Summary: In flashforwards, Desmond furiously leaves once he realizes everyone is trying to get back to the island. Eloise explains that they have to replicate the circumstances of Flight 815 to get back to the island and Jack needs to give Locke something of his father's. Jack goes to see his granddad Ray and gets a pair of his father's boots from him to give to Locke. Kate comes to Jack's place at night, having decided to go back to the island but refuses to say what happened to Aaron. At the airport, Sayid is brought in in handcuffs and Hurley has also managed to find his way there. Ben shows up at the last minute with injuries. The plane takes off and Frank is revealed to be the pilot. The plane crashes, but Jack, Kate and Hurley suddenly find themselves on the island after a flash. They are discovered by Jin wearing a Dharma Initiative uniform.
The Good: Jack's story here was really good. We've gotten used to seeing Jack be the stubborn and logical guy who needs hard proof for everything that he does. Yet "316" pushes him in a way that forces him to grow out of this, accepting faith in the way that Locke always wanted him to. We see Jack's change in a number of great scenes in this episode. For one, we see him accept the ridiculousness of what he has to do to get back to the island. We know that Locke would go along with it without a second thought, but naturally Jack angrily declares how absurd it all is. But he's going through a change, and for the first time we actually see Jack calm himself down and accept something that makes no logical sense. He finally takes that leap of faith and it feels like a huge character moment for him. Additionally, we can see the effect that this change has on Jack for the rest of the episode. When Kate asks Jack to never ask about Aaron, Jack actually agrees and doesn't ever ask her what happened to him. When Hurley and Sayid show up at the airport, Jack is the one who points out how insane it is that they both managed to get to the same flight as if it was destiny. And Jack is the one who almost always asks questions about everything that's going on. For once, we see him remain quiet and not question every little detail. He finally seems to have discovered what destiny means, and is transitioning to being a fervent believer like Locke was. This story is told very well throughout the episode and gives it an emotional core, something that the other episodes in season 5 have been lacking so far. A key aspect that helps Jack go over the edge and start believing is Locke's death. It's great to see Locke's death weigh on Jack even after Jack is off the pills and is actively on his way back to the island. It also gives Matthew Fox a good chance to show off his talent as he portrays Jack's pain and guilt in a very subtle way, as Jack tries to accept what happened to Locke and move on. But of course, Jack can't evade Locke's suicide letter, and the emotional highlight of the episode comes when he finally reads it. The simple message of "I wish you had believed me" is incredibly powerful and perfectly frames the regret and deep sorrow that Jack feels after his stubborn refusal to believe anything that Locke said caused so many bad things to happen (Locke's death, the freighter finding the island, leaving everyone else behind). The episode does a lot of other little things that work really well. The opening sequence is terrific, and watching Jack's return parallel "Pilot Part 1" was a delight. The ending scene is also excellent, and a Dharma Initiative Jin finding his old friends is a perfect cliffhanger that leaves me really excited to see what comes next. As ever, Ben has a lot of nice moments in this episode. His stone-cold "who cares" when Jack questions what will happen to the other passengers was terrific. I also got a good laugh out of Ben saying "my mother taught me" after Jack asks how he can read. It's a good line made funnier when you remember that Ben's mother died in childbirth. Even in innocuous interactions like this, Ben still goes out of his way to lie. Lastly, I really liked Hurley buying out the remaining 78 seats to save lives. It's in-character for Hurley to do something like this and is a good reminder of how good-hearted he is. The Bad: The one huge problem with Jack learning not to ask questions is that we don't get answers for questions that we, the audience, are asking. While Jack not asking questions is good for him, it's horrible for all of us watching because we desperately want to know what is going on. It ends up being incredibly frustrating how important questions go unanswered throughout the episode, and it makes this episode feel incredibly unsatisfactory from a plot perspective. For example, the episode starts with Desmond telling everyone that Eloise is crazy and that she ruined his life and nobody should listen to her. Nobody asks a single question after this to get more clarity. Nothing. It's ridiculous that Jack and Sun don't care to learn more about Eloise, and it's frustrating to get no answers about Eloise after waiting so long to see her reappear in the show. And now with the story shifting back to the island, will we ever get more answers about Eloise? Seeing the Lamp Post was good and answered one question, but we really needed more. Furthermore, Eloise's vague statements got frustrating really quickly. Any time that a character asked her a question or there was a chance for her to explain the importance of what is happening, she deflects the question and dances around a satisfying answer. It gets unbelievably frustrating and it becomes apparent that the writers had no clue how to answer these questions anyways, which is a huge disappointment. We never understand why it's important that everyone has to return and we also don't understand why they have to recreate the circumstances of the first flight. Having some stakes here would have done wonders to get me invested but we get nothing from Eloise. And to cap off the frustration, there's a moment when Jack asks Ben for more clarification, but instead Ben ignores the question and launches into a monologue about Thomas the Apostle. I'm sure that it's thematically significant, but it's ultimately an incredible frustrating moment because of how the writers went out of their way to not answer our questions. While I really liked the opening scene, it hurt the drama of the episode to know that they will return to the island by the end. Instead of being excited when the plane took off, I was readying up for the inevitable. It would have enriched the drama if we didn't already know that everyone will get to the island by the end of the episode. Frank's appearance is a lot of fun, but it's absurd that he wouldn't panic when he realizes that the plane is going back to the island. Surely he would at least try something to prevent going back to the island. The Unknown: Who built the Lamp Post? Why doesn't the Dharma Initiative still use it? When did Eloise take control of it? Why do they have to recreate the circumstances of the first flight? Why not just enter the established window that they can get to the island? If you need specific circumstances to find the island, how do the others travel to the island? What does Eloise mean by saying the effects will be unpredictable if not everybody returns? Why would it be unpredictable? Did Ben kill Desmond or Penny? I'm very concerned after seeing what happened to him. What happened to Kate that made her choose to come back to the island? Where is Aaron? How did Sayid get arrested? Why? Why was he being taken to Guam? How did Hurley find out about the flight? How did he get out of jail? Did he run into Eloise somehow? What is Hurley hiding from Jack? Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley go back in time? Wasn't their return supposed to stop the time travel from happening? Instead they further contributed to it. Was this one of the unpredictable effects Eloise was talking about? What happened to Sun, Sayid and Ben? Did they go back in time too? If not, what happened to them on the plane? Did the plane crash? What happened to Sawyer's group? Are they all members of the Dharma Initiative now? How long have they been there? What time period did Jack, Kate and Hurley show up in? Best Moment: Jack reading Locke's letter. Character of the Episode: Jack. Conclusion: This was a truly mixed episode. I really loved some aspects of it but was disappointed and frustrated by other aspects. In the end it's a solid episode, but one that should have been much better than it was. Score: 64
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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