The Dharma story gets clearer on 'Lost' season 5, episode 9: 'Namaste'

If there's one thing the crew on "Lost" has gotten good at, it's knocking people unconscious by hitting them over the head.

Not that I'd know, but it's probably hard to do that effectively without, you know, sometimes killing the unsuspecting victim.

But in "Namaste," Sun wields an oar like a pro, and when she needs to get from Island Junior to Island Senior after surviving the return plane crash, it's lights out for Ben.

We'll get back to him.

The meat of the story, though, happens in the late '70s (what other show gives you a title card that reads "Thirty years earlier?"), where Sawyer is still running the Dharma Initiative.

Considering all the jolts of the early part of this season, it's almost tough to get used to the pace of this stretch -- a story given time to develop over the course of several episodes. Crazy, huh?

"Namaste" involves the Island's new immigrants -- Jack, Kate, Hurley and, later, Sayid -- trying to convince Camp Dharma that they're just your average sedated submarine-riding day laborers.

Meanwhile, there's some nice shading of the Dharma story, such as a few moments with Pierre Change that don't involve one of the creepy videos, and the introduction of Baby Ethan. (As we're learning, there were once successful births on the Island.)

Meanwhile, 30 years in the future, the crash survivor -- including non-time-jumpers Sun, Ben and Frank -- try to figure out just what the devil is going on, not an altogether uncommon occurrence on "Lost."

Not that the show needs more characters, but I'm glad to see the introduction of the actor Said Taghmaoui, who was great as an Iraqi interrogator in "Three Kings."

A terrific late-episode encounter between Sawyer and Jack finds their roles reversed, with Sawyer fancying himself a Winston Churchill character and eager to assert his new authority over the former de facto leader of the survivors.

But the real stunner was adolescent Ben (I was wondering when he'd show up) meeting Sayid, who had been imprisoned by the Dharmas, who think Sayid is a Hostile.

I'll leave it to more intense diehards to go back through those characters' interactions to determine whether there was any indication Ben recognized Sayid from his childhood.

My wager: Young Ben, already in line with the Hostiles, befriends Sayid before initiating his massacre of the Dharma Initiative, and Sayid convinces him to save all the future people.

Takers?

From New York Post