My Serious, Logical Thoughts on 316

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316 is the flight number of the Ajira flight to Guam. Notice that 16 is a Hurley number. Also this is a reference to John 3:16 a famous biblical passage which reads “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should no perish but have everlasting life.”

IN CHAOS THERE IS ORDER, IN ORDER THERE IS CHAOS

By recreating the conditions of the original flight that brought them to the island, they are utilizing a branch of science known as chaos theory. In certain situations, the outcome of a situation is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. This means that if you make a small change in the initial conditions it might lead to a huge change in the outcome. Examples include weather predicting, roulette wheels and even pendulums. For example take a roulette wheel. The ball is thrown, rolls around on the wheel and lands in a certain location. Now suppose you want the ball to land in the exact position on the next throw. One way to guarantee this is to recreate the conditions on the previous throw. This would be quite complicated as there are many variables to account for. These include: the velocity and position of the wheel when the ball is thrown, the velocity of the ball when it is thrown, the temperature of the air, and the breeze if any. To recreate the original throw all of these would have to be set to EXACTLY their original values. Even a small change in one of these variables can lead to a radically different outcome. For example if the ball is thrown at just a slightly different angle it could end up in a totally different slot.

Now we have a better understanding of what our heroes are doing. They are trying to recreate the initial conditions to achieve a similar result. Even though chaos theory is a good analogy for what is going on here, I think there is more to this than just science. Jack put the shoes of his father on the feet of Locke, but these shoes were not even the original shoes that his father wore on the flight. His father wore tennis shoes (And his father was not a computer!) so this is not recreating the initial conditions exactly. Nevertheless their plan seems to have succeeded except they end up back in the 1970s or possibly early 1980s. Perhaps the change in time is because they could not reproduce the conditions exactly enough. But what they probably achieved is the end to the time flashes. Now they are LOST in time with DHARMA. Jin and also Faraday now work for DHARMA. Perhaps our LOSTaways will now work for DHARMA also. Their goal is to find a way back to their own time, and the key to that is the wheel room. In a previous episode we see Faraday in uniform in a cave right outside the wheel room.

THERE IS THIS FARMERS DAUGHTER, IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD …. AND WE WAS SWINGIN

In the lamppost the large pendulum is called a Foucault Pendulum and is used to study the rotation of the earth. As the pendulum swings back and forth, its plane of vibration oscillates or precesses. This is because of the rotation of the earth. The pendulum feels a force called a Coriolis force due to the rotation of the earth. The Focault Pendulum can also be used to study chaos theory. Put a magnet at the bottom of the pendulum then arrange other magnets on the floor in the area where the pendulum will be swinging. Then start the pendulum swinging from somewhere and see on which magnet the pendulum ends up. Now try to reproduce the same result by placing the pendulum in its original location and letting go. You will find that even a tiny difference in the original location can lead to a very different result. You can learn more about the Focault Pendulum here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum

Somehow Eloise is using the pendulum to locate the island by predicting where the island will be instead of where it is. Scientifically there is no grounds for this. Notice the latitude and longitude counters on the wall. This is how DHARMA found the island. But how did they know about the island in the first place to look for it and how did they know the island was moving and had special properties? This is unknown but may indicate that the island has been inhabited for quite some time. Remember the four-toed statue and the temple! The lamppost station was built years ago and is the first DHARMA station we have seen off the island. Notice the DHARMA logo on the door. Eloise said a very smart man figured out how to find the island but does not say who that man was. Candidates include the man Marvin Candle who appears in the orientation films of the hatches. He also goes by several other names.

CAUSE YOU GOT TO HAVE FAITH THE FAITH THE FAITH

The underlying premise of this episode is faith. The story of doubting Thomas is mentioned and is apt as Jack has been the doubting Thomas all along not listening to Locke. Jack has been the man of science and Locke the man of faith. According to this episode, Locke was correct – it is a matter of faith. You believe that putting shoes on Locke will help your chances of returning to the island even though there is no scientific justification for it. Now that they have returned to the island the faith of Locke has been vindicated. Perhaps now Jack will believe in Locke if he ever sees him again.

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN

• On the plane here is what the LOSTaways were able to recreate of the original flight.
• Passengers Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Kate, and Sun were original passengers
• The pilot Lepidus. Although not the original pilot (Greg Grunberg) Lepidus was supposed to be the pilot on the original 815 flight.
• Although 316 is not the same flight number as 815 both contain Hurley numbers and they are consecutive Hurley numbers 15 and 16.
• An FBI agent is on board apparently with a prisoner Sayid. This recreates the Kate being a prisoner situation. Though Sayid has also done work for the FBI so he could just be working with them.
• There is an Arab looking man on board which recreates the role of Sayid being the Arab-looking guy. Remember Sayid is filling in for Kate on this flight so this guy fills the role of Sayid.
• Hurley is reading a Spanish comic book like he did on the first flight. It is not the same book.
• Locke takes the place of the father of Jack in the coffin.
• Hurley may have brought a guitar onto the plane to replace the guitar of Charlie. This is uncertain though.

THE LIE OF BEN

On the plane Ben tells Jack that his mother taught him to read, but his mother died in childbirth. He could have been referring to an adopted mother, but none has ever been seen or even hinted at. Of course he could have been speaking in a joking manner. Recall that when Jack asked Eloise if Ben was lying she says probably. We know Ben has lied before. Ben has no feelings for the other people on the plane just as he had no feelings for those on the freighter when they died.

AIRPLANE

We already know that the plane did crash on the island. In a previous episode during one of the time flashes they find a bottle that came from an Ajira plane. Our heroes take the boat and then get fired on by some people in another boat. This means that the people on the boat chasing our heroes are none other than the survivors of flight Ajira 316. It has happened it will happen. You will see the same scene from the point of view of the crash survivors later.

SURPRISE

We do not know how long Jin, Faraday and the others have been with DHARMA. It could be that Jin speaks a lot better English now especially since he works for DHARMA.

What the heck happened to Ben? Why does he have blood on himself and why is his arm in a sling? You would think someone like Jack would ask him what happened but no, nobody asks! Ben said he had a loose end to tie up for an old friend. Do not be surprised if that old friend turns out to be Locke! Ben does not have too many friends these days.

What happened to Aaron and why did Kate get on the plane? Let’s theorize. The psychic said that Aaron cannot be raised by another and Claire should raise him or else something bad would happen to paraphrase. Claire has appeared to Kate in a previous episode and told her not to bring Aaron back. My best guess is that someone took Aaron and convinced Kate to get on the plane. But who? Was it people working for Eloise? Was it Ben? No. Was it a ghost from the island? I do not think they can physically interact with real people. Ideally to recreate the original flight Aaron would have to go back into the womb. That is not going to happen and as far as we know Aaron is not even on the flight. Since no other pregnant woman is on the flight that we see this is a huge discrepancy unless Kate is pregnant. Here is how it may have gone down. Some bad folks show up and forcibly take Aaron. Then they say let us impregnate you and you get on that plane or something really bad is going to go down.

Why and how did Sayid and Hurley get on the plane? Sayid seems very surprised to see Jack and the rest board the plane. This means that he did not willingly get on a plane to go back to the island. He thought he was on the plane for another reason. Hurley seems to have been convinced by someone to get on that plane but who? Hurley has been seeing a lot of ghosts lately so the best guess is that one of them told Hurley to get on it. Charlie perhaps? We know Charlie has visited Hurley before. One cannot help but think that Charlie spoke for fate and put him on the plane. Fate also put everybody else on the plane. They were all destined to return. You have to admit at the end of the previous episode it sure did not look like everybody was going back to the island.

Now that the plane has crashed will there be a new set of survivors on the island? Yes. Is the pilot dead since the original pilot also died? Recall that the original pilot survived the crash and was later killed by the monster. Lepidus could still be there.

Notice when the plane was about to crash that there was a time flash. This time flash took our heroes back in time to the time of DHARMA. We can guess that the plane crashed on the island with everybody else. Look for the plane to crash in the 21^st century while the LOSTaways are stuck in the 1970s or early 1980s.

Look for Locke to be alive because he has such a special connection to the island. The island gave him his legs back when the first plane crashed, and now it will give him his life back.

Why does Desmond not have to return now? He was not on the original plane of course, so will he now return to the island in a boat as before? What did Eloise mean when she said the island was not done with him yet?

When Desmond delivers his message from Faraday to Eloise she seems to already know it. Therefore it seems a waste of time for Desmond to have come there at all. In fact, if Desmond had not come she would have helped everybody back to the island anyway. This implies that the purpose fate had in bringing Desmond to Eloise was not to help everybody on the island but to give a message to Desmond that the island was not done with him yet.

Notice after the LOSTaways arrive on the island that Hugo is clinging to a guitar case. Charlie was on the first flight and had his guitar on the plane. Did Hurley bring a guitar on the plane to try to help recreate the initial conditions? That would explain why when the time flash took the LOSTaways off the plane it took the guitar case also.

When this episode begins it is déjà vu of the first episode which also opens with Jack opening his eye and lying on the ground. So when the time flash happened fate tried to put the LOSTaways back in their original crash spot. I do not think it worked completely. I do not recall seeing Hurley wet in the first episode, and the guitar of Charlie was in a tree in the first crash.

Look for that Arab guy on the plane to have more speaking lines in future episodes.

In one of the time flashes we see that the camp of the LOSTaways apparently abandoned and some not so nice folks who drink beer have shown up in boats. Why would the new crash survivors be such jerks?

WILD TANGENT

In the movie Wanted starring Angelina Jolie about a group of assassins people are fated to die when their name is read in a code found in weaves.

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