"316"

I loved this episode of LOST! From the opening scene to the ending scene, I was excited! But I really can't say anything without spoilers so...

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

The opening shot was fantastic! I love good call backs and I think a lot of LOST fans have been expecting this shot for a while. I am still expecting the series to end with this shot as well. I wasn't fooled for a second either. I knew exactly where Jack was and what his situation was. I loved how he smiled when he realized he had made it back to the Island. I loved how he ran through the jungle to save Hurley. I loved it all!

We were introduced to another Dharma station, this one back in Los Angeles. It's called The Lamp Post and it is an overt reference C. S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." When Lucy first entered the wardrobe and was transported to Narnia, she saw a solitary lamp post in the woods. The lamp post appeared many more times in The Chronicles of Narnia and was an icon of Narnia. Back in the world of LOST, The Lamp Post is a guide to the island. And I loved when Ms. Hawking said that Ben was probably not telling the truth when he said he didn't know anything about The Lamp Post. And who is the "he" that constructed The Lamp Post? I have a hunch that it could be Daniel Faraday.

So is this the last we'll see of Desmond? I doubt it. After all Mrs. Hawking told him that the Island is not done with him yet. I'm not sure how or when, but we will see Desmond again. And what other assignment does Jack have? On the return flight to the Island, he has to do everything he can to replicate Oceanic 815. This means he has to escort some posession of his dead father back in Locke's coffin. And wouldn't you know it, he finds some of Christian's dress shoes at his grandfather's retirement home. And how about learning the story of how undead Christian ended up in white tennis shows? I like!

So what happened with Kate, Sun and Ben after they left The Lamp Post? What the producers have done is perfectly execute a pivot back to presenting us with flashbacks in future episodes. I suspect by the end of the season, we will know what happened to Aaron, what Sun was doing, and who and why Ben got his ass kicked in their respective flashback episodes. My guesses are that Kate left Aaron with Sawyer's baby mama Cassidy. Ben probably got his ass kicked in the process of "convincing" Sayid to return to the Island. More on that later. As far as Sun goes, I'm not totally sure what she did, but I hope that it involved Ji Yeon. I don't think that she could leave her daughter behind especially if she is unsure whether Jin is even alive on the Island. I'm just trying to imagine what she would tell her mother and her daughter about why she would be leaving to probably never be heard from again.

So what's the deal with Kate and Jack. She's going back to Island where, as far as she knows, Sawyer is still alive. So why the Jack hookup? Was it one last fling before returning to the love of her life? She certainly seemed conflicted the morning after but that could have more to do with whatever happened with Aaron.

So that leaves us with Sayid and Hurley. Like I said, I think that Ben "convinced" Sayid to return to the Island in only a way Ben Linus could. He forged Interpol documents saying that Sayid is a fugative in Guam and then turned him in. Of course, before Sayid was arrested, he beat the Island-loving crap out of Ben. Another reason why I think Ben had Sayid arrested was to further replicate Oceanic 815 as Ms. Hawking instructed Jack...Sayid is the stand in for Kate as the fugative on the plane being returned home. And what about Hurley? I think that the guitar case is a clue. I think that Charlie must have told him he had to return to the Island. So now we just have to wait and see their flashback episodes to get the whole story.

So now to my Oceanic 815 revelation based on what we learned in this episode. Ms. Hawking had concluded that Ajira 316 would pass directly over a future location of the Island and would get the Oceanic 6 back where they belong. She went further by urging Jack to make 316 as much like 815 as possible. A question popped into my head when Jack was checking Locke's casket in at the ticket counter: "What about everyone else who was going to be on Ajira 316?" I paused the show and asked Roxi what she thought and then it dawned on me: the survivors of Oceanic 815 were in the same position that the non-Oceanic 6 passengers of Ajira 316 are about to find themselves in. Suddenly it occured to me that there is a very strong possibility that one or more people were on Oceanic 815 knowing that it would intersect with the Island during it's flight path and all of our LOST castaways were just unlucky enough to be on the flight. But who? Roxi and I thik that it was Libby. There has been much specualtion that she has a connection to Widmore and I tend to agree.

When I started the show again and Hurley went to the gate agent to tell her that he had purchased all the empty seats on the flight, I thought my revelation was unfounded. That is until the Oceanic 6 were on the plane and the coach cabin was revealed to be full of unsuspecting people. So all those poor souls will end up on the Island and be as utterly confused as our castaways were and, to some degree, still are. The coldest line of the episode belonged, as usual, to Ben when he replied "Who cares!" to Jack's question of what was going to happen to the other people on the plane. Ben really is a bastard! The best line belonged to Hurley, also as usual, when he recommended that the non-Oceanic first class passenger might want to fasten his seatbelt before covering his eyes to miss the crash (?) on the Island. By the way, talk about a nice touch of having a clean shaven Frank Lapidus as the pilot of Ajira 316.

So having caught up with the way the episode started, I felt a little cheated by the post-"crash" bookends. That is until the Dharma van drove up. It confirmed my idea that the Island stopped flashing when Locke repositioned the donkey wheel and it stuck the Losties in time of the last flash, apparently the Dharma days. But who's driving the van? Why it's Jin! I'll admit that I wasn't too happy for him to have survived the freighter explosion, but during the week I was reminded that it has been established that the Island will not let you die if it is not done with you. Hence Jin's survival. And boy it was nice to see him there! Who knew that he had a part to play in the Dharma Initiative!?! And I loved the looks on everyone's faces when they recognized each other. What an ending! I can't wait for next week!