Baby Mama's Drama: A Review of Ji Yeon

In terms of Locke- or Desmond-like mythology, Ji Yeon didn’t have much of it. But then again, most Sun & Jin Kwon-centric episodes don’t. Their characters have zero mysticism or mythology, except for the Island’s supplying Jin with gun powder for the blanks he'd been firing. So last night didn’t explicitly journey through time travel, smoke monsters, ghosts and the like. But, for LOST fans who crave answers (everyone), Ji Yeon satisfied. We got a fair amount of plot development this week, instead of the puzzling mindf%(@ we sometimes get. Let’s discuss.


Kwon-tam Leap
I spent a good portion of this episode trying to decipher if I was watching a flash-forward or flashback. While Sun’s scenes convinced me we were in the future, Jin’s left me unsure. And the disconnect between the two characters’ stories seemed too ominous.

And so, of course, it wasn’t a flash-forward or a flashback. It was both. Thanks, LOST. You bastard. Let’s review what we know after last night.

Two Steps Forward
Sun gets off the Island, and joins Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and baby Aaron as the final member of the Oceanic Six. (Congrats, Maggie. 5 out of 6 ain’t bad). We catch up with Sun when she’s quite pregnant, as she writhes in pain feeling – presumably – some residual effects from Island Baby Mama-itis. Apparently though, not enough damage was done to prevent Sun from giving birth to a bouncing baby girl named, in accordance with Jin’s wishes, Ji Yeon. Finally! An episode where it’s very clear what the title is referring to. Of course, I’m sure “Ji Yeon” refers to some obscure Confucian concept that’s way over my head. Oh well, ignorance is bliss.

One Step Back
Based on Sun’s story alone, this episode was obviously happening post-Oceanic 815 (made abundantly clear by a nurse referring to Sun as one of the O6). But the infusion of Jin’s terrified, stuffed-panda obsessed mad dash through the streets through me for a loop. Until the end, when we find out that the stuffed-panda voyage is really just another errand that Jin must run for Mr. Paik, the controlling father of his new bride. Jin’s story was a flashback.

Here’s the chronology: Jin and Sun got married. Two months later Jin had to honor another baby’s birth with a stuffed panda as a diplomatic gesture. By juxtaposing Jin and Sun’s storylines, we were thrown for a bit of a loop. When it was revealed that Jin was visiting a baby boy and Sun had a girl – and again when Sun and Hurley visited Jin’s (empty?) grave – we were thus clued into the fact that we were seeing both a flash-forward (Sun) and a flashback (Jin). As an added bonus, we learned the Korean word for “bastard.” Thanks, LOST!

Single Tear
And yes, let’s talk about the grave visit that closed last night’s episode. Anyone else feel like LOST hired the world’s foremost expert in tragically romantic scriptwriting for this season? Penny/Desmond, now Sun/presumed-dead Jin. It was heart-wrenching, and it was good. I usually have a tough time caring for Sun and Jin, mostly because I feel like their mythology-free storyline doesn’t whet my appetite for Island insanity. But I was sucked into the story last night. Of all the O6, Sun must be having the hardest time with big lie, as it means pretending her husband died. And the addition of Hurley, flying halfway across the world to be with Sun, reassured us that not all the Oceanic Six relationships are troubled. There is some measure of goodwill and camaraderie among the reluctantly famous survivors.

But enough of the sappy, tragic romance. Is Jin dead? Or are the O6 just propagating their story to the universe by pretending that – like the rest of the people on the flight – Jin died in the crash? My guess is it’s the latter, and that Jin’s still alive and on the Island. But I want to know why he couldn’t go and Sun could. Very interesting. Perhaps the newly-introduced captain and/or his boss, Charles Widmore (told ya so), felt a tinge of sympathy for a pregnant woman confined to an Island that kills pregnant women.


Meanwhile, back on the mysterious freighter of doom…
Sea Sickness is a Bitch
We finally met someone in charge, but not before seeing another supposed authority figure succumb to Island Madness. Two weeks ago we saw big, bad George Minkowski reduced to dust, unable to comprehend the time-warp effects of his near-Island excursion. And last night we saw his #2, Regina, chain herself up and take a long walk off a short poop deck. The cause of Regina’s suicide: “A heightened case of cabin fever,” according to the refreshingly straightforward Captain Gault.

I Want The Truth!
I like this Captain Gault much in the same way that I like the Others. I think he’s evil, but I don’t know why and I’m left constantly questioning his intentions. And at least he doesn't beat around the bush when giving answers. He may not even have been a blip on my Evil-Dar, save for the “Don’t trust the captain” note that was slipped to Sayid and Desmond (probably by the ship’s “saboteur.” Much more on that later). The other moment that made me like Captain Gault was when he explained that his crew’s cabin fever was probably due in part to their close proximity to the Island. It’s reassuring that somebody on this boat seems to have an idea about of magnitude of this mission.

But the honesty didn’t stop there, folks. The captain was – as Sayid said – “surprisingly forthcoming.” He gave so much information away up front that I feared my conscious mind had become unstuck in time and traveled forward several episodes. But who am I to complain about the free flow of information – especially on this show?

You Can’t Handle The Truth!
Captain Gault spilled the beans about Charles Widmore, then proceeded to give Sayid and Desmond the raw scoop on the Oceanic 815 cover up. Part of that scoop included the implication (if not flat out admission) that Widmore & Co. suspect Ben Linus of having the “resources” to stage the crash, complete with 324 dead bodies. Captain Gault told Mr. Hume and Mr. Jarrah that this heinous act was just one of many reasons they wanted to capture Ben Linus. Consider that conversation the closest thing we’ll get to a warrant for Ben’s arrest. But at least we have some idea as to what they’re really doing.

Or do we? Let’s not forget that “Don’t trust the captain” note. Granted, it was probably written by the saboteur that is working for the same Ben Linus the freighter folk are out to get. But this early in the game, I’m not ready to take Captain Gault’s word as gospel. His boss (Widmore) didn’t exactly seem like “the good guy” when he was kicking the crap out of some kid on Totally Hidden Ben Linus Video last week.

For me it comes back to the very question I posed last week: Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? If Ben’s the good guy, then maybe Widmore and the Captain really are trying to exploit the Island. If Widmore and the Captain are the good guy(s), then maybe Ben Linus really is the evil mastermind we’ve always suspected him of being. Once again, LOST answers one question (“What are the freighter folk after?”) with another (“Is that really what they’re after?”).


That Kevin Johnson Looks an Awful Lot Like Michael
Quick note: the headline of this section was a joke that I tested out on my LOST Watch Party last night. It got a slight chuckle, if nothing else from sheer pity, so I decided to use it.

Good for LOST. They made no bones about Herald Perrineau’s (Michael) return to the show. And when Ben announced he had a man on the boat, it didn’t take Doc Jensen to figure Perrineau was the right man for the job. But nobody probably saw this coming: Michael Dawson now goes by Kevin Johnson (not this guy). And Kevin doesn’t seem to know Michael Dawson from Michael McDonald (“If I hear ‘Llamo Be There’ one more time I’m gonna Llamo Burn this Place Down”). There’s a lot to dissect here, but I think I’ve got two possible explanations.

“Charlie, You’re Not Gonna Say ‘Time Travel’ Are You?”
Time Travel! Remember when Ben set Michael and Walt free at the end of Season 2? He told him to follow a very specific compass bearing to freedom. That made enough sense at the time. But after Daniel Faraday’s insistence that Frank Lapidus follow an exact compass bearing, and after seeing how that compass bearing led electromagnetically-charged Desmond to become unstuck in time, Ben’s compass bearing directive to Michael takes on a new meaning. Perhaps, just as Faraday guided Lapidus through the wormhole, Ben “freed” Michael and Walt from the Island by sending them to the past.

But then what has become of Walt? Did he go back in time, too? I think so. And I think that will work to explain his sudden progression through puberty. Maybe Walt and Michael went back, but Walt was allowed to return to 2004 and the Island, and those “visions” of him we’ve seen (all grown up) aren’t visions at all, but actual visits from the Bird Whisperer himself.

If Walt was allowed to return to the Island, that opens Michael up to be manipulated. And if Michael traveled in time, he probably didn’t have the mental faculties (or Faradays’ guidance) to comprehend it. But you know who would? Ben. And maybe as Ben worked to calm Michael and cure him from the effects of time travel, he gave a shattered, confused Michael a new identity: Kevin Johnson.
You know what would be interesting? “What, Charlie!?” I’ll tell you. What if Kevin Johnson found a constant (like Walt)? Would he snap out of Kevin Johnson mode and remember that he was really Michael Dawson?

Either That, Or Michael’s Just Lying
Yeah. Time Travel is explanation #1. Michael being a jerk (as per usual) is #2. I do think Michael would’ve gotten as far away from the Island as possible if he had Walt. That makes me think Ben really does still have the boy wonder. If that’s the case, Michael could be lying his way back to the Island to get his son. He’s done it before, he could do it again.

But Honestly
But my money’s on time travel, kids. Mostly because Kevin Johnson legitimately doesn’t seem to remember Sayid and Desmond (though his face did seem to very innocently say, “Do I know you from somewhere?”).

I really liked how they introduced “Michael” back into the show. If the reveal was spoiled by announcing Herald Perrineau’s return to the show last summer, the revelation that Michael was operating under an assumed identity was just the shock to the system we’d expect from LOST.

Here's an interesting little tidbit. LOST filmed 8 episodes before the strike. We've heard we're only getting the first 7, then after a break we'd get 6 more. But last night's "Next week on LOST" informed us that we would be getting episode 8. I remember reading an interview with Damon Lindeloff where he spoke about episode 8, and said that if the strike had ended the season after episode 8, people would've been pissed. It's that much of a cliffhanger, apparently.

Oh, and the title of that tantalizing episode 8? "Meet Kevin Johnson."

In Conclusion
Just typing "Meet Kevin Johnson" made me forget everything about last night and focus my excitement on next week.

But really, I liked last night's episode. I thought we got a fair amount of answers, and I have to credit the Kwons on a pretty superb acting job, especially Sun at the grave. That was her best scene in the series, I think.

Here are some things to ponder. Go ahead and ponder them in the comments section if you'd like.

• Jin: Dead or alive?
• Michael/Kevin Johnson: Brainwashed, Unstuck in time, Lying or Crazy?
• Captain Gault: Good or evil? Do you trust him?
• The preview said someone was gonna die next week. Any ideas?

Stephan & Stuckey episode ratings:
Stephan: 7.3
Stuckey:

Namaste.
.charlie

Oh, and as promised by Maggie yesterday... here is this entire post translated into Korean, in honor of the Kwons.