LOST: season 5 episode 9
“Namaste”
In this episode we get a bit of the back story of what happened after the flash of Ajira flight 316, and also what Sawyer’s plans are for Jack, Kate and Hurley now that they are back in 1977 with him.
A Long Journey Ahead
When the show starts, it’s night time and the Ajira flight is flying over the ocean. The co-pilot mentions he recogznizes Hurley as one of the Oceanic Six. It is then that they start to hit turbulence. The plane is rocked as the blinding light flash begins. After the flash the pilots find themselves in the middle of the day, confused, and their plane stalling. As the plane goes down it breaks through the clouds and they see the island.
Frank (the pilot) does everything he can to pull the plane out of crashing into the island and they manage to find a runway on the island. In an impressive sequence Frank crash lands the plane on the island. (You may remember the run way from season 3 as Sawyer and Kate worked on it while captured by the Others).
When Frank wakes up he finds the co-pilot dead. He goes back into the cabin to see how everyone is (a bit bloody himself). He finds Sun and helps her up. He comments to her that Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid are missing. He then sees Ben behind him and asks him where everyone went, Ben simply says “how should I know?”
Later on the beach Frank tries to gather everyone and tell them that people will start looking for them as soon as they realize they are missing. Caeser (who we met earlier) speaks up and says they should explore the island, that there are buildings and strange cages he could see, and also a bigger island. This triggers something in Ben and he heads off into the jungle. Sun sees this and follows him.
Ben quickly finds out Sun is following him and gets behind her and surprises her. She confronts him about what he is doing and he tells her he is going to “their” island. He knows she is looking for Jin, and while he cannot gaurntee it, he tells her that island is the first place he would look. Frank finds them and tries to convince Sun not to trust Ben, but she says she has no choice.
They head to the beach where Ben begins to uncover the boats that we saw earlier in the season. While arguing with Frank however, Sun blind sides Ben with a boat oar knocking him unconscious after he tells them that there is a town across the shore on the other isalnd.
Frank and Sun take the boat to the dock. In the creepy deserted down which appears to be the Others barracks (formerly the Dharma Initiative compound) Frank tells Sun the place is deserted and they should go back. It’s then that a light comes on and a door opens. A man steps out and reveals himself to be Christian.
Sun tells him that she is looking for Jin, her husband, to which he asks her to follow him. Christian leads them inside a building where he uses a flash light to search photos on the walls. He finds a group photo from 1977 and brings it to Sun. He tells her that Jin is with her friends. When Sun looks at the photo from 1977, she sees Kate, Jack and Hurley in the group photo dressed in Dharma outfits. Christian tells her that he’s afraid she has a very long journey ahead of her.
New Dharma Recruits, Hostiles Invade
In 1977 Sawyer and Jin stand on the beach with Jack, Kate and Hurley, reunited again. In the exchange Jack tells them that they came back on a plane and that Sun was on that plane. Jin jumps up and leaves in the jeep, saying that he needs to talk with Radzinsky since he would know where a plane would have landed. Sawyer, however explained to them that he ahs been in the Dharma Initiative for 3 years and that he has to find a way to get them in or else the hostiles (the Others) might find them.
He goes back to the compound to his house to get some seventies clothes. There Juliet asks why he left and he tells them that they came back. She helps him devise a plan to use the incoming sub to make them look like recruits.
Sawyer brings them back to compound along the way explaining the Farraday is alive but no longer around, so we still don’t know what he is up to but he has some “interesting therories.” Sawyer convinces them that he got their name on the list, and all they have to do is wait for their name to be called and accept their assignments.
Juliet goes to Amy and gets the recruit manifest stating that she wants Amy to rest. She asks if her and Horace had chose a name and they settled on Ethan. Juliet recognizes the baby as the Ethan that will eventually recruit her to the island and meet an untimely end.
When Jack’s name is called he is brought to Pierre Chang who tells him he doesn’t normally work here but the woman who normally does this (Amy) just had a baby and he had to fill in. He finds Jack’s file and says that according to this aptitude test he is qualified to work at the shed, as a janitor.
Kate’s name hadn’t been called yet and Phil (from Sawyer’s security team) approaches to help. When he can’t find her name on the list he begins to look worried that they may have a security problem. It is then that Juliet comes in with an updated list with Kate’s name on it, this seems to stave off Phil for now.
Over at the Flame, the station used by the Others to spy on the world, Jin meets Radzinsky as he is building a model of the Swan station (the hatch from season 2). He doesn’t believe Jin that a plane could land without his knowlege and he checks with the other stations and none of them have seen anything either. Then perimeter alarms go off and Radzinsky said that a hostile must be close.
Jin grabs his gun and runs out into the jungle. Radzinsky follows behind him. Jin finds the hostile first and it is Sayid! Still hand cuffed, Sayid is glad to see a friend, but when Radzinsky shows up Jin makes Sayid get on his knees and tells him to shut up or he will shoot him.
Jin later calls Sawyer and tells him quietly that Sayid had been captured. Sawyer leaves for the Flame to help out since Radzinsky is getting very worried. When Sawyer arrives Radzinsky says that the hostile would have saw the plans for the Swan and where they were building it and he should be killed. Sawyer decides to talk to him first and a surpised Sayid sits there being interrogated as a hostile. Sawyer indicates that Sayid should identify himself as a hostile or they can shoot him. When he does, Sawyer takes him back to the compound and locks him up in a cell, this happens at the same time as the recruits get their photo taken so Jack, Kate and Hurley see that Sayid is captured.
Later that night Jack stops Phil and asks where James LaFluer’s house is and he points it out. He tells him not to call him “James” to which Jack agrees. Phil looks on with a distrustful look. Jack knocks on the door and Juliet answers. They share a hug. Jack says that he must have the wrong house but Juliet corrects him that it is correct, Jack recognizes that they are an item and living together.
Inside Sawyer is reading a book and offers Jack a beer. He refuses and wonders what the plan is. Sawyer tells him that he is working on that and Jack doesn’t like the answer claiming that he was just reading a book. Sawyer then proceeds to tell Jack that he is a thinker, and that when Jack was in charge running things he only reacted, and that got a lot of people killed. Jack says that he got them off the island, but Sawyer countered saying that it just brought him right back.
As Jack leaves Sawyer tells him that he should just go about his work and leave everything to him. Jack leaves. As Sawyer stands on his porch he sees Kate and offers her a little wave that she returns.
In the prison cell where Sayid is he is visited by a boy who brings him a sandwhich in a bag. The boy asks if Sayid is a hostile like everyone says to which Sayid says “what do you think?” The boy asks what his name which Sayid gives him and asks his in return.
The boy says his name is “Ben”, and in recognition Sayid says “nice to meet you, Ben.”
What We Learned
- Thanks to Frank, flight 316 was able to land on the runway built in season 3
- The flight landed on the Hydra island, the smaller one with the cages where Kate and Sawyer were kept in season 3
- Sun was the one that knocked Ben out, leaving him to be found and eventually meet up with Locke once again
- Sun and Frank meet Christian in the deserted Dharma compound, he shows them a photo from 1977 depicting Kate, Jack and Hurley as Dharma members, making Sun and Frank somewhere around 2007
- It is possible in the background behind Sun and Frank to see a woman who appears to be Claire very briefly
- Christian tells them they have a long journey ahead of them
- In 1977 Sawyer brings Jack, Kate and Hurley in as Dharma recruits, Jack gets assigned as a janitor, while Kate appears to be working in the motorpool with Juliet, and Hurley is a chef
- Juliet talks with Amy and it is revealed that the baby is Ethan, one of the Others
- Jin goes to the Flame to meet Radzinsky to try to find the Ajira plane, hoping that Sun would be on it
- Radzinsky is building a model of the Swan station where he laters dies
- Sayid is captured by Jin and Radzinsky and goes under the custody of Sawyer under the guise of being a hostile
- There is still some animosity between Sawyer and Jack where Sawyer likely got him the janitor job and insults Jack that his way of doing things only got people killed
- In theprison cell, Sayid is visited by a young, creepy looking Ben