LOST, Episode 5.09 - "Namaste"

Riding on a thought to see where it's from,
Gliding through a memory of a time yet to come.
The Beastie Boys, "Namaste"

Through five seasons, I never truly considered that the title of the show is about us rather than them. Tonight was the first time that I actually said "I'm lost" out loud. It happened when Sun and Lapidus arrived on the main island, and that they were in a different era than Jin, Sawyer, etc. Even though they were on the same plane as Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid. It only took me 91 or so episodes to realize that Abrams and Lindelof knew exactly what they were creating and how it would affect us.

I digress. Let's dig in to "Namaste" and see if I land on a runway or below a waterfall...

THE FLAME STATION

At what point does Mikhail arrive and run that communications hub? When Radzinsky moves into the Swan?

NEW RECRUITS

So if Sheriff Sawyer embedded Hurley, Jack and Kate as the fresh-off-the-sub recruits, what did he do with the real ones who arrived?

Why was there going to be six months before the next batch of recruits were going to arrive? What happened to every two weeks?

The two recruits that 'dropped out' - did they do so before getting on the sub from wherever it left?

PARALLELS

• Frank's Ajira 316 co-pilot was impaled by a tree. Flight 815 pilot Seth Norris was killed atop one.

• Juliet was checking the Dharma submarine manifest while holding baby Ethan in 1977. In 2004, Hurley discovered that Ethan was not on the Flight 815 manifest, resulting his death shortly thereafter.
  

• When young Ben first meets Sayid, Sayid is being prisoner in Dharmaville. When Sayid first meets older Ben, Ben is being held prisoner in the Swan Hatch.

THE RUNWAY

Juliet said that the Others were building one...but that was in 2004 or 2005. Assuming that Ajira 316 'landed' in 2007 or beyond, when was the runway finished, and by whom?

Of course someone knew that a plane would be landing there in the future. Ben is the logical guess. Or Widmore.

THE SWAN HATCH

Radzinsky was building the model for it, which was featured in the very first Orientation film that Desmond had in the Swan (featuring Dr. Marvin Candle; it was dated 1980 - see still above). Remember that Radzinsky was the one who sliced out certain sections of that very film, and that Eko found the remainder of it in the Bible (in the Arrow hatch). That Orientation film references 'the incident,' which obviously takes place at some point between 1977 and 1980. [side note: Because this is a spoiler-free blog, if you've heard anything about this, please do not share/spoil in the Comments section. Thank you!]

So if someone did indeed bury Jughead and cover it with cement (as instructed by Faraday), did Radzinsky and Dharma build the Swan over it?

BEN

By 1977, young Ben had already met up with a Hostile-clothed Richard Alpert in the jungle. He asked to join them, and Alpert told him he had to be very patient. So was Ben inquiring if Sayid was a Hostile because he wants to help him?

Does Ben recognize Sayid when they meet again in 2004?

CAESAR & ILANA

I was surprised to learn that they don't know one another. But if they're the next Jack and Kate, shoot me now.

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD

In addition to being...lost, that was my favorite WTF moment of the episode. I was pleasantly surprised that both Sun and Lapidus were able to not only see but hear him. So is he merely a visible mouthpiece for Jacob?

The only other time we heard 'the whispers' followed by a Christian appearance was when he told Michael he "can go now" on the freighter right before it blew up.

It seems that era was shortly after Ben's 1992 Dharma purge but before he transformed Dharmaville into New Otherton. Have we seen Christian on the island before the 2004 crash of Flight 815, when his body arrived there in the coffin? This is a significant appearance and piece of the puzzle...

ETHAN

So much for the awesome theory that Horace and Amy's baby was going to be Jacob (sorry Josh!).

If I had to guess, Ethan will be the only baby to be conceived and born on the island because he was two weeks premature, and arrived before 'the incident' (which I think is the cause of the island's infertility issue).

Ethan is the only Dharma-era person to survive Ben's purge in 1992. So where was he when Ben killed daddy Horace and the rest of their people? Did Ben spare him? Given that Ben dispatches Ethan to the beach to infiltrate the fuselage survivors from Flight 815 in the future...he didn't value Ethan very much. Or care that he was the only kid to be born under special circumstances.

Daddy Horace was building (what would become Jacob's) cabin for he and mommy Amy as a little getaway from Dharmaville. So we can assume that son Ethan spent a good deal of time there. But Jacob must not have placed too much value on Ethan or his circumstances either, given that the island let Ethan die when Charlie shot him.

Why did he call himself Ethan Rom and not Goodspeed? Well, they do love to use anagrams on this show, and that name lends itself to several relevant options?

• OTHER MAN
  
• ERA, MONTH
• THE ROMAN (hmm...perhaps he and Caesar have a connection)
  

Now that we know Juliet delivered Ethan, it is interesting to look back at their relationship. He stalked her in Miami while recruiting her to Mittleos Bioscience with Alpert (when he told her "knew of her work;" I have to wonder if he was talking about himself) and then drugged her for the sub journey to the island. He fixed her plumbing in New Otherton. He worked with her lover Goodwin at The Tempest. He pretended to be a fertility doctor with Claire.

FARADAY

We last saw him freaking out over seeing a young Charlotte, knowing that he'd turn into an evil man who'd frighten and warn her. So does he leave because of that, even though "what happened, happened?"

What year was it when Faraday was under the Orchid as Pierre Chang and the Dharma workers discovered the Frozen Donkey Wheel? Was it during the three years that he was there with Sawyer and Juliet?

KATE

Besides being her usual vague and twitchy self, Kate seems to have lost her anger and edge since arriving back on the island. I actually hope that she's pregnant with Jack's child. Leave my Juliet alone, Freckles.

MILES

IF he is Pierre Chang's son...do they cross paths during that era? Given that Faraday thought his own young mother (Ellie) looked familiar in 1954, I doubt that Miles would recognize Chang as his father. Unless that is why Miles is "exactly where I want to be" when he first arrives on the island; that he went on the Freighter Four mission in the first place to discover his roots.

Did the little ghostbuster lose his special powers when he traveled back in time? Seems to me his skills would have come in handy if he was communicating with the dead during those three years...

RADZINSKY

We know that eventually, he moves into the Swan with Kelvin Inman. He is the one who created the infamous hatch blast door map. Inman later told Desmond that Radzinsky killed himself in the Swan. Will we see these events unfold?

SAWYER

Loved that he schooled Jack upon his return. Looks like Jack is going to have to adjust to the new sheriff in town.

SUN

Why was she the only one of the Oceanic 6 to remain on the plane when it landed; why were Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sayid all 'placed' on the main island after the flash?

When she and Lapidus were walking from the outrigger into Dharmaville, what was that movement in the bushes? If it was Smokey, he wouldn't have merely lingered there. They wouldn't just write that in unless it is significant later...

Sun throttling Ben over the head with the oar was my second favorite Power Sun moment ever; the first was her bitch slap of Juliet after she told Jin about Sun's affair.

RANDOM NOTE

In the Season 3 episode called "Enter 77," Locke was playing chess on Mikhail's computer in The Flame when Pierre Chang popped up (as Dr. Marvin Candle) in a video, asking him to press 77 if there was a "hostile incursion." The only reason this struck me is that we're now witnessing The Flame...in 1977.


CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK

I know I'm tired, but I could have sworn that Claire appeared very briefly behind Sun as she was talking to Christian Shephard about Jin's whereabouts. Because I believe that Claire passed away, it makes sense that she and daddy would be spirits in the material world, together. And there was an odd bit of smoke there as well, which could have been a very quiet Smokey (before his rage issues manifested).

---
Apologies for the short post this evening. I'm sure that when I have more time and after a second viewing, I will have far more to analyze and discuss. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read. Please leave your thoughts and theories as Comments, and enjoy the rest of your week!