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