After last week’s epic, mystery-answering episode of Lost, tonight’s episode was bound to disappoint in comparison. But actually, it was a very enjoyable hour, with plenty going on and another blast from the past. Read on, as we open The Package…
The Man in Black’s group were being observed through night-vision goggles as they sat and drank their evening cocoa. Jin asks about the names on the cave walls. The Man in Black says that he doesn’t know if Kwon refers to him or Sun, but it’s one of the few names left not to be crossed out, and he needs all of those people whose names aren’t crossed out to come with him if he is to leave the island. Sayid said that he can no longer feel any emotions. Menacingly, the Man in Black replied that it is probably for the best because of what is coming, and then left the camp. Just as Jin was about to take this as his cue to finally trek across the island to search for Sun, he and everyone else around was shot by tranquilliser darts and knocked out. Widmore’s people arrive, and drag Jin away.
On the beach, Ilana suggests that everyone waits for Richard to return, which annoys Sun greatly. She too cannot wait any longer to find her husband, and copes with her frustration at the wait by going to her garden. We’ve not seen the garden in three years, so it’s no surprise that everything has died. Suddenly, the Man in Black appears behind her, trying to persuade her to come with him and see her husband. She doesn’t trust him and runs away, accidentally hitting her head on a tree. Ben finds her, and when she wakes up, she’s suffering from aphasia and can only speak Korean (Miles: “She hits her head and forgets English? Are we supposed to buy that?” Frank: “Asks the man who communes with the dead”). I really felt sorry for Ben when Ilana didn’t believe that he had nothing to do with it, despite the fact that he thoroughly deserves his reputation as a liar.
Miles reckons that Hurley would only be able to track Richard if he was covered in bacon fat, but we of course know that the big man did a fantastic job, and the two of them return to the beach camp. Richard, revitalised with the impetus of the message from his wife Isabella, tells everyone that they need to go to the Hydra island to stop the Man in Black by destroying the Ajira plane. Sun, at her wits’ end, brilliantly erupts into a furious tirade at a confused Richard Alpert. But later, Jack persuades her to stay, giving her a notepad where she can write what she wants to say in English, and showing her a plucky symbolic tomato that managed to survive in her garden.
When the Man in Black returns to his camp, he’s alarmed to see that everyone has been knocked out. He immediately goes to Sayid, who he wakes, and gives a gun to. Claire says she overheard what he said to Jin earlier and asks if her or Kate’s names are on the cave wall. The Man in Black says that they’re both crossed out, but he needs Kate to help persuade Jack, Hurley and Sun to come with him. After that, “whatever happens, happens”. He then went to the Hydra to see Widmore, who denied all knowledge of taking Jin. The Man in Black reminded him that he told John Locke that a war is coming to the island, remarking that he thinks it just got there. Terry O’Quinn was once again quite brilliant in this episode, the way he smiles sometimes can be so creepy and unnerving, but he retains just enough vulnerability to keep the true nature of his character ambiguous. Back at the camp, Sawyer is confident that things are coming to an end and Widmore’s probably captured “Locke”, so he’s bitterly disappointed to see him return to the camp, without Sayid.
In the flashsideways, we pick up where we left Sun and Jin at the airport. The $25,000 in Jin’s suitcase has been confiscated. They go back to the hotel where it’s revealed that they aren’t married (some eagle-eyed fans had already noticed they weren’t wearing wedding rings on the plane in LA X). But they are having a relationship they’re keeping secret from Sun’s father, the nasty Mr. Paik. Sun suggests they elope, when the doorbell rings. While Jin hides, Sun looks at herself in the mirror. This is quite interesting, in every single one of the flashsideways so far, a character has looked at their reflection, and just like Jack in the first scene of the season, Sun briefly seemed to notice something was wrong. A little hint that perhaps all is not what it seems in these flashsideways.
The person at the door is Keamy, good to see him again. Sun presents him with the watch that, in “our” universe ends up getting pawned in New York by Michael for a gun. Keamy is pleased with the gift, but wants his money. Omar arrives, they easily find Jin hiding in the bathroom in his undies, but there’s a language barrier. Luckily, Keamy knows someone who can speak Korean – Mikhail. Yes, it’s Patchy, but here he has two eyes and looks pretty smart. Sun suggests she gets the money from her bank account, so Mikhail goes with her while Keamy and Omar bring Jin to the restaurant. Just as we saw in Sayid’s episode, Jin is tied up in the fridge, where Keamy mentions (in the knowledge that Jin can’t understand) that Mr. Paik found out about him sleeping with his daughter, breaking the cardinal rule of working for Paik. The irony is that the money Jin was bringing was Keamy’s fee for killing Jin, so the thing Jin has been worried about is what’s kept him alive.
In the other timeline, on the Hyrda island, Jin is also being held captive in a room. He flicks a switch and we realise that we’ve seen this room before – it’s Room 23, where the DHARMA Initiative were carrying experiments in subliminal messaging. Zoe comes in and mentions that the reason Widmore’s people are interested in him is because he signed DHARMA maps identifying pockets of electromagnetism on the island. He says he wants to speak to Widmore, who apologies for what has happened. He shows Jin a digital camera found in Sun’s luggage, and he sees photographs of his daughter Ji Yeon for the first time, a very touching moment. Widmore says that he knows that Jin wants to be with Sun and Ji Yeon, but it would be very short lived if the Man in Black left the island, as they would cease to be. He then orders Zoe to get “the package”.
Back in the flashsideways, Jin hears the shooting outside and then, as we saw before, Sayid opens the door. He hands Jin a box cutter so he can slowly cut himself free. Meanwhile, at the bank, Sun finds that her father has closed her bank account. She and Mikhail go to the restaurant and see the carnage in the kitchen. Jin has a gun, and struggles with Mikhail, with shots firing off around the room before Mikhail is finally shot – of course – in his right eye. Jin turns to see that Sun has been shot too, in the abdomen, and as he picks her up she reveals that she is pregnant. Is this perhaps a realisation of what Widmore had just said in the other timeline? Perhaps this is a world where the Man in Black has been let loose and bad things will happen to everyone? We shall find out the true nature of the flashsideways soon, I’m sure.
Back on the Hyrda island, Sayid swims up beside the submarine, where someone is being dragged out onto the jetty. It’s Desmond! And he’s drugged up to his eyeballs! It seems to be the traditional way for him to return to the island, completely off his head. He falls over and comes face to face with Sayid, blearily opening his eyes and not quite knowing what he is seeing.
I thought the episode was pretty good. Obviously it wasn’t going to be anywhere near as good as last week’s, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. And, no, that’s not because of the bit when Yunjin Kim took her top off. Well, not just because of that… I really liked the flashsideways this time, it’s only really been this one and Ben’s that I’ve particularly liked. As well as being great to see Keamy once again, and of course Mikhail, it was an interesting twist on Jin and Sun’s relationship and was good to see how it intersected with Sayid’s story. The events on the island were mostly unspectacular, more a case of getting everything and everyone in the right place as we approach the final act of the entire series, but fairly interesting nonetheless, with probably a final chance to see a couple of familiar island locations. Pretty much everyone watching had worked out that Desmond was behind the locked door in the submarine, but it was pretty fantastic to see him anyway. His return to the show can surely only mean good things for next week’s episode.
Transmission 