NAMASTE

Or, Boogie Nights

[Originally Aired March 18, 2009]

Ajira flight 316 flies steadily over the Pacific. In the cockpit the co-pilot points out Hurley to Frank, recognizing him as one of the Oceanic Six. Frank shrugs it off. Then the plane rattles. Then stalls. Oh, this is going to be awesome, isn't it? The engines die, the plane drops through the clouds. A mountain looms into view. Frank restarts the engines. He screams at the co-pilot for more power, banks hard and barely misses the mountain. Another swath of green lays behind that, and Frank pulls hard the other way and again misses the mountain. "Is that a runway?" the co-pilot yells, sighting a strip of dirt cut through the jungle below. The instruments fail. The radio blares "4... 8... 15... 16..." Frank lowers the landing gear, clips a tree, then hits the runway. "Reverse thrusters!" But there's not enough room. The runway is too short. The plane squeals and rumbles and barrels off the end of the runway, smashing into the jungle. Blackout. Sometime later Frank regains consciousness. He leans over to his co-pilot and nudges him. A branch has pierced his chest. He's dead. Frank moves to the cabin. Ilana and Caesar are there. So are Sun and Ben. "Where's everyone else? Jack and Kate and Hurley? Where'd they go?" Title card: Thirty Years Earlier. Sawyer hugs Hurley and everyone is excited to see one another. Hurley asks "So what's up with you guys and the old Dharma jumpsuits?" Sawyer explains they're with the Dharma Initiative now. They came back to the island, Jack asks. No, Sawyer explains, it's 1977. Huh. Sawyer says they'll have to come to the barracks, they can't run around the jungle with the Others. "What about everyone else from the plane? They could still be out there. We didn't come back alone. Sayid was on the plane, too. Lapidus. And Sun." Hearing his wife's name, Jin jumps in the Jeep. Sawyer asks where he's going. "The Flame. If a plane landed on the island, Radzinsky will know!" Jin speeds away. Sawyer tells his friends to stay put, he'll head back to the barracks and figure out a way to explain their arrival. He heads home and starts grabbing period clothes. He tells Juliet their friends have returned. "They're back. Jack, Hurley, Kate. They came back, Juliet. I gotta find a way to bring them in before somebody else finds them and they screw up everything we got here." Juliet tells him there is a sub coming in today. At the Flame, Jin bursts in without knocking and Radzinsky gets pissed. Radzinsky is a total douche, so I'm looking forward to him getting gassed. If he doesn't die sooner. Jin tells him he needs to know if a plane landed. "What, so you think if a plane landed on our island, I'd be over there just building my model? That I wouldn't have called anyone? That I wouldn't have put out an alert?" Jin asks him to check with the other stations. Radzinksy does, but he's a total jackass about it. On Hydra island, Frank tells them the radio is dead, but help should come when it's realized they're missing. Caesar asks where they are. Frank says he doesn't kow because the island isn't on his charts. Caesar tells him to get some new fucking charts. Ben wanders away into the jungle. Sun follows him. She asks where he's going. "Back to our island. You want to come?" Juliet visits Amy to snitch the sub manifest. Amy lets Juliet hold her new baby. What are you going to name him, she asks. "We're going to name him Ethan." Damn. Kill it, Juliet! Kill it now! She doesn't. Fucking spacetime continuum. Back in the jungle Sawyer hands Kate, Hurley and Jack some new/old clothes and tells them they'll pose as new recruits from the sub. Jack wants to find the plane. Sawyer says Jin will take care of that. "Trust me. Do what I say. Everything will be fine." Meanwhile Radzinsky tells Jin no one has reported seeing a plane. Then an alarm goes off. "Grid 325. Motion sensor alarm was tripped. We got a Hostile inside the perimeter." Jin grabs his rifle and runs into the brush. He finds the Hostile. It's Sayid! Yay. Jin smiles and asks if he knows where Sun is. No. Then Radzinsky shows up and Jin tells Sayid to get down and shut up, putting his rifle in his face. Elsewhere, Hurley asks if Sawyer is going to warn the Dharmas about getting wiped out. "I ain't here to play Nostradamus to these people. Besides, Faraday's got some interesting theories on what we can and can't do here." Then he tells them Faraday is gone. He sends them inside to get their orientation on and their work assignments. "What if they start asking us questions we can't answer, like who's president in 1977?" Sawyer tells them he's got their backs, and not to worry. Sawyer gets a call on his radio from Jin saying they've a prisoner. He whispers it's Sayid. At the Hydra, Frank and Ben and Sun head toward the boats and Frank asks why Sun is trusting Ben. "I have to trust him." Ben gloats and leads them to the boats. Then Sun hits Ben upside the head with an oar, knocking him unconscious. I thought you said you trusted him, Frank asks. "I lied." Ha! At the intake center, Jack meets Chang who is pissing about not having Jack's file. Anyway, Jack is assigned to the janitorial crew. Thanks, Sawyer! Meanwhile, Phil asks Kate her name. She's not on his list. So he asks who her recruiter was. Ummm... Juliet interrupts with a new list and saves the day. Whew! Outside the Flame, Jin tells Sawyer "Sayid just came walking out of the jungle in handcuffs alone. I couldn't talk to him. Radzinsky thinks he's a Hostile." Radzinsky wants to shoot Sayid because he say his stupid little balsa wood model of the the Swan. Sawyer tells him to settle down. He tells Sayid "My name's LaFleur. I'm head of security. I want you to listen real carefully to what I got to say. And if you do that, you'll be fine. Understand?" Sawyer takes Sayid back to the barracks. Sun and Frank arrive at the dock. The place is deserted, lights down, debris strewn everywhere. They move to the barracks: deserted, overgrown. A light flicks on in one of the bungalows. A man steps out. It's Old Man Shephard. "I'm looking for my husband. His name is Jin Kwon. Do you know where he is?" Shephard invites them inside. He looks around for something. He finds it and hands it to her. It's an photo of new recruits from 1977. "I'm sorry, but you have a bit of a journey ahead of you." Back in the Seventies, the recruits pose for the photo. Some asshole says "Okay, ready? Everybody say, Namaste!" and surprisingly doesn't get punched. Then Sawyer escorts his "Hostile" through the compound. Hurley says "I guess we found Sayid." Sawyer locks up Sayid and Radzinsky asks what they're going to do with him. Sawyer tells him to get Sayid a sandwich, for fuck's sake. Jack visits Sawyer but when Juliet answers he assumes he's at the wrong bungalow. No, he's not, she says and invites him in. Ouch. Jack asks what's up with Sayid. Sawyer tells him he's safe and that it's under control. Jack says it doesn't look he's doing shit but read. "I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, because back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead." I got us off the island. "But here you are, right back where you started." At the security station, a boy brings Sayid a sandwich. Sayid thanks him and the two introduce themselves. Sayid responds "It's nice to meet you, Ben."