I was only minutes away from condemning tonight’s show as the first bad episode of the new season when something incredible happened: the writers brought Jin back from the grave. Well, not exactly, but while he’s been assumed dead since last year’s finale, this is the first time that many even considered the possibility that he made it off the freighter before it was destroyed. Personally, I had a sinking feeling that Jin was somehow still alive, but I had no idea how they were going to explain it. After all, he could clearly be seen still standing on the boat when it exploded, and though one could argue that he evaded serious injury when the blast sent him into the water (it happens in movies all the time), it doesn’t explain how he was able to move along with the island. Sure, Faraday was stuck in the middle of the ocean too, and he made it just fine, but he also wasn’t as far out as the freighter. Plus, if Jin moved with the island, why didn’t anything else from the explosion cross over as well?
Whatever the answer, it’s certainly an interesting development in the story – not only because Sun is mere seconds from exacting revenge on Ben, but because Jin is now in the company of the Black Rock expedition crew, the wreckage of which the Islanders discovered following their latest time jump. Confused yet? That’s to be expected, but can you imagine what’s going through Jin’s head at the moment? He’s just escaped certain death, been rescued from drowning, and has now learned that the woman who saved his life is the same person who, when he last saw her, was about 20 years older. I’m talking, of course, about Danielle Rousseau, and though the writers took their grand old time dangling that in our faces, I can’t imagine they tricked anyone in the process.
With the island jumping back and forth as often as it is, however, there’s a good chance Rousseau and Co. will be long gone before Jin can figure out what’s going on. If not, Jin is going to have to explain how he really got there, and if Rousseau and Co. actually believe him, what’s to say that their meeting isn’t the very thing that led to their destruction? And with the time jumps happening more frequently, Charlotte is no longer the only Islander experiencing nose bleeds. She’s certainly farther along in what Faraday can only describe as “really bad jet lag,” but now Miles and Juliet are suffering the effects as well. Faraday suggests that it has something to do with the amount of time that each person has spent on the island, but while that would certainly make sense for Juliet and Charlotte (don’t forget, her excavation of the polar bear fossil means she’s probably been there before), this is the first time that Miles has ever been to the island. At least, as far as he knows. Is it possible that Miles is Marvin Candle’s son?
Once again, island life has proven far more interesting than the adventures of the Oceanic Six back on the mainland. Though I was initially worried that tonight’s episode would be completely dominated by Kate and the pending lawsuit involving Aaron’s custody, it didn’t take long to figure out that Ben was behind it all along. He’s working within a very limited window of time, and though he was made out to look like the villain in the final minutes, it was clearly just a ruse to get Kate, Aaron and Sun to the pier. With the exception of the random assassin fight in the middle of the hospital (sans Jason Bourne, of course), the rest of the Oceanic Six storyline was tame as usual. When are they going back to the island already, because quite frankly, all this moping around is beginning to get really boring. The one wild card in all of this is Sun, who’s been acting mighty crafty these days. I wouldn’t put it past her to be working in league with Charles Widmore, but the minute she finds out Jin is still alive, that will likely change. And if that’s the case, why bother making her turn against them in the first place?
