Lost Recap: Questions, Theories

The trick to getting the gang back on the Island appears to have worked. But after seeing Jin healthy, wearing a Dharma jumpsuit, and driving a new-looking Dharma van, the question is: When are they?

Last night’s episode was the best of season 5 so far. It looks like 5 of the Oceanic 6 have returned to the island, but, naturally, there are still so many questions left unanswered. Let’s get to what happened first.

After Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond entered her church, Mrs. Hawking (Daniel Faraday’s mom) took them down into her science dungeon. It turns out that it’s actually a secret Dharma station.

Mrs. Hawking explained that it was built there because it has a magnetic energy that links it to other spots like it, and it was developed by Dharma to find, not where the Island is, but where it will be.

Jack looked around the room and noticed this top secret photo from September 23, 1954, probably taken around the time when the U.S. government was testing hydrogen bombs there.

Interestingly, Oceanic 815 crashed almost 50 years to the day later, on September 22, 2004. Does that hold any significance? Maybe! Like Locke says, everything on the Island happens for a reason.

After they left the room, Ben and Jack went back upstairs to the church where Ben looked at the painting of Jesus and Doubting Thomas, making the obvious comparison to Jack.

I kind of love this painting because Thomas isn’t just touching Jesus’ wound, he’s actually fingering it, and it’s vaguely vaginal. ANYWAY…One of the main themes of Lost has been the struggle of faith vs. science, with Locke representing the former and Jack the latter. Jack has finally found his faith in what Locke had been saying about the Island all along, although, as Locke pointed out in his accusatory suicide note, it took him too long.

In a larger sense, for the Island, the Dharma Initiative represents science, while biblical references represent faith. Mr. Ecko was the introduction to this, particularly when he asked Claire why she named her baby Aaron, and then informed her that Aaron was the name of Moses’ elder brother.

There are actually so many theories and questions surrounding Aaron. For example, what the hell did Kate do with him? My guess is that, in order to protect him, she gave him to Claire’s mother, who was coincidentally in L.A.

Another interesting Aaron note:
The name Aaron comes from a Hebrew word meaning “bearer of martyrs”. In this episode, Locke was definitely seen as a martyr-or even Jesus-who sacrificed his own life for the sake of others’.

The biblical Aaron is a descendant of Jacob. Jacob is Aaron’s great-great-grandfather. He’s also a descendant of Benjamin, the twelfth son of Jacob.

Which brings us to the fact that Jack’s grandfather-who is Aaron’s great-grandfather-was on this episode.

Also, Christian Shepherd (whose name suddenly has so much more meaning)-Aaron’s grandfather-has kind of replaced Jacob as the go-to ghost who tells people what to do.

Trippy, right?

According to Mrs. Hawking, Locke died because, in order for their window to the Island trick to work, they needed to recreate some of the circumstances of the Oceanic 815 crash. Locke needed to fill in as Jack’s dad, who was in a coffin. The fact that he needed to wear something that had belonged to Jack’s dad was a little too Wiccan for me, but I guess it was also meant to represent faith.

Hurley was unwittingly recreating a circumstance of the original flight, when he was reading a Spanish-language comic book.

The funny thing is that he’s reading Y: The Last Man-one of the greatest comic books ever written, in my opinion-by Brian K. Vaughn, who began writing for Lost in its third season. He’s now a producer of the show, as well.

It turns out that Frank, the helicopter pilot that helped the Oceanic 6 get off the Island, was piloting the plane.

We learned last season that Frank was originally supposed to pilot Oceanic 815, but was replaced (for unknown reasons) and he personally knew the pilot who ended up dying in the crash.

Remember when Sawyer, Juliette and those guys found wreckage with water bottles from an airline a few weeks ago? It was the same airline that the Oceanic 5 were on.

Sayid was boarding the plane with some kind of cop, which mimicked Kate’s situation on Oceanic 815.

I think the significance of this is that the castaways will need guns once they crash on the Island, and if you remember, the original group got their guns when they found the U.S. Marshall’s briefcase.

It’s unclear why the hell Sayid was arrested, and whether or not he knew anything about Jack and the gang’s plan to return to the Island via that plane.

It’s also unclear how Hurley knew to be on that plane to get back to the Island, because he and Ben were surprised to see each other.

Speaking of Ben…

What the fuck happened to him? Right before he and Jack parted ways at the church, he said that he needed to go fulfill a promise to an old friend. I think the promise he was referring to was when he told Charles Widmore that he would kill his daughter Penny. He’s making the phone call from the dock, and Penny and Desmond live on a houseboat. I think one of the two of them fucked him up bad, but it’s unclear yet if she’s still alive.

Also, who is this guy?

He was the only other person sitting in the front section with Jack and the gang. What’s his significance. I’m at a loss for that right now.

So the trick seemed to work, and the gang is back on the Island, although we’ve only seen Kate, Hurley, and Jack so far.