S5 E9 "Namaste"

First I have some great news: The date has been set for the season 5 finale! It will be a 2-hour episode on May 13th. So let the party planning begin! I would love to decorate with some of those Dharma balloons we saw in tonight's episode! Now here's a little bit of bad news: there will be one more short hiatus (sort of.) We will only get a recap show on April 22nd.

Now on to tonight's episode!
There were so many funny moments in "Namaste." My two favorite were after Hurley learned it was 1977 and said "Uh... what?" and when Miles first saw Jack, Kate, and Hurley then tried to talk without moving his lips, "What the hell are they doing here?"

Connect The Dots
Radzinski - Tonight we met Radzinski as the computer geek working at The Flame. (Yes, that was the same station Mikhail was assigned to before Locke blew it up.) This is the first time this character has been on screen but we have heard of him before. When Desmond was brought to the Swan station by Kelvin Innman, he learned that Kelvin used to have a partner helping him push the button. It was Radzinski. According to Kelvin, Radzinski was the one who started the blast door map and eventually shot himself in the mouth.

Pierre Chang - I'm sure you all recognized the host of all the Dharma orientation videos as he processed Jack and gave him a Dharma jumpsuit. Did you also notice that Amy told Juliet to tell Pierre about the changes to the submarine manifest? This cleared up some questions brought up last week regarding who was in charge: Dr. Chang or Horace Goodspeed? Dr. Chang mentioned being pulled from his lab. So it appears that Horace may be more of a manager of operations while Chang oversees the scientific aspects of the program.

Baby Ethan - Amy told Juliet they had named the baby Ethan. This means he grows up to be
Ethan Rom: the first Other to infiltrate the Losties, the man who kidnapped Claire and tried to hang Charlie, the man who eventually met his maker when Charlie shot him. I have to credit my brilliant husband for pointing out this fact: This means Ethan survives "the purge" and changes his Goodspeed name.

Sun and Frank's trip to the main island - Remember that three years have passed on the island that we have never seen. We have only followed the Left Behinders on their time-jumping path. Sun and Frank are visiting the island in 2007 or 2008. So that explains why Othersville (or Sawyer's new nick name for it: "Dharma-ville") is so run-down looking. The last time we saw it was three years prior when Keamy and his team of mercenaries blew up Claire's house and had a show down with the Smoke Monster.

Details and Easter Eggs

Was that Claire behind Sun? Right after Christain tells Sun she has a journey ahead, you can see a blond person just over Sun's shoulder! It's very hard to see, even on a high-def TV. But it seems ironic that just before Christian's line, the door just magically creaked open and you can see some fog-like vapor billowing in. Was Smokey manifesting himself to look like Claire?

Right before the Ajira flight touches down you can hear the numbers being broadcast over the radio in the cockpit. This is a little confusing since the original number recording was turned off by Rousseau. Then her recording was turned off when all the losties hiked up to the radio tower. So why are the numbers being broadcast again in 2007?

When Ilana woke up her mumbled first word was "Jarrah," Sayid's last name.

When Jin is at The Flame waiting to hear back from the other stations, one of the monitors behind him is playing tho opening of The Muppet Show. This is not an important Easter Egg but I thought it was hilarious!

When we found out Jack was assigned to be a janitor, it seemed that his old rivalry with Sawyer had picked up where it left off. But actually, before Sawyer sent the group in to the processing center he told them that Juliet had worked things out to get their names on the list. I guess that explains why Kate was assigned to the car repair shop; Juliet wants to keep a close eye on her.

Hurley was assigned as a chef. This might be my new favorite Dharma logo.

Sun and Ben experienced a role reversal. Ben told the truth when Sun asked him where Jin was. Then Sun knocked out Ben and admited she lied.

Radzinski was working on a model of The Swan station (the hatch). It appears to be the same model Chang stands behind in the Swan Orientation film. It surprised me a little that The Swan was not built yet. I still think the "Jughead" bomb is buried underneath it. So maybe that is why Radzinski was concerned Sayid may have seen the survey of where they planned to build it.

Don't be fooled by Ben's boy scout act of bringing Sayid a sandwich. He is definitely older in this scene than he was the day he met Richard in the forest. So either he was being nice to continue to build a good relationship with The Others or he may have been following direct orders from Richard.

Questions
When Jack was naming the other people on the Ajira flight why didn't he mention Ben?
What happened to Farraday?
And where are Rose and Bernard?!?

Namaste!