She doesn't seem to be in competition with anyone other than Boone

My prediction: she's a professional beauty queen.

Heh. I wouldn't be surprised, Sail.

Ashtareth, I do think Sun thinks he's showing love to Jin. I also agree that he's treating her like property. I can't wait to see next week's episode. The previews were intriguing.

I also agree that he's treating her like property. I can't wait to see next week's episode.

Ditto. That's been made very plain. There was just something in their last couple of exchanges in the latest epsiode that gave me a feeling. Nothing I can put a finger on. So, I'm also waiting for next weeks episode with bated breath.

I meant, is he still in it the Republican Guard, or is he now a civilian? What's his status?

IIRC, the Republican Guard was disbanded after the overthrow of Saddam, so he's not in them any more. Yep: Republican Guard Wiki.

He could have been part of the POWs after the first Gulf War that never went back, although the RG had fewer desertions/captures than the Iraqi regular army.

He didn't says he was part of the "Special" Republican Guard, so he was unlikely to be high in the organization, just good enough not to be regular army.

One more piece of the puzzle, Daniel. Thanks.

Re. the whole Jin and Sun and English thang...

I was born & educated in Korea (well, up until high school anyway), and in my experience, it is possible to be fairly well-educated in Korea and still speak minimal English. English is taught as the second language throughout the high school, but the emphasis of the teaching is very much in written English, vocabulary and grammar. The teaching on conversational English, aural comprehension and speech? Not so hawt. God knows I understood next to nothing for a good 6 months after my family immigrated to N.A. On the other hand, I was a high schooler there 15+ years ago so things may have changed considerably since then.

However, most people *would* know how to say, "I don't speak English". Or at least, "No understand English" or something, if they were from South Korea. That Jin and Sun wouldn't even say that much is wee bit fishy.

(In fact, I could say "Excuse me, but I don't speak German" with an apparently flawless accent, because people would be startled and think I was joking.)

That reminds me of Family Guy.

Brian: Hola! Um...me, me llamo es Brian. Ahh, uh, um lets see, uh, nosotros queremos ir con ustedes.

Man: Hey, that's pretty good, but when you say, "Me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es," just, "Me llamo Brian."

Brian: Oh, you speak English.

Man: No, just that speech, and this one explaining it.

Brian: You-- you're kidding, right?

Man: ¿Qué?

The same thing used to happen to me in Spanish all the time. My written Spanish is excellent, the aural comprehension sucks. So, I could ask for all kinds of things fairly fluently, but then when they answered, I'd be stuck repeating, "mas despacio" over and over until they realized I didn't have a clue as to what they were saying. Five semesters of college Spanish didn't do much for me with the spoken form. Part of it is learning it so late in life (my 40's.) The older you are, the harder it is to learn a new language.

My explanation for Jin and Sun only works with the Isle of Dreams hypothesis (what you fear, what you want, what you fear you want...):

He's getting what, to his thinking, is the perfect wife: someone who he takes care of and has control over. I remember someone saying that, reading the translations of what she says to English-speakers, it really seems like she's understanding. What if the island has taken away her ability to speak English, thus making her dependent on her husband to an artificial degree (she seems like, if she tried to integrate, even with next-to-no-English, she'd be useful), which may well be a big fear for her. Her statement that she doesn't think anyone's coming would probably precipitate a move toward integrating with the group, which he doesn't want, and, therefore, the island may not allow.

I'm wondering how much control over them the island has, especially wrt decisions. Is it obligated to respect free will, or can it manipulate people (rather than just situations?)

This next bit is just me trying to talk things out for myself, so feel free to ignore. I don't think they're dead, because that only leaves one big reveal, twist, new layer, whatever. But if this is some kind of limbo-place, I want there to be evidence of groups of people being there before the French radio transmission, going a good ways back; if there was a group before, there need to have been several. Either the Island is very old or very new, other purgatories do not work for me. If the Island is a last test, decide if you get into heaven, or aliens testing or whatever, I think the idea that we make our own heaven/hell is relevant. They're creating their own tests, then maybe someone is judging their responses. Or maybe it's just a left-over that they happened upon. But, if there are connections between them, then that indicates, to me, that there's design involved. And why design this? The most ready answer I can come up with is to test these people. If it was about testing the Island, then any old group would work.

Also, I think that, once the baby is born, Claire is safe. I don't think they'll go to the "the baby is starving because Mom's dead" place.

If they divide up into opposing sides, one team with Jack, Kate, and Locke would seem to be clearly the stronger team, and those are the 3 best candidates for leadership I see, so, assuming no deaths, 2 of them on 1 team and 1 on the other. (hmmm...if it is a test, could it break down into those who are Hell-bound--ie-failing---and those who are passing. I'm just not sure of the criteria...facing your fears, maybe? In which case, I think Locke isn't passing. Jack is. Don't know about Kate.)

I think the afterlife angle could be done interestingly if it turns out that life after death is nothing like anyone's organized religion or philosophy has led them to believe. What if it's just the consciousness continuing on postmortem, and the characters' rather rare circumstances of all dying at the same moment in close proximity allows them to go on in contact with each other in a shared solipcistic landscape (whereas normally one would be left to simmer in one's own issues inside a private universe forever)?