Lost: Jack Don't Know Jack

Lost

316

Flavour five Episode vi

Hot damn! Nosotros accept a stomach bug, so perhaps our judgments aren't to be trusted, but we found this episode satisfyingly nutbar: A render to the Isle, with strategic narrative slices removed only to mess with our heads. Since this is a Jack episode, at that place'south plenty of annoying behavior, with babies left behind, mysterious shoes stuffed on corpse-feet, and a whole planeful of people threatened without a second thought. (Except for Hurley, who saves 87 of them.)

As well, people continue to chat with Ben, trust a woman they've never met before just because she has a pendulum, and otherwise deed more than similar game pieces than man beings.

Simply the kicker is the existent deal. What is up with Jin?

Teaser
Classic first-ep shot: Jack's center, then that tree-loftier angle of him on his back in the jungle. He hears cries: Someone's in the water with a guitar example — Hurley. "It actually happened," Hurley says. Kate'south knocked out, only Jack wakes her. They're back on the Isle, and nosotros get a title: "46 hours earlier."

46 hours earlier, Eloise Hawking lights candles, exudes bitchy opacity, and escorts the Losties to the Crypt of Faith and Science with its nifty pendulum, clicking lath of numbers, and assorted geek-fetish objects. "The Dharma initiative called it the Lamppost," she informs them. "This is how they found the Isle."

The Mainland: Human of Faith, Man of Gullibility
Jack asks if Ben knew about the Lamppost, and he says no — but when he wonders aloud whether Ben's telling the truth, Mrs. Hawking deadpans: "Probably not." Then she exposits: The Lamppost is "constructed over a unique pocket of electromagnetic energy," linked to other pockets — sort of like the board game Inkling. Some fellow cracked the riddle: The Island was always moving, so they needed to approximate where information technology was in time. This provides teeny windows of opportunity, the next one in 36 hours, when they must hop on Ajira Airlines flight 316.

Desmond starts yelling: He's just there to tell Mrs. Hawking her son needs help. But (a) he'due south not going back, and (b) yous lunatic British person, you wasted years of his life by encouraging him not to propose to Penelope. She's playing a game, and they're simply pieces, he shouts assuredly. Whatever she tells you, ignore it! And even if the Island isn't done with him, he's washed with the Island, he says, strutting out.

Jack's weirdly open to Mrs. Hawking'south creepy demands as she informs him he needs to copy the original crash. If they're not all there, the result would exist …  unpredictable.  As she waxes coy/ominous, in that location'south an advertising break, and when we render, she'southward waggling her finger and delivering Locke's suicide annotation.  Locke volition be a proxy for Jack'southward dead dad, and so Jack has to get something from his begetter and give information technology to John. "That'south why it'south chosen a leap of organized religion, Jack."

Jack enters the church, finding Ben in a pew, himself waxing biblical about how Thomas couldn't get backside the resurrection, merely we all believe eventually. Then he leaves to satisfy "a promise to an sometime friend." Uh-oh.

Equally Jack broods alcoholically, he gets a call. Information technology'due south about some guy named Ray, and later misdirection, and a shot of a magic evidence — are they all rabbits being pulled out of hats? — we realize it's his grandad, a convenient source for Jack'due south dad's shoes.

Dorsum to his bachelor pad for more drinky; after an extended ramble through the darkened apartment, Jack finds Kate, catatonic-ish, without Aaron. Stricken, she says she never wants to be asked near Aaron once more, which is genuinely distressing and unsettling, and there'south natural language-kissing, to which we say ew, but and so again we've never liked Jack.

Next morn, Jack brews java. Kate asks about the shoes, and he explains that he didn't care plenty to become nice shoes for the original flight, so he put his dad'south corpse in white tennis sneakers — the ones we've seen on the Island. Then Ben calls from a phone booth, bleeding and "sidetracked," asking Jack to pick up Locke's torso.

Jack meets creepy butcher Jill, opens Locke's coffin and puts his dad'southward shoes on Locke's feet, all the while chuckling madly at the applesauce of it all. Then he annoyingly tucks the suicide note into Locke's lapel, saying he'due south heard everything he needs to hear. This pretty much sums up everything that bugs us well-nigh Jack: He'southward so caught upward in his own brooding, guilty, solipsistic, oddly chipper lunacy, he assumes the suicide annotation is real AND he doesn't fifty-fifty read it for clues.

At the airdrome, Jack's improvising a Weekend at Bernie's explanation for toting Locke's trunk to Guam. He spots Kate, wearing "Don't Talk to Me, I'one thousand Not an Internationally Famous Member of the Oceanic half dozen" sunglasses. A mysterious extra offers condolences. Lord's day shows upward, Jack's relieved, neither of them gets into the fact that her mother is withal babysitting her pitiful toddler.

Then they're distracted by Sayid, who is being escorted past an armed guard. Hurley's there, too, having bought 78 standby seats. Because he wants to protect the bystanders!  Which is so Hurley of him, and lame of everyone else — they were okay with killing a planeful of strangers?

On the flight, everything is creepy and déjà-vu-ish. Hugo has a guitar. Ben shows up, his arm in a sling — Hurley objects, Jack defends Ben, and basically there are several mysteries afoot, including who told Hurley to exist there in the commencement place.

Weirdly, the stewardess gives Jack the unread suicide note. And at this insanely tardily engagement, Jack wonders what'south going to happen to the other passengers, to which Ben says, "Who cares?"

Jack approaches Kate for philosophical flirtation. Thank God, no mile-high-order activeness ensues, and even better, Frank Lapidus — erstwhile helicopter airplane pilot of the Freighties — is in the cockpit. He'due south pleased to see Jack, but understandably uneasy when he realizes the O6 (minus Aaron) are on his flying. "We're not going to Guam, are we?"

Jack asks how Ben tin read and Ben snarks that his female parent taught him. They chitchat like disturbed frenemies, Jack telling Ben that Locke committed suicide; Ben feigns (we figure) surprise, then does his evil-therapist act, probing whether Jack feels guilty, why he can't read the annotation, etc. He gives him some evil privacy, and Jack sees: "I wish you had believed me." Perchance Ben wrote it, or Widmore, merely the real mystery is why is Jack ownership whatever of this?

Aaaand rattling! Scary plane stuff. Fasten seat belt sign. Luggage falls from racks, stewardesses become flying, there'south a buzzing, a humming, and — Jack lands in the jungle, then looks at the notation, which has been torn down to "I wish." And nosotros're back to scene i.

As Hurley, Jack and Kate consult, they become a surprise — the Dharma van. With Jin inside information technology. He's wearing a Dharma suit, toting a gun, and damn, he looks as confused every bit nosotros feel!

What We Know Now
• They're dorsum on the Island.
• Locke committed suicide. Maybe.
• Jin'due south gone Dharma.

The Wha? Cistron
• Why did Kate get out Aaron? Why doesn't Jack care? Why did Sun leave Ji-Yeon? Why is Hurley on the flying? Why is Sayid on the flying? Who's this Jill chick, and what the hell is with her being a butcher? If Eloise is Faraday's mother, is Widmore his male parent and Penelope his sister? It'due south flight 316 — perhaps a reference to John: 316. Does this brand Locke the Christ figure?
• Who is this mysterious "fellow" who solved the physics problem that enabled them all to discover the Isle? Faraday? Dr. Marvin Candle? Jacob? Arzt?
• Did Ben attempt to impale Penny? (His promise to an former friend: Widmore.) If so, it looks similar it didn't become very well.

Lost: Jack Don't Know Jack