Because it's good, and by some rip in the fabric of reality is on just before the 700 Club. Hard to believe Pat Robertson is still alive-he doesn't look it.

Did I mention the cursed tuba?

Via Lost In Thought in Alabama

"Four years into the magical mystery tour that is Lost, I think it's safe to say, if we're at all honest with ourselves, that there isn't a one of us who has any idea what the hell is going on. There are so many clues in play now, so many images, mysteries, themes, characters, symbols, all swirling around our heads like the chickens and bicycles in the twister that took Dorothy to Oz. We get a sense from time to time that we're glimpsing the secret behind it all, and then just like that, it's torn away from us again and we're as confused as ever before. What none of us know yet, is whether or not Lost is ever going to make any sense. It spins us around in a big whirlpool of pictures and slogans and icons and books and maps and drawings and numbers and faces. It's only natural to wonder sometimes if we're just being dazzled with bullshit. "

• So, in three years (Dec 2007?) Locke will be dead. Why did the Island allow him to die? And isn't it great that even if he's dead that doesn't mean no more Locke goodness?
• My guess is that the off-Island Oceanic 6 scenes in 2007 will become the new "present day" and the flashbacks will be on-Island starting right after the Island moved and will move forward in time until final Season 7 when they converge. Or visa-versa.
• How did they fit a polar bear into that little chamber in the Orchid?
• Big Question: Why doesn't the Island just tell people what it wants them to do?
• Jin and Daniel aren't confirmed dead.
• I think Sun wants to get back to the Island and find Jin. She may be working with Ben.
• I really want to know why the bad things that happened (will happen, whatever) on the Island after the Move are Jack's fault.
• Dream Claire doesn't want Aaron to return to the Island. WTF is up with that? That would guarantee that Aaron would be "raised by another"-isn't that supposed to be a Bad Thing? Does Aaron have to be one of the group for them to return?

• Notice how Hurley brought Sayid into his family? Mark my words, by the end of Season 6 Hugo will be the Grand High PooBah of the Island
• Yes Miss Austin, why didn't the Marshall or anyone else notice you were SIX MONTHS PREGNANT?
• Sayid has been searching for her, but Nadia found him.
• Ben: "It's a Greenhouse", and I'm Eleanor Roosevelt.
• Good Line: "How do you move an island? Very Carefully". Too bad "Mister 'Splody" Locke is going to be at the controls.
• "None of your business"-Ben is getting upitty.
• Who signalled back from the Orchid? I assume they knew some sort of password.
• Daniel could tell everyone that the shit is going to hit the fan, but what fun would that be?
• Jin made it to the boat, so it looks bad for him.
• What is on Hurley's t-shirt? Something about Ace Spades?
• I really, really want Mama Hurley to fall down a well.
• The Camaro's key is attached to another white rabbit's foot, like the Coast Guard co-pilot had.
• Red Camaro-Red is bad.
• Ben-"I wasn't being entirely truthful"- no shit.
• Keamy's dead man switch is connected to the C4, that's what's messing with the depth gauge.
• Yes Jack, you left your half-sister on the Island.
• Michael and Walt TOOK A CARGO FERRY back to NYC?!???!?! He only had three weeks to get an apartment and fuck up his life before he had to get on the Freighter-a ship would have taken forever to get him home.
• That is a hell of a lot of C4.
• Prediction: Sooner or later Locke is going to realize what a dupe and a shmuck he's been and try to "clean up his mess". Notice how in this episode everyone else is trying to help/save someone else, but not Locke. He doesn't care about Hurley being stranded, he doesn't care about the people he didn't protect from Keamy's goons, he only cares about serving the Island. I've got news-- there is nothing that says that the Island deserves worship or service. Locke has faith in the Island, but he has no faith in himself. He's constantly looked outside himself for direction- his father, the commune, the Island, The Button, Ben, Jacob. He may want to be a Hero, but right now he's just a tool.

• It's raining when Emily Locke is hit by a car.
• Does Hurley's t-shirt symbolize tic-tac-toe (another game)?
• Did Keamy describe Smokey as a "white (or light) pillar of smoke"?
• Keamy seems frightened that Ben knows his name.
• Keamy's gun doesn't fire-more evidence that Michael can't die. Though he can be given a hurtful beating.
• Horace is in a loop.
• Why is Horace's nose bleeding?
• Richard Alpert is present in Locke's life from almost the beginning.
• Hurley's great question: "Why am I here?"
• Locke has stepsister and stepbrother.
• Boy Locke draws pictures of Smokey.
• Richard Alpert's test of Locke resembles how Buddhist Lamas (Tulkus) are confirmed:

  "...tests such as checking whether the child can recognize acquaintances or possessions from his previous life or answer questions only known to his former life-experience. According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel, “A number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were his in his previous life."

  Richard's Items:

  • "Mystery Tales" Comic , with "Hidden Land" cover story
  • Combat Knife
  • Grey Powder
  • Baseball Glove
  • Compass
  • "Book of Laws"
• What's the pattern of boy Locke's shirt?
• Ben is adamant that he didn't kill the Dharma Initiative. This is very strange considering what he's said in the past:

  "When it became clear that one side had to go, that one side had to be purged, I did what I had to do."

  "Not so long ago, Jack, I made a decision that took the lives of over forty people in a single day."

• Is Ben putting on a disillusioned act?
• Hurley found the cabin.
• Notice how Locke and Ben use "Hugo", not "Hurley".
• Was Locke surviving his crippling fall like Michael and his suicide attempts?
• Abaddon says a miracle happened to him.
• Abaddon sends Locke to Australia.
• Locke will owe Abaddon.
• Keamy has a dead man switch strapped to his bicep.
• And that's how the Doctor died.
• Why is Christian in the cabin and not Jacob?
• Locke: "I'm here because I was chosen."
• Claire is so dead.
• The scene with Hurley sharing a candy bar with Ben is classic.
• "Move The Island" indeed. But Keamy and friends are already on the Island.

Lockeville-Locke's House

• Locke: "You deserve to know everything that I do, so...no more secrets".

  What a sad little scene. Once again the Losties are the most incurious and disconnected bunch one could imagine. Why are the Freighties after Ben? Why are they going to kill everyone else on the Island? What are we going to do to prepare for the coming attack? How did Ben get Michael to work for him on the freighter? What were the people on the helicopter supposed to do? Why did the Others abandon Ben? And those are just the questions that concern their immediate welfare. No questions for Ben about the hundreds of other mysteries. No more secrets my ass-Widmore, the guy behind the freighter, isn't even mentioned.

Freighter

• The ship's alarm sounds exactly like the Swan's.

Locke's House-Ben/Alex/Karl/Rousseau

• Did Ben hand-draw the Temple Dharma logo on his map or does he have a set of stamps?

  

• Comparison between Temple and Tempest maps
• Ben: "These people that are coming - they know who I am, Alex. They're here to capture me. They'll kill anybody that gets in their way. If they knew who you were, that you were my daughter, they would use you to get to me".

  If (and it's a big if) Ben's strategic prowess stems from knowledge of the future then he could have planted the idea for Alex to use her identity to save her life. But if he knows the future then he knows already that Alex tells the freighter snatch-team that she's his daughter-so he doesn't need to tell her. This is a hint of some of the problems associated with time-travel/precognition.

Freighter

• Sayid wants answers, bless his heart.

New York City

• Irony: The song playing in Michael's car is Mama Cass's "It's Getting Better"

  "Once I believed that when love came to me
  It would come with rockets, bells and poetry
  But with me and you it just started quietly and grew
  And believe it or not
  Now there's something groovy and good
  Bout whatever we got

  And it's getting better
  Growing stronger warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday
  I don't feel all turned on and starry eyed
  I just feel a sweet contentment deep inside
  Holding you at night just seems kind of natural and right

  And it's not hard to see
  That it isn't half of what it's going to turn out to be
  Cause it's getting better
  Growing stronger, warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday
  Ba da da da da da da da da da da da

  And I don't mind waitin', don't mind waitin'
  Cause no matter how long it takes
  The two of us know
  That it's getting better
  Growing stronger, warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday'"

• According to the speedometer, the car hit the container going at least 60 mph. Assuming Michael never buckled his seat belt (and I never saw him), he should definitely be dead. His other suicide attempt is iffy, given that Tom could have messed with his gun, but I think the crash is good evidence that Michael cannot die.
• This episode's closeup of an eye opening is Michael in the hospital.
• Is Nurse Libby a guilty conscience, or Smokie , or like whatever Charlie is now, or something else?
• The Hospital room changes before and after Libby, suggesting either a dream or bad continuity.
• Libby is bringing blankets, just like when Michael shot her.
• If Michael had no ID, how was his note supposed to get to Walt?
• There's a Xmas tree in the hospital and a wreath at Mom's house=It's the holiday season, probably December 2004.
• There are red flowers outside Mom's house.
• Why did Michael tell Walt and not Mom?
• NYC Walt isn't as big as Tall Ghost Walt.
• The back of the watch says "Congratulations mutual cooperation business development Mr. Paik" in Korean
• There's a Xmas tree on the counter at the pawn shop.
• Why does Michael need a gun? New York City is full of nice tall buildings he can jump off of.
• Tom is pretty lucky Michael didn't press the issue, it's not easy defending yourself against someone who hates you and who wants to die.
• For the record, I think Michael can't die, but I remain skeptical of everything Tom says to him, including the part about the Island not letting him die. Michael's "invulnerability" could be due to some other factor that Ben is taking advantage of.

• "Also of interest: how Zeke said that Michael had more "work to do." This is what Taller Ghost Walt said to Locke at the Skeleton Pit, and it's the same sentence Zombie Dad said to Vincent in "So It Begins" (a Lost Missing Piece)--referring to Jack."

  Via S4Ep8 - I Was Happy to "Meet Kevin Johnson"

• Bob Dylan lived in the Hotel Earle, room 305, in the 1960's. There's a fictional Californian Hotel Earle in the Coen brother's film Barton Fink. Barton's next-door neighbor is a traveling-salesman serial killer.
• Michael's TV mentions Kurt Vonnegut as a game show answer.
• Who turns on the TV before they shoot themselves?
• Yup, Tom's gay.
• Tom's "evidence" is pretty weak. What kind of self-respecting evil billionaire leaves a paper trail of purchase orders with his name on them?
• Widmore says Ben staged the Indian ocean wreck, Tom says Widmore did it-my theory is that both of them are lying and neither of them is responsible for the plane that was found. I think that really is flight 815-we've seen duplicated bunnies, why not duplicated planes?
• "Kevin Johnson's" passport has the same number as Ben's "Dean Moriarty" one.

Freighter

• How did Ben get Michael a job on the freighter? Why would the freighter need a deckhand to come all the way from America?
• "Hi there, I'm the new lowly deckhand. Pay no attention to the crate I'm having loaded onto the ship, it's not like it's a bomb or anything. I mean, just because you're all going off to do bad deeds for an evil billionaire, there's no reason for you to have any semblance of security."
• Let's meet all the people who will be dead soon.
• Oranges:

  "Meet Kevin Johnson calls attention to another seminal modern tragedy that might serve as the model for the stories of Michael and other characters. In an allusion to The Godfather films, Miles calls our attention to an orange that he's eating, both visually and verbally. Oranges also serve as a famous recurring image in The Godfather film saga, always as a forewarning that death will not be far behind. Lost also paid homage to The Godfather as far back as the Pilot episode of the series, in which Terry O'Quinn mimicked Marlon Brando's famous orange peel smile. If The Godfather saga does serve as a major creative influence on Lost, then there is a strong reason to be concerned for its characters. The story of the Corleone family suggests not only that it might be impossible for an individual to atone for past crimes within one lifetime, but that future generations also will suffer for those sins."

  Via The Goodfather, The Badfather by Luhks

• Just throwing my cell phone into the harbor, nothing suspicious.
• I only see one helicopter. If Lapidus is needed to transport the science team, what did Naomi fall out of onto the Island?

  Where is Naomi's Copter?

• Naomi believes in going commando.
• There are only about 5-6 guys doing target practice.
• I think the combination to the bomb is 71776.
• There were whispers before Libby appeared in the engine room.
• Whatever Engine Room Libby was, why did she warn Michael not to set off the fake bomb? My theory: "Libby" didn't want Ben to get another hold over Michael.
• My first reaction to the "Not Yet" pop-up was "Oh my god, the Island is writing notes!".

• "Finally, on the subject of the King of Ka, I wanted to highlight a telling reference to the Shining. Recall that Mike is wasting time by bouncing a ball against the wall just like Jack Nicholson in the film version when Minkowski draws the comparison. I'm intrigued because the Shining strikes me as a perfect analogy for what's happening on Lost. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island was once the site of some trauma that left a powerful psychic imprint upon it. Living and dead alike are driven by this imprint to repeat terrible events of the past.

  Of particular relevance, both the Shining and Lost feature psychic children whose powers are intensified by proximity to the Island/Hotel. This booster effect makes the children more sensitive to the imprint but simultaneously gives them the power to resist it. That's why Walt eventually soured on the Island in a way Locke never did, even during his crisis of faith after finding the Pearl. The former is little Danny Torrance, and the latter his father, Jack. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island needs a new caretaker..."

  Via Meet Kevin Johnson...by Eye M Sick

• Michael's a lowly deckhand on a freighter on a secret mission for an evil billionaire, of course he can take a call from the mainland in private. It's not like he's a mole for an evil sociopath.
• Ben can radio the outside world from his secret room.
• Ben: "I will not kill innocent people."-Does Ben really believe this? How does he rationalize shooting Locke? Oh yea, Ben believed that Locke killed his father to join the Others.
• The question to ask is; Why doesn't Ben really want the freighter blown up?

  Possibilities:

  • Ben is prohibited from or punished for killing innocent people who are off the Island. "God doesn't know how long we've been here, John. He can't see this island any better than the rest of the world can. ".
  • For some reason he can't kill innocent people in the context of his conflict with Widmore.
  • Blowing up the freighter screws up the future.

• "In Ben's brief appearance in Michael's flashback, he makes his strongest plea yet that he is The Good Guy. He goes to great lengths to convince Michael that he is not a monster like Charles Widmore: "When I'm at war, I'll do what I need to do to win, but I will not kill innocent people." While Michael was convinced by the little farce that Ben played with him, Ben's track record indicates otherwise. It is difficult to put an exact number on the innocent people that Ben killed or tried to kill to fulfill his own desires. However, Ben is such a fan of listmaking that he probably has these names checked off somewhere: Roger Linus, Horace Goodspeed, another forty members of Dharma Initiative, the real Henry Gale, Goodwin, Charlie, Bonnie, Greta, any pregnant woman who wanted to leave the island, all of his own people who died on kidnapping missions, etc. You can add in his direct attempts to kill Ana-Lucia, Locke, and Charlotte, as well as the countless other times when he ordered other people to use lethal force. If you agree with my interpretation of this episode, then Karl and Danielle will be just the latest names in this ongoing series of victims.

  Perhaps even longer than his list of names is his list of excuses. He somehow manages to keep persuading both characters and audience members that everything he does is justified. Ben has now convinced a new group of people that their survival depends upon their efforts to protect him. Make no mistake, though, Ben is a monster, and there is no other character more dangerous than him. He pursues his desires without regard for human life, and slaughters the innocent without conscience."

  Via The Goodfather, The Badfather by Luhks

• Ben's new orders to Michael don't make sense. If the freighter's radios and engines are disabled, those innocent people either take a smaller boat and try to get to the Island or they starve to death.
• Michael doesn't cover any of the time since Sayid and Desmond got on board.
• I'll say one thing for Michael, he didn't lie to Sayid and Desmond.
• Want to bet the Captain knew all along about Michael?

  "Watch Gault's reaction as they present Michael to him - he's not even the least bit surprised. In fact, he looks almost disappointed. I think he and Widmore knew exactly who Michael was from the very beginning, and were planning on somehow using that knowledge to find Ben. Sayid and Desmond just blew it for him. He intentionally called Johnson to "clean up this mess" to see if Michael's ex-friends would approach him. Check out how he watches them over his shoulder on the way back to his quarters. I actually think Gault expected them to secretly buddy up together... he had no way of knowing that Michael committed double-homicide and was totally hated. The captain was completely caught off guard by Sayid turning him in."

  Via Things I Noticed - "Meet Kevin Johnson" by Vozzek69

Island

• Wait a minute, what are the odds that the snatch-team from the freighter comes across the only three people wandering about the Island?

  On the other hand, the freighter heavies could have already been on the Island and scouting Lockeville and saw Alex/Karl/Rousseau leave.

• Karl's "I have a bad feeling about this" is a 6-way Star Wars reference.

---

Thoughts

• Does it seem like the whole freighter thing seems a little low-rent for a guy like Widmore? If I were him I would have at least 2 ships; one near, one far. And no crappy rustbuckets.
• The same thing that prevents Michael from dying could have intervened in Jack's attempted bridge jump.
• There are some serious issues with Michael's timeline. I'll just quote directly from BuddyTV:

  Also, we wondered, when did Tom find time to get off the island during that month before he died? To answer these questions, here is a simple timeline using the days on the island to try and pinpoint when the flashbacks took place.

  Day 67 (Saturday, November 27, 2004):
  -Michael and Walt are released in the boat get off the island.

  Day 67-Day 74:
  -Tom and the rest of the Others are at the Hydra Station, interrogating Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Tom is present throughout, including during Ben's surgery.

  Day 80-Day 81:
  -Locke, Kate, Rousseau and Sayid see Jack playing football with Tom.
  -The Others (Tom included) head off to the Ruins.

  Day 87:
  -Naomi lands on the island.

  This timeline results in some serious issues fans should have with time. When Ben calls Michael on the radio, he is in his home in the barracks, which means that scene takes place on Day 81 at the latest. In other words, two weeks after leaving the island, Michael is on the freighter coming back.

  Also, this means that Tom's visit to New York City must have taken place between the time at Hydra and the time he's seen playing football with Jack. This covers roughly a one week span that takes place one week after Michael leaves. This makes almost no sense.

  Michael left in the boat, he had to find help, come ashore, somehow explain himself, get on a plane back to New York City, drop off Walt to live with his grandma, find an apartment, get into a car accident, recover, and only then did he meet Tom. Either the writers are playing fast and loose with the concept of time, or Michael had the busiest week in the history of the world.

  I've gone over Lostpedia's Timeline and I can't argue with this analysis. Though Ben did send Michael on a different bearing than Faraday's "safe" heading-maybe Ben intentionally sent Michael and Walt back in time. Against this is Michael's mom not seeing him for 2 months.

• I'm completely in love with Jack's vintage Bronco, but does this seem like the car a hot-shit spinal surgeon drives? Yet it's so unique I wonder if there's a reason behind it.

  

---

Recaps

• Lost: Michael's Promotion , by J. Wood

Fishbiscuit and The Ack Attack! are the yin and yang of Lost photo-recaps. Both are brilliant

• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by Fishbiscuit
• Lost Recap 4x08: Meet Kevin Johnson, by The Ack Attack!
• Things I Noticed - "Meet Kevin Johnson" by Vozzek69 , by Vozzek69
• The Goodfather, The Badfather , by Luhks
• S4Ep8 - I Was Happy to "Meet Kevin Johnson", by Long Live Locke
• Meet Kevin Johnson..., by Eye M Sick
• Lost: Dad Man Walking, by Adam B. Vary @ Entertainment Weekly
• Lost Episode 4.08 - "Meet Kevin Johnson" Easter Eggs and Screencaps, by Get Lost Podcast
• Lost Episode 4.08 "Meet Kevin Johnson" - Screencap Recap, by Get Lost Podcast
• Initial Thoughts: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Gitsie Girl
• 4 X 08: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Gitsie Girl
• Lost Dueling Analyses: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Celebritology
• Lost: Michael goes to a pwn shop., by Tubular

I'm in awe of this video.

Freighter

• What does Frank have to be ready (and not late) for? Frank says he'll "be up", so it sounds like something on board, something unpleasant, by the look on Frank's face. I don't think it's poker with the boys.
• Regina is (not) reading The Survivors of the Chancellor, a novel by Jules Verne.

  " Verne's 1875 diary of a shipwreck is told from the point of view of one of the passengers. A plot element that Verne uses again and again (and Lost picks up on) is the use of an international cast of characters, and The Survivors of the Chancellor is no different, but the characters are primarily from the British Isles, France and America. The diary follows a J.R. Kazallon's account of the ship the Chancellor leaving Charleston, South Carolina and heading out to the Sargasso Sea via the Bermuda Triangle (it can't be avoided).

  Eighteen days into the voyage, the crew discovers a fire in the cargo hold of the ship; one of the passengers, a Welshman named John Ruby, was smuggling "with characteristic Anglo-Saxon incautiousness" an explosive called potassium picrate, which ignited in the hold. Things pretty much devolve from there. The fire burns for days, the captain resigns, and the smuggler himself goes mad and jumps through a hatch into the fire. The ship finds its way to a small volcanic island and tries to make repairs, dumping much of its cargo and putting out the fire. But not long after setting off again, it starts to take on water, and after a number of days they're forced to make a raft and abandon ship. The survivors limp south, and little by little, succumb to the pressures; some of the crew get drunk and mutiny, some die, some eat the dead, one person dies from poisonous water. A body even goes missing, like Christian Shephard's, and like Regina, one crew member goes insane and jumps off the ship.

  One of the interesting points about the novel is that the narrator is constantly giving their precise latitude and longitude throughout. This makes the novel a bit more interactive than a regular book, as the reader can follow along with a map and chart when and where the survivors ended up (not unlike what much of the Lost audience does each week). Furthermore, this kind of interaction is one that displaces traditional author/audience roles, where the audience only passively receives whatever the author explains (and we know how active the Lost audience is in its story). As such, it's fitting that the name of the ship, Chancellor, describes an administrative official of high national office, and in some places a leader. The leader, in other words, is crippled and brought down, while those who were subject to the leader become self-organizing and self-directing, for better and worse."

  From Lost: Join Ye, Ji Yeon

  Screencap of Book

• Kitchen trouble? Would Michael sabotage the kitchen?
• Why is Frank coming from the copter with the bag of lima beans?
• Lima Beans, aka Phaseolus lunatus:

  "P. lunatus is a legume. It is grown for its seed, which is eaten as a vegetable. It is commonly known as the lima bean or butter bean; it is also known as Haba bean, Pallar bean, Burma bean, Guffin bean, Hibbert bean, Java bean, Sieva bean, Rangood bean, Madagascar bean, Paiga, Paigya, prolific bean, civet bean and sugar bean."

  This doesn't lead anywhere, but then neither did this episode.

Beach

• Uh oh, Sun is actually thinking about WTF is going on. This can't last, so don't expect it in future episodes.

Hotel Room

• Sun is watching a Korean dubbed Nikki in Expose on TV.

Jin Downtown

• Run Jin Run, Search Jin Search.
• Panda=black and white

Beach

• Sun and Jin actually want to know what's going on and Kate actually tells them. Amazing.
• Meow-Kate doesn't play well with the other girls. Especially if they've stolen one of her men or clocked her over the head.

Freighter

• Nitpick: Sayid should assume the room is bugged. Instead he blabs away, telling potential listeners that there's a mole.
• "Don't Trust The Captain": Brilliant, like anybody on Lost should trust anyone. How about some useful advice, like "don't eat the tacos"?

Beach

• Why does Daniel have the phone all taken apart? Did it get broken last ep and I missed it? Or is he trying to hack it?
• Daniel is still wearing that tie. I bet he strangled a hobo with that tie.
• Great googly mooglys, Sun is asking direct questions and demanding answers!
• Jin is wearing a red shirt. He's in mortal danger.
• Sun has a goddamn plan, and nobody better get in her way.
• Another direct question, this time from Juliet.

Hospital

• All the hospital scenes are creepy-I keep expecting somebody to steal the baby.

Jin

• Yes, Jin has a temper. Yawn
• What drugs is the toy store guy on?

Beach

• Nice map, it's like a third-grader drew it, not expert tracker Kate.
• If it's all she's got left, Juliet will resort to the nuclear option.
• I love the stunned look on Sun's face.
• The first thing that goes through Jin's mind is "I gotta go fishing"?
• Look, it's Bernard, the very definition of a 3rd wheel.

Freighter

• "That sound is not mechanical"-I love Sayid. He and Desmond should get their own spinoff. They'd be a great pair of cops who make their own rules.
• That banging might be intended to be heard by a submarine.
• Frank is on an "errand"?
• Say goodbye to Regina.
• Captain Gault is a fictional sea captain created by English writer William Hope Hodgson.

  "Captain Gault seems to be a captain for hire, and operates a different ship in each of the stories. Some take place in England, some in the United States, some in Havanna, and some in Europe. Gault himself is a morally ambiguous character who follows the pattern of many famous fictional criminals: although a law-breaker (he seems primarily interested in making money), he proves also to have a strict moral code. As the series progresses, we learn tantalizing bits of information about Captain Gault: he seems to be highly placed in a secret society; he has occult knowledge about arcane religious artifacts; he seems to be very knowledgeable about gemstones; he is a skilled amateur painter. In general, he reveals himself to have surprising resevoirs of specialized knowledge. Where he got all this knowledge is generally not revealed; we get only these tantalizing hints at the character's past."

• Galt: "Some of my crew have been dealing with what might best be described as a heightened case of cabin fever. I think it might have something to do with the close proximity of the island". Something is screwing up the crew, and I don't think it's time-travelling.
• There's no reason to believe anything the Captain says.
• What possible use is the black box on the freighter? It's only a cool looking prop for the Captain's con.
• Lost's Black Box Story Holds True, NTSB Records Chief Says
• Nice story; they're here because Ben did a Very Bad Thing. Baloney
• There are some very interesting pictures and maps of what could be an island on the Captain's wall.

Beach

• I got nothing

Hospital

• Boom, one second they have to do an emergency c-section, the next the baby's born.

Freighter

• "He was surprisingly forthcoming"-Sayid didn't believe a word.
• Frank mentioned that you don't want to talk to the Captain. The Doctor warns about "never pissing him off". He was kind of intense, but I'm still waiting for the scary side of the Captain.
• Desmond: "This ship isn't moving"
  
  Doctor: "If you say so"
  
  Nice and cryptic, the way I like it.
• Welcome to the suicide suite. Mops aren't very good at wall cleaning.
• Oh my god, it's Michael. What a surprise. I never saw that coming.
• Nice poker faces.

Beach

• Nuttin

Jin at Hospital

• Yup, it's a flashback. Thug Jin is working for Mr. Paik. He needed the panda for the Chinese ambassador.

Sun's house

• She's only taking the ring out of hospital bag now?
• Why is Hurley releaved that none of the other Oceanic 6 are coming?
• For a second there I thought Hurley and Sun were going to start making out. Now that would have been a shocker.
• The tombstone says that Jin died the day the plane crashed.
• Sun and Hurley either think Jin is dead or as good as dead.

Recaps

• Lost: Join Ye, Ji Yeon, by J. Wood
• Your Karma Hit My Dogma , by Fishbiscuit
• Things I Noticed - "Ji Yeon", by Vozzek69

  "Everybody Loves a panda!!! Especially when you really, really need one. Because that's when a panda is most likely to be there for you, right? Right. Because as far as I'm concerned, the panda sure as shit wasn't there the first time around.

  What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about the fact that Jin can walk straight up to a store clerk who happens to be standing in front of a giant panda and somehow NOT see it. He asks for a panda and the clerk whisks him off to an aisle of plush dolls to uncover the secret hidden 'last' panda. And after Jin loses it in a Mr. Bean-esque series of trips, drops, and fist-shaking mishaps... he returns to the store only to discover a second giant panda resting next to a dragon on the shelf behind the clerk - right where a dragon (and only a dragon) existed just a minute ago.

  As so often happens on LOST, sought-after things are miraculously provided. From Sun's pregnancy test to Charlie's guitar, from Jack's dynamite to Ben's spinal surgeon... all things come to those who need them. The phenomenon goes by many names: suggestive manifestation, the magic box - this time I think it's more along the lines of course correction. Jin was in desperate need of a damned panda and poof - there it was. Think I'm reading too much into this? Think I'm talking out of my ass? 9 out of 10 people do. But then again, those are the same people who still think the picture frame changes in Miles ghost-hunter flashback can be chalked up as 'set error'.

• BLIND SPOT, by PrettyButt
• ''Lost'': Cheating Time, by Doc Jensen
• 4 X 07: Ji Yeon, by Gitsie Girl
• Life After Death , by Luhks
• S4Ep7 - "Ji Yeon": Not Exactly a Bundle of Joy, by Long Live Locke
• Lost' Dueling Analyses: Ji Yeon, by Celebritology
• Lost in Thought in Alabama: Ji Yeon . . .
• Mama Karma Drama, by Tubular
• Lost Monday - "Ji Yeon.", by CommunistDanceParty
• 'Lost': Michael's Coming Back...But How?, by Doc Jensen
• Season 4, Episode 7: Ji Yeon, by Lost Recaps
• Jin Goes Fishing, by Blend Television
• Dragons and Roosters and Pandas, Oh My!, by Watch with Kristin

"Previously On Lost"

• Is this the first episode to start with the "Previously On Lost" recap this season?

Therapy

• The miniature zen garden has a black rock
• One of Harper's diplomas has a Hanso logo.

  If she was originally with Dharma she should be much older. It's possible that she is just impersonating the original Harper Stanhope who died in the the Purge. She certainly isn't a very good therapist.

• Another of her diplomas is from the fictitious "Experimental Social Psychological Society"(ESP society).
• Those eyebrows are EVIL. And that mole should be named in the credits.
• Harper's name:

  "Like Anthony Cooper, Harper Stanhope has a name resonate with the 17th and 18th centuries; the 18th century Anthony Cooper was the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Stanhope name holds a few similar peerages.

  For one, Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816), was both a politician and a scientist who experimented with electricity. But he is known for, among other things, writing a response to Edmund Burke's scathing 1790 essay Reflections on the Revolution in France. Burke - whose namesake was Juliet's husband - supported the American Revolution, but thought the French Revolution devolved into mob rule. Charles Stanhope, however, was a supporter of the French Revolution, and responded with A Letter to Burke, Containing a Short Answer to His Late Speech on the French Revolution. A few years later, Stanhope stood in opposition to the British Parliament's suspension of Habeas Corpus, which was also occasioned by the French Revolution; Parliament used the revolution and demonstrations by radicals to effect a sort of proto-Patriot Act, where publications deemed to be seditious were censured, and people could be detained without trial (rather like Ben has been on more than one occasion).

  .A generation before Charles Stanhope, two of his predecessors held some different ideological positions. James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, and his relative Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, were both instrumental in crushing the Jacobite uprising. Jacobitism, besides recalling the name of our Jacob in the island shack, was a 17th and 18th century movement to restore the Catholic Stuart kings to the thrones in England, Scotland, and Ireland (but as these things go, it was a lot more political than religious). The uprising was of particular importance in Scotland, where the Highlanders, with their Gaelic clans and culture, were primarily Jacobites. The key battle was the 1746 Battle of Culloden, not far from Loch Ness. At this battle, the well-equipped and organized British forces managed to put down the Highland Jacobites, spent the next week hunting down and killing other Scottish Jacobite leaders, and that was pretty much it for Gaelic Jacobite clan culture as a political force in Scotland. This is also the same clan culture that Arthur Widmore, scion of the American Widmores, yammers on about incessantly in Bad Twin. So in that name Stanhope, we have connections back to Edmund Burke, the Scottish background of the Widmore clan, and echo of Jacob in Jacobitism.

  Lastly, there is an orchid species called Stanhopea named after the 4th Earl of Stanhope, Philip Henry Stanhope (not to be confused with Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield).

  Harper's first name is uncommon enough to warrant a second look. It didn't take long before Lostpedia had two suggestions up: Karen Harper is the author of a book called Empty Cradle, about a fertility doctor named Dr. Stanhope who steals her patient's eggs for testing. There's also the echo of one of the more famous Harper authors, Harper Lee. Although there doesn't seem to be any direct connections with Lee's one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there is something else to consider: Lee was good friends with Truman Capote, who based a character in his book Other Voices, Other Rooms on Harper Lee. That book concerns a young boy who has to live with his absentee father after his mother dies, which echoes Ben's story."

  Via Lost: YAOW (Yet Another Other Woman)
• Harper: "You feel that all eyes are on you"=eye reference
• Jeez, Juliet hasn't even slept with her husband yet and Harper is already slapping her down. Nice way to be supportive.
• With all the talk about celebrity, TPTB made it seem as if Juliet was one of the Oceanic 6, until Tom shows up.
• I bet Tom had to shave his mustache so he could wear the fake beard. He loved that mustache, no wonder he was so mean.
• Tom: "That Harper's a piece of work. But you give her a week, she'll have you cryin' about your daddy. I'm speaking from personal experience here." Is there anyone on this show without daddy issues? I wonder if Ben made Tom kill his father?
• How does Ben know Juliet loves opera?

Beach/Jungle

• Yea, Juliet used to have a nice two-bedroom house and now she's reduced to a floppy beach shack.
• Bonehead #1: Nobody is watching Charlotte and Daniel (henceforth known as CD). Jack has undoubtably neglected to inform the beach tribe about any pertinent facts that might alarm them, or more importantly, make Jack look bad. And even though they have plenty of reasons to suspect CD, neither Jack or Juliet think to keep an eye on them. CD didn't even have to wait until after bedtime.

Jungle

• It's night, it's raining, so you know some kind of shit is going to happen.
• Audio of the Whispers
• Transcript of Whispers
• Harper: "Hello, Juliet. Long time no see."
  
  Juliet: "What are you doing here?"
  
  Harper: "I came to deliver a message... from Ben. The two people you're looking for--Faraday and Lewis... they're headed to the Tempest. And if they figure out how to deploy that gas... then everyone on this island is going to die."
  
  Juliet: "Why don't you stop them?"
  
  Harper: "Because Ben wants you to go."
  
  Juliet: "How can Ben possibly know where they are when he's a prisoner?"
  
  Harper: "Ben is exactly where he wants to be."(Doesn't answer the question and mirrors Miles' statement to Kate)
  
  Juliet: "How am I supposed to stop them?"
  
  Harper: "By pointing the gun and pulling the trigger."(Very strange syntax)
  
  Jack: "Hey!"
  
  (Jack comes up and cocks his gun.)
  
  Jack: "Who are you?"
  
  Harper: "I'm an old friend of Juliet's. I just told her where the people you're looking for are headed. Maybe you and your gun can go, too."(More strange syntax)

  That wasn't Harper in the jungle. I don't know if it was Smokey, or Jacob, or the Island, or something else, but it wasn't human:

  • Her appearance was framed by the whispers.
  • She was soaking wet, just as Walt appeared to Shannon.
  • She didn't talk like real people talk.
  • Her repeated references to "guns" could be related to Jacob's distaste for technology.
  • She disappeared almost instantly.

  If Harper was actually Smokey, why didn't she just go pound CD against some trees?

Other's Clinic

• The storeroom was full of non-Dharma supplies
• "You're Burke, I'm Goodwin" - What's with the last names? Ethan, Tom, and Ben get first names while we don't know Goodwin's.
• Why does Goodwin have to keep his chemical burn a secret? So he works with dangerous chemicals, it's not like he's in charge of the Other's stockpile of WMDs.

Jungle-Losties

• Will Jack and Juliet discuss the most obvious topic-what the hell were those freaking whispers and how did Harper just disappear? Oh hell no.
• The Tempest, by William Shakespeare:
  • The Tempest (Wikipedia)
  • "There is no obvious, single source for the plot of The Tempest. Instead, the play seems to have been created out of an amalgamation of sources."
  • "The Tempest differs from Shakespeare's other plays in its observation of a stricter, more organized neo-classical style. The clearest indication of this is Shakespeare's respect for the three unities in the play: the Unities of Time, Place, and Action. The play's events unfold in real time before the audience, Prospero even declaring at the end of the play that everything has happened in mere hours. All action is unified into one basic plot: Prospero's struggle to regain his dukedom; it is also confined to one place: Prospero's Island."
  • The Tempest: Key Facts
  • Lost Theory - Lost In "The Tempest"
• Tempest and EM radiation:

  "TEMPEST is a codename referring to investigations and studies of compromising emanations (CE). Compromising emanations are defined as unintentional intelligence-bearing signals which, if intercepted and analyzed, disclose the information transmitted, received, handled, or otherwise processed by any information-processing equipment.

  Compromising emanations consist of electrical or acoustical energy unintentionally emitted by any of a great number of sources within equipment/systems which process national security information."

• Juliet: "What I need is for you to help me. Will you help me?" Personally, Juliet could get me to eat sand.

Jungle-Charlotte and Daniel

• Where did they get that map?
• Sweet mahoney, that is a LOT of hair! I guess Kate took advantage of the Other's supply of grooming products.
• Miles is fine, he loves eating hand grenades
• Seriously, Kate's hair is amazing.
• Bonehead #2: Murderer, arsonist, international fugitive, con-woman, bank robber, pickpocket - Kate has been around the block. She managed to live by her wits and evade a federal manhunt for years. Yet even though she's suspicious of CD and armed with a pistol she allows Charlotte to get behind her and knock her out.
• One sign that CD aren't going to gas everyone on the Island is that they didn't make sure Kate was dead.
• I for one am looking forward to Smokey turning Charlotte into a fine puree.

Jungle-Losties

• Juliet: "It's very stressful being an Other, Jack."

Clinic-Juliet/Ben

• Juliet's explanation of the pregnancy deaths doesn't make sense. If your white cell count plummets then your immune system stops working; it can't attack a fetus.

  Pregnancy Science on Lost Is Flawed (Except for the Magnetism Factor), Top Maternity Doc Says - Popular Mechanics

• Juliet had a theory about on-Island conception.
• Egg salad sandwich...get it? More egg symbolism

Therapy

• How about those shoes of Harpers? Aren't they nice and practical? I don't think those stilleto heels are high enough.
• Ben is in love (or the psycho equivalent) with Juliet because she looks just like "her".

  Juliet could resemble:

  • 
    Annie, Ben's childhood friend.

  ---

  • 
    Emily Linus, Ben's mother.

  ---

  • 
    The subject of the painting in Ben's house, who might be Annie or Emily.

• Isn't a conflict of interest to counsel someone who's having an affair with your husband?

Lockeville

• OMG, Claire has a good idea. What does Locke has to lose from Claire talking to Miles? They can play good cop, bad cop. Maybe Miles has a soft spot for babies or Aussie accents.
• Why isn't Locke torturing Miles? Not that I'm advocating it, but if he's willing to kill people to protect the Island why isn'the up to even giving Miles a beating?
• Claire uses the phrase "hostile"-this mirrors Kelvin's term for the Others.

Ben's Cell

• I knew Ben needed to re-read Valis.
• Ben's cell has lots of barrels and boxes. I sure hope Locke knows what's in them.
• Ben: "This rabbit didn't happen to have a number, did it?" Time-travelling bunnies upset Ben's stomach, and an hour earlier he'll be hungry again.
• Ben is surprised that Kate told Locke about what Miles wants. All Locke has to do is wait a week and let Miles go. But if Ben has a plan to neutralize the freighter what does he care?
• Bonehead #3: Locke needs guidance. More specifically, he needs guidance from someone who knows more than he does. If I were in Locke's shoes I would be talking to 2 people who could tell me a lot about the Others and the Island, namely Alex and Karl:
  
  
  • Alex and Karl have lived on the Island with the Others all their lives. Well, at least we know Alex has. Karl's past is unknown.
  • Alex and Karl are Others-they may not be fully initiated members, but they must know something, at least a first approximation.
  • Locke isn't their enemy; he was almost inducted into the tribe.
  I'd ask Alex and Karl:
  
  
  • Who are the Others? Where did they come from?
  • Do they have a name for themselves?
  • What are the Others doing on this Island?
  • What's the deal with Jacob?
  • How did Ben get to be leader?
  • Do you know what the Smoke Monster is?
  • Do you know anything about people leaving the Island?
  • Did you know about Ben's secret room?
  • Do you know anything about the Dharma pallet drops?
  • Why did the Others want Walt?
  • Ben talks metaphorically about a "magic box". Do you know what he's talking about?
  • The list goes on and on......
• Revolutions aren't needed under good leadership.
• Locke and Jack are facing dissent because both are wrong.

Other's Beach

• Why is there non-Dharma wine on the sub?
• Goodwin doesn't think Ben is ruthless enough to cause him trouble.
• What kind of work does Ben have Goodwin doing with lethal chemicals?

Otherville-Plane Crash day

• Goodwin is very loyal-he's like a soldier. The Others trust him with poison gas. Other justice takes the form of "an eye for an eye". Knowing this, it's strange that he breaks the rules by cheating on his wife.

Jungle-Losties

• Ah, the old "I'll go get some water and ditch you" trick.

Lockeville

• "No Tricks" my ass
• Ben implies that the Others no longer want him.
• Bonehead #4: Locke hasn't thoroughly searched Ben's house? I would have torn that place apart by now and put up my own KISS posters.
• The "Red Sox" label indicates that Ben made this tape after Day 69 - Monday, November 29, 2004 (today is Day 97 - Monday, December 27, 2004). Either that or he labels all his tapes "Red Sox" just to fuck with people.
• Locke: "Who's the man in the blindfold?"
  
  Ben: "One of my people that had the misfortune to get caught."
  
  Locke: "How does Widmore know about the Island?"
  
  Ben: "I don't know, but he does."
  
  Locke: "What does he want?"
  
  Ben: "John, three months ago in Gainesville, Florida, the Virgin Mary seemed to appear in a patch of mold on the side of an old housing complex. When the word got out, over 5,000 people came to see her face for themselves. You've survived an airline crash on this island. One minute, you're in a wheelchair. The next minute, you're doing jumping jacks. If 5,000 people came out to see a piece of mold, how many people do you think would come here to see you? Charles Widmore wants to exploit this island, and he'll do everything in his power to possess it."
• I think Ben is playing Locke like a fiddle and either lying and/or not telling the whole truth. He "always has a plan":
  
  
  • The Others will kill their enemies. If you can make a nice clear video of Widmore beating one of your people you can just as easily shoot him. This implies there is some reason the Others can't just kill Widmore.
  • Notice how Ben's little speech insultingly compares Locke to a patch of mold and Widmore to a bunch of overly credulous Floridians. At the same time he's flattering Locke by implying that he is so special that people will come to Island just to see him.
  • Ben makes no mention of that metaphorical "Magic Box" that can produce whatever someone wants.
• The painting of the woman in Ben's house has changed:

  "Ep# 313-The Man From Tallahassee vs Ep# 406-The Other Woman
  Her hair goes from in front of the shoulder to behind it.

  Consider this along with all the picture frames in the haunted grandmother's house changing and Penny's shirt in Desmond's photograph going from white to black.

  I find it VERY hard to believe that these are simple mistakes. The picture frame scenes were probably all shot in a single set-up; so no need to redress the set. And it isn't just one picture frame: first they are all wood and then they are all metal.

  I can see why the woman changes in Desmond's picture; TPTB might not have even cast Penny at that point. But you would have to be a blind photoshopper not to notice that the shirts are the opposite (and symbolic) colors.

  As for the painting-they would have to lose the original and then make an incompetent copy. I also don't think that TPTB are introducing obvious changes without a plot-based reason. I have to conclude that on some level reality is shifting.

Jungle-Losties

• Kate's hair is getting curlier and Juliet's is getting straighter. Hairwise and manwise, they are trading places.

Tempest Station

• CD know about the Tempest but they don't know the door combination.
• What kind of power plant is the Tempest? I can think of 3 possibilities: nuclear, geothermal, or something exotic involving the Island's magnetic field.

  Update: In the next episode, Ji Yeon, Kate tells Sun that the Tempest wasn't a power station, just a poison gas factory. I assume she learned this from Charlotte's tour.

• There's an electrical panel marked "Box Maker" in the Tempest. "Magic" box maker?

Ben's House

• ""Un bel di vedremo" (One Fine Day). The song Ben plays for Juliet at dinner is from the opera Madama Butterfly (1904) by Giacomo Puccini. In the aria, Madama Butterfly, a young Japanese girl whose American husband left her after only one night of marriage (and who, unbeknownst to her, has no intent to return), anticipates the day his boat might someday come back to the harbor. Also, the first lines of the song refer to a plume of smoke ("One fine day, we will see/Arising a strand of smoke/Over the far horizon on the sea"). "

  Via Lostpedia
• If Ben wasn't a bug-eyed psychopath he might make more time with the ladies.
• Ben's table setting looks like something from the Lucrezia Borgia collection.
• Zack and Emma were on the list-Jacob's list.

Tempest Station

• Charlotte is messing with the wrong baby doctor
• The gases that appear on the computer screen:

  Schedule 1* O-Ethyl S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate (VX)(AKA Nerve Gas)
  Schedule 3* Triethyl phosphite
  Schedule 2* Arsenic trichloride
  Schedule 2* Benzilic Acid (2,2-Diphenyl-2-hydroxyacetic acid)
  
  Schedule 2* N,N-Diisopropyl-2-aminoethane-2-thiol (N,N-Dialkyl (Me, Et, n-Pr or i-Pr) aminoethane-2-thiols): (No Link)
  
  Schedule 3* Thionyl chloride

  Via Forum: Chemical Substances in the "Tempest"
• CD have lost their gas-masks, they don't seem suicidal=not releasing the gas.
• Oh yea, Juliet knows full well what Ben is capable of.

Clinic/Goodwin's Body

• Patchy makes house calls?
• It is quite a "coincidence" th