Episode 28: Orientation

Finally an episode with answers! More than that, we actually see a film which serves as an orientation to the hatch. The film is entitled "The Dharma Initiative, 3 0f 6 Orientation." It turns out the hatch, code named "Swan," is the 3rd of 6 research laboratories set up around the world. The Dharma initiative was created in 1970 by Gerald and Karen De Grute. It was designed to create a large scale communal research compound where researchers would be able to research meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, and electromagnetism. The original researchers were to be in the hatch for 530 days. The film goes on to say that not long after the experiments began there was an "incident" on the island. Because of the "incident," a new protocol was set for the laboratory. Every 108 minutes someone must type in the numbers (you know which ones!) on a computer and press execute. Once this is done a timer starts over again and counts down from 108. The film seems to indicate that there are only 2 researchers in the hatch.

Anyways, Kate accidentally blows a whole into the computer with a shot gun and Sayid is summoned to fix it (which he does). Jack seems to think the entire facility is a farce and expresses his concerns to John. John, as you can imagine, has complete faith in everything they have been told about the hatch. As we saw in the last episode, the guy in the hatch is Desmond, a man Jack met about 3 years ago. Jack recognized him in episode 27 but it isn't until the end of this episode that Desmond recognizes Jack. Hurly accompanies Sayid into the hatch and is awe struck at the amount of food in the pantry (funny stuff).

Jin, Michael and Sawyer are thrown into a hole by a group of people. In episode 27 I was left to believe that these people were "the other's". I now have a different idea. While the trio are in the hole a girl is thrown in with them. At first we think she is a prisoner but she is actually thrown in to steal Sawyers gun. She tells the trio that she was sitting in the back of flight 815. Until now it is believed that everyone at the back of the plane was killed. She does not believe that the trio are from the same flight. My idea is that the people that captured the three are in fact from the back of the plane. If this is the case, they may believe that the prisioners are members of "the other's." This opens up a big can of worms.

The episode that aired on ABC gave a peak at what happens next week. I am positive that the end of the preview has Jin saying "if you hit me again, I'm going to kill you." I watched this clip again and again and am certain it is Jin speaking. Jim is Korean and until now it was thought he didn't speak English. Even in the hole the only words he could say were "other's" and "blindfold." If Jin can in fact speak English this opens up a second can of worms. Wow.