Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Jin's job for Mr. Paik started tame, but when he was promoted, he was forced to kill people that displeased Mr. Paik. Unable to tell Sun about her monstrous father, Jin grew distant from her. He visits his father and plans to escape to America with Sun. On the island, Michael's raft catches fire and Jin is the prime suspect. Sawyer forcefully brings Jin over and Michael beats him up until Sun intervenes by revealing she speaks English. Jin is repulsed by this and gives Sun the cold shoulder. Sun proposes that they restart but Jin says it is too late. Meanwhile, Sayid and Shannon grow closer and start a relationship. Locke confronts Walt about why he burned the raft.
The Good: Yet another character gets a spotlight episode, and as usual, "Lost" knocks it out of the park. This is a terrific episode for Jin, who prior to this episode has been portrayed as a 2-dimensional abusive husband. But this episode gives him an incredible amount of depth, giving us a brilliant story about Jin's slow descent into darkness as he works for Mr. Paik. The flashbacks in this episode show us how Jin only did terrible things at request of Mr. Paik, and he only did these things so that he could stay with Sun. But of course the irony is that the actions Jin was taking to stay with Sun ended up driving them apart, as Jin was unwilling to tell her how monstrous her father was. The story is really well done, and the wonderful bathroom scene from "House of the Rising Sun" is shown again, only this time it has a completely different meaning as it is seen from Jin's POV. It's little touches like that which allow "Lost" to tell such compelling stories. Pleasingly, this episode didn't suffer from the main flaw of "Outlaws"; the on-island story felt really important and it built up tension in a compelling way. The burning of the raft is a surprising moment, and it makes perfect sense that the event would stir up inner conflict throughout the camp. The mystery of who burned the raft gets a lot of interest in the episode, and the drama ratchets up as the episode goes on. The climax of the episode fittingly blows off this tension as Michael and Jin get into a fight, blowing off their big issues, and then we finally get the big scene of Sun revealing that she can speak English to everyone. That reveal is terrific and everyone is fittingly shocked, particularly Jin who just looks hurt and stunned by the reveal. Lastly, we get to that awesome Locke speech as he finally gets people to open their eyes to the thought of other people being on the island, while also dispersing the inter-community conflict. Following the climax, the story still continues in heartbreaking fashion with a brilliant Sun/Jin confrontation. While living in Korea, Sun and Jin were never given the chance to enjoy each other's company the way they had wanted to before they were wed. But now, there is nobody stopping them from repairing their relationship and moving on together. There is nothing stopping this relationship from moving forward -- except Jin and Sun themselves. Tragically, the sympathetic mistakes that both of them made in the past are still haunting each other on the island, and now they are unable to stay together on the island. Despite getting the perfect opportunity to be together, they have grown further apart, which is a very sad conclusion to a relationship that seems like it was just not meant to be. As always, I was pleased by a few other things. The reveal that Walt burned the raft is a good one, it's both unexpected and logical. It also makes Walt feel like more of a character by giving him motivations, relevance and desires. The Sayid and Shannon subplot is fine and it has some great moments, including a nice scene between Locke and Shannon. Lastly, I enjoyed the ending montage quite a bit. After such a depressing end to the Sun/Jin story, it was definitely necessary to end things off on a more positive note. I like the idea of Jin helping Michael with the raft to mend some fences. Plus there's the brilliant moment of Hurley's batteries dying at the end. The Bad: The show remains inconsistent with its community reactions. The raft gets burned followed up by a Jin/Michael fight, and everyone gets involved. But when Claire gets kidnapped or when Ethan starts killing people, everyone is completely nonchalant. It's very inconsistent. I didn't like that Sayid decided not to get involved with Shannon based off of Boone's word. It seems out of character for him to actually listen to Boone, and the drama feels manufactured to give the Shannon/Sayid subplot an actual story. It's a shame that this was the story that the writers chose, since I think a story of Sayid struggling to move on from Nadia would have been much more compelling. Instead, the writers continue to conveniently ignore Nadia's existence so that this Sayid/Shannon romance can continue. The Unknown: That was Hurley on the TV during Jin's flashback. Why was he on the news? Was Jin planning to escape with Sun into America? Based off of his conversation with his father, I would say it's likely. Apparently Locke's dad isn't a cool guy. Why? Best Moment: The Sun and Jin scene at the end of the episode is really powerful. Jin silently decides to move back to the beach with Sun begging him to stop. Finally having had enough, Sun switches to English and lets out all of her frustrations. Following her outburst she practically begs Jin to start fresh like they always wanted. Sadly, Jin decides it's too late. Character of the Episode: Jin. Conclusion: This was another awesome episode. The flashbacks and island stories are both very compelling, and while this episode doesn't hit the highs of "Outlaws", it's more consistently entertaining. "Lost" is two for two for great episodes now and it seems like the season is picking back up again. Score: 74
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|