"316" begins with a shot for shot"eye-opening" sequence that parallels the series' pilot episode:
Jack's eye from the opening shot of the pilot.
Jack's eye from the opening shot of "316."
After the opening scene, we are taken back "36 hours earlier." Eloise Hawking takes Jack, Sun, Ben, and Desmond to The Lamp Post (a reference to the lamp post marking the passage between Narnia and the real world in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis). She explains how The Lamp Post, the first Dharma station we have seen off the island, is how the Dharma Initiative first found the island. She also confirms that the reason the survivors of Oceanic 815 were never rescued is because the island is always moving.
Hawking explains to Jack that there is a narrow window in which she knows the island will be located, but in order to get back there, Ajira flight 316 from L.A. to Guam must be taken. She also gives Jack the suicide note written by John Locke, which we find out later in the episode simply says "Jack, I wish you had believed me. JL."
LOST has always had the occasional religious reference, but this episode's references were more overt. The episode's title, in fact, refers to the John 3:16 verse in the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John Locke's suicide note stated that he wished Jack had "believed." Also, in the church, Ben tells Jack about Saint Thomas the Apostle from The Gospel of John, who is remembered for his doubt concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Is this perhaps forshadowing the resurrection of John Locke once he is returned to the island? This episode really set up John as a Christ-like figure. Ben leaves the church, telling Jack that he "made a promise to an old friend... just a loose end that needs tying up." Is this referring to the promise he made to kill Penelope Widmore, Charles Widmore's daughter and Desmond's wife? I hate to say it that is so, since her and Desmond are now so happy and have a son, but the next scene in which we see Ben all bruised and bloody suggests that this is probably the case.
Ben makes a call to Jack, mysteriously beaten to a pulp.
Jack, Sun, and Ben make it on board Ajira 316, but so do Kate, Hurley, and Sayid. Is it fate that brought them all back to together on the same flight again? Even Jack questions that, "You don't think this means something? That somehow... we're all back together?" In this episode, Jack seems to have become a believer, from a man of science to a man of faith.
Ajira Flight 316
The connections get even crazier when a clean-shaven Frank Lapidus is revealed to be the flight's pilot. When he exits the cockpit to speak with Jack, Frank sees the rest of the Losties on board and remarks, "We're not going to Guam, are we?" - The best line of the episode!
Lapidus without the Kenny Rogers beard.
The "fasten seatbelts" sign turns on and turbulence increases. The plane is absorbed into a flash of white light and the sound of a time travel flash. The episode then picks up back where it began. Jack runs out of the jungle, rescues Hurley from drowning and finds Kate. The sound of a vehicle with its radio blaring approaches them. A man gets out of a Dharma van and points his gun at the trio. "Dude," remarks a shocked Hurley, "Jin?" Jin in Dharma fatigues lowers his gun as a priceless grin spreads across his face. Cut to LOST.
Dharma Jin
What a great episode! So does this mean that the time flashes stopped when Locke turned the Orchid wheel and that Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Faraday (and now apparently at least Kate, Hurley, and Jack and presumably Ben, Sun, and Sayid) are now stuck in the late 70s, in the prime of the Dharma Initiative?! Did Ben kill Penny? And where the heck is Aaron? So many questions!
Here is a link to Lostpedia.com's entry on "316."
There are now only 27 more episodes left in the amazing series that is LOST!
Next Wednesday's episode is titled "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."
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