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Lost (Season 4, Episode 7 “Ji Yeon”) *SPOILERS*

posted by Matt Knicl at 12:00 am.

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I’ve resolved myself to the fact that I’m not going to understand what is going on until sometime in 2010 when the show ends. I’ve also made peace with the fact that each show ends with a dramatic twist. But tonight’s episode, titled “Ji Yeon“, was the straw that broke this camel’s back.

See, Lost is a show predicated on plot twists and withholding information. At the end of the day, when we find out what is going on with the island, it probably won’t be as cool as we hope. The thrill is having pieces of information slowly revealed to us.

Lost does this in two ways. The reveal is either through (and I just learned this term) agnorisis or a plot twist.

Agnorisis is a reveal that changes what you once knew. So, when we learn that Ana Lucia was pregnant at the end of her episode in Season 2, or that Hurley’s friend Dave was imaginary, those were agnoritic moments. Our impression of reality was altered. These I like to call “Oh S&#@ Moments”, or OSMs for short.

Plot Twists are devices used throughout the show, usually before commercial breaks. There are unforeseen events that dramatically alter situations, like Ana Lucia shooting Shannon or Boone dying. These may seem like agnorisis, however, when Shannon was shot, yes that changed everything, but it didn’t change the past of the character and how we viewed her. These “Shocking Twists”, or STs, are usually used to move along the plot through really dramatic action (an easy way for a writer to create action).

The problem with tonight’s episode, “Ji Yeon”, was that the end sported multiple OSMs. While I’m sure this has been done before, the problem is how this time the show did it. Let’s get it out in the open: 1) Jin is dead, and 2) Jin’s rush to the hospital was a pre-island flashback. The audience finds this out at relatively the same time. So what’s the problem? They spring stuff on us all the time.

My issue with this episode is that the viewer had no choice to believe anything other than Jin was rushing to see Sun in the hospital. There are two OSMs - that Jin is dead and that Jin with the panda was in the past. But we couldn’t have believed anything other than Jin was rushing to see Sun. Usually with agnorisis and OSM is our expectations overturned. Part of the pleasure/fear in this moment is that we didn’t see the impression shifting aspect. It jars us out of our assumptions. Why didn’t we see that Ana Lucia was emotionally out of control because she lost her child? Why didn’t we figure out Dave never interacted with anyone other than Hurley. Boy, the writers sure got me. It’s like Twilight Zone - the monster was actually a human being! We are the true monsters!

But the way the flashforwards were juxtaposed with the flashbacks it was impossible to foresee the end, where the two events were unrelated. It was a mean, smarmy trick by the writers. Usually the OSMs and even the STs, like who dies, make sense and are logical - but by having Sun yell to call her husband followed by Jin dropping his ringing phone leaves only one way to read the events.

Maybe this shows the writers realizing they have been writing easily predictable STs and OSMs the past few episodes (especially last season) and are trying to mix things up, but the problem is that everything comes out of left field, like this whole time distortion garbage that was never referenced in the show until last week. If it keeps up like this, we’ll find out Walt is the Smoke Monster and Locke’s dad is Jacob. What a twist!

Image credits: abc.go.com

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.