5.1 Because You Left

Somewhere in time, Dharma has discovered the existence of the ‘big wheel’. The workers building the Orchid want to drill in there, but the drills keep melting. Dr Candle shows up flaming mad (forgive the pun), insisting that they stop drilling lest they release the time-related energy within, which, he assures them, would be ‘bad’ (Ghostbusters ‘bad’, I think). Dan is there, working nearby, taking in all this talk of time energy, his mouth watering. He’ll undoubtedly write this all down in his little notebook at his first opportunity.

Ben has convinced Jack that they must gather everyone up and return to the island, otherwise everyone they left behind will die. And why is Locke dead? Because Richard told him that the only way to get everyone back to the island is to die. It kind of reminds me of an old Star Trek Next Generation episode, where a pesty, formerly omnipotent character named ‘Q’ asks, "How can I convince you people that I’m mortal?" "Die," replies Worf.

Anyway, the only main thing that Lost shares with Star Trek is time travel. For some reason, we want to believe the when Ben turns the big wheel, the island moves to a new place. What is easier to believe is that the time period where the island sits (with a buffer area surrounding the island large enough to encompass Dan’s boat) has been moved. Dan comes back to explain to Sawyer, Juliet and the rest (note: the phrase ‘and the rest’ © the song from Gilligan’s Island season 1) that the island is stuttering through time. Sure enough, a series of whiteouts occur, and each time, island features disappear or re-appear. Hatches are blown up, then intact; the camp is gone; the freighter is gone.

At one point, a frustrated Sawyer bangs on the door to the hatch to elicit help from Desmond. Dan pesters him to stop, assuring him that this attempt to change what originally happened must fail. But after Sawyer leaves, Dan consults his little handwritten notebook, then suddenly, after a proverbial light bulb appears over his head, begins banging on the hatch door himself. Desmond answers in full contamination suit, pointing a gun at Dan and ready to fire it. Dan calms him down enough to live, tells Desmond that he is ‘special’ and ‘immune to all this’, and then asks Desmond to return to Oxford and find Dan’s mother. Desmond awakens on the yacht with the cat in the hat (sorry, I meant  Penny - her mouth for some reason reminds me of the cat in the hat). He says he did not have a dream – he had a memory. He immediately begins ratcheting sails and heading for Oxford.

On the other side of the island, Locke is encountering the same stuttering time in the vicinity of the drug plane. First, the plane crashes, a sure sign to him that he has traveled back in time. Then Ethan from the past (who does not know him) shoots him in the leg and is about to finish the job when time jumps again. Now, the plane is on the ground. Richard shows up (he of the eye makeup) and seems to know about time jumping. He treats Locke’s leg and gives him a compass, with instructions to give it back to Richard the next time they meet (since Richard will not recognize him). Most importantly, he tells Locke that the only way to make things right is to get everyone back on the island, and the only way to get them back on the island…is to die.

Kate has been suspected by some mystery person of not being the biological mother of the fair-haired boy she is caring for. A lawyer wants to take a couple of blood samples, but Kate slams the door, quickly packs, and takes her son on ‘vacation’.

Sun is stopped at the airport by Widmore to discuss their mutual goal, which Sun states is to kill Ben Linus.

Hurley and Sayid are on the run. Hurley is already a suspect in killing the man found dead outside the mental institution from which he escaped (Sayid is the killer). At Sayid’s apartment, Sayid is ambushed by and kills two more guys. Hurley foolishly picks up the gun (as people are wont to do only on TV and in the movies) and he is photographed by at least one bystander with a cell phone. He’s got some ‘splainin’ to do – unless, of course, he escapes back to the past.

Comments

Ah, for the good old days of season 1, when time didn’t jump, there were no outsiders, the only issue was how to survive on a wilderness island after a plane crash while being stalked by mysterious feral ‘others’. But the characters have been around so long in our minds and are so real, that we can basically watch them be made to do anything at this point. I know, however, that you could never get anyone to start watching Lost now – they would be way too confused. So viewer numbers have to drop off, as some people are inevitably going to stop watching as time goes on.

It’s good to see that Bernard can still overact at the same high level as when he first got to the island.

Richard’s quote about knowing Locke had a bullet in his leg because Locke ‘will’ tell him indicates that we are going to be jumping back and forth in time in future episodes. For example, there will be a scene in Richard’s future where Locke gives him the compass and tells him that they met in the past and Richard treated Locke’s leg. Something like that, anyway.

Nits

Locke pulls his knife from and leather sheath, and, for some reason, the sound effects people dubbed in a metal ‘schwish’ sound, like when two swords cross.

Kate is never actually served with the court order; I believe she has to take it in her hand to be considered served, and she never does. In addition, lawyers generally do not run around serving court orders. It’s a time consuming process (for example, what if she wasn’t home or if she just never opened the door?). This is a specialty job done by Process Servers (for a lot less money than lawyers make).

Quotable Quotes

Jack: How did we get here...? How did all of this happen?
Ben: It happened because you left, Jack... Now let's get started shall we?

Hurley: Wait. He's on our side now?
Sayid: Listen to me, Hurley. If you ever have the misfortune of running into him [Ben], whatever he tells you, just do the opposite.

Daniel: Desmond didn't know you when he first came out of there. You never met. Which means you can't meet.
Sawyer: This would all be fascinating, if I was listening to you.

Miles: Why are we going back to the beach, if there's nothing to go back to?
Juliet: So stay here.
Miles: That chick likes me.

Hurley: Want a fry?
Sayid: No, thank you.
Hurley: You know maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people.

Hurley: So that dude you pocked outside Santa Rosa, who was he?
Sayid: I don't care. He was armed and he was watching you. That made him an enemy.
Hurley: You think he was going to kill me?
Sayid: I'm not taking risks after Bentham died.
Hurley: You mean Locke?
Sayid: Yeah, I mean Locke.
Hurley: I need a cool code name.

Locke: What is this?
Richard: It's a compass.
Locke: What does it do?
Richard: It points north, John. Look, I wish I had time to be more sensitive about this because it's a lot to swallow, but you need to know it in order to do what you gotta do. So I'm just gonna say it, okay? The only way to save the island, John, is to get your people back here. The ones who left.
Locke: Jack, Kate? But the chopper was headed for the boat. The boat...
Richard: No, they're fine, John, and they're already home, so you have to convince them to come back.
Locke: How... How am I supposed to do that?
Richard: You're gonna have to die, John.