3.11 - Enter 77

Title’s significance: “Enter 77” is the code that corresponds to a Hostile incursion on The Flame, resulting in the station’s demolition.

Recap: In some inconsequential flashbacks, Sayid meets a woman he tortured in Iraq, who is seeking revenge; Sayid maintains his innocence, but the woman releases him and forgives him. While the beach camp looks for a ball with which to make a ping-pong table, Sayid and Locke quarrel about the bearing that they’re following before Sayid stumbles across Eyepatch Man and his satellite-equipped hut. Sawyer agrees to play ping-pong with his former stash and a week’s worth of nicknames as the stakes. Mikhail, the Eyepatch Man, weaves a story about The Dharma Initiative and The Purge while Locke plays chess against Mikhail’s computer, and Sayid deduces that Mikhail is lying. When Mikhail realizes this, he attacks but Kate prevails; while Sayid and Kate investigate The Flame’s basement and find Ms. Klugh there, Locke beats the computer chess game as Mikhail attacks him. At her request, Mikhail kills Ms. Klugh rather than let her be captured; Hurley defeats Sawyer, who’s already having problems with the no-nickname thing. At The Flame, Sayid finds a map to The Barracks, but the station self-destructs after Locke enters “7-7” into the computer.

Thoughts: While Sayid’s flashbacks weren’t exactly riveting and didn’t really tell us anything new, this was still a pretty good Damon/Carlton episode, especially the stuff with Mikhail, who answers a lot of questions we have about Dharma while leaving us wondering how everything fits together.

Favorite moment: I think Mikhail’s story about Dharma is the best part of the whole episode.

Characters introduced (in order):

• SAMI, a fellow Iraqi looking for revenge on Sayid
• AMIRA, Sami’s wife, tortured by Sayid and looking for revenge

What we learned:

• Eyepatch Man’s name is Mikhail Bakunin.
• Mikhail’s hut is not the radio tower.
• Mikhail claims to be the last living member of The Dharma Initiative, but Sayid knows him to be an Other. Mikhail has been on the island for eleven years.
• The satellite dish is called The Flame, but Mikhail claims the satellite hasn’t functioned in years.
• The Dharma Initiative launched a war against The Hostiles, called The Purge, which ended disastrously.
• The Flame is the hub of all the other Dharma stations.
• The A-Team suggests that the purple skies disrupted communications.
• Mikhail kills Ms. Klugh.
• Sawyer’s not allowed to use nicknames for a week.

Questions:

• What is the nature of the truce that Mikhail mentions?
• What killed the members of The Dharma Initiative.
• What did Ms. Klugh know that she didn’t want the survivors to know?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Nothing really shows up here that isn’t accomplished by the time Season Six cues up – the Dharma stuff is mostly Season Five material.