We're not going to Guam, are we?

But, of course, they’re not alone. In addition to all the passengers back in coach, we’ve got Frank Lapidus back at work in the cockpit, the aforementioned law enforcement lady whose obvious anxiety belied her knowledge of what was about to happen to flight 316, the clearly suspicious Arabic man (I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a Widmore agent and was part of the “other Others” shooting at Sawyer and company in the canoe chase a couple weeks ago), and Ben.

Aside from the others, who we’ll certainly learn more about in a couple of weeks, my interest falls to Ben. Ben told Locke that whoever turned the frozen donkey wheel would never be able to return to the Island. Did he mean that literally? Christian told Locke it was him that was supposed to turn the wheel and not Ben, so should we trust anything the ole’ mastermind says? (Obvious answer is “no” at this point.)

When the time flash hit flight 316 and yanked the castaways out of the plane and back onto the Island (it certainly doesn’t look like they were in another plane crash, though I wouldn’t be shocked if the plane did indeed crash elsewhere on the Island — don’t forget the Ajira Airways water bottle and the other Others), we find out they’re certainly not in 2008 anymore.

A shiny, new Dharma van pulls up alongside the lagoon (the very same lagoon Kate pulled the Marshal’s case full of guns out of in season 1), and out pops a gun-toting, Dharma jumpsuit-bedecked Jin! WTF?

Well, the explanation’s perfectly reasonable. Locke did indeed stop the time flashes when he got the donkey wheel back on its axis and left the Island, and I’m guessing our castaways still on the Island and bleeding from the nose were sometime in the 80’s, during the height of the Initiative. So, good that they probably don’t have to worry about timesickness seizures, bad that they’re now stuck in 1984. They likely had no choice but to try and blend in. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Quick Hits

• Was that a heroin-filled Virgin Mary statue on Ms. Hawking’s desk?

  

• Ben’s reading material for the flight was James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses.

  

  First serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. It is considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature.

  Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin by its main character, Leopold Bloom, during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works (e.g., the correspondences between Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus). [Wikipedia]

  The Odyssey has certainly been alluded to before on Lost, appropriately so.

  The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home following the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, called Proci, competing for Penelope’s hand in marriage. [Wikipedia]

  Hmm, where have we heard the name “Penelope” before?

• Ben had a little errand to run before boarding Flight 316, a little errand that left him bloodied. Ben told Charles Widmore last season that he’d make it his mission to pay him back for killing his daughter, Alex, by returning the favor in kind by way of killing Penelope.

  

  So did Desmond tune him up? Or was it Widmore’s thugs? Maybe little Charlie Hume has secret baby ninja skills?

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