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- TV Series: Lost
- Episode: Namaste
- Starring: Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Daniel Dae Kim, Jorge Garcia, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey, Elizabeth Mitchell
- Written By: Brian K. Vaughan, Paul Zbyszweski
- Directed By: Jack Bender
- Network: ABC
- Series: Lost
Lost: Namaste
Joe's Lost Thoughts Continue. By Joe Oesterle
March 19, 2009
Source: JoeArtistWriter
Sawyer/Lafleur (Josh Holloway) takes on the leadership in LOST: NAMASTE(2009).
© Mania.com/Robert Trate
Greetings fellow LOST junkies. It’s been two weeks since we’ve had our last fix, and I know we were all jonesing pretty hard. Unfortunately Namaste was a set-up episode, so we didn’t get the incredible high we were looking for, but luckily we got enough to take the edge off of doing without our favorite drug for two weeks.
Fortunately I come bearing gifts. Many of you may already be hip to this by now, but if not, please follow this link to a FREE Geronimo Jackson single, “
Dharma Lady,” courtesy of the good people at ITunes.
This song is a little reminiscent of an AM version of a Grateful Dead band, but reminds me more of a 1975 song called “My Chevy Van,” by Sammy Johns. Perhaps Johns was a big influence on G.J. or vice versa.
Ok, let’s get to it. Like I said, it was a set-up episode, and a bit of a let down after waiting two weeks, but like the new and relaxed (kind of) Jack Shephard, I’m not going to get pissed at ABC for not doing things the way I would have. I’m just gonna go with the flow.
I Was Right
Eh, so were lots of other people, but I do love being right - almost as much as I hate being wrong, and it’s cool to write “I Was Right” in bold like that. I did notice a runway when we first saw the landing site of Ajira 316. The runway that Ben forced Kate and Sawyer to help build back in the bad old cage days.
What’s exciting about this news, is that Ben was aware then that he’d need a runway to get back to the island. Somehow he knew he’d be crashing as an uninvited guest the next time he visited the island. That guy always has good insider knowledge, which is why maybe I wouldn’t have clonked him over the head with an oar just yet. But I get ahead of myself, which is doubly bad when you need to get thirty years behind yourself.
By the way, when Cesar wakes up Ilana from her post plane crash nap, did she call for “Sarah?” And isn’t Jack’s ex-wife’s name Sarah? The answer to both those questions is yes. It was rhetorical.
Pants On Fire
So Lapidus claims his duty is with the crew and passengers of his plane. So why then after Ben lets Sun catch him in the predictable “Ben’s going to turn the tables on Sun” chase through the jungle, and Sun clonks Ben in the back of the head with an oar does Lapidus go with Sun to the island? Either Lapidus realizes Ben knew the other island was the best place to get answers, or Lapidus has a thing for hot violent Asian chicks.
The girl isn’t just violent by the way. She’s a liar. Naturally born to it too it seems by her coziness in the genre. We’ve given Sun way too many passes for her behavior by the way. It took me until last night when she actually said, “I lie,” to realize she plays fast and loose with the truth as often as Kate, and maybe even Sawyer. She might not be a Benjamin Linus caliber liar, but the girl has skills.
She lied to her father about dating Jin in the first place. She lied to Jin by breaking her marriage vows and having that affair with the rich bald guy back in Korea. She even lied about speaking English. Deceit is an arena in which Sun is comfortable playing.
Sawyer, I Think You Remember Everyone…
It was nice to see Hurley run up an embrace Sawyer while Jack and Kate stood back and tried to both process the fact he didn’t die from the copter dive, and he’s also coming to their rescue. Hurley didn’t care, and even missed Sawyer’s fat jokes. Hurley is a great guy, which brings me to the rumors that one of the MAJOR characters are going to get killed off this season. PLEASE DON’T BE HURLEY. He’s the comic relief, and the only person with an unblemished moral conscience. THEY CAN’T KILL HURLEY.
Sawyer looked genuinely pleased to see Jack again. There was a fondness in his voice when he called him, Doc. After all the bad blood, Sawyer missed Jack. Jack in his defense may have missed Sawyer too, but he was busy wrapping his mind around actually seeing Sawyer, let alone voluntarily standing on the very island he tried so hard to escape three years prior.
And then there’s Kate. Surely Sawyer is smart enough to know she’s poison. Stay the hell away from her Sawyer. She’ll try to feed you some noise about coming back because of her love for you or something, but you’ve got a good woman now. Don’t screw it up.
Sawyer was thrown for a loop when he heard Locke was dead, and didn’t pry when the other three refused to provide much more information. He then decided to throw them all for a loop of their own and mention they were now standing in the year 1977. Big ups to Jack for not breathing hard, throwing his head back, shaking intensely, or doing that eye twitch thing he does. All things considered, Jack went with the flow.
Which means someone had to go apeshit, and it may as well be Jin. After he hears Sun was on the plane, ol’ Jin high tails it over to Radzinsky’s place to see what he can see. Not exactly in Sawyer’s handbook on how to handle that problem, but he’s got three other people to worry about.
Hurley Gets the Big Dirty Shirt
It’s safe to say Juliet didn’t do cartwheels when she found out Jack, Hurley and most of all, Kate, were back on the island. So while Sawyer is looking for some authentic ’77 duds to disguise the gang, Juliet sits on the bed, and takes in the all the potential problems this could cause her happy island home.
Oh, and here’s something I’m having trouble with… we all have a sweat shirt that is a little baggy on us, but how many of us have a sweatshirt that will be baggy on a guy nine times our belly size? PLUS, if it’s in the laundry, does this mean Sawyer often wears a shirt that is nine times too big for him? What the hell Sawyer?
And what the hell does Sawyer mean when he says Faraday is no longer there. Did Faraday die? Did he leave the island, or did he just go crazier than the last time we saw him? You know there are rumors of a major character dying. Faraday’s story is almost done. All he really needs to do is scare the shit out of a little red haired girl, and he’s done his part for time travel and destiny.
Back to Juliet, eventually she realizes she needs to help these people, but she is going to make sure Kate understands the ground rules.
What a Prick
So that’s Radzinsky huh? He’s a bigger prick than I expected him to be. He also has a little more political authority than I would have assumed. The temperamental scientific genius/small scale building sarcastic prick doesn’t feel he has to do what Jin says, so Jin gets all Korean mob-guy on his ass. Now he’s in line, but still prickish.
The Timing Has to Be Right
Juliet tries to sneak away with Amy’s list of recruits, but Amy wakes up, and Juliet lays a nifty little lie on Amy. All those years living with Sawyer must have paid off, because in no time Amy is volunteering seat information, and Juliet starts playing with Amy’s newborn. A newborn that just happens to be…… Ethan?
FOUL!
That’s right, I call foul. Now I realize you have to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy a show that deals in time travel, killer smoke monsters and ghosts of dead fathers, but I cannot stand idly by and let them try to pass off a man much too old to play the role of Ethan. Actor William Mapother would have been 12 years old in 1977, not an infant. He would have been 40 in 2004. I’m not buying a 40 yr old Mapother as a 27 year old Ethan in 2004. Not gonna happen. No wonder Juliet had such a reaction when she found out this was child was Ethan. She was appalled at the logic.
There’s a similar age discrepancy with Charlotte and possibly Rousseau, so unless they’ve been very sloppy in their casting this season, there better be a good time-traveling reason to explain these inconsistencies, or I will file for a recast.
New Jobs… in This Economy?
Sawyer gets his old Oceanic buddies set up in their new jobs. Even Jack chuckled in mild appreciation of Sawyer’s help in setting him up with janitorial duties.
Dr Chang meets Dr Shepard - Doctor of Trashology. Jack is surprised and pleased and maybe a little jealous to realize Sawyer/LaFleur runs a tight operation. But my question is why is Chang always annoyed about something. The guy is way too high strung.
Seriously Chang, it’s the seventies. Have a pot brownie, have sex with someone other than your wife, watch a new episode of Chico and the Man. There are ways to loosen up.
The best part of that scene however was Juliet first saving Kate from a potentially cover-blowing disaster, and then giving Kate the new rules in six simple words.
LOST – in Translation
Now I don’t speak Catty Girl Speak fluently, but I’ve been around it enough to understand parts of it. Here’s how I translate “Hi Kate. Welcome to the island” from Catty Girl Speak into modern day English.
“Hi Kate, welcome to my island. I’ve lived here for three years, and you just stepped foot back on this place after making sure your ass was safe, but not caring much more for anyone else. Listen to me, I know you’ve f@#cked with a couple of guy’s heads last time you were here.
Now one of those guys I really cared for left with you, and that just about tore my heart out, but I moved on. AND in the process of moving on, I found true love with the man you often casually refer to Sawyer, but you know what Kate? He isn’t Sawyer. He’s James. And I love him. And I know you toyed with his emotions to get your way back before you just left him for dead all those years ago. And I also know how much he cared for you, and what he sacrificed for you, because he confessed those feelings to me before we became a couple. And that’s what we are Kate. We’re a couple. So seriously, don’t even think of batting an eyelash at my man, because I swear to God Kate, I will knock on Smokie’s cave door, and present you to him myself if you ruin anything he and I have achieved here over the past three years while you were watching hi-def tv, and texting your friends, on your fancy 2007 gadgetry.
We do things differently here in 1977. For example, we get up off the couch to change channels, and I’ll kill you if you talk to my man. Those are two of the basic differences. Don’t forget them.
And Kate, if you think I’m kidding, I promise I’ll build a Dharma outhouse on top of your grave, and then I’ll have a big chili party, and I’ll invite the whole Dharma gang, and we’ll all take turns making number two on you.
Namaste.”
Maybe I’m reading into things, but that’s what I got. I’d appreciate all other interpretations, especially by any ladies who read this.
Sayid, Pricks and C@ckblockers. Oh My!
So what the hell is going through Sayid’s mind anyway? He’s not sure why he transported, he’s not sure why Jin is nice one minute, pointing a gun to his temple the next, he’s not sure why Sawyer is now going by the name LaFleur, or why he’s being forced to declare himself as a Hostile, but give Sayid credit, he’s a pro. He’s usually on the other end of the interrogation stick, but at least he keeps his mouth shut until he knows the score.
Of course freaking Radzinsky, isn’t making anything easier for our guys. This is one bloodthirsty scientist. There hasn’t been this big a scientist prick since Dr. Smith and his cantankerous collection of clattering computer chips were LOST in space.
Threatening to tell Horace!!??! This guy is such a prick. Who the hell is this Radzinsky, and how much political power does he wield on this island? He’s definitely higher up than Phil – and Phil’s a prick too, but he’s actually more of a cockblocker.
He demonstrated his c@ckblocking skills last episode when Jerry was trying to get it on with Rosie, and now he’s about to c@ckblock all of Sawyer’s groundwork. Watch him watching Jack to make sure Jack doesn’t get anything Phil can’t have.
Meanwhile Back in the Same Place - 30 Years Later
You know where I’m not going at night, when I see Smokie in the jungle? The jungle.
By the way, Sun’s attempt at calming Lapidus down probably wasn’t all that effective.
“Just an animal” is no small consolation if I’m Lapidus. Yeah Sun, I assume it’s an animal, and I assume it’s an animal that’s big enough to shake trees. It never occurred to me it might be a murderous monster made of mist, but that’s because it never occurred to me that one of those things existed. But let’s work under the premise that it is an animal, I’m not going in the jungle at night. And if it’s a “Smoke monster” I doubly don’t want to go in there.
I guess Lapidus is made of stronger stuff than me. That or he is REALLY into Asian chicks, because off into the wild dark jungle they go. Listen. It’s the whispers again. We haven’t heard those in a while. Wait for it. Now! Turn slowly… a mysterious silhouette in the doorway, now cue spooky dead Christian Shephard.
But there is something different about Christian Shephard now. He looks a bit more mortal. Not so dead, or undead. He actually looked sorrowful when Sun asks for her husband. Do ghosts have tear ducts, because unless my Hi-Def was playing tricks on me, Christian was a little misty-eyed.
As he rummages the wall for the Dharma Class of ’77 picture of Hurley and company, Christian lets Sun and Lapidus know they still have a bit of a journey ahead of them. And oh yeah, it’s 30 years behind them.
Knock Knock. Who’s There? Jack. Jack Who? Jack Me – Whaaaaaat?
Jack knocks on Sawyers door and sees Juliet. I know that look. It’s the look you give to a girl you weren’t all that into even when you kissed, and now it’s three years later, and she’s changed somehow. She got hotter, and you don’t know how or why, but you perceive it. Now you’re thinking maybe I was wrong about this girl and then you see Sawyer sitting in the chair, and you realize freaking Sawyer been shacking up with what could have been your girl; a hot, nice, stable girl who cooks dinner for you every night. A girl that was really into you once, but probably doesn’t miss you at all anymore. And now she’s Sawyers. Damn it, but that guy must be a charming S.O.B.
Sawyer is a fine host, and hospitably offers Jack a cold one, but Jack declines. He’s on the road to sobriety as well as the road to faith. Now Jack is new at this whole “Sawyer as the leader” thing, and he gets a little pissy with his old island mate when Jack comes to the conclusion that Sawyer is not acting like a leader ought to act. This is where Sawyer schools the doctor.
Sawyer educates our educated doctor with the fact that none other than Winston Churchill liked to read a book to relax his mind, even during the Blitz. If it’s good enough for W.C., and the British allies, it should be good enough for Jack.
No good leader goes into a fight without a game plan, and for his brief term as 815 leader, Jack wasn’t a good one. He made noble decisions, he made sacrifices, but his leadership was, as Sawyer points out, reactionary. Jack never had a plan. Sawyer, much like his culinarily-gifted girlfriend, can always cook one up.
It seems as Jack leaves Sawyer’s pad, he is finally relieved. The burden of saving the lives of strangers he took upon himself years ago has been lifted. Jack sees now that Sawyer was a better tactician. Jack is happy to accept his new role on the island, all he needs to do now is mop up the occasional chemical spill, and find his new calling. Jack is going with the flow.
Lil Ben
So I’ll assume no one who reads this column was surprised to find out the little guy who is delivering a sandwich to the prisoner was our own teenage Benjamin. Ben was probably taking a well-deserved break from peaking at Juliet hanging Sawyer’s oversized sweatshirts on the clothesline.
I confess I’m unclear if Sayid makes the connection right away. I definitely think it raised his radar, but no one has had the chance to hip Sayid to the mind-bending truth that he’s just traveled 30 years into the past.
He knows the island is a freaky place, but did he possibly believe it was this freaky? I assume Sayid will painlessly extract that information from young Ben Linus, but what I’m really curious about is how formidable is Ben even at that tender age. My bet is he’s on the ball, but I suppose we’ll see.
So until next week, fire up your Hi-Def TV, (Imperative if trying to determine if Christian Shephard was recently crying.) make sure you hit the record function on your TiVo, (For multiple viewings, and freeze framing purposes immediately after watching the show the first time.) keep your laptop nearby, (You’ll never know when you might need to Google to find a free vintage Geronimo Jackson song.) load up that bong, (For some of us, LOST isn’t our only drug of choice.) and get ready to get LOST.
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Joe you Geronimo Jackson lovin bastard what is up!? I tell ya man this episode should've been aired last week and then we should've gotten the break. You are 100% correct, it's a set up episode so now everyone is in place for the rest of the season.
Before I go in to my thoughts of the episode, let me say a few things about stuff you commented on if that is alright with you dear sir. 1. You are gonna have to let the Ethan casting slide dude, I mean if Tom Welling is still playin Superboy then surely Tom Cruise's cousin can play a 30 year old :) 2. Carlton and Damon are on record saying the Charlotte age thing was a screw up but not entirely on their part. They initially had the right age but the actress that played Charlotte switched it and they missed it on the editing room. 3. Why didn't you mention Radzinsky was InMan's partner in Desmond's Hatch?
Anywa, I agree with your grade, every is set up nicely for the things to come. I liked the nod to the Swan station, and obviously Radzinsky is a player in the Dharma Initiative and now I want to know why he would off himself.