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- TV Series: Lost
- Episode: 316
- Starring: Jorge Garcia, Mathew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Yunjin Kim, Terry O’Quinn, Michael Emerson, Naveen Andrews
- Written By: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
- Directed By: Stephen Williams
- Network: ABC
- Series: Lost
Lost: 316
Ben Gets Beat Down on His Way Back to the Island By
Stephen Lackey
February 19, 2009
Ben (Michael Emerson) bruised and ready to fly on LOST: 316(2009).
© ABC
The true magic of Lost happens when the show answers the right questions at the right time while sneaking in new intriguing questions at the same time. Some of the failed episodes of previous seasons answered nothing and pounded you over the head with more questions that just made the series even more convoluted. This week was an “edge of your seater” with some of the show’s most exciting questions getting answered. The creators of Lost are a clever bunch. They’ve wiggled in some hardcore science fiction elements and horror elements into a series that actually has a large mainstream fan base along with the rest of us geeks. Hopefully the character moments of the series will keep those fans hooked to the series and help them through the heavy sci-fi moments. The solution to how the island was originally discovered is fairly typical to any fan of sci-fi and the way back to the island makes perfect sense within this world. Jack knew it all along; he just didn’t know exactly which plane to ride and when to ride it.
At the beginning of the episode, the whole plan to bring the original Oceanic Six falls apart leaving Jack, Ben, and Sun the only members of the Oceanic Six dedicated to return to the island. Hawking reveals the process by which the island was discovered and how Jack and the rest will return to the island. Jack even gets a few minutes of alone time with her when she tells him he must give something of his father’s to Locke’s body to help the body take the place of his father from the original flight. What’s odd is that Jack leaves Hawking only to ask Ben some more questions about the woman that he of course can’t answer. So, why didn’t he just ask these questions of her directly? At any rate, Jack, Sun, and Ben decide to take a flight the next day that will be in the right place at the right time to get them back to the island.
Hawking warned them that if they don’t replicate the original flight exactly that their return to the island may be unpredictable to say the least. A whole new set of questions arise at the airport the next day as everyone shows up for the flight. Even Kate who came to Jack the night before and agreed to get on the flight has an air of mystery around her as she refuses to talk about what happened to Aaron. Ben shows arrives beat up and Sayid has a member of law enforcement with him. As I mentioned earlier, tons of new questions.
There’s no island time this week other than the great stinger ending. The Oceanic Six’s return to the island needed to be epic and it was. There was really no time for island stories this week,, we’ll get back to that soon enough. Along with all of the science fiction elements and suspense there were those all too important character moments that keep Lost balanced and grounded. The most important ones come from Jack finally reading Locke’s suicide note and Kate’s scene with Jack where she agrees to go to the island. This is as near a perfect episode of Lost as there has ever been. This is how the show should be for the rest of its time on the air.
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A lot of good one-liners from Ben this week. What about the rest of the people on the plane? "Who cares?" How can you be reading? "My mother taught me"