>: 91 NAMASTE
And we’re back on Ajira Flight 316. Have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of that fuselage. I was hoping to get a Lapidus-centric this week and it looked like I was going to get my wish. That guy can land anything! So, 316 didn’t as much crash as get masterfully guided in by old Frank. And crushing, that’s the runway, I think, that Sawyer and Kate were clearing all of those rocks off of during 3.2-3.6. Did Ben have them do that because he knew that he would be arriving via that location in three years?
(A quick point about the years: I feel like the “present”, the day that 316 took off, has to be at the earliest January 2008. The reason for this is that we know that the O6 got rescued on 1/07/05 [Day 108, counting 9/22/04 as Day 1]. Then they did the whole three years later bit, right? But the DHARMA business is definitely taking place in ’77, when Sawyer and them first showed up it was ’74 and then he said that it was ’77 at the north beach, even though the titles tell us that’s THIRTY YEARS EARLIER from the 316 crash. I’m just sayin’)
At any rate, then it looked like it was going to be another alternate pilot, this time starring the 316 crew instead of the Tailenders (and this reminds me of something that the top of THIS PLACE IS DEATH put me in mind of, with the Frenchies showing up and talking loud: how many times has this happened on this Island, some crew showing up? At LEAST 108, one comes to suspect . . .). Surprising to see Sun didn’t catch the flash. Does this have something to do with Ji Yeon? The Island doesn’t want to take her away from her kid? Doesn’t want its boy Ben back either. As soon as Lapidus launched into his beach orientation, we realize that Sun is the woman that he stole the canoe with (as Lydia told Locke a couple of weeks back). And I thought it was for love! Those Ben/Sun/Frank scenes are great, just knowing that Ben is going to wind up in traction one way or another.
And then right back to the end of LAFLEUR. Sawyer wastes no time springing his latest con into action. I really did almost spit out my wine when Jin said Radzinsky’s name, definitely sputtered but just barely held it together. Was not expecting that. Great to see R. building the model of the Swan’s geodesic dome, but that begs the question: what was he doing with that blast door map if he freaking built the hatch in the first place? You know? That map very much seemed like the work of a Robinson Crusoe-type coming to grips with the Island, piecing the lay of the land together slowly, bit by bit, trip by trip whenever he could snatch a 45-minute hike in between button-pushing. Radzinsky is the last person I would have thought to be architect of the Swan for that reason. Was Kelvin/Brother Justin telling Desmond the truth? Was that stain on the roof of the Swan really this guy?
Jin’s Korean mafia strongarm tactics did not get too rusty during the break, seems.
And that look on Sayid’s face when Jin pulled the gun on him, hilarious.
That orientation was wild. Juliet deliberately juking the manifest, leaving Kate out just to mess with her? Not cool, not cool. And Phil calling out Jack’s name, summoning him over to Dr. Marvin Candle himself! I wish I could send like two seconds of that back to 2006 and give myself an aneurysm. Wait, maybe that’s what happened. Will happen, aaah!
Phil is clearly going to be trouble.
So, Christian pops back up to show Sun the way back. Looked like Claire lurking in the shadows there when they were in the orientation room, over Sun’s shoulder. And the new recruits pictures don’t quite line up, there’s this bald guy third from the right in the picture who is clearly not standing there when we jump back to ’77 to get the picture actually taken. A production error? A few seasons back, you’d think so, but that’s such a basic mistake to make at this point. On the other hand, what could the explanation possibly be? It’s the smoke monster, making itself appear as people who really weren’t there in old pictures? Just a curiosity. Speaking of smoke, was that black smoke that came out of the cabin with Christian indicative of a connection between the two? Are all these ghosts black smoke made solid, as I’ve suspected for quite some time? Can’t wait to see what Sun and Frank have to do to go back.
And what a scene with Jack and Sawyer. Masterfully written way to express the serious change in dynamic between the two. Sawyer was totally cool with him until Jack started barking and then would not stand for it, had to throw down the critique of where Jack’s leadership got them. ARE all their people killed? It’s really just Bernard and Rose and the anonymous chorus missing now, yah? Vincent, I guess. I don’t think that I’m forgetting anyone else. Oh, that really hot chick who walked by in 1.21. Those are the people who Jin mentioned he was searching for last episode, right? In Grid 133? I presume. (and just kidding about that chick)
Oh, speaking of that conversation, Ethan! That was unreal. So much was going on with Sawyer, it didn’t even occur to me to wonder who the baby was. Or, for that matter, to remain disturbed at how baby-centric this has gotten, just accepting it as a matter of course now. Juliet delivered Ethan (and Horace delivered Ben and Kate delivered Aaron, if you’re keeping score). Wild. The look on her face when she found out. It makes his little cameo at the top of 3.7 even crazier.
But yeah, Sawyer and Jack. One of my favorite things about Sawyer has always been his voracious appetite for books, not something you’d expect from that archetype and it really fleshed him out early on, that curiosity. Loved that bit about Churchill. He started out by offering Jack a beer and sent the sucker packing.
And Kate’s cabin is next door! That’s a couple rungs up the ladder from Awkward. Ol’ Holloway has got the Aching Yearn face down pat.
But you know something heavy is coming to get us to those four letters. Poor Sayid’s back behind bars. It wasn’t until now that I realized how much imprisonment has been a part of this show (owing in some degree to Lindelof’s fondness for THE PRISONER, no doubt). The entire cast is trapped on the Island to start things off, of course. First actual tying up takes place in, wait for it, 1.08 when Sawyer gets tied to the tree and tortured for Shannon’s asthma medication, holding out for that first kiss from Kate. Next episode, Sayid walks off and pays for it, gets shackled by Rousseau. Then of course the Others start in, taking Claire after they’ve already snagged a good chunk of the Tailenders (though we didn’t know that at the time), and shutting down the first season by stealing Walt. That button sure enslaved old John Locke for the better part of Season Two. And the Artist Formerly Known as Henry Gale had his memorable stint in the armory (put there by Sayid, no less, interpolate that shit over tonight’s last scene and see how freaky it looks). Jack, Kate, and Sawyer’s time in the cages to open Season Three. Locke locked Miles up for a minute there and the Freighter folk threw Sayid and Desmond in with poor doomed Minkowski. And, of course, the heavy, it seems like Jacob might be trapped inside that circle of ash. Even though his cabin moves.
And there are probably half a dozen other examples, those are just off the top of my head. All of that to say, being held against your will has been a predominant theme on this show since the start and it’s a very interesting tweak to the tradition to have, of all people, Young Ben bring Sayid a sandwich while he’s behind bars.
Of course. The $108,000 question that this begs is: Does that mean Ben has known how this goes down ALL THIS TIME?!?!? Does he remember Jack and Kate and Sawyer and Hurley and Sayid and Jin and even Miles from his childhood in New Otherton? He’s GOT to, right? He’s too old not to remember their faces. The only possible way they could get away with him not knowing is if he didn’t have any personal interaction with any of them whatsoever, but he makes his 1977 debut squinting his eyes at the caged A-rab (did you see that? The very last beat of the episode. That kid is beyond perfect, he’s got that same reptilian thing going on that Emerson does). But that’s a fairly mindblowing revelation. Ben has in all likelihood been aware of the way that the principal ’77 component of Season Five plays out since Sayid first saw him caught in Rousseau’s trap (did he ever make a crack in the armory about “no peanut butter sandwiches”? Or am I just thinking about that Stephen King one?). I really almost can’t wrap my mind around it all.
But what’s to come?
We still need to see what Kate did with Aaron, how Sayid got arrested, how Hurley wound up with that guitar, and what happened to Faraday. And if Miles is actually Son of Chang.
And now a Ben-centric seems even more crucial. Rewatched 3.20 this weekend (twice, the commentary with Emerson/Lindelof/Cuse is golden) and the jump between his last childhood scene and the Purge is certainly missing a crucial chunk of narrative. Will Annie, the girl o’his dreams, make an appearance? And the Humes!
Papa Shephard. Richard Alpert. Charles Widmore. Not yet. Perhaps soon.
And Jughead waits, bleeding radioactive waste into his shallow grave, as disinterested as ever.
(A quick point about the years: I feel like the “present”, the day that 316 took off, has to be at the earliest January 2008. The reason for this is that we know that the O6 got rescued on 1/07/05 [Day 108, counting 9/22/04 as Day 1]. Then they did the whole three years later bit, right? But the DHARMA business is definitely taking place in ’77, when Sawyer and them first showed up it was ’74 and then he said that it was ’77 at the north beach, even though the titles tell us that’s THIRTY YEARS EARLIER from the 316 crash. I’m just sayin’)
At any rate, then it looked like it was going to be another alternate pilot, this time starring the 316 crew instead of the Tailenders (and this reminds me of something that the top of THIS PLACE IS DEATH put me in mind of, with the Frenchies showing up and talking loud: how many times has this happened on this Island, some crew showing up? At LEAST 108, one comes to suspect . . .). Surprising to see Sun didn’t catch the flash. Does this have something to do with Ji Yeon? The Island doesn’t want to take her away from her kid? Doesn’t want its boy Ben back either. As soon as Lapidus launched into his beach orientation, we realize that Sun is the woman that he stole the canoe with (as Lydia told Locke a couple of weeks back). And I thought it was for love! Those Ben/Sun/Frank scenes are great, just knowing that Ben is going to wind up in traction one way or another.
And then right back to the end of LAFLEUR. Sawyer wastes no time springing his latest con into action. I really did almost spit out my wine when Jin said Radzinsky’s name, definitely sputtered but just barely held it together. Was not expecting that. Great to see R. building the model of the Swan’s geodesic dome, but that begs the question: what was he doing with that blast door map if he freaking built the hatch in the first place? You know? That map very much seemed like the work of a Robinson Crusoe-type coming to grips with the Island, piecing the lay of the land together slowly, bit by bit, trip by trip whenever he could snatch a 45-minute hike in between button-pushing. Radzinsky is the last person I would have thought to be architect of the Swan for that reason. Was Kelvin/Brother Justin telling Desmond the truth? Was that stain on the roof of the Swan really this guy?
Jin’s Korean mafia strongarm tactics did not get too rusty during the break, seems.
And that look on Sayid’s face when Jin pulled the gun on him, hilarious.
That orientation was wild. Juliet deliberately juking the manifest, leaving Kate out just to mess with her? Not cool, not cool. And Phil calling out Jack’s name, summoning him over to Dr. Marvin Candle himself! I wish I could send like two seconds of that back to 2006 and give myself an aneurysm. Wait, maybe that’s what happened. Will happen, aaah!
Phil is clearly going to be trouble.
So, Christian pops back up to show Sun the way back. Looked like Claire lurking in the shadows there when they were in the orientation room, over Sun’s shoulder. And the new recruits pictures don’t quite line up, there’s this bald guy third from the right in the picture who is clearly not standing there when we jump back to ’77 to get the picture actually taken. A production error? A few seasons back, you’d think so, but that’s such a basic mistake to make at this point. On the other hand, what could the explanation possibly be? It’s the smoke monster, making itself appear as people who really weren’t there in old pictures? Just a curiosity. Speaking of smoke, was that black smoke that came out of the cabin with Christian indicative of a connection between the two? Are all these ghosts black smoke made solid, as I’ve suspected for quite some time? Can’t wait to see what Sun and Frank have to do to go back.
And what a scene with Jack and Sawyer. Masterfully written way to express the serious change in dynamic between the two. Sawyer was totally cool with him until Jack started barking and then would not stand for it, had to throw down the critique of where Jack’s leadership got them. ARE all their people killed? It’s really just Bernard and Rose and the anonymous chorus missing now, yah? Vincent, I guess. I don’t think that I’m forgetting anyone else. Oh, that really hot chick who walked by in 1.21. Those are the people who Jin mentioned he was searching for last episode, right? In Grid 133? I presume. (and just kidding about that chick)
Oh, speaking of that conversation, Ethan! That was unreal. So much was going on with Sawyer, it didn’t even occur to me to wonder who the baby was. Or, for that matter, to remain disturbed at how baby-centric this has gotten, just accepting it as a matter of course now. Juliet delivered Ethan (and Horace delivered Ben and Kate delivered Aaron, if you’re keeping score). Wild. The look on her face when she found out. It makes his little cameo at the top of 3.7 even crazier.
But yeah, Sawyer and Jack. One of my favorite things about Sawyer has always been his voracious appetite for books, not something you’d expect from that archetype and it really fleshed him out early on, that curiosity. Loved that bit about Churchill. He started out by offering Jack a beer and sent the sucker packing.
And Kate’s cabin is next door! That’s a couple rungs up the ladder from Awkward. Ol’ Holloway has got the Aching Yearn face down pat.
But you know something heavy is coming to get us to those four letters. Poor Sayid’s back behind bars. It wasn’t until now that I realized how much imprisonment has been a part of this show (owing in some degree to Lindelof’s fondness for THE PRISONER, no doubt). The entire cast is trapped on the Island to start things off, of course. First actual tying up takes place in, wait for it, 1.08 when Sawyer gets tied to the tree and tortured for Shannon’s asthma medication, holding out for that first kiss from Kate. Next episode, Sayid walks off and pays for it, gets shackled by Rousseau. Then of course the Others start in, taking Claire after they’ve already snagged a good chunk of the Tailenders (though we didn’t know that at the time), and shutting down the first season by stealing Walt. That button sure enslaved old John Locke for the better part of Season Two. And the Artist Formerly Known as Henry Gale had his memorable stint in the armory (put there by Sayid, no less, interpolate that shit over tonight’s last scene and see how freaky it looks). Jack, Kate, and Sawyer’s time in the cages to open Season Three. Locke locked Miles up for a minute there and the Freighter folk threw Sayid and Desmond in with poor doomed Minkowski. And, of course, the heavy, it seems like Jacob might be trapped inside that circle of ash. Even though his cabin moves.
And there are probably half a dozen other examples, those are just off the top of my head. All of that to say, being held against your will has been a predominant theme on this show since the start and it’s a very interesting tweak to the tradition to have, of all people, Young Ben bring Sayid a sandwich while he’s behind bars.
Of course. The $108,000 question that this begs is: Does that mean Ben has known how this goes down ALL THIS TIME?!?!? Does he remember Jack and Kate and Sawyer and Hurley and Sayid and Jin and even Miles from his childhood in New Otherton? He’s GOT to, right? He’s too old not to remember their faces. The only possible way they could get away with him not knowing is if he didn’t have any personal interaction with any of them whatsoever, but he makes his 1977 debut squinting his eyes at the caged A-rab (did you see that? The very last beat of the episode. That kid is beyond perfect, he’s got that same reptilian thing going on that Emerson does). But that’s a fairly mindblowing revelation. Ben has in all likelihood been aware of the way that the principal ’77 component of Season Five plays out since Sayid first saw him caught in Rousseau’s trap (did he ever make a crack in the armory about “no peanut butter sandwiches”? Or am I just thinking about that Stephen King one?). I really almost can’t wrap my mind around it all.
But what’s to come?
We still need to see what Kate did with Aaron, how Sayid got arrested, how Hurley wound up with that guitar, and what happened to Faraday. And if Miles is actually Son of Chang.
And now a Ben-centric seems even more crucial. Rewatched 3.20 this weekend (twice, the commentary with Emerson/Lindelof/Cuse is golden) and the jump between his last childhood scene and the Purge is certainly missing a crucial chunk of narrative. Will Annie, the girl o’his dreams, make an appearance? And the Humes!
Papa Shephard. Richard Alpert. Charles Widmore. Not yet. Perhaps soon.
And Jughead waits, bleeding radioactive waste into his shallow grave, as disinterested as ever.
posted by rb at 9:40 AM
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