Lost - 316

*** / ****

The Island isn’t for everyone. Dharma Initiative found it with “The Lamp Post” a pendulum teetering over a large-sized map surrounded by blinking-light consoles and calculations on a chalkboard. Found in a chamber-door room in the back of a church in LA, Eloise, Daniel Farraday’s mother, has access to it, perhaps the very gatekeeper to the island’s sanctity and privacy. Few are allowed to go to and from the island, but the Oceanic Six seems to be needed there. Jack, Sun, Ben, and Desmond follow Eloise to The Lamp Post. We do know, from the 46 hours ahead on-island, that Jack, Hurley, and Kate made it back to the island. How Hurley and Kate return is still to be told. 316 very much will fill in those gaps.

I couldn’t help but think of Jack when he looked from a hill into a clearing where Frank’s helicopter sat waiting for passengers to board. I felt at the time that this was a significant and quite powerful visual: the very method of travel off the island Jack so waited for was right in view. And in the fifth season, that all changed. The question as to what Locke said to convince Jack to return is still yet to be revealed. Locke, as we seen previously, nudged the wheel and was sent to LA to try and convince the Oceanic members who escaped the island to return. So that is very much only parts of conversation without the visual aid of Locke confronting Jack and company before his death.

Eloise lays out Jack’s mission. This isn’t for Ben, Sun, or anybody else. This is for Jack. Christian’s body needed a “proxy”, considering it is missing, so Eloise gave instructions for Jack to find a possession of his father’s for Locke, so that when boarding a plane set for the coordinates the pendulum in The Lamp Post says will be close to the island, this flight will mimic the Oceanic 815. How Sayid and Hurley will get on the plane is up for fate or whatever. Kate left Aaron somewhere, but Jack is not allowed to ask where that is. Sun wants to see Jin again. Hurley decides to go despite initial reservations. Sayid is on the plane seemingly against his will, accompanied by an officer. Then there is a badly pummeled Ben (he had to meet “an old friend”, so this must have not went by so smoothly) who also boards the plane…when asked by Jack what will happen to those on the plane that do not belong on the island, he could care less. And a suicide letter Locke had in an envelope for Jack (Locke hung himself according to Eloise) was put back in his coat only to be found in Jack’s suit…how did that happen?

“We’re not going to Guam, are we?” – Frank Lapidus.

Frank being the pilot on the plane, all cleaned up and sober, was a clever inclusion to the episode. Ben’s pathological lying has become a running joke as even Eloise dismisses a comment he says to Jack as probably not truthful. Ben’s activities post-island still lack exact depth, but he’s been busy nonetheless. What happens once he returns to the island certainly intrigues me. What I hope for is that the events off-island for the Oceanic Six will be treated similarly as the first seasons where “past revelations” shape what happens going forward. Locke’s time off the island has yet to be elaborated so that is there for storytelling and dramatic purposes. However, on-island, Jack, Hurley, and Kate discovering Jin driving up in the VW van, brand new with the Dharma logo spick and span, and a machine gun pointed their direction until he realizes who they are, is certainly a development not expected!

Desmond made it very clear he was through with the island although Eloise informed him the island wasn’t done with him. Storming off, Desmond doesn’t give Eloise a chance to explain. He’s been on that island enough for one lifetime but will he be able to remain distanced from an objective supposedly meant for him?

There is a brief but pleasant scene where Jack visits his grandfather who had left his room without permission (where he finds his dad's shoes, to be put on Locke's feet), Kate is found in Jack's room where Aaron's whereabouts aren't to be told, Kate and Jack are once again intimate, Locke leaves a note that simply asked Jack why he didn't believe, and Ben mentions Thomas in regards to how he should have been remembered (willing to go with Jesus to die) instead of how he is (doubting Jesus' resurrection, seeking proof without faith). Jack is very much the primary focus, even diving after Hurley when back on the island, keeping him from drowning, once again in hero mode.

Eloise gives us a startling bit of information. It seems that the reason the island is hard to find is because it is constantly *moving*. And a certain man developed equations resulting in a method behind finding the island. The Lamp Post pendulum can closely dicate the proximity of where the island should be and a window is available for them to get to the coordinates so that a return is possible. And sure enough the return is successful! But *when* are they?!?!