5.06 316

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Of course, the title of this episode could have been John (Locke) 3:16, but we get the obvious reference from possibly the most widely quoted Bible verse amongst Christians, summarizing the New Testament in a nice, neat little package. The answer to salvation, to entering heaven. John pulled the ultimate sacrifice in dying so that he could save the people on and off the island. Another angle is that his death is the key to getting the Oceanic 6 to the island, entering heaven, if you will. Sure looks like Richard has eternal life. Jack finally confronts his lack of faith, which is the backbone of the Bible passage, a need for faith and belief. You can keep peeling back the layers, but it’s clear the messages the writers are establishing here.

I was disappointed with this episode. Last week, I took over 3 pages of notes, this week, a little over a page. Just not much to sink my teeth into; a hunk grizzle, cold and barely cooked. I am bored to tears by the off the island shenanigans of the Oceanic 6, and seems like the writers are too. I figured this season was going to focus on the return to the island of the O6 and time travel on the island. Well, we might have seen the end of both for this season by episode 6. Sure, there are a few loose ends to tie up and explain for the Oceanic 6, but it sure looks like the future of this season will focus on the Dharma Initiative, which I welcome. As cool as the time travel was, and I am sad to see it go away as it probably will, the biggest remaining unknown group associated with the island is Dharma and their time on the island. We have seen far too little of their back story, mostly described by other characters and not really shown, and we may get a bunch of answers about them going forward. Don’t forget the first scene of the season, Dr Chang waking up, and we see the construction of the Orchid along with Daniel sneaking around. It’s probably not an accident the season started with Dharma. It seems like every season starts with an introduction of a central theme of the upcoming season. Well, onto the exploration of the episode. Of course, needing some publicity for this blog, I would appreciate somebody report my writings to Al Sharpton. I don’t do anything all that controversial, but I need some free publicity, so send your emails to the Round Mound of Blathering Sound.

Jack wakes up in the jungle, a scene very similar to the pilot episode opening during Season 1. Except, when Jack woke up originally, Vincent was staring at him and an object looking a lot like Ben’s baton was lying next to him. Not this time, so instantly I was trying to figure out where this was a course correction of the original scene, or something else. Turns out it was different, but you can see how this kind of question will arise more and more in the future. Jack jumps head first into an unknown body of water with unknown depth from great height. This is the Jack S….nah. But I guess we find out that fat people can’t float, as Hurley was trying very hard to drink the contents of the lake until Jack saves him. Looked a lot like the lake that Sawyer and Kate were swimming in, when Sawyer found the gun in a suitcase from the marshal back during Season 1. Kate was lying on the rocks, and for a moment I got excited that her head was smashed in. Nope, I had to choke down my joy, which was a lot like eating a dirty, dry sock with no condiments. She’s alive. And, now we get a flashback announcement, 46 hours earlier, and have we ever seen an announcement of a flashback before? Usually, we have to figure it out. They just handed us the information. Ms Hawking leads the group assembled by Ben into the bowels of her church, and we discover our first hatch off the island or island perimeter, the Lamppost. Equipped with old computers, a swinging pendulum, flipping numbers like the Swan, top secret US Army photos, and all sorts of Good Will Hunting math all over several chalkboards. In other words, I liked it. This is where Dharma found the island.

Jack asks Ben did you know about this place. Ben says no. Mrs Hawking says that Ben is probably lying without missing a beat. She is used to Ben’s bullsh!t, but it’s so goooooood the way he lies about everything, or does his misdirection or doublespeak. Such a smooth guy. Dharma was very aware of pockets of electromagnetism on the planet, and was specifically looking for the island, confirming speculation that I and others mentioned during previous seasons. When Hawking says a clever man constructed the pendulum, I had to think this was Daniel. He has been working on time travel all his life, and possibly at some point in the past, I’m not sure how or when, he came up with the pendulum solution. It was nice to hear confirmation what we’ve known for a while. The island moves, in time. There are windows open at different points in time. Ben knew all about this, as his people could come and go as they pleased. Desmond freaks out on everybody about going back, tells Jack it’s all crap, they are pawns, and he eventually storms out. Hawking points out the island isn’t done with him yet. We have seen the power of the island in the real world, as we saw how Michael was unable to kill himself because the island wasn’t done with him. Desmond will come back at some point. The group needs to be on an Ajira flight to Guam and have to recreate the Oceanic 815 flight as much as possible, which sounds like fun. I thought there was such a sharp contrast between Desmond’s passion, and everybody else’s dispirited, zombie like attitude.

Let me pause for a second and ask, why doesn’t this island have a name? Nobody has ever referred to it as anything other than “the island”. If anybody would have known it, it would have been Hawking, and even she calls it “the island”. Hawking gives Jack the suicide note of Locke, revealing his cause of death at the same time. Another example of the John 3:16 sacrifice by Locke. I was rather surprised at missing the obvious, that Locke was to be the proxy for Christian Shepherd, a guy in a coffin that the island wants. Before I forget, I have posted at a couple of places before how odd that Jacob can be deconstructed as the following anagram with matching characters…
J John, Jack
A Aaron
C Christian, Claire
O
B Benjamin
Anyway, Hawking tells Jack he must put something of his father’s in the coffin with Locke. “This is ridiculous”. Here is our Jack Sucks Moment of the Week…..yeah, this one will do. THIS is ridiculous. You were on an island where smoke, SMOKE, kills people. You watched an island disappear into thin air. But giving Locke a souvenir is crazy. Shut up, stupid. When Jack wanders back into the church above, Ben retells the story of Doubting Thomas, who needed physical proof of the Resurrection, which was very appropriate considering Jack’s lack of faith for 5 seasons now. So many religious, Christianity references in this episode, which didn’t seem that out of place considering that they spent some time in a church. Ben doesn’t know what Hawking told Jack, and I bet it’s eating him up not knowing something. Ben leaves telling Jack he needs to keep a promise he made to an old friend, tie up a loose end. No doubt, Ben is going to visit Penny and do his best to kill her, keeping the promise he made to his buddy Charles Widmore. He realized that since Desmond had come out of hiding, and Penny was going to be with him, here was a chance to finally get revenge for the death of Alex. And, as I’ve said before, as much as I like the Penny character, I hope Ben pulls it off and kills off one of the most popular characters on the show. The fan outrage would be magnificent. And nobody would stop watching. I mean, how does anybody stop watching at this point? Jack is sitting in a bar, apparently unconsciously mirroring what his father was doing pre Oceanic 815. His grandfather is pulling a Kate and running away from his retirement home. It was kind of cool seeing the magician introduce a rabbit, as those creatures keep appearing in this show, at the Hydra, the Barracks, the Orchid, etc. In a moment of universe or purposeful course correction, Jack finds his father’s shoes in the suitcase. Either this was completely useless scene in a season of quick editing and no wasted time, or Granddad Ray will be significant for some reason at a later point in this series. Call me suspicious. It was just too convenient for Jack to come across those shoes. Jack goes home, hears a noise, then wanders around his house in the dark without a weapon because that is exactly the right way to confront a potential burglar. Jack Sucks Moment of the Week, Part Two. It’s Kate, pulling a Kate and is on the run again. She demands that Jack never again ask what happened to Aaron. Well, she obviously finally came to her senses, and finally realized that she is NOT Aaron’s mother. She saw that Jack was going away forever, and she had to decide whether Aaron or Jack was more important to her. She chose Jack. But don’t forget, that if she took Aaron back to the island, and if Claire is still alive, and Kate has no reason to doubt it, how could she remain Aaron’s mother. She can’t. So rather than bring Aaron back to his mother, she selfishly gave him away. To who? Well, she knows that Aaron’s grandmother is in town and where she is staying. That seems like a good place to take him to. Maybe she takes him to Cassidy, the mother of Sawyer’s child. Maybe Kate’s sick mother is looking after Aaron. I guess we will find out at some point, but I think Claire’s mother is the likely destination. Kate and Jack have sex, and mercifully a commercial comes on. These two selfish people deserve each other, but I’m sure we will have to endure the torturous Jack, Kate, and Sawyer stuff soon. Yuck.

If you recall, Christian Shepherd was sporting tennis shoes was back in Season 1 in the episode that Jack sees him walking in the jungle. Jack finally explains why in this episode. It’s that attention to detail that makes this show so special. Hey, nobody is going to see his feet in the coffin. Jack takes a phone call from a bloody and beaten Ben. I expected Ben to explain that he was in Buffalo and a 200 lb monkey got pissed at him. But no explanation was forth coming. Did Ben kill Penny? Did Desmond pound Ben for trying to kill Penny? We can be fairly certain that Ben did not kill Desmond, as Ben has to realize by now that Desmond is special to the island, although he wasn‘t around during the Constant episode, so maybe Ben doesn‘t know everything. Jack visits Ben’s favorite butcher Jillian, from a few episodes ago, to retrieve Locke’s body. Jillian asks Jack what’s in the bag. Seems like Ben and his cronies are very interested in what Jack is up to, especially after the private talk with Hawking. As Jack talks with the corpse of Locke, I find his brand spanking new attitude as more humble, slowly turning the corner with his faith…he is more likable. Wow, I actually wrote that. Jack is more likeable. He’s still as sharp as a bowl of oatmeal, but more likeable. He does his beaten down Al Bundy chore, and reluctantly changes Locke’s shoes. Not much to read into Jack’s talk with Locke. It just seemed like a bit of fluff. Whatever.

At the airport, we start to see parallels to the original Oceanic 815 trip, reconstructed from early episodes and flashbacks. Jack is having trouble getting a corpse on the plane, like in Sydney. Some guy tells Jack “My condolences”, and he ends up on the plane. Who is he? Yet another Widmore associate who possibly staked out Hawking’s church which Widmore knew was a place of interest after Desmond’s visit, and saw Ben with other familiar faces, and just so happened to buy a ticket? Otherwise, why waste screen time on him. Sayid walks by in handcuffs, like Kate did before. But why is somebody bringing a prisoner to Guam of all places? Kate, Sayid, Jack, Sun, and here’s Hurley. Sitting, reading a sci-fi comic/magazine, like Walt did on the plane. Um, did anybody consider bringing Walt along? He is the only one off the island that was on the Oceanic 815 plane that didn’t make this flight. Desmond didn’t get on the plane, but he reached the island by sailboat, so odds are he will go back the same way. I wonder if he gets the same side effects? And what if Penny is dead? Does Desmond go to the island to get revenge on Ben, but his constant is dead, so will he survive the trip? Hurley bought 78 tickets to prevent more people from getting on the plane, no doubt trying to keep more people from dying from a plane crash, but those that bought tickets in advance seemed to fill up the coach/tail section. I wonder what the significance of “78” is? Could it be that there were 48 original Losties, 108 is the sum of the “numbers” and 78 is the exact middle? Could the year the Jungle 5 are in be 1978? Maybe I’m reading into it too much. And how did Hurley know about the flight? To be answered in a flashback. Probably a visit from Charlie, who also gave him a guitar. Hurley is now Charlie on the plane. Ben arrives at the last second, like Hurley originally did. Lots of parallels. Jack asks Ben what will happen to the other people on the plane, and Ben delivers the line of the episode: Who Cares? Beautifully done. Jack goes to make some horrible small talk with moody Kate. God, I hope Jack didn’t get Kate pregnant with that last roll in the sack. I can’t imagine Kate being even more annoying while pregnant with the spawn of Doctor Stupid. Maybe’s she will give birth to a 4 toed baby that make a mechanical whirring sound as it pops out of her womb. Hey, we get to see our buddy helicopter pilot Frank, not looking like a shaggy hippie, but as a clean shaven pilot. “We aren’t going to Guam, are we?” Well said. Yet, Frank doesn’t panic at all. Nothing phases him; he put a helicopter down in the ocean after watching an island disappear, and nobody died. Go fock yourself, Sully.

Ben is reading Ulysses, which parallels with Homer’s Odysses. I never read either, but I did a little bit of research. Apparently, the book is full of enigmas and other tough to follow stuff, that I got bored trying to learn about it. But I noticed that the last episode of the book is titled Penelope, which could be a clue to what Ben was doing bleeding all over a phone booth, calling Jack. A confirmation. Ben tells Jack that he didn’t know how Locke died. Sigh, it’s starting to get easier to spot Ben’s lies. No, Jack it wasn’t your fault. Well, to be fair, Jack didn’t help. Jack gets a moment alone to read Locke’s note. “I wish you’d believed in me, JL.” Nice, short, and to the point. Good thing is was short, as the plane starts to shake. We see the familiar flash of bright light, and TIME TRAVEL happens. No crash. We see that Jack, Kate, and Hurley have time traveled off the plane, seemingly. What happens to the plane? Depends on who leapt. Did Sayid, Sun, Ben, Frank, Locke make it off? Did any of the new characters, like the My Condolences guy, or the marshal attached to Sayid. If Frank is gone, who is flying the plane. If the plane crashed, did anybody survive? And if they did, are they the ones that were shooting at the Jungle 6 in the canoe race? As we get the Jack, Hurley, Kate scene replays, we see a Dharma van pull up. A man with a Dharma security patch points a gun at J, K, H. It’s Jin. But he shows no expression of recognition on his face. First of all, it sure looks like Jin is a Dharma person, and has been for a while, as he is a full fledged member apparently. As are probably Juliet, Sawyer, Miles, Daniel. Which means they have stopped leaping in time. Locke fixed the wheel, and they are all stuck in the past. Jack, Hurley, and Kate are now in the past, at the same time. The wildcards are did Ben time jump, and if Desmond returns to the island, will he be all alone in the present. If Ben did time jump, will he have to try to prevent himself from doing the purge, in order to prevent himself from killing himself. Ah, how great is that scenario. And if the purge doesn’t happen, maybe Jin is actually in the present time, where Dharma was never killed off, and they survived to the present day, as the island course corrected itself with the time traveling to save Dharma because all the stuff that came afterwards was not palatable to the island. Jin doesn’t look older, but neither does Richard, so all bets are off. So does Jin recognize them? Does he carry a grudge against them for leaving him behind to be blown up on the freighter. Many questions opened up, but we didn’t get many interesting answers. Well, at least we are back on the island.