Lost 5x09: "Namaste"

[Aragorn]

Remember the first couple seasons when it felt like they didn't have 22 episodes worth of stories to tell and a lot of the plots were slowly treading along?

Now with the reduced number of episodes, the plots have sped up and they probably could fill out a full season now.

 

[Gertch]

Looks like a blooper, one of their production crew got in the shot or something, a mistake, it doesn't look like claire to me at all.

They've been very good about keeping out bloopers.

Also, what people think is Smokey coming into the room when the door opens, it just looked like fog to me.

It's definitely a greyish smoke and Christian even turns and smiles at it while the other two are looking at the picture.

 

[DeafPoet]

Looks like a blooper, one of their production crew got in the shot or something, a mistake, it doesn't look like claire to me at all.

They've been very good about keeping out bloopers.

Yeah I know how meticulously they edit these things. No way there was a mistake. Especially in a scene featuring Christian. She's there on purpose but damned if I know who she is or what it means.

 

[TheGodBen]

Average.

I can't explain why, but this episode felt distinctly average to me even though a lot of cool stuff happened. The story in 2007 wasn't all that good and the story in 1977 was good and had some very good scenes but it just didn't feel all that compelling. It is right on the border of Above Average but it didn't quite make it. Normally I finish the episode and come right here to post about it, but this week I actually forgot and started posting in other forums instead.

Enjoyable to watch, but it was just pleasant and nothing more in my opinion. I can certainly understand why others think it is Excellent.

 

[Corran Horn]

Fuck Sawyer and his self-righteous speech to Jack. Sawyer has had three years, in a safe environment, with cars, doctors, food, water, guns, a security fence, plus a truce with his only enemies, the "hostiles".

When Jack was in charge for 108 days all the while they were being attacked from all sides by the Others with no safe haven, no security fence, little food, water, etc...

Jack did a great job keeping as many people alive as he did, right up until Widmore's people showed up and started killing everyone. And that was also partly Locke's fault because he threw a knife into the girls back and she then sent a warning to the people on the boat that there was trouble.

I like Sawyer, I love how his character has evolved, but he has no right to talk trash to Jack. Jack's the man.

Also, Jack, Kate & the rest risked everything and gave up everything to come back to the Island and save him.

Agreed. Jack didn't get anybody killed, really. Was he supposed to avoid going to the freighter and trust a guy like Ben and a nutso like Locke? And he's certainly not to blame that the Locke/Sawyer group pretty much all got killed.

 

[zengoth]

voted average - but not in a bad way.
it's a bridge episode, setting up chesspieces for the Next Big Thing.

Anyone else worried about just how tough Sun has gotten? "I lied."
I'd hate to think she spent 3 years learning how to play Ben's game too well.

What kind of aptitude test do you think Jack had to have taken to get a janitor gig?

 

[McCoy]

I especially like the scene towards the end with Jack and Sawy...uh...I mean LaFleur. The tension was palatable and conveyed genuine ambivalence the characters have for eachother even more so now than before. And because I always like when Sawyer puts Dr Self-Righteous in check.

To clear something up, did you mean "palpable," as opposed to "palatable?"

As far as the connection between Lil' Ben and Sayid, I'm not entirely certain that Ben would have known about Sayid earlier in the series. The way that this season has shown time travel memory to work is that, upon finding something out, that memory, in essence, is decoupled from the timeline, and travels to the "present." So, if anything, when Ben finally comes to on the Hydra Island, he would instantly be aware that Sayid is in the past.

That is my understanding of how Faraday explained it as well, plus that is how it worked with Desmond when Faraday told Desmond to find his mom, he just woke up in the future remembering it as a memory all the sudden.

I think that instantly spontaneous "memory creation" only works on Desmond though, because of the way he was unstuck for a time. Daniel did say that Desmond was special and the rules didn't apply to him.

So Ben did meet Sayid (and possibly some or all of the rest of the lostaways now in the past) in his youth. The question is whether he hasn't realized it, forgot about it, or is keeping quiet about it.

Knowing Ben, my bet is on that last one.

 

[DeafPoet]

Anyone else worried about just how tough Sun has gotten? "I lied."
I'd hate to think she spent 3 years learning how to play Ben's game too well.

Yeah. I think poor Sun may be on her way to Villain Town.

What kind of aptitude test do you think Jack had to have taken to get a janitor gig?

The kind of phony baloney aptitude test Juliet could conjure up in half an hour? Keep in mind that they couldn't really say he was a doctor. I'd imagine there's a more rigorous scouting process for those types. Also, I'd guess they got jobs befitting what was needed so as not raise any suspicions.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Not really.

I'm not sure how else to take it. Maybe you can elaborate what you mean? The way I see it is, they had a truce, Richard meets with Ben, figures out the kid "ain't right" and later uses him to wipe out Dharma.

You should watch the episode, as it's the whole thing and not just one or two scenes. It sounds like you might have missed an episode. Do you remember Ben's birth? Or his little girlfriend Annie?.

Oh I definitely saw the episode, I remember the birth, Annie, the gassing, etc. Just not the dead mother and Richard Alpert scene.

Richard didn't use Ben, Ben wanted to do it for his own purposes. He had a drunk father and wanted to be with his mother, and sided with the Hostiles, he gassed his own father in the van remember, Richard didn't make him do anything, Ben volunteered to join the Hostiles, he wanted to kill everyone.

Nevertheless, Alpert and the "Hostiles" benefited from Ben's behaviour.

 

[Aragorn]

I'm guessing Jack and Hurley just got the jobs of the two people who didn't come to the island. Then Juliet had to make something up for Kate.

 

[Mr Light]

^^ I bet Juliet is gonna make her clean out the polar bear cages

 

[chrisspringob]

Apparently, when they cut immediately from the 1977 new recruits photo that Christian shows Frank and Sun to the footage of them actually having their picture taken, there's a guy on the right of the photo that goes missing:

http://lost.cubit.net/assets_c/2009/03/5x09_1977_recruits_photo-2115.php

http://lost.cubit.net/assets_c/2009/03/5x09_1977_dharma_recruits-2116.php

Is this just a flub? A guy who ran up into the shot at the last minute before the picture was taken? Or does it actually mean something?

 

[Capn Flukie]

Average.

Average in Lost terms is still damn good.

 

[Mr Awe]

Above average. A very solid and enjoyable episode. It was great to see what happened to the other plane. The crash landing was pretty intense. Loved it when Sun clubbed Ben.

The Dharma storyline is still enjoyable. It's interesting seeing Sawyer in his new role. He's using his con man skills in a new setting. Rather than ripping people off, he's using them to keep things going smoothly in the community. He's enjoying his new life and doesn't want things to upset it. And, therein lies the problem apparently. Maintaining that status quo appears like it'll take precedent over taking care of Siaid and maybe the others.

So far, I'm enjoying this storyline. But, if things continue too far down the path of pitting the Losties against each other, I'm not sure how I'll like that. I'm sensing that it's time to either wrap up the Dharma storyline or at least that aspect of it.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

I actually found Sawyer's hostility towards Jack a little strange. Wasn't he faithfully waiting for them all to return for three years? Hasn't he matured into a better leader and person now? Or was he only looking for Kate and Locke?

My take is that for Sawyer, the others returning just represents a threat to this new happy life he's created for himself. Right now, that's what they are to him. His response, pipe down and do as I say. He wants to maintain the status quo.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

I gotta say I'm getting a little sick and tired of Christian's appearances. I want to see Jacob. Plus sometimes they're a little superfluous. Was it really necessary for him to show up and say hey come in this cabin and look at this picture! Couldn't they have just investigated the cabin on their own? Not to mention we pretty much know that Christian is just like Locke... a normal guy who was resurrected by the Island and speaks for Jacob but isn't mystically knowledgeable himself.

How'd he appear down by the donkey wheel? He definitely seems more than normal.

I wondered why he could pick up the picture but couldn't help Locke with the donkey wheel? At the time with Locke, I figured he wasn't corporeal and, thus, was not physically able to help. That doesn't appear to be a case. Unless it was a writer oversight.

Mr Awe

 

[Mr Awe]

By the way, this episode is exactly halfway through the season. There were eight episodes before this one, and there are eight episodes left.

Wow, I was actually thinking that it we were further through the season. They've really covered so much material that it feels like it has been more! That's great!

And oh, just WTF does "Namaste" mean anyway?

On one of my trips to India, I was told it means, "I respect the divine in you." It's a greeting.

Mr Awe

 

[Trippy]

I actually found Sawyer's hostility towards Jack a little strange. Wasn't he faithfully waiting for them all to return for three years? Hasn't he matured into a better leader and person now? Or was he only looking for Kate and Locke?

My take is that for Sawyer, the others returning just represents a threat to this new happy life he's created for himself. Right now, that's what they are to him. His response, pipe down and do as I say. He wants to maintain the status quo.

Mr Awe

I disagree. Sawyer is keeping his people safe in an unsafe situation, and has done so for 3 years. When Jack, Kate and Hurley show up, he has to keep them safe too. He feels responsible for the other castaways they haven't found yet (he and Jin keep looking), is sad and dissapointed that Locke didn't make it back (to the best of their knowledge)

As Sawyer says, he thinks, Jack reacts. A very apt description from Zen Saywer

I still contend, as I have for years, that Sawyer is the hero of Lost, not Jack

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I will say that, at the beginning, Jack was the better person to lead because they needed someone to act. It was when they switched from a survival situation to an antagonistic situation with the Others that having someone who thought a bit more would have been helpful (actually, Sayid should have been leader at that point). Now, they're goal is deceive others so they can live with them and Sawyer is definitely well-suited.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I will say that, at the beginning, Jack was the better person to lead because they needed someone to act.

That's especially true if you think back to the kind of person Sawyer was originally. Everything was "What's in it for me?" Remember he was the one who had Charlie kidnap Aaron so he could get the guns back.

In fact, now that I think about it, I'll even say I'm not so sure that this remarkable turn around in Sawyer's character isn't almost as unrealistic as the smoke monster and time travel stuff.