ABC/BOB D'AMICOJen here! Kristin's out covering the How I Met Your Mother relaunch party (because it rocks and also, you know, Britney), so I hope you don't mind that I'll be Reduxing with you all tonight.
Now, if you haven't watched episode seven of Lost yet, well then your TiVo misses you and you should go be with it! If you have watched, put down those lima beans, tie on a gender-appropriate ribbon and get in here!
WHAT WE'VE LEARNED
Daddy's Little Girl: To start, Jenn from Conyers, Georgia, I'd like thank you for being the sacrificial emailer! Hope you don't mind being involuntarily thrown into this Lost discussion group! Now, Jenn writes in, "On Lost, did you catch that Sun had her baby in 2008, the 'Year of the Dragon'? That is quite the time warp!"
Er...I could be misinterpreting this all terribly (it's been known to happen), but I think that's not quite right. From what I saw, I believe there are two "flash" stories going on in this episode: (1) In a flashforward, Sun has her baby in 2005, after being rescued from the Island, and (2) in a flashback, set in 2000, the most recent Year of the Dragon, Jin and Sun had just gotten married, and Jin was all mobbed up running panda errands for Mr. Paik. (Sun's baby was born in the Year of the Rooster.)
Further to the point of the timeline, according to people with very good eyesight, Jin's tombstone (sob) stated his death date as Sept. 22, 2004. That means the world and/or the stonemason believes Jin-Soo Kwon died in the crash, along with 317 others.
Now, tombstone notwithstanding, if Jin isn't alive, well and still stuck on the Island playing Parcheesi with Locke (even if Sun herself doesn't know it), I'll eat my shoe.
We Have Offspring: Can I get a hell yeah for another wonderful circle-of-life baby-delivery episode? I cried when Claire gave birth to Aaron, and I cried again when Sun gave birth to Ji-Yeon. It feels, though, I must admit, that Ji-Yeon is more ours than even Aaron. We've known her since before she even existed, and we're friends with both her parents. You know they teach you in third grade that Oceanus Hopkins was the first kid born to the Mayflower pilgrims? This reminds me of that. It's a landmark of our journey together. (Yes, I know wee Oceanus didn't make it, but let’s not dwell...)
Memorandum: Note to self: When it's time to give birth, don't leave husband in car. Labor looks extra traumatizing when you're all alone. Poor Sun. (Yunjin was kind of awesome though, huh?)
By Any Other Name... Some of the Oceanic Six seem to have a tenuous connection with reality. Jack was in the hospital referring directly to his long-dead father. Kate was gripping the labels "my child" and "son" like something would electrocute her if she let go—but Aaron is Claire's baby, and Kate knows it. Sun screams for her husband when he's way MIA—dead perhaps, or at least trapped on a haunted Island. Is this all just narrative misdirection while we unknot the who-and-what mystery of the Oceanic Six, or have all the survivors gone plumb loco? A little bit of both perhaps, but mostly the lies, I think, are too much. The lies have made them all mad as hatters.
Counting Games: Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Kate, Sun = Oceanic Five, for sure. But where do the babies fit in? Aaron was on Oceanic 815 by way of Claire's uterus, so he should be the sixth, I guess, but if Sun was known to be preggers when they were rescued, why don't they call it the Oceanic Six-Point-Five? Or could there possibly be another adult hanging around? I wouldn't put it past D&C to have Rose or Frogurt stashed somewhere...I need to see the People magazine cover from the week the Six were rescued!!
Razzle-Dazzle! On the TV in the background there in that first Sun flashforward scene, holy moly, that's the legendary low-budget TV extravaganza known as Exposé! Dubbed in Korean! Starring Kiele Sanchez as Nikki as Corvette! Yeee! I love all three.
Somebody Hide the Steak Knives: Um, hello there, smear-on-the-wall person and chain-wrapped crazy lady...Does anyone have Davy Jones' locker combination? The captain says a nasty case of cabin fever is going around his ship, but that's pretty much the lamest mass-suicide explanation ever. So the question remains: Why is this happening? Is contagious suicide a symptom of the still-mysterious but apparently fatal Sickness? Is it a time-freakout thing that Constant-less people suffer from most terribly? Are these people actually drinking the bad Kool-Aid? Is the "kitchen problem" really just mad-cow disease? Aaahh!
Gang of Three: Our boys are stone-cold. Love that Desmond and Sayid don't bat an eyelash at the introduction of Mr. Kevin Johnson, aka ZOMGMICHAEL!!! Nice to meet you, too, K.J.
Quotes to Note
- "Wherever Sun go, I go." —Jin
- "That shouldn't still be there, dammit." —Dr. Strangelove from the boat
- "I will once again betray the sisterhood." —Juliet Burke (okay, C.J. Cregg on The West Wing, but seriously, bitch, I mean, Burke, no wait, I do mean bitch: I could have lived my whole life without seeing Sun begging Jin for forgiveness and having to reassure him the baby was his. Good lord, that freaking hurt.)
WHAT'S TO COME
Where have you gone, Michael Dawson? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you... What's that you say, Kevin Johnson? Little Walt's left and gone away, hey hey hey? (Next week: We learn where Michael's been all this time, and remaining Islanders pow-wow about what to do with the returning Quisling...)
Want more? Check out these sneak peeks.
This show is amazing. Period.
Now, tell me your theories about the Oceanic Six: Are we being deliberately toyed with by the powers that be, or is the case already closed? Post in the Comments!