They weren't kidding when they said this one would be a shocker. I kind of expected the
"Michael is the inside man" thing, even though I had some doubts, but man, I was sure we had Oceanic survivors numbers 5 and
6 right til the very end. They did a fantastic job faking us out about Jin. I should have known by his cell phone. It was an older candy bar style. I can't believe I missed that.
So, is there still one more survivor to be revealed, or are we counting either Aarron or
Ben as the 6th? The ads did say that we would see the 6th survivor tonight, so my guess is that it's Aarron.
At Kates trial we heard that there were 8 who survived the crash, but 2 died before they
were rescued. Perhaps Jin is one of the two survivors that didn't make it.
Wow, Ji Yeon was another episode chock full of information. The captain reveals that Widmore
went to great lengths to retrieve the "other" flight 815's black box and prove it was a hoax. He also pins the fake crash
on Ben. I think he gave away a little too much information to Desmond and Sayid and I doubt he's telling the whole truth.
Next we see Michael, or should I say Kevin Johnson? How the hell are they going to explain
this? Was Doc Jensen's theory about Michael and Walt emerging in the past when they left the island right? If so, why did
they physically time travel when Desmond and Minkowski only mentally time traveled? And where the hell is Waaaaaalt?
And how about Bernard's comments to Jin when they were fishing, about why they hadn't
gone with Locke and how they are the good guys. Lends a little creedence to my thoughts last week that the survivors are the
only good guys on the show, and that they're caught between 2 or more warring factions battling for control of the
island.
This show is basically about doing the right thing, and Locke has strayed (or been swayed)
from the path. Now it's up to the rest of the survivors to stop whatever's going on.
That's it for now. More caps and commentary tomorrow night.
Ji Yeon - No, really, I was just chopping onions for the lima beans...
Not true. I was seriously choked up by this epi, and I'm betting you were too.
Great job by both the actors and the writers.
I've liked Jin from the start. He was a bumpkin working hard to survive when we first
met him. Once he met Sun, he did what he had to do to make things work. His leg breaker phase was thrust upon him by his own
father-in-law, and his subsequent actions are an example of how far he would go to stay in Paik's good graces.
Not surprisingly though, his actions colored his personality, and it was an ugly color.
Daniel Dae Kim has done a superb job of portraying Jin's arc from humble doorman,
to hardened hitman, and finally to caring and enlightened husband. Nice job.
I'd be willing to bet that Jin will go out in an act of unselfish valor (If he is
in fact dead in the flash forward. You never know with these guys). Like Charlie, now that he's come to realize
what's important in life, he will probably sacrifice himself to save Sun and the others.
All right, enough with the idealistic, mushy stuff. Let's move on to Captain Gault. No danger
of a mutiny with him in charge. Those deck hands didn't even want to look in his direction. Such a happy place, the Kahana.
Gault gave me the impression that he'd rather use the Losties as chum then talk to them.
That's why it struck me as odd that he proceeded to give them a massive information dump. It was almost like a rehearsed speech.
I believed him when he said Widmore was his boss, and that the wreckage was staged, but I don't know if I buy that Ben was
behind it.
Someone went to great lengths to prevent the island from being found. A cover up of that
magnitude means a lot was at stake. Both factions we are aware of would have their reasons to do it, but I'm leaning more
towards Widmore right now. He certainly has the power and money to pull it off, but we've yet to see the full scope of Ben's
power and influence, so the jury's still out.
We finally got to see Regina also. Another happy shipmate who's into long walks off of short
piers and has a fondness for strange fashion accessories. That had to be one of the shortest and strangest guest appearances
yet.
Could she be the R.G. that gave Naomi the bracelet? Wouldn't surprise me. For that matter,
maybe the G stands for Gault...
And how smart is Ben, getting Michael to disable their ship in weird waters. If they don't
get the engines running soon, the whole crew will take themselves out. Even when we don't see him, he's working his voodoo
behind the scenes.
That's it for now. We still haven't even scratched the surface of this episode. The return
of Michael/Kevin, the whereabouts of Walt, what's causing the crew to go bonkers. Soooo much stuff.
Stay tuned...
Ji Yeon - How can I miss you if you won't go away?
Michael leaves to find Walt, then shows back up just long enough to set the Losties up,
then leaves again, this time on a boat. Thought he was gone for good? Nope, he shows back up on a
different boat. He's like "The thing that wouldn't leave".
The Michael/Kevin Johnson thing has got me baffled. I half expected him to be Ben's
man on the boat, but I just can't get my mind around how he got there.
My first thought was that the freighter picked them up as they were leaving the island,
but the timeline isn't right and there's no way Captain G would give them free range of the ship if he had just picked
them up. As soon as the sabotage started it would be a no brainer who was behind it.
My next thought was that Michael and Walt traveled back in time as they left the island,
and knowing what they do, never got on flight 815 in the first place. Maybe Ben got to them again once they got back
to civilization, or maybe it was part of the original agreement Michael had with him to get Walt back and get off the
island. Either way he got himself hired on as part of the Kahana's crew.
This one doesn't work for me either though. It would seem to cause too many paradox's,
and the producers have sworn that none of the time travel will cause a paradox.
So many things would have been different if Michael wasn't on the plane. I'm sure some of
it would be canceled out by Mrs. Hawking's course correction theory. Would Ana Lucia and Libby have been killed
in some other way to even the balance? Maybe, but how would Sayid know Michael if he hadn't been with them? It seemed obvious
by their faces that they knew each other, plus in the preview for next week we see Sayid confront him. That
kills that theory for me.
I'm more inclined to go with a combination of both of these theories. Walt and Michael emerged
from the island just a few weeks back in time. That, combined with the fact that the freighter appears to have come on station
just a short time ago, would allow for enough time for them to get to a nearby port (that boat didn't look
like it had that much range) and from there Michael got himself in place.
Perhaps he got hired on when the Kahana stopped for provisioning and fuel. It
wouldn't surprise me if Ben knew just where they'd be stopping, his knowledge seems boundless, and Michael's motivations
would be the same as in the theory above. Either the Others were waiting for them or it was part of the original deal
and Ben has somehow proven to Michael that he has a long reach and they will never be safe.
The timing would be just about right. They still would have been on the plane and Michael
would still have had time to carry out his dirty deeds. Plus it would explain Sayid recognizing him. Pretty good fit.
Like always though, there will probably be some curveball next week that blows this theory
all to hell.
That's it for now, but we've still got the effects that the island has on the crew of the
freighter to discuss, so stay tuned.
Ji Yeon - Fatal Attraction
We saw in The Constant that as soon as the chopper emerged from the strange thunder clouds
that precipitated Desmond's time flips, the ship was in view. So it would seem that the Kahana is dead in the water right
on the hairy edge of the "bubble" that surrounds the island.
Is the constant low level exposure to the island's effects slowly driving the crew of the
Kahana mad? It's a good bet. The effects of the exposure may differ from person to person, depending on their state of mental
health to begin with. It may be why Minkowski decided to go for his little boat ride, and why Regina decided to go deep sea
diving. Perhaps she was distraught over Naomi's death, and once her mind started doing little time flips, it was more than
she could handle.
Hopefully we'll get some more insight into it in this week's episode, Meet Kevin Johnson.
It will obviousley be a Michael centric episode, so maybe we'll find out:
A. How he got in place on the frieghter
B. Where Walt is
C. What's been going on on the frieghter
I'm torn this week. I can't wait for this next episode from an answers point of view, but
I'm also dreading it, as we're heading into the "writer's strike intermission" once it's over. Damn.
See you tomorrow night...
