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Love is in the air and Jin goes to France

Off the bat, let it be known that a bad hour of Lost is better than a good episode of just about any other show. That said, the most recent episode, “The Little Prince,” was a bit of a snooze fest for me. This was an episode for the “shippers” — people who watch the show to see if Kate’s going to pick Jack or Sawyer and how Juliet’s going to ruin that love triangle. That’s powerful stuff for some people, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

Still, plenty of cool stuff did happen — Jin’s fate is revealed and we got to meet some French people. So hop aboard the catamaran, dodge some bullets from strange past and/or future people and let’s get to it!

Know-It-All

In a flashback scene, we learn that Kate volunteered the idea to adopt Aaron and agreed completely with Jack’s idea to lie about their time on the island. Her exact words to Jack were: “I’ve always been with you.” Yeah, that’s true, except for the times you were boinking Sawyer. Speaking of which, it grinds my gears when Kate says “I know Sawyer isn’t dead, but he’s gone.” How the heck do you know he’s not dead? Sawyer jumped into the ocean from 50 some-odd feet in the air! Even if he’d survived that, the freaking island imploded! Maybe it’s just me, but if I watched an island magically sink into the ocean, I’d be a little skeptical about there being any survivors. Lucky thing for the Left Behinders that Jack made it off that island instead of me, I guess.

Nosy People

It’s a veritable bloody nose convention on the island these days. I have no idea how Charlotte survived that massive brain scrambling, but alas, everyone’s favorite Eric Stoltz lookalike is still kicking it — for now. At least she’s not alone, as both Miles and Juliet begin experiencing nosebleeds as well. Daniel’s theory is that the more time you’ve been exposed to the island, the sooner the onset of the bleeding. Which means that Charlotte, Miles and Juliet have been on the island longer than Daniel, Locke and Sawyer. Charlotte herself has theorized that she was born on the island and we know that Juliet’s been there for at least three years. But Miles got his nosebleed first, meaning he’s been on the island for at least three years and one day (spread out over time) if Daniel’s theory is right.

The whacky thing to me is that Daniel isn’t getting these nosebleeds. In the first episode, we saw him back in the Dharma days constructing the Orchid station, so we know he’s spent a good chunk of time on the island — yet Miles has been there longer? Like Charlotte, Miles must have been born there, and I’m sure we’ll find out more over the next several episodes.

Destiny Calls

When the Left Behinders make it back to the beach, they discover that the beach camp has returned, albeit in somewhat disheveled condition. They find the above pictured water bottle labeled “Ajira Airways,” which Juliet recognizes as an international airline based out of India. For some time now, Ajira Airways has been referenced in relation to Lost through viral marketing and hidden placement within advertisements. Clearly this company will have a role to play in the coming episodes, and it’s sparked a theory…

The quasi-destroyed beach camp is from the future. Either another plane has crashed or the Oceanic Six used Ajira to return to the island — meaning that in this future time, Sawyer and Kate could be inhabiting the island at the same moment. Obviously Ben has to have a way to bring the O6 back, so why not an international airline secretly controlled by the Others? It explains why he’s always been able to travel to and from the island, as seen last season, and it also explains why Juliet, an Other, recognized Ajira right off the bat.

If all that’s true, then could the shooters on the rival catamaran be members of the Oceanic Six? Will we see that scene from a different perspective later in the season? If these people truly are the O6, then why is the time-jumping still happening? Isn’t their return supposed to put an end to all of that? Or are the Left Behinders jumping forward to a moment where time has become stabilized, they just haven’t reached it themselves? The mind boggles!

The Bore-ceanic Six

It’s hard to get interested in the Oceanic Six when there’s time travel going on. The island story is so compelling that the plight of the Real Worlders just isn’t doing it for me. There’s a truly surreal quality to some of this stuff, like watching Sayid dispatch an assassin and knowing that it’s real time — not a flashback, not a flashforward, but real time in the real world. It’s a reminder that the island is bar none the star of the show, and when you’re not watching it, it’s hard to get revved up.

The worst part is that if the O6 return to the island, the time travel is supposed to stop. If the time travel stops, how the heck are we ever going to go back in time 600 years and watch the smoke monster get farted out of a four-toed giant?! The time-hopping is an excellent device to give viewers all the answer they’ll ever need, but when the Oceanic Six return, the hopping will allegedly cease. For that reason, I don’t want them to return just yet. At the same time, I want them to return because they’re boring the bajeezus out of me. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Jin’s French Getaway

Confirming what we always hoped, Jin survived the freighter explosion and wound up in the clutches of a still-pregnant teenage Danielle Rousseau. Danielle’s science team is still alive as well, meaning the crazy French woman hasn’t become the crazy French woman quite yet. Beyond the fact that Jin being alive is awesome — and man, Sun is gonna feel like a horse’s patoot when she finds that out — it’s even cooler that we’re finally going to watch Danielle’s story unfold with Jin front and center. We know that Montand loses his arm in the Dark Territory, and we’ll get to see that! We know that Danielle kills her husband and the rest of the team, and we’ll get to see that too! It’s a major season one payoff, and yet another reason why the Oceanic Six should be in no hurry to solve this time-traveling crisis.

Bonus Points

Some nifty easter eggs in this episode, the best one being the name printed on Ben’s van. If you can’t read it, it says “Canton-Rainier” — an anagram for “reincarnation.” Guess whose corpse is rotting in the back of that van? Don’t be embarrassed if you’re getting a little aroused thinking about a resurrected John Locke. It’s definitely sexy.

There’s also some debris on the beach, presumably from the French expedition’s ship. The debris is labeled “Besixdouze,” which literally translates to “B612″ — the protagonist’s home asteroid in “The Little Prince,” the novel from which this episode gets its name.

Finally, the dreaded numbers made a return as they often do. Kate’s address is 42 Panorama Crest, Sayid was unconscious for roughly 42 hours and Ben, Jack, Sayid and Kate meet up at the 23rd dock in the nearby marina. Creepy stuff.

Come back every Thursday for an all-new edition of Lost: Island Fever!