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With John’s departure and Charlotte’s death, Flash Bam Land provides one more peep into the past.

The giant three-toed foot now towers above our brave finalists as a complete statue of…what is that? A man with dog ears? I definitely felt the eeby-jeebies. Then the final flash lights up the sky. Prest-O, change-O, the 70’s are here to stay.

Three years later, the remaining Islanders all work as productive citizens in Dharma jumpsuits. Sawyer, apparently high up the Big Brother Dharma Ladder, navigates a domestic squabble between one drunk Horace and his pregnant wife Amy. She says they had a fight over Paul and then she goes into labor.

In typical LOST style, a flashback reveals how the surviving finalists end up in Dharma. Their Key to the Nile came when they rescued the same Amy from Hostiles (a.k.a the Others), but Paul is dead. (That’d be Amy’s husband, not a member of the Beatles.) The remains of a romantic picnic lay in tatters. Our finalists bury the Hostiles—pronto—and skadaddle back to Dharma with Amy and Paul. Later, Richard the Pirate demands Paul’s body to rectify some sort of truce.

Before the body is taken, Amy removes an Ankh necklace from around Paul’s neck. This ancient Egyptian symbol of life and fertility is also represented in Egyptian art as the power of the gods and goddesses to bestow life into a mummy. Perhaps Amy and Paul needed it for one purpose while the Hostiles (a.k.a the Others) needed it for another. Ankh, you very much. In the “Three years later” segments, Horace reveals he found Paul’s necklace in a sock drawer; that’s why he had a fight with Amy.

This was a brilliant stream of writing by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Kyle Pennington to chock this side story full of Island secrets. Amy has the baby and somehow suspends the rules of the Island. Mamma and Baby-Boy both survive. Oh, and whoever threw the Plato line on the story board is a genius.

The big surprise of this episode proved me wrong about Kate heading toward a Sawyer ending. It appears the big LOST love triangle is really as thick as a pyramid. Sawyer sweet talks his way into Juliet’s heart and Juliet enjoys her first good years on the Island. And why wouldn’t James be smitten? Kate may be able to track a boar, but Juliet can fix a truck and deliver a baby two different ways. King Solomon must have been around during one of those time jumps because I think he wrote Proverbs 31 in her honor. Sawyer assures Horace that three years are definitely enough to get over someone.

Enter Kate, stage Jin.

Though Dan, Dan the Physicist Man took a back seat in this Dharma van, I have to hand out a KUDOS to actor Jeremy Davies for his mourning over Charlotte. He gave a very sincere performance.

Only one half-point deduction from this week’s jungle jaunt: three years go by and our finalists only look for the people Locke’s supposed to bring back? Wouldn’t they be remotely worried about Rose and the Disposables? Regardless, I can’t wait for next week when Locke and Emperor Ben Palpatine continue their battle to control Darth Pirate and the Others.

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