LOST: Welcome To Dharmaland

Alrighty, episode 5.09 of Lost, "Namaste" was a big pretty pile of not much happening. Sure, in theory things seemed to be going on left and right. However, nothing of overt consequence happens in the entire episode, in my opinion.

Let's recap:

1. We see the crash/perfecty fine landing of Ajira 316 (which we already knew to be on the island and most of its passengers alive). I think the most interesting thing about that was we finally got to see a use for that damn runway that they had Kate and Sawyer working on back in S3.

Why this was unimportant: We already have seen the aftermath in the episode "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham". Locke isn't among them yet, we know that Cesar gets his way and they explore the Hydra station, and we knew that Sun and Lapidus already took one of the outriggers. I suppose we know now why Ben was in the room with the injured people. (wowzers!)

2. Jack, Kate and Hurley are swept up into the DHARMA Initiative by LeFleur/James. Kate and Sawyer share some awkward moments. Sawyer and Jack have a little spat about how much better of a leader Sawyer is. He explains that his "think then react" strategy is superior to Jack's impulsive "action then whine" response.

Why this was unimportant: It's flipping 1977! They better pull some amazing feat off with this story line, otherwise things are looking down. We find out that Horace and Amy were Ethan's parents (all of which are now officially dead). I suppose finding out that Ethan was part of DHARMA and that Ben wasn't the only one taken into the Hostile/Other side was interesting.

Speaking of Ben, we saw our favorite little liar in his tween stages in this episode. He brought the incarcerated Sayid a sandwich, with no mustard! The treachery begins! You could see all the anger in the world behind those little Harry Potter glasses as he notes his impressive evil victory over condiment endowed sandwiches everywhere! (ugh)

Other tidbits:
1. We get to meet Radzinsky, who, after this episode, we can see was a whiny little man who may be deserving his eventual staining fate.

2. In 1977 the Swan station hasn't been built yet. Radzinsky is still in his paper model phase of the hatch. Which, it seems, means that the Pearl is not around either. That is based on the assumption that the Pearl's only purpose was to watch just the Swan.

3. According to Mr. Chang, the DHARMA peeps on the mainland are a bit dodgy with their paperwork and timing. I believe it was this poor office procedure which lead to their ultimate demise.

4. Christian is continuing his "Hey, I'm speaking for Jacob" bit. Telling Sun that she has a long journey ahead of her. I hope that involves her bringing the others back to present time and not the other way around. Having the 815ers in the 70's just seems stupid. There, I said it.
Also of note in this scene is the fact that Christian interacts with objects, which kind of goes agains the entire "he's a ghost" theory.

That's that. Hopefully 5.10 will blow me away. I'm skeptical. Thoughts?