It’s odd to see a Sun/Jin episode this early in the season. While focusing an episode on those characters for flashbacks is a good way to start bringing in the other parties of survivors after their season end split last year, I’m not sure we were ready for flashbacks on what are basically still two minor characters on the show. Don’t get me wrong – I like the characters and Daniel Dae Kim continues to be one of my favorite actors (and it’s great to see him in such a long lasting role after so many short ones) but I much rather would have seen more about Sawyer, Kate, or the trio who were left in the hatch at season’s end.
Still, a Sun/Jin episode is what we get and, while it doesn’t offer much to the married couple’s backstory (other than wrapping up one of last year’s big questions) it does put more pieces in motion for this season and adds more mystery to the question: Just who are the Others?
The Glass Ballerina
FLASHBACK: A young Sun is playing with a glass figurine of a ballerina, which drops and shatters on the floor. She runs away. We next see her playing the piano when he father enters with a bag containing the shattered remnants of the figure. He asks her if she broke it. She says the maid broke it. He tells her that if she insists the main broke it he will have to fire the maid. She stands her ground and her father leaves to fire the maid.
Sun is washing her face, obviously feeling ill. Washing her face? Is this still a flashback? No, she’s below deck on the boat she, Jin, and Sayid took to circle the island last season (Desmond’s boat). Jin checks on her and while she assures him she is fine and it’s just a matter of morning sickness, he shows obvious frustration.
He makes her tell Sayid that they need to return to camp: it’s been over a day since they lit a signal fire and Jack hasn’t come. Sayid remains calm and confident that Jack will come. Jack knows they are there and is counting on them, and he’s not going to let Jack down. However, perhaps their signal fire is blocked by the mountains.
Sayid decides they should move location to clear the mountain. Jin gets upset that Sun is siding with the Iraqi and has sun tell Sayid they need to return to camp. She tells Sayid that Jin thinks he is the only one who can sail the boat, but that he’s wrong. She can help him. In less than two minutes she’s gone from deceiving her father about a broken figurine to deceiving her husband.
Enough about battlng spouses though. We return to Jack in his cell as Juliet brings him food, asking if he feels better. He’s not responsive at all. She claims she made soup for him herself, but he still doesn’t respond. She leaves the cell and knocks on another door. Ben (formerly Henry Gale) opens the door, calmly pointing out she never made soup for him. Was Ben formerly a prisoner of these people or is he just referring to their relationship in the community we saw last episode?
The two are interrupted as another Other descends from a ladder. There is obvious tension between this female (Colleen) and Juliet. Colleen reports that there is a situation: they know Sayid found the decoy village (last season) which doesn’t trouble Ben at all. He has a more visible response to the fact that Sayid has a boat. Juliet doesn’t seem bothered by this (sailing in circles will keep them busy) but Colleen seems concerned they will be found by the survivors on the boat. Ben tells Colleen to put together a team and take care of the situation. Before she leaves he stops her, slyly stating, “and Colleen… I want that boat.”
Cue the logo flyby shot.
Outside Sawyer is going through the motions to get food, which also serves as Kate’s wake up call. The Others come and pull both of them out of their cells, leading them somewhere. En route they are stopped by Colleen who apprises the leader of this detail (Danny) of the situation. (According to closed captioning)She tells him Ben wants them to take the Galaga and… the conversation is unintelligible. He kisses her goodbye, which Sawyer observes with a sly grin.
Meanwhile, back on the boat, Sun comes up from below deck, stopped in surprise of seeing Sayid loading a rifle. She carries on, going to her husband and apologizing for disagreeing with him in front of Sayid. He tells her she shouldn’t have disagreed with him at all, and then asks why she came with them. She tells him she didn’t want to be without him.
Flashback: Sun is lying in bed, upset. Her English instructor sits up from behind her asking what is wrong. “What’s wrong is I’m married,” she replies. He proceeds to kiss her to try and make her feel better. “I can’t,” she tells him.
She sits up to go but he stops her and presents her with a pearl necklace. He knows she can’t wear it because her husband will know. He tells her he doesn’t want to share her anymore; that her English is ready to move to America. Their conversation is stopped by a knock at the door.
The English teacher goes to the door and Sun’s father marches in. He bows humbly but he keeps coming in… far enough that he sees Sun lying in his bed. “Get dressed.” He tells her before marching away in his typical style.
Sawyer and Kate are taken to a work camp of some sort where they are instructed to chop rocks loose and move them. Kate doesn’t seem thrilled by the idea of working in her new, tiny dress. Danny gives her the option of taking off the dress, which amuses Sawyer (you can just see him wishing she’d go for it).
They are given the instructions: they work. They get ten minutes for work. If they need something they raise their hand (Sawyer immediately raises his hand in smart-ass fashion). If they do anything to escape, touch each other, or pisses Danny off in general and he’ll shock them. Kate defiantly states she won’t do anything until she sees Jack. Obviously this falls under the category of “things that piss Danny off” as he shocks Sawyer. The quarter-charge discharge knocks the rogue to the ground.
FLASHBACK: Jin enters Sun’s father’s office (his boss). He puts a picture of Sun’s English teacher in front of Jin telling him the teacher has been stealing from him. He wants Jin to take care of it. Jin says he’ll deliver a message but that isn’t what his boss wants. Jin refuses to do more, quitting when his boss puts pressure on him.
Instead Sun’s father takes a different approach. He tells Jin the man has shamed him. Since Jin married his daughter, he is his son. That means his shame is Jin’s shame. He asks Jin to restore the family honor. Through none of this does he actually tell Jin what the man’s transgression is, which makes me think maybe he finally accepted Jin as his daughter’s husband in some fashion. He’s protecting Jin from the truth while enabling him to defend his own family’s honor.
The passengers on the boat have found another dock. Sayid notices the dock looks decayed, as if it hasn’t been used in some time. He suggests they land at the dock and look around. The visibility is better in this location and Jack would be able to see a signal fire. Sun obviously thinks something is going on that Sayid isn’t telling her.
As the boat survivors begin to build the fire Sun challenges Sayid. He tells her there are fresh tracks all over the dock (this is obviously the location where the Others let Michael and Walt leave last season) and that the signal fire isn’t for Jack, it’s too call out the Others. Sayid has moved back into full soldier mode as he plans on capturing two of the inevitable scouting party that would be sent and killing the rest (why two? “one to make the other cooperate”). He asks Sun’s cooperation until the fire is lit. At that point it will be too late to go back.
Kate and Sawyer are hard at work moving rocks. Sawyer can’t resist but stop and look at Kate bending over in her slinky dress. Danny orders Sawyer to get back to work and he acts like the obedient worker: “Whatever you say boss.”
Kate’s work is interrupted when a pebble is thrown at her. There’s a figure hiding in the trees who asks her about Carl, the prisoner who was in her cage when Sawyer first came to. Since Kate replaced Carl she doesn’t know anything about him. “You’re not even supposed to be in that cage,” the woman states. The woman asks where Kate got the dress. When she tells her the Others gave it to her the woman tells her that she can keep it and that it looks better on her anyways. She then ducks back into the woods and disappears.
FLASHBACK: Jin comes home to Sun. Both of their days are weighing heavily on them. Jin is upset from his meeting with Sun’s father and she’s afraid Jin will find out about her affair. He tells her that her father wants him to deliver a message. She knows who it’s for and pleads with him not to do it, that he needs to stop working for her father and they need to start a new life. He reminds her that he does this for her, because this is what it takes to be married to her, then leaves to deliver the message.
Sayid lights the fire and Jin asks for a gun in English. Sayid isn’t certain he understands. It appears Jin understands a lot more English than he speaks. He’s aware of what’s going on – Sayid’s trap… and Sun’s deception. Sayid hands him the gun asking if he can handle it. By the way he preps it, it’s obvious he does.
Sun goes to wait safely on the boat. Sayid tells her there is a gun on the boat if she needs it. She tells Sayid that if the Others get past them it means her husband is dead… and she won’t care anymore about living. It’s obvious Sun still holds her husband dear, despite how she acts towards him sometimes.
Back in the work camp, Juliet is watching Sawyer. He looks at her strangely. I still have the suspicion these two know each other. She tosses him water, which he drains. He turns around and sees Kate looking exhausted. With a “damn it all” approach Sawyer moves to her and kisses her deeply. He is beaten off of her, but puts up a good fight, getting a rifle away from one of the Others. Juliet beats him to the punch though, holding a gun on Kate (and calling him James to get his attention). Sawyer gives up his weapon and is shocked.
FLASHBACK: Jin confronts the English teacher. He beats him pretty savagely, putting him through partial walls and coffee tables, then asking him if he knows who Jin is. The English teacher responds with an apology that shows he knows the weight of the situation. Jin puts a gun to the English teacher’s head, telling the teacher he obviously knows what Jin has to do. Jin can’t pull the trigger though. Instead he tells the teacher to leave the country and never come back… that “if I hear you’ve returned… if you makes any contact at all… then I will finish this.” The language speaks for itself. Jin appears to know what the true issue was.
Jin leaves and gets in his car. The teacher’s body crashes into his car from above. He is dead, with the pearl necklace in his hand. Did he jump or was someone else there to finish the job?
Sayid proves to be wrong with his analysis of the Others. Instead of coming through the woods they come directly to the boat. Colleen enters to find Sun standing there with the gun. Sun tells Colleen to let her off the boat. Colleen states she can’t do that. Sun threatens to shoot Colleen, who confidently tells Sun she knows her and knows she’s not a killer. “Despite what you may think, I am not the enemy. We are not the enemy. But if you shoot me, that’s exactly what we will become.” Sun threatens again, then shoots Colleen. The other Others start firing at Sun, and Sayid and Jin suddenly realize what’s going on.
While Sun tries to get off the boat, Sayid and Jin charge toward the boat where the Others open fire on the two. The boat motors off with Sun still trying to get off. Mr. Friendly (or someone who looks like him) sees Sun and shoots at her; she falls overboard. The boat disappears into the darkness.
Jin shouts at the boat as it disappears… and Sun answers his call. She is alive. What was almost a repeat of the first season finale has been interrupted.
FLASHBACK: Sun watches her teacher’s funeral from a distance. Her father approaches, telling her she shouldn’t be there. He is there because he does business with the teacher’s father. She asks her father if he will ever tell Jin. His response: “It is not my place to tell him.”
Sawyer and Kate are thrown back into their cells, Sawyer being much the worse for wear. Kate asks what Sawyer was thinking. He tells her he couldn’t help himself; that she looked too cute swinging the pickaxe. She stops him from speaking… then he reveals the real reason he got into the fight as he starts a pretty solid analysis of the Others’ fighting capabilities. Two of the Others have combat training, the others he thinks he can take. The shocker unit has a safety on it (which means there’s a delay before they can use it) and Sawyer is guessing most of the Others have never seen action… although he knows Juliet would have shot Kate without a second thought. Kate asks why she called him James. Sawyer admits that’s his real name.
Kate asks what they do now. Sawyer says they just wait for them to make a mistake… that sooner or later the Others will make a mistake and that then they’ll be there to put the Others in their place. Fat chance of that, as the conversation is being observed by Ben on his bank of monitors (they were just noticeable behind him in the early part of the episode).
We finally return to Jack, still pretty much non-responsive lying in the back corner of his cell. Ben has come to pay him a visit. He points out the reversal of their situation: just a week ago Ben was locked up and Jack was the one paying a visit. Ben wants Jack to change his perspective and makes the first move to help that; introducing himself honestly: “My name is Benjamin Linus, and I’ve lived on this island all my life.”
Jack asks about Kate and Sawyer. He tells Jack that they are safe and close, but that’s all he’ll tell him for now. He does tell Jack that if he cooperates they will send him home. Jack asks if they could leave the island, why would they stay here? Ben states that’s a good question: why would they stay here. Jack believes they are stuck here, just like the Oceanic survivors.
Ben starts spouting facts from the real world to prove his people do have contact with the outside world. In the 69 days since Jack’s people crashed here George W. Bush was re-elected, Christopher Reeve passed away, and the Boston Red Sox won the world series. Jack laughs at the ridiculousness of the last part, pointing out Ben must be lying. Ben details the series and then shows Jack the final moments of the winning game on a television. If Jack listens to Ben and trusts him, Jack will be allowed to go home… and Jack begins to believe.
Although I’m not keen on a Jin/Sun episode this early in the season, it’s nice to see how much the two love each other, despite all of their problems. We now know who the father of Sun’s baby is, so one of the major non-island questions of last season has been answered. However, as is typical with “Lost,” more have appeared.
Who is the woman in the woods and just who is Carl? Obviously my theory of him being an Other might be right out the window, so what did happen to him. Why did the woman say Kate wasn’t supposed to be in the cage?
What is going on among the Others? Some still act like the big bads of the show while others still try to argue they aren’t the bad guys; are we watching a civil war among them? What was the issue between Colleen and Juliet, and just who holds the real power among the Others?
How has Ben been on the island his whole life? Does this mean he’s been there for thirty plus years (I’m guessing he’s in his late thirties at the youngest) or is he a clone of some sort that was developed there?
And just because we know who the father is doesn’t mean Jin and Sun’s storyline is over. What did happen to the English teacher: Is Sun more of a killer than we thought? Did she push her lover off the balcony or did he actually jump in an honorable move? Did Jin really know what crime he was punishing?
Next week’s preview makes it look like we’ll finally see the main Oceanic survivor camp, with the return of Hurley, Charlie, and the trio from the hatch. Next week will also be the halfway point for this opening “mini-series” of episodes, but other than Ben and the mysteries surrounding him, it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anywhere, does it?
