I'll skip the small talk once again just to maximize writing time, so let's get to it. Flashes first! (And for the newbies, don't forget to roll your mouse over the pics for hidden captions...)
KEEP IT ON THE DOWN LOW NOBODY HAS TO KNOW
As many of us suspected after the season premiere, Sun and Jin aren't married in the alternate timeline. What I didn't see coming, however, is that Sun truly doesn't know English in the flash sideways. I'd thought she was just feigning ignorance when she was questioned by security after Jin was caught with the bag o' money. But if they were never married and he never was a crappy husband and she never wanted to take off on her own, then she had no reason to learn English, I guess.
BUT, they are still getting it on... and going to great lengths to hide their affair. Millions of men around the world forgave the producers for years of Shirtless Sawyer scenes once they got a look at Shirtless Sun, and all was well with the world for a few moments. Then Keamy had to ruin everything. Turns out it was his payment that had been confiscated and it was none other than my Kos Tour guide -- the man partially responsible for my picture with Terry O'Quinn -- Jeff, who was one of the guys refusing to let Jin leave with the dough! Yes, he was an extra in this episode and played one of the security guards, isn't that cool? That's him on the right. Congrats, Jeff -- you the man!
Speaking of the airport scene, and I'm sorry to be jumping around a bit in this section, but did anyone else notice this dude's absolutely amazing mullet?
Seriously, I could not take my eyes off of it. I was like, "Screw Sun and Jin -- I wanna know about that guy." I thought for sure he would be some key player in the episode solely because of that 'do. But like so many other times, I was wrong.
ANYWAY... Keamy calls in The Man Formerly Known as Patchy (hooray!) to translate for him. I was totally surprised to see our favorite Soviet, though by now all of these past character cameos shouldn't be such a shock, should they?
Sun claimed she had enough money to pay Keamy what he was owed, so Mikhail went to the bank with her while Keamy took Jin to the back of the restaurant we'd seen previously in "Sundown." It turns out that Mr. Paik already knew about the secret lovers, had closed Sun's account, and had hired Keamy to kill Jin -- the $25k was supposed to be his payment for doing so. But as we know, Sayid put a dent in those plans. After Sayid gave Jin a razor and took off, Mikhail shows up with Sun, things get ugly, and Jin straight-up shoots Mikhail in the eye. Is it wrong that I couldn't contain a huge laugh at that point? The Patch is his destiny.
Then came the scene that nobody expected. Sun had been hit in the stomach during the crossfire. My jaw definitely dropped open when I realized what was going on. But then it got worse... as Jin was carrying her out, she dropped a bombshell: "I'm pregnant."
You can be damn sure that I yelled "Saaaaaayyyyy WHHHAAATTTT?!?!" What did you yell?
OK, so here are my two main thoughts on this new development: 1) In the original timeline, pre-Flight 815, we learned that Jin was infertile. Sun knew this, but never told Jin. Once they survived the crash, that issue was resolved thanks to the Island's special powers and Sun became pregnant, with Juliet confirming that it was Jin's child because the "D.O.C" (date of conception) was during their Island stay. So now I'm totally confused because why would his infertility just randomly disappear in the alt timeline? UNLESS.... 2) Jin is not the baby daddy. Let's face it, this is a possibility. Yes, in the flashes Sun did say that she wanted Jin to "run away" with her and they definitely seem to be in love, but that doesn't mean Sun hadn't been fooling around with Baldy back in Korea like she was in the original timeline. She has been proven not to be the most moral person in the world, so it's in the realm of possibility. Now, I fully admit that I think there's only like a 5% chance of this playing out since we're careening toward the end of the series, but I thought I'd mention it. It's the only way I can make sense of the situation.
Anyone else have an idea as to why Jin would not be infertile in the alt timeline? Hold up -- I just thought of one other possibility... when Jacob touched Sun and Jin in the original timeline, maybe Jacob purposely caused Jin's issues? And maybe in the alt timeline Jacob didn't visit anyone, so Jin was fine? I can't fathom why Jacob would do such a thing, though -- what would the point be? And so, I debunk my own theory.
OK, on to the Island.
PRIVATE EYES THEY'RE WATCHING YOU THEY SEE YOUR EVERY MOVE
Man, did that night vision stuff scare me. Since the episode opened with that scene, all that was going through my head was, "Whoa... is there another party we don't know about? Is this all a game that someone else is watching through a monitor? WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!" But it wasn't actually that hard to figure out, I was just slow that night. Clearly it was going to turn out to be Widmore's team. After Dead-Eye Sayid informed Fake Locke that he was utterly devoid of emotion and Fake Locke responded that it was probably better that way because of "what's coming," Fake Locke went into the jungle alone to do God knows what. The unseen night-vision people watched Fake Locke leave, saw that Jin was going to take this as his chance to bust out, and then decided to nick everyone in the neck with poisonous darts. One of my top twenty freak-out moments of the series was at the end of Season Two when Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley got taken out by darts in a similar fashion after Michael set them up to be captured by the Others. So this scene brought back all those awful memories. Boo. At least there was no convulsing this time around.
EMPTY GARDEN
It turns out Fake Locke left his peeps in order to visit Sun in her old garden. But she wasn't buying anything he was selling. I was pretty impressed with Sun because, as we ALL know, the only frickin' thing she's been hollering about this entire season is "finding her husband." And that's what Fake Locke promised -- a reunion with Jin at long last. But I guess she knew better than to trust an undead version of the bald guy that had come back to the Island in a coffin. So she busts outta the garden just like Ben busted out in "Dr. Linus" when he decided to try and escape from Ilana and his self-dug grave. It didn't turn out as well for Sun because she ran head-first into a tree and was knocked out cold. Fake Locke disappeared, Ben found her... but when she awoke she could no longer speak English.
Now, something suspicious is definitely going on with this, don't you agree? We've seen subtle hints of the original timeline influencing the alternate timeline earlier in the season, with Jack's neck cut and abdominal scar, with Kate kinda-sort having an "a ha!" moment when she saw Jack outside the terminal and then later seeming to have a reaction to unborn baby Aaron's whale doll, and with Claire suddenly having Aaron's name come to her. And we've seen all of the flash-sideways characters look into a mirror during their centric episodes -- that's gotta mean something because it's happened in every episode. Now we have Sun no longer speaking English, just like in the alternate timeline. I can't really put into words what I think this means, other than to say that I think the two versions of events are starting to intertwine a bit -- and affect each other. Will a 2004 version of a character end up doing or saying something that helps the Present-Day version of his or her character? Or vice versa? That's the way I'm thinking it's going.
I SEE A BAD MOON RISIN' I SEE TROUBLE ON THE WAY I SEE EARTHQUAKES AND LIGHTNIN' I SEE BAD TIMES TODAY
Back at the jungle camp site, Widmore's peeps steal Jin and take off. Fake Locke returns and is PISSED. I found it interesting that he didn't act like he cared about anyone except Sayid, whom he slapped awake first, and then immediately asked about Jin. Seems like if Sawyer was one of the candidates Fake Locke would've been a little more concerned about his life. And he basically said "whatever" about Kate and Claire.
The attack sprung Fake Locke into action and after the others regained consciousness he informed them that he and Sayid were heading to Hydra to retrieve Jin. Before they left, Claire cornered Fake Locke about the names on the cave wall and asked if she or Kate were listed. He said that neither of them were, but told Claire that he still needed her, and that he was essentially just using Kate. Then in so many words he said that it didn't matter to him whether Kate lived or died after he got everyone else on the Ajira flight. "Whatever happens, happens." Yikes.
Over at the beach, Ilana's all, "Told ya so!" when Richard and Hurley trudge back into the camp. Richard is alarmed when he hears that Fake Locke had recently visited Sun, and even more concerned when Ben told him that the MIB intended to carry out his plan on Hydra. The Ageless One immediately figured out that the MIB was going to attempt to escape the Island via the Ajira plane and ordered everyone to pack up because they needed to go there, too. (Cue me having another meltdown about the impending outrigger shootout... how much longer are they going to tease us about this? Wait, I have an answer to my own question: until they finally remind everyone about that time-traveling scene in the "Previously on Lost" segment. When that happens, except the shootout to follow in that episode.)
Sun continues to be in a bad mood and storms off again. Eventually Jack finds her and they have a pseudo-chat on the beach (I thought that scene was exceptionally beautiful with the eerie way the sky was lit, didn't you?). After Sun reveals that she didn't go with Fake Locke because she doesn't trust him, Jack asked if she trusted him, and put out his hand to her just like Fake Locke had done. Sun declared herself to be on Team Jack, took his hand and -- I think it's safe to assume -- implicitly agreed that she'll head over the Hydra with the rest of the group.
(Hmm, I just thought of something -- what if Sun's the one who gets shot on the outrigger kind of like how she was shot in the flash sideways?)
In the meantime, Fake Locke reached Hydra and I was honestly shocked to see him come face to face with Widmore already. I loved their "Do you know who I am?" "Do you know who I am?" convo. And after Widmore denied abducting Jin, I found it interesting that Fake Locke once again pulled from Real Locke's memories: "A wise man once said that war is coming to this island." That was, of course, what Widmore said to Real Locke in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."
PHOTOGRAPH ALL I'VE GOT IS A PHOTOGRAPH BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH
How psyched was I to see the return of the Clockwork Orange Brainwashing Rave Room?!?! VERY psyched. Oh, how I loved that room. Did you notice how Jin had to turn on the video just to remind all of the non-diehard viewers where in the hell he was? I thought that was funny.
After attempting to leave and subsequently being tased by Zoe, Jin's asked about the electromagnet pockets on the Island. That means that Widmore's plan has something to do with those spots. Jin refused to talk and instead demanded to speak to Widmore. And he got his wish.
I have to admit that the Sun/Jin storyline has never been that compelling to me -- I just haven't really connected to those characters that much. Their #1 moment for me was Sun's ear-splitting scream when she saw the freighter (with Jin on its deck) blow up (which I was POSITIVE we'd have to live through again courtesy of the "Previously on Lost" segment before this episode, but we didn't). #2 was when they said good-bye (after weeks of fighting) when Jin was about to leave on the raft in the Season One finale. And #3 was Jin getting all teary-eyed at seeing the Ji-Yeon pics in this episode. Kudos to Daniel Dae Kim for bringing it!
So yeah, Widmore gave Jin Sun's digital camera from the Ajira wreckage, then let him take a moment to scroll through the gallery, and then got down to business. He informed Jin that if the MIB ever left the Island, everyone they both knew and loved would "simply cease to be." That sounds like some end of the world crap to me, don't you think? Kind of like when Ms. Hawking warned Desmond that if he didn't fulfill his destiny on the Island, that "every single one of us is dead."
Speaking of Desmond...
I MET YOU ON SOMEBODY'S ISLAND YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD KNOWN ME BEFORE
Can I get a "FINALLY?!?!" Can I get a "'Bout damn time!?!" And can I get big ol' round of cheers that we're bound to hear "Brotha!" again soon?
Hooray, hooray! Desmond is BACK, and he is The Package (no perverted jokes, please). For like two milliseconds I thought The Package might be Ji Yeon, but then the reality of Desmond not being seen since the premiere returned and I knew it was going to be him.
We found this out thanks to a very creepy scene in which a Rambo-like Dead-Eye Sayid was slithering through the water and came face to face with Des as he hung over the pier, all whacked out on spiked OJ. They just stared at each other for several seconds and I had no idea what was going to happen. I thought maybe Sayid was going to pull Des into the water and glide away with him, or that Des would start shouting and alert Widmore's team to Sayid's presence. Instead, they both remained silent and Des was hauled onto shore. I can only imagine that Sayid will return to Fake Locke and report his findings so they know what they're dealing with.
But what ARE they dealing with, exactly? What is Desmond needed for? Since Zoe mentioned she's a geophysicist and is all concerned about the electromagnetic pockets, I can only assume they think that because Desmond turned the failsafe key (which then caused him to have all those weird future-flashes) that he has harnessed within him some sort of special power (how they would KNOW he turned the key is another mystery). Faraday alluded to something along these lines when he informed Desmond (during one of the time-traveling jumps last season) that he was "uniquely and miraculously special." Ms. Hawking also knew how important Desmond was -- not just because of what she said to him in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," but also because she warned him after he refused to join the Ajira flight: "The Island isn't done with you yet."
So Desmond's connection with turning the failsafe key and the effect doing so had on him and on the Island's electromagnetic pull is the only thing I can reasonably assume Widmore's team wants him for. Unless they just REALLY like his accent. Other ideas?
FLIES IN THE VASOLINE WE ARE SOMETIMES IT BLOWS MY MIND KEEP GETTING STUCK HERE ALL THE TIME
Let's end with the same question we've ended several posts with this season: What is UP with Widmore?
Here's where my head's at after this episode: Widmore, like Ben and like Jacob, is against the MIB leaving the Island. He does not want that to happen and understands that the results would be catastrophic. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's on Jacob's "side," per se. Widmore is on his own side and apart from wanting to contain the MIB, he has his own agenda. And that agenda involves: 1) keeping the MIB from escaping so as to not end the world, and 2) making sure the Island is easily accessible in the future.
Why? Because he wants to exploit its unique properties and powers. Ben said as much back when he first introduced Real Locke to Widmore via security video tape back in Season Four: "John, three months ago in Gainesville, Florida, the Virgin Mary seemed to appear in a patch of mold on the side of an old housing complex. When the word got out, over 5,000 people came to see her face for themselves. You've survived an airline crash on this island. One minute, you're in a wheelchair. The next minute, you're doing jumping jacks. If 5,000 people came out to see a piece of mold, how many people do you think would come here to see you? Charles Widmore wants to exploit this island, and he'll do everything in his power to possess it."
Now, Ben lied a lot during that talk he had with Real Locke, but I think there may have been a glimmer of truth to this part. We do know that Widmore has been on a quest to find the Island again ever since he'd been banished. We also know that he is a successful businessman back in the real world. Maybe he feels like the Island could be added to his empire? Maybe he knows that if he brought sick people there and they were cured that he would be worshiped -- like a god? Maybe he just wants the Island all for himself and wants to be able to simply come and go as he pleases without all the calculations that are currently necessary? Who knows... but in my mind he is STILL "bad" overall. Remember Alex!
As to why he chose Jin to kidnap rather than, say, Sawyer (another "candidate"... assuming Widmore even knows about the candidates...), on top of Jin's familiarity with the electromagnetic pocket locations, it might go back to Widmore's familiarity with Sun. Don't forget -- they struck some sort of weird deal after Sun returned as one of the O6 and thought Jin was dead. She was going to kill Ben with the gun Widmore provided and all that. So maybe there was more to their agreement than we realized.
BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE
ILANA: Hugo will find him. He will track him down and bring him back.
MILES: Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I'm not sure Hurley can track anything...
LAPIDUS: Hey, don't talk about bacon.
SAWYER: What do you need a boat for? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?
LOCKE: Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?
SAWYER: No, 'cause that would be ridiculous.
BEN: What? Oh, for the fourth time, I was gathering mangoes and she was already unconscious when I found her. Why won't you believe me?
I begin this write-up in St. Maarten, listening to the sound of waves and the rustling of palm trees from my hotel room’s balcony. (I have to rub it in—I’ll be back in cold temperatures soon enough, OK?)
I was very happy to have watched “Ji Yeon” with my friend Miss M and her sister, RK, because some of their comments during the show prevented me from becoming extremely confused. For example, Miss M just so happened to have been born in 1976, which was a “year of the dragon.” She explained that any given animal sign in the Chinese zodiac (which is also followed in Jin and Sun’s homeland of Korea) repeats only once every twelve years. That knowledge clued us in about mid-way through the episode (when the store owner mentioned that it was “the year of the dragon”) that Jin’s flashes must be taking place in either the year 2000 or the year 2012. We guessed incorrectly; until the very end of the episode, the three of us assumed that Jin’s scenes were in the year 2012 and that he was buying the panda for his second or perhaps even third child with Sun. We thought the big twist would be that it wasn’t the Island baby that was being born, but rather another one of their children… meaning that the scenes would have to be taking place significantly far into the future. Alas, at the end of “Ji Yeon” it became clear that while we saw a flash-forward for Sun, Jin’s scenes were flashbacks to the year 2000.
Because I know there is a lot of confusion about this episode, I just want to reiterate what was going on in the flash scenes so that we’re all on the same page, before I get into the meat of my post:
- Jin’s scenes took place in the year 2000, when he was newly married to Sun and working for her mob-boss-like father (Mr. Paik). He bought the panda for the grandson of the Ambassador to China, with whom Mr. Paik wanted to conduct business. - Sun’s scenes were probably 5 or so months from the present time on the Island (based on Juliet’s claim that mothers will die on the Island in their 2nd trimester), so they were probably in mid-2005.
Now let’s get into it. I will tackle the freighter events first, then the stuff that went down on the Island, then the flashes, and will wrap up with a podcast debrief and a few other Lost-related extras. I even have a fan picture of Karl! Or, "Kaarrrrlll," as Benry might say.
'CAUSE I'M ALLLLLREADY GONE
The episode kicked off with Keamy warning Frank not to be late. Late to what? I assumed that the captain was going to hold some kind of debrief with the crew regarding what they were going to do about Sayid and Desmond, and Keamy was trying to ensure that Frank didn't lose track of time while deciding what new palm tree shirt to wear and made it to the meeting on time. Later, however, we found out that Frank had left with the helicopter to “run an errand,” so that’s probably what Keamy had been referring to—he wanted Frank to get going. I’m sure they just had Frank run out to the nearest Walgreens to pick up some Diet Cokes and Cheetos, don’t you think?
Seriously, though, where did Frank go? And was he lying to Sayid about the phone no longer working? I guess we’ll find out whether he made another trip back to the Island soon enough, but I’m not so sure that’s where he went, even though the doctor claimed that there was “nowhere else to land.” Yes, Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sun and Hurley still need to get rescued and the helicopter and freighter currently seem to be the most obvious means of escape, but I’ve always wondered whether the rest of The Six end up leaving the Island some other way. Since we know that Sayid ends up working for Ben in the future, maybe the others leave the Island via different means than did Sayid, and that’s what allows Ben to get to Sayid and strike some sort of deal with him. Especially now that we know that Ben also has Michael working for him on the freighter, and Sayid is now with Michael.
Or, Frank could in fact be headed to the Island to pick up the next round of Lostaways and/or some of his original team. Many people think that the Oceanic Six weren’t “chosen” but were simply the first group that left the Island, and that Frank said he would keep coming back until everyone who wanted to leave had been rescued, but then something happened that prevented him from doing so. Which still wouldn’t explain why people from both Locke and Jack’s groups make up The Six, or why Jin would allow himself to be separated from Sun after saying “Wherever Sun go, I go,” but it’s still a plausible theory. More theories about the Oceanic Six later in this post…
BUT WE’RE NEVER GONNA SURVIVE, UNLESS… WE GET A LITTLE CRAZY
Before Frank took off, he paid a visit to Sayid and Desmond and brought them some canned lima beans. Lima beans are on my list of most hated foods, so I don’t blame the guys for being pretty offended. Some people wonder if Frank thinks that poisoned/tampered-with food on the freighter is what is making people go crazy, so that’s why he brought Sayid and Des a safer choice of sustenance. I think it’s clear that what’s affecting people’s sanity is the ship’s proximity to the Island, so we shouldn’t read into Frank’s choice of food for the captives too much. Since lima beans are so nasty, no one else on the ship was going to complain if the rest of the supply goes missing! That's why Frank took them.
The most important part of that scene didn’t have anything to do with food, though. It had to do with Regina, who was reading a book upside-down. What was the novel, you may wonder? It was Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne, which is about peeps on a grounded ship—some of whom go nuts. How apropos.
Especially considering Regina’s next (and last) scene, where she jumps overboard after weighing herself down with heavy chains. Desmond and Sayid, who have been let out of their room by this point, are alarmed that no one else is trying to help poor Regina. However, they soon meet the captain, who explains that several members of the crew have developed “a heightened case of cabin fever.” After learning what happened to Minkowski, Brandon (the other guy who left the ship with Minkowski and died) and Regina, and then seeing the blood stain on the wall of Desmond and Sayid’s new room (which was obviously from someone shooting themselves Radzinsky-style in the head), I think it’s fair to proclaim that a good percentage of people on the freighter are stark raving mad. But the question is, why?
The captain said that he thought it was because of the proximity to the Island, but that he couldn’t change locations because someone had been tampering with the ship’s engines. But when Doctor Ray takes Des and Sayid to their new quarters and Sayid questions why Ray would say that the room is in the “quiet area” of the ship even though the ship isn’t moving, Ray’s response was, “Well, if you say so.” This has led people to wonder whether or not the ship is somehow moving… not physically—but through time—and it’s causing people to go insane.
You could tell that the writers were trying to make it clear that three days had passed both on and off the Island since the helicopter crew left. Sayid mentioned three days, and so did Sun. But that still doesn’t account for the “perception” of time moving differently while on the Island, or Daniel’s experiment with the clocks, or whatever it is that tripped Desmond’s time-traveling experience. So, as I said in my last write-up, there may be some sort of “time-warp moat” around the Island that would explain all of the above, in addition to being the cause of the freighter crew’s strife. Perhaps the ship is too close to this force field of sorts (I KNEW they’d get another force field into the show one way or another--hooray!), and it’s having an effect on certain people.
I don’t know how to explain why not everyone would be affected, though. For all we know, Regina and whoever committed suicide in the Roach Room might have both been time-traveling in their minds, and that’s what drove them mad. Then we could assume that those specific people had been exposed to radiation or electromagnetism, whereas others on the ship haven’t been and are therefore safe. But if Regina and the others just went crazy and weren’t time-traveling, I’m not sure why everyone else onboard isn’t experiencing the same thing. Or maybe some people just take longer to be affected. This also sounds like it could be “the sickness” of which Rousseau spoke, doesn’t it?
LIES LIES LIES YEAH
Can we even trust Captain Gault’s guess as to why people are going psycho in the first place? He may know much more about what’s happening then he’s letting on. Let’s not forget that Sayid and Desmond received a note (which we can now assume was from “Kevin Johnson” (aka Michael)) that read, “Don’t trust the captain.” On top of that, everyone else on the ship seems intimidated or straight-up afraid of this guy. I can see why—he definitely has a James Bond (Daniel Craig version) vibe about him. I was digging the captain. On a related note, the general consensus is that if we are meant to read anything into the captain’s last name, then we should assume he was purposefully given the same name as the “morally ambiguous captain-for-hire” in William Hope Hodgson’s collection of seafaring stories which were published in 1917. This is one of those times when I personally don’t think a character’s name means anything, though. And for those of you who will argue that the captain is named after John Galt from my favorite book of all time, Atlas Shrugged, I say: Silence! There’s no way. Not buying it. Sorry.
The captain claims to be working for Charles Widmore, which corroborates what Ben told Locke in the previous episode. The split-second frame of Desmond’s face when he heard the name “Widmore” during that scene was hilarious.
Polaroid picture of Penny: $2 Crappy blue shirt with no buttons = $40 Bottle of MacCutcheon’s whiskey: $20,000 A capture of your facial expression when learning the freighter is Daddy Widmore’s: Priceless
(Yes, I know Des wouldn't be using USD--but work with me, OK?)
The captain then goes on to show Des and Sayid what he says is Flight 815’s black box, and then repeats what Naomi told Charlie: the plane was found at the bottom of the ocean with all 324 bodies aboard. Naturally, he believes the only person who could pull off a stunt like that is… Benjamin Linus.
And that was the last we saw of the captain in this episode.
So what to make of all of this? I personally do not believe that Ben is behind the faux 815 wreckage. Yes, we now know that Ben has access to a ton of money, and to a network of people off of the Island who carry out orders for him. And yes, he does want to protect the Island at all costs, and supplying the media with a fake crash site might dissuade a few explorers from looking any further. But it wouldn’t keep a group who already knew about the existence of the Island from continuing to look for it. Plus, the only dead bodies we’ve seen near Ben were the skeletons in the Skeleton Pit from the Dharma purge. They didn’t exactly look like the drowned crash victims we saw in the news video at the beginning of the season. Further, we saw the moment when the plane crashed from the Othersville point-of-view. Ben seemed more concerned with getting Ethan and Goodwin to the crash sites and getting Patchy working on files for the survivors than rounding up 324 replacement bodies. I’m not absolutely ruling out Ben being behind the fake Oceanic flight, but I just find it hard to believe that Sayid would agree to work for Ben in the future if he thought for one second that Ben staged the 815 wreckage. Ben would have to have a really, really good explanation for doing that (and I’m not saying that explanation might not be forthcoming, which is why I leave open the possibility that the captain may have been telling the truth).
All that being said, for now I think that someone else set up the phony 815 remains. The captain probably believes that Ben is behind it, though, so it’s not like he’s purposefully lying—he probably never thought to second-guess whatever Widmore told him. And for all we know, maybe Widmore also honestly believes that Ben masterminded the bogus crash. I say this because I don’t think Widmore is behind the recovered wreckage, either. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a third party involved in the battle for the Island, and that this organization is playing Ben and Widmore against each other while advancing its own agenda in the process.
Who might this third party be? I come back to Abaddon… While I think Widmore and Abaddon obviously are connected because the helicopter team couldn’t have launched their mission from Widmore’s freighter without Widmore knowing about it, I’m not convinced that Abaddon works for Widmore. I think Abaddon works for someone else—and I think that person is “the economist” who also employed Elsa (if the captain's first name begins with an "R," then it could be him, but I doubt it). This mystery person and his organization could be fooling Widmore into lending them money and resources to help them get what they want. Yes, Widmore knows about the Island and probably wants to find it for his own reasons, but I think there’s another group with a more sinister agenda that is playing Widmore like a puppet. Ben may or may not know about this other group… but if he does know about them, he didn’t tell Locke!
One last idea I had on this subject... what if everyone other than the Lostaways (and perhaps Desmond, Juliet and Penny) is "bad," and the Lostaways were literally brought to the Island BY the Island to help protect it? Remember Locke's words from Season One: "Every single one of us was brought here for a reason." It may not seem possible, now that we know that Sayid is at one point working for Ben in the future, and that not all of the O6 want to return, but I think it would be kind of cool if in the very end, the Flight 815 survivors each played their own role in ridding the Island of everyone that shouldn't be there and then they leave it in peace. I haven't thought this through, so there is no need to point out the ten million things wrong with this theory... I just think it would be interesting if it ended up being The Lostaways Trying to Save the Island vs. Everyone Else Trying to Exploit It.
I SEEM TO RECOGNIZE YOUR FACE HAUNTING, FAMILIAR, YET... I CAN'T SEEM TO PLACE IT
The last freighter scene of the night was the one many of us have been anticipating for months, ever since it was made known at Comic-Con that Michael would be returning to the series. Bravo to those of you who managed to avoid the ultra-high level of spoilers about this subject—that is something to be proud of. I wish I had been surprised.
When Doc Ray introduced Michael to Sayid and Desmond as “Kevin Johnson,” there was a millisecond of tension as we all wondered whether either of them would blow Michael’s cover. I had no doubt that Sayid would be able to pull off the charade, but I wasn’t sure that Desmond would. Then I got to wondering, “Has Desmond ever even met Michael?” I can’t remember that far back. I’m sure they met on the Island, if only briefly. We know that Desmond surely heard Michael yelling “WAAAALLLLLLTTTT!” at one point or another at the very least. Even Jacob was like, “Will someone just reunite this guy and his son already? He’s giving me a headache!”
I don’t feel like it makes much sense to speculate about what’s going on with Michael, since it looks like we’ll be getting information in the next episode regarding what he’s been up to. I will admit to being very curious about the whereabouts of Walt. Speaking of Walt, I should probably mention a few ideas I’ve seen on the message boards:
- Some people think that Kevin Johnson is not Michael, but rather the actor who played Michael now playing a grown-up Walt. If that ends up being the case, even I may have to stop watching the show. - It has been mentioned that perhaps the banging on the pipes that Sayid heard was Michael trying to communicate via Morse code—either to Sayid, or somehow to Ben. That’s definitely a possibility, but I think it was just some other crazy person aboard the ship who was banging his or her head against a pipe or something like that. There weren’t any breaks in the banging. And remember, that scene took place before we learned that several crew members had gone berserk. Sayid was convinced that someone was making the sound on purpose… it might have been just a small thing that was put in the episode to give Sayid another reason to believe the captain when he later claimed that Regina had gone insane and that others had, too. - I’m going to cover the subject of the Oceanic Six later, but since I have seen a lot of people argue that Michael MUST be one of the O6 because we have now seen him again, I feel it’s appropriate to mention here that that argument doesn’t really make sense. Just because we’ve now seen Michael off of the Island and on the freighter does not mean he is one of the Oceanic Six. Until we see him in his own future-flash, there is no evidence that he makes it any further than the freighter. Having said that, I don’t doubt that other Lostaways make it back to the mainland but aren’t touted as part of the O6 and live life on the down-low after returning. So that could also be Michael's fate.
BABY DID A BAD BAD THING
On the Island, Sun grows more and more convinced that the helicopter peeps are either up to no good (Charlotte), or totally clueless (Daniel). I think her conversation with Daniel was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. I was dying when she said she was pregnant and he was all awkward and responded, “Oh, you’re… wow, that’s… Congratulations!” I was sad that there wasn’t more Daniel in this episode.
After realizing that Nerd Boy is powerless, Sun decides to take matters into her own hands and orders Jin to gather up food for the journey over to Locke’s camp. While Kate cooperated and drew Sun a map, Juliet figures out Sun’s plan and tries to stop her and Jin from taking off. Sun wouldn’t listen, which led Juliet to utter the line that had viewers across the nation yelling, “OH NO SHE DIDN’T!” simultaneously: “Jin, your wife had an affair.”
I was really shocked that Juliet played that card—I didn’t see that one coming. But I should have, because back in my own write-up for “D.O.C.”, I declared it a "dumb, dumb move" when Sun told Juliet about Baldy. At least Sun got to smack Juliet afterward, right?
In all seriousness, I would’ve done the same thing if I were Juliet. While I don’t blame Sun for not trusting Juliet’s claims about pregnant women dying, we viewers know that the danger Juliet described is very real. From the viewer’s perspective (not Sun’s), nothing Juliet has done has proven her to be an eeeevil person at her core, so she acted out of desperation to save the lives of Sun and her unborn baby by saying the only thing that she knew would get Jin (at the very least) to stay put.
I THOUGHT I TOLD YA, HEY... WHAT GOES AROUND COMES BACK AROUND
Awkwardness is in the air after Jin storms off and then Sun tries to explain her side of the story while Bernard is standing between them like a doofus wanting to go fishing. Jin chooses to bust out with Bernard, which leads to a short but nonetheless important conversation about karma (I'm not going to attempt to explain the real meaning of karma, let's just stick with the simplified definition, because that's how Bernard meant it... simply put, "you reap what you sow"). Bernard essentially says that Rose would now rather risk her life (because of the possibility of her cancer returning) by leaving the Island than stay with Locke, who they believe to be a murderer. He hints that bad things will befall Locke and the group that stayed with him because when “you make bad choices, bad things happen to you.” While we know that something unsavory is going to go down at the barracks for those who sided with Locke, we also know that some of the Lostaways who left the Island will grow desperate to return, and that their desperation seems to stem from guilt. So I believe that while Bernard’s cautionary words about “bad choices” are definitely foreshadowing something, I’m not so sure they’re going to end up applying only to Locke, if they end up applying to him at all.
PLEASE FORGIVE ME, I KNOW NOT WHAT I DO
After the Boys Only Fishing Trip, Jin quickly forgives Sun (and admits that he hadn’t exactly been Spouse of the Year, either), and only asks for assurance that the baby is his. Sun confirms that it is, and then tells him that they do in fact need to stay with Jack’s group in hopes of getting off the Island. Even Juliet and Sun make up. Love-fest on the beach!
And now, onto the flashes…
AND THE CRADLE WILL ROCK
When it comes right down to it, there are only a few major issues that arose from Sun’s flash-forwards. There’s pretty much nothing at all to discuss from Jin’s flashbacks; they didn’t really provide us with any new information on his character. Though I did laugh out loud when the subtitles showed him yelling “I will kill you!” after that other dude swiped his taxi.
I (along with most people I’ve talked to) was pretty faked out about what was going on with both characters’ flashes until the very end. I did think that Jin was trying to get to the hospital to be with Sun. And while I had been doubting that Jin was one of the Oceanic Six (because he wasn’t being recognized by anyone), I still assumed his scenes were taking place in the future, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Even when he first showed up at the room of the Ambassador’s daughter, I was like, “That ass! He’s back to his old ways—putting work before family! He went to work for her dad again?!?! This is a bunch of crap!” Not until he commented that he had only been married for two months did it dawn on me that it was a flashback… and that was pretty much the last second of Jin’s scenes.
With Sun’s flash-forwards, I was also misled. I suspected that something freaky was going on with the baby. First off, Sun went into labor after watching Dead Nikki’s awful TV show, “Exposé,” which couldn’t have been a good sign. Then she said, “Something is wrong” when she called emergency services. Her normal doctor was replaced by some other guy in the delivery room, and this new doctor declared that the baby was “in distress.” I was positive that Dharma/ Widmore/ Hanso/ Jacob/ Smokey/ Abaddon was overseeing the delivery and was going to steal the baby. That, or the baby was going to have horns or be green with purple polka-dots or something (you may recall that these were my fears about Aaron, too).
But none of that happened. Ji Yeon came into the world, and all was well. Except that I was cursing Jin for not getting there in time.
YOU’RE GONE… GONE… HOW IN THE WORLD WILL I GO ON?
No one believes me, but as Miss M and RK can attest to, I did NOT cry during the final scene when Hurley, Sun and Ji Yeon visited the cemetery. I think it was because I was so certain that there would be some strange twist. I kept thinking, “OK, this is the episode that the producers wanted to end with before the show goes on hiatus because they said it had a mini-cliffhanger.” So I kept waiting for the cliffhanger. And it didn’t come. In retrospect, I feel that the cliffhanger was Michael’s reappearance. Sometimes it’s hard for those of us who are really obsessed with the show to remember that the vast majority of the millions of people who tune in every week do NOT read the message boards or show-related sites, and so they probably either didn’t know or forgot that Michael was coming back.
Or, the fact that Jin’s tombstone listed his date of death as 9/22/2004, the date of the Flight 815 crash, might also be considered a cliffhanger. It certainly is the cause of the biggest debate I’ve seen on the boards in a looong time: Is Jin dead, or not?
But before I attempt to break down the arguments for or against Jin’s death, let’s pause to consider a few other strange things from this final flash-forward scene. First off, Hurley flew all the way to Korea to join Sun and her daughter for this most personal of moments (those golden tickets come in handy). More importantly, he was glad that none of the other Six made the trip:
SUN: I can't believe you came all this way. HURLEY: Are you kidding? Is anyone else coming? SUN: No. HURLEY: Good.
What is up with that? We know Kate has Aaron, so I guess she had a good excuse for not flying halfway around the world. But what about Jack? It seems out of character for him not to rise to the occasion, especially if all we’ve seen so far points to him still being gung-ho about leaving the Island early on. Most people think that Kate’s trial was near the end of 2006, much later than Ji Yeon’s birth (mid-2005). At Kate’s trial, Jack was still spouting off the Oceanic Six story with such conviction that Kate thought he was starting to believe it. And at what was most likely a much earlier point in time, Jack told Hurley that they would never “go back.” Perhaps Ji Yeon’s birth came shortly after the squabble that Hurley and Jack got into at the mental institution while playing basketball, so Jack didn't want to see Hurley again so soon after. But then again—would Hurley have been able to leave the mental institution to fly to Korea?
Since Hurley’s flash-forwards are hard to place in the overall timeline, suffice it to say that for one reason or another, Hurley was glad that he and Sun weren’t going to be joined by Jack, Kate or Sayid. It may mean that he holds all of them somewhat responsible for whatever ends up happening to the rest of the Lostaways, or it may mean that it would be too hard for him to face the rest of them and “keep up appearances” for the media while in a bigger group, or it may simply mean that Sun is the only one of The Six that he likes. But believe you me, his words definitely mean something.
The other thing I’d like to touch upon before getting into the “Jin: Still Alive or Definitely Dead?” debate is that I feel more affected by this final scene now that I’m thinking about it again three days later (I’m currently on a flight back to colder temperatures—boo!). Regardless of what fate has befallen Jin, Hurley and Sun are mourning him at the grave site. We don’t know if they’re mourning his death, or that they don’t think they’ll ever see him again, or the fact that he can’t be there with them but is otherwise alive and well on the Island, but make no mistake—they are mourning. I think that unfortunately for a subset of us hardcore fans of the show (cough, cough), we are usually so busy trying to figure out the next twist or searching for the next clue that some of the more poignant scenes lose their impact. I am ashamed to say that I’m programmed well enough to have known that they were going to show a close-up of Jin’s grave, and that whatever date was on it would be a huge clue. I muttered, “Someone’s got a screenshot translated already, I’m sure of it,” just moments after the credits rolled (we couldn’t catch what was on the tombstone on our hotel room’s TV, and we didn’t have Tivo, either!). Never for a second did I even pause to consider the fact that Jin may very well be dead, which would make me very depressed indeed. It wasn’t until my husband emailed me, “Done crying yet?” that I realized I had cheated myself out of a scene that should have packed a significant emotional punch. When I get home I’ll watch it again, properly this time.
DEAD OR ALIVE
Let me say this upfront: I haven't made up my mind yet as to what I think happened to Jin, although I certainly hope he is not dead. Therefore, I am leaning toward that camp right now. Below, I am simply reporting arguments I’ve seen on the message boards for the two different scenarios.
1) Jin is still alive, and is still on the Island. I’ll admit that when I read that the tombstone listed 9/22/2004 for Jin’s death, I immediately thought, “Oh, good, that means he’s not dead.” I have since realized that this was a faulty conclusion to jump to, as I’ll explain in a second. But for those who believe Jin is still alive, the date on his grave is the first bit of evidence. This is because we obviously all know that Jin didn’t die on that day. Other supporting evidence includes: - Sun called out for Jin in the heat of the moment during her labor, and wouldn’t have done so if he were really dead. The people who cite this as proof of Jin's well-being most likely also believe that Jack’s dad may somehow be alive in the future, and that’s why Jack referenced his father twice in “Through the Looking Glass.” - If Jin is dead, that doesn’t leave very many people for the Oceanic Six to feel like they had to go back to the Island to for, now does it? To put it bluntly, we can’t expect Jack or Hurley to end up feeling guilty about leaving Sawyer or Locke in Othersville. Sure, there’s still Rose, Bernard, Juliet, Claire and those kids they never show anymore, but all in all it’s not like there are a ton of Lostaways who would be left on the Island that The Six would feel responsible for or emotionally connected to. Especially since many assume something bad must happen to Claire in order for Kate to end up with Aaron. Yeah, maybe Jack would want to go back for Juliet--but then why wasn't he acting that way in Kate and Hurley's flash-forwards? And maybe Juliet gets off the Island--she wasn't on the flight so wouldn't be counted as one of the O6 anyway. But back to the original point... If Jin is dead, that would give the O6 even less of a reason to want to make it back to the Island. Remember that Dead Charlie told Hurley that “They need you… you KNOW they need you!” and Abaddon asked Hurley, “Are they still alive?” It doesn’t seem likely that Dead Charlie or Abaddon were talking about all of the no-name extras. - If there ends up being a “only one more spot left” scenario during the rescue (especially if it is by helicopter), Jin would force Sun to leave without him and could therefore still be alive and well on the Island. - Nothing that Hurley or Sun said in the final scene could be interpreted to mean that Jin is definitely, definitely deceased. If The Powers That Be wanted to make it clear to viewers that he was dead, then one of the characters would’ve said something more explicit at the grave site, like, “Why did you have to die?” or “I hope you’re looking down on your daughter.” Instead, this ambiguous ending could be the “mini-cliffhanger” the producers referenced in the past. We’ll only get resolution when we see the events of the rest of Season Four unfold.
2) Sorry, suckas... Jin is dead. The other side of the coin is that the producers could’ve thought viewers would understand that the “mini-cliffhanger” was meant to be: “Aww, crap--Jin is dead! How did he die?” rather than what ended up happening... everyone scratching their heads at the end of the episode and asking each other, “Wait a second--is Jin dead?” The end result is that we fans still need to wait to see how everything unfolds for Jin. But some feel that it is very clear that since Jin wasn’t with Sun in the future, and since Hurley and Sun felt that it was important to take Ji Yeon to Jin’s grave, that Jin is dead. The date on the tombstone is just a red herring… of course the date needed to be listed as the date of the 815 crash—we all know that that is part of the cover-up story that all of The Six have been adhering to (we just don’t know why). Even if Jin ends up dying during his and Sun’s escape from the Island, his date of date would have to be recorded as 9/22/2004. Other evidence for Jin being dead includes: - Jin would not willingly be separated from Sun… remember: “Wherever Sun go, I go.” So he probably died before she escaped or died while they were both trying to leave. In order to protect her baby, she chose to continue on and leave the Island. - Sun has unknowingly been foreshadowing his death, by using phrases like “my baby” rather than “our baby” in recent episodes. - Sun calling out to Jin in the delivery room was nothing more than a momentary lapse of sanity amidst a scary, hormone-fueled labor. Similarly, Jack talking about his dad still being alive only occurred because The Mad Doctor was all drugged up. - Jin has redeemed himself—he finally admitted that he was a crappy husband and apologized to Sun—and we all know what that means. Any time a character fully redeems him/herself on the Island, he/she seems to kick the bucket. Shannon, Ana Lucia, Charlie… some might even say Mr. Eko: they all had defining moments of self-awareness and then died shortly thereafter. - There was no talk between Hurley and Sun about ever seeing Jin again, or trying to get back to the Island. Everything they said at the grave site could be interpreted to mean Jin is dead just as easily as it could be interpreted that he is still alive.
Finally, some have wondered if maybe Jin is one of the two people that Jack said initially survived but then ended up dying shortly after the crash. Unless Jack meant that those two people had only survived for a few hours after the plane went down (rather than days, which was how I interpreted his comments at Kate’s trial), I don’t think Jin could’ve been one of those two and still have the date of death on his gravestone be 9/22/2004.
The bigger question to me is, if we know that Sun got pregnant on the Island but the world at large was told that Jin died in the crash, did Sun tell the media that she was already pregnant on the flight? Did she want the doctors to think she was delivering a month early or something, and that's why she said "something is wrong" when she called emergency services, when in actuality she knew she was delivering on time? It was roughly a month after landing on the Island that Sun got pregnant, so "delivering a month early" could be a plausible cover story that she used.
BODYSNATCHERS
Speaking of cover stories... something has been bugging me for a while now--ever since Naomi told Charlie that all of the passengers' bodies aboard Flight 815 had been found at the bottom of the ocean. What's bugging me is this: how exactly are they explaining the Oceanic Six then? Is the story something like, "We thought all 324 bodies were accounted for when we came across the wreckage, but there were these eight people who didn't die on impact and they somehow swam up and over to an island, and then two of them died"? I hope we get to see the press conference for the Oceanic Six.
And speaking of the O6...
WHO ARE THE OCEANIC SIX?
(Disclaimer: I have no "official" word on who the O6 are, this is just my opinion, so don't worry, I don't think you can consider what I say below to be a spoiler.)
Before “Eggtown” (Kate’s flash-forward), the previews said, “Another member of the Oceanic Six will be revealed." After the episode aired, a lot of people thought we were cheated out of learning a new O6 member, because everyone had already figured that Kate made the cut, since we had seen her meet with Future Jack in the Season Three finale.
Before “Ji Yeon,” the previews stated that we would learn “the rest of the Oceanic Six.” I therefore had assumed that two people would be revealed, because I had previously not thought Aaron was one of the O6 because it was not made explicitly clear in “Eggtown.”
Well guess what? I fell right into the trap that the producers had set, and I wasn't the only one. In retrospect, I think the previews for “Ji Yeon” were misleading on purpose. They said “the rest” so that everyone would continue to think, until the very end of the hour, that the flash scenes were in the future for both Sun and Jin. This is the same reason why I don’t think they ever made Aaron’s status crystal clear. When "Eggtown" aired, they already knew what lay ahead for the Lostaways in episode seven, so they wanted to leave the identities of the Oceanic Six a little vague until after “Ji Yeon” ran. Further, the producers put out what is known as “foilers”… meaning fake spoilers. They listed both Jin and Sun as members of the O6 and this spread like wildfire across spoiler sites (I found all of this out after the fact). This was to throw people off the scent and leave everyone truly surprised by the ending of “Ji Yeon.” As Bobby Brown might say, it’s their prerogative to do this sort of thing, and I have to kind of laugh at people who are mad that the spoilers they read didn’t pan out. Why do people even want to watch the show if they already know every major thing that’s going to happen? Why waste an hour of your life each Thursday night?
Taking all of the above into account, I’m pretty sure that the Oceanic Six are: Kate, Aaron, Sun, Jack, Hurley and Sayid. For every argument there is as to why Aaron “shouldn’t count,” there’s an equally valid argument to make for why he should. Even the producers listed both sides of the argument about Aaron in their podcast for “Eggtown.” They have promised a definitive list of the O6 in the near future, and so I’m hoping that they’ll provide clarity in the podcast scheduled for 3/20. I’ll definitely include whatever they say in my next write-up, fear not.
OFFICIAL PODCAST DEBRIEF
Below are the highlights of the 3/9/08 audio podcast. Locke fans will be especially pleased with some of the things they cover--I know I was. As always, things the producers discuss in the podcasts can be considered slightly spoilerish, so if you don't want to know things that will or will not be covered in the rest of Season Four, then skip ahead to the next bold heading...
(This isn't a word-for-word transcript, but I definitely captured the gist of the comments)
Q. What is the purpose of The Tempest, other than to kill all the people on the Island? A. Do you need another use other than that? What about the Arrow hatch? That was just built into the side of a mountain and had a glass eye in it. [e: That means the glass eye is going to come back into play soon, I'm sure of it!] The Tempest is an important station. It was on Kelvin’s map in the hatch. This was our attempt to get some more Island history in. At some point, the Dharma initiative was gassed, and we were wondering where that gas came from. The fact that the Dharma group was supposedly a bunch of hippies, but they had this huge station of chemical weaponry is kind of interesting and sets up for some story-telling later. That can be interpreted many ways… one of which is that not all of their missions were entirely peaceful. Another is that the Dharma group was aware that there were hostile forces on the Island and they needed to protect themselves.
Q. Is Charles Widmore really the person behind “Not Penny’s Boat?” Isn’t that Penny’s father? How can it not be her boat? A. We got a big reveal here. We had Ben saying, “Widmore sent the boat, but I don’t know why he’s looking for the Island.” Do you think he’s lying about that? Perhaps. Will we find out whether or not Ben actually knows why Widmore is looking for the Island by the end of the season? Yes.
Q. Is this the last we’ve seen of Harper? A. No. She’s still on the Island and she’s still an Other.
Hopefully by the end of “Ji Yeon” many of your questions about the Oceanic Six will be answered. [e: Uh.... wishful thinking.]
They had a round of very funny questions comparing Gilligan’s Island to Lost.
Q. In the Lost “Missing Pieces,” in the final one, “So It Begins,” Christian Shepard tells Vincent to go get Jack. We also see him sitting in a chair in Jacob’s cabin. Will we see more of him this season? A. Yes.
Q. Will we get to see Smokey again any time soon? A. Yes. But we have a rule… every time we show the monster, we want to evolve its mythology and show you something else about its nature. So you may learn something else about it.
Q. Locke used to be my favorite character. But now his actions make him tougher and tougher to defend. Will we see that his antics are justified? [e: No, this question was not sent in by me. But they apparently thought it was sent in by Terry O'Quinn, because he has been asking them this same question.] A. Locke is a man who is on a journey. And his journey, like many Biblical characters, is one that has many periods of doubting and uncertainty and frustration… and the occasional Emmy win. Terry O'Quinn has asked us many of these same questions. I think it would be less interesting to see only the “Season One Locke” for the entire series. It’s more interesting to see the other sides of his character and him struggling to figure out what his purpose is. I think you will see a more invigorated and re-energized Locke by the end of the season. In order to truly have faith, you need to have doubt at some point. [e gets down on knees and praises the Heavens.]
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR
This week's video podcast was pretty good. It's 5 minutes 30 seconds if you are interested:
BAD MEDICINE IS WHAT I NEED
I'm filling my prescription after I post this write-up.
I'VE BEEN LOOKING SO LONG AT THESE PICTURES OF YOU THAT I ALMOST BELIEVE THAT THEY'RE REAL
Shout-out to JB, who told me about Dead Charlie's real-life photography exhibit... read an article about it here.
ALL I'VE GOT IS A PHOTOGRAPH
And finally, shout-out to EA, who had her picture taken with Karl (Blake Bashoff in real life) recently. He is currently in a play on Broadway. I hope Alex doesn't come find EA and beat her down! Alas, he spilled no Island secrets.
And with that, I am off to enjoy Xanadu on Broadway (I'll look for Karl myself in case he's roaming around the area). I'm positive that Xanadu will hold Lost-related clues.
Pass the cigars around the island - Jin is the baby daddy!
I really enjoyed D.O.C. While there was not as much "hidden" stuff in the episode as there has been in the past few installments, the multiple story lines definitely kept moving along and it is clear that they have been building up to an action-packed Final Four. As I have been traveling since this episode aired, I am relieved (and so are my fingers) to have less to report on this time around, as everything that happened was relatively (key word) straightforward.
And a big "thank you" to my brother for pulling information together for me while I was gone!
ANOTHER CATCH-22
I can't exactly put my finger on why, but I was immensely digging Sun's flashbacks. At the end of the episode, I was struck by how complex of a character she is (and I HATE when that term is slapped on a person just because they deal with some "issue," so trust that I paused before writing that to make sure I meant it). We knew that she had been rebelling against her father from a young age, that she was having an affair with Baldy, that she had learned English (unbeknownst to Jin), that she was planning to leave him at the airport but had a last-minute change of heart, and that until she arrived on the island, she hadn't killed anyone. Then she killed Colleen on the island, and we found out in this episode that she was actually the one responsible for Jin's "promotion" to Senior Beater-Upper at her father's "company," which she undoubtedly grew to regret down the road. But, one could argue that she turned Jin over to do her father's bidding only to spare him from what apparently was an even worse fate - to suffer "great shame" if it was made public that his mother had been a Lady of the Night. I love love LOVED the scene when she visited Jin's father, by the way - it actually brought a tear to my eye. And I think the writers did an excellent job (over the course of all of Sun and Jin's flashbacks to date) of showing how "Mr. and Mrs. Kwon's" relationship has come full circle - from a head-over-heels couple who fell in love despite their societal class differences, to a deceitful and somewhat violent marriage on the verge of collapse, back to being lovey-dovey over the news of Sun's pregnancy. If you were to re-watch Season One, trust me, you would be impressed with how they have slowly but surely brought out the strong side of Sun's character that we only saw glimpses of in the beginning of the series. Two other scenes I enjoyed were when she was all up in Juliet's face at the beginning demanding answers, and when she threatened Jin's birth mother at the end. Sun is by far my favorite female character on the show (I know that's not really saying much, though).
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME BIG POP-PA
In the "some people are way more nutso than I am" category, check out this page that shows possible links (through great feats of translation) between Sun's father's company and The Hanso Foundation, and this page that focuses on the Paik Automotive logo to prove the same thing. Apparently these were the same suspicions raised in last summer's "The Lost Experience" interactive game for Crazy Fans. And lest you forgot, The Hanso Foundation is the financial backer of The DHARMA Initiative.
BABIES R US, IT WAS NOT
Back on the island, for some inexplicable reason, Sun not only decided to go with Juliet to the Medical Hatch, but also spilled her entire life story. While I can see why Sun may have figured that it was worth the risk to go with Juliet to learn about the health of her baby, why she would ever think it was a good idea to share with Juliet that she had cheated on Jin was beyond me. Now Juliet can use that against her. Dumb, dumb move.
In the medical hatch, we also saw what became of all of the decorations that had been in the room Claire stayed in during her abduction... they were all put into the secret room that was apparently where they brought the mothers to die. ?!?! Creepy.
Of course, the four most important things we gleaned from Juliet and Sun's scenes are that: 1) the baby was conceived on the island and is therefore Jin's, 2) no woman who got pregnant on the island made it past their second trimester, giving Sun basically two months left to live, 3) men are VERY fertile on the island, even if they were sterile off of the island, and 4) Juliet has been leaving reports on her time with the Lostaways for Ben on a tape recorder in the Medical Hatch.
Let's take these one by one:
1) The baby is Jin's
There were a lot of conspiracy theorists out there who thought that Juliet only SAID that so that she could report to Ben that Sun conceived on the island. Then, if Sun ended up not dying (because she had actually conceived pre-island), Juliet could finally claim victory with the treatment she had devised, and Ben would let her leave. However, the producers have already shot this one down, as you will see in the podcast debrief section. The baby IS Jin's.
Other people disputed the timing that Juliet stated (90 - 53 days = making the Date of Conception approximately day 37 on the island) - saying that technically Jin and Sun were still in a fight at that point in time because Jin had found out that Sun spoke English (Day 33). They didn't reconcile (remember, she tried to poison him so he wouldn't leave?) until the moment Jin left on the raft (Day 44), and that was literally right before he got onto the raft, so there was no lovin' until he got back (Day 48). You would THINK that the writers would be more careful than that, so I am not going to worry too much about this one and chalk it up to Juliet's estimate being slightly off.
On a related note, I must admit that I was really surprised that the baby was Jin's. I thought for sure that the reason why they had the flashback scene where Jin's father talked about raising Jin even though he couldn't be sure that he was actually his biological father was going to be a parallel to Jin unknowingly raising someone else's biological son. I also thought that it would be the easier way, quite frankly, to wrap up this whole story line - Sun would live, but she would live forever with the reminder and guilt of her infidelity. Now the plot, as they say, has thickened.
2) Sun's fate
So now, Sun apparently has two months to live. Since we are near the ninety-day mark three seasons in, two more months could roughly translate to be two more seasons. And guess what? It has widely been rumored that the show will end after Season Five. Sounds like part of a Grand Finale plan to me...
The question has also been posed on the boards about why Sun doesn't ask Juliet if she can abort the baby if they both know that neither she nor the baby will live otherwise? I have no idea if they will couch this subject on the show - but I highly, highly doubt it. You would think that if Sun was thinking that way, she would've already brought it up to Juliet.
To me, the bigger question is - is anyone going to tell Jin what's going on? Technically, only a small handful of people on the beach know about the situation with pregnant women on the island - Kate, Jack and now Sun (I double-checked the transcripts, Charlie and Claire were never told the whole story). Will anyone let Jin know that Sun's time is now limited?
3) Ultra-fertileness (I made that term up, can you tell?)
The producers repeated in the podcast that the fact that men have five times the normal sperm count while on the Island may be one of the most important things we've learned to date. I think it goes along with Patchy's statement about how everyone heals more quickly on the island, with Locke's ability to walk, and with Rose's cancer disappearing. Admittedly, Rose only FELT like her cancer was gone, we never got any hard proof, but if you remember in her flashback, she and Bernard had visited that bush doctor guy who told her of certain spots on the earth that had healing properties. I had always chalked the island up to being one of those (or perhaps only certain parts of the main island). I think the whole mega-sperm-count thing goes along with that. And quite frankly, I also think that is pretty gross! It is quite obvious that men write the show, by and large. I think in the next episode it will be revealed that men can do 100 times the normal amount of push-ups before tiring, and that they can chug 20 beers without feeling any effect. Actually, now that I think about it, there always had been a theory about The Others having super-strength - if you remember Ethan's early fights with Jack, he seemed to be almost robotic (until Charlie shot him six times). Perhaps all of these things are connected.
4) Juliet's reports
JULIET: Ben, it's six a.m. on Saturday morning. Kwon is pregnant, the fetus is healthy and was conceived on-Island with husband, he was sterile before they got here. I'm still working on getting samples from the other women, I should have Austen's soon. I'll report back when I know more. [She turns off the recorder] JULIET: [Pauses] I hate you.
I will start off on this topic by saying that as lame as it was that Sun told Juliet about her infidelity, it was even lamer that she did not follow her back into the hatch. Hellooooo?!?!?! It was obvious at that point that Juliet was up to something sketchy. I thought she was going to go back in there to somehow email the ultrasound pictures to someone, or go into another-as-of-yet-unrevealed secret room, but instead she left the audio report for Benry. And then of course she just had to make sure that we all know just how conflicted she is by dramatically stating (to no one) that she hates him.
This scene gave us two major bits of information:
1) Benry probably isn't too far away if this was their predetermined spot for leaving messages for each other... and, 2) Juliet was not sent as a mole to the Lostaway beach because they already knew Sun was pregnant - that genuinely seemed to be a surprise to Juliet. Instead, her purpose on the beach seems to be to take "samples" from all of the women, but of what, we can't be sure. Some people on the boards think that because she specifically mentioned Kate (Austen), that there is a good chance that The Others think Kate will become pregnant because they know about her tryst with Sawyer in the cage, and they know what good odds there are of conceiving on the Island, and that therefore the samples do have to do with seeing who, if anyone, is pregnant. I don't know enough to know what kind of "samples" Juliet could take that could determine pregnancy without being really obvious, though. I hope to God this show doesn't dissolve into Juliet going around trying to hold cups under all the women when they go #1 in the jungle or something. For all we know, the samples could be of something totally unrelated to pregnancy, and the Sun news was just a bonus for The Others.
RETURN OF THE PATCH
I just *knew* he wasn't going to stay dead.
Patchy was back in all his glory, in what appeared to be a response to the flare gun being fired. This immediately caused many people to assume that Parachutist Chick is an Other, and that she was expected. More on that shortly.
First we must deal with how Patchy has returned to life. The producers basically answered this question in the podcast debrief, but since they also said it WILL be quickly referenced on the show, I will not mention it here. If you want to know in advance, read the Official Podcast Debrief section below. If not, then rest assured that you will find out how Patchy survived at some point during the remaining four episodes.
When Parachutist Chick was rattling on and on in all those different tongues (at least five), it was one of those moments when I once again regretted not learning more languages back in the day. French has gotten me nowhere except being able to read some signs in Canada, and knowing how to order a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (le croque-monsieur!) while in Paris. French Chick/Rousseau hasn't even spoken French since the freakin' pilot episode in the radio transmission?!?! C'est la vie.
I really hope that no one who reads this blog was naive enough to think that Parachutist Chick ACTUALLY said "Thank you for helping me" to Patchy, per his translation.
No, she said.... drum roll, please: "I am not alone."
D'oh!
But before we get into the theories around THAT statement, we must first address the fact that she specifically spoke a bunch of different languages to ensure she knew which ones the Lostaways DIDN'T understand, but Patchy did. I mean, why else would she say everything else in English later on? This is a major reason why a lot of people think that she, too, is an Other. She could've been trying to tell Patchy that there were other people with her that he needed to go look for.
The flip-side of that argument is that perhaps she knew that Patchy was bad, and she was lying and telling him that she wasn't alone more out of fear than anything else. Kind of like, "Hey, I'm not alone, there's five really big guys with me and they will kick your ass if you do anything to me!" But I don't really buy that one.
Another possibility is that she thinks Patchy is someone he is not. As he was the one who was actually helping her wound, she may have thought that he was with some "friendly" group that she was told about, but didn't really know how to identify. Since he didn't respond back to her statement, this is possible. It would have been an ideal opportunity for him to get more information from her, but he didn't.
SO... WHO IS SHE?
In my book, the only concrete piece of evidence we have about this woman's identity is the fact that she was carrying a photo of Desmond with her, and said his name when she first came to. This is why I think that the most likely scenario is that she was sent there to specifically look for Desmond. It doesn't necessarily mean that she is "good," all it means is that her purpose was to find him. She could've been sent by Penny, or she could've been sent by the Widmore Corporation (at the behest of Penny's father). I'm still leaning toward "she was sent by Penny" because the Catch-22 book was in Portuguese, which is what the guys in the tent who reported to Penny were speaking. Additionally, this would explain why she may know nothing about Flight 815 (or only knew what she heard on TV), because Desmond was not connected to that flight, so it wouldn't be Penny OR Widmore's concern.
However, it does appear that Patchy appeared on the scene right after Hurley fired the flare gun. So it could be that Parachutist Chick is in some way related to The Others and had a pre-arranged signal to meet Patchy. We know that there were some people, like Bushy Eyebrows Long Eyelashes Guy, who came to and from the Island often. And we know that ever since Desmond turned the fail-safe key, The Others lost communication with the outside world. If Locke really did blow up the submarine and/or hide it, then perhaps Parachutist Chick is an Other who had no way to get back to the Island other than to fly close enough to it and then eject when the magnetic force pulled down the helicopter?
Regarding the other people who may or may not be with her... options are:
1) Penny IS on the island as well, rendering Desmond's visions accurate. 2) She was lying, no one else is with her. 3) Other Others are with her.
DO NOT EVEN MENTION, MUCH LESS THINK, THE P WORD!!!
PARACHUTIST: Who are you? HURLEY: Hugo Reyes. I crashed here on Oceanic Flight 815. A bunch of us survived, is that why you're here, were you looking for us? PARACHUTIST: 815. Flight 815? The one from Sydney. HURLEY: Yeah! PARACHUTIST: No, that's not possible. HURLEY: Yeah I know. It wasn't easy but we found food, and a hatch... PARACHUTIST: [Interrupting] No. No, Flight 815 they, they found the plane. There were no survivors. They were all dead. HURLEY: What?!
So before anyone goes down the path of thinking that the producers lied back in Season One when they assured everyone that the characters are NOT in that awful limbo between Heaven and Hell known as Purgatory, you should know that the producers stated once again, just a few days ago in the latest podcast, that the Lostaways are STILL not in Purgatory. Phew.
OK, now that that's out of the way, what meaning do the Parachutist Chick's statements about Flight 815 have for our beloved Lostaways?
Possible scenarios:
1) She was lying. If she is an Other, or "bad" in some other sense, she may want the Lostaways to lose hope and/or question their sanity. 2) She is telling the truth as SHE knows it. If she was sent there to look for Desmond and is in no way connected to The Others or Flight 815, then she may relaying what she knows to be true from the media. We know from Patchy's video room that there was a search for Flight 815 right after it disappeared in September. What we do not know is how that search was brought to closure. There is a possibility that there was a huge cover-up to make it seem like Flight 815 had crashed and everyone on board had died. Before you think that the media couldn't be manipulated, go see Wag the Dog. Yes, it's a fictional movie, but still. Don't be naive, people!!! 3) They were never on Flight 815. The "real" Flight 815 did crash and everyone did die, but the flight that the Lostaways were on was a different flight, that was manipulated by The Others, DHARMA or some other group, to have that specific set of people on it (who believed they were on Flight 815). 4) Desmond did something with his time-traveling that changed what happened (don't ask me to explain this one, because I can't).
I vote for #2.
OK, OK, *WE GET IT!*
Did you notice how they are now trying to make it VERY obvious that characters have been talking to each other off-camera? First, you had Charlie knowing who Patchy was because Kate and Sayid had told him. Then you had Sun saying that Kate and Claire had told her about the presence of the Medical Hatch. I think it's fair to say that we don't need to be complaining about why the Lostaways don't share information anymore.
EVERYBODY WAS KUNG-FU FIGHTING!
You may be wondering where Jin picked up those wicked moves when he threw the beat-down on Patchy. Eagle-eyed viewers spotted old karate trophies in his dad's home. Hi-YA!
OFFICIAL PODCAST DEBRIEF
I have written this section transcript-style for you once again... minus spoilers. The following is what producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof had to say about "D.O.C." and the next episode, "The Brig."
- So we found out that Jin is the daddy. - And that men have 5 times the normal sperm count on the island. That may be the most important salient fact we've learned in three seasons. - The circuit is complete now with their flashback - we learn that Sun was directly responsible for Jin getting promoted to do bad things for her father. She took the money to help Jin avoid shame if he learned about his real mother, but it ended up causing problems in their marriage later when Jin came home with blood on his hands. But she knew the consequences, her father basically told her that he would own Jin after that point. - But what everyone is really talking about is what the parachutist said to Hurley at the end of the episode - that it's impossible that they're the survivors of Flight 815, because they found that plane and there were no survivors of its crash. - Everyone's immediately going to say, "Those guys were lying! It IS purgatory!" What would we say to that? - We would say that we were NOT lying and that the island is still NOT purgatory. - What are the other possibilities then? 1) She's lying. 2) Conspiracy theory - they DID find a plane with bodies on it. Who could be responsible for that? Have you ever seen the movie Capricorn One - where they stage the moon landing? - It will get more interesting in the next episode. She will expand upon her mission. - What's up with Mikhail (Patchy)? We thought he was dead? There are a few explanations for that - 1) The fence was not turned up high enough, so he survived, or 2) He did die and the island brought him back to life. People probably wouldn't like the second answer. He may throw a sentence at an explanation in the future - I would stay tuned for that. But I would go with the first answer. - Let's move on to The Brig. We wrote The Brig [e: They rarely actually WRITE the episodes themselves anymore]. It answers one big question - where the heck has Locke been? What has he been doing, what have The Others been doing? We will find out what they've been doing and where they went or are going. - Here's what I want to know. Last we saw Locke, he was saying good-bye to Kate in the game room. But before that, the last we had seen of him was when the door was opened and his father was sitting there. I would want to see what happened in between those two moments - what he did after he saw his father sitting there. Where did his dad come from? What's up with that? - We've been waiting six weeks to find out how Cooper (Papa Locke) got in the room. And we will find out.
Fan Questions & Answers:
Q. It was hinted at in Season Two that Desmond brought down Flight 815 by not pushing the button. But now the hatch is gone, and the helicopter with the parachutist in it met the same fate. Is this supposed to mean that there is something OTHER than the electromagnetic anomaly causing the crashes? A. That's an interesting question - because we've seen a few crashes now - Yemi's drug plane, Rousseau's research vessel, the Black Rock is in the middle of the jungle... So the button is not the only reason for crashes on the island, but when you are talking about a 747, it's going to take something major to bring you down - more than the average electromagnetic pulse. If you're a major vessel, you're going to need the extra kick of the button not getting pushed to bring you down.
Q. Toward the end of the debate when Hurley and Charlie were debating The Flash versus Superman, there was a blue flash on Hurley's forehead. What was that? A. That was a camera angle that caused an effect that looked like a spark. We never saw it when we edited it, and we don't mean to discount the fact that people saw the blue spark, but we didn't see it or mean for it to be there.
Q. I know that you guys said that there will be scientific or pseudo-scientific explanations for everything in Lost, but I'm hoping that there will be some bordering-on-supernatural elements. Will you at some point revisit the psychic's prediction for Claire's baby and Walt's seeming ability to predict or manipulate future events? Moreover, is there more to The Others obsession with children and babies than just the womens' inability to get pregnant? Are they interested in children who have special abilities? A. Yes to all. And, we were drunk if we ever said there would be scientific explanations for anything. PSEUDO-science is the key - basically, if it's something that could appear in a Michael Crichton novel, like nanobots or dinosaurs or time travel, then that is what pseudo-science is to us. [e: I definitely got the vibe that they were trying to tell people that there will NOT be scientific explanations for everything and that they regret having ever said anything close to that. Which, as you know, is fine by me. Bring on the unicorns!]
Q. Are we going to get back to the four-toed statue any time soon? A. What do you mean by soon? Q. Before the show ends? A. Yes. [e: That means it won't be this season]
WISE WORDS FROM THE BOARDS - I knew something was off with Mikhail saying she was telling him thank you. That dude has shifty eyes...I mean, eye. - If Hell (purgatory) is a beautiful desert island with hot chicks sunbathing, women and food falling out of sky, faster healing, and screaming infants being hauled into the woods away from the camp...then sign me up, Satan! - If they crashed on 9/22/04, then 9/23/04 was “one full day.” And if they’ve been on the island for 90 days, then Christmas is coming in just a few days. - In addition, the "either way, I lose" stuff reiterated some of the themes of the Island, specifically 'inevitability.' Sun tried to spare Jin from shame, but brought it to him anyway. They couldn't have a baby, but she finally got pregnant, and they won't have a baby anyway, because the baby and Sun will die. Just like Desmond trying to save Charlie - the end is inevitable, only the route to get there changes. - Sun is usually pretty smart, but not following Juliet back into the hatch was dumb. Just because someone is nice to you (or, sort of nice to you after scaring you while you’re asleep and taking you on an apparently secret trip to a secret “death room” inside an old hatch) doesn’t mean you should trust them. Although it did allow for a pretty cool scene: Juliet stops the tape recorder and says “I hate you” with a crazed look on her face. - In regards to the wreckage of the "other" Flight 815 that was maybe kinda partially found... perhaps The Others didn't fake it, but the Hanso Foundation -- in conjunction with Widmore Industries, Paik, and whoever else -- did. The Hanso Foundation (via their branch organization the DHARMA Initiative), nutbars that they are, went to that island for a specific purpose. Whatever that purpose was, it was seemingly aborted during "the Purge." I'm not sure how badly The Others really want most of the castaways to stay there, with the exception of Walt, Locke and a couple of the baby mommas. But if Widmore (and, consequently, Hanso) had reason to believe that a new team of "subjects" had crashed there, they may have (and could have more easily) faked a plane crash in order to discourage search parties and sacrifice the Losties as guinea pigs in an attempt to do whatever it is they came to that island to do 20 years ago. Or maybe The Others did it for similar reasons. Or maybe neither of them did it and it's got something to do with Desmond's time-trippin', I don't know. - A con on the media seems the most likely choice to me. The Others must have planted some part of the plane, or a replica of it, meant for the world to find. As far as bodies being identified, if there were no survivors, couldn't everyone have died in an explosion, and there were no human remains left? Maybe the real world just found part of the plane (perhaps the tail was recovered) and the Others put it somewhere to be found.
BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE
Desmond: I said, who are you? Charlie: He's the guy who shot Sayid. Kate told us he lived out in that station that Locke blew up. He's an Other. Hurley: I thought Locke killed that guy with the electro-fence thingy. Desmond: You've got 5 seconds to talk...or I fire this gun, brother. Patchy: That's a flare gun. Desmond: And how do you think it will feel...taking a flare to the chest at this range? Patchy: As your friend pointed out, I already died once this week.
Desmond: You know brother, by my count...you've killed more of them than they've killed of you. Charlie: They started it.
[Jin grabs the phone from Mikhail and shoves it towards Desmond's face] JIN: Phone! CHARLIE: You stole this. PATCHY: How could you respect me if I didn't try? CHARLIE: How about I take your other eye? Would you respect that? PATCHY: [Motions to his ear] Sorry, what?
Sun: [Subtitled] Why didn't you tell me you were Jin's mother? Jin’s Mother: [Subtitled] I gave birth to him. But that does not make me his mother. Sun: [Subtitled] You know how powerful my family is. My husband believes that you are dead. Do not force me to make that a reality.
[Hurley sits with the parachutist. He attempts to make the satellite phone work, and holds it to his ear] HURLEY: [Sarcastically] Mom?
THE FINAL FOUR
5/2 - The Brig 5/9 - The Man Behind the Curtain 5/16 - Greatest Hits (previously called 'The Truth About Lying') 5/23 - Through the Looking Glass - TWO-HOUR SEASON FINALE and special episode afterward
There you have it. I am très excited about "The Brig" - Locke is BACK, baby, YEAH!!!! I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.
But if they were never married and he never was a crappy husband and she never wanted to take off on her own, then she had no reason to learn English, I guess.
ANYWAY... Keamy calls in The Man Formerly Known as Patchy (hooray!) to translate for him. I was totally surprised to see our favorite Soviet, though by now all of these past character cameos shouldn't be such a shock, should they?
OK, so here are my two main thoughts on this new development:
Now, I fully admit that I think there's only like a 5% chance of this playing out since we're careening toward the end of the series, but I thought I'd mention it. It's the only way I can make sense of the situation.
But it wasn't actually that hard to figure out, I was just slow that night. Clearly it was going to turn out to be Widmore's team. After Dead-Eye Sayid informed Fake Locke that he was utterly devoid of emotion and Fake Locke responded that it was probably better that way because of "what's coming," Fake Locke went into the jungle alone to do God knows what. The unseen night-vision people watched Fake Locke leave, saw that Jin was going to take this as his chance to bust out, and then decided to nick everyone in the neck with poisonous darts. One of my top twenty freak-out moments of the series was at the end of Season Two when Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley got taken out by darts in a similar fashion after Michael set them up to be captured by the Others. So this scene brought back all those awful memories. Boo. At least there was no convulsing this time around.
So she busts outta the garden just like Ben busted out in "Dr. Linus" when he decided to try and escape from Ilana and his self-dug grave. It didn't turn out as well for Sun because she ran head-first into a tree and was knocked out cold. Fake Locke disappeared, Ben found her... but when she awoke she could no longer speak English.
Back at the jungle camp site, Widmore's peeps steal Jin and take off. Fake Locke returns and is PISSED. I found it interesting that he didn't act like he cared about anyone except Sayid, whom he slapped awake first, and then immediately asked about Jin. Seems like if Sawyer was one of the candidates Fake Locke would've been a little more concerned about his life. And he basically said "whatever" about Kate and Claire.
Wait, I have an answer to my own question: until they finally remind everyone about that time-traveling scene in the "Previously on Lost" segment. When that happens, except the shootout to follow in that episode.)
In the meantime, Fake Locke reached Hydra and I was honestly shocked to see him come face to face with Widmore already. I loved their "Do you know who I am?" "Do you know who I am?" convo. And after Widmore denied abducting Jin, I found it interesting that Fake Locke once again pulled from Real Locke's memories: "A wise man once said that war is coming to this island." That was, of course, what Widmore said to Real Locke in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham."
How psyched was I to see the return of the Clockwork Orange Brainwashing Rave Room?!?! VERY psyched. Oh, how I loved that room. Did you notice how Jin had to turn on the video just to remind all of the non-diehard viewers where in the hell he was? I thought that was funny.
And #3 was Jin getting all teary-eyed at seeing the Ji-Yeon pics in this episode. Kudos to Daniel Dae Kim for bringing it!
Can I get a "FINALLY?!?!"
But what ARE they dealing with, exactly? What is Desmond needed for? Since Zoe mentioned she's a geophysicist and is all concerned about the electromagnetic pockets, I can only assume they think that because Desmond turned the failsafe key (which then caused him to have all those weird future-flashes) that he has harnessed within him some sort of special power (how they would KNOW he turned the key is another mystery). Faraday alluded to something along these lines when he informed Desmond (during one of the time-traveling jumps last season) that he was "uniquely and miraculously special." Ms. Hawking also knew how important Desmond was -- not just because of what she said to him in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," but also because she warned him after he refused to join the Ajira flight: "The Island isn't done with you yet."
Here's where my head's at after this episode: Widmore, like Ben and like Jacob, is against the MIB leaving the Island. He does not want that to happen and understands that the results would be catastrophic. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's on Jacob's "side," per se. Widmore is on his own side and apart from wanting to contain the MIB, he has his own agenda. And that agenda involves: 1) keeping the MIB from escaping so as to not end the world, and 2) making sure the Island is easily accessible in the future.
Now, Ben lied a lot during that talk he had with Real Locke, but I think there may have been a glimmer of truth to this part. We do know that Widmore has been on a quest to find the Island again ever since he'd been banished. We also know that he is a successful businessman back in the real world. Maybe he feels like the Island could be added to his empire? Maybe he knows that if he brought sick people there and they were cured that he would be worshiped -- like a god? Maybe he just wants the Island all for himself and wants to be able to simply come and go as he pleases without all the calculations that are currently necessary? Who knows... but in my mind he is STILL "bad" overall. Remember Alex!
