Tonight's episode was a total mind fvck. Damn the coinciding flashback/flashforward

Sneaky bastards.

So that's 5. And obviously Erin doesn't count if they wanted us to think Jin was #6.

I caught a snippet of the "coming next week" after the last episode, so I had guessed that Michael would make an appearance (all I heard was, "Someone you never expected to see"). I didn't even think to make the "Ben's man on the boat" connection. I gotta assume he's staying in character, not that he's actually forgotten.

I had suspected the spy was Michael when Ben told Locke to "sit down" when he asked him an episode or so ago. I would guess he's staying in character as well.

That really caught me by surprise that furture Jin is dead.

We're starting to get good at guessing what's going on. I knew partway through that something was off about the fact that we never heard the other side of Jin's phone call and had yet to see them together. Tom guessed that due to this, Jin was not #6. But I didn't not guess that he was dead - and for the first time in years, I cried while watching TV.

We are pondering that it's possible Jin is not actually dead, but rather, trapped on the island. He definitely didn't die after coming back; the gravestone lists his death as being part of the crash - and as yet, we're not clear whether he died between that episode and the helicopter flight, or if he is simply stuck on the island.

If Jin diddn't leave the island, then why would he have a grave? And why would Sun and Hurley visit it like a ritual? Sun even said "Is anyone else comming?". But it also looks like people may not actually die the way we think of it. So many that have died have shown up again later.

Perhaps he is still just on the Island and not actually dead. Good thought. I don't believe she ever said he was dead, just that she missed him, but Hurley did say "I guess we should go visit him or something."

People who go missing and are presumed dead are buried without bodies all the time. Or they could have buried the impostor body from the staged wreckage (staged by Ben, as implied by the ship's captain). Whether he was actually dead, or just still on the island, Sun would be in a position to never see him again, so he might as well be dead to her.

I've been trying to avoid spoilers all season. I do normally watch the teasers though because in the past they haven't ever given enough away to spoil things. However, I felt that Michael being the man on the boat has been spoiled for a long time. The writers/producers gave away the fact that Michael was coming back this season during a panel at some convention (the one where they showed the Orchid video). They made this announcement just moments before begging the viewers to please help others avoid spoilers. :rolleyes: Knowing this makes all other "hints" completely obvious. Ben saying he has a man on the inside. The teaser saying we'll see someone we haven't expected to see. It all pointed to Michael.

Very cool flashforward/flashback interplay there. It had me fooled the whole time until Jin mentioned he had only been married a couple months. There was one clue that, had I been intimately familiar with the Chinese zodiac (or Wikipedia at my fingertips) I would have caught it. The store owner that sold Jin the panda mentioned that it was the year of the dragon...2000 according to Wikipedia. Ji Yeon would have been born in 2005, the year of the rooster.

It's interesting that the grave marker has his date of death as 2004-9-22, the day of the crash. So, yeah, I'm wondering if he's really alive or dead.

It's stupid, but I'm posting it anyway.

Hahah, I'm "Math Boy"!