Erik's Initial Thoughts: S5E6 '316'

What a great episode! So this post is basically what I think are the most important pieces of information that I remember from just the first viewing...

• Flight 316 has to recreate as many elements from Flight 815 as possible
• Including John Locke as a "proxy"
• Which requires Jack to give something of his father's to Locke
• Turns out to be Christian's dress shoes found among Jack's grandfather's belongings
• Which explains why Christian wears white tennis shoes on the island
• Jack picks up Locke from Jill at the butcher's
• He puts Christian's shoes on Locke, adn returns the note still having not read it

• The island is "always moving" in an "apparently random" manner
• Which led to Dharma building their (presumably) first Station called the Lamp Post
• Which is built on top of a pocket of electromagnetic energy
• One of many around the globe
• But Dharma is only interested in one, the Island
• The Island can't be located by "where it should be" but "where it's going"
• And where it's going in 36 hours is along the path of flight 316 from LA to Guam

• Somehow, the O6 (minus Aaron) all get on the flight
• Hurley freaks out that Ben is going with them, and has a guitar for some reason
• And a flight attendant gives Jack Locke's note which security found on Locke on inspection
• Lapidus is their pilot, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"
• Jack asks Ben how he can read
• Ben replies, "My mother taught me"
• Eventually Jack reads Locke's note "I wish you would have believed (me?)
• The plan works, for Kate Jack and Hurley as far as we know
• But there's a catch, they have travelled through time landing in the Dharma era
• Where/when at least Jin is as well, who is a Dharma worker??

• Somewhere in there Kate and Jack spend the night together.

So many answers, but also so many new questions:

• What happened to Aaron?
• What was Ben doing that got him all roughed up?
• Why did Sayid and Hurley decide to get on the flight?
• Who is the woman Sayid is with?
• Did anyone else besides Kate, Jack and Hurley survive the (crash?)?
• Did the plane crash, or what's the deal with that?
• Has the island stopped flashing?

I will address those questions and any more I think of in an upcoming theory post...

And finally, some storytelling elements that really stood out to me:

• Opening scene mimicked S1E1 (which also repeated at the end of this episode*)
• White tennis shoes, which also appeared in the opening scene of S1E1
• Reveal of Jin as a Dharma worker (and bringing in the shiny Dharma van)
• Desmond telling Jack to ignore Eloise (similar to Sayid telling Hurley to not listen to Ben)

*In all, this sequence (if you include Missing Pieces) has been shown 4 times now. (S1E1, MPE13, twice in S5E6)

That's all I've got, until next post...