L O S T Blog #2 - "Namaste"

L O S T

Season 5, Episode 9
Namaste

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The aptly titled Namaste delivered us a fantastic little episode with a number of conversation-worthy tidbits, but I believe we're still in the eye of the season 5 storm. The episode starts with the Ajira 316 crash from the perspectives of Frank Lapidus and some of the other non-Oceanic 6 passengers. Excellent start to the episode which got a big question out of the way: "What the fuck happened to that plane?"

It appears, despite the fact Jack, Kate, and Hurley have flashed to 1977, that the Ajira 316 plane landed dramatically in 2007/08, or "present time" in the L O S T world. Frank Lapidus seems to be taking charge before Ben takes off, prompting Sun to follow him and Lapidus to follow Sun. Based off the short present time scenes in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, as well as Cesar's immediate opposition to Frank's leadership, Cesar will be the "Jack" of the 316ers, taking charge and telling them what to do. But that isn't important at this point.

Back in 1977, "James" (I still need to get used to that), is effectively using his con-man ways to intigrate Jack, Kate, and Hurley into the Dharma Initiative. Jin, upon finding out that Sun was on the plane, runs to the Flame Station, where we meet Radinsky for the first time. For those of you who don't remember Radinsky, he was shown as a bloody stain on the ceiling of the Swan Hatch, having blasted himself in the very place we see him designing in Namaste. In Jin's search for Sun, he runs into Sayid, who is going to be treated as if he were a "Hostile".

In Sun's search for Jin, she is lead by the one and only Ben Linus to a set of canoes where she decides to "wack him on the head", replacing him with the impossible-to-dislike Frank Lapidus to join her on her journey to the main island.

On the main island in 1977, it is revealed that the baby delivered by Juliet in LaFleur is the one and only Ethan. If only she had stuck to being a mechanic and NOT delivered that baby, how much trouble would have been saved for the original castaways in 2004. What's even more hilarious is that Ethan eventually will help recruit Juliet and train her to be a fertility doctor on the island, training which she will later use to deliver him in the past. Yet another circle complete.

Once Kate, Jack, and Hurley have been officially made a part of the DI, Jack takes it upon himself to immediately try to step up and run shit. Sawyer quickly schools him on that, which was absolutely awesome to see. Jack is made a Dharma "workman", but we can only wonder how long Dr. Shephard's reign at the bottom will last.

In the most interesting and compelling scene of the episode, Dr. Shephard Senior makes yet another unexplained, mysterious, and God-Like appearence in 2007, showing up in one of the awfully run-down houses at the Barracks, and revealing to Sun and Frank that their friends are currently 30 years in the past. "You've got quite the journey ahead of you". Do they ever. Oh, and pay attention to the background during that scene. Look for blonde hair ;).

And in 1977, we've all been looking for beady eyes and round glasses on a young man, who we finally get to see at the end of this episode. The young Ben Linus, bringing a sandwich to Sayid while he sits in his cell at the Barracks. It appears that the master manipulator has known our LOSTies all along. Wow.

That's about all for today, but the ABC promo for next week's episode "He's Our You" looks absolutely bananas. So I'll see you for that next Thursday.

Namaste