Lost Rewatch On VHS: Namaste

 

VHS Notes: The most significant film trailers that we haven’t already discussed are the DVD release of Quantum of Solace, considered the donkey of the Daniel Craig James Bond films and I Love You, Man a warm comedy that had Jason Segel and Paul Rudd as its leads. There are previews of some controversial series episodes. We see previews for the Desperate Housewives episode that led to the death of Nicolette Sheridan’s Edie and the first episode in the aftermath of Izzy’s diagnosis of terminal cancer that was one of the many factors that led to Katherine Heigl resigning later in 2009.

We also see a full trailer for The Unusuals. A police drama that featured Amber Tamblyn, Harold Perrineau, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Renner (pre Hawkeye, post his first Oscar nomination.) Explain how this show got cancelled again.

 

The Dharma Initiative has been nested beneath the surface of Lost  (both figuratively and literally) almost since the series began. There’s been a lot of discussion of it over the years but I don’t recall any book trying to review what we’ve learned. So before we get started with the nitty gritty of the episode, let’s consider this an orientation film on what we know.

There have been hints about the Initiative throughout the first season but the first time we heard it mention directly was in Orientation. We saw an old (and as we learned later, edited) filmstrip led by a man who identified himself as Marvin Candle. He told us that the station was called the Swan, gave a brief history of the Initiative, and revealed the station’s purpose. We knew the film was made in 1980, so the question became what was the Initiative? Were they the mysterious Others we had heard about? What was ‘the Incident’ that led to the button being pushed every 108 minutes? Why was it that Desmond – who despite wearing the jumpsuit seemed to no nothing about Dharma – was in the station 24 years after it had been built? We had as many questions as Locke did.

As Season 2 unfolded, we came to find that there were more Dharma bunkers throughout the island, most of them long abandoned, some of which the Others seemed to have coopted. In Lockdown, a pallet dropped from the sky full of food with the Dharma insignia on it; did that mean the Initiative was still going on somewhere? Then Locke and Eko found the Pearl, which showed us another film. The same figure, this time calling himself Mark Wickmund, told us that the purpose of the Pearl was to observe a psychological experiment and it was monitoring the Swan. This seemed to confirm to Locke that everything involving ‘the button’ was a lie. At the end of the season when Desmond reappeared, he theorized that it was the Pearl that was the lie and the Swan the reality. At the same time the party trying to ‘save Walt’ had essentially learned the same thing (though in Lost fashion, they had no idea) but it was too late to stop Locke from smashing the computer. In Desmond’s first flashbacks, we got some bits and pieces about Dharma but since they came from Kelvin, who was revealed to be an unreliable narrator, we weren’t sure how much was believable.

In Season 3, as we spent more time with the Others we learned more about the Initiative. Jack, Kate and Sawyer spent the first half of the season at the Hydra which was revealed to be a station involving animal life. We’d seen polar bear cages (which explained one mystery) but there were other aspects that made less sense. Why was there a place called Room 23 that seemed to be part of psychological warfare? We eventually learned it was actually on a smaller island and then most of the Others didn’t like spending time on it.

The next third of the season was spent trying to find Jack and on their journey we encountered the Flame. It’s purpose was to communicate with the outside world, had satellite and sonar capabilities and quite a bit more information (that Locke blew up). There was also a sonar fence on the island, clearly designed to keep the monster at bay, and we found the Barracks which were the Others living place. We also learned Dharma had access to a submarine which the Others used to go to and from the island (until Locke blew it up?) We also learned that the Initiative had been slaughtered in what was known as ‘the Purge’ and that the Others had taken over in their place.

We finally got a look at Dharma in a flashback in ‘The Man Behind the Curtain’, through the eyes of a ten year old Ben. It was run by a man named Horace Goodspeed, who’d met Ben when he was born. There was a war going on between Dharma and ‘the Hostiles’ and we saw that Ben made sure the Hostiles won. Dharma played a critical role in the season finale, both with Charlie dying in the Looking Glass and Hurley using a Dharma bus (that had been the final resting place of Ben’s father) to save everyone’s lives.

In Season 4, Charlotte clearly knew about the Initiative when she found the skeleton of a polar bear in the Tunisian Desert with a collar with the Hydra logo on it. We got a hint how it got there in The Shape of Things to Come when Ben woke up in the desert and it was essentially confirmed by the end of the season. We also learned of the Tempest, a station that used poisonous gas to orchestrate the Purge and we spent the season finale dealing with the Orchid. We got another video, this one narrated  by one Edgar Halliwax, that seemed to indicate the properties of the island were conducive to time travel. Somehow Dharma had built the Orchid just above a wheel which helped Ben ‘move the island’ – and led us to Season 5.

There have been extensive hints from the teaser on that the Losties were going to end up being in Dharma. Charlotte spent her last breaths telling Daniel as much, Eloise Hawking knew about the Lamppost which led the Oceanics to Ajira 316 and now it’s clear all of the Oceanics but Sun ended up in 1977, where Sawyer’s group is. We’re now going to spend the rest of Season 5 mostly in Dharma.

So now that we’re finally here about the Initiative, the question now comes: just what are the Dharma-folk like? And at least when it comes to the leadership of Dharma and much of their behavior, they never believed in peace, love and understanding.

I didn’t dwell on it much in LaFleur but from the moment the Losties discovered Amy it has been clear that paranoia is practically the Dharma religion (which doesn’t make them different from the Losties, really). Not long after they saved her life she betrayed them in order to knock them unconscious and delivered them to the higher-up. Horace had a fatherly attitude to Ben, but here he was more of an interrogator, willing to throw them off the island at the first opportunity. The casting is solid in both cases: Amy is played by Reiko Aylesworth, whose best known role was as Michelle on 24 and Horace is played by Doug Hutchison who ever since he played Tooms on The X-Files seemed to do best with disreputable characters (and that was before we knew about his personal life)

Here in Namaste we get our first look at Pierre Chang and, much like when we first met ‘him’ it seems the instructing persona he took in the videos was an act. That said, there is a humanity to him that we haven’t seen: we know he’s married and has a young son, and he actually seems apologetic to Jack, saying that he’s upset about being pulled out of the lab. (Of all the meetings the Oceanics are dealing with today, this one has to be the trippiest.) But the most important character we meet is Radzinsky.

Kelvin mentioned him to Desmond during their time together. He built the Swan, was responsible for editing the orientation film in it, and was the originator of the blast door map. Apparently he went stir crazy in the hatch and stuck a shotgun in his mouth. It’s clear even in our first meeting with him that wasn’t much of a leap.

Radzinsky is played by Eric Lange, who had been working in small roles in TV and film for more than twelve years until he was cast in Lost. This is the first recurring role he would have on series TV and he used it to slowly build an impressive career as a successful character actor with a range from Nickelodeon kid shows to series such more highbrow material as Narcos, Unbelievable, Escape at Dannemora and a lead role in the most recent reboot of Perry Mason. Most of the characters he plays are often authority figures who don’t use their authority well and its clear that much of it comes from the work he did in Lost. Because from his very first line of dialogue, Radzinsky comes across as territorial, dismissive of anyone else ideas, easily moved to violence and clearly just itching for an excuse to break whatever truce Dharma and ‘The Hostiles’ have. Sawyer’s nickname of ‘Quick Draw’ in this episode is, in hindsight, one of the most accurate he’s ever given: Radzinsky is clearly shoot first, and don’t even bother with the questions.

It's never clear just what the pecking order among leadership of Dharma is. We’ve been led to believe that Horace is in charge and he certainly has the authority initially but Radzinsky spend the rest of Season 5, bullying him, pressuring LaFleur and running roughshod over everyone else in the Initiative. He and Chang seem to have an accord, but that’s also overridden when Chang gets in the way of his ambitions. Right now, it’s clear Radzinsky only believes in two things: the construction of the Swan (which he’s working on when we first meet him) and getting vengeance on the Hostiles. The moment he sees Sayid in the jungle, he wants to kill him consequences to the truce be damned. When Lafleur wants to talk with him, he wants to kill him because in his mind, he knows too much about the Swan. (To be fair Sayid does…but that’s another story.) We already know that either one of these ambitions is a horrible idea for everybody on the island then and in the future; the fact that Radzinsky has such a position that he can give these orders and no one blinks, tells you a lot about what Dharma material is.

Its one of the reasons that I really question why, when the episode resumes from where we left Sawyer, why he is so hell-bent on making sure that nothing is disrupted. Hurley reminds Sawyer what is going to happen to the Initiative and when Sawyer says: “So?” it really makes you wonder he had any long term plans at all. I get that he and Juliet are happy, I do, but the moment Jin tells him that his friends are back, his first reaction is more concern as to what to do now.

I get that he has to be thrown by everything that happened. This is one of the least happy reunion episodes we’ve seen on the series. Normally when the group is reunited, there is smiles and embraces and that’s what we get when Sawyer sees Hurley, Jack and Kate again. (It’s clearly happened with Jin already.) But the rest of the group acts kind of odd. Juliet is clearly floored by what happened, though at this point it’s hard to know if she’s still reeling from Sawyer’s initial deception and Miles is stunned beyond his usual snark. But because they are now reuniting in a different era and one which one group has spent three years building an alternate life, they have to spend the episode pretending that this reunion is meaningless, which in a way has to be even harder.

The major discussion on this episode by Stafford has to do with leadership and mostly the styles of Jack and Sawyer. Stafford gives a very clear picture of their personas during the first three seasons, how things changed in the aftermath of the Oceanic 6’s departure and where both men are now. She points out, accurately, that Jack never was comfortable being in charge but once he was appointed, he couldn’t relinquish it to anyone else. Sawyer tells Jack that when he was leading he reacted rather than thought things through and that’s only half correct. Jack was, as we know, the rational one of the group. He only reacted when anyone challenged his authority, particularly Locke.

Sawyer might claim he thought things through and that may be true in the last three years but it also goes against much of what we know about him. He managed to become part of Dharma based on bluff and improvisation, and as for reacting, well, the first thing he did when he learned everybody was back was to not tell Juliet and rush out to seem them. He also had to improvise with Juliet to make sure everyone got back to the Barracks and in order to keep Sayid safe. Almost everything we see Sawyer do is a reaction and based on emotion. That it worked is mainly because he’s been better at his job for the last three years then Jack has. That he is right to point out over Jack, for the record.

It’s interesting watching Jack in this episode. He’s spent so much of the first half of the season desperate to get back to the island, and now that he’s finally here, having spent so much time and energy forcing everybody to do this (and mostly failing) he seems fine letting Sawyer drive the bus. Everyone else in this episode has moments of major tension throughout, but Jack seems relaxed in a way we’ve not only not seen him all season, but rarely in the entire run. When Sawyer tells him: “Don’t you feel better?” Jack only pauses for a minute before saying: “Yes” and he actually means it. But we all know Jack and we know this state of affairs won’t last long. (Though it lasts longer than you’d expect.)

Meanwhile 30 years in the future (it should really be 31, but fine) we actually see what happened to Ajira 316. Frank clearly had an idea something was coming and, in keeping with his ability as a leader, handled everything calmly and managed to get the plane down as safely as possible with only his co-pilot the casualty. (Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if he had been flying Oceanic 815.) He tries to take a level of authority after the crash but we already know that won’t last long. We’re still getting a handle on some of the other survivors. Caesar is challenging Frank’s authority early, Ilana is remarkably calm for what happened, and so are a couple of other survivors. (You know she didn’t even seem that disturbed that the man she was handcuffed to disappeared into thin air. We’re going to soon realize that the Oceanic 6 weren’t the only ones who got onboard Ajira knowing they weren’t going to Guam.)

Our opinion about Ben is going to take a very rapid change from this point on, so it’s worth noting his action in the present. When Frank is looking over the passengers and he can only find Sun, he has asks where everything else is.

Ben’s answer is: “They’re gone.” Naturally Sun asks where they went and Ben’s response is completely bland: “How would I know?” The thing is Ben doesn’t know and more importantly, he doesn’t care. He ignores Frank’s speech, walks into the jungle and naturally Sun follows him. It’s clear when he mentions Jin is perfunctory. He never cared if Jin was alive; it was just the only thing he could use to get Sun on the plane.

If we had any doubt at all that everything Ben did the last two years was solely for the purpose of getting back to the island and resuming his position, it’s his actions here. He was never interested in keeping the Oceanic 6 safe for any other reason than to use them to get back to the island. When Locke showed up, he wanted the information about how to find Eloise Hawking and killed him off not so much to get the Oceanic 6 back but to remove him as an obstacle when he returned to the island. The way he talks to Frank when he greets him is dismissive; he doesn’t care about the people who survived the crash either. All of this was just so he could get back to his people and pick up right where he left off.

Emerson has done a lot to make Ben seem slimy throughout Season Five but I don’t think I’ve ever found him more despicable then this episode. Ben is smug in a way we’ve never really seen him, and why shouldn’t he be? He’s been working on this almost from the moment he moved the island and now he’s achieved everything he set out to do. He’s gotten here before Widmore, who as far as he knows still can’t find the island, Locke is dead and gone, and the island healed him the moment he set foot on it. He cannot wait to resume his rightful place on the island. I think we all took a certain amount of vicarious pleasure when Ben got bashed in the head because then, he truly had it coming. Remember this going forward. Because from this point on, everything we thought we knew about Ben Linus is going to change and how the show handles it is one of the greatest accomplishments the writers of the series ever did.

Because I’ve left one member of the Oceanics out: Sayid. Jin finds Sayid wandering in the jungle and both of them are astonishing to see each other. When Sayid sees Sawyer, he’s just as stunned. It’s understandable because given everything he knows both of them were dead. It is because Sayid is clearly so good at bluffing that he manages to keep his cool as things go on.

Here's the thing I really think about the penultimate scene. I don’t think either Sawyer or Jack could have done anything and it wouldn’t have gone FUBAR. Because at the end of Namaste, we are reminded of something Lost has been hiding in plain sight from the moment the Losties ended up in the Dharma Initiative.

Ben, now thirteen years old, is part of Dharma. Sawyer and everyone else must have met him early on (it’s not like there are a lot of children in Dharma). They know how dangerous the adult Ben Linus will be, and in the case of Juliet in particular it must be incredibly difficult to deal with the child who will grow up to bring her to the island and essentially hold her hostage. (I’ll be dealing with this in a couple of episodes.) Jack didn’t mention that Ben was on Ajira with them, for good reason. I have to think the Oceanics must have hoped like hell that by traveling back in time thirty years they had finally left him behind.

But they left that out. And the episode ends with the worst kind of reunion: a young Ben Linus brings a sandwich to Sayid. Sayid has been distracted in this scene and he doesn’t seem to really care that much, until Ben introduces himself. And when Sayid says perfectly neutrally: “It’s nice to meet you Ben” we know bad things are going to happen. We just don’t know how bad, and how soon things will begin to fall apart. ‘Good Luck’, indeed.