Namaste!

Hello Everyone and welcome to my blog. I have been obsessed with Lost for quite some time now and thought it was only appropriate to just start my very own blog about it instead of relying on others!

So, since it's late in the game I'll just do a quick recap of the episodes so far (which you can go click through on the archives.) My plan for this blog is to watch the episode, jot down the major themes I notice throughout, recap them here, and then add my theories, predictions, and connections these theories have to the past to help everyone remember anything important they may have forgotten. (Since I'm a huge nerd.)

Friday, March 14, 2008

Episode 7 -- Ji Yeon

Wow. That's basically all I could say when the end of this episode arrived and I realized that we had been watching a Sun flashforward and a Jin flashback. That was pretty trippy, and great TV by the writers!

I'll do my brief synopsis and then get into what I think about this episode -- it will be easy to write these now, in real time, rather than going back and doing them. I will do a summary for the last episode, but I want to get this one out first.

First,

On the Freighter

1. After being told by the scary Keamy guy not to be late from something, Frank goes down to give some cans of lima beans to Des and Sayid -- apparently all there is after some incident in the kitchen. It is also inferred that Frank was NOT the person who left the door open for the guys.

2. There is banging coming from somewhere and Sayid, being the expert, knows it's a person and not a machine - creepy.

3. When Sayid and Des wake up, someone slips a note under their door that says "DO NOT TRUST THE CAPTAIN."

4. When the two go to meet the captain, the helicopter is gone, and Regina - one of the crew members who had been reading her book upside down - throws herself off the side of the ship, wrapped in chains. Sayid and Des are the only people who seem to care.

5. The captain appears surprisingly young and put together - i don't trust him, though! - and shows them Flight 815's black box, explaining that fake wreckage was place in the Sundra Trench. What kind of person - Captain Gault asks - can find 324 dead bodies to put on the bottom of the ocean? -- touche, Captain... Though, he is suggesting is was Ben, which I'm not so sure about.

6. Later in the evening Sayid and Desmond are taken to their new room - bullet through the mouth stain and all - and "Kevin Johnson" is called over to clean it up. Who, you ask, is Kevin Johnson? That would be everyone's favorite turn coat, Michael! Acting on their feet, Sayid and Desmond keep cool and behave as if they have never met him. Hmm. Where's Walt?

On the Island

1. Sun begins to grow distrustful of Juliet after learning from Kate that she had lied about the function of the Tempest station. She is also becoming worried about the prospect of rescue at the hands of Daniel and Charlotte.

2. When Daniel says rescuing the Losties is not his call, Sun makes the decision to move to Locke's camp, tells Jin, and begins packing - only to be stopped by Juliet who warns her she will die if she remains on the island.

3. Kate draws a map to the barracks, explains how to get there, and tells Jin and Sun she will wait as long as she can to tell Jack - Before they leave, though, Juliet interrupts and pleads with Sun not to go, finally telling Jin that Sun had cheated on him! Wow, Juliet - Bitch.

4. Bernard interrupts Jin and Sun's fight to ask Jin to go fishing with him. While they are fishing they discuss the idea of karma - when you are good, good things happen to you; when you are bad, bad things happen. Jin knows this is true. Bernard tells Jin about Rose's cancer and says, that even though they will not leave the island, the did not go with Locke because he is a murderer (forshadowing?)

5. Jin goes to Sun and forgives her, saying that he knows the man he used to be and that whatever Sun did, she did it to that man. They cry and Sun assures Jin that the baby is his.

Ok... now it's time for the flashback/flashforward, which I did not figure out until the very end! Though, I don't feel too bad, because some of my friend didn't figure it out at all. I think it was fantastic!

Off the Island

Sun: She's totally pregnant, and all of the sudden she's in pain and calls the hospital.

Jin: He is running frantically through a toy store.

Sun: She is identified as one of the Oceanic 6 as she arrives at the hospital.

Jin: Everything is going wrong for Jin as he tried to make it to the hospital with his giant panda, which is soon driven away in a cab with somebody else. He runs back to the story and pays the man a whole lot of Korean money to get another panda that is on reserve.

Sun: Sun is in labor and the doctor and nurse are reeeallly shady to me - taking her ring, etc... it's also not her actual doctor which makes me a little bit worried.

Jin: He finally makes it to the hospital for us to find out that he was not going to see Sun at all, but a friend of her fathers... AND it's only 2 months after they were married, making this a FLASHBACK for Jin. WOW.

Sun: Hurley shows up at the door -- what? -- and they go to see Jin's grave!!! Which says he died on 9/22/2004 -- um, the day of the plane crash. What's going on?

Well, well, well. I have begun thinking that I might stop reading the blog about Lost that I used to read because the person who writes it is just so critical of the show. He actually said he thought he was starting to hate this episode after thinking about it for a while. I can't believe people think that way. If the show makes you so mad, then don't watch it.

I thought this episode - as always - was huge! I think the fact that Jin's date of death was the day of the crash means that he is either dead for real, alive on the island, or alive in Korea (assuming that's where they were) but has faked his own death so that he will not be killed by Sun's dad. Depending on what the whole made up story is (that Jack started telling in court) they could have included in it that Jin did not make it, meaning his grave would list 9/22 as the date of his death. It would also make sense that if this is the case Sun knows she's being followed and watched and so showed up at the grave site to play the part of the grieving widow with a new child.

I also think that because there was some shadiness with the doctor and nurse at the hospital that perhaps they were people working for her dad (and possibly Widmore, et al.) who expected that if Jin is really alive that the one place he would certainly show up would be the birth of his child.

I suppose that if Sun is the last member of the Oceanic Six (since they said the last one would be revealed in this episode) that Aaron does count as one of them... which I suspected. That would also mean that Jin could not have gotten off the island as part of the group that is officially recognized as survivors. So at the very least - if he is still alive his death is being faked. Lets hope he's still alive, because I cried a little before deciding I think he might not be dead.

As far as the rest of the episode goes, I would say that Michael being on the boat is the other big thing. I may need to admit defeat in my ranting about Michael not being the man on the boat - but, I will wait until next week to confirm this. Just because he's there it still doesn't mean he's the man on the boat. (though, it looks like he just might be.) It was definitely slick on Desmond and Sayid's part to play along with not knowing who Michael was, and it definitely added to the great creepy feel of the show. I'm hoping that next week will be a flashback of Michael, showing what happened after he left the island in the boat... And, where is Walt, by the way?

Final thoughts:

- I don't trust the captain.
- Do you think Ben will also end up to really not be one of the "good guys" after all? Was he, in fact responsible for the planted wreckage of Flight 815?
- Will Desmond and Sayid contact the beach to tell Jack about Michael being on the boat?
- Where did the helicopter really go?
- Why are people killing themselves on the freighter?
- If Ben doesn't want these people to get to the island, why would he have his man on the boat destroy the engine room and ensure that they would be stuck in such close proximity? (that question courtesy of my friend Cordelia)

DISCUSS!




16 comments:

Conolly said...

...and discuss I shall...

First, about the sound that Sayid and Desmond heard on the freighter - someone banging on a pipe - is it related to the incident in the kitchen that relegated Sayid and Desmond to lima beans 24/7? Or are there more freighter people that have gone crazy and that are locked up somewhere? I thought maybe it was Michael at first, but he seemed to be free to move about the ship cleaning. Maybe it's Walt?? Also related to this - when Desmond and Sayid were shown their new living quarters, the guy said that they were in the quiet part of the ship. Sayid reminded him that the engine wasn't working anyway, but was that really what the guy was referring to? Maybe it's quiet because all the crazy people (or possibly even people brought to the ship from somewhere else) are being held prisoner in a different part of the ship.

Secondly, if by the end of the show, there are survivors left on the island, they aren't left with many options because of the Oceanic 6 story. Jack's testimony in the courtroom told us that the outside world has been led to believe that there were originally 8 survivors of the crash, and only 6 that made it back alive. So, if there are people left on the island, the Oceanic 6 are risking the destruction of their story/lie if the other survivors ever make it back to the real world. Do the Oceanic 6 know that it's an impossiblity for anyone to get off the island (maybe because they're all dead) and that's why their story is foolproof? Also, who are the other two people that allegedly make up the 8 survivors of the crash? Are their bodies recovered from the island and that is why the story involves 8 people?

All we know for sure is that the Oceanic 6 have constructed their story to protect the island from discovery. Do they ultimately defeat the bad guys? - because by keeping to their story, they're also protecting the Widmore conspiracy (whatever that may end up being)....

p.s. - Are the writers mean enough to have Jin be one of the Oceanic 6 (Aaron being kept secret or being passed off as Kate's true baby) but be killed by Sun's father after he returns?

Erin said...

Thank you for mentioning the comment about the quiet part of the ship - I had wanted to mention that and forgot. One thing that stood out to me in that conversation was that when Sayid said, but we're not moving... the doctor said something to the effect of, "sure we're not..." so does that mean that the ship is moving by some force of the island without them being able to control it? The comment just sounded like something fishy was going on.

As far as the made up story goes, I'm not sure if it was constructed to protect the island or to protect the survivors from whatever went down prior to their rescue. That could certainly go either way. I am assuming that in order to get off the island they will eventually have to "side" with someone and ultimately make some kind of deal in return for their safe return to the real world. What that deal entails is yet to be discovered!

Conolly said...

And lastly, (I think...for now) why did Frank have the lima beans in a paper bag on the deck by the helicopter and not just take the lima beans from the kitchen to Desmond and Sayid directly?

Erin said...

Good point! ... When he was first walking on the deck he was going somewhere before the sketchy Keamy guy walked by and told him not to be late... then he turned around and went to Sayid and Desmond's room. We don't know where he was originally headed though... iiiinteresting.

Unknown said...

All of the people on the show are experiencing the "timeshifting" sickness.

If you take on this scenerio or a similar one then:

1. The babies and mothers are dying because the length of an unborn babies timshift would be so short that they would die much sooner than a person jumping back and forth with a span of years.

2. The people that were on the island originally were working on a cure and unborn babies may hold the key to a cure.

3. The people on the freighter and everyone else would like to find Ben because they think he has a cure for the timeshifting (not by "finding an anchor" but complete control of time travel) Daniel (the new guy scientist) has something to do with creating the control device.

4. The "funny stuff" on the boat is being cause by people altering the past in their jumping back and forth. Everyone is experiencing a similar but different reality when they jump "Back to the Future". (Abrams is obsessed with the movie "Back to the Future". He was a writer on an episode of Felicity titled "Back to the Future" (Plot synopsis from IMDB)

5. They didn't stop the girl from jumping over the side because they knew it was going to happen anyway. She was reading the book upside down because she knew she was about to kill herself.

This all ties in to the Desmond/Charlie drama from the end of last season.

P.S. Thank you Erin for starting a blog. This is an important step in my plot for world domination! (seriously)

Erin said...

Those are really good thoughts Charles! I definitely thing that the timeshifting is a very important aspect of everything going on. When I rewatched Desmond's traveling back in time to Penny's flat episode a little while back I decided that would be incredibly important.

I was thinking also that the timeshifting could have something to do with the babies dying. I read a book called The Time Traveler's Wife in which the main character time travels inadvertently. When his wife gets pregnant she loses all the babies because they jump from inside her womb (since they carry the time traveling gene from the father). I know this is not the same situation, but it made me think that something similar is happening with the babies/women on the island.

Conolly said...

I liked the comment Charles made about how the babies would die because their timeshift is so short - their lifespan so far would be so short that time travel would affect them more. I guess if it's a person's consciousness that time travels, an unborn baby would not have much in the way of past memories/places to travel back to.

However, it is only babies conceived on the island (and their mothers) that are in danger, even if the mothers have not left the island/time traveled. In Sun's case for instance, she only time traveled when 815 crashed and that was before the baby was conceived so how could the baby be affected? Unless the time traveling does something to the mother from the very beginning. She also would have had to time travel when she finally gets off the island, and as we saw in the flash forward, she has a healthy baby.

Didn't Juliet mention to Ben that it has something to do with the mother's immune system attacking the unborn baby? The island does strange things to people's health and one of them might be to increase their immune system. Increasing the white blood cell count in the same way it increases sperm count. Plus, no one seems to have had a cold or anything on the island.

Also, Charles' comment about how Ben has the cure for the effects of time travel to and from the island - that makes a lot of sense! Ben must leave the island a lot since he has all those passports and the money. I was wondering what his "constant" is, but maybe he doesn't need one at all! And don't forget Richard - he's hiding in the shadows, but I think he's a big key for the future. He seems ageless and we know he has a history of leaving the island too.

Widmore's (or whoever's) control of the island would be useless unless they first had the key to travel to and from the island without mortal danger to themselves. Once they get that information from Ben, they can go in and totally wipe out everyone on the island and start over.

Also, Hurley's friend from the mental assylum - the one that gave him the numbers - is he crazy because he was once traveling back and forth from the island? Daniel seems to be only a few more trips away from being completely crazy himself.

Also, does the freighter have the capacity to hold two helicopters? Naomi's helicopter supposedly took off from the freighter (but then crashed), yet Frank has his helicopter on the freighter too.

Also, if Osama is there, why haven't they caught him yet? ..oh wait...different blog.

Erin said...

Hahaha, love it. As far as the immune systems go - it would make sense that people's immune systems went haywire on the island since Locke and Rose were cured of such serious ailments... how does that affect people who start out healthy? Where does that healing power come from?

I think a lot of those questions will be answered when we find out more about Jacob.

Conolly said...

I've made a huge mistake - in my last comment I failed to differentiate between physically traveling to and from the island (and the time travel associated with that - Daniel's experiment and the 31 missing minutes or whatever), and the major time traveling done by Desmond when his consciousness would move through time.

I've lost track of everything now. I'm so confused.

Erin said...

It is really hard to keep track. Lets see:

1. There is the time difference between the island and off the island... in our case so far we know that there is a 31 minute difference between the freighter and the island. So, it can be inferred that people traveling back and forth between the island and off the island would probably end up pretty confused and messed up even if they didn't start traveling through time.

2. There is whatever happened to Desmond after the hatch imploded... traveling back to a different time, but remembering where he had been and what had happened in the past, and then being able to see flashes of the future once he returned to the present time on the island.

3. Then, there is the actual time travel that Desmond experienced this season, when his consciousness moved back and forth and disoriented him to the point of not remembering the time between 1996 and 2004 that had transpired. It's almost like when you can set the time back on a computer to try and fix a problem by convincing the computer that it hasn't been broken yet... but once he found Penny, his constant, he remembered where he was and what was going on in 2004.

It's odd that when he jumped back he thought the past was where he was "supposed" to be.

So - it seems evident that moving to and from the island would certainly come with "side effects," with Desmond style time travel perhaps being just one of many... "the sickness," and the inability to have children could be others.

It is interesting that women who become pregnant on the island can give birth off the island if they make it off before a certain stage of pregnancy... and that women who become pregnant off the island can give birth on the island. However, both Rousseau and Claire were very far along in their pregnancies and perhaps past the stage when the island side effects would hurt them. I wonder if someone who had just become off the island could come to the island and carry a baby to term.

I'm all about the vile vortices theory, and I think time changes and issues would certainly come into play in such a situation.

jbBeans said...

Yay, LOST!!! Yay, Erin and blog contributors! Thanks for pointing out the date on Jin's tomb (bad Lost-watcher, I didn't see it...) It made me feel more certain that he's still alive--I cried a bit, too.
I think Walt is the pipe-banging agitator.

I just wanted to throw this out there and I hope it's not super obvious. I've been thinking a bit about how the "flashforwards" seem to be getting progressively closer to 'real time' on the island. Sun's was only a few months from the island time, whereas Jack's flashforward (from last season's finale) seemed to be farther in the future--in the other ones we've seen him in, like Kate's, he's not a drunken, suicidal mess (yet?). Now, the fact that we're close to catching up could suggest why we're suddenly getting back to flashbacks (Jin's). That we were getting flashbacks again, to me, was really really significant. I wonder what we'll see next week....

Over all, I just love that I feel like every episode is HUGE lately! So often, they just give you one little bone per episode, but I feel like each episode this season holds so much info. Lots of fun!!

LUCJA said...

Okay, just one little thing to add -perhaps not very insightful. In the part after Sun has her baby and goest to "see" Jin it seems to me that Sun is crying for Jin, but the way she talks to him, she only tells him how much she misses him and loves him and that his baby is a girl and that he was right blah blah blah, kind of like he's alive and she knows it and she just goes to the tomb to talk to him because she knows she'll never see him again.

Erin said...

Jbbean (yay! you read and commented!)... I think that the flashforwards are getting progressively closer to the present as well... I feel like they will do that until we meet back in the present, you know? - and then have a semi-complete picture of what happened since people left the island.

Lucie: I agree with you about Sun... If Jin is alive, I do think she went to the grave to keep the story going that he died in the crash, but also, it is likely that she won't be able to see him often or at all, which explains all the emotion she exhibited when she was talking to him.

I don't remember if someone mentioned it on here or somewhere else, but she was also packing to go somewhere before she started feeling pain and had to go to the hospital... first I figured she was just packing to get ready to go give birth, but when she called the ambulance she didn't say she was in labor, she said she was pregnant and thought something was wrong -- so she might not have expected to go into labor yet an perhaps she was packing to go see Jin.

I also want to know why Hurley was there... I know that everyone love Hurley, but I don't at all!! I think he's so creepy and I think he's up to something!

Conolly said...

Thank you for saying that!!! I think the writers have tried too hard to get us to like Hurley, and that to me is suspicious. Whether he is dripping with pure evil, or is just easily manipulated by evil forces...Oh who am I kidding? He's just so darn cute I want to hug him! But he did see Jacob's cabin...

Erin said...

Yeah, i've been going back and forth on Hurley for a while now, but when he showed up at Sun's house it was just so creepy. I dunno, he seems to be too connected to the numbers and the island, and now seeing Jacob's house, to just be an innocent bystander of all this.

Can't wait for this week's episode!

Conolly's brother said...

ya, about the banging on the pipes. i dont think it was morse code or anything like that, both Des and Sayid were in the army, Sayid especially would know if it was anything since he was a comunications officer. If it was some weird code, maybe Sayid does know what it was saying and isnt telling Desmond for some reason.