Pre-Review --> I do think that from 5x01 - 5x05 was one of the worst 5 episodes in the history of the show. I think you could also easily make a case for Whatever the case May Be, Hearts and Minds, and Special being along that same level of "what the heck is this crap?" I know that part of the blog everyone is going to disagree with, but I can't say how happy I was that "316" delivered in a way that the rest of the season has failed too. Also, just to throw it out there, yesterday was Day 49 on the new year, meaning there were 316 days left in the year. I found that to be...odd.

Review --> 9.8 / 10 (10/10 tv.com)

I have come to this site week in and week out for the last five weeks writing reviews that I knew were going to get smashed. "This Place Is Death" got an amazing 4 Thumbs Up and 40 Thumbs Down. "The Little Price" got 3 Thumbs Up and 27 Thumbs Down. This week - I don't think I'll have any problems with the Thumbs Down.

I loved this episode from start to finish. This was the episode I was waiting for. I have been critical of the first couple of episodes of this season but this episode had everything in it that I love about Lost. They have established that they are going to go back to a flashback formula - which is amazing to me! Hurley comes out of nowhere and wants to go back to the island. Kate somehow shows up without Aaron and then wants to go to the island. Ben gets the crap kicked out of him, but still gets to the island. Sayid is arrested and is on the plane back to the island. I count at least four flashbacks in that group. Not to mention that the plane crash is sure to have some survivors that we will be introduced to. Maybe? The plane went back in time so it will be interesting to see what happens to the rest of the survivors that weren't on the island before. It seems they were dropping us some hints with the guy that Jack bumped into and who Hurley told to put his seatbelt on. I think he might be apart of the show now.

The establishing of mysteries really made this episode standout and the beginning of the episode was also really well done. Hawking explains everything to Sun, Jack, Ben, and Desmond. These scenes were really long, descriptive, and we got some answers. I loved the "That's why they call it a leap of faith" line delivered by Hawking. The only "whatever" part of the episode was the four minute long scene between Jack and his Grandfather. Some people have said that they thought it was cool to meet more of Jack's family, I never really thought I would meet any of them so I would have prefered Jack going back to his apartmennt, finding the shoes and then discovering Kate. Thus giving us a couple of extra minutes. But I mean if one scene is all I'm complaining about then I'm a very happy person. Great episode, loved every minute of it.