Rivaling John Locke's reaction upon running into young Charles Widmore on the island a half century ago, Lost's Jin is in the midst of a major double-take of his own.

On last night's episode, "The Little Prince," he was rescued ... in the late 1980s ... by none other than Danielle Rousseau. That's a lot to wrap your head around.

No wonder this time-traveling madness causes brain hemorrhages.

Asked to weigh on his character's twist-filled reintroduction to the show, Daniel Dae Kim tells TV Guide, "I was happy with the way they did that, for sure!"

Jin now is left to piece together for himself what - and when - is going on. Is his English good enough to communicate with his rescuers and get some answers?

"That is a very interesting question," says Kim. "Watching Jin's journey with English over the next few episodes will be ... very interesting."

Jin's wife, Sun - as well as many Lost fans who should know better by now - presumed Jin dead when the freighter exploded with him seemingly on it in the Season Four finale.

That's how the bosses wanted it. No Lost spoilers here - they purposely omitted Kim from the Season 5 cast photo and from promotional pictures for this week's episode.

Participating in the months-long deception was no biggie for Kim.

"They assured me from the beginning that it didn't mean anything more than exactly what it was - a ruse," he says. "I just kept my head down, did my work and let them worry about that stuff."

Now that's he's "officially" back, Kim will be digitally re-inserted into the cast photo. "At least that's what I'm being told will happen," he says with a laugh. "I mean, I was at that photo shoot."

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.