s5e09: Namaste

Sun and Ben - along with Frank and apparently everyone else on the plane - are in 2007. Meanwhile, Jack, Kate and Hurley are back with Sawyer and Jin in 1977. They brought Sun back against Jin's wishes and she's thirty years away from him? That blows. One wonders how these two camps are going to meet again; maybe that's this year's cliffhanger-in-waiting? Well, let's not overguess.

Sawyer tells Juliet about the return of the Ajira 3. Meanwhile, Jin hears that Sun was on the plane and starts running around trying to find out where the plane is (little does he know). In 2007, Ben tells Sun he's going back to the main island, although since he's still on the Hydra later (as this conversation must take place before the scene with Locke talking to Cesar in the Hydra building) something must go wrong.

Well, in case you were wondering if Horace and Amy's baby was someone we knew - it's Ethan. Sawyer tells the A3 to pretend to be Dharma recruits. Meanwhile, someone trips the motion sensor grid outside the Flame - it's Sayid, and Jin catches up with him first, but has to play tough guy when Radzinsky (in his pre-Swan days, apparently) runs up behind him.

Hurley wonders if Sawyer plans to warn Dharma of the Purge (he should have a good 15 years or so), but Sawyer says Faraday has ideas about what they can change. "Faraday's here?" Jack asks. "Not anymore," Sawyer says. Miles sees the A3; Jin reports Sayid's appearance to Sawyer. Back in 2007, Frank warns Sun not to trust Ben as the two of them head for a boat; Sun ends up clocking Ben with an oar (so that's how that happened), so presumably she's heading over alone.

The Swan, it turns out, hasn't even been built yet. Radzinsky is building a model of it, which Sayid apparently sees, so Radzinsky freaks out and won't just let Sawyer take Sayid away. Meanwhile, Jack is assigned "workman," and Kate nearly gets caught until Juliet swoops in to save her. Back in 2007, Frank and Sun row to the island and visit the now-empty barracks, at least until Christian shows up and says he can take Sun to Jin.

In a great little Shining-esque moment, Christian pulls down a 1977 Dharma photo with Jin and the rest in it. He tells Sun she has a long journey ahead. Back in '77, Sayid is stuck in a prison cell. Jack goes to see Sawyer to find out what's up; Sawyer somewhat revels in the fact that he's now the leader among the Oceanic survivors - Jack et al. are forced to rely on him. He tells Jack that Jack reacted rather than thinking when he was leader, and got a lot of people killed. Sawyer says he thinks instead, and that's what he's been doing and what he'll continue to do. In the final scene, young Ben - you knew he'd show up sooner or later! - brings Sayid a sandwich.

Next week! Sayid is tied to a tree! And Juliet tells Kate to stay away from her man! And then we're led to believe that Sayid thinks he's back on the island to kill young Ben and stop the Purge, which probably means that has nothing to do with what actually happens. I wonder what kind of timeline-breakage that would cause, if it did happen, though.