I’m a pretty levelheaded guy. I generally start these blogs knowing precisely what to say and where to start breaking down this kooky, wacky mind trip we call Lost.
I have to say, last night’s episode, “316”, left me speechless. On more than one occasion during the hour. Where in the world do we begin?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. It’s getting a little mundane writing this over and over, but this episode was so damn satisfying. Does anyone else get the feeling that they are actually getting progressively better this season?
“316” began in quite a familiar fashion. Our hero, lying on his back in the jungle, called into the open by frantic shouting. Saving lives left and right. I loved the idea of showing us that at least some of out friends definitively get back to the island, and then show us how they got there “Pulp Fiction” style.
The Man of Science is no more…?
This outing was truly transcendant. I suppose you would call it a Jack-centric episode (though the term “centric” is becoming somewhat obsolete this season), and Matthew Fox delivered like he always does. For the entire arc of the series, we have bombarded with messages to inform that Jack has always regarded the island and his experiences on it as purely coincidence and refused to believe in any of the hocus pocus that makes the island special.
Last night, however, we saw what I believe was the rejuvenation of Jack Shephard. Confronted with a seemingly impossible scenario by which to return to the island (windows? pockets of energy? jigga what?). Jack’s doubt was cast away in a beautifully written scene explaining the story of Thomas the apostle, who doubted the resurrection of Christ. This would have been a powerful enough sentiment, but the powerful image of Carvaggio’s classic painting “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” staring straight back at the Doc certainly hammered the point home. Did you see how incredibly giddy he was that all his friends had found their way onto Flight 316? It was the first time I ever believed Jack surrendered himself to the powers of the island. It’s fitting that in many ways, it was Locke who finally convinced Jack, even from beyond the grave with his somewhat omniscient suicide note to Jack. “I wish you had believed me.”
The Belly of the Beast
For a long time, I’ve always envisioned a scene in Lostwhere the characters are taken into a large room and get explained everything about the island, a la a villain explaining his diabolical scene in a James Bond movie. And I always worried that this would come out looking sort of silly. Well, last night we finally got something resembling that scene. And I thought it worked very well, given its pace. Ms. Hawking had to explain a whole heck of a lot in pretty brief amount of time and I just really dug the way the room looked. There was what appeared to be an army surveillance photo of the island dated 9/23/54. Now, we’ve seen the island in that year earlier this season in “Jughead”, which all but confirms that Eloise Hawking is in fact “Ellie”, the mouthy blonde that was holding a gun to Faraday. Who is her son. My head hurts Any thoughts on which “clever fellow” built that pendulum? I’m betting Faraday. My head still hurts. We also learned that Jack and co. had to best recreate the exact circumstances under which they originally went to the island. This included Locke filling in as a proxy for Christian Shephard, which sent Jack on a quest to find something belonging to his dear old dead dad.
He settled for a pair of shoes, in nice little scene with his somewhat odd granddad, who, like Jack, was trying desparately to spring himself from an unwanted circumstance. We also learned that the reason we’ve seen Christian wearing those goofy white shoes all over the island is that Jack gave them to him in Australia since he “didn’t deserve a pair of nice shoes.”
The Gang’s All Here! But How??
Without a doubt, the best part of the episode for me was trying to put together exactly why everybody seemingly had a change of heart about going back? So, Jack learns that he and his friends must be on Ajira Airways 316, which will at some point intersect one of the island’s movements. But the problem of course, is that as of his conversation with Ben, he was the only Oceanic Sixer willing to make the trip. Kate bailed with Aaron, Sayid wanted nothing to do with any of them, Sun was in the church, but left, and of course Hurley was still at the county jail.
Well, Hurley surfaced at the airport with a guitar case in tow, and didn’t care to explain how he busted out of the joint. “I’m here now, aren’t I?” Works for Jack, works for me. And surely, we’ll see that adventure soon enough.
Sun decided she would take any chance she could to be able to see Jin again. (More on Jin later…Christ.)
Sayid, now in custody was taken onto the plane and seemed pretty surprised to see Jack and his friends. Methinks he confessed to the murders that Hurley was wrongly accused of, hence, why Hurley is free. But that of course begs the question of why in the world he would be on a plane to guam. It seemed that as he saw more and more of his posse board the plane, he realized what was up and quickly resigned himself to his fate. But what was he doing there in the first place? It also seems that he is filling in the place of Kate, flying as a fugitive. You may think it doesn’t make sense since Kate is already there, presumably filling in for herself. Well, hold onto your butts…
…This is a little out there, and I could be totally wrong, but I think that Kate is pregnant, and thus serving as a proxy for Claire. She and Jack got makin’ with the love the night before the flight and it’s possible that she is knocked up and filling the role of the original blonde pregnant aussie. If this is in fact the case, does this show really need another baby?
Ben, looking like two miles of bad road, just barely did make it onto the plane. How about that scene where he spoke with Jack on the phone, looking as though he’d lost a fight with a cement mixer? Creeped me out. I’m willing to bet that he went to make good on his threat to kill Penny and, as a very good friend of mine surmised…”Ran into the Desmond train.”
And who better to pilot this completely batcrap insane journey than the man who was supposed to fly Oceanic 815 in the first place, a clean-shaven Frank Lapidus, who quickly got wise to the fact that this plane was not headed for Guam. Jeff Fahey was born to play this role, and he once again made his small screen time go a long way.
It’s good to be home. Hey, what time is it?
So, as we knew from the beginning of the episode, Kate, Hurley and Jack got back to the island. But the circumstances were hardly the same as during their first arrival. Where was the plane? Did it even crash? There was just the huge familiar flash of light. Where are the other passengers? Oh, hey Jin. JIN!? In DHARMA gear?
I’m very glad I stay spoiler-free between episodes because that last reveal was one of the best in the show’s history. It seems fair to presume that When Locke moved the wheel, it stopped the island’s skipping somewhere in the DHARMA-era 1970’s. And for some reason, our friends have infiltrated the merry band of hippie scientists, no doubt to aid Faraday in…whatever the hell he’s doing.
Whew. I consistently go over my 1,000-word limit on these damn things. But man, is this show busy or what? Here are a few other thoughts that crossed my mind.
Poor Desmond, what in the world does the island still need him for? Hasn’t he been through enough?
Ben clearly doesn’t care what happens to the people in the back of the plane, and frankly neither do I. But I am intrigued by the two newcomers in the front of the plane. That foxy cop escorting fugitive Sayid, and that intimidating fella who sent his well wishes to Jack about his departed friend. Fun fact, that man is brilliant longtime character actor Said Taghmaoui, who starred in the film “Vantage Point” with, you guessed it, Matthew Fox.
My favorite scene was probably Jack’s conversation with Dead Locke as he gave him his old man’s shoes. Humorous, insightful, heartbreaking. Vintage Lost.
