Ben did NOT just kill (or try to kill) Penny, did he?!That’s just one of the many questions spinning through my head after the latest episode of “Lost.” After the outstanding “This Place is Death” last week, I fully expected “316” to dial back the action a bit.
Indeed, the first solid 20 minutes of the episode were heavy on the exposition with Fionnula Flanagan probably overacting a tad in an effort to liven up the sci-fi mumbo jumbo as she explained to her audience (including us at home) how it was possible to get back to the Island. However, by the end of the episode, we realized the show had effectively —and literally — gone back to the beginning. Recreating the shot from the pilot of Jack waking up in the jungle before leaping (again, literally, with an awesome dive!) into action in the opening scene was a nice touch. More importantly, the show introduced more than enough questions regarding characters we already know pretty well to keep us busy for the next month.
The best thing about it is that it just felt right. Putting these characters (or at least three that we know of) back on the Island didn’t feel like the writers had gotten impatient having them apart or anything else that might have felt unnatural. While most of their off-Island adventures were done fantastically well (and last night’s off-Island scenes felt a little creepy or haunting to me), these people just BELONG on this Island, don’t they?
No character personifies that better than Jack (pictured, left).
I thought Matthew Fox (who sometimes gets flack for his acting) was kind of brilliant last night from his very first scene. When Jack woke up in the jungle this time, Fox was able to convey wonder, relief, excitement and joy in his face, which aren’t exactly traits Jack has shown in the past. Later on in the episode, we learned how Jack completed his slow crawl from “Man of Science” to “Man of Faith” (recalling the title of season 2’s premiere), but even before that I knew Jack was “back” as he woke Kate up and rescued Hurley from drowning. Like Locke, Jack is “the man” on the Island. Off the Island, he’s simply “the loser, crazy-bearded man” just like Locke was the “pathetic, crippled guy.”
If you don’t believe me, go back and watch his off-Island scenes, where he’s constantly being chewed out by Kate or playing meek second banana to Ben.
Ah Ben. As if we needed any confirmation, Ms. Hawking reminded us that Ben is “probably not” telling the truth most of the time. In this case, she was referring to whether or not Ben knew about the existence of “The Lamppost.” I won’t bore you with all the details (because I don’t understand them all), but basically Ms. Hawking told our group that a very clever fellow built the Lamppost, which sits on a pocket of electromagnetic energy (like the Island) and she can use it to predict where the Island will be, since it’s always moving. Hawking also said that Jack and company needed to try to recreate the conditions of their original crash as closely as possible or the results could be unpredictable. There was an Ajira Airlines flight to Guam that was supposed to fly them into their 36-hour window of opportunity to get back to the Island.
Of course, this was important stuff we were learning, but Flanagan performing her scenes like she was telling a ghost story made them a bit too silly. No wonder Desmond got fed up and stormed out. Seriously though, I think Desmond is more right than he knows in saying that the castaways are really pawns in a major game between Ben, Widmore, Hawking and others (or Others). That being said, do we trust what Hawking has to say any more than we do what Ben says?
Either way, the game play continued as Hawking told Jack that he’d need something of his father’s to put on Locke’s dead body, which would be playing the role of Christian Shephard’s dead body from the original flight. Jack hesitated, but Ben convinced him with a nice speech about how Jack needed to stop being a Doubting Thomas.
Along with Fox, Michael Emerson (who, apparently can’t go more than 5 episodes without getting his characters’ face pummeled in) was outstanding in this episode. (What else is new, right?) It was fantastic to see Ben back in his scheming, lying, selective information revealing glory. He told Jack he had to keep a promise to an old friend, which could possibly mean he had to keep the promise that he was going to kill Charles Widmore’s daughter, who we know is nearby. He was also great in every single one of his scenes on the plane with Jack, lying to him in his sarcastic answer to Jack’s question about how he could read (we know his mother died during childbirth) and suspiciously getting up and walking away right before the plane started rocking and Jack and Co. woke up on the Island. I’ll bet you anything he’s also lying about not having anything to do with Locke’s death.
More interestingly, a couple of moments in his scenes with Jack reinforced the whole “Jack is becoming Locke” theme. Ben showed more than a bit of his jealousy when he pointed out that he got to “stay after school” with Ms. Hawking. This is similar to the feelings he had towards Locke, once Locke was able to communicate with Jacob and became the new “chosen one.”
Speaking of Locke, that character has become so fully-realized over five seasons, that I thought Terry O’Quinn was damn effective even though he didn’t have a line of dialogue. Just lying in that coffin, while Jack put his father’s shoes on him, I DID imagine Locke slyly smiling (not laughing his ass off, as Jack guessed) as Jack came over to “his side”. I also could almost hear his voice as Jack read his simple, sad “suicide” note of “I wish you had believed.”
Well, by the end of the episode, Jack DID believe. Originally, I thought that the scene where he got Christian’s shoes from his outta-leftfield grandfather Ray was a little contrived. However, watching everything and everyone (with a bonus clean-shaven Frank Lapidus — original 815 pilot, if you call — thrown in!) come together on Ajira flight 316, I realized the shoes magically being there, wasn’t so much convenient — it was in keeping with the idea that everything was falling into place to make Jack a believer.
Of course, while that may work for Jack, we, the audience, need some questions to be answered. Such as what (or who) would convince Kate (Evangeline Lilly was quietly fantastic in her few scenes last night) to dump Aaron and want to return? Is it just as simple as she left him with Claire’s mom or is it something else? We’ll have to wait and see because we’re not allowed to bring it up with her.
What about Hurley? What possessed him to come back (after, apparently, being released from prison rather inauspiciously)? I’m going with Charlie, not just because Hurley was rocking a guitar case (that might represent Charlie in the original flight), but because Charlie’s presence has spooked Hurley into action before (recall his high speed chase in season 4’s “The Beginning of the End”).
What about Sayid, seemingly a prisoner, and his apparent (and silent) female captor. I like that Sayid was representing Kate’s predicament from the original flight, but I’m curious to find out what the deal is with his companion and the shadowy guy who gave Jack his condolences.
That reminds me — the transfer of Locke’s body went a LOT smoother than the transfer of Christian’s body, which made Jack beg to the airline attendant. Maybe that difference in circumstances (and others) resulted in the castaways landing in the Island during the Dharma-days, which is apparently where Jin (and I’m guessing the rest of the time travelers) have settled. (Maybe he was on his way to one of those Dharma schoolrooms to teach a young Charlotte how to speak Korean.)
So what’d you think of this episode? Which “clever fellow” do you think built the lamppost? (I’m going with a Dharma-era Faraday, who was also able to find the Island when he was on Widmore’s freighter in the present.) If the Oceanic 6 only had a 36-hour window to get back to the Island, why did the action flash back 46 hours from the opening scene in the jungle? What else do you think Desmond has to do since the Island “isn’t done with him”? Finally, what are your guesses on what drove Kate, Sayid and Hurley to the Ajira flight and where (or when) do you think Sun, Sayid, Ben, Lapidus and the rest of the passengers ended up?
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