Season 4, Episode 7: "Ji Yeon"

So here we are with the big 7th episode of this season. This is the one that the producers had been leading us up to...and it certainly did not disappoint.

Anyhoo...the title of this one is "Ji Yeon" - which is the name that Jin tells Sun on the island that he wants to name the baby if it is a girl. Of course we see at the end that she does in fact have a girl which she names Ji Yeon. The literal translation means "Heavenly Patience."

So the producers pulled a number on us by using both flash-forwards as well as flash-backs. Brilliant. Certainly had me fooled up until they made it clear that Jin's was a flashback.

I think, also, by putting these "flashbacks" of his in there is to show us, once again, how he truly was a different man before the island. He worked for Sun's father, and as we saw had some temper on him (how about when he told the guy in the cab who took off with his panda bear that he would hunt him down and kill him! Damn, Jin!!) Anyway, back on the island when Bernard was talking about how Rose had cancer but how she is no longer sick, how it was the island that made her better, I think that translates to Jin as well. We have seen this other side of him before the crash, but now here he is on the island, a devoted husband, who can forgive his wife after finding out she cheated on him. The old Jin would have probably beat her. However, he made it clear that he is a new man. Kind of like how I was saying back last season, that the island sort of represents "Rebirth" (here come the religious themes again) and how Jin was sort of born anew on the island. Gotta love character breakthroughs!

So...Sun, we learn, is in fact one of the Oceanic Six. She goes on to have her baby (which suggests that they do get off the island sometime soon...if she is 8 weeks pregnant right now, then obviously she gets off in time to have the baby, plus Juliet says she has to get off in the next three weeks in order to live, so obviously they do get off sometime soon). Anyway, the nurse at the hospital does refer to Sun as one of the Oceanic Six. So far, we have DEFINITELY seen five of them...Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sun. All of them have actually been referred to as part of the Oceanic Six. We have also seen that both Aaron and Ben also eventually leave the island. The question is, who is the 6th member? I do remember reading that the producers said that Aaron is NOT one of the six (presumably because he wasn't on the plane at the time of the crash, he wasn't born yet, so he can't be considered one of the six surviving passengers). I am thinking that Ben took on the identity of someone else from the plane and came back as one of the six. Either that or we have not seen the final person yet. But I do know that the producers said in an interview that by the 7th episode (which was tonight), we would know who all six were. So, my money is on Ben. As I've said before, I do think that it is Ben, and NOT the freighter, who gets them off the island. Clearly the freighter is not there to rescue them. I think that Ben may make a deal with the other five in order for them to help him, he'll get them off the island. But they have to promise to cover up the secrets of the island.

Of course the other big reveal was that it is in fact Michael as the "spy" on the freighter. I knew it! I called this back about two months ago, (I wrote about it back in the second episode blog post this season.) Somehow I just had a feeling that he wasn't gone. I think the fact that Ben so "easily" let him go, not to mention the fact that he gave him those specific coordinates to follow, were all suspicious. Obviously he made a deal with Ben, (of course Ben is good at making deals with people and promising them something in return). So, Is Michael "working" for Ben now? Remember in the future we learn that Sayid eventually goes to work for Ben, too.

We also learn a bit more about the people on the freighter. The captain admits that he is following orders from Charles Widmore. He says something is wrong with their engines and they are "stuck" there - and that his crew members are experiencing a deadly form of cabin fever. Maybe they are "stuck" in time? I know that sounds weird, but considering the episode a few weeks back when Faraday does the lab experiment and tells how without a constant, people get stuck between the future and the present (just like the lab rat, Eloise). These could be more of the "side effects." Obviously we saw that Regina killed herself (no one even tried to stop her) and we saw that someone else died in the cabin where Sayid and Desmond are going to be staying. Before Regina died, she was reading a book, "The Survivors of The Chancellor" by Jules Verne. It is about the final voyage of a British sailing vessel, told from the perspective of one of its passengers (a journal of sorts). At the beginning of its voyage, the ship carried 28 people, but by the end only 11 were still alive. Foreshadowing??? Regina wasn't even actually "reading" the book, it was upside down - was this a sign of her going "crazy?" Soon after this she kills herself. Yet none of the crew members seemed the least bit surprised. Obviously there is more to that story.

So, the captain explains to Sayid and Desmond that they have the "black box" of Oceanic 815 and that it was found along with the wreckage. He explains that the plane wreck was planted, and that Mr. Widmore paid a lot of money for that black box and discovered it was a fake. He then says that is why they want to find Ben, because it was he who staged the whole thing, it was Ben who came up with the "324 dead bodies." Of course we don't know if the captain is telling the truth (Michael's note said "don't trust the captain" - but then again he is working for Ben so of course he would say that.) Anyhow, assuming it was true and it was Ben who planted the wreckage, why would he have done it? Here is my take on that: I have said before that I think the plane might have "crashed" onto the island on purpose. There has been so much talk about fate and destiny. If there truly is a "list" of who the Others want, they obviously will go to whatever means necessary to get those people. They may have each been chosen to be on that plane, in order to get them all to the island. It is no coincidence that they were all on the plane together, and the circumstances for which how most of them got their tickets were all sort of "given" to them, or arranged by someone else, very last minute. I think the plane was supposed to crash on the island. Well, not necessarily crash, as we know that Desmond's failing to enter the numbers messed up the island's electromagnetic field which actually "caused" the crash. But obviously the plane was headed that way, as why did they just "happen" to be right over the island - especially when we know they were 1000 miles off course, and the island is virtually impossible to find? It is all very strange... so assuming that Ben "staged" the wreckage of the plane, so who is to say that he didn't "stage" the actual crash as well? We recently found out that Frank (the helicopter pilot) was actually supposed to be flying the Oceanic 815 flight that day, so if he wasn't flying it, who was? Did Ben or someone else get one of their own "Others" to pilot the plane in his place, and therefore lead the plane over to the island? Very strange.

Okay, so now I saved the BEST for last. Of course this episode had me crying like a baby at the end when Sun is at the cemetary talking with Jin. (This is the second time now...first with Desmond and Penny on the phone, now this! You think the producers know alot of women watch this show? LOL!) So, anyway, Sun goes to the cemetary because Jin has presumably died. She talks about missing him so much and tells him she named the baby what he wanted to. Then they pan in close on the actual tombstone. They focused in on it a few times, which in true Lost fashion, must mean something, right? So, I come to notice the dates on the tombstone. How many of you also caught this?



On the left it says "1980-3-20" and on the right it says "1974-11-27" and then "2004-9-22". Dun-dunh-dunhhhh!!!! Um, yeah, so 9/22/04 was the date of the Oceanic crash! Which means that is a "fake" tombstone, because obviously Jin did not die in the crash. (The numbers on the left are probably Sun's birthdate, as it is likely a husband-wife plot. Then Jin's birth/death dates are on the right - he was born in 1974 and "died" in 2004). So, obviously we know that Jin is NOT one of the Oceanic Six, and that they had to say that he died in the plane crash. We know that all six of the "survivors" had to lie about their story to the public. And we know they lied and said that the rest of the people on the plane all died, that is was just the six of them who survived. So, Sun had to pretend that her husband died in the crash in order to cover up their story. I guess the big question is, did Jin really die (I guess it is feasible that he could have died on the island, after the present time which we are at right now) or did he just stay on the island? When Sun was "talking" to him she kept saying how much she missed him, and if you remember during the birth she kept asking for Jin. Obviously she was out of it from the pain medication, so she could have just been asking for him because he really is alive still. I do think he is still alive, but just still on the island. Sun kept saying how she missed him (which we would imply because he is dead), but he may have actually stayed behind, sacrificing a "spot" for her to leave, in order to save her from dying on the island and so she can have the baby.

Wow - it just keeps getting more and more interesting! I love it!!!

Next week's episode is titled "Meet Kevin Johnson" (aka Michael). And then that is the last of the 8 episodes that the filmed before the strike. Hopefully we don't have to wait another year before the second half of this season starts up again.

So....thoughts?