Previously: Alt-Jin didn't declare some cash. Richard has to stop the Man in Black. Sawyer just wants to go home. Also, I have four cups of wine over two nights, which all hit me around 9:30 on Tuesday, and someone at ABC decides to put a big honkin' "V" logo over much of "Lost". Good times.

Island Timeline

The first little bit of the first scene is through the eyes of a night-vision camera, so we know that NotLocke's camp is being watched. NotLocke stross across the camp, ignoring Kate and Sawyer drinking NotCocoa, and finds Jin bandaging his leg. NotLocke checks to make sure that Jin's read the recap of the episode where NotLocke shows Sawyer the cave with the names. Jin asks NotLocke whether the not-crossed-off Kwon is him or Sun. NotLocke, of course, isn't sure. The significance? They can't leave the island until all the names that haven't been crossed off go together, but Sun's not here. (Idle speculation! Since we know how much this show likes symmetry, it stands to reason that the six who have to be together to leave the island would be the same six that had to travel back to the island together. Which means the "Kwon" in question is Sun. "But wait!" you cry. "Kate wasn't on the cave wall, and Sawyer wasn't off the island!" Now you're just putting too much thought into it.)

NotLocke tells Sayid he has to run a little errand. Sayid is more hung up on the fact that he has no emotional feeling. Oh, so he's not just a zombie - he's a zombie with major depression. As soon as NotLocke is gone, Jin makes to leave to find Sun, before Locke goes all Smokey on them. When he accuses Sawyer of listening to whatever NotLocke says, Sawyer hotly exposits that, a, he already told Jin that he has a deal with Widmore; and, b, he's not listening to anybody. He should have part b on a loop. Jin's escape is foiled by a tranquilizer. It turns out that Zoe's team (presumably the people who've been watching them in greenvision) have plenty of tranquilizer darts to go around, but they really only want Jin. So they take him.

Over at the beach camp, everyone idles while they wait for Hurley and Richard to return. Ilana has faith: Jacob's never lied to her before, so she's trusting him on Richard knowing what to do. Sun, tired of waiting, stabs a piece of fruit and stalks off. Jack follows her to her old vegetable garden, where she gathers grasses among the dead tomatoes. She really doesn't care whether Richard's coming back, or that there was this weird lighthouse wheel, or about being a candidate, or about one of Jack's "there's a reason we're here" speeches. She just wants to be left alone. That, Jack can do.

NotLocke, however, has other ideas. He finds her tending to a cut on her hand (that's some sharp grass, there) and announces that he found her husband and has him across the island. He can take Sun to Jin now. Sun's all, right, SMOKEY. NotLocke insists that he didn't really want to kill all those people at the Temple, but by not choosing to come with him, they made him do it. Or something like that. NotLocke promises Sun that if she comes with him, he'll never make her do anything against her will. He holds out his hand -- "Jin is waiting". Wow, he's really laying it on thick. Sun, who continues to be one of the few people on this show with a lick of sense, bolts. NotLocke runs after her, and she somehow manages to run straight into a tree. Look, it's not that hard to do. I once got caught up with a malfunctioning umbrella and walked straight into a fire hydrant. But I just got a bruse on my thigh, whereas Sun has a nasty bump on her head and comes to having lost the ability to speak English. She can understand it just fine, though; and when Ben, the search party of one, asks her who did this, it turns out that "Locke" is the same in any language.

While Jack tends to Sun and diagnoses aphasia, Ilana snarks at Ben, and Miles and Lapides snark at each other, Richard and Hurley return. Richard announces that they're leaving. Where? Well, to the place with the plane that is the only way NotLocke can get off the island. Sun surmises that Richard wants to destroy the plane, and goes on a righteous tirade about how she won't help you destroy their only way off the island; she came here to find her husband and bring him home, not to save the damn world, and she's not going anywhere. Unfortunately, this tirade is all in Korean, when she stalks off, Hurley correctly surmises that she doesn't want to come.

Jack catches up with Sun on the beach. It turns out that she can still write in English. They establish that she doesn't trust NotLocke, but she trusts Jack. Jack promises to help her find Jin, and to get them both on the plane and away from the island. Also, Jack found a tomato.

NotLocke grumpily returns to his camp to find everyone napping on the ground. He examines Sayid, pulls the dart out of his neck and wakes him up. Sayid relates that they were attacked (ya think?). He doesn't know by whom, because, y'know, tranquilizer darts. NotLocke asks where Jin is. He seems to figure it out pretty quickly, recruiting Sayid for a mission to Hydra. He gets sidetracked by Claire, who's pieced together that since neither hers nor Kate's name remain on the cave wall, NotLocke doesn't actually need them to get on the plane. NotLocke assures her that he does: He doesn't say quite why he needs her, but he needs Kate because he's three people shy of getting off the island, and she can get them on that plane. That done, NotLocke goes to meet up with Sayid and some guns. Sawyer spies them and asks them what's up. NotLocke patiently explains that they're taking a boat ride to the other island. Sawyer logically asks whether NotLocke can't just turn into smoke and fly over the water; NotLocke, just as logically, replies that if he could do that, he wouldn't still be on the island. And, no, he's not terribly keen on dealing with Widmore, but he's going to get Jin back.

Jin, it turns out, is in a chair. He wakes to find himself in a room with all sorts of bullhorns and stuff on the wall. Clearly a veteran of room escape games, he first tries the door, and then flips a switch on the wall. Oh, that's why this place looked familiar -- it's Room 23, where Dharma did all those subliminal messaging experiments which mysterously seem to affect men but not women. Jin manages to flip the switch back. Zoe strolls in and assures JIn that he's safe, though she tases him when he tries to leave. She pulls out a map and explains that it's the grid map that Dharma used to identify pockets of electromagnetism, and it sure looks like his name's on it. Jin wants to talk with Widmore. Fortunately, Widmore wants to talk with him.

Over on Hydra, NotLocke is intercepted by Widmore's team. They march him over to where Widmore's waiting for him -- on the other side of the pylons, natch. Widmore claims only to know that NotLocke is not Locke. NotLocke's all, yeah, right. Pylons? NotLocke wants his person back. Widmore claims ignorance. NotLocke gets all righteous, as he does. "A wise man once said that war is coming to his island. I think it just got here." So.... war on Hydra, but not on the Island?

Widmore returns to the station to berate Zoe for capturing Jin ahead of the timetable. Well, what's done is done; he needs her to get the package from the sub and take it to the infirmary. She scuttles off to do so. Jin arrives, and Widmore hands him a camera, rescued from the Ajira wreckage. It is, of course, full of pictures of Sun and their daughter. This is the first time he's seen the kid, so let's let Jin have a moment. Okay, moment over. Widmore explains that he has a daughter, and knows what it's like to be apart; he knows that Jin wants to be with his wife and daughter, but if it happened now it would be short lived. If "Satan, masquerading as John Locke" escapes the island, everyone they know and love would cease to be. Somehow, the package is part of making sure that doesn't happen. Also, the package isn't a "what," it's a "who". David Tennant?

At Camp NotLocke, Sawyer tells Kate that he has a feeling that this is almost over. So the end-of-show promos keep reminding us. NotLocke returns, alone. Cursing, Sawyer asks NotLocke where Sayid is. Well, remember the room on the sub they didn't want Sawyer to see? NotLocke doesn't like secrets.

Sayid lurks in the water near the dock as Zoe and a friend remove a drugged guy from the sub. He's so drugged that they drop him. And it's.... Tom Baker? No, Desmond Hume. He comes to face-down on the dock, looking straight at Sayid. They kind of half-nod to each other, and then Desmond's picked up and dragged off.

That Sideways Timeline

Remember how Jin got taken away by customs? They let him go, but kept the $25,000 -- and he missed "the meeting at the restaurant". He still has the watch, though. He tells Sun he doesn't know about the money; her father told him to deliver it, and he doesn't ask her father questions.

Sun and Jin go to their hotel and check into separate rooms, because they're not married. The guy checking them in is bemused, but you know them foreigners and their weird ways. Sun is somewhere on the eighth floor, and Jin is in room 842. He comes over to her room pretty quickly, though. He tells her that he's going to deliver the watch. She points out that no one's going to be at the restaurant at 11:30 a.m. (Sun's smart in any timeline.) Jin thinks she's there for a shopping trip; Sun has nother ideas. She seduces him by brazenly unbuttoning her cardigan. That hussy.

Later, in bed, Sun tells her real plan: They should run away. She has a secret bank account. There's a knock at the door. Jin hides as Sun puts on a robe and opens the door. It's our old friend Martin Keamy, and he thinks she has something for him. Sun hands over the watch, but he also wants the money. Sun tries the "No English" routine, but it's pretty obvious that there's someone else about, and Keamy's henchman Omar finds Jin in the bathroom. Keamy thanks Jin for the watch; now, where's the money? Jin and Sun confer, in Korean: She wants to give him some of the money from her super-secret bank account. Keamy feels like he's in a "Godzilla movie" (really culturally sensitive, guy), and has Omar go retrieve their polyglot friend Mikhail -- who has two eyes in this timeline, by the way. Sun explains to him that the money was taken at customs, but she'll get them money at the bank. Keamy decides that Mikhail will take Sun to the bank, and he will take Jin to the restaurant. Jin, through Mikhail, asks Keamy not to tell Mr. Paik about Jin and Sun being involved. Keamy doesn't care; he ust wants the money, and they can live happily ever after.

Slight problem: That super-secret bank account that no one knows about but Sun? Yeah, turns out her father knows about it, and closed it. Oops.

Omar and Keamy wrestle Jin into the walk-in freezer, or whatever that room with the metal door is. Keamy sends Omar to get "the Arab guy," causing Omar to point out that, hey, Arab right here? He goes off, and Keamy starts taping Jin to a chair. And since Jin doesn't understand English, Keamy, as all villains must do when facing a non-English-speaking captive, explains the whole situation to the audience in English. See, turns out that Mr. Paik knew about Jin and Sun, and was not happy. That $25,000 was supposed to be Keamy's fee for killing Jin. But while the heart wants what the heart wants, some people just aren't meant to be together. Wow, cliche much?

Jin overhears the muffled sound of Sayid's conversation with Keamy and friends, and the clear sound of gunshots. He bangs his feet against the metal door until Sayid finds him. Sayid, as we remember, removes the tape from Jin's mouth, and does not undestand Jin's Korean. Jin manages to get the point across that he'd like to get out, and there's a convenient box cutter on a shelf that would be greatly helpful in cutting loose the duct tape. Sayid ponders, then places the box cutter in Jin's hand and wishes him luck.

Mikhail and Sun enter the restaurant kitchen to find a whole bunch of bodies. Keamy is not quite dead yet, so Mikhail asks Keamy who did this. Keamy notes Mikhail's idiocy as a gun is put to his head. It's Jin, of course. He has Mikhail drop his gun and tells Sun to move away. Mikhail doesn't think Jin will kill him, because if he was going to, he would have already. A scuffle ensues. Shots fly. Mikhail loses an eye, and, presumably, his life. And Sun's bleeding. Presumably, she's been shot. And, she tells Jin as he scoops her up so he can get her some help, she's pregnant. Great.

Next week: The Island still isn't done with you yet. But it looks like Sun and Jin might finally reunite. So, um, yay?

Back to the list of recaps