LOSTBLOG -- "Namaste"
Another week, another "Lost" episode packed with significant developments. You know things are getting heavy when it almost slips your mind that our friends are all back on the island, but not all of them are still in 2007.
The biggest bombshell we tonight was learning that Daniel was apparently wrong -- the future can be changed. When Sun and Frank arrive in New Otherton, it appears to have been untouched for many years, and there are still remnants of the revised DHARMA Initiative to be found. Huge, game-changing events have apparently transpired in that 30-year gulf!
So why do I feel like the show is more concerned with catty, soap-opera B.S.?
Look, I enjoy juicy sexual tension as much as the next guy; I do love "The O.C." But I really don't need this Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet love quadrangle getting in the way of my sci-fi time travel show. Some of you may be relieved -- Finally, some real drama! -- but we're in too deep right now to get sidetracked by this crap. Did I get a kick out of watching Sawyer give Jack the verbal smackdown and forcing him to be a Work Man? Of course. But that cannot be a good thing for the show. How can "Lost" end satisfactorily if the audience isn't on Jack's side? I don't think we have been for a long, long time, and I don't think we will be now.
Thankfully, "Namaste" expanded the scope of the show in other ways. The last scene, in which a teenaged Benjamin Linus meets an imprisoned Sayid Jarrah, brings a host of questions to mind:
• Does that meeting mean Ben has always known who the Losties are?
• If not, did 2007 Ben's mind "update" itself as soon as Ajira 316 crashed?
• Is it possible that 2007 Ben and 1977 Ben are existing in different dimensions, and therefore one has no bearing on the other?
• Is Sayid going to try to kill 1977 Ben?
And so it goes. We love "Lost" because every time it answers a question, it poses 42 more.
And we love it this year because it keeps rewarding its viewers. Did Jack ever think he would actually meet the dude in the DHARMA orientation films? Well, he did tonight. And we finally met Radzinsky, who was only previously mentioned by Desmond back in the days of the Hatch, a model of which we see Radzinsky building.
The impending return of the Hatch may be the most exciting development to me. Three seasons later, I remained fascinated by the Hatch, its purpose, and its inception. Tonight seems to promise its return. I can't wait.
And then there's Christian Shephard, who is alive and well in 2007, and talking to Sun and Frank. He tells Sun she's got a long journey ahead of her, which sets up another mystery for the end of the year: How will the 2007 Losties get back to 1977?
This must be the best "transition" episode of any show, ever. You know what a transition episode is. It's the episode that does little more than set up future episodes. ("24" seems to have like 10 of these a season.) But a "Lost" transition episode doesn't merely promise a big payoff next week; it promises long-term, game-changing ramifications, and gets us even more involved in the story.
Is it next week yet?
I'm not convinced yet the timeline has been changed.
If I remember correctly the barracks are farther inland than where Sun and Frank were. Wherever they were might have just been a welcome center because it was located near the shore.
I don't have the dvd but I think in the ep when we saw 815 crash from the others perspective there was a aerial shot of the barracks and it was not near the coast.
I am not convinced Christian is alive. In fact, I'm not convinced that the Ajira group is alive. How do we know that they are in 2007? And what makes Sun different from the rest of the Oceanic 6, causing her to be separated from them?
Ben already knew everything about the Losties from the beginning - now we know how. Because he met them in the 70s.
Here's another question: Faraday is no longer with the Dharma crew in 1977. What happened to him?
I understand your fear of the show getting sidetracked by the love quadrangle, but it is very important. I think Juliet will try to keep herself and Sawyer on the Island as a way of hanging on to him, and I think Kate ultimately returned to the Island because of Sawyer. These characters are motivated by more than just survival, and their ties to one another will affect all their sci-fi, time traveley choices in future episodes.
I do not think Christian is "alive" and well. I think he is ghostly, otherworldy, Jacob-y if you will. I mean, he appeared in LA, and at the bottom of the well by the frozen donkey wheel, and many other places he shouldn't be if alive. He's an island spirit now.