Lost: Season 3, Episode 11 Review: Enter 77

Enter 77
Original Airdate: March 7, 2007
Writers: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse
Director: Stephen Williams

One of the biggest complaints of the first part of the season was the lack of coverage for the Fuselagers. In this second part, they've done a good job bringing us back to the main camp and giving us episodes on our favorite characters. Sayid has unfortunately been one of the characters left on the back burner for most of the season so far, so it was about time to get another glimpse into his character, especially as he prepares for a showdown with The Others. He has been preparing for revenge against The Others since Shannon died. When Ben was taken prisoner, he found an outlet for that rage briefly. Since Ben escaped The Swan, Sayid hasn’t been able to focus this energy on anything. Now their quest to get Jack back leads them right to a reclusive member of The Others, and when he is thinking revenge, his conscience comes into play.

The flashbacks, explaining why Sayid displayed some mercy to Mikhail when he previously had a clear desire for revenge, worked very well alongside the A-plot, even if the actual event that would trigger the flashback occurred later in the show. I prefer to give the flashbacks some leniency than being flashbacks a person would usually have. Some may accuse these flashbacks as being filler because it didn't contain any major revelations or developments. However, I think that an episode like this adds more meaning to what we've already seen with Sayid.

Sayid undergoes a role reversal in this episode, becoming the captor seeking the revenge. Despite his desire for revenge, he remembers when one person he tortured forgave him for his brutality when he was certain that her husband would kill him. Amira provides an argument of mercy being more powerful than vengeance, sparing a homeless cat from being hurt further by kids with firecrackers. The cat with a similar appearance, aptly named Nadia, symbolizes that return of mercy overriding his quest for revenge.

If you want to take the whole story as a direct parallel, perhaps Mikhail was trying to distance himself from The Others by working alone in The Flame. When Klugh convinces him to kill her, he doesn't seem to be as willing to go that far for whatever cause The Others have. His wanting to die at the end feels more like an admittance of defeat.

Klugh’s brief return alleviated some complaints from some who wondered where she was among the rest of the Others who captured Jack, Kate & Sawyer. While her role in The Others’ society is still not clear (and may never be explained), apparently she has some technical prowess and was there to help Mikhail get the communications running.

It has been hinted this season that The Others have been cut off since Desmond turned the fail-safe key and The Flame, which is station that allows communication with the outside world. Presumably, this is where Ben got the footage of the Red Sox winning the World Series. The communications going down symbolize a major blow to The Others’ power, but Locke’s destruction of the Station is a major setback for the castaways hoping for rescue.

Many people criticized Locke for blowing up the station and how that action made him look like an idiot. While there is weight to this criticism, it would've been out of character for him not to do what the computer says. Locke believed that fate had originally led him to The Hatch and that what happened in "Live Together, Die Alone" was a form of punishment for his lack of faith. So when he's presented with a new station and a new computer, he wouldn't disobey it and face the consequences again.

It could've been interesting to have Mikhail be or think he was the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative (technically Desmond is the last Dharma). Many of the things he said made sense; things Kelvin said in “Live Together, Die Alone” support his claims. However, making him an Other works too, as he would've known that those in The Swan wouldn't be able to participate in "The Purge" because they had to stay by the button to press it every 108 minutes. Also, it might've been more appropriate to have a revelation like this last season when The Hatch was the big focus.

Dr. Candle's automated video offers insights into what Dharma knew coming to the island. That Dharma material would acknowledge The Others/hostiles adds to the theory that Dharma knew that this island was inhabited. In addition, they felt their presence in a communication station was such a risk to their operations that destroying it by entering 77 was the only solution if communications were down. Was part of the motivation behind Dharma to study The Others? Clearly, the four-toed statue was meant to show us that this island has history going beyond Dharma in the 70s, but how would Dharma find out such a thing that the rest of the world didn’t know?

Assuming Mikhail is honest about everything besides not being an Other (which apparently has been confirmed), this adds a lot of detail to the history between The Others and the Dharma Initiative. Now it can be said that they are two separate entities. If that's the case, how does Mittelos Bioscience figure into The Others, and what relationship did they have with Dharma if any? If the purge went as well as they hoped, is there any assimilated ex-Dharma in the ranks? And why would Dharma engage The Others in combat?

The Flame appeared to be responsible for the pallet drops from "Lockdown", although it seems odd that they would be responsible for deciding when people in The Swan would get their rations. There were also Swan logos on various items in The Flame station. As The Flame was responsible for communications, it has to be asked how much the other Dharma stations communicated or worked with each other or if each was its own entity.

It’s also odd that The Flame has a small functioning farm in the land around it, which explains how Juliet was able to get a cheeseburger. Unlike the other stations, which appear to be made of steel The Flame has a barn façade with a basement. This could’ve been made by The Others post purge, but it seems unlikely since The Others have more commandeered old Dharma stations and used them for their own needs rather than change them.

Another thing worth thinking about is that Rousseau has never seen this station. Considering the amount of time she has spent on this island, it doesn’t seem like she’s encountered half of what the main castaways encountered by the end of the first season. Once again this begs a Rousseau episode, but who knows when that’ll happen.

On the lighter side, we got a fun subplot involving Sawyer playing Hurley in a ping pong match, the stakes being his stash or nickname privledges. There were some nice call outs to the fans, like whether the Hatch imploded or exploded and the awkward introduction of Nikki and Paolo into the main group. Perhaps Sawyer's excessive nicknames this season was the writers getting it out of their system before this.

After last week’s break from the mythology, this episode returns to it, deepening our sense of the history of Dharma and The Others in the process. The flashbacks are strong because they work along the main story and explain Sayid’s motivations. Sparing Mikhail could be seen as a step forward, but who knows when the step back will come.

Score: 8/10