My coworker -- CyberInk's Andrew Kochirka -- is a regular poster on the blog and probably a bigger Lost fan than myself. We decided to have a fairly regular discussion about the show -- called "Lost Productivity" because we are chatting on the clock -- and to post the transcript of our IM chat here.

Here's this week's edition:

Andrew Kochirka: I had some revelations about Lost last night
Cody Switzer: yes?
C.S.: what were they?
A.K.: I'm not sure if I’m the only one or if these theories are very obvious
A.K.: I have three "theory-esque" ideas
A.K.: obviously we all know that Daniel Faraday is "conscience jumping" if you will if only for one reason, he writes in his journal "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant".
A.K.: this explains why, in the first introductory episode for Daniel, he was crying watching the TV channel covering the crash of oceanic flight 815
A.K.: he could be crying, for what I have thought of, three reasons.
A.K.: because his mind is switching between on the island and off, he might know the entire group from the crash is dead, he might know that they are all alive, or he might be crying because he knows the plane is going to crash and he can’t stop it
A.K.: I think his "conscience jumping" will be a huge part in upcoming episodes
C.S.: That "conscience jumping" could also explain why he needs to be quizzed on his memory and why, when we first meet him, he needs a caretaker
A.K.: exactly
C.S.: What if he's crying because he's also seen the end -- the very end -- and he knows what's going to happen with everyone on the island?
C.S.: There may be a big tragedy coming up
A.K.: yeah, that’s my thought
C.S.: The preview for Thursday's episode looks like something major will happen, too
C.S.: I don't really know why he's in a radiation suit, and so is Charlotte
C.S.: or, what looks like a radiation suit
A.K.: theory two also involves "conscience jumping" but in a much more severe way...maybe when the plane went down, it went off its original bearing which we now know is a big no-no
A.K.: in the process of going off bearing and crashing, it sent people through slight time warp if you will and maybe back to a different point in their life.
A.K.: maybe Locke isn’t healing from his paralysis, maybe he actually is at a point in his life, ON THE ISLAND, before he was a paraplegic.
A.K.: and maybe Rose wasn’t cured of her cancer, maybe she’s just physically back before she had it
A.K.: that is my theory 2
A.K.: and as for theory 3
A.K.: it has to do with electromagnetism and the purple/pinkish light
A.K.: off of the island, we know of three people for sure who have been exposed to it
A.K.: Daniel Faraday (from him having a constant and thus leading to "conscience jumping"), Minkowski (we know he "conscience jumps" so I would assume sometime in his life he was exposed to it), and Eloise the rat (we saw her being exposed to the light and she conscience jumps")
A.K.: so far, on the island, it’s just been Desmond, due to the fact that he was in the hatch when it exploded, causing him to be exposed to an extreme amount of radiation
A.K.: I was using this to think about the Oceanic 6 and who is off of this island and how it connects
A.K.: there were plenty of people who were at the implosion site and who would have been strongly affected by the radiation, but there also were a number of people who weren’t
A.K.: not near the hatch site were Kate, Jack, Hurley, and Sawyer, because they were captured by the others
A.K.: Michael and Walt were not because they were on a boat away from the island
A.K.: and Sayid, Jin, and sun were not because they were on Desmond’s sail boat making their way to sneak attack the others.
A.K.: so far, we know that four of those nine are part of the Oceanic 6
A.K.: any connection?
A.K.: I still do not think that Aaron is part of the Oceanic 6 and also, if what jack says on trial is actually true, eight survive, but only six make it off, who are the other two who make it off (if you don’t count Aaron), who are the "two" that survived, and that just leaves one of that nine to die.
A.K.: maybe the only way off of the island is through either not being exposed to the radiation, or having a constant away from the island
A.K.: they sound awesome in my head but they might come out a bit "crack pot-ish" on screen
C.S.: That's an interesting theory, and I like the way it comes together.
C.S.: So then are Locke and Desmond doomed?
C.S.: I mean, we've already seen Eko and Charlie die
C.S.: and they were in the hatch too
A.K.: I don’t know about doomed, cause one, Locke’s doesn’t want to leave the island but it’s possible
A.K.: and Desmond has a constant
C.S.: A constant can't save you from the smoke monster, though, or drowning
C.S.: I'm not necessarily saying that they will die like Eloise or Minkowski, but that they will die
A.K.: well I mean also, like Claire and Aaron and all the others that were even in the general vicinity of the hatch could be affected too
A.K.: but if history repeats, yeah Locke and Des are as good as gone
C.S.: but I don't really see that happening
C.S.: they are too important to the story
C.S.: well, at least now
A.K.: exactly
A.K.: I’m not saying in the short term, I’m saying maybe eventually
A.K.: I don’t see it happening honestly ever
A.K.: I mean, I don’t think death is guaranteed to come for them due to the light/radiation
C.S.: Still and I'd have to go back and watch this again, Eko's dying words were "You're next"
C.S.: And who did he say that to?
A.K.: he said it technically to Locke
C.S.: Locke, Charlie, Desmond, Nikki and Paolo
C.S.: well, if you look at the people around him when he said it, 3/5 of them are dead
A.K.: exactly
A.K.: plus Charlie
C.S.: I must meditate on this

I've been looking forward to this week's episode since the first preview last Thursday -- not that that's any different than any other week, but this episode looks pretty intense. There are radiation suits and guns and oh-so-many-more chances to have our minds blown by electromagnetism and the space-time continuum.

Here's what ABC.com has to say about the show:

Juliet receives an unwelcome visit from someone from her past and is given orders to track down Charlotte and Faraday in order to stop them from completing their mission -- by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Ben offers Locke an enticing deal.

Ah, an enticing deal indeed.

After last week's episode, all bets are off. I really don't know what to expect from here on out. I mean, I have some theories, but it's near impossible to predict what happens next.

So that's why I'm going to try.

Here's what I'm looking for in tonight's episode:

-- Desmond and Sayid face the consequences of breaking out of the infirmary on the ship. Those consequences will likely include dramatic screaming and the threat of consequences, but nothing will actually happen.

-- Flashbacks on Juliet's life -- that's kind of obvious from ABC.com's preview.

-- A new hatch is opened up somewhere on the island, and it will be very, very dangerous for some reason.

-- A crucial hint to who Daniel Faraday, Miles and Charlotte are working for, provided by them, and not the people on the boat.

-- A Kate and Sawyer reconciliation.

-- Ben becomes a bigger player in the game, and Locke lets him go. They will become more partners than enemies. You know, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

-- Sawyer won't agree with that decision at first, but he'll come around.

-- Another castaway starts time-jumping.

-- The rains start (be sure to read this insanely insightful comment from Andrew)

That's probably too much for one episode, but I'm casting a wide net this week. Like I said, anything could happen.


Just a reminder: I'll be blogging live tonight during commercial breaks. Log on to "Get Lost" just before tonight's show and refresh for my reactions to each segment. Post a comment and get some feedback at the end of the program.

Andrew's tsunami prediction might just be right. The rain has started falling. Then again, the weather on the island seems to follow people's moods -- the more tense, the more rain (which I think is an effect of the island and not the writer's taking the easy way out).

We have a flash back this episode, for once, and this therapist character is interesting.

The big question about the therapist -- Harper -- is if she is real or not when Juliet sees her in the jungle. Kate's black horse and Hurley's imaginary friend both weren't real, but they appeared in the jungle.

And just what are Charlotte and Faraday up to.

Well -- commercial break is over. Harper is real.

Charlotte and Faraday are headed to The Tempest -- a new hatch, I suppose -- that apparently controls the power on the island and has a big vat of mustard gas. Or, because this isn't the Great War, some other type of fatal gas.

We also found out that Juliet is "The Other Woman" for Goodwin.

Harper doesn't seem like a very sympathetic character at all.

Also, I think the chemical burn on Goodwin's arm may have come from mixing up the fatal gas at the Tempest. Why else would Harper and Juliet -- linked by Goodwin -- be the two "others" chosen to focus on that hatch.

Can Faraday turn on the gas?

Can -- and will -- Juliet shoot and kill another man?

Also, does anyone know how Shakespeare's "The Tempest" might tie in here?

So we have confirmation that Ben has a thing for Juliet -- I've suspected it for a long time, but now we know for sure. This whole love quadrilateral between Harper-Goodwin-Juliet-Ben is a little annoying, if you ask me. The question: Who is the "she" Juliet looks like?

The most interesting thing here, I think, is Ben's connection to the outside world, even while he's still locked in the basement. Ben tells Locke he has to "show him" who is leading the people on the boat, but how?

Harper appeared suddenly in the woods with the whispering noises that we haven't heard in a while now. Is it possible that the "others" -- at least the original occupants like Richard -- can kind of teleport around the island? Maybe fold time?

I wish I was kidding about that.

That was a huge segment.

Charles Widmore -- Penny's father, Desmond's one-time potential father-in-law -- is apparently the owner of the boat parked 80 miles off shore, in an effort to "exploit" the island. I don't think it can stop there, though. What about Hanso, what about DHARMA?

Maybe someone who knows more about the Lost Experience online can answer those questions. If you can, post a comment.

Also, what a fantastic commercial break. You know they aren't going to come back to Ben and Locke until the end of the show, either.

Ah, the suspense.

That revelation is more suspenseful than The Tempest. We know that won't kill everyone at least.

It's strange to see Ben showing any kind of positive emotion. Somehow, despite everything we know about him, he comes off as kind of pathetic in his attempts to woo Juliet. This episode has made him a slightly more sympathetic character.

At the same time, he's setting up Goodwin to die. That really isn't making him soft and cuddly.

Juliet is also about to get into trouble in the present.

If there's one thing I've learned from this show, it's that if you are looking for two people, you can't point a gun at one of them and not expect the other to come out of nowhere with another pistol.

One of the things that makes this show so great is the way that the heroes and villains trade places, sometimes several times in the same show.

At the end of this episode we are left with a lot of questions about who is good and who is bad.

Most of the comments posted last night on my "Gut Reaction" to the episode focused on one question: Who's Ben's man on the boat?

Reader Andy B. posted his thoughts for who the "man on the boat" was. Here were his options, and my thoughts.

Thursday's episode is entitled "Ji Yeon."

Here's ABC.com's description:

Juliet is forced to reveal some startling news to Jin when Sun threatens to move to Locke's camp. Meanwhile, Sayid and Desmond begin to get an idea of the freighter crew's mission when they meet the ship's Captain.

I checked Babelfish for Korean-to-English translations of "Ji Yeon" but there were no results. Does anyone speak Korean? I think, from a Google search, that it's a name.

What are you expecting from this episode?

I'm expecting a lot.

I've heard this is the most intense episode this season, and I'm fairly excited.

I'm expecting so much, I don't want to list it all. Instead, here's my top five picks from Ben's "Man on the Ship."

And the nominees are...

Well, we already know where the title of this episode came from -- and we know that Sun is one of the Oceanic Six.

The flash forward was nothing surprising. I kept waiting for a wide shot to see if she was pregnant or not. I was also expecting her to pick up a baby when she went for her lip stick. Jin Yeon might be on her/his way.

The captains seems to mean business, whoever he or she is.

Also, we finally see Regina is, and she's a strange one. Why, exactly, was she reading the book upside down? Not really reading, or thrown off somehow?

Did anyone catch what she was reading?

Also, what was the "problem in the kitchen" Frank talked about?

Jin is another one of the Six, which I think should round out our roster.

Sawyer doesn't make it off the island -- I was wrong.

It seems as if the driving force in this episode is the captain of the freighter, who Ben's man on the boat warned Sayid and Des not to trust and who, we can assume, would make the call if Sun and Jin get to leave the island.

Sun and Jin are headed to Locke's camp. I'm really not sure how this all comes together -- if they make it there, how do they get off the island with Hurley, who is also in the camp. Will John, Kate and Sayid join up with Locke, too?

Is Ben the key off the island?

I think so.

I'm on the edge of my seat here to find out who Ben's insider on the freighter is.

Juliet just told Jin that Sun had an affair to stop her from leaving. Obviously they patch things up, what with the flash forward, but we'll see what happens from here. They'll likely resolve it all by the end of the show -- if not the next commercial break.

What if Ben really is their ticket off the island, and not the folks on the freighter? I really have no idea how this is going to play out.

Was Juliet's move the right move? What do you think?

Bernard and Jin share a heart warming moment about being faithful and making good decisions. That's what Bernard's character does best -- he pops up once every eight episodes or so and shares a moral with another character. Oh, old Bernard, what a guy.

The more compelling part of this segment was Regina's apparent suicide -- she did seem a little off earlier -- and Captain (I think he said) Gould apparently not caring.

He said he would answer some questions for Des and Sayid. Good. I have a few questions of my own.

Is someone really just banging on the pipes inside the freighter?

Was it some effort to communicate?

What was wrong with Regina?

Also, what is this "digested yogurt" they are advertising during commercial breaks?

OK, well, I'm not totally shocked.

My Walt theory is dead, and Andrew K. wins the day. Someone give Jeff -- who posted earlier -- the $10 he bet that it was Michael.

The captain was strangely forth coming, indeed, although something tells me not to trust him.

He didn't really answer any questions, just reiterated a major question from this season: Just how does someone stage and entire plane crash complete with counterfeit corpses for every passenger on board?

I'd say they would like to find Ben to answer that question.

Also, what kind of cabin fever is everyone having on the freighter?

Oh, and Sun had a girl -- but that's really taken a back seat to the other storyline in this episode.

They got me.

Oh, they got me alright.

A flash-forward inter-cut with a flashback? Those writers are tricky, you know.

Jin is dead, apparently. But does he die on the island, or back in the real world? Is it a heroic death trying to get Sun off the island or is he killed tragically in Korea?

This was a big episode, but it doesn't look that big relatively -- next week, things are going to just get crazy.

Bonkers.

Nutso.

No "Gut Reaction" tonight. Trying to gather my thoughts.

Post your comments about this episode below.

Less than 24 hours until the next episode of Lost, which means it's time to start looking ahead.

Here is ABC.com's description of the episode:

Meet Kevin Johnson Sayid confronts Ben's spy on the freighter, and Ben urges daughter Alex to flee Locke's camp in order to survive an impending attack.

The big question for Thursday's episode isn't about the impending attack, though, but the impending death teased in the commercials after last week's episode.

Who do you think will die? Will it be a survivor, an other or someone on the freighter?

Post a comment below.

I don't know what to believe anymore after last week's episode.

I mean, flash forwards and backs -- at the same time? How do you call that? You can't, you just can't.

Still here's what I'm looking forward to in tonight's episode:

1. Michael is the featured flashback -- I mean, it only makes sense, what with the title of the show, and his sudden reintroduction last week.

2. We'll find out Ben is betraying Locke, but Locke won't know that he's being betrayed for a few more episodes.

In a strange town hall meeting, Ben tells Locke's camp that Michael is his agent on the boat. Sawyer obviously wasn't pleased.

On the boat, we see the captain beat up a crew member trying to leave the freighter on a raft, to "save everyone's life," citing what happened to everyone else.

On the boat, when Sayid asks Michael why he is there, he simply replies "I'm here to die."

But why? Has Ben foreseen the future?

In this segment we saw Michael pin a suicide note to his jacket and drive a car -- too old for airbags -- directly into a dumpster at the end of a pier.

So, is Michael dead now?

I mean, we've seen people come back to life in the past? Did Michael make a deal with the devil... or Jacob?

Miles is also with Locke's camp now, he described Ben as a "man who gets what he wants." No one in the camp should be able to trust anyone else.

Ben also told Alex, her mother and Karl to flee to the temple to be safe when the people on the freighter -- who are apparently more dangerous than even Ben -- come ashore. Where is the temple, and just why is it the safest place on the island?

Nope, Michael isn't dead.

Remember "It's a Wonderful Life" when a man in a trench coat stops Jimmy Stewart's impending suicide?

Yeah, we just had a moment like that.

What did Michael say to Walt that would estrange them? I guarantee Michael told him the truth -- that he shot two women to get them off the island. I can't see Walt forgiving that easily.

We can see how Michael came to work for Ben (and could be recruited by Tom). He's a lost character right now -- not to make a pun. The entire reason for him to leave the island -- that is, Walt -- has rejected him.

It keeps getting harder to figure out who to believe -- but, oddly enough, I believe Tom about Widmore's plan to put the falsified airplane at the bottom of a trench. It only makes sense, plus he had the paperwork. (Then again, these people can forge U.S. Passports, I think they could work up some phony invoices.)

The Others might just look like the "good guys" after all.

The strangest thing about this segment was the fact that Michael can't kill himself because, as Tom said, "the island won't let [him]."

Just what kind of force does the island have? How can Jacob -- if he is the spirit of the island -- control things like guns and car crashes?

Post your thoughts below.

Did anyone else think the little rolled-up piece of paper that popped up from the bomb was going to say "Boom?"

We can see now who the soldiers on the boat are -- and where Michael ranks on the ship.

I feel that now, more than ever, Charlotte, Daniel, Frank and Miles are just along for the ride without really understanding what they are doing. Frank confided in Michael that he wants to find the people on 815 -- he doesn't seem like he could kill them.

The guys shooting trap with machine guns, well, that's another story.

If Michael's mission is to kill everyone on the ship, how many of the deaths so far have been his doing? Regina's suicide? Minkowski's death-by-time-travel? The blood spot on the wall?

Just how is he killing the people on the freighter? Did he just stop the ship until they all go crazy?

Hopefully we'll get an answer this episode.

I hate to gloat -- but I called Karl's death.

I did, really.

What I didn't expect is Rousseau to die. Yeah, I really didn't see that coming.

My coworker -- CyberInk's Andrew Kochirka -- is a regular poster on the blog and probably a bigger Lost fan than myself. We decided to have a fairly regular discussion about the show -- called "Lost Productivity" because we are chatting on the clock -- and to post the transcript of our IM chat here.

Here's this week's edition:

Cody Switzer: What did you think of last night's episode?
Andrew Kochirka: I thought it was good
AK: better than last week’s
CS: The flashback this week was much better than last week
AK: What happened to Michael off the island is pretty interesting... just adds a new layer to the story
CS: Yeah, definitely. How can the island control fate, though? Stopping him from killing himself and all of that
AK: He now owes it to the island because of the two lives he took on it
AK: Do you think that will happen to everyone now?

Here's a must-read while you wait for the next episode of Lost. The Washington Post's Monica Hesse writes:

Entire communities are built around such mysteries -- virtual water cooler klatches descended from those lunch bunches that once discussed "Twin Peaks" or "The X Files" -- all united by a pursuit of one goal: Be the first to figure out what happens next.

But get too caught up in the quest, and you discover its downside: If you take a shortcut to the answer, you could end up hanging out there for a while, all alone, until everyone else shows up.

The article gets a little dense -- dipping into the subconscious needs fulfilled by spoiler sites -- but it's a good read with some good points about this whole prediction business.

What do you think of this article? Post a comment below.