I know that I’ve been a little overly critical with my weekly analyses recently, so let me just begin by saying that tonight’s episode was nothing short of amazing. There was about two shows’ worth of information crammed into a single hour, and although the writers introduced some interesting subplots along the way, they weren’t nearly as good as the complementing stories featuring Jin and Sun. I love these two so much, and yet they seem perpetually stuck as secondary characters who only get their time in the limelight once a season. Nevertheless, their Earth-2 storyline has been one of the best so far, particularly because it marks the first time that one character’s alternate reality overlaps with another. I speak, of course, of Sayid’s discovery of Jin (bound to a chair and locked in Keamy’s walk-in fridge) at the end of “Sundown.”
The events that led to Jin’s rescue, however, weren’t exactly unforeseen. While the reveal that Jin and Sun weren’t married was a bit of a surprise, you’d be crazy to think they weren’t still romantically involved. The playful nod to the button during Sun’s seduction scene was a great callback to the first season, and though Sun wants Jin to run away with her using a secret bank account that she set up in her name (much like she originally planned to do on her own on Earth-1), Jin is worried that her father will disapprove of their “forbidden” affair. As it turns out, he was right, because the confiscated $25,000 that was stashed away in Jin’s luggage was actually payment for his assassination. Luckily for him, Sayid took out Keamy and his right-hand man before they could carry out the death sentence, although that didn’t stop Sun from still taking a bullet to the chest, courtesy of Keamy’s translator, Mikhail, who quite unluckily becomes the One-Eyed Russian in this reality as well after Jin shoots him in self-defense.
Of course, when it comes to bad luck, no one has had it worse than Jin. He’s been kidnapped by the Tailies, nearly blown to pieces in a freighter explosion, shot by Crazy Claire, and then kidnapped again in two different realities. On Earth-1, it’s Widmore’s crew who has done the abducting, presumably to use Jin’s desperation as a tool against Smokey. They know he’s a potential candidate and only interested in being reunited with his wife and child, so if they can convince him to join their team, they’ll have a major leg up in the impending war. How they plan to use Jin, however, is still unclear, but it obviously has something to do with some maps he drew while working for Dharma that details the electromagnetic areas of the island. And for anyone who thought that Richard’s scene with his wife at the end of last week’s episode was a tear-jerker, then you must have been positively balling over Jin’s emotional reaction to seeing his daughter for the first time. Talk about tugging at the heart strings.
Sun’s side of the Earth-1 story wasn’t nearly as interesting, but that’s because I felt like her sudden loss of English-speaking skills was, well, pretty stupid. After all, if she can still understand everyone and communicate with a pen and paper, then what exactly was the point? That is, unless it’s somehow connected to her inability to speak English on Earth-2, which is probably the most likely scenario. I also don’t know why she felt it necessary to run from Smokey when he quite calmly explained that he wasn’t going to hurt her. It probably would have helped if she knew that Smokey couldn’t attack her even if he wanted to, but it just seemed like a lame excuse to keep Sun and Jin apart until the very end. And God help me, if anyone gets to have a happy ending when this show is finally over, it better be them.
There were a few other interesting moments scattered throughout the episode that had nothing to do with the Kwons. What started out as just another sarcastic comment from Sawyer (“Can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?”) turned into a very important bit of information about the limitations of Smokey’s abilities. We now know that he’s confined to the main island, and it’s because of this restriction that he needs the plane (and all of the remaining candidates) in order to leave. Smokey also confirmed that Kate is definitely not a candidate, but she was at some point. We’ll probably learn how her name came to be crossed off in one of the upcoming episodes, but all that matters now is that Smokey is using her as bait in order to convince Jack and Co. to join his cause.
The biggest reveal of the night was saved for last, when Widmore told Jin that there was a package that could help them prevent Smokey from leaving the island. And just what is the content of said secret package? Why, none other than Desmond Hume, who has seemingly been brought to the island against his will by Widmore. So is it a simple case of a bitter father getting a little too personal? Not a chance. Desmond has always been a little more special than the other castaways, and Widmore knows this. My guess is that Desmond is his secret weapon, and once Smokey hears about this from his little mole (an emotionless Sayid), he isn’t going to be pleased.
