Ji Yeon Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM, Steve from the Smoke Hatch, and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 7, "Ji Yeon," plus more details from "The Other Woman" and notes from the latest episode of The Official LOST Podcast.

The Other Woman additional thoughts:

• In the first flashback, Harper Stanhope (Juliet's therapist) had a certificate of recognition on the wall that had a Hanso Foundation logo on it!
• Was she a member of the DHARMA Initiative who somehow survived the gassing and joined The Others?
• Is she supposed to be Ben's childhood friend Annie?
• This would perhaps be another reason why Ben hated Goodwin enough to send him to his death
• Why would someone who proudly displays a certificate from The Hanso Foundation be working with Ben and The Others??

• Notes from the popups:
  
• Harper has a bachelor's from Columbia and a master's degree in psychology from Yale
• Ben used the tempest station to deploy the gas in the purge that killed
  
• Stanhope is also Goodwin's last name (as opposed to being Harper's maiden name which she continued to use after marriage, as some women do)
  
• The Tempest is a reference, in part, to a Shakespeare play about a group of people who get stranded on a magical island
• The popups hinted that Juliet looks like Annie!!?!
• This is pretty ridiculous, in my opinion. The most obvious reason is that Juliet is blonde while Annie was a brunette as a child. But if you compare Annie and Juliet side-by-side, there are so few differences in their appearance. Who writes these popups, anyway?
• What makes a lot more sense to me is that Ben thinks Juliet looks like his mother, Emily Linus. Harper looks a lot more like Annie than Juliet does
  
• Zach and Emma - Juliet has been "wonderful" with them
• The lists indicated who was worthy to join The Others' community
• Ben was, in fact, involved with the plot to get Juliet to kill Dan Faraday and Charlotte Lewis; if Juliet had succeeded it could have opened up the way for The Purge II

Ji Yeon notes:

• Present:
• Regina had her book upside-down... can't read?
• The book is The Survivors of the Chancellor, an 1875 novel written by Jules Verne about the final voyage of a British sailing vessel, the Chancellor, told from the perspective of one of its passengers (in the form of a diary)
• Jin wants to name the baby Ji Yeon if they have a daughter
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun called emergency services, we see that she's very pregnant, and rather than being in labor she says that she thinks something's wrong
• Sun is watching Nikki's episode of Exposé on TV
  
• Flashback:
• It appears (so far) as though Jin makes it off the island, too
• Present:
• A note is passed in to Sayid and Desmond that says "DON'T TRUST THE CAPTAIN"
• Presumably passed to them by Michael? But why would Michael (or Ben, assuming that Michael is Ben's "man on the boat") want them to distrust the captain when the captain seems to be telling the truth about what a bad person Charles Widmore is?
  
• Flashforward:
• Substitute doctor, baby is in distress
• Present:
• Juliet told Jin that Sun was with another man
• Lapidus is running an errand to go to the island?
• Regina committed suicide
• Captain made Desmond and Sayid stop when they tried to save Regina
• Some of crew have cabin fever
• Sabateur on board has been destroying engine
• Charles Widmore gave the captain his orders
• Captain has the black box of the supposed Flight 815
• Wreckage was obviously staged - imagine the resources
• Where did Charles get 324 bodies?
• "That's why we want Benjamin Linus" - Why exactly?
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun gives birth to a girl, names her Ji Yeon per Jin's wish (hence the episode title)
• Present:
• Blood stain on the wall, reminiscent of Radzinsky
  
• Michael introduces himself as Kevin Johnson
• Desmond has never met Michael; refer to Lostpedia's November 2004 timeline
• Flashforward:
• Sun and Hurley go to Jin's tombstone which has the crash date (22 September 2004) as his date of death

Non-spoilers from The Official LOST Podcast:

• The relationship between the Widmores and Alvar Hanso as described in the book Bad Twin is part of the LOST canon

WARNING: The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

Notes from The Official LOST Podcast:

• Carlton said that one way that the Tempest Station could be interpreted is that "there were not all entirely peaceful missions that were going on in the DHARMA stations. Another interpretation is that the DHARMA Initiative was aware that there were hostile forces on the island and created gas to protect themselves. Those might be two viable explanations."
• We will find out by the end of the season whether Ben was telling the truth to Locke about Charles Widmore
• The scenes in The Other Woman are not the last we'll see on Harper, Juliet's therapist
• Carlton confirmed that "we will be seeing more of Jack's dad in the future. I think it's a really good question to ponder what exactly is Christian Shephard's role in the lives of Jack and the other survivors on the island and it was a good observation also to say that it was Christian Shephard indeed in the cabin."
• We will see the smoke monster again soon. Damon said that they like to unleash the monster once per season at least. Says Damon, "We have a rule, though, and the rule is: every time we show you the monster that we evolve its mythology a little further so you learn something about it that you didn't know before."
• We will see Locke return to more of a Season 1 Locke, "an energized and activated Locke," as soon as this season
• Episode 8 will be titled "Meet Kevin Johnson"

From a UGO interview with Damon and Carlton:

• Carlton: "We can't say much about what the format and structure of next season will be like because I think it would spoil the ending of this season. As this season gets closer to the end it is going to become more than apparent where the story wants to go next."
  

Notes from the preview for Meet Kevin Johnson:

• We'll find out about Michael's story
• Someone will die
• Ben apparently revealed to Locke that Michael is on the boat
• You can watch sneak peeks at DarkUFO's spoiler site—but be careful about other comments and posts there!

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The Other Woman Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 6, "The Other Woman," plus more details from "The Constant" and notes from the latest episode of The Official LOST Podcast.

The Constant recap:

• Notes from the popups:
  
• Eloise being "unstuck in time" is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• It was implied that the "friend on this board" referenced by Minkowski is Ben's spy on the boat
• Tovard Hanso is a distant relative of Magnus Hanso, as well as Alvar Hanso
• Danielle Rousseau - was the "sickness" she mentioned the same thing as George Minkowski and Desmond had?
• Did Dan know to send 1996 Desmond to see him because he had already lived through the event in the past? (This is a time travel paradox)
• The rat never was in the future to learn the maze because he died - paradox pointed out by Curt Yanko on the Black Rock podcast
• Did Dan set up Desmond meeting him in the past for the selfish reason of giving himself a "constant"?
• When Dan saw the news report on TV about Flight 815 supposedly being discovered, did he know at that moment that this would lead him on the expedition in which he would find Desmond? If so, why was he sad?
  

The Other Woman notes:

• Flashback: Harper Stanhope
• Juliet's was assigned a therapist right when she got to the island??
• Present: Juliet heads into jungle to search for Dan and Charlotte, hears whispers, then Harper appears and says "long time no see"
• says that Faraday and Lewis headed to The Tempest (electrical station) to release gas to kill everyone on the island
• there are more whispers, then Harper disappears
• Flashback: Harper is Goodwin's wife
• Goodwin was having an affair with Juliet
• Present: Charlotte nearly shot Kate
• Kate lied and said Miles is fine
• Charlotte lied about phone not working
• Kate saw gas masks, Charlotte knocked her out
• Flashback: white blood cell count plummets, immune system turns on the fetus
  only happens to women who conceived on the island
• Harper: Juliet looks just like someone close to Ben (his mom?)
• Ben would hurt Goodwin if he knew about Julet's relationship with him
• Present: Ben tells Locke that their common enemy is not the people on freighter; the enemies are "the ones they work for"
• Combination to safe: 36 15 28
• Ben shows Locke a candid video of Charles Widmore beating one of Ben's people, says that Widmore is the man who commissioned the freighter and that he wants to exploit the island (e.g. its healing properties)
• Ben has a file on Charles Widmore: some of it is vague, some of it is guesswork, some of it is concrete
• Flashback: Juliet asks Ben, "Do the children from the plane really belong here?"
• Present: Dan in gas mask and full suit, trying to hack the system in The Tempest station: "Juliet, what are you doing here?"
• Dan was actually trying to render the gas inert, not release it
• Flashback: Ben to Juliet: "How can you possibly not understand that you're mine?"
• Present: Juliet to Jack: "Ben thinks that I'm his and he knows how I feel about you" - they kiss anyway
  

WARNING: The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

Notes from the preview:

• Juliet: if she [Sun] doesn't get off this island in 3 weeks, she will die
• we will find out the last of the Oceanic Six
• we'll see the face of someone we never expected to see again (Michael, presumably)

Notes from The Official LOST Podcast:

• Damon said that we will learn "in this pod of episodes" (presumably before the mid-season break) what is going on with the Others who Richard was told to take to the temple
• It will also be very clear who are the members of the Oceanic Six by that time
• We will see more of Penny and Charles Widmore this season

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"The Constant" Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and guests Spivvy (aka Josh) and Amanda from the Lost Flashbacks and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 5, "The Constant," plus notes from a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

Top of the show:

• Follow-up on The Economist
  
• Did the first flashforward scene on the golf course take place after the one with Elsa? Mr. Avellino seemed to be afraid of Sayid, yet at the end Sayid said to Ben something to the effect of "now they know we're after them."
• As supporting evidence, this episode contained Dan Faraday's experiment with the payload sent from the frieghter, and the time difference between the golf scene and the last scene with Elsa (not counting commercials) is 31 minutes
• (source: LOSTCasts podcast)
• Josh theorizes that the DHARMA Initiative wanted to do its Valenzetti Equation experiments (among others) on the island because it would buy them extra time; time moves more slowly on the island
  

Eggtown recap:

• Notes from the popups:
  
• 93rd day on the island
• The book VALIS is "about a fool's search for God, and God turns out to be a joke"
• In the book The Invention of Morel, someone finds a machine that can re-create reality
• Some people think that Miles was actually giving Ben a code... heading 325 is the way off the island as given by Ben to Michael, and "$3.2 million" contains a 3, a 2, and 5 zeros. Ben already knows the heading, but maybe Miles was trying to tell Ben that he was Ben's spy from the boat. (Josh doesn't believe this theory, especially after rewatching the episode, but it's interesting nevertheless.)
  

The Constant notes:

• On the helicopter: Frank's "cheat sheet" says to go 40 miles N at 305, 7 K east
• Desmond's consciousness is jumping back and forth in time???
• Desmond suddenly lost his memory of Sayid!!
• It turns out that present-day Desmond thinks it's 1996 and apparently has no recollection of events that occurred between then and now
  
• Dan: "Your perception of how long your friends have been gone is not necessarily how long they've been gone"
• Dan said that if Frank was off course there might be "side effects"
• The crew members don't seem to know exactly where they are, just near Fiji - "still in the Pacific"
• This refutes the theories that the real plane, not just the fake one found underwater, crashed near Bali in the Indian Ocean
  
• The freighties lock up Desmond with a weird guy (we later find out it's George Minkowski) who says, "Hey, it's happening to you, too, isn't it?"
• Dan asked if Desmond was recently exposed to high levels of electromagnetism
  "going to and coming from the island some people can get a little... confused. This is not amnesia."
• Weird guy: "I was just on a ferris wheel." He seems to be having flashed similar to Desmond's
  
• Daniel tells Desmond via the satellite phone that when he flashes back to 1996, to take a train to Oxford University, the Queen's College Physics Department, so that Desmond can meet Dan there
• Desmond was supposed to tell 1996 Dan to set the device to 2.342, oscillating 11 Hz, and that if 1996 Dan had any doubts, that Desmond should mention that he knew about Eloise (Daniel's lab rat)
• We find out that the crazy guy is George Minkowski, the ship's communications specialist, who used to answer the calls
• He recognized Desmond's name
• He said he was told to never answer when the light flashed when Penny called
• One of the nicest things about this episode is that it finally gives a clear explanation of Flashes Before Your Eyes, which was totally ambiguous about whether Desmond really time-traveled, whether he was in a parallel universe/timeline, or whether it was all in his imagination:
• In this episode, Daniel Faraday explains to Desmond that his consciousness is making the jump, and we can plainly see that Desmond's body is not going back and forth in time
  
• Dan tells Desmond that "Each time your consciousness jumps it gets harder to jump back"
• Minkowski: someone sabotaged all the equipment 2 days ago (Ben's man? But then who opened the door?)
• Josh's theory is that Ben's "man on the boat" is Michael, who sabotaged the equipment, and Walt is the one who opened the door. Or for that matter, it could be the other way around. Michael was willings to do Ben's bidding on the island, so why not on the freighter? We learned from one of the mobisodes that Walt spent some time in Room 23, so perhaps he was brainwashed and is working for Ben.
• Tovar Hanso owned the journal of Magnus Hanso, captain of the Black Rock
• Charles Widmore won the bid on the journal, which eventually would lead to the expedition from the Find 815 game and the discovery of the fake Oceanic Flight 815 in the Sunda Trench
• Minkowski died saying "I can't get back"
• Penny's phone number and address were clues in the Find 815 ARG
  
• Ultimately, Desmond finds that Penny is his "constant" (his link between the past and the present) and he is able to communicate with her briefly through a temporarily-fixed phone that Sayid rigged in the communication room on the ship
• Desmond seems to be completely out of the time loop now; he has his memory back, as he seemed to remember Charlie and he clearly remembered Sayid's name as he said it for the first time since his flashes began at the beginning of the episode
• Does this also mean that Desmond will no longer have any future-seeing flashes? Is Desmond completely cured of all bizarre time-space phenomena?
• Be sure to refer to my previous post for notes and commentary on Dan Faraday's chalkboard and notebook writings
  

Notes from a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (there may be spoilers in this post beginning now):

• Mobisodes and Orchid film are canon, but the video game and find815.com are NOT, which means they do not relate to the story directly
• This makes sense because certain things like the timeline of the press release and the billboards did not jive with Sam Thomas' discovery of the fake Flight 815, which should have taken place in 2004 based on what we've learned on the show
• For another thing, Sam Thomas isn't mentioned in the discovery of the fake Flight 815, nor do we hear his voice on the show when we see the ROV being piloted
  
• There are no "this is what might happen" flashforwards.
• There is no connection between Naomi's and Elsa's bracelets.
• Charlotte Staples Lewis' name being a reference to C. S. Lewis is "an important clue to Charlotte's own, as-yet-untold important backstory."
• By the end of this season there will be two theories about the apparent Flight 815 in the Sunda Trench. Ben's list has something to do with this.
• We will find out this season who is in the coffin.
• (credit to Jay and Jack for pointing out this EW article)
  

Preview for the next episode, The Other Woman:

• Ben says, "we have a common enemy"
• Charlotte, Jack, Juliet have guns at various points in the episode
  
• Charlotte knocks out Kate
• Charlotte says to Juliet something to the effect of "you'll have to shoot both of us if you want to stop us"
• Jack says to Juliet, "If there's something you need to tell me, now's the time to do it."
  

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