Lost: Season 5, Episode 9 "Namaste" Review

 "See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead."

-Sawyer

"Namaste" starts off with Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) successfully landing the plane on Hydra Island, but his co-pilot dies in the process.  Lapidus, Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Ben (Michael Emerson) realize that the rest of their people have vanished.  Ben decides to leave to the main Island and Sun gets him to show her where some boats are and the location of the Barracks before she knocks him out.  Sun and Lapidus make it to the Barracks where they meet a man who appears to be Christian Shephard (John Terry), who reveals their friends are in 1977.

Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) manage to sneak Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) into the Dharma Initiative by making it appear that they came aboard the submarine with a new batch of recruits.  They try their best to blend in while Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) goes to the Flame station, which is run by Radzinsky (Eric Lange).  Jin tries to figure out if a plane landed on the Island, but there is no sign of it.

A perimeter alarm is triggered.  Jin and Radzinsky confront the person they believe to be an Other, but it turns out to be Sayid (Naveen Andrews).  Jin and Sawyer play along with Sayid being an Other, while trying to hint to Sayid to play it cool.  Sayid admits to being an Other and Radzinsky suggests shooting him, but Sawyer has Sayid locked up at the Barracks.

That night, Jack discovers Sawyer and Juliet are together and Sawyer makes it clear that he is in charge, not Jack.  Sayid is delivered food by a kid, who turns out to be a young Ben Linus (Sterling Beaumon).

What Works:

"Namaste" almost feels like an extension of "LaFleur" in that it's pretty much Sawyer running around trying to put out fires.  That's something that worked extremely well in the last episode and continues to do so here.  I love seeing Sawyer as the leader of the group.  He's very competent and I love how he puts Jack in his place at the end of the episode.

There are also some awesome reactions to the whole time travel situation.  Jack, Kate, and especially Hurley are great when Sawyer reveals that it's 1977.  We also get Sun and Frank getting to see their friends in the Dharma new recruits photo, which always cracks me up.

Speaking of Frank, it's great to have him back on the show in a large capacity.  I love really getting to see his pilot skills in action and his interactions with Ben are awesome and hilarious.  

Finally, the episode does a good job of setting up everything with the Dharma Initiative.  We are really introduced to a few more member of the initiative and it sets up the ticking time bomb element.  We all know that the Dharma members are going to figure out our heroes are not who they say they are, but who is going to figure it out, which hero will give up the game, and what's going to happen when that does occur?  It's a very exciting and interesting element that the show really hasn't had before.

What Sucks:

My only problem with this episode is how unconvincing some of the characters are at lying their way through this madness.  I get that it's shocking and they probably aren't fully able to comprehend what is happening, but Kate and Sayid have some reactions that should have immediately clued in everyone that they are lying.  I'd expect that from Hurley, but not from seasoned liars like Kate and Sayid.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "Namaste," I'd love to give this award to my boy, Frank Lapidus, but it has to go to Sawyer.  He handled the chaos about as well as anyone could have.  He got Jack, Kate, and Hurley into the Dharma Initiative and managed to save Sayid from being executed.  This is Sawyer's 6th time winning this award, which puts him in 5th place overall.

Verdict:

"Namaste" is another very exciting episode of Lost.  We get to see Juliet, Sawyer, Frank, and Sun be extremely competent, plenty of funny moments, and some nice setup for the fireworks to come.  I have some criticisms of Kate and Sayid's characterization, but this episode has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great