'Lost': Enter 77

So maybe you weren't a fan of "Tricia Tanaka is Dead." So maybe you're sick of slow mythological progression. So maybe you're dying to find a new hatch. Well, have Darlton produced just the ep for you! This episode of Lost is the first that bears the unmistakable marks of, "We know the finish line now, so we can start doling out all the answers we've been holding onto all this time." Seriously, the show takes off like a fighter plane for the next few episodes, until it violently crashes into Mt. NikkiPaulo. So sit back and enjoy the ride for now!

(Curious what I thought of this ep first time around? Slake thy thirst!)

Enter 77

4) In Short

"Old Mikhail had a farm, T-N-T-N-T!"

8) On the Island

Sawyer walks along the beach, and comes across a group of people hauling pieces of the Swan's ping pong table to the shore. He's looking for Kate; Hurley hasn't seen her. He espies Captain TP himself, Paulo, with a roll of toilet paper and his old copy of Guns and Ammo. Looks like Paulo was about to make like a bear. Disgusted with the general state of things on the beach, Sawyer retreats to his tent.

In the jungle, Sayid and Locke once again argue over the merits of following the bearing etched on Eko's stick. As Sayid picks food from a nearby tree, he hears a low clanging noise. He soon comes across a reddish cow, contentedly grazing. A whistle from nearby beckons the cow forth. Sayid follows, and soon spies the man seen on the Pearl observation wall. The man stands before a large building with a satellite atop it. Oooh, cable TV! Sweet!

Back on the beach, Sawyer's found the elusive ping pong table, but wants his stash back in return. The deal? Their best player versus him. Nikki casually points out that the stuff in question wasn't really his to start, and Sawyer casually (and hilariously) points out she's a nobody in this group. If Sawyer wins, all things return to him. If he loses, he can't call anyone a nickname for a week. (Nice one, Sun.) It's on like Donkey Kong.

Sayid and company scope out the house. When they ask Danielle if this is the radio tower she once mentioned, she tells them she's never been there before, and hauls out before John can blow up anything with her in it. (Darn, I'm getting ahead of myself.) Sayid hands over his gun to Kate, theorizing Patchy will be much less likely to chop his head off if he's unarmed.

Sayid approaches the house cautiously. He notices a seemingly familiar cat sitting just outside of the house, staring right back at him. Kitty time is over when Patchy shoots Sayid in the arm. Patchy screams from the window that he didn't cross the line, and was supposed to be left alone. Sayid tells the man he's not whom he thinks he is. Eventually, the man agrees to let Sayid inside. Kate and Locke seize their chance, rush the house, and eventually disarm Patchy. He's wearing a Dharma jumpsuit with a flame logo. He introduces himself as Mikhail Bakunin: the last living member of the Dharma Initiative.

Mikhail and Kate help Sayid onto a couch inside the house. Mikhail tells Sayid he has experience treating wounds from his time in the Soviet military. As Mikhail tells Sayid his story, Kate and Locke scope the facility out, a facility Mikhail calls The Flame. Which, you know, explains the logo and all. According to Mikhail, his time in the DI started eleven years ago, after answering an advertisement that read, "Would you like to save the world?" He was stationed in The Flame, whose purpose was to communicate with the outside world.

As for the DI: Mikhail tells Kate and Sayid about a "purge," in which the Initiative sought to defeat a group known as the Hostiles. Mikhail only survived it thanks to his solitary status inside the Flame. After the Hostiles won the war, four men appeared at the Flame, told him not to cross an imaginary line in the valley, and left him alone. They did not wish to control The Flame, he tells them, because the dish itself has not functioned for years.

(I remember watching this scene for the first time and thinking, "Brain melt! Brain melt! Too many answers coming at once after three years of nothing! GACK!" Course, now we know how to properly take this speech, but it's worth noting how amazing it seemed at the time.)

Mikhail stitches up Sayid's arm, having removed the bullet. Sayid's surprised to learn Mikhail's cat is named Nadia...but not after his Nadia, but rather Nadia Comăneci, the famous Russian gymnast. Nadia is tugging on a floor rug nearby. Mikhail offers to get some tea for everyone, and to check on Locke. He finds Locke playing a computer chess game in a nearby electronics room, but warns him that for ten years he's been unable to defeat the machine. Back in the main room, Sayid confides in Kate that he believes Mikhail to be an Other, and more to the point: he is not alone.

Back to more important matters: PING PONG A THON, BABY! On one side, Mr. Long Con himself, James Ford! On the other side, Mr. Cluck's Worst Nightmare, Hugo Reyes. Turns out Hugo's quite the Forrest Gump when it comes to ping pong.

At the Flame, Mikhail, Sayid, and Kate share an awkward round of iced tea. Sayid inquires about a series of power cables outside the Flame; Mikhail replies that they go underground and power the various stations. He even confirms the purpose of the initial cable Sayid found in Season 1: to power an underwater station that emits sonar pings to guide in vessels. Sayid theorizes the Others used a submarine to commandeer Des' sailboat, because Sayid's a bad mutha.

Mention of the sailboat brings mention of Colleen's death, and both sides are sick of playing improv games. Mikhail attacks with fury, punching Sayid right in his arm wound. After knocking Kate to the ground, he continues his attack on Sayid, but eventually Sayid gets the upper hand, with Kate knocking Mikhail out with the butt of her gun. Locke then opens the door with a look of "Did I miss anything? I was just updating my Facebook status to, 'John Locke is playing chess in The Flame.'"

After tying Mikhail up, Sayid tells Locke and Kate that a saddled horse outside suggested that someone else, much shorter, also was on site. He then pulls back the rug tugged on by Nadia earlier to reveal a huge trap door going into the basement of the facility. Smoooooth.

Sayid and Kate search the basement as Locke's attention moves away from Mikhail and back to the computer game. Down below, Sayid notices that the entire facility is wired with C4, rigged to blow. Or as we say in the industry, it's been Locke-d down. The two soon come across a storage closet, filled with binders, boxers, and operation manuals. Ya know, these just might come in handy someday.

Above, Locke successfully beats the computer chess game. His joy is short-lived however, as the screen turns from 8-bit chess to full-video Pierre Chang announcing that "manual override has been achieved." Mr. Candle offers options such as "Pallet Drop," "Mainland Communications," and if you act now, he'll throw in an extra Shamwow at no additional cost! Efforts on behalf of Locke to communicate with the mainland or activate the sonar meet with failed results. Candle then tells the computer user to press "77" if a Hostiles incursion had occurred. Before he can do so, Mikhail suddenly appears, holding a knife to Locke's neck.

Down in the basement, Kate inspects a rack of Dharma jumpsuits when an unseen figure leaps out from behind, tackling her to the ground. The person gets a jump on both Kate and Kate's gun, but Sayid soon has her at gunpoint. The figure? Michael's favorite Other, Ms. Klugh. She meets Sayid's questions and Kate's fists with silence, revealing nothing. They decide to bring her to the top to meet Locke.

Up top, both sides have a good ol' fashioned standoff. Mikhail wants a simple exchange of Locke for Klugh, but almost nothing involving Klugh is simple. She starts speaking Russian to Mikhail; as they converse, Locke and Sayid argue. Tensions get ratcheted up until Mikhail pushes Locke off of him and...shoots Klugh in the chest. Dang. He then tries to shoot himself in the head, but is disarmed by Locke and held at gunpoint by Sayid. He demands that Sayid kill him, but Sayid does not.

On the beach, Hurley returns some of Sawyer's belongings to him, even though Sawyer lost the game badly. He tells Sawyer that Kate will be alright, but rather than accept the gesture, Sawyer tells him to "get bent."

Back inside the Flame, Kate gathers supplies while Locke stares at the computer. Outside, Sayid reconnects with Danielle, and tells her they have their ticket to where the Others are. Mikhail declares that nothing short of continually playing Josh Groban tunes could ever make him confess where they are. Sayid, however, didn't mean that Mikhail was the ticket, but rather a map found inside the Flame showing power running to a place called the "Barracks." Mikhail's one eye shows concern at Sayid's assessment.

Danielle can't figure out why Sayid would ever want to keep him alive if he already has the map. Sayid declares Mikhail to be his prisoner, and he alone will decide his fate. Just then, Kate and Locke catch up with the happy trio. Locke tells Mikhail he understands why he didn't want John to play the computer, and then BOOM goes the Flame. Sayid can't believe Locke blew up their only chance to communicate with the outside world; I can't believe it's not butter. Mikhail's eye gazes upon the Flame, now in flames, with a look approaching, "Mission accomplished."

15) Off the Island

As Sayid chops veggies inside a Parisian restaurant, a fellow coworker calls him "Najeev" and mentions a customer wants to see him. Outside, the customer praises his dish and asks him to sit. The conversation turns sour when the customer reveals that he knows Sayid's true identity. However, the customer assures him he merely wants to hire him for his own restaurant nearby, and thought the two as fellow "outsiders" might get along.

Sayid walks to the restaurant mentioned by the customer, Sami. Sami introduces his wife, Amira, to "Najeev." When Sayid takes her arm, he notices massive burns marks up and down her arms. Sami asks his wife to confirm Sayid is the man they've been looking for, and soon several men in the restaurant attack him. Bet this is why The Phantom Gourmet keeps his/her identity so secretive.

Looks like Sayid's been holed up for a few days, as he greedily drinks the bowl of water provide by Sami. Sami asks Sayid why he doesn't remember torturing his wife;  Sayid insists that he has the wrong man. Sayid doesn't deny being a torturer in the Republican Guard, and even tells Sami his real name, but denies ever laying eyes on Amira. He tells Sayid that if he doesn't admit what he did, he will not leave that room alive.

Later on, Sami returns, with a chair and his wife. He wants to know if Sayid's ready to confess. When Sayid once again denies involvement, Sami beats the bejesus out of him. When Sami reaches for a crowbar, Amira stops him, saying that's enough for today. There's a look of pity in her eyes as she does so for Sayid.

Amira later returns with a very large cat. It looks awfully similar to Mikhail's cat Nadia. She tells Sayid that she took this cat from some boys torturing it with firecrackers upon arriving in Paris. Even though it continually bites her, she keeps it, knowing what it's like to feel always unsafe thanks to her time at Sayid's hands. She asks Sayid to show the respect of telling her the truth about having tortured her in Iraq. Sayid tells her that he remembers her, and that her face has haunted him since he left Iraq. Both break into tears. (Mental walls falling, or a bravura performance meant to spare his life? Discuss below.) She tells him that she will inform Sami that she made a mistake so that Sayid may be set free.

16) The Mythology

Now, even though Mikhail lied through his teeth about his identity, we now know he was pretty spot on about everything else in this episode in terms of the history of the Dharma Initiative's demise. We have this episode to thank for the first use of the word "purge," a word used later in this season by Benjamin Linus while standing over the mass DI grave.

Watching the manual override video on the hatch computer, it's clear that such subterfuge was placed post-Incident, given Pierre's fake arm in the video. It's also clear that the DI used increasingly complex ways in order to communicate with its own people about the threat of the Hostiles. This suggests not only the success that the Hostiles had, but the level of infiltration amongst the DI.

As far as Mikhail's motives in telling Locke about the difficulty in beating the computer, it's akin to Ben's essential strategy of calling Locke's competence into question in order to make him do precisely what they want him to do. And what they generally want him to do is "blow stuff up." The fact that the communication dish no longer worked seemed a secondary concern to the massive amount of intelligence stored in the basement. Also, Mikhail couldn't bear to see anyone but himself in one of those smashing Flame jumpsuits.

Now, here's something fun to consider: Mikhail's initial story suggested he was spared during the Purge due to his isolation from the skirmishes between the two sides. Did the Purge in fact wipe out everyone on the Island not wearing gas masks, or were those not in the Barracks on that particular day and time spared? And if so, where have they gone? And are they currently trying to find their way back?

23) The Moment

Something about the way Klugh stands, silent and strong, that gives me not only the heebies but a healthy dose of jeebies as well.

42) In Retrospect

Mikhail pulls the whole "so close to the truth that you'll never know I'm lying" technique with Sayid. Makes sense, as he would have read their files and known the best way to psychologically handle all of them. Lying to Sayid is basically pointless, and avoiding questions would prove even more hazardous. So it makes sense that he would tell the truth, both from a tactical perspective and the "I have no intention of letting these three leave here alive" perspective.

Of particular note is his tale of the underwater station: he's fully aware of its existence, but not its purpose, at this point. Just interesting to watch him tell the tale, confident that Ben has every trust in him. It makes the betrayal at the end of this season all the more powerful.

One of my all-time incorrect theories about Lost: that when the sky went purple, Rose and Bernard somehow turned into Nikki and Paulo. Honest to God. Thought of that again when the two filled my screen once again. Be patient, Ryan, it'll all be over soon.

108) In Summary

On-Island excellent marred with so-so off-Island action. The introduction of Mikhail added that extra "indestructible Russian" zing to the already spicy Season 3 salad, and the start of Locke's Island-wide TNT-a-thon is something to truly cherish.

"Enter 77" also started the long series of episodes, culminating in "The Man Behind the Curtain," in which we finally started to tease out just how Ben Linus and Company took up shop in New Otherton. Season 5 will really investigate the previous tenets, but Season 3 is all about The Others. Mikhail's introduction goes a long way in setting the groundwork for learning more about these enigmatic figures.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to join the all-new Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed. Pretty soon he'll have as many platforms as Dharma had stations.