance Reddick, is now a regular cast member on Fringe, and therefore wouldn’t be available to shoot Lost more regularly. Either way, his demise sucks. I hope we will at least see him in more flashbacks.

-My old friend and current reader Dimitris S. and I were e-mailing last week and he offered a smart take on potential future developments that I admit had not occurred to me. Sorry to call you out, D, but I wanted to share your insight: “My undeveloped theory on this all getting religious was triggered by Widmore’s admission that he was ‘exiled’ from the island despite once being the leader of its inhabitants.  This conjured up thoughts of fallen angels, which naturally made me think that the ‘war is coming’ phrase meant the apocalypse.”

Maybe some of you had picked up on that too, but I hadn’t…possibly because I’m a Jew. The only apocalypse I really know is the one in which Martin Sheen motors upriver to assassinate Marlon Brando. Anyway, this theory scores points with me. And makes me wonder further if I’m right about the show having to curtail its Abaddon intentions; among the several approximate translations of “Abaddon” is “Satan.”

-While I’m sharing others’ theories, there are two brief thoughts from Doc Jensen that I wanted to include this week. The first involves Walt, and a cool theory about how he has appeared on the island even after leaving it: “The kid’s got The Shining times 10, and he can use his scary=psychic powers to astral project himself to the Island — most likely unknowingly, perhaps only in his dreams.” Who knows what the truth is, but I like the sound of that.

The second theory involves the fate of Locke’s ex, Helen: “Locke was told that Helen had died. Brain aneurysm. Or so Abaddon said. Do you believe him? Consider: What if Team Widmore faked that grave and fabricated that story to keep Locke on task and make sure he had no possible motivation for wanting to back out and not go back to the Island? Regardless, like some time traveling Scrooge confronted with an awful future, Locke grieved and owned his stuff: ‘She loved me. If I had just…’ Locke left the thought hang, then finished: ‘We could have been together.’ I’d like to think they could still be.”

If Widmore is the one who faked the wreckage of Flight 815, surely he could conjure up a solitary headstone. I think Helen probably is dead, but again, I like the idea that it’s just a Widmore ruse.

-The man Sayid killed outside of Hurley’s mental hospital – was it one of Widmore’s men, or one of Ben’s? What about the guys with the tranquilizer guns? Who are they working for?

-When Richard told Locke he’d have to die in order to bring the others back, did he already know how Locke would die? That it would be at Ben’s hands? That he would come back to life?

-Oh yeah – what the hell is up with Locke coming back to life??!!??

Tonight’s Episode: LaFleur