Lost in Numbers

5.6 “316”

Lost may be losing in numbers, but I can't stop devouring the golden nuggets of goodness this season has served up so far—and also laughing a little on the inside at the silly ones who gave up too soon. They don’t know what they’re missing.

This episode in particular was filled with moments that caused my toes to curl in delicious recognition as I recognized their connection to certain elements of Lost lore, ingrained into my being since day one. Take the iconic eyeball episode-opener, for instance: as soon as we see Jack lying on the jungle ground, with his Season 1 sheen of sweat and fright having been replaced by an expression of wondrous delight, we know that he is not only on the island… he is back on the island. And seeing them all on the plane again, recreating those same circumstances that first brought them to the island (as per Eloise Hawking’s instructions), we get a Lost-induced high out of identifying those circumstances: John Locke’s corpse serving as Dr. Christian Shephard’s* “proxy”; Ben arriving last in a flurry of unkemptness, as Hurley did once upon a time; Charlie’s guitar; Sayid in handcuffs a la Kate, and escorted by a lady of the law enforcement. I’m almost surprised Jack didn’t canoodle his way into a free alcoholic mini-beverage or three from the flight attendant.

Then there are those minor differences, like, oh, a nearly fully occupied economy class of passengers who have no idea that they’re not really going to Guam. There’s Frank, the helicopter pilot. There’s also that random guy who expressed his condolences to Jack at the ticket counter (maybe he's an ex-con, or secretly in love with his stepsister, or something). And then there’s the part where the plane doesn’t actually crash.

One theory expounds on the seemingly fruitless Season 3 plotline where the Others held Sawyer and Kate captive and compelled to do their bidding, which involved constructing an… (wait for it) … airplane runway! How much do you want to bet that Ajira Airways Flight 316’s end destination is on that tarmac? 4,815,162,342 pennies? Too much of a gamble? How about 108? (Wish I could say this was all my idea, but I can barely remember what I had for dinner two hours ago, so.) At least Lost is winning some numbers game.

So about that Dharma Initiative Lamp-post station (which, to me, looks like a giant scrying board). It was constructed over a “unique pocket of electromagnetic energy,” which is supposedly connected to other such pockets—namely the island, but I wonder if some more of these pockets won’t be identified and explored before the series’ end. The anonymous fellow who built the pendulum discovered there was a way to predict not where the island was supposed to be, but when it was going to be in time. My guess is Faraday, but if the pendulum was originally used by the Dharma Initiative to locate the island, then… yeah, my guess is still Faraday.

Lastly, I would just like to say that I feel kind of bad for Desmond. Not only has he been sent on a transcontinental mission with a message that has yet to live up to the urgency with which Faraday initially gave it, but he has to deliver said message to the woman who sent him to the island in the first place. (Apparently I was successful in blocking Season 3 completely from my memory, thus I can’t take any credit for realizing this either… much obliged, my brilliant roommate!)

Jack: Is he telling the truth?

Eloise Hawking: Probably not.

Jack: How can you read?

Ben: My mother taught me.

Some burning last-minute questions

Where (when?) did Sun, Sayid, and Ben drop on the island? What about the economy class people, and Frank, and that mysterious man with the moustache?

What happened to Aaron that was so unspeakably horrible, Kate would rather kiss Jack than explain? (Although that is not a bad alternative…)

And finally, with the preview to next week’s episode in mind, what. on. earth. convinced Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that they could get away with bringing Locke back to life?!

*I keep spelling his name differently (read: wrong). It’s Shephard, not Shepherd, for your future reference the next time I spell it incorrectly.