"316" (Season 5, Episode 6)

Tonight's episode ranks right up there as one of my favorites. It was classic Lost. There were answers to old questions. There were new questions. There were more new questions. It may have been the most satisfying, exciting, interesting hour so far this season.

Best Line

• "We're not going to Guam, are we?" Ajira pilot Frank Lapidus resigned to his fate.
  

Did You Notice?

• In keeping with some of the religious overtones of this episode, the title "316" could also refer to John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
• Yet one more opening that features an extreme close-up of someone's eye. Starting the episode as if we were back when Jack first woke up on the island back in the pilot episode was clever.
• As I correctly guessed back in December when the logo first appeared, the off-island Dharma station is the Lamppost. The reference to C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is far from coincidental since the lamppost was the object that the four children first encountered when entering the fantasical land of Narnia.
• Could the "clever fellow" to whom Ms. Hawking referred be her son, Daniel Faraday?
• I absolutely loved the fact that Desmond repeatedly crossed the map and each time never once had to avoid the swinging pendulum as if he was in perfect sync with it.
• I can't wait to see the unpredictable result Ms. Hawking warned of by going back to the island with less than everyone.
• So was Ben praying in the church or just practicing his use of the finger pyramid of evil contemplation?
• My co-worker Tony felt Ben's promise to an old friend and the loose end that needed tying up was referring to his threat to Widmore that Penny would pay for Alex's death. Tony's theory is that the bloodied Ben at the marina was the aftermath of him killing Penny and that this will be the reason for Desmond to return to the island - revenge for Penny's death.
• Did the magician's white rabbit signify that we were through the looking glass again?
  
• I'm usually very pleased with the casting of actors on the show, but are we really supposed to believe Ray is Jack's granddad and Christian's father? The actor who played Ray is 70. The actor who plays Jack's dad is 59, meaning Ray would have been 11 years old when his son was born. Matthew Fox who plays Jack is 43 so Christian would have been 16 when he became a dad. Talk about time traveling! If I believe the creators of Lost know what they're doing (and I do), then could Granddad Ray really be Jack grown old? Would this explain Ray's need to escape the boredom of the old folks home and seek adventure?
• Where is Aaron? Did Claire mysteriously return to claim her son? The last time she appeared to Kate she warned Kate not to take him back. Is Sun's mother taking care of him along with Ji Yeon? Sun did tell her daughter she had a new playmate for her. Or did Kate break down and give Aaron to Ben, which would explain her reluctance to discuss it.
• We now know why since Season 1 Jack's dad was wearing white tennis shoes with his burial suit.
• Prior to co-worker Tony's theory about Ben, I thought perhaps the wet and bloodied Ben had been in an altercation with Sayid, which resulted in his arrest by the female officer who boarded the plane with him. If Ben instead did kill Penny on her and Desmond's boat at the marina, are we supposed to believe that they sailed from Oxford, England, to Los Angeles, California?
• Was it me or did Locke have more beard stubble than when we first saw him in the coffin at the end of Season 4?
  
• The man who offered Jack his condolences in the ticket line is a new character, Caesar. The woman escorting Sayid is the other new character, Ilana. Let's hope we don't have another Nikki and Paolo on our hands.
  
• Hurley was reading a Spanish version of "Y: The Last Man". The story is about "the only man to survive the mysterious simultaneous death of every male mammal on Earth."
• I wonder if Charlie appeared to Hurley and told him about the flight? Is this also why Hurley had a guitar case with him? Was that Charlie's proxy?
• Did Ben represent Hurley arriving late for the flight? Or was he filling in for Locke as the injured man, his arm in a sling instead of being in a wheelchair?
• Was it coincidence that Frank Lapidus, originally to be Oceanic Flight 815's pilot, was the Ajira Flight 316's pilot?
  
• When Ben told Jack his mother taught him to read, you could presume this was Ben just being flippant since we know his mother died in childbirth or we could wonder if maybe the ghost of Ben's mother reappeared to him throughout his youth, continuing her parental responsibilities.
• Ben is reading Ulysses by James Joyce. The plot and theme center on life as a journey. The framework of the novel is based on Homer's The Odyssey.
• So this time instead of a plane crash, we get a time flash. What did happen to the plane and the other passengers?
  
• When last we saw Jin (as well as Sawyer, Juliet, and Miles), the time was pre-Orchid station and even pre-well being dug. The new condition of the VW bus and Jin's coveralls makes me think this is the 70's when the Dharma Initiative first came to the island. Did Locke's adjustment to the frozen donkey wheel strand Jin and the others in the past with the Others?
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• The events at the Lamppost took place 46 hours earlier than the return to the island.
• The U.S. Army island photo had the date 9/23/54 and the reference Op 264.
• Ms. Hawking told Jack the "window" would only be open for 36 more hours.
  
• The Ajira flight was 316.
• Kate takes 2 sugars in her coffee.
• Jill the butcher needed 5 minutes to get the van ready for Jack to take Locke's body.
• The Ajira flight left from Gate 15.
• Jack was seated in Row 8.
  

Previews - The title of next week's episode, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", pretty much sums up what we can expect. We see Locke speaking with new character Ilana as well as Charles Widmore; yet another leg mishap resulting in Locke in a cast; and the return of what I think may be the Mystery Car of Death!