LOST: Ajira 316

I like how it starts. A replay of the pilot, I think. Jack wakes up on his back, dressed in a suit, looking up at the sky and sun-dappled rainforest around him.

I think that's the first time I've ever used the phrase "sun-dappled."

Let's start at the end, ha. Ajira 316. Dammit. With the plan earlier in the season being to have the Six rendezvous at the marina or wherever, I just assumed that they would return to the Island by sea. Y'know, a GILLIGAN'S ISLAND three-hour tour gone wrong? But OF COURSE it's an Ajira plane what gets them back! Me and my crazy alternate universe riffing. Duh.

At the airport, we see the Sixers show up, one by one, each on their own path. This REMINDS me of something, story-wise, but I can't quite remember what. I know it's been three years, but isn't anyone in the gen pop creeped out by seeing all the (adult) Sixers in an airport at once?

Jack checks in the coffin and body of Jeremy Bentham, aka Locke, aka proxy dad. He doesn't cause a scene like the first time, but whatev. When he walks away from the counter, mystery guy, played by the Iraqi torturer from THREE KINGS tells Jack that he is sorry for the loss of his friend...

Kate showed up at Jack's place the night before, telling him that he can never ask her about Aaron again. We'll see how long that lasts. She would have had to make arrangements for Aaron's safety, but the way she's all screwed up, it seems like she might have had to make an unfavorable deal to accomplish that. Or even "lost" Aaron somehow. Maybe to Ben's people?

OR, maybe Claire visited her again, and guided her to give Aaron up. To Claire's mom? If Kate wasn't forced into some f'd up deal w Ben or Widmore, I'd have her leave Aaron with Clementine and Sawyer's ex.

Would love to see Kate's reunion w Sawyer's ex after returning from the Island. What sort of insight would material girl Kate get from the cosmic coincidence of their interconnectedness?

Sun shows up at the airport. No surprise, really, cuz she's gonna do whatever she can to get back to Jin. Not knowing that coming back to the Island is the last thing Jin wants her to do. Locke agreed not to solicit her, but the proof that Jin gave to him to keep Sun away became the proof that Ben uses to draw her back. Ah, LOST~

Sayid shows up at the airport in handcuffs, escorted by an officer or agent of some kind. Federal marshall? For the murders of Widmore's stooges in the "Weekend at Sayid's" episode. Did he know to turn himself in, to free Hurley AND get himself onto 316? Maybe just to free Hurley, cuz he's got that resigned look of surprise when he sees Jack on the plane, no? Escorted by a federal marshall, he can be himself, but also a part of the Kate ingredient from the original crash.

Hurley! He shows up at the airport with a guitar case. Raise your hand if you think he was visited by Charlie. I'm guessing that Island Charlie asked for a new guitar. In the spirit of recreating the original flight, do you suppose there's a wad of heroin in it?

Decent guy, he's bought 70-some seats on the plane (first class?) to minimize the likely collateral damage (even tho they go more LANGOLIERS than LOST). It's too bad about coach, eh? I love it when Ben gets on the plane, last second, and Hurley's so freaked out.

Hurley: No one told me he was going to be here!
Ben: Who told you to be here, Hugo?

So, that's all of the adult Sixers, right? Aaron was barely on the plane the first time around. Is one of the Sixers pregnant? Sayid's marshall?

LOVE when Jeff Fahey's voice comes out over the PA in the plane. Lapidus! And when he steps out of the cockpit to talk to Jack, he looks over his shoulder and spots the rest of them...

Lapidus: Waitasecond. We're not going to Guam, are we?

I like this coming together all in this episode, cuz it means that we're gonna get a few episodes about what we didn't see, y'know? How everyone on the plane got there from when they split up on the dock. "46 hours agos" for Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and—this could be potentially awesome or F'd up—Ben and Desmond.

Ben leaves Eloise's chapel and tells Jack he has a loose ends to tie up, a promise to an old friend. That would be Charles Widmore. The promise, that he would kill his daughter. Was there anything in that promise about making him watch? I forget.

Still, he can follow Desmond to Penny, and little Charlie, and who the F knows what Ben would do? I don't think is Other Goodness would let him kill a child, but he did promise Charles about Penny.

Later, Ben calls Jack from the marina. Bloodied and beaten up. He went after Penny and apparently met with difficulty and/or resistance. If he succeeded in killing her, that would guarantee that Desmond (left for dead?) would come after him and so return to the Island. But maybe Ben attacked and hurt Penny badly, maybe knocked her unconscious, but didn't kill her. And Desmond fought him off but had to take care of Penny. He might go back to the Island to protect Penny and Charlie, take Ben out for good. OR... maybe he would approach Widmore again, and/or Widmore would enlist him or aid him as his assassin...?

Eloise Hawking. Faraday's mom. One-time Islander and Other. She takes everyone downstairs in the chapel to a Dharma station—the Lamppost! More C.S. Lewis and Narnia! A pendulum hooked up to some old school computing. Jack spots a miitary intel photo of the Island, dated 9/23/54. Eloise explains that the Lamppost is built on or near a pocket of EM energy, one of many all over the world, all connected. A "clever fellow" built the pendulum to take advantage of these connections to predict where and when the Island would appear. A little macro-Heisenbergy, eh? The Island is always moving.

Theory/crazy talk. This "clever fellow." I think it's Daniel Faraday. Who else do we know who's so steeped in this kind of pseudo-physics? Maybe in a time skip we haven't seen yet, he gets off the Island (turns the wheel?) in the pre-DI past, and joins Dharma in the outside world in its infancy.

Theory/crazy talk. Mystery guy, the other Iraqi in first class, is connected to Locke somehow. He's like McCoy in SEARCH FOR SPOCK, the living vessel containing and transporting Locke's spirit/psyche/soul. So, before Locke died, they did a mind meld, and when the time is right, the Vulcan elders of the Island will reunite body and spirit. Or maybe he's a spiritual guru that Locke sought out. And he pulled an ALL OF ME sorta thing, and drew Locke's spirit into a bowl or crystal or less-than-4-ounce bottle of liquid, for safe-keeping while he plays proxy.

We met Jack's granddad, Ray. Christian's father. He conveniently has a pair of Christian's shoes to give to Jack to enhance Locke's proxy role. How much does Ray know about the Island?

Theory/crazy talk. Just plain scattin here... I've always thought that Christian was connected to a group involved w the Island. I thought it was some kind of cabal, including Widmore and Paik. Maybe not, tho. Maybe Ray was an Other, and Christian, as the child of an Other, had a gift. To heal? I've had it in my head for a long time that Christian *gave* Jack the win/save in the spinal surgery of his future wife, whatzhername. It was a favor from the Island, or his own ability, and a gift to his son, to boost his confidence and esteem. Maybe a step toward making him more of a leader than he would otherwise naturally have been?

The Ajira non-crash. A time skip flash affects castaways/survivors/friends of the Island and anything they're in contact with or using. Does that extend to people as well? For instance, would Sayid's escort be pulled along with him because she grabs him or she's cuffed to him? Or, does she have a history with the Island as well? I'm totally assuming she's on the Island cuz, y'know, she's cool... She was the secret agent chick from LONE GUNMEN who always uses anagrams of Lee Harvey Oswald as her name! And I'm going to assume that mystery guy is somehow connected to Locke, so he gets a free ride. Lapidus. Hrmm... Maybe a couple of bonus players from coach who are destined by clueless.

Anyhow, the plane flies into the wacked-out EM field of the Island during a time skip into present day (2007?), somewhere between LA and Guam. And while within the field, the Island flashes away to another time and place, sucking Jack, Hurley, Kate and presumedly Sayid, Sun, Lapidus, Ben, mystery guy, and miss marshall, along with. And hey, who's there to greet them on the ground when they collect themselves but Dharma Jin! So fun that he gets two awesome hey-it's-mes in the last few episodes! =)

Keep on keepin on~