Rewatching LOST: 5.09 “Namaste”

Sawyer must act fast to bring Jack, Kate, and Hurley into the Dharma Initiative. In the present, the fate of Ajira 316 is revealed.

• It’s night over the South Pacific when Ajira 815 hits turbulence and the Oceanic 6 vanish in a flash of white. When the flash subsides, it’s suddenly daytime, and the plane is losing altitude over Hydra Island. Pilot Frank Lapidus spots the runway that the Others were building back in Season 3 and executes an emergency landing. Once the plane is on the ground, Frank finds that Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid are gone — but Sun has inexplicably been left behind. And Ben is still on the plane as well.
• In the fallout from the crash, Frank tries to rally the survivors to wait for rescue, but Caesar wrests command from him and finds the Hydra station buildings and decides to search them. Meanwhile, Ben sneaks off to head back for the main island, and Sun follows him. Frank soon finds them both and tries to convince Sun not to trust Ben. When they reach the hidden outrigger canoes belonging to the Others, Sun knocks Ben out with an oar, and asks Frank to accompany her to the other island.
• When they reach the Barracks, which have been abandoned and are severely run down, they’re greeted by Christian Shephard, who shows them a photo of Jack, Kate, and Hurley among the Dharma Initiative in 1977. He explains that Jin is with them in ’77, and that to reach him, Sun has a long journey ahead of her.
• In 1977, Jin brings Jack, Kate, and Hurley to Sawyer, who greets them in amazement. But after the reunion is over, he’s forced to shock them with the news that they’re in 1977. When Jin finds out that his wife was on the plane that brought them here, he rushes off to the Flame, where a familiar-named Dharma member named Radzinsky monitors activity all over the island. Jin says that if a plane landed on the island, Radzinsky will know.
• Sawyer heads to his house to get some 70s clothes for his friends to wear. Juliet finds him there and is upset to find out that their old friends have returned to the island after three years away. She fears that the life that she and Sawyer have made for themselves here may be coming to an end, but Sawyer assures her that they’ll figure out a way to keep that from happening. She helps him hatch a plan to use the sub that’s coming in with new recruits that afternoon, as a way of bringing their friends into the Dharma Initiative.
• Meanwhile, Jin reaches the Flame and with the reluctant help of a very cranky Radzinsky, and determines that no plane has been seen flying over or landing on the island. But soon a motion sensor goes off and Radzinsky says that a Hostile has tripped the alarm by venturing too close to Dharma territory. Jin runs toward the alarm, hoping it might be Sun, but instead he finds Sayid. Their reunion is cut short when Radzinsky turns up behind Jin, and Jin is forced to pretend that Sayid is a Hostile.
• Amy is supposed to be working at Orientation, checking in the new recruits. But since she’s still recovering from her delivery, Juliet volunteers to do it for her. She takes the sub’s manifest and then checks on Amy’s baby boy — who she’s stunned to learn is named Ethan.
• While they wait on Sawyer to return, Jack and Kate talk about what they’re supposed to do next. Jack seems content to wait and see. Sawyer arrives and fills them in on the plan. As they ride back to the Barracks in Sawyer’s van, Hurley asks Sawyer if he’s going to try and prevent the Dharma Initiative from being wiped out in the Purge, but Sawyer explains about Daniel’s theories regarding their inability to change the past. Jack asks about Daniel’s whereabouts, but Sawyer says Dan’s no longer on the island. When they reach the Barracks, Miles arrives to give Sawyer the news about Sayid. Sayid races off to the Flame to intercede on Sayid’s behalf, while his friends are left behind to fend for themselves at Orientation.
• Inside, Jack is checked in by Pierre Chang, who’s helping out because they’re short-handed. Jack’s amused to learn that the work assignment Sawyer arranged for him is to be a Janitor. Kate meanwhile has a harder time when security officer Phil can’t find her name on his list of recruits, or on the sub manifest. But Juliet arrives just in time with some “last minute additions” to the list, with Kate’s name on it. The two of them share a knowing look as Juliet welcomes Kate to the island.
• At the Flame, Radzinsky proposes to Sawyer that they just kill Sayid now, because he fears that Sayid (the “Hostile”) caught a glimpse of his plans for a super-secret station that Dharma is preparing to build: the Swan. Sawyer ignores this and as he interrogates Sayid, he’s able to convey to his friend to play along and confess to being a Hostile so that they’ll have cause to hold him as a prisoner. Sawyer takes Sayid back to Security HQ, where he’s placed in a holding cell until Sawyer can figure out their next move.
• That night, Jack visits Sawyer’s house — where he’s surprised to find Juliet — and criticizes Sawyer’s leadership style and his capture of Sayid. Sawyer explains that unlike Jack, who merely reacted when he was in charge, Sawyer likes to think things through before he acts. Thinking is how he saved Jack, Kate, and Hurley earlier today, and it’s how he’s going to save Sayid tomorrow. He tells Jack to just sit back and relax, and let him worry about the rest. So Jack leaves, rather liking this idea of letting someone else carry responsibility for the group for a change.
• Sayid receives a visitor at his holding cell — a visitor he’s stunned to learn is young Benjamin Linus.

• Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid were transported through time to 1977. Everyone else remained on the plane.
  Question: What happened when Ajira 316 went through the bright light? 5.06
• Nope. They remain in the present.
  Question: Where are Sun, Sayid, Ben, and Frank? Did they travel back in time as well? 5.06
• Ajira 316 survived its encounter with the Oceanic 6′s “window” that allowed them to return to the island. Most of the passengers appear to have survived, but several were injured.
  Question: What became of Ajira 316, and the rest of its passengers? 5.06
• The specifics aren’t entirely clear, but what we know for sure is that after the Oceanic 6 (all but Sun) disappeared from the plane, Ajira 316 found itself losing altitude above Hydra Island. Frank worked fast to bring the plane to an emergency landing on the Hydra runway.
  Question: How did Ajira 316 wind up on the island? Did it land? Did it crash? 5.07
• One assumes the runway was built so that Ajira 316 would have a place to land. How the Others and/or Jacob knew it would be coming three years prior to its arrival on the island remains to be explained.
  Question: Why were the Others building a runway on Hydra island? 3.22
• Sun.
  Question: Which passenger did Frank leave Hydra Island to go to the main island with? 5.07
• Sun wanted to go searching for Jin, and asked for his help.
  Question: Why did Frank steal a canoe to go to the main island? 5.07
• Horace and Amy Goodspeed’s baby is Ethan Rom. How and why he came to use the last name “Rom” is unknown.
  Question: Who is Horace and Amy’s baby boy? Is he someone we’ve met on the island in the present? 5.08

• Why was Sun left behind in the present, when all of the other Oceanic 6 were transported through time to the past?
• Presumably, the Hydra Island runway was ordered built by Jacob, who knew that Ajira 316 would be coming to the island in 2007 and would need a place to land. So how did he know it would be coming?
• What’s become of Daniel Faraday in 1977?

• When Caesar woke Ilana up after the crash, she was mildly delirious as she thought someone she knew was calling to her. It sounded like she said “Shara,” though I’m not positive. Any guesses? Is this someone we’ll find out about in Season 6?
• My best guess about the Hydra runway situation is this. We saw in “The Incident” that Jacob visited Ilana sometime in the past and asked for her help. Based on her actions at the foot of the Tawaret statue, she and Bram and their friends appear to be working to do just that: help Jacob. So my guess is that Jacob’s bedside appeal for Ilana’s help happened sometime prior to 2004, when he ordered the runway built on Hydra island. This theory assumes that Jacob has precognitive abilities, in order to know the circumstances of Ilana’s arrival on the island three years later, but it’s the only explanation that fits the facts as his reason for building the runway. So… if Jacob has the ability to see the future, then he must have known that his nemesis would eventually assume Locke’s identity and arrange his murder. This can only mean that Jacob’s plan for Ilana has a purpose beyond protecting himself from Fake Locke and Ben. Hmm…

Need more depth and detail? Read my full recap of “Namaste”.

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Image credits: “Rewatching Lost” logo by Robin Parrish. Season 4 cast promotional image: American Broadcasting Company.