Ben is judged for his actions by the Smoke Monster beneath the wall that hid the Other’s Temple.  Lots of Island mythology involved here, as this chamber where the Smoke Monster inhabited was filled with hieroglyphics and imagery.  Oh, and judgement.

Ben was led to this location by John Locke, who, in opposition to the episode’s title, does not seem dead.  Ben and Locke have switched places from earlier seasons where Ben had the answers and John was blindly following with the hope of picking up any tidbit of knowledge he could.

Ben was judged by the Smoke Monster, and then put in his place by the Monster in the form of Alex.  Alex pinned Ben against the wall and told him that she knew he was already planning to kill John, but he will not touch him at all.  He will follow every word Locke said.  Alex’s ferocity revealed that this was not the same little girl who feared her father and anted to get away from him so she could be with Karl.

We have also seen a weakness in Ben.  Children.  We had a chance to see him abduct Alex from Danielle in a flashback.  He was sent originally to kill the woman, but when he discovered the baby, Ben chose to leave her alive.

Later, Ben approached Penny with the intention of killing her to get back at Charles Widmore.  He had already shot Desmond and was approaching Penny when little Charlie came out from below deck on Our Mutual Friend, Penny’s boat.  The arrival of charlie stopped Ben and made him reconsider the course of action.  Desmond, who was shot but far from dead, jumped Ben and beat the bloody hell out of him, dumping him in the water.

Why does Ben pause when there are kids near?  Could it have to do with his own childhood, where he grew up without a mother and an abusive father?  He does not want to put another child through the same loss?  Or maybe it has to do with the fact that subconsciously Ben remembers being shot as a child and could not bring himself to inflict the same kind of pain on another child, knowing that he would have had to eliminate the baby and Charlie as well.

It was possible that baby Alex was just one way to try and make Charles Widmore look bad.  I would expect that Ben was already plotting against Charles at this point in history and that he believed calling Charles out as a baby killer in front of the Others would help get rid of the man.

Ben has a new mission.  To follow John Locke or to die.  But let’s never doubt that Ben Linus has a plan to turn things in his favor.  Maybe it will have something to do with the line that Ilana asked Frank:

“What is found in the shadow of the statue?”

Faraday’s rules come back in this episode that seems to really put them to the test.

The best part of this episode is clearly the conversations between Hurley and Miles regarding time travel and its effects or lack there of.  Hurley, pulling his physics and philosophy from Back to the Future, still winds up stumping Miles with his questions.  This scene showed the great comedic pairing that Hurley and Miles could be, previewing what we will get later in the season.

Otherwise, we find out what happened with Kate and Aaron and why she decided to come back to the Island.  Everything with Kate makes a whole lot of sense and turns out to be the simplest of answers.  She took Aaron back to his grandmother, Carole, and she told her the truth about Aaron’s parentage and the Island.

Kate also told Carole that she was going back to the Island in order to find Claire.

Kate is able to admit to herself that she kept Aaron as her own because she needed him because of what she had lost.  Her con artist friend Cassidy (the mother of Sawyer’s daughter) was able to help Kate come to that conclusion.  Cassidy and Kate formed a solid bond with one another and their friendship was another strong bit of this episode.

Kate no longer feels the need to run away from everything.  Aaron helped her realize that her feelings for Sawyer were stronger than she thought they were and she needed to deal with that.  Of course, she dealt with that by immediately going to Jack and having sex with him.

Jack, on the other hand, has changed a lot since returning to the Isalnd.  Jack’s refusal to help the dying young Ben did not seem in character for him.  Sure, Jack hated Ben and Ben will cause Jack nothing but trouble and pain, but, going back to the time travel theory, all of that pain has already happened, so it happened.  There is no changing that.  Jack has accepted that and believed that he did not have to save Ben because the Island would not let him die.  He has taken his place as the man of faith.  By doing so, he is pushing Kate away from him.

Ben is saved by Richard who takes the boy into the Temple and told Kate and Sawyer that Ben would not remember any of this.  It feels too easy of a resolution but I suppose it is what had to be done.  The end comes with adult Ben waking up to see alive John sitting over top of him, welcoming him back into the land of the living.

The character of Sayid has gone down quite a dark path since we met him on the beach.  Even though he was a torturer in the Gulf War for the Iraqis and he had done things that he regretted in that job, Sayid Jarrah felt like a good man.

After “He’s Our You,” that case is a much more difficult one to make.

Sayid believed that he figured out what the purpose was for him to return to the Island.  It initially seemed like fate, because, to Sayid, he was grabbed by a bounty hunter who was returning him to Guam to face justice for the murder the man on the golf course at the beginning of the “Economist.”  That was why he was on the same flight as Kate, Hurley, Jack and Sun.  And Ben.

You could see Sayid knew he was screwed. He tried to get Ilana to change flights, but she refused.  Then, when he wound up in a Dharma jail cell with a 12-year old Benjamin Linus bringing him sandwiches, Sayid knew what date was telling him.

He had to kill Ben.

The old time travel problem of “would you kill baby Hitler” falls into play here.  Sayid sees Ben as one of the most evil men he has met, even going as far as to lay genocide at his feet.  Sayid has to believe that if he killed Ben before the kid has a chance to become the mass murderer that he does become, that the world will be a better place.

For a minute, I thought that Sayid was going to change his tune.  When he saw young Ben getting manhandled by Ben’s father Roger, Sayid stood as if he wanted to intervene on behalf of the boy.  Maybe he could take the boy under his wing and change his attitude in that manner.

No.  Not this Sayid, who has convinced himself, mainly thanks to older Ben’s manipulations, that he is a bad man, and who was a born killer.  So, once free and on the run with young Ben, Sayid shoots him.

Of course, Faraday told us that whatever happened, happened.

Of all the characters on the show, Sayid has taken the darkest turn since we met him. He is a long way from saving.

Who was president of the United States in 1977?  Hurley wondered this.  One of many time travel questions someone from the future may ask.

In “Namaste,” Sawyer, known here as James LaFleur, has integrated Jack, Hurley and Kate into the Dharma Initiative after they arrived on a plane.  However, the plane itself was not in 1977. It was in present day as Sun, Ben and Lapidus wound up crash landing on the runway built during the beginning of season three.  It is a cool throw back to a previous question and it makes one wonder if the writers had the plan for this runway use back when they had it in season three.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all wonderful for the passengers of Ajira 316.  Frank’s co-pilot took a tree branch through the chest.  Ben took an oar in the face from Sun, which knocked him out and allowed Sun to steal the boat to go back to the Island.  And Sayid wound up in 1977, but gets caught and mistaken for a “Hostile.”

Sawyer is able to manipulate things to get Sayid moved to the barracks, but he is still not sure what they are going to do.

We see a bunch of appearances…

Christian… shows Sun that Kate, Hurley and Jack are in a photo of new recruits from 1977 Dharma Initiative.  We heard the Monster sound before Christian showed up so it is possible that he is the Smoke Monster.

Radzinsky.  This is the name that Desmond gave for the Swan partner of Kelvin before Desmond arrived.  Radzinsky wound up killing himself in the Swan.

Pierre Chang.  aka Dr. Marvin Candle.  aka Dr. Halliwax.  The face of the Dharma Initiative orientation video is here and is a scientist on the Island.

Ethan.  The baby that Amy gave birth to… she and Horace named Ethan, who would grow up to become an Other and hang Charlie from a tree.

Ben.  Young Ben from “The Man Behind the Curtain” brought captive Sayid a sandwich, which is also ironic considering what happens to a captive Ben at the hands of Sayid in the future.

Jack is getting a clear picture of Jim LaFleur, who is different than the old Sawyer.  However, LaFleur did slip back into old habits when dealing with Jack and the others.  For now it seemed that Jack is happy to let LaFleur handle everything.  How long will that last?

1974.  Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, Miles and Daniel are stuck int he past and find their way to the Dharma Initiative.

Before we look at 1974, let’s mention the statue.  The last flash we got before Locke turned the donkey wheel and reset the time was of the back of a gigantic statue on the beach.  It looked Egyptian for certain and I know the existence of this statue caused much debate on the Internet about what the statue represented, who built it and what purpose did it serve?  I do know that the statue was not Anubis, as speculated, but instead Taweret, the Egyptian goddess of protection, birth and fertility.  The remains of the statue, a four toed foot, was seen by Sayid, Jin and Sun as they were sailing Desmond’s boat in “Live Together, Die Alone”.

Enough of the statue, the Island settled in 1974, leaving Sawyer and the group stranded, although they do not know when they are yet.  As they are moving across the Island, they came across a woman being grabbed by two men, and having a hood thrown over her head.  Sawyer and Juliet came to the rescue and killed the two men.  The woman, Amy, was panicked because of the “truce” and insisted that they bury the bodies.

On the way back to her home, they stopped at the sonic fence.  Amy tricked them into thinking it was off, and captured the whole group.  Sawyer woke up before Horace Goodspeed.

Sawyer used his con skills to invent a story about his ship wrecking in a storm and the five of them washed ashore.  He called himself James LaFleur.  Horace said they could leave on the sub tomorrow, but James wanted to stay longer to “find the rest of their crew” meaning he was hoping Locke would come back.

Sawyer, the same man who conned the camp so he could get the guns and who seemed to care for no one, has really changed his tune.  He had found a group of people he cared about and he would do, apparently, anything to help them.  Quite a different man.

Richard Alpert arrived at the Others barracks wanting to know where his men were, and ready to wreck things up over the supposed breaking of the truce, James came out and hit Richard with the truth.  He asked about Jughead.  He asked if he remembered John Locke limping into his camp 20 year ago and then vanishing.  James told Richard about killing his men and that he was not a member of the Dharma Initiative so the truce had not been broken.

Sawyer showed himself as a leader at this point, something he was never anxious to do with the Oceanic 815 group, especially with Jack & Sayid around.  He convinced Juliet to stay for two weeks and three years later, James and Juliet were in love and living together in New Otherton.

So when Jack, Hurley and Kate arrived, their presence threatened everyone’s happiness.

We also saw Amy, 3 years later, give birth to Horace’s son… if I remember correctly, the baby turned out to be Ethan Rom.

This started a healthy run of episodes with the Dharma Initiative where we learn more about that group and about the Incident that r. Candle spoke about on the Swan Orientation tape.

This one is a tough episode.

One of my all time favorite characters is John Locke and to see him broken down, manipulated to the point that he was ready to hang himself was rough.  To see Ben Linus talk him down from his perch was awesome, until Ben decided that he did not need John any more and strangled him to death.

It is an inglorious end to a fantastic character.  One that makes John Locke truly one of the most tragic characters on television.

John was a man who was always looking for the place where he could feel he belonged.  Given up by his mother, winding up in foster care, John wanted to feel that he was special.  At one point in his life, he could have had it all.  He was in love with Helen and she loved him back.  However, John’s obsessions, at this point with his father’s cruelty, cost him everything:  Helen, his ability to walk, his self-image.

But when John Locke stood up on his own feet on the Island, he knew this was a place where he was meant to be.  A man of faith, believing desperately that destiny had brought him to the Island for a greater fate.  Unfortunately, it was all just a way to manipulate the sad and pathetic man in a giant game of chess.  Maybe backgammon.

Seeing John on the edge was difficult, but when Ben showed up, there was hope.  I knew that John was in that coffin, but I had held out hope that something else would happen.  Maybe it wasn’t John after all.  And Ben talked him down.  Locke did not want to die.  He desperately wanted to be relevant.  To be important.  Special.

As soon as John told Ben that they had to go see Eloise Hawkins, he became expendable.  A pawn sacrificed for the greater good.

Then, ironically, John took Christian’s place on the Ajira 316, and then on the Island as well.

This episode once again blurs the lines between good and evil.  Charles Widmore appeared to be a nice man who cared about the Island and helping John out.  Ben was the same way.  It is very possible that neither of these two men are a hero.  That they are equally evil men, in a struggle for power.

It is a shame, because the Island could have used John as a protector and a leader, but he was manipulated off the Island and into the coffin.

A second character that seemed to be a total waste was Matthew Abaddon, who gets shot and killed by Ben in this episode.  Abaddon appeared to be important early in the flash forwards but he turned out to be John’s driver.  That kind of echos the main story of Jeremy Bentham as well.

We start out with Jack’s eyes opening, just like the pilot episode.  Nice touch since they were back on the Island.

Jack immediately started out to rescue people as Hurley was yelling for help.  It’s like Jack is right back in his nature.

This episode was really about Jack and his own personal journey to this point in his life. Kate, Sayid, Hurley arrived at the new plane, the plane that Ms. Hawkins told them that they had to be on in order to get back to the Island, without any explanation.  Those stories are for future flashbacks/forwards.

Jack had to be able to accept everything in order to be in a place to get back.  Ms. Hawkins gave him a strange job, Jack visited his granddad and received some wisdom, and Jack had to read Locke’s suicide note.  It was all a way to give up what he was before in order to start again on the Island.

It was a way for Jack to transform himself from man of science to man of faith.

Ajira Airways Flight 316 was the flight that Ms. Hawkins said they had to be on and they had to recreate the original flight (815) as closely as they could.  Destiny was playing a part here as well as Sayid was arrested and being escorted by what looked like some kind of agent (although we know she is not).   Hurley showed bu and bought out the remaining 77 seats on the flight, preventing a bunch of innocent bystanders from getting on the plane.  I really liked that part as it fits very much into Hurley’s character.

And flying the plane happened to be Frank Lapidus.  His line of “This plane isn’t going to Guam” after seeing the Oceanic 6 onboard was great.

As the turbulence hit, there was a white flash much like the time shifts and Jack, Hurley and Kate wound up in water on the Island.  The rest of the plane was nowhere to be seen.  Then, shockingly, driving up in a Dharma Initiative van, dressed in a Dharma jump suit, was Jin.

Lots of areas where we need to see what happened and how things wound up where they wound up.

There was a lot of things that happened here…maybe too much.  Danielle’s back story was over in five minutes as we saw her team being “infected” by the Smoke Monster at what appeared to be the mysterious Temple that Ben spoke of awhile ago.

Charlotte dies from the flashes.  It was sad, but it wasn’t because of Charlotte’s death.  She wasn’t here enough to make me care for her.  It was more of the pain that was on the face of Daniel Faraday that brought the sadness.  I have been able to connect to Faraday and Miles, but Charlotte had always been secretive and snarly so I did not feel as much for her.  She did reveal that she had been raised on the Island with the Dharma Initiative until a weird man told her and her mother to leave the Island and never to come back or she would die.  Charlotte thought that man was Faraday.

Charlotte told John to look for the well, if the Orchid wasn’t there went they arrived (because of time shifts).  Sure enough, the Orchid disappeared.  John found the well and started climbing down went another flash caused John to fall and break his leg.  The well disappeared leaving Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles alone.  Jin had made John promise he would not bring Sun back to the Island because of Charlotte’s warning that “This place is death.”

Once down in the area, John was led to the donkey wheel by Christian.  Christian confirmed what Richard had told him… that he was going to have to die.  John turned the wheel and the light happened again.

In the flash forward, not too much happened.  Sayid and Kate left angry.  Sun wanted proof of Jin not being dead.  Ben took her and Jack to Ms. Hawkins.  Desmond showed up as well.  She indicated that she was ready to tell them how to return to the Island.

Jin is alive!

And he’s with a young Danielle Rousseau and the rest of her ill-fated French science team.

This is the second time Jin was caught in an explosion and floated back to the Island.

Apparently, Jin had been caught in the same time flash as the rest still on the Island.  Unfortunately for them, their brains seemed to be going all wonky from the flashes.  Daniel hypothesized that the longer you have been exposed to the Island, the worse the symptoms become.  What started as nose bleeds become worse as you flash.

Charlotte had passed out once, perhaps her mind was time traveling at that time.  Miles and Juliet have also shown the nose bleeds.  Why Charlotte and Miles are being affected ahead of the others is still unknown.

I love this time travel flashes.  It allows us as viewers a chance to see some of the key moments of the Island without just hearing about it.  Sawyer witnessing Kate helping Claire give birth was jarring for him, but an amazing scene for us.  We get to know more about Danielle.  Last episode we met an earlier version of the Others including a couple of characters that will become more important.  It is a cool storytelling technique.

And Sawyer’s reaction to the flash when they were on the outrigger being chased and shot at by the mysterious group was brilliant.

A chunk of this episode dealt with the flash forward, specifically who had sent the lawyer to Kate’s for a blood sample.  Who knows that Aaron is not Kate’s son?

There is a misdirection that makes us think that Claire’s mother is the one, but she is still in the dark.

It isn’t hard to figure out that it was Ben doing this.  It felt like his slimy maneuver from the start.  When Kate confronted him, his admission of guilt and his “sorry” was classic Ben.

Ben should be aware because Sun has a gun and is ready to make him pay for Jin’s “death.”

More time travel and some Desmond and Penny goodness.  What more could you need in an episode of LOST?  Well, how about an atomic bomb?

We started with a flashback to Penny giving birth to Desmond’s son…Charlie.  I swear, everything with Penny and Desmond is perfection.  Even their fights are bloody perfect.

Present day- Desmond arrived in Great Britain.  Desmond telling young Charlie about the wonderful Scotland was as charming as you would expect it to be.  Penny worried about her father, but Desmond comforted her.  It had nothing to do with Charles Widmore, he said. He was wrong about that.

Desmond went to Oxford only to find out that Faraday never worked there…*wink*.  In fact, he had been removed from the college because of what he had done to a girl.  Desmond went to see her too only to find her in the mind time travel as he encountered in The Constant.  He did find out that Charles Widmore had funded Faraday’s research for ten years.

So Desmond stormed into Charles’ office to confront him.  He demanded to know where Daniel Faraday’s mother was.  Charles told him she was in LA.

Desmond went back to the boat and told Penny Faraday’s mother was dead, but Penny knew he was lying immediately.  Desmond told her that Faraday’s mother was in LA, but he was done.  He had promised that this would only take one day and he was done.  Penny knew Desmond would not be able to let this go.  She knows the kind of man Desmond was so she and Charlie are just going to have to go with him.

Desmond and Penny are so awesome.  They are truly the heart of this show.  I remember watching originally and fearing that something was going to happen to Penny.  We know that Ben was after her.  Just the thought of Penny being killed was unacceptable.

On the Island it is 1954 and Daniel, Charlotte and Miles have been captured by the ’54 team of the Others.  They bring them to Richard Alpert, looking just like he always does.  Richard thought they were with the US Military and had attacked the Others last week.  Daniel mentioned the bomb.

There was an A-bomb on the Island and it was causing trouble.  Daniel said he could disarm it.  Richard gave him a chance and Ellie took Daniel to the bomb.  Sawyer and Juliet were able to disarm Ellie, but not before Daniel got a look at the A-Bomb.  The casing is cracked and it is leaking.  Faraday said to bury it with concrete.

John walked right into the Others’ camp calling for Richard, causing everyone to freak out, especially a young Charles Widmore.  John needed information and he tells Richard everything from the future.  John wanted Richard to tell him how to leave the Island because Richard (the future version) told him he had to.  1954 Richard was confused but Locke had given him the compass Richard (the future) had given to Locke and he told Richard (1954) that Locke was going to be born in two years and he could come see him.  Richard does… in “Cabin Fever” during season 4.

The path of that compass is wild.  Let’s see… in 1954, John Locke gives it to Richard.  Richard goes to see young John Locke around 1960ish and asked him which object belonged to John, including the compass.  Then future Richard would give this compass to John Locke, who had just been shot, to give to 1954 Richard so he would believe that Locke was telling the truth.  And we haven’t seen this yet, but there is a reason Richard gave Locke this compass.  That is still to come.

This time travel is being done so well and weaving beautifully in with the narrative going on that it is seamless.

The flash forward becomes the main focus of this episode as Hurley is desperate to get Sayid somewhere to help while the weight of the lie pulled down on Hurley’s shoulders.

We find out that Hurley was the main hold out of the Oceanic 6 where the lie was.  Hurley did not want to lie for the rest of his life and only agreed after everyone else turned on him.  We see how that lie affected Hurley over the next three years.

We also saw Hurley’s “super power” in effect again as he has a conversation with Ana Lucia about what he needed to do.  Hurley has been able to carry on conversations with dead people since returning from the Island.  Ana Lucia was able to give him help and warned him not to get arrested.  That was something that Hugo would not be able to avoid.

Hurley took the unconscious and drugged Sayid to his house where he had his father help hide him.  This led to one of the best lines of the episode, “Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?”- Hugo’s mother.

Hurley finally tells his mother the truth about everything and gives a history of the past four seasons in about 30 seconds.  His mother believed him but she did not understand him.

Hurley’s dad had taken Sayid to Jack, who took him to the hospital.  Jack got Sayid to wake up and nearly got choked out for his trouble.

Kate, meanwhile, met up with Sun in LA and Sun brought up how Kate was supposed to have gone for Jin, but she didn’t.  Sun said she did not blame Kate.

On the Island, the group was trying to make a fire and Neal “Frogurt” got shot with a flaming arrow.  Sawyer and Juliet are grabbed by a young man in a uniform and he was going to cut off her hand when Locke arrived to save the day with his flying knives.

The show ended with Ben arriving at what looked like a church in LA that had some kind of weird machine running in the basement.  It was being run by Ms. Hawkins and she told Ben that he only had 70 hours to get all of them ready to go back or “God help us all.”

Season five started off with an episode so fun and enjoyable that I couldn’t believe it was over when it ended.  It felt like it just started.

Time travel started in full this episode. We see Daniel Faraday working on constructing the Orchid station. What?

The time travel of LOST has rules, which is vital in any narrative that is going to use time travel as a story telling technique.  The rules, as told to us by Daniel Faraday himself, is that time is like a stream. You can go forward or you can go back, but you cannot go off on another stream.  One vitally important phrase that will be repeated all season long was uttered by Faraday.  “Whatever happened, happened.”

By setting this rule there is no worries about paradoxes.  No alternate timelines.  Anything that happened, already happened and cannot be changed.

Except for one person.  Desmond Hume.  Faraday was able to speak to Desmond while he was inside the Swan hatch and he told Desmond that he was special.  That the rules did not apply to him.  He was the one person who could help them out.  So if Desmond can change time, maybe that is why Ms. Hawkins was so concerned over Desmond buying that diamond ring in “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” because he could have changed time. Of course, one wonders why he couldn’t save Charlie if that was the case (although technically, he did save Charlie several times).

When Ben turned that donkey wheel at the finale last season, he bumped the Island out of time and the group started flashing through time.  For some reason, it was only the Oceanic 815 survivors and the remaining freighter people who moved in time.  The Island was staying put.  Why that is the case is a big question that I am not sure is ever really answered outside of “that’s what happened.”

So Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Daniel and Charlotte flashed about the history of the Island. They showed up at the Swan hatch and they saw it blown up, and they saw it fixed.  John Locke witnessed the Nigerian plane with Yemi aboard it crash and he was shot by Ethan Rom.  Later, Richard found Locke and started working on the gunshot wound.  When Locke asked Richard how he knew he was there, Richard said, because told me.  Richard then handed Locke the compass from the episode where Richard went to see little John and ask him which object was “already his.”

With the way this season is going, the writing is vital.  The writers are weaving everything together and we may not know what is important until we see it again.  For example, Richard said that the next time Locke sees him, Richard won’t recognize him.  How does Richard know that?  With a good time travel story, we’ll find out.

Time travel can be difficult to handle in a narrative, but in this manner, LOST has a pretty good handle on it.

In the flash forward world, Kate got a frightening visit from someone wanting blood samples from her and Aaron.  Sayid and Hurley was attacked, forcing Sayid into some super Sayid fighting.  Death by dishwasher was certainly epic.  And Ben and Jack prepared to start recruiting the other Oceanic 6 members.  Meanwhile, Sun was on her way to LA to find and kill Ben Linus.