Spoilers.

Lost Official Site

The Time:
Wednesdays, 9:00 PM, ABC

The Show:

When
Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to London went down somewhere over the
Pacific, the survivors of the crash found themselves marooned on a
tropical island.  But this is no ordinary island; it has
unusual magnetic, temporal, healing and seemingly supernatural
properties, and is fraught with constant danger.  There are
mysterious black smoke-like creatures, polar bears, and even
apparitions of the dead roaming the forest.  The island is
also the former secret haven of a group called the Dharma Initiative,
who were running experiments utilizing the unique properties of the
island via research stations that dot the landscape.  Now the
Oceanic survivors, led by Dr. Jack Sheppard, Kate Austen, James
“Sawyer” Ford, John Locke, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Sayid Jarrah and
others, seek a way to escape the island and its many dangers. 
But there are people, both living on the island and seeking the island
from outside, who are at war for control of it, and the Oceanic
survivors find themselves caught in the middle.  Told via
nonlinear fashion that incorporates flashbacks and flash forwards, Lost is one of the most unique and densely mythological shows on television.

The Stars:

•  Matthew Fox – Dr. Jack Sheppard
•  Evangeline Lilly – Kate Austen
•  Josh Holloway – James “Sawyer” Ford
•  Naveen Andrews – Sayid Jarrah
•  Terry O’Quinn – John Locke
•  Jorge Garcia – Hugo “Hurley” Reyes
•  Daniel Dae Kim – Jin Kwon
•  Yunjin Kim – Sun Kwon
•  Michael Emerson – Benjamin Linus
•  Henry Ian Cusick – Desmond Hume
•  Elizabeth Mitchell – Juliet Burke
•  Jeremy Davies – Daniel Faraday
•  Nestor Carbonell – Richard Alpert
•  Alan Dale – Charles Widmore

The Episode:316″

The window for the Oceanic 6 to return to the island closes in just over 36 hours, and it promises to be an interesting trip.  Jack has one last message from Jeremy Bentham to read, Kate doesn’t ever want to talk about Aaron again, Sayid is under arrest by a hot marshal, and Hurley is…well…Hurley.

The Lowdown:

Remember watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico and there were flashbacks to a story we hadn’t even seen that took place between that movie and it’s predecessor, Desperado?  That’s kind of the feeling that I got from this episode.  There were pieces cut out of it that we know we’ll get to later, and the episode felt a like it was missing those stories definitely.  Regardless, we know from the get go that the O6 do indeed get back to the island, because that’s how the episode opens.  Then we’re taken to the 46 hours prior to that occurring to see how the whole thing comes about…or at least parts of the whole thing.

The Oceanic 6 are making their preparations to return to the island and Jack, Ben, Sun and Desmond pay a visit to Eloise Hawking and are shown a Dharma station in LA (had I known there was one of those things here I’d probably move to Idaho).  She tells them that that particular station, which uses a pendulum and special mathematical calculations, can predict with a high probability where the island will show up next.  In order for the gang to get back, they have to take another plane ride through the airspace of the island when it appears at a certain place at a certain time.  Then, when she and Jack are alone, Eloise gives him Locke’s suicide note.  And of course Jack pulls a Lostism by not reading it.  Eloise also tells him that they’re trying to recreate the conditions on the Oceanic 815 flight as best they can and that’s why they need Locke’s body, presumably to take the place of Christian Shephard.  Jack will also need to give Locke something that belonged to his father; his solution are a pair of Christian’s shoes.  Later on the plane ride, cue the white light and our heroes are right back where they began, on the island…but when?

Among the story elements left out this episode are why Sayid was suddenly under arrest…and how he scored that not-unattractive marshal to be his escort.  Another is why Ben looks like he pissed off Tito Ortiz right before he boards the plane.  Yet another is why Kate is suddenly sad and sans Aaron and why she never wants to talk about him again.  I have a theory or two on a couple of these.  First, I think that Kate realized she couldn’t in good conscience take Aaron back to the island.  And she especially didn’t want Ben to have him, so she took Aaron to Claire’s mother since she was in town, told her who Aaron is and gave him up to her to take back to Sydney.  Not sure how obvious that is if that’s the case, but that’s the vibe I got.  Of course she could have pulled an Andrea Yates in which case I’m just way off.

As for Sayid, I’m thinking he either got arrested on purpose in order to replicate Kate’s situation (Lord knows why, and especially why he’d be getting transported to Guam), or he finally got picked up for those deaths he caused in springing Hurley (but still, what’s with the transportation to Guam?).  As for Ben’s situation, I’m thinking he went after Penny.  I don’t think that he succeeded, and probably got spared from being killed by Desmond, possibly by Penny herself, but not before he took a serious shellacking.  These are shots in the dark, but we’ll see what’s what. 

As for this episode, it was pivotal that they got back to the island finally, but with the missing pieces, was definitely a bridge episode, you know, like an episode of 24 where Jack isn’t torturing or killing somebody.  The ending was nice though: “Jin?”  Really looking forward to next week’s episode.

 6.3 out of 10