"Ji Yeon"

The first half of Season 4 of LOST is now over and we have the answers to two questions that were brought up at the start of this year. We also have learned of another loss in the LOST family. All in all, another great episode that had me faked out not unlike "Through the Looking Glass" from Season 3.

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From advanced knowledge of the title, I don't think anyone could have assumed this was going to be about any other characters but Sun and Jin. From the title and the fact that Sun is pregnant, I had formulated the story in my head over the past week and figured that the title must refer to the name of their unborn child. What I couldn't figure out early on in the episode is how they were both off the island in the flash forward considering that by my count there was only one spot left in the Oceanic 6. Of course, looking back on it, the hints were dropped all along from the fact that Jin was so determined to buy that Panda, to his attitude when someone took his cab and the size of his cell phone. In the closing minutes of the flash forward, it occurred to me that we were seeing a Jin flashback and a Sun flash forward. Moments later, this was confirmed when Hurley visited Sun and Ji Yeon who then went as a group to visit Jin's grave. It's very sad to find out that Jin did not get off the island and by Sun's emotional graveside visit, I think we can assume that he is really dead in the future, not just left on the island. So how is he buried in Korea? Is he one of the two people that survived the crash but died before rescue (i.e. Jack's court testimony in "Eggtown")?

In any event, we now know the identity of the Oceanic 6:

1. Jack
2. Kate
3. Hurley
4. Sayid
5. Aaron
6. Sun

But the other bigger story of this episode was the identity of Ben's spy on the freighter. In the most telegraphed "twist" in the history of LOST (followed only by Jack and Claire being revealed as half-siblings) Micheal was introduced to Desmond and Sayid as Kevin Johnson. His hair is much shorter and his beard is neatly trimmed but it is Michael and now we can spend the next week wondering what his back story is. I know I can't wait to see it!

The last big revelation was the conversation between the freighter captain, Desmond and Sayid. In three or four minutes, the captain exposited so much LOST mythology it made my head spin. Not only did he tell them who he was working for, he also showed them the the black box recovered from the underwater wreckage of Flight 815. He went on to imply that the underwater wreckage was staged by Ben and that is why Charles Widmore is working so hard to catch him. So is he telling the truth? Earlier in the episode, Kevin "Michael" Johnson slipped a note to Desmond and Sayid imploring them not to trust the captain. But Michael is working for Ben. So who can we trust?

Oh yea, and Regina killed herself by jumping off the freighter. We finally got to see Zoe Bell and she died, just like when we finally got to see Minkowski (Fisher Stevens) and he died. Is this just a bit of cult-movie stunt-casting?

I liked the episode but again I am itching for more and can't wait until we "Meet Kevin Johnson" next week!

"Meet Kevin Johnson"

Very interesting episode of LOST last night. Unfortunately now we have to wait five more weeks for the season to continue. But enough about that.

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This was the episode a lot of people have been waiting for. We finally got to see what Michael has been doing since he left the island. And apparently, he has been re-enacting scenes from "Groundhog Day." Not being able to live with himself for killing Ana Lucia and Libby, he tried to kill himself several times but to no avail. I'll have to admit, I was very confused about the flashback for quite a while. I was pretty sure it was a flashback to the time before Michael got on the freighter, but I was doubting myself until Michael tried to visit Walt. I really liked seeing familiar faces like Libby and I loved the scenes with Tom. I've missed having Tom around!

So we learned about Michael's motivation for going on the freighter and how he got there. What I really want to know now, is who is telling the truth about the staged wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. Unfortunately, I have this feeling that we won't know if Charles Widmore staged it or if Ben staged it until sometime in the distant future (i.e. not this season). I don't know what will happen now that Sayid has turned Michael in to the ship captain. But I don't think that this is the end for Michael. I hereby renew my assertion that Michael is the man in the coffin at the end of Season 3. That was one of my two original ideas (Ben being the other), but now I feel that it makes more sense seeing as how Michael was trying to kill himself but "the island wouldn't let him." At the time we saw Michael in his flashback, Tom told him that he still had work to do so he couldn't die. By the time Jack has his long beard in his flash forward, he wants to get back to the island, and perhaps the island doesn't want him to return. Meanwhile Michael living under a different assumed name, successfully kills himself because now the island let him as he is one of the few who knows the islands' coordinates from his time on the freighter.

And of course, the ABC promotional department dropped the ball big time...again. They promised last week that someone would die. Of course they flashed the faces of all our favorite Losties and of course it turned out to be none of them. I'm convinced that the people who do promotions for televesion don't even watch the shows. It appears that Karl is pretty dead when he is shot (?) by a sniper on his way to the Temple. Danielle was also shot but I have a feeling that she is not dead because there is still too much information that they need to reveal about her character, namely her back story. In any event, Karl is not someone who I would call a major character, so his death, although unfortunate, deserved very little hype from people who make the promos for ABC. So who is shooting? My money is on Ben although it will probably turn out to be one of the freighter people. Frank has been gone an awful long time so he probably took the chopper back to the island with some more of the commandos to try to capture Ben or Alex.

So there we will wait until April 24. It seems like a long time right now but it really won't be all that bad seeing as how we have made it thorough the long dark hiatus of last year. All in all, I really like Season 4 but I can see why the producers would not have wanted this to be the final episode of the season if they had been unable to come back from the writers strike. So I am looking forward to this new story arc and how the season will likely culminate in the Oceanic 6 leaving the island. Until then, theorize away!

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Roxi and I finally got to watch the latest episode of LOST very late last night/very early this morning and I liked it but of course I had built it up so much in my head since I was spoiled about this episode title back in January.

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Overall this was a strange episode very reminiscent of Michael's off-Island flashback in "Meet Kevin Johnson" with almost no Island story other than bookends setting up the long flashback. It was strange for another reason as well. Originally, this episode was supposed to air prior to last week's "316." I don't know how this episode could have worked if it had aired first though. I suppose the editing would have been different with respect to the now crashed Ajira 316 plane, but it just seems like it would have been necessary to know that the Oceanic 6 minus Aaron had boarded the plane and it had subsequently crashed on it's way to Guam.

When I accidentally found out about this episode's title when I was looking something up on the Internet Movie Database, I was very excited to see that we would learn what happened to Locke while he was off the Island and how he ended up in the coffin. We knew from information learned in Seasons 3 and 4 that he was presumed to have committed suicide. I had a feeling that Locke didn't really kill himself though. I have been suspecting that he had been murdered by Ben and made to look like a suicide. How else was Ben going to get Jin's wedding ring from Locke? As I suspected, Locke kept his promise to Jin not to contact Sun. I was surprised to see that Locke was actually contemplating suicide though. The guy just never feels like he has done anything right in his whole life. And it seems that Ben was only helping Locke to find out how to get back to the Island. So who's side is Eloise Hawking on? Ben was obviously working with her and he was trying to get Locke's body back to the Island, but he also told the dead Locke that we would miss him. I know his motivations are purely for his own power, but wouldn't he think that Locke might not be completely dead knowing how important he is to the Island?

It was also not surprising to see that Helen, the love of Locke's life, had died in the three or so years that he had been on the Island. Very sad really. It was nice seeing Matthew Abaddon again, but shoking to see him killed off so quickly. I wonder if he would have had more of a part in LOST if not for Fringe. It was assuring to find out that he was indeed put in the rehab facility to get Locke to go on his walkabout. It makes me wonder how involved he was in getting other people on board Oceanic 815. In any event, it was no surprise to me that Ben killed Abaddon too. Ben is such a liar! And the fact that Charles Widmore was waiting for someone to "exit" the Island continues the conflict of who is telling the truth. Ben has been using and abusing any and everyone to get himself back to the Island while, at least for now, Charles Widmore seems to be a lot more benevolent. Then again he did send Keamy and the mercinaries to the Island. But perhaps he was telling the truth when he told Locke that he only sent them to get rid of Ben. And perhaps the mercenaries went along in case the Others that were with Ben were ready for an invasion.

I was wrong about how long it would take Locke to connect Chritian with Jack. Stupid me wasn't even thinking that Locke only had three people to choose from and there was only one it could be. I think that scene was one of the most important on the show because it confirmed to Jack that he wasn't going crazy for seeing Christian both on the Island and off. Of course, we all know how obsessed he got with his search for the Island but that is another can of worms althogether.

I also found the scene with Walt very bitter sweet especially when he asked Locke how Michael was doing. Locke did lie to him, but he had to for Walt's sake. As he told Matthew Abaddon, "the boy's been through enough." So does that mean we are done with Walt? I doubt it especially since he told Locke that he had been having bad dreams where Locke was on the Island and people wanted to hurt him. Blatant foreshadowing and it would seem that Walt figures in to the future of the Island in some way. I also enjoyed the scene when Locke visited Hurley. It was especially funny because Hurley just assumed that Locke was dead and he was seeing another ghost.

Back on the Island, it we learned that the Oceanic 5 vanished from the plane just before the crash. This would explain why at least Jack, Hurley and Kate ended up in the middle of the jungle. But what about Sayid and Sun? We know that Frank Lapidus ended up on the Hydra island and left with "a woman" and the flight manifest in one of the outrigger canoes. So was that Sun? Where is Sayid? And I loved that Ben wasw not "special" enough to vanish from the plane but rather be injured in the crash. He was certainly not supposed to return to the Island. I only hope that now that Locke appears to be very powerful and have the upper hand, that he won't let himself be manipulated but Ben anymore...but I've hoped that a lot of other times before.