Right Back Where We Started

Good morning Dharma Blog! First off, a couple shout-outs. To my mom, Happy Birthday! Guess what I got you? A blog entry! Secondly, a shout-out to my Dharma Blog Constant and our resident preview artist, Maggie. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, as she’s having a rough week. Love you, kid.

Now onto last night’s action. In many ways, 316 paralleled the earliest chapters of the LOST saga. An opening scene with Jack’s eye in the jungle, a flashback-style story telling. Jack trying to get a casket on a plane and more! Are the writers getting lazy? On the contrary, these familiar elements served a much grander purpose, which is what today’s posting is all about (you’ll see).

But for those of you wondering how long it was going to take LOST to get the O6 back to the Island, you got your answer pretty quickly last night. Immediately, in fact. Jack’s back on the Island. So are Hurley and Kate. And, presumably, so are Sun, Sayid, Hurley, Ben and Locke’s carcass. But how? Well to quote Ms. Hawking, “Let’s get started.”


The Layperson’s Guide to Paranormal Island Time Travel
With a classroom full of characters exhibiting a combination of disbelief and bewilderment last night, Professor Eloise Hawking took to the chalkboard to explai how one goes about returning to the Island. And man, it’s tricky.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not a scientist. A nerd, yes. But a scientist I am not. So I’ll spare you the science and get to the essentials. First off, our setting was The Lamppost, the underground laboratory that was once – get this – a Dharma Station! Built with the purpose of finding – and perhaps exploiting – the Island, the Lamppost has been hijacked by Professor Hawking. In this station, a Dharma scientist discovered that you weren’t supposed to look for where the Island was, but where it was going. That’s right, it’s been moving the whole time. I’ll save the intricacies of that mystery for another day.

I’m going to harken back to Season 2 for a second. Remember when Rose visited that healer, Isaac of Uluru? He explained the concept of “pockets of energy,” around the world that had extraordinary powers. That crackpot tangent was confirmed by Hawking last night, who explained that Dharma was only interested in one such pocket: Hot Pockets. Just kidding. The Island, silly (great guess, Sun)! Dharma had evidence of the Island’s existence, but not proof of its whereabouts (or whenabouts?). But using a series of ridiculously complicated looking formulas and that sweet pendulum to predict the Island’s movements, Dharma found “windows” of time through which one may enter the Island.

After the lesson, Desmond exited stage left, but not before issuing a stern warning to Jack not to heed the words of Ms. Hawking. Undeterred (and with the knowledge that “The Island isn’t done” with Desmond yet), Hawking asks Jack to come bang erasers after class. And by “bang erasers” I mean “comprehend his destiny.”

Using Locke’s suicide letter and the father Jack can’t forget as emotional pleas, Hawking explains that Locke’s body will act as a “proxy,” or substitute, for the Oceanic 815 carcass of Christian Shepherd. To enable this, Jack is tasked with giving something of his father’s to Locke.

As if that weren’t enough for Jack, Ben then explains the story of Thomas the Apostle to Jack, as an allegory for leaps of faith. Yes, this is the same Ben that once said about the Island, “God doesn’t know where we are.” So did Ben Linus find Jesus? Nah. He found yet another way to get inside Jack’s head. Brilliant. Ben boiled down the message of the story in a very palatable form for Jack: “We’re all convinced sooner or later, Jack.”

A couple of things I noticed here. Did you see that US Military satellite photo of the Island? It was dated 9/23/1954, which confirms the Jughead story. Interestingly, that photo was taken exactly 50 years to the day (if you count the leap day in 2004) before the crash of Oceanic 815. Does that mean anything? And what did you make of Ben’s feigning of misunderstanding? How much does he really know? Ms. Hawking seems to think he knows more than he lets on, but he certainly doesn’t seem as knowledgeable and in control as usual.


The Return
So with missions in hand, the travelers venture off on what seem to be vastly divergent paths. Sun flees. Kate, Sun, Sayid and Aaron still aren’t buying the story. And Ben? He’s got some “loose ends to tie up” for “an old friend.” Side note: I think that friend was Locke. And obviously, that “loose end” involved beating the tar out of someone.

But divergent paths be damned! In a scene seeping with ethereal creepiness, Kate shows a change of heart and agrees to follow Jack. Her determination is evident. So much so that she seems to have discarded Aaron like a prom night dumpster baby. If you don’t believe she would really be that ruthless, I’d like to point you to the cavalier line she uttered when chiding Jack about his father’s shoes: “Why hold onto something that makes you sad?” So what happened to Aaron? And what happened to disintegrate Kate’s maternal instinct so quickly? And why do I find her even more attractive when she’s being crazy? Because I am sick.

If that weren’t enough for Jack, the rest of the O6 (+ Ben – Aaron) continued to fall into his lap. Sun had a change of heart. So did Hurley, for some unknown reason. Sayid was taken captive by a mysterious woman. Ben hobbled onto the plane at the last minute. And John Locke’s carcass cleared customs. Tonight’s episode wasn’t about explaining how everyone got on Ajira Airlines Flight 316. All we need to know is that they did, and my guess is that the remainder of the season will answer those questions in flashback-form (again, how very Season One of LOST).

But last night wasn’t about science class, creepy-hot Kate or any of the rest of the Oceanic Six. It was a return to LOST’s central Season One storyline: the hero’s journey.


It All Comes Back to Jack
The conflict between science and faith has always underscored the story of LOST. Last night, the Man of Science began his transition to Man of Faith. And it began with one hell of a leap.

Jack’s extra-credit session with Ms. Hawking served to remind us who Jack has been: untrusting, grounded in logic and stubborn. He scoffs at the “something borrowed” mission handed down by Hawking, to which she replies, “Stop thinking how ridiculous it is, and start asking yourself whether or not you believe it’s going to work. That’s why it’s called a leap of faith, Jack.” Suddenly, a glimmer of acceptance began to creep in amidst his incredulity.

Ben’s well-timed Sunday School lesson reiterated to Jack the importance of leaps of faith or, put another way, acceptance of fate. He leaves Jack with the ominous prediction that, sooner or later, the good doctor will abandon reason for feeling. And Jack, taking in this moment with the one prior, begins to believe.

The next stop is to Grandpa Ray, Jack’s nursing home-confined granddad from whom Jack apparently inherited his restless adventurer side. It’s here we see that Jack has convinced himself to get on the plane, as he tells granddad that he’ll be going away for a while. He leaves with his dad’s old shoes, returning home to a (drugged-up?) Kate, who only further reaffirms Jack’s path by agreeing to go with him. Because when you’re trying to decide between Science or Faith, the answer is always, always, always, “wherever Kate goes.”

At the butcher shop, Jack gives Locke his dancing shoes, and says, “Wherever you are John, you must be laughing our ass off, that I’m actually doing this. Because this, this is even crazier than you are.” Then, in a last-ditch attempt to circumvent his purpose, Jack leaves the letter with Locke. But the letter isn’t done with Jack.

It finds him on the plane. As does the Oceanic Six. Jack’s fate falls into his lap, with everyone but Aaron joining him on Flight 316 to confirm and validate his mission. And as he watches with amazement at the déjà vu airplane scene unfolding before him, his curiosity gets the best of him. He reads Locke’s note (“It feels like he needs me to read it.”), which simply says, “Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL.” If Jack was looking for a sign telling him to believe, Locke’s letter beat him over the head with it.

With that, midair turbulence set in for the second time in Jack’s life. But this time there is a key difference: in the battle between science and faith, Jack Shepherd has switched sides. He won’t try to explain this crash with logic and science, but with the tried-and-true John Locke maxims of destiny, fate, faith and purpose.

What Jack’s Journey Means for LOST
In a way, last night served as the reincarnation of LOST’s very narrative. In a show that prides itself on eschewing and reinventing every convention of the television universe, LOST’s penultimate season is right back where it started. An ill-fated but fully-intentional plane crash (well, maybe not a crash?) onto the Island, where heroes journeys will examine the struggles between faith and science, good and evil, right and wrong, predetermination and free will. At its core, many of life's biggest questions center on these struggles.

Remember, this show is about its chracters examining these central themes. By rebooting the narrative, LOST can now examine these heady motifs with serious depth. The O6 return and time travel angles will allow our characters a chance to change history, tool with destiny and reinvent themselves toward self-actualization. In doing so, they’ll encounter the paradoxes and pitfalls of some of those difficult questions. And I think the story we'll see will center around how the journeys to understanding some of life’s deepest, darkest philosophical questions is often more telling than the answers themselves.


In the coming weeks, we’ll see more about how we got to this point. What happened to Jeremy Bentham (which we’ll get next week), how Sayid, Kate and Hurley got to Flight 316, what Ben did, what has been happening to the Islanders and why the hell Jin is now a Dharma Workman. But for now, I’m going to enjoy 316 for what it was: a return to the roots of LOST, with a series of reminders about what I love about this show in the first place.

Until next week, Namaste.
Charlie

PS: Check out the awesome gift I got from Maggie: