The Flame is a communications station. was first discovered on the blast door map. Ben took Juliet to the Flame to show her Rachel and Julian. It wasn't explored until later in the third season by Locke, Sayid, and Kate. During a visit to the Pearl, a man with an eyepatch, who is Mikhail, appeared on the monitor. Mr. Eko died, and Locke saw on his stick the number 305, which he used as a heading to travel to the Flame. Mikhail was stationed here. When Sayid approached the building, he was suddenly shot by Mikhail. He then comes out and surrenders. He then say that he is the last remaining member of the Dharma Initiative. He takes everyone inside, and helps Sayid with his wound saying that he was once a field medic for the Soviet Army. Locke then sees a computer room. On the computer was a chess game, and he starts to play it. Mikhail talks about his cat, Nadia, who is named after a Romanian gymnastic, Nadia Comaneci, that won Gold in the Olympics. Sayid starts to suspect that Mikhail is actually an Other. Mikhail goes into the computer room, saying the computer cheats, but Locke disagrees. He gets iced tea for Sayid, but then throws the jar at him and a fight breaks out. They are able to capture him. Sayid and Kate find a hatch door under a rug, and they go down stairs. Locke checkmates the computer, and then a video clip of Dr. Marvin Candle appears. Mikhail manages to escape, and stops Locke. Sayid and Kate notices C-4 on the walls. Then they find Ms. Klugh. They capture her, and take her upstairs. Ms. Klugh starts talking in Russian to Mikhail, and Mikhail shots her. They capture Mikhail again. Locke goes back inside to play the chess game again. Dr. Marvin Candle appears again. He says that if there has been an incursion by the Hostiles, press 7-7. He presses 7-7. Back outside, Sayid decides not to kill him. Then suddenly, the station explodes.

Questions:

• Why would Dharma blow up the station if the Hostiles came?
• Why did they have to beat a chess game to get manual access?
• What happened to the animals after the explosion?

Answered Questions

• Q: Why would Dharma blow up the station if the Hostiles came?
• A: There must have been information at the station that they didn't want them to know.
• Q: Why did they have to beat a chess game to get manual access?
• A: There was probably only one way to beat it that only the workers of the Flame knew.
• Q: What happened to the animals after the explosion?
• A: If the explosion didn't kill them, they are roaming around the island.