I’m going to cover all three into one here since they are all essentially the same piece of the story from different perspectives in that they fill in the details of how the Oceanic 6 ended up on the Island, what happened to Locke when he got off the Island, and what happened when they landed on the Island. These three episodes have been somewhat unsatisfying for me as they haven’t seemed to moved the story along, more a case of filling in the details, although they did give a few nods to unanswered questions (4 toed statue & what got Jack back to the Island) as well as adding some new ones. Since we are at the mid point of the show, I’m guessing it is “The deep breath before the plunge” so they are somewhat forgiven, I just think we could have covered that in 2 weeks, especially coming back after a week’s hiatus to a setup episode like Namaste. I know a lot of people think these were strong character episodes and that is fine. I enjoyed seeing Sawyers transformatin in LaFleur, but it is rare to get 3 such episodes consecutively. If you were going to tell someone the story of lost, exactly how much time would you spend detailing how Locke got them on to the Island, or how Sawyer moved in with the Dharma Gang or how he got Jack, Kate and Hurley in the initiative?

The Life And Death of Jeremy Bentham covered Locke’s travels off-island as he tried to get the Oceanic 6 back to the island.? While it was fun to watch, it was really just filling in the blanks as to what he did off Island, and pouring more fuel on the fire of working out whether it is Widmore or Ben who is the evil genius behind it all.? Of course we got to see Locke struggle with finding his way and watching him helplessly be carried and wheeled around by Abaddon as he fruitlessly attempts to talk the O6 into going back to the Island. The conversations had the usualy Lost quality to it in that the characters always managed to not say the most obvious thing or ask the most obvious question. I’m thinking that Ben needed some information from Locke before he could die and/or that Locke could not come back to the Island if he died by his own hand.

LaFleur shows what happened on-Island in the 3 years the O6 and Locke were gone. Sucks to be Locke since he seems to have lost 3 years of his life (I wonder whether that explains some of the anti-aging effects on the Island). We start with our survivors helping Locke in to the well before another flash throws them way back in time (we assume) and we catch a glimpse of what we now assume is the 4 toed statue.? While others online have debated exactly which Egyptian figure it us, I’m just going with an Egyptian figure which is appropriate given that the episode and the who series has number of Egyptian references.? Sawyer made comment on Richards eyeliner, a character who has some strongly egyptian features about him, and the ancient Egyptians were noted for their use of eyeliner as both men and women were in the habit of wearing it. There were a couple of Ankh references in this episode which is the Egyptian symbol for eternal life (Richard?) .One was carried by the 4 toed statue and also Amy’s husband Paul had one around his neck. Hieroglyphics have also made a number of appearances in lost, from the Symbols on the hatch timer to symbols carved in the temple and in Bens secret door.

Our band of survivors come across Amy who seems to have run afoul of some Hostiles who killed her husband and are about to give her the same fate. Daniel reminds us (conveniently) that whatever happened has already happened, and we can’t change anything. At this point, one of two things will happen. Either they will attempt rescue, fail and Amy will die as she always has in the past, or Sawyer and Co will be successful meaning that they have always gone back in the past and rescued her. Given the way the season is shaping up, the writers have so far avoided any paradoxes? like characters walking in on themselves or others in the past that we have seen when we know that it never happened like that. Given that the writers claim this was all planned ahead, it would be cool if there had been a reference to current events in the past, like Hurley bumping into future Sawyer, exchanging pleasantries? as they passed each other. We could then see the exchange from the other perspective from the future Sawyer. It would have at least cemented the idea that what happened has already happened since a lot of people are wondering about changes in the past, or whether it has always been this way (i,.e. Rousseau has always met Jin when they first landed).

I enjoyed seeing Sawyer talking to Alpert with the tables turned and Alpert seeming Lost in the conversation as we have been for a number of seasons. Makes you wonder whether Ben keeps looping round and doing it all again, same as Sawyer is in this case which would explain how he manages to know everything. Like the time John Locke walked in to the camp in Jughead and started informing Alpert of what is going on, I couldn’t help but feel that he was all rather new at this. We are used to seeing others with more information, and more secretive about what they know, but in these two instances, it almost seems like they are totally new to the Island and it’s mysteries. He certainly seemed surprised at the idea that John was from the future, which you wouldn’t be if you had spent the last god knows how many years on a time travelling island. Maybe the “incident” which hasn’t happened yet is what starts the time travel on the island, we know Pierre Chang and Dharma had not uncovered the Donkey Wheel yet so perhaps that aspect of the Island had not been awakened yet.

Namaste, for me was the real set up for the rest of the season. While it mostly consisted of Sawyer working to get Jack, Kate and Hurley into the Dharma Initiative which in itself was uninteresting. What was intersting was the change in Sawyer and Jack. While new Sawyer gave Jack a dressing down, Jack, the newly minted Janator In Chief took it all in his stride, relieved at not having to worry about anything or ‘react’ to the days events. He stood there in his overalls, hands firmly in pockets as Sawyer decimated his legacy.

I wasn’t quite sure what Sawyers glance at Sayid was about as he left him in his cell for the night. I almost took it as a ‘tables are turned, how do you like it now’ type of look to his torturer of old. If so, it’s seems that Sawyer has slipped back in to his old ways a little between this and his attitude with Jack. However it is worth noting that Sawyer was perfectly cordial when Jack arrived, and only slipped when Old Jack came out asking for answers.

Jacks Dad made a rather creepy appearance along with smokie which I think seems to add weight to the idea that smokie==Jacks Dad == agent of Jacob .I’m going with the theory that they were in the processing center that was off the dock (we saw it when young Ben came on the Island), which is a way away from new Otherton, although lostpedia claims that the Harbor and the Warf were a “short walking distance” to the barracks. Also of interest is how Ben knows, 3 years later that there are 3 outriggers hidden away on the beach. The guy is a genius, I can’t wait to see how he knows it all.