Summary: Flashbacks show Sun getting set up with Jae Lee to be married. But Sun is heartbroken when she learns that Jae plans to go to America to marry an American woman. Meanwhile, Jin gets a new job at a hotel but he eventually quits when he is forced to act against his morals. Afterwards, Sun and Jin meet each other for the first time. On the island, Sun decides to bury the bottle from the raft. Sun loses her wedding ring and talks to Jack, Hurley, Locke and Kate trying to find it. She eventually finds that she lost it while burying the bottle. The tailies begin to go across the island to the survivors' camp. Michael goes off in the jungle to find Walt and Jin and Mr. Eko go after him. They have a near miss with the others. Jin finds Michael and convinces him to come back.
The Good: Once again, the tailies storyline saves the episode. The wonderful joy of getting introduced to interesting new characters is showcased in this episode as we learn more about Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko and Libby who are immediately interesting. Ana Lucia comes off as sarcastic and confident, Libby very casual and quirky, and Mr. Eko is intimidating yet wholesome. It's a wonderful mix of characters and the promise of learning more about them makes me more engaged with everything going on in the tailies storyline. The tailies story does one other thing right, and it does so masterfully. That thing is building up the others as a threat. The episode does a fantastic job of establishing how horrifying the others are. Libby's claims about the others are intriguing, and it's evident that the tailies are terrified of these people. Then we come across Goodwin's corpse, which is a horrific image and it does a wonderful job of letting us become afraid of the others based off of what we are shown rather than what we have seen. Then everything culminates in an outstanding moment as Jin and Mr. Eko hide in the bushes, watching several silent figures moving through the jungle (see: Best Moment). The tension is built up with every moment, and the episode does a wonderful job of building up our fear for that frightening climax. The flashback story is decent entertainment. It's nice to get a look at what Sun and Jin were doing before they met each other, and there are some good moments that deepen these characters. We get to see Jin's morality more, making his transformation into Mr. Paik's hitman even more horrifying. Plus we get to see more of Sun's desire to break free from her family's constraints. It's all pretty solid stuff. What really makes this story work is probably the accurate depiction of Korea and its cultural style. Everything feels completely different from what we would expect in Western countries, and I think the episode did a really nice job of including details to make the setting feel more realistic. The Bad: Unfortunately this episode feels almost entirely like filler. Outside of the tailies story, nothing else feels important. I enjoyed the flashbacks but I don't think they were necessary at all. They don't provide anything important to the series at a whole outside of a fun side-story. If you take out the flashbacks, I don't think out perceptions about Sun and Jin would be any different at all. Even worse is Sun's storyline which is completely meaningless. Sun losing her wedding ring isn't a good story in any way and I had zero interest in it. I found myself groaning whenever the scene shifted back to Sun. The scenes of Sun talking to various other survivors are admittedly written pretty well (Locke is his usual self, Hurley is as funny as ever), but they still feel pointless as the conversations don't serve to advance the plot or characters in any particular way. This makes two slow episodes in a row. The momentum coming out of the big reveals in "Man of Science, Man of Faith" and "Orientation" is completely gone now, and I'm finding myself less invested in the season than I was before. I feel like the writers should have put in more effort to advance the plot consistently in every episode. Having 2/5 episodes be packed with fast-paced plot development while nothing happens in 3/5 episodes is a very strange balance. The pacing needs to improve because it is all over the place at the moment. The Unknown: What did the others do to the tailies? Who was Goodwin and what happened to him? Why did the others kill him? Also, there appeared to be a child carrying a teddy bear in the group of others that walked by. Why do they have a child with them? They have Walt too, so do they specifically go after children? Best Moment: The creepy moment of the others shuffling by was fantastic and filled with dread. It was set up perfectly too with Mr. Eko immediately shutting Jin up and searching for a hiding place the moment he heard a sound. Character of the Episode: I'll have to give it to Mr. Eko. He's been a blast to learn about. Conclusion: This episode has one really strong storyline but I couldn't shake the feeling that most of this episode was unnecessary. This is a fine if unspectacular watch. Score: 60
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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