Cabin Fever, Labor Pains, and Suicide: Just Another Day on "Lost"

I'll be honest: I am glad that Damon, Carlton, and Co. didn't break this season of Lost with last night's episode. Perhaps it would have had more resonance had we not known for what seems like forever about the return of Michael (Harold Perrineau) but since we did (and have been anticipating his appearance in every week's installment, thanks to his name in the credits), it sort of took the wind out of the sails a bit.

That said, this week's episode of Lost ("Ji Yeon") was still a pleasurable excursion, especially as it confirmed the identity of another member of the vaunted Oceanic Six (which Yunjin Kim herself hinted to me when we spoke last year), possibly revealed the lengths to which this mysterious band of survivors will protect their cover stories, and gave us a clue as to what the hell is going on aboard the freighter. All that, some nifty juxtaposition of flashbacks and flash-forwards, and an easter egg in the form of Nikki's TV guest appearance on "Exposé"? Brillo.

Sun and Jin. I knew that Sun would be one of the Oceanic Six and I liked the way that the producers juggled her flash-forwards with Jin's flashbacks. Call me slightly dense but I did wonder throughout why Jin looked a little too similar to his pre-crash self and why he was quite so angry. But then this week's writers--Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis--gave us some red herrings: the frantic phone calls, Jin's pleas that he was on his way, the purchase of the panda destined for the maternity ward, and the destruction of his cell phone, all of which contributed to the false effect of a flash-forward.

Which made Sun's desperate cries for her husband (and her insistence that she keep her wedding ring on) during her tricky labor even more compelling and heartbreaking. I had a sinking suspicion that only one member of this couple would make it off the island and figured that Jin would do everything in his power to secure a spot on the rescue vehicle (or however the Six made it off) for his pregnant wife, carrying around a timebomb in the form of their baby daughter Ji Yeon (which, BTW, means "heavenly patience" in Hangul). While time on the island may have separated many couples, it has strangely brought these two closer together and their scenes in this week's episode were as touching as they were gripping. Jin finally accepts responsibility for his behavior in Korea and how his withholding affection may have pushed Sun into the arms of another. The fact that he cooked her dinner after learning of her affair is in sharp contrast to the man who once demanded she button up her sweater in the pilot episode.

I don't think Jin is dead. I think he's back on the island (which is why his grave marker lists the date of the crash as the day he died) and his gravesite is part of Oceanic Six's elaborate ruse. Which begs the question: why did Sun leave without her husband and under what circumstances? And why was Hurley the only one to visit the new mother in Korea?

Karma. The notion of karma has long been at the heart of this series and it was enlightening to see the characters have a discussion about the principal. In a beautifully understated scene, Bernard simplifies the concept of karma to Jin (whose understanding of English is now coming along thanks to Sun and, funnily enough, Sawyer): do good things and good things happen to you. Do bad things (like Locke murdering Naomi) and bad things will follow. To me, it was especially interesting the way that Bernard referred to Locke as a "murderer"; it really seems like there is an unrepairable rift between the two camps of survivors now. But Bernard left one important element of philosophical karma out of his discussion with Jin: namely that "the effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to them and others... In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one's present life and all past and future lives as well." Which does explain quite a lot of the flashbacks and flash-forwards that have peppered the series thus far.

Juliet. I get that Juliet wanted to help Sun and she is technically, as a pregnant woman, under her care but I could not believe that the battered Juliet resorted to betraying Sun's trust by revealing her affair with Jae. And while I love Juliet, she definitely deserved that slap across the face from Sun and I was secretly hoping Sun would return the favor and actually punch her. Did Juliet's reveal to Jin have the desired effect? Sure, it kept them on this side of the island with Jack's group and under Juliet's watchful eye and may have healed the final impediment between Sun and Jin, but it was Sun's right to tell her husband about the affair and not Juliet. In fact, furthering the notion of karma, Sun should have been the one to come clean rather than continue to conceal this from him.

Regina. In a bit of irony, the oft-heard-but-never-seen Regina (Zoe Bell) is FINALLY introduced on-screen in this week's episode... only to kill herself in her second on-camera scene. I knew something was about to happen when Lapidus noticed that the book she was reading was upside-down but I had no idea that she was about to wrap herself in chains and jump off the freighter in the freakiest display of cabin fever ever. Sayonara, Regina. We hardly knew ye. I assume the suicides also explain what happened to the ship's cook. (As for the book Regina was reading, it was Jules Verne's "Survivors of the Chancellor.")

Question: what was the noise coming from elsewhere on the Kahana? And is it a clue to the crew's suffering or something else altogether?

Kevin Johnson. Meanwhile, Sayid came face to face with Michael this week (at last!) and feigned ignorance of the freighter's janitor (?). We can assume that it was Michael who left the door open for Sayid and Desmond to escape the medical bay and who left the note warning them not to trust the ship's captain. Which is an interesting dilemma for Sayid and Desmond and one that the audience is sucked into as well, an age-old literary question about unreliable narrators. If Michael is Ben's man on the boat, then he's clearly working for Ben. The facts around why he's working for him are unimportant (though clearly he's doing so under duress, most likely because Ben still has Walt); therefore, everything he says and does are in service to Ben and to protect his son. If Michael tells them not to trust Captain Gault, is it (A) Michael telling them this because Gault is a liar or (B) because Ben wants them to THINK that Gault is a liar? Curious.

Captain Gault. The Captain of the Kahana (which means "turning point" in Hawaiian) is a little bit of an intense man but he's also seemingly very forthcoming about his mission. He claims that he works for Charles Widmore (a fact that stuns Desmond) and reveals that they are there to find Benjamin Linus. They know all about the fact that the Oceanic Flight 815 that was recovered from the bottom of the Sunda Trench was a fake; Widmore spent considerable means to acquire the plane's alleged black box recorder and points the finger of staging such an elaborate hoax (complete with 324 corpses) squarely at Ben.

But can we trust him? If what Michael says is true, then Gault is a liar; Ben wasn't behind the faked crash wreckage and isn't the villain in this situation. But (as shown above) we can't really trust Michael either, so Gault COULD be telling the truth. Still, how did Widmore know to look for the island so close to its actual location (was it because of the Black Rock diaries?) and why doesn't he care about rescuing the survivors of the crash since he knows it was faked?

It's enough to drive a sane person as mad as Regina or the other crew members of the Kahana. As for the island sickness that is driving them insane, was this what Rousseau's crew faced? Was this the sickness she spoke of and is it related to the time travel that Desmond is experiencing? And why haven't the castaways succumbed to this mysterious illness that seems to emanate from the island itself? Discuss.

Next week on Lost ("Meet Kevin Johnson"), Ben convinces Alex to flee Locke's camp when he learns of an imminent attack, Sayid confronts Michael aboard the Kahana, and we learn just what "Kevin Johnson" has been up to since we last saw him at the end of Season Two. It's the last episode before hiatus and I cannot wait!