"316" Aftermath

DharmaTeacher superfan Toniann comments:

This episode left me with more questions than answers. They include:
1. what happened to Aaron?
2. who beat up Ben?
3. why is Sayid in custody and being taken to Guam?
4. when did Hurley get out of jail and why did he choose to get on the plane?
5. what happens to the flying others?
6. why did Lapidus look so young?
7. why did the flight attendant look so familiar?
8. how am I supposed to sleep after an episode like that?

Matt- Please answer!

-Toniann

February 19, 2009 1:37 PM

Well, I'd be more than happy to answer these - and more! After giving all of this some thought, and listening to several podcasts, and reading up on the episode at The Fuselage, let me share with you the 'math of 316 as I see it.

1. What happened to Aaron?

The best answer I've heard is that Kate left Aaron with Mrs. Littleton, Claire's mother. That's why she was shown again in "The Lie" - not only as a red herring in that episode, but a key player in this season because she now has Aaron, who is supposed to be back on the island. If you remember, at the end of last season, creepy "Ghost Claire" appears to Kate in a dream. She is looking over Aaron, and then tells Kate, "Don't you dare bring him back!" Maybe Kate honored Claire's demand. Why would she be so disheveled and upset? Because she has grown attached to the little guy, and really did see him as her son.

I also heard the idea that Aaron might have been kidnapped by some nefarious forces, who threatened harm to Aaron unless Kate returned to the island. Or if she did return to the island. Either way would work: she's upset because Aaron is in danger, and so despite her better judgement she gets on Ajira 316 to protect Aaron; or she is so upset because those that kidnapped Aaron told her not to go, but she goes anyway because she really believes that they need to go back, even if it puts Aaron in danger. There's also the somewhat obvious idea, based on Kate's being completely distraught, that Aaron was killed (or that Kate killed him, even), but I just don't see it. First of all, why? Second of all, we've been given enough information to know that Aaron is important. Maybe he's important because of his death - that's possible - but again, I just don't see it.

And of course, there's also the theory that Kate Ate Aaron. This one seems too obvious to be true. (/sarcasm)

2. Who beat up Ben?

Sayid? Maybe Ben asked Sayid for one more favor - to kill Penny. (More on Penny later.) This is the last straw for Sayid, since he told him that if he ever saw Ben again, it wouldn't be pleasant for anyone, and also more importantly because Ben is asking him to off Penny, the love of Desmond's life. Sayid knows a little something about losing the love of your life, so the very idea of Ben asking him to do this sets him off. Beating Ben up might have also resulted in Sayid's arrest, which is why he is on the plane in handcuffs with a police escort.

Desmond? Maybe Ben tried to take matters into his own hands for once, and tried to do away with Penny personally. He seemed to be calling from Slip 23 at the marina, where he met with Sun, Sayid, Jack, and Kate, and maybe Desmond, Penny, and Little Charlie were docked nearby (as we know, Desmond was in the area because he met up with them at the Lamppost station).

Widmore? For much the same reason as the Desmond explanation - maybe Widmore went to see Penny once Desmond left (c'mon, we all know that when Desmond left Widmore's office, he must have had Des followed to see where he and Penny were). Ben didn't know Widmore was there, so when he went to kill Penny, her father was there to protect her.

I'm going with Sayid, only because it's a "neater" idea since it also explains why Sayid has been arrested.

3. Why is Sayid in custody and being taken to Guam?

To answer why he's in custody, I'm going with the idea I shared above, that he's assaulted Ben. Though assault isn't the worst crime to commit (or maybe they went for attempted murder?), he isn't an American citizen, and especially since he's a former Iraqi Republican Guard, the Department of Homeland Security came down hard and wanted him out immediately. But to Guam? That's the only part I don't get. Maybe they're going to get a connecting flight to Iraq once they land in Guam? I'm not sure that makes "geographic" sense, either. The only other reason I can think of is that he's somehow arrested for killing the men who tried to kill him, or for the man in the car outside Santa Rosa. Maybe Ben dropped the dime on him. But they wouldn't extradite him for a crime he committed in the U.S., right? They'd want to prosecute him here. Unless there's a military prison on Guam, and again, since he's a former Republican Guard, maybe they want to keep him there. I really don't think it works that way, but I'm grasping at straws here.

4. When did Hurley get out of jail and why did he choose to get on the plane?

Hurley got out of jail that morning, if I have my timeline right. Norton, Ben's lawyer, told Ben the night before (I think) that they had no case against Hurley and that after the hearing, he'd be out of the county lockup the next morning. But why he chose to get on the plane: he told Jack at the beginning of Season 4, "We never should've left." He's been visited by Charlie, who told him that "the island needs you. They need you." He's played chess with Mr. Eko. And I think John Locke visited him, too. I think that he's wanted to go back all along. I also think that maybe he thought this was a way to get away from Ben, which makes his reaction to seeing Ben get on the plane make a lot of sense.

5. What happens to the flying others?

This has probably been the biggest question in the "LOST community" (is that creepy and pretentious to say? No more than having your own LOST blog, I suppose...) since seeing "316." There seem to be three main theories about this. One: Jack, Kate, and Hurley "landed" at the lagoon, as we saw. The others ended up somewhere else on the island. (More on why there was a division later.) This would work especially because they said that they don't remember the plane landing. Two: The plane actually landed, but Jack, Kate, and Hurley somehow fell out and landed, or were placed where they were. Remember in Season 3, when the Others had Kate and Sawyer working clearing rocks? When Sawyer asked Juliet what they were doing, she told them, "We're building a runway," but then added, "...for the aliens." What if she really meant that they were building a runway, but for the O6 in the future? Maybe they didn't know this...but Jacob did. So in this theory, Ajira 316 landed on the mini-island, where the Hydra is, on the runway. This would also explain the outriggers that the Remainders found on the beach. If you recall, Kate and Sawyer escaped the mini-island with Carl and Alex in Season 3 by using outriggers to row back to the main island. So the "survivors" of 316 also got to the main island the same way, which is how the outriggers we saw with the Ajira water bottle inside got to the beach. Three: The flash brought Jack, Kate, and Hurley to the island in the 1970s. But it brought the rest of the passengers to the island in 2008. There was a time split. Why? I guess we'll find out.

6. Why did Lapidus look so young?

Shave and a haircut. ("Two bits!")

I will send psychic applause to the first person who identifies that very obscure reference...

7. Why did the flight attendant look so familiar?

I've only seen the episode once, and I don't remember thinking that we had seen her before. But others online mentioned that she slightly resembled Cindy, the flight attendant from 815 that served Jack and ended up joining the Others after 815 crashed. She was definitely not Cindy, though.

8. How am I supposed to sleep after an episode like that?

Good question. My preferred method is alcohol - don't fool around, go with the hard stuff. Some folks like NyQuil, though Thermaflu works better for me personally. But I find that teaching works like a charm. I'm ready to pass out the minute I get home. The sleep of the dead, I tell ya. (Note: DharmaTeacher does not encourage, promote, or condone the abuse of alcohol or over the counter cold and flu remedies. Use as directed.)

Seriously, I have been thinking about this one non-stop since it aired. I cannot wait for Wednesday!

NOTE: I will be adding to this post later this afternoon, but I thought I'd at least post what I had so far for those of you reading today. I am trying to make a 1:25pm showing of "Frost/Nixon" before the Oscars tonight (which would mean I almost fulfilled my tradition of seeing all of the Best Picture nominees - the only one I missed is "Milk," and it's no longer playing near me :( ) Seeing as I haven't showered yet, I need to get moving.

If you're scoring at home: Slumdog wins it, and deservedly so.

As a man who will never win an Oscar once said, "I'll be back..."

And, like Jack...

...I'm back!

Okay, so a few more random thoughts and discoveries about "316":

• It seems that Locke isn't the only proxy on the plane. Jack was told that Locke would be a proxy, or would represent, his father Christian on the plane that would return to the island. The O6 must recreate the conditions of Flight 815 as closely as possible, and Locke filled the Christian Shephard role. (Interesting, considering how Christian and Locke have now met twice, and one of those meetings happened in this same episode.) But did you notice the other "proxies" on the plane? 316 Sayid was in handcuffs with a police escort, like 815 Kate.
  

316 Hurley was both carrying a guitar case, which represents 815 Charlie, and reading a
foreign language printing of a comic book, like 815 Walt.


Ben arrived late, like 815 Hurley. 316 Sun had her husband's wedding ring with her like
815 Rose.



And you may wonder who 316 Kate might be a proxy for. How about 815 Claire...if Kate is
now pregnant!

• Speaking of proxies, why indeed were Jack, Kate, and Hurley separated from the other passengers? Maybe the other passengers are somewhere else on the island. Sound familiar? The three we've seen represent the 815 Losties; the others represent the Tailies. Remember - recreating the same situation as the original crash of 815 seems very important.
• Was the flash that the 316 passengers experienced that seemingly got them back on the island the same flash that happened when Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel? When Jack, Kate, and Hurley, at least, arrive on the island, they see Jin in a Dharma jumpsuit, and so we are led to believe it's the late 1970s/early 1980s. So if the flash happened because of Locke, and the flashes will end because he set the wheel back into place, that means that the Remainders will be stuck at whatever time period the island moved to last. But when our returning trio see Jin, it shows that they couldn't have gotten to the island at the moment Locke turned the wheel; Jin would've needed time to become a member of Dharma. So, we're either wrong in assuming that they arrived when and how we think they did, or because of the way time works on the island, they came in at a bearing that put them in the same year as Jin, but a few months after, allowing Jin to be recruited into Dharma. And this idea would also allow the possibility that the other 316 passengers might have arrived on the island in a different year - 2008, for example - because maybe the plane broke apart in the turbulence, throwing the passengers in different directions, and therefore different bearings. (Yeah, I have no idea if any of that made sense, either.)
  
• Ajira is Hindi for "island."
• The music Jin is listening to as he drives up in the Dharma VW bus is heavily rumored to be Geronimo Jackson.
• Hurley buys 78 extra seats on Ajira 316. 7 + 8 = 15.
• Speaking of the Numbers, Flight 815 was made up of the two numbers 8 and 15, obviously famous in LOST lore. But Ajira 316 is made up of one "Number," 16, and one "non-Number," 3. Does this mean that a change will be made in the Valenzetti equation? (If you're not familiar, the Valenzetti equation is a set of numbers or a formula that the scientist Enzo Valenzetti deducted that would predict the end of the world. As part of one of the LOST online alternate reality games a few summers ago, a video was revealed through the game of Alvar Hanso himself explaining that the Dharma Initiative's entire purpose was to change the numbers in the equation, thereby preventing the end of the world from happening. The equation, of course, is 4 8 15 16 23 42.)
• According to LOST writers/producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse in their official podcast, the ruins that we saw in "This Place Is Death" were not the Temple. Well, not entirely. They said that the ruins we saw might be only the outer walls of the Temple, and the Temple itself is probably much, much larger. It's more likely that the structure that Montand was pulled into by Smokey is one of the "Cerberus vents" that were noted on the blast door map in the Swan with the abbreviation "CV." Cerberus is a rumored name for the Smoke Monster, so the vents would be openings in the ground that Smokey could come out of to rip people's arms off, smash them against trees, try to pull them down into the same holes in the ground, and to scan them.
• The butcher shop where Jill works is called "Simon's Butcher Shop," as painted on its front window. Charlie Pace's father was name Simon, and he was a butcher.
• When the Losties found the caves in Season 1, where they lived for a few episodes, they discovered two skeletons, dubbed "Adam and Eve," side-by-side in a small cut out area of the rock. Jack, using his medical knowledge of human decomposition, concluded that the bodies had been there for about 50 years. In the Lamppost station, one of the things Jack saw on the walls was a photograph of the island taken on 9/23/54. Oceanic 815 crashed almost 50 years to the day later, on 9/22/04. So, it's very possible that Adam and Eve are people we've seen before, especially with all of the time jumping...

• I went into a lot of the religious, namely Christian, symbolism and overtones in the episode already. But just to make it painfully clear, they are definitely setting John Locke up to be a Christ figure. It has been all throughout the show. But since I couldn't for the recap, here's a picture of the painting in the church above the Lamppost, depicting Thomas touching the wounds of Christ.

• Jin's Dharma patch was a new one. Apparently, people somehow know that inside the usual outline that all of the symbols have (I think the pattern is called a "bagua") is a star, like a sherriff's star, and this represents Dharma security.

• Finally, what in the name of Vincent are they going to do in Season 6? As we speed through Season 5, with so much happening, and with the O6 at least partially returning to the island already, will it be all about "fixing" time? Trying to return to the real world again? I can't even imagine what the writers have up their sleeves next.

The Oscars are starting, and I'm done for this one. Special thanks to Toniann for providing those questions this week. I'd love to do something like this every week, so if you have any questions about the episode, please put them in the comments section, and...school will be in session!

Until then, enjoy "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"!

Namaste and Good Luck,

~Matt