प्लॉट

Eloise explains that the Oceanic 6 have a very limited window to return to the island, and leaves Jack instructions to bring one of his father's items to John Locke.

Ben takes Jack, Sun, and Desmond to meet with Faraday's mother, scientist Eloise Hawking, (whom Desmond remembers years earlier leading him on the path to the island). Eloise tells them when and where the island will appear in time and the "window" to reach it, as well as the circumstances that brought them there in the first place. Jack decides to return with the corpse of Locke despite his doubts as to what may lie head for them, while Kate, Sayid, and Hurley need more convincing. Jack also visits his grandfather, residing in a nursing home, which leads him to do a little soul searching to seek his path.—matt-282

Jack awakes on the island and rescues Hurley and Kate from a lake. Two days ago, Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond meet Ms. Hawking, who is Daniel's mother, and she shows a device to them to locate the island that moves through time. She also tells that, if they want to return to the island, there would be a window that could bring them back. But they need to be together to reproduce the original situation. Jack decides to come back to the island bringing Locke's coffin. In the plane, the pilot is Frank Lapidus and Kate, Sun, Hurley, Sayid and Ben also embark in flight 316. When Jack asks Ben what will happen to the passengers, he replies who cares.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Episode: 316 (Reference to John 3:16)

Previously on...: Ben told Jack that all of the Oceanic 6 had to go back to the island. Kate and Sayid didn't want to go. Ben told Sun about the woman who would show them how to get back to the island.

'We're back': Jack, wearing a suit, found himself laying in some bushes and appeared to be in the middle of the island. He heard Hurley shouting "Help!" in the distance. Jack ran through the jungle and found Hurley in some water, struggling to stay afloat and holding a guitar case. Hurley looked around and said, "It really happened."

Jack then saw Kate laying on a rock and swam over. He shook her awake. "Are we..." she asked. "Yeah," Jack said, "we're back."

Kate looked around and asked, "What happened?"

46 Hours Earlier: We were back at the church, where Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond met Eloise, who said she wanted all of the Oceanic 6, but said, "This will have to do for now."

They followed Eloise down some stairs and through a vault door, where they entered a massive control room of sorts, with a pendulum swinging in the middle of the room.

"The Dharma Initiative called it 'The Lamp Post,'" Eloise said about the room. "And this is how they found the island."

Eloise explained that the room they were standing in was built years ago over a "unique pocket of electromagnetic energy," which connects to similar pockets all over the world. She said the people who built the room were interested in finding the island, but couldn't. "Then, a very clever fellow built this pendulum," she said, "on the theoretical notion that they should stop looking for where the island was supposed to be, and start looking for where the island was going to be."

She explained that the island is always moving, and the man who built the pendulum created a series of equations that predicted where the island was going in time. She said there are windows of time that provide a way back to the island, but they don't stay open very long. "Yours closes in 36 hours," she said.

Desmond wondered why they were all willingly going back to the island. He told Eloise that her son Daniel Faraday sent him to tell Eloise she could help the people on the island. He told her to "consider the message delivered" and walked away. But Eloise told him the island wasn't done with him yet. Desmond snapped and shouted about how Eloise ruined four years of his life because she told him he was supposed to go the island, that it was his purpose. Then he told Jack that Eloise and Co. were just using them all. "Whatever she tells you to do," he said, "ignore it." Desmond left.

Eloise told Jack to be on Ajira Airways Flight 316, flying from L.A. to Guam over where she thinks the island will be (Sawyer and the others found Ajira water bottles in the previous episode [hmm... interesting]) She said they all need to be on that flight. She told them to re-create, as best they can, the circumstances that brought them there in the first place. She said that if they didn't bring everyone back, "the result would be unpredictable." Jack asked if they should just get on that flight and hope it works. "No, that's not all, Jack," Eloise said. "At least, not for you."

Eloise took Jack into another room and said what she had to tell him didn't concern the others. She handed him an envelope that she said contained Locke's suicide note. She said Locke hanged himself. Jack asked why Locke would kill himself. She said Locke would serve as a substitute. Jack asked, for who? It was for Jack's father. She reiterated that he needed to re-create, as best he could, the circumstances that got him on that original flight. Jack was bringing his father's body back from Australia to L.A. when Oceanic 815 crashed. Eloise told Jack he had to give Locke something that belonged to his father.

Back in the church, Ben told Jack that Sun left. Ben told Jack the story of Thomas the Apostle. When Jesus wanted to go back to Judea, knowing that he would probably be murdered there, Thomas said to the others, "Let us also go, that we might die with him." Ben said Thomas' claim to fame wouldn't come from that bravery, but later, when he refused to acknowledge the resurrection. Thomas needed to touch Jesus' wounds to be convinced.

"Was he?" Jack asked.

"Of course he was," Ben said. "We're all convinced sooner or later, Jack."

Ben started to leave and said he was going to fulfill a promise for an old friend. "Just a loose end that needs tying up," he said.

Jack was sitting at a bar, staring at a drink, when he got a phone call. He was told "this is the fourth time." Jack went and found an older man named Ray, who was trying to escape the old folks' home. Jack later called Ray, "granddad." Jack was going through some of his grandfather's things and found a pair of his own dad's shoes. Jack asked if he could take them.

Jack went home and was about to pour himself a drink when he heard footsteps. He looked around the house and found Kate laying in his bed. She asked if he was still going back to the island. He said yes. "Then I'm going with you," she said.

Jack asked what happened, "Where Aaron?" Kate told him not to ask questions and that if he wanted her to go back to the island he could never ask her about Aaron. He agreed not to ask. She said thank you, then they kissed all hot and passionately, then fell into bed.

The next morning, Jack made breakfast. Kate saw Jack's dad's shoes and she said he should consider hiking boots. He didn't tell her the truth about the shoes, but made up a story about why he keeps them around. The phone rang and Kate left, saying she'd meet Jack at the airport.

Ben called Jack and said he'd been sidetracked and needed Jack to get Locke's body from the butcher shop. We saw Ben at a pay phone with his face bloodied, but he didn't tell Jack what happened to him.

Jack went to the butcher shop. Jack went to Locke's coffin, opened it and slipped off Locke's shoes and replaced them with his dad's. He chuckled as he did it, and said Locke must be laughing his ass off "because this is even crazier than you are." Jack gave Locke his suicide note and said he already knew everything Locke had to say. "You wanted me to go back, I'm going back," Jack said.

"Rest in peace," Jack added, as he closed the coffin again.

Jack answered questions from an Ajira attendant about transporting Mr. Bentham's body. He saw Kate show up at the airport, then met Sun who said she had to be on the plane if there was any chance Jin was alive. Jack saw Sayid handcuffed and being escorted by a woman through the airport. She flashes a law enforcement badge to the TSA agent, and they bypass security. Hurley was also waiting for the flight and when he heard the attendant say there were "plenty of seats available" for standby passengers, he went to the counter and insisted that he'd bought all 78 open seats on the plane.

Jack saw Hurley and asked how he knew about the flight. "All that matters is that I'm here, right?" Hurley said.

Jack boarded the plane and saw Sayid, who seemed a bit surprised, sitting next to the same woman walking with him earlier (played by Zuleikha Robinson). He also saw Sun, then Kate. "You made it," he told Kate. "Yeah," she said, "I made it."

Ben then appeared, beaten up and with his arm in a sling. Hurley jumped up and said Ben wasn't supposed to be there. There was a bit of a commotion, but Jack told Hurley this was the way it would have to be. Hurley calmed down.

Jack, who'd been handed Locke's suicide note by the flight attendant, looked around the plane and asked Ben what was going to happen to the other people on the plane.

"Who cares?" Ben said.

Jack told Kate it was crazy that they were all together again. "We're on the same plane, Jack," she said. "That doesn't mean we're together."

The pilot, Frank J. Lapidus, came over the intercom and Jack and Kate immediately recognized the name - he was the helicopter pilot who got them off of the island. Jack asked to speak to the pilot, who agreed to come out of the cockpit. Frank noticed Sayid, Sun, Hurley and Kate in the cabin and said, "We're not going to Guam, are we?"

On the plane, Jack was waiting for something to happen and started talking to Ben. He told Ben about Locke's suicide note and Ben asked him why he wouldn't read it. He asked Jack if he blamed himself for Locke's suicide. "Was it my fault?" Jack asked. Ben said it wasn't.

Ben left so Jack could read the note privately. Jack opened the letter and it said, simply, "Dear, Jack: I wish you had believed me. JL."

Then, the plane started shaking. There was loud magnetic humming and a flight attendant was sucked through a wall of the plane when we saw a flash of light and were returned to the opening of the episode, when Jack awoke in the jungle.

He again found Hurley in the water and Kate on the rock. She got up and asked where the plane was. She also wanted to know where Sun, Sayid and Ben were.

They talked about spreading around to find the others when they heard some music in the distance. Suddenly, the blue Dharma VW bus -- looking pretty shiny and new -- rolled up and a Dharma-uniformed man got out with a gun and pointed it at the three of them.

Hurley fixed his gaze on the man and said, "Jin?"

It was Jin.

Boom.