Lost S5E9: Namaste

Last night’s episode was a great one for character reasons, but kind of a lousy one for plot reasons. Ever since the show landed in the ‘70s, the plot has slowed down to a crawl. It’s great to see the Losties placed in this situation and it’s interesting to see how they were moved around the chessboard to get to this point, but we’re getting a little antsy and we’d like to see things move forward a bit. Since the first part of the season was such a rollercoaster ride, we’re hoping that this is just an “eye of the storm” moment for the season.

Another annoying thing: the show sometimes treats certain things as shocking revelations when they’re clearly nothing of the sort. It wasn’t shocking to see l’il Ben show up at the end since we all knew he was there anyway. Why go to the trouble of hiding his face and waiting for the big reveal? Who didn’t know as soon as a kid showed up that it was Ben?

Lest you think this minor bitching indicates that we hated the episode, let us tell you what we loved:

THE RUNWAY! We do so love when we get something right. As you may recall, the runway that Ajira 316 landed on was the same one Kate and Sawyer were being forced to construct way back in S3 when they were held captive by the Others, which forces the question: How the hell much does Ben know, anyway? The answer is looking more and more like: EVERYTHING. And that makes him even more dangerous than we thought. He knew a flight was going to crash on Hydra island; he met Sayid 30 years before Sayid met him; and apparently there’s been a picture of Jack, Kate, and Hurley hanging in the DHARMA barracks (where he’s lived almost his whole life) for 30 years.

Kinda makes you wonder why, way back in S2, he put Kate, Hurley, Jack, and Sawyer on that list he gave to Michael. He knew who all of those people were and he’s known it for 30 years.

As for Sayid, we have absolutely no idea where that plot strand is going. Either he winds up being welcomed into the DHARMA community, gets set loose back out in the jungle, or killed. It seems pretty unlikely that Sawyer can convince the DHARMAns (new word) to welcome him with open arms, so things are looking mighty grim for our favorite Iraqi assassin.

As for Sawyer…the writers have done a bangup job taking him from asshole, to charming asshole, to full-on hero and leader. We were practically doing fist pumps when he quietly tore douchebag Jack a new asshole. It’s about time someone pointed out that the so-called “leader” of the Losties has a pretty lousy track record.

Leadership is something of a recurring theme with this show. Who is the leader of the others, Ben, Locke or Richard? Who is the leader of the Losties, Jack, Sawyer, or (again) Locke? The roles seem to shift constantly depending on circumstances. We can’t help but note that in all the jockeying for leadership, the women automatically take the back seat as if there’s no question that they’re not meant to lead.

And speaking of the women…

SUN WHACKING BEN WITH AN OAR = AWESOME. “I lied.” Any character that gets a chance to knock Ben unconscious is okay by us. It’s driving us crazy that we’re not getting an explanation as to why she’s in the present when the rest of the O6 wound up in the past. Half-baked theories: It has something to do with the wedding ring (since they keep making a point of showing it) or it has something to with the fact that she was the only member of the O6 who wasn’t personally “invited” to return to the island by the messianic John Locke.

Our love for Juliet grows with each episode and we are SO looking forward to her telling Kate to back off from her man. Elizabeth Mitchell plays her in such a way that it’s virtually impossible to read what’s going on in her head, which can make some of her scenes a little chilling. She’s a lot like Ben in that respect. “Hi Kate, I’m Juliet. Welcome to the Island.” A perfectly innocuous comment but it’s still dripping with subtext.

Kate’s in a holding pattern, plot- and character-wise right now. She doesn’t seem to have much in the way of motivation and she only seems to exist to further the love triangle subplot. We do wonder when the moon-eyed Sawyer is going to get around to asking her if she took care of that favor for him.

In fact, there’s, once again, a lot not being said among these characters. We realize that they have to maintain a certain distance from each other to keep up appearances, but come on. There’s some MAJOR catching up to do. Jack and Sawyer had a chance, but as always with those two, it wound up being another dick-measuring contest between them.

Let’s see…what else…

Oh! Baby Ethan! Sorry, but that pulled us right out of the story. We’re supposed to believe that Ethan was only 27 when he died? Come on. The constant problem of actors on this show portraying characters much older or much younger than themselves is getting to be something of a joke. Although we did love the look on Juliet’s face when she realized just who she was holding in her arms.

Here’s the big confusing thing about the episode. We need you to discuss it because we can’t figure it out. When 316 was crashing and the island came into view, you could briefly hear the recording of the numbers being recited. Now why is that? They went to the radio tower in S4 to remove Rousseau’s distress call. There shouldn’t be anything coming out of that radio tower, so why are the numbers transmitting again?

Okay, we’ve rambled enough. Your turn.

[Photos: ABC.com]


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