Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Explaining LOST - Namaste

“Namaste”

 

Okay let’s get this right off the bat. I accidently lied last entry. I was told this would be a Ben entry, but this isn’t. In fact this wasn’t centric on any of the characters, but it was still a very good episode. We open on Ajira Airways flight 316 still in the air. We see the Oceanic 5/6th unable to really enjoy the flight. The co-pilot jokes around with Lapidus noting that Hurley must have nerves of steel, since he recognized him as an Oceanic 6. Then the plane starts a’rumblin’ and a’tumbling. Then that yellow light appears and it has some of the people vanish. Yet the plane now goes from darkness to daylight. Also they are about to crash into an island! And its inhabited by dinosaurs! Okay I made up that last bit, but it’s the same level of drama. The co-pilot recognizes there’s a runway. (One that Kate and Sawyer actually built in Season Three. How did they know this plane would land? No freakin’ idea.) The plane uses the runway but still didn’t make a perfect landing as it hit some trees and killed the co-pilot. The two new characters awake and Sun is there too. Lapidus and Sun are concerned that the rest of our familiar characters have vanished. Ben just seems impressed.

Thanks to a nice title card we are now thirty years earlier as those lovable characters get out of the (Ooo ooo) Dharma Bus. Sawyer is still in awe of seeing them all. Hurley is thrilled that Sawyer and gives him a big bear hug and even comments on missing the nicknames. Jack and Sawyer basically give each other a head nod and Sawyer gives Kate a hug too. Sawyer asks about Locke and is very sad to hear that. He reasonably asks how it happened and Jack instantly remembers how this show works and says that isn’t important right now. Apparently Jin didn’t tell them that they have time traveled. They missed a lot when they left the island.

After a brief commercial break they still don’t time travel. In their defense it makes more sense when Faraday explains it than Sawyer. Jin says they have to get a move on and Hurley digs that Jin’s English is so good. Jack says we can’t move yet since we have a whole plane’s worth of people like Lapidus, Sayid and…Sun. Once Jin hears that name he runs into a Dharma Jeep to go find her. Oh Jin and the love of his life.

Meanwhile Juliet is wondering what’s going on. She goes and talks to Miles with his many TVs. On them she sees something interesting. Cut to Juliet meeting up with Sawyer back at their house. He tells her who’s back and she’s very surprised. Who wouldn’t be? Okay Jack Bauer. And probably Don Draper. Sorry let’s focus back on people who are actually real. Juliet mentions there’s a new sub arriving on the island. That’s how new Dharma people arrive on the island and that is actually how Juliet was brought to the island by Ben and Richard. Locke of course blew up the sub back in Season Three because he thought they were playing Battleship. He was very disappointed to hear everyone lost.

While this is going on Jin knocks on the door of a man named Radinski. Now we actually know this name. Okay I know this name. Back when Desmond was pushing that button in the hatch for years he had a guy in there with him. He said was left all alone because his partner had killed himself. That man was Radinski. So it was eerie to see him working on a model of the hatch to start building on it. It was like he was building his inevitable tombstone. Yet Jin has no time for arts and crafts as he runs to look at computer print-outs. Radinski is being a dick and won’t help. He says there’s no way a plane landed here without him knowing. After being pushed around by Jin he checks the other stations. Alas, no plane.

Back in 2008, Sun is holding her wedding ring on the beach. They recently landed…okay sorta landed and it’s daylight. Lapidus directs a group on the beach with a really cool crane shot. (Sorry I’m a TCOM major.) He offers some hope saying that help would arrive. New Character Caesar says that we should search some of the houses in the area.  Sun is bored by Caesar and notices that Ben is leaving. Lapidus is bored by Caesar and notices that Sun is leaving. The show is bored by Caesar so we follow everyone. Ben isn’t stupid and asks Sun why she’s following him. She doesn’t answer but Ben says that he’s going back to their island.

Back in 1977, Juliet walks over to Michelle Dressler who is sleeping on a hammock with her new baby. Michelle Dressler says that two people on the sub dropped out at the last minute and gives Juliet the records to give to Pierre Chang. Well that was easy. Juliet holds the baby who looks nothing like Baby Aaron and asks about the name of the child. Michelle Dressler says that baby is named Ethan. Whoa, Ethan? Ethan Rom the evil Other who kidnapped Claire back in Season One and was shot to death by Charlie in anger? That’s nice. 

Meanwhile Jack, Kate, and Hurley are just chilling. They all seems rather lost about what to do now that they are here. Sawyer brings by a Dharma van and some clothes for them. Jack tries to slyly take control, but Sawyer knows what he’s doing. They all get in the bus while Jin is still looking for the plane. Yet they find something else. A motion sensor alarm was tripped nearby. It must be a hostile right? Right? Nah, it’s just Sayid who is actually overjoyed to see Jin. Yet since Radinski is nearby Jin has to point a gun at Sayid. This is the worst case of peer pressure.

Meanwhile the (Ooo ooo) Dharma Bus is driving and Hurley is still trying to figure all of this out. Good luck, dude. He should read my blog. Oh yeah no internet in 1977. Details. Hurley asks if Sawyer has warned them about the Purge. Quick recap, the Purge is when the Others used poison gas and killed all of Dharma. Now we know that Ben was much older when it happened so it probably happened in the late 80s or early 90s so it’s not happening soon. We also don’t know exactly who ordered the Purge. Yet Sawyer says that he’s not here to play Nostradamus to these people and he vaguely mentions that Faraday said they couldn’t change the future. Jack smiles and says “Faraday? He’s here?” Sawyer growls and responds “Not anymore.” Now here’s my theory about this. It’s always fun to put these in print for when they’re proven wrong we can all look back on them. Now we saw Faraday work at the Orchid station in the season opener. What if he got it to work and now he’s in 2008 working on getting everyone else back to the future. Great scots!

The (Ooo ooo) Dharma bus arrives in town and our heroes really get to be confused by the 70s. Sawyer says to just play along and go through the process. Hurley starts to freak and wonders what will happen if they get questions they can’t answer. Like who’s President in 1977. By the way, it’s Jimmy Carter. You’re welcome. Then Miles shows up and gets a little star struck by our heroes returning. He also has news that Jin found a “hostile.” Jin whispers that it’s Sayid and Sawyer starts to make his way over there.

Back in 2008, Sun is following Ben. Sun is complaining about a lot of stuff. “Wait! Why are you going this way? Waaaaa!” Lapidus catches up and wonders why Sun is following Ben. She simply says she’s getting a boat to the main island. Lapidus says can you trust him. Sun says she has to trust him. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Yes he lies a lot but he’s going to a boat. You were following him to a boat. He doesn’t care if you follow him. What’s the worst-case scenario? “How dare you Ben! You didn’t take us to a boat! You took us to shelter with food!” Idiots. Guess what Ben took them to the long boats. Big shocker. Then Sun decides to knock out Ben with an oar. That makes sense. It’s not like he knows the island and knows where to find food and supplies and a way to find Jin. Idiots.

Back in 1977, Jack and Kate are watching a Dharma video that isn’t in bad quality for once. Jack’s name is called and he sits down with Pierre Chang, the man from the video. Jack is having déjà vu and even seems to be enjoying it. Chang announces to Jack that his aptitude test says that he will be doing janitorial work. Good ole Sawyer. Kate is getting nervous that her name hasn’t been called yet. Then Juliet rushes in and calls Kate’s name. Remember when Kate and Juliet had a cat fight in the mud? That was an awesome episode. There’s still tension among them.

Sawyer drives up and meets up with Jin, Radisnki, and Sayid. Radinski is getting paranoid and wants to shoot Sayid. Obviously Sawyer disagrees. Sayid comes out of the closet—stop giggling—and sees Sawyer for the first time. Here is where the dialog is top notch where Sawyer has to get Sayid to say the right things in front of Radinski. They end up being able to take Sayid away.

Back in 2008, Lapidus and Sun take the long boat to the main island. Remember a few episodes back when Caesar said the pilot left on a boat with some woman? Lovely how it all works out. They get to the island and they hear a lot of rumbling in the jungle. It sounded like Smokey but we didn’t see anything. They find a house that looks like it’s been beat up rather badly. For the first time in a while we hear the whispers around them. Then a house lights up. The door opens and it’s the resident creeper Christian Shepherd. At this point I think everyone has seen this guy but Jack. Funny how that works out. Christian leads them into a house and it looks destroyed from the inside. Christian takes a picture off the wall of the Dharma Initiative 1977 and sure enough there they are. He says that she has a long journey ahead of her. 

We cut to them actually taking that picture. Sawyer arrives back in town with Sayid and takes him to a holding cell, which I guess is kinda appropriate considering he was being arrested on the plane. Sawyer has a great look to him showing that he doesn’t want him to be in there. Later that night Jack is asking where to find LeFleur. He finds the house and Juliet opens the door. There are nervous smiles exchanged and then a hug. Then he finds Sawyer sitting on a chair reading a book. Now it’s the best scene in the episode where we have some really tense dialog. Sawyer is content with Sayid being safe. Jack then asks where do we go from here and Sawyer says he’s working on it. Jack decides to be a smartass and says, “It looks like you’re reading a book.” Sawyer one-ups him really fast by saying that Winston Churchill read a book every night during the war because it helped him think. Then Sawyer says that is what Jack didn’t do. He didn’t think and just reacted which caused a lot of people to die. So he’s going to go back and read his book. All Jack has to do is to go back and get a good night sleep. Sarcastically Sawyer asks if that is a relief. Jack smiles and you know it really is. Then Sawyer sees Kate being annoying and they have a quick glance. The show ends with a kid giving Sayid a sandwich. Sayid is grateful and asks who he is. Then we all learn it’s…HARRY POTTER! No it’s Ben, which is actually much cooler. 

L O S T

See I like that moment because I remember Season Two. When they first met Ben they threw him into the hatch and imprisoned him and tortured him. They thought he was an Other. (They were right.) Yet here we have a reverse scenario and Ben is giving Sayid food and even being nice to him. Just a nice little touch. This whole episode was full of those. It seemed to work as a nice set-up by getting all of the characters in place. As always I’m excited to see where the show goes with this especially with them now showing two younger versions of established villains. I hope we see our characters trying to stop them at a young age. I want more of those scenes where we have characters try to change the future and fail. It’s amusing especially when they hinted that Desmond might be allowed to change the future. Let’s hope he comes back into the story soon.  Probably not next week since it is absolutely-no-way-I’m-accidently-lying-about-it going to be about Sayid. 

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