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Of the myriad mysteries on this island -- What is the monster? How have the polar bears stayed alive without passing out from heat exhaustion? Why is Rousseau battier than Carlsbad caverns? Is Locke good or evil? Et cetera -- of all those mysteries, the one keeping me up at night has been, "Is Sun and Jin's marriage in trouble?"
Well, you can lay that mystery to rest. Over the course of this episode, we learn that maybe Jin and Sun's marriage might have worked out if she had been an orphan. And that Jin was planning on leaving her dad's employ and starting over again in Los Angeles. And that he's really a decent, if misunderstood, guy. He's also a frequently-pummeled one: the rest of the island assumes he torched Michael's raft, and lets Michael beat the crap out of him until Sun's forced to tip her hand on the English-speaking thing. This is evidently what makes Jin decide it's too late to save their marriage -- kind of an unfortunate decision on a small island.
So that's one mystery solved. I look forward to finding out in future episodes exactly how Walt managed to burn the raft and how Locke figured out he did it. Or maybe not. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
The episode begins with a panoramic shot of the beach -- beautiful -- and then with a panoramic shot of Jin's face. It's also beautiful -- Daniel Dae Kim is one of those humans who looks like his face was designed by a CAD program tweaked for extraordinary symmetry and balance. Either that, or he's one of those super-engineered humans from the future, and he came back in time in order to save humanity from being subjected to The Bachelor-related shows five nights a week.
Anyway, we're looking at Jin's face, which is a sure cue that we're about to go into flashback...and then we see him dressed in a suit, standing with his head bowed, in what must be the office of Sun's father. By the way, that office is roughly the size of the entire newsroom where I work. Sun's father is engaging in a classic dominance display, i.e. futzing with a memo while Jin waits. Jin tries not to fidget anxiously. Eventually, Sun's dad asks, "Why do you want to marry my daughter?" Jin replies, "Mr. Paik, I may be from a fishing village, but I have ambitions." Mr. Paik is understandably curious about those ambitions. Not curious enough to look up from what he's doing, but curious enough to make Jin sweat a little. Jin would like to open a restaurant, and one day own his own hotel. Mr. Paik asks what Jin's dad thinks of this would-be marriage, and Jin's all, "My father? I was created by a CAD program from the future and sent back here to your time. My father's response when I psychically e-mailed him was '.' Please don't ask me to translate. Your present-day human brain wouldn't comprehend.'"
Or maybe he just looks uncomfortable. There's a long pause, and Mr. Paik actually looks up from what he's doing. Jin looks at the floor and says his dad's dead. For some reason, this gets Mr. Paik's attention, and he asks, "What would you do for my daughter." Jin says, "Anything." Mr. Paik sets the trap: "Even work for me?" Jin steps into the trap, saying, "Of course." Mr. Paik springs the trap: "Why would I give my daughter to a man who sells his own dreams so easily?" But Jin's like the wind, baby -- nobody traps him. He responds, "Because she is my dream. Sir." Mr. Paik holds out his hand for the shaking, which is probably as close to a hearty clap on the back and a "Welcome to the family, son," as it's going to get. Jin manages to keep most of the smile on his face.
Back in the present, he's definitely not smiling. The cause for concern: Sun strolling along in a bikini. I don't get why he's unhappy -- it's not like her bikini reveals unpleasant surprises, like a body covered in tiny purple tentacles. He gets a "here we go again" look and rushes over, shouting, "Are you out of your mind?"
A scene between the two ensues. And you know, if his whole point is that he doesn't want people paying attention to his wife and her rock-solid abs, maybe the way to achieve that goal is to not start a high-volume fight on a heavily occupied beach. Because right now, Charlie, Claire, Kate, Jack, Hurley, and Michael are all debating whether or not they should join in the Mystery Island Players' multilingual revival of Who's Afraid of A Little Bikini?. Jin and Sun continue to argue, because it's not enough to have the entire beach's attention -- they won't stop until Rousseau comes out of the woods with the polar bear on a leash.
Anyway, Jin attempts to drag Sun off the beach, she's not having it, and she falls as he tugs. This prompts Michael to head down to play peacemaker, since he and Jin have a special rapport. As he bears down, shouting, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," Sun and Jin continue debating whether they've argued enough to get the attention of every other living thing on the island. Michael comes over and body-checks Jin. Jin takes this about as well as can be expected. The two of them are about to throw down when Sun steps in between the two of them and delivers a mighty slap to Michael's face. The camera pulls back, and we see that both Jin and Sun look kind of appalled that she did that; Sun also looks very apologetic. Michael watches them go; he's wearing a look like I'd love to see what's going on, but there are stars swimming in my vision. Michael, what you're missing is this: Sun storms off, Jin heads after her, trying to hold her hand, but as they walk up the beach, she pulls her hand away, and he gives her a look before turning back to glance suspiciously as Michael. Michael's holding his face all, "I can't believe she actually slapped me." Going by his reaction, I'm guessing we can cross at least one fetish off his list.
Commercials. The Burger King ad for the chicken ranch heart attack sandwich frightens and confuses me. Who styled that commercial anyway? Jeff Koons?
When we get back from commercials, Sun is getting dressed by the waterfall while Jin examines the watch that caused so much strife with Michael before. Without looking up, he asks Sun what's going on between her and Michael. She declines to answer directly, but tells him he's being ridiculous. Jin gives her a look like, "I can tell when someone's avoiding the question, missy. Remember: I'm from the future." Or maybe he just looks supremely annoyed. Sun reassures him that nothing is going on, and Jin continues to look suspicious. To Sun's left, a plant bursts into flames from the heat of his glare. He then ceases glaring and starts looking reflective, which is our cue to flash back to…
...Sun, once again in a state of dishabille. She's getting into the outfit she will presumably be wearing as she and Jin exit their wedding reception. She's chattering with a friend and bridal attendant, who's all, "You must be so happy to be married!" Sun replies, "Are you jealous?" I'm hoping that's a really good friend. Or one with a sense of humor. Going by the laughter the two of them go into, it's safe to assume it is. There's a knock on the door, and Jin pops in, asking, "Can I have a moment with my wife?" He looks so odd. Is it the tux? Is it the setting? No...wait...I have it! He's smiling. It just seems so unfamiliar. The bridesmaid leaves, but not without a sly comment: "Don't forget your guests are downstairs." Sun burbles about how happy she is, and adds, "I wish your father had lived to see this." Jin's all, "I wish we could move on to another topic of conversation. Do I look uncomfortable here? Like I might be keeping something from you? Well, get used to it -- you're going to be seeing this face a lot during our time together." Oh, he does not. He just looks awkward enough to signal to all the viewers that clearly, there's more to the daddy story than we know thus far.
Anyway, Sun takes his look to mean not that there's a plot development gathering steam for revelation at the 50-minute mark, but that Jin's sad because his dad's not around. Jin ducks the whole thing with, "Wherever he is, I'm sure he's proud of me." Sun then asks him to button up her dress -- a high-necked number with a lot of tiny buttons in the back. She preens a little in the mirror, ands then her expression shifts as Jin peels back the dress and begins nibbling on her shoulder. Oh, girl, I do not blame you one bit. Jin asks playfully if he absolutely, positively has to help her put on her clothes, and Sun's all, "So what about the honeymoon?"
About that honeymoon: Jin explains, "You know that I want to go. It's just that right now, I want your father to see that I'm committed." Somewhere on a couch in Calabasas, California, Nick Lachey begins cackling mordantly and shouting at the television, "Give it UP! It's never going to happen. This I swear!" Sun reasonably points out that "[her father] won't hold it against you. After all, I'm his daughter." Jin promises her they'll honeymoon, "In six months, after my management training is all done." Sun's not too pleased by this prospect; she huffs, "I'm just as important as his car company." Jin rescues the situation by pulling a blossom from a nearby bouquet, tucks it behind her ear, and says, "I promise, we'll have the honeymoon we always dreamed of." The look on Sun's face says she believes him. I love seeing the flower motif repeated from his perspective. It's a great way to establish how these two related to each other, and what they found important.
And now that I've strung together two sentences that offer serious, sincere assessment of this show, it's time to return to what you really want in a recap. Comments like this: You'd think that when two people who just got married kiss without anyone else around, it'd be a little less chaste. Or when anyone gets a chance to buss Jin, they wouldn't be smooching him like they would their grandpa. Anyway, the scene ends with Sun giving Jin an adoring, trusting look, so we're all getting the point that once upon a time, her opinion of him was considerably different -- and he's aware of how it shifted.
We then see Sun heading toward The Ship Of Fools. Michael is working the boat. Sun looks around to make sure they're alone, then tells him, "Michael, I'm sorry." He tells her, "Don't worry. I stuck my nose where it didn't belong. It's on me." Sun tries to explain, "You must understand --" "All I understand is, I gotta get this raft finished so I can get my boy out of here and take him home." Sun continues, "When I slapped you, I was protecting you." Michael's all, "Oh, really?" and Sun says of her husband, "You don't know what he's capable of." Michael gives Sun a long look and sulks, "It's not my problem. It's yours." Oh, someone's got a crush. Sun heads off, looking troubled. Fabulous -- I'd love to know exactly how she manages to keep her lipstick from melting in the humidity -- but troubled.
Jin, meanwhile, is working out his aggression by hitting golf balls. Only, because he's all considerate -- or because nobody can find the balls -- he's hitting what appears to be either charcoal or small volcanic rocks. Hurley rolls up with, "Why don't you try sea urchin? They got more ping. Hey." Jin nods. I like how they've set up the relationship between these two. But that could be my adoration for Cardinal Hurleyieu and my tremendous aesthetic appreciation for Jin, The Man From 2525, making me biased. As Jin continues to swing, Hurley natters, "So listen, I know things got kind of nasty down there at the beach. I don't want to get involved in husband-and-wife stuff, but I figured, you know, you might need to relax." And Hurley produces two fishing poles. Awesome. I love how this echoes their nautical misadventures. Jin looks back. Hurley spreads his arms wide and says, "So?" Jin turns back to hitting balls, because he's not in the mood to be cajoled out of a good sulk by His Eminence, Cardinal Hurleylieu. Hurley tries one more time: "Dude, I'm trying here." We know. Hurley eventually packs it in with, "You want to be an outsider, it's your business." He trundles off, and Jin looks reflective. And unhappy.
Back on the ship of fools, Shannon is showing Sayid the poles she's lashed down and asking him nervously, "I don't know...do you think this is going to hold?" Sayid replies, "Do you have a past in the Navy you've neglected to tell me about?" Oh, criminy. That's only slightly less cheesy than "I don't know. Let me hold you." Shannon grins nervously at his approval and asks him whatever makes him think that. Sayid replies, "How does a woman like you learn to tie a perfect Bolin knot?" "You'd be amazed what skills you pick up when you intern at a dominatrix's," Shannon says casually. Oh, she does not. I went for the low-hanging fruit there -- we could all see it. I just did something about it. Shannon learned how to tie the knot because she dated a lot of guys with sailboats. Sayid looks bothered by this, but recovers with, "Since you bring it up, I've been worried since I first met you that you might end up being a spinster." Shannon grins with the confidence of someone who's looking at her boyfriend and says, "Spending my Saturday nights at home alone, tying knots?" "Perhaps with an overweight aunt," Sayid adds gravely. Shannon laughs, and Sayid insists, "It's a very sad image." And a somewhat baffling one, because if the primary criteria for spinster company on this island is weight, Hurley's about to become an aunt. Shannon suggests, "Maybe we should get some rope, spend a Saturday night alone together, and see what happens." Sayid's imagination takes over at that point, using up all the processing power normally assigned to speech. He just gapes before grinning.
Walt walks over to the non-singles side of Ship of Fools and hands Michael some rope. Continuing his streak of not really being able to read his son despite his best intentions, Michael completely overlooks the trepidation on Walt's face and assures him, "You are going to love New York City. No place like it. You know what I really want to show you in New York? Are the buildings. The architecture." "Buildings?" says Walt, with the air of someone who saw the Sydney Opera House every morning over breakfast. Michael vows the Flatiron Building will make an architectural believer of Walt, adding, "That one building inspired me to start drawing and designing things." Walt wants to know why, and Michael says, "You just gotta see it. You wanna see it, right?" Walt lies, "I guess." He then asks if he can go throw a ball with Vincent. You can tell Michael's disappointed that Walt doesn't want to hear more about New York, but he gives the go-ahead for Walt to go play.
Jack wanders over and compliments Michael on the headway he's made in assembling the Ship Of Fools. Michael points out the decking, the cabin, and the storage bins. Jack's all, "Yeah, well, people are kind of curious as to who's going to be putting stuff in the storage bins with you." Michael replies, "It's not the Queen Mary. I've only got room for four people, and there's one open spot." Jack's all, "Who's got the other one?" That would be Sawyer's cue to saunter up and share his plans to climb aboard, because Michael's expecting him. Because escape won't hurt anymore. It'll be an open smile, on a friendly...wait. That makes no sense. We learn that Sawyer bartered his way on with a few lengths of cable. For all his stockpiling abilities, you'd think he'd have uncovered some clarifying shampoo and volumizing mousse. This isn't his best hair episode. Jack's all, "Hmmm. The chance to be marooned with Sawyer on an open sea? I'd prefer having only a volleyball for company."
Meanwhile, in some tent at night, Kate is busy passing judgment on Sun's relationship with Jin, since she's clearly an expert on how to keep the romance alive. Kate mows over Sun's "He's my husband" with "A husband you're afraid to tell you speak English. I'm trying to understand, Sun." Well, quit flapping your gums for a minute and maybe Sun will say something that clears up the situation. Sun says, "He wasn't always like this. He used to tell me how beautiful I was to him. He was so tender. And then he was different." Kate's all, "What changed him?" Sun does not say, "Working for my father the mobster." This is because she and Kate get distracted by the to-do outside. They head outside, and flag down Charlie, who's running off. It turns out the raft is burning up. Kate and Sun hoof it with Charlie, and we linger, along with the camera, on the immobile Locke. As per usual, his expression is inscrutable.
We arrive at the raft, which is looking less seaworthy and more like it should be used for toasting S'mores. Jack's there, flinging sand on the ship, as is Sawyer, since he paid good cable for his passage. Charlie's scooping sand too. Hurley staggers back from the heat. Both Sun and Kate gawk in horror at the flames. We see Michael sprinting up, shouting, "No, no, no, no, no!" It's to Harold Perrineau's credit that he manages to make each "no" sound completely different, and each one sounds completely despairing. Walt stands immobile, and looks appalled. Michael turns to Sun, and the look on her face makes her draw back. "Where is he? Where the hell is he?" he shouts.
Commercials. I think it's fabulous that Uncle Ben's Rice is encouraging child labor.
When we get back from commercials, Michael is continuing to inquire as to Jin's whereabouts at the top of his lungs. Jack stops flinging sand long enough to shout, "She doesn't understand you, man!" Mysteriously, Michael does not scream back, "Oh, yes, she does!" Even when he's losing his temper, he's a model of discretion. Kate and her index finger try to tell Michael to back off, but he's not having any of it. He's already decided, "Her husband did this, and she knows it! Are you trying to protect him now? Is that it?" Kate begins to vouch for Sun. Walt, meanwhile, is a little terrified of his dad, and runs over to the Ship Of Fools to begin his own sand-flinging efforts. Michael demonstrates an iota of maturity by pulling his son back and explaining to him, "No, no, it's done." Sun takes this opportunity to make a break for it, but freakin' Kate has to wreck her exit by shouting, "Sun, wait!" This refocuses Michael on his promises to break Jin's neck for his presumed sabotage. Jack stops his pursuit by pointing out, "We don't know that Jin did this." "Are you serious?" Sawyer screams. I love his delivery -- he does the best pissed-off incredulity of anyone on this show. But boy, isn't he going to feel stupid when it turns out that the boar piglet and the polar bear teamed up to burn down the raft? "Dear Mr. Sawyer, I hope you're happy here. We have plans for you…"
Charlie thinks there's a chance Jin did it because "we saw him on the beach this morning," and Jack attempts to make the point that there's a considerable distance between getting angry at an interloper in a domestic squabble and torching the interloper's Ship Of Fools. This point is lost on everyone else. Kate elects not to use her superpower (i.e. talking) to back up Jack.
Meanwhile, Jin's entering the tent he shares with Sun, wincing and gasping from the livid burns he's got on his right forearm. Sun comes in just in time to check them out. All he tells her is, "I'm hurt." She gasps, "You did it?" Jin gives her a look of pain mingled with incredulity. Sun continues, "Michael was trying to get us off this island, why would you --?" "Michael?" Jin snarls, rising and wheeling on her. He looks at her as if he can't believe this is the conversation they're having, then huffs outside. Sun watches him go, baffled.
We then flash back to Jin silently sprinting up the stairs to his father-in-law's office. He's launching into a long spiel about some work-related mishap when Mr. Paik interrupts him to say, "I didn't call you here to reprimand you. I called to promote you. You will be my new special assistant." The bitter laughter of experience rings through the personality-free walls of the Lachey-Simpson McMansion in Calabasas. Jin barely has time to register this before he's told to deliver a message to Byung Han, the Secretary for Environmental Safety. And the message? "I'm very displeased."
Cut to Jin delivering the message. No, really. He repeats it word for word. Byung Han, who looks like he was expecting a less verbal, more violent form of communication, is so relieved, he gives Jin his daughter's puppy in gratitude. But you know what's really relevant about this scene? It's that Byung Han's daughter is watching television, and the person she's watching on television...is Hurley. No, really. It's Hurley on the television. HURLEY. Our Man of the Mellow himself. And now, having established that it's Hurley on the TV screen in the background, we can move on to other, ancillary details like how it seemed like Jin hated his job even before it dawned on him that his father-in-law was not perhaps the most scrupulous businessman in South Korea.
Back in the present, Boone is gazing upon the fire and thinking, "You know what would have made Flowers in the Attic even more awesome? If Chris and Cathy had stayed in the attic forever and ever." Unfortunately, he's distracted from imagining how V.C. Andrews's body of work might have been forever altered. Sayid comes over, and Boone snots, "What do you want?" Sayid says he'd like to talk about Shannon, because "It's very possible your sister and I are going to become more than just friends." Boone tries to channel Sawyer with, "What is this, some Middle Eastern thing? You want my blessing?" Sayid pokes a hole in that balloon with, "My hope is you won't object." Boone continues to sulk, and Sayid continues to put him in his place with, "I was extending a courtesy, not asking permission." As he walks off, Sawyer says, "Let me tell you about my sister. She likes older men -- guys that can take care of her. My guess is, in this place, you fit the bill. She'll make you feel like the greatest guy ever while you get her food, whatever it is she needs. And once she gets what she wants, she'll move on. When she does, don't take it personally, man." Kidding! Sawyer didn't say any of that. BOONE did. I am occasionally capable of telling one scruffy beta-dog from the other. Sayid merely looks thoughtful instead of pointing out that maybe Boone can stop looking down on Shannon for clinging to older men when he himself peels off of Locke's backside.
In the cool light of morning, we see that Jin's been sleeping outside all night, and he's waking up to a fabulous valley view. It's amazing how some people can't take a step in the jungle without being beset by boars, polar bears, or members of Tom Cruise's family, while others can bunk out in the great wide open without worry. Jin wakes up with a start, looks around. Then he warily makes his way down to a stream, where he attempts to wash his hands. This is made considerably more difficult by Sawyer coming up behind him and kicking him in the kidneys. Poor Jin -- he gets asked to pee on people's legs, walloped in the chest by rocks, kicked in the side by Sawyer. I feel for the guy. I bet they're not this barbaric in the year 2525.
Commercials. You know, I can't shake the suspicion that Blind Justice was pitched as a practical joke. ["But you've gotta love my man Eldard for delivering dialogue that ripe with a straight face." -- Sars]
When we get back from commercials, Shannon is tying up a plastic tarp and doing a poor job of it. Sayid comes over, and she giggles that he can help out any time he wants. He's all, "You're very capable, Shannon. I'm sure you'll be all right doing it on your own." It takes Shannon about five seconds to realize that Boone's gotten to Sayid. She charges off into the woods to go find Boone, and hits Locke first.
He's busy dissecting a frog. Oh, sure, on an island full of polar bears and arsonists, Locke has the time to conduct a fourth-grade science experiment. Or broaden his palate; he explains to Shannon, "Gross to you, dinner to me." Shannon barks, "Boone -- where is he?" Locke doesn't know, and Shannon persists, "What do you mean you don't know -- you two are like jungle pals." Locke's all, "Look, I have better things to do than keep track of the guy on this island who's most like to start running around naked and painting himself with mud." Only not in so many words. Shannon tells Locke to tell Boone to butt out, and "if he has something to say, he can at least say it to my face." Locke deflates her quasi-righteous ire with, "Should I be writing this down?" Heh. Shannon goes to stomp off, and as she goes, Locke calls out, "Do you like him?" She turns: "What?" Locke clarifies, "Because if you do like him, what's it got to do with your brother? You're a grown woman. Sure, you can yell at Boone until you're blue in the face, but all you're doing is giving him what he wants." Shannon wants to know what that is. Locke says, "Your attention. Everyone gets a new life on this island, Shannon. Maybe it's time to start yours." Shannon's left to ponder that. SURVEY
Jin's being marched toward the beach by Sawyer, who somehow managed to hold back enough cable or rope to tie the guy up. Sawyer's all, "You're pretty scared now, aren't you?" but Jin's posture seems to be saying, "If by 'scared,' you mean 'bored and wondering why your only effective shots are cheap ones,' then yes, I am petrified." Sawyer decides to kick Jin to the ground just to underscore his point that Jin should be scared. Insofar as rhetorical devices goes, it's not the most subtle. He then promises, "You gonna be, Bruce. Folks down on the beach might have been doctors and accountants a month ago, but it's Lord of the Flies time now." Assuming Sawyer's actually read that book, I bet he thinks of himself as Jack, able to tap humanity's savage instinct. He is wrong. Jin more or less thinks as much. To himself, of course. Conveying literary analysis to Sawyer in English presents enough of a challenge -- he's not going to even try in Korean.
And then Jin goes and has himself a flashback. He's in the apartment he shares with Sun and she's got her hands over his eyes, giving him directions on how to navigate through the apartment. When she finally sits him down and takes her hands off his eyes, we see that she's set up a romantic dinner by candlelight. Jin is appropriately awed and pleased. He kisses Sun on the cheek and she looks a little disappointed. She tells him she was hoping they could have a meal together; Jin tells her he's glad she went to the effort. As they prepare to dig in, Jin's cell phone goes off. Sun's face falls. Jin pulls the phone out, checks who it is, and then turns it off, telling Sun not to worry -- "No work tonight." He smiles, clearly intending to be reassuring, but Sun's only halfway to buying it. She gets back into the spirit of the meal and puts a morsel on his plate -- and then their landline rings. She and Jin have an entirely unspoken conversation, neither of them able to communicate to the other what they want: she wants him to ignore the phone and put her first; he wants her to understand that he's under a tremendous amount of pressure to please her old man. It's only because both actors are so good that this scene comes off. Of course, when you've been designed by a CAD program in the year 2525 and sent back in time, superior acting skills are a given. We'll just have to assume Yunjin Kim is ahead of her time.
In the shot, we see that ruining a romantic dinner is the least of Jin's concerns. Mr. Paik is glowering at him. Somewhere in Calabasas, California, Nick Lachey has a flashback and begins rocking back and forth on his couch. The upshot of the Jin/Papa Paik conversation: that message Jin was supposed to convey had to absolutely, positively be delivered via a brutal beating or murder, and not via a simple statement. Mr. Paik's factory is currently closed (one presumes for environmental violations), and he's ordered Jin to accompany the new and improved messenger to Byung Han's house.
Cut to a shot that appears to take place entirely in the dark. Or maybe it's just that this show has a habit of obscuring important visual details in nighttime scenes. Jin's driving, and watching as Nameless Thug #1 snaps on some latex gloves, checks his gun and its silencer, and instructs: "Keep the engine running. I will be inside less than two minutes. When I return, you will not drive faster than the speed limit. You will take the car to the riverbank eight kilometers away. Do you understand?" If Jin doesn't, he's keeping that information to himself.
The car pulls up at Byung Han's house. Before Nameless Thug #1 can fully exit the car, Jin's cast him a dark look, then burst into the house. As he strides through, Byung Han shouts for his family to scram. The little girl and former dog owner stares for a long minute at Jin. As Byung Han stammers an explanation, Jin slams him into the dining room table, tosses him into the family koi pond, then delivers a dozen meaty punches while Byung Han's wife looks on and his daughter cowers. At the end of it, a bloody Byung Han lies limply, looking up with a dazed, reproachful look, and Jin shouts, "The factory opens tomorrow." Then he leans in and whispers, very quietly, "I just saved your life." There is no sign on Byung Han's face that he understands any of this. Jin is practically sobbing for what he's done. He drops the other man, overwhelmed, and when he looks up, he meets the eyes of the little girl. She's whimpering, "Appa, Appa." My best friend as a child, Na Kyung Hahn, used to call her daddy that.
So, yes. Jin feels like a class-A jerk. He strides over to the thug, who's standing in the doorway, and says, "He got the message." The thug watches him leave with an expression that...will remain a mystery for the ages, because his face is in total darkness while the rest of him stands in relief to the apartment. I'd carp about it, but I think it works for the scene -- makes everything appear shadowy and confusing. And I think it's no accident that Jin's face was lit in stark relief the whole time.
Anyway, Jin's rushing back into the house, hoping to get in the bathroom and get Byung Han's blood off him before Sun catches him. Whoops! No such luck. She comes in, and we basically see the same scene that we saw back when it was Sun flashing back through the assorted scenes of marital deterioration. Only this time, there's a little more subtext, since we're getting the story from his side, and my guess is that Jin's probably a big ball of angry at everyone right now, the wife included. We have the scene where Sun smacks Jin and looks at him with disgust, and Jin gives her a doozy of a look and seethes, "I do whatever your father tells me. I do it for us." Well, that was...nonspecific. You ever get the feeling these two crazy kids would work it out if they just talked?
So there's Sun in the bathroom, reeling because she's either just realized that her dad's not on the up-and-up, or she's had some suspicions confirmed. And now she's got the pesky of question of what her husband actually does for Daddums. Which she could, you know, know the answer to if he would actually say something about what happened, because there's a world of difference between "I'm your dad's hired goon. Surprisingly, I have an aptitude for delivering contusions, lacerations, and abrasions unto others" and "Your dad would like me to be his hired goon, I would prefer not to be, and my life has devolved into a hellish series of Hobson's choices."
Sun stumbles out, leaving Jin to clean up himself and, one presumes, their bathroom, which is beginning to look a lot like the Ewen High School ladies' room after prom. After she goes, Jin finally faces himself in the mirror with a look of shame and horror, and breaks down.
Back in present time on the island, things aren't going much better for him. He's been planted face-first in the sand. Sawyer cuts him loose, and Jin groggily pushes himself up in time to see Michael sprinting at him with murder in his eye. Jack is bearing down on Michael. Fortunately, Hurley steps in to block Michael too. I'm thinking if there's anyone I'd want between me and anyone else, it would be Hurley. Jin looks up as more castaways pour out of the trees. The camerawork is jerky and chaotic. Michael's screaming that Jin burned down his raft, Jack's trying to talk him down (O, Jack! How ironic you have that name when it's so obvious you're the Ralph of the island!) and everyone gradually forms into a loose circle around Jin.
And then we get the coolest narrative effect ever, with the camera shifting to Jin's perspective and lingering on his ear; as this happens, the rapid-fire argument between the English-speaking castaways shifts to a series of shouted syllables. We see the camera swing from person to person; it's a wonderful way to convey how difficult it is to read a situation when you don't get the language, and how you struggle to make sense of the cues. The camera stops swinging wildly, and we follow Jin's gaze to Sun. She's standing on the edge of the crowd, looking horrified and helpless. She keeps looking at him. He keeps focusing on her. Eventually, he speaks.
According to forum poster Fiametta, who kindly sent me the translations for the scenes, Jin says to Sun, "Even you won't believe me?" Ah, man, they teach the actors all sorts of things in the year 2525. Sun doesn't say anything. Michael turns to Sun and demands to know what he said. Jin then speaks to him; he says, "It wasn't me. Not me. Do you get it? It was already burning when I got there. I was burnt when I went to stop the fire." Naturally, Michael concludes that what Jin is saying is, "Yeah, I burned it. And danced to the rhythm of your screams. Because I have it in for you." And he responds accordingly, i.e. goes thermonuclear and invites Jin to say it again. Jin does: "Michael, it wasn't me." And Michael proves that Korean is neither his second language, nor his tenth, by rushing over to Jin and delivering a punch that knocks him to his knees.
Jack goes to break it up, and Sawyer and Sayid run interference. Sawyer's all, "One fight at a time." Oh, now he's the voice of reason? Or is this just part of his plan to woo Sayid away from the other hot blonde on the island? Sayid's all, "Hey. What could be more fair than a fight predicated on a total lack of mutual communication skills?" Nice. Walt, whom everyone including Michael seems to have forgotten about, is standing on the beach practically trembling with...something.
Jin struggles to his feet. Around a mouthful of blood, he repeats that he didn't do it. Michael interprets this to mean that Jin's now saying, "If I thought I could have gotten away with it, I would have roasted a fish in the coals. And eaten it while you sobbed! Without offering you any!" So he responds by knocking Jin down with another punch. Everyone winces and looks dismayed and does approximately jack and/or squat. Jin's on his knees, struggling to get up. Sun's looking horrified. Jack's looking impotently furious that he doesn't have a solution to this problem. Walt looks appalled. Jin wavers on his feet and repeats that he didn't do it, and was trying to put out the fire when he got burned. Michael's drawing back his fist for a monster punch, and Sun screams, in English, "Stop it! Leave him alone!"
Cut to Jin's bloodied face: he's wearing an expression like, "I've been beaten so badly, I'm now hallucinating that my wife can speak the same gibberish as these people!" Everyone else merely has the "Whuh? Did I...oh, crap, I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing around her before" look. Sun glares at all of them and says in the tones of someone who is watching a bridge burn while she holds the torch in her hand, "He didn't burn your raft." Jin now looks like he's thinking, "You couldn't have pointed this out sooner?"
Commercials. Evidently Bud Lite encourages natural selection. Who knew?
When we get back from commercials, the focus of the circle has shifted; Michael's still in the center, but everyone's shifted from looking at Jin on the one end to looking at Sun on the other. Jin is now looking acutely betrayed. Nobody is paying attention to him. Charlie's shouting, "You speak English?" "Didn't see that coming," Hurley drawls. Jack asks, "You understood us? All this time? Why didn't you say anything?" Because everyone's M.O. on the island appears to be "Let's not tell anyone information that could come in handy later"? Because this show appears to be building a theme on how telling part of the truth is the same thing as telling falsehoods? Sun sidesteps all the reactions with the air of a woman who's two seconds away from shouting, "Yeah, yeah, I speak English. Let's drop any linguistic issues here and get to the point: stop beating my husband to death." Instead she says angrily, "Your raft was already on fire when he arrived. He burned his hands trying to put it out." "Then why did he run?" Michael shouts. "Maybe he assumed you'd try to jump to a conclusion and beat the crap out of him. I don't know what could have given him that idea," Sun shoots back. Oh, she does not. She asks Jin, and Jin looks at her. Apparently, this isn't good enough for Michael, who's already played judge and jury. Sun says, "My husband is many things" -- bloody, lacerated, bruised, aching, stinging? -- "but he is not a liar," Sun says. ["Oh, like she'd know. It's not like she didn't jump to the same conclusion. Shut up, Sun." -- Sars]
Cue Sawyer's patented yelp of outrage -- "You're going to lecture us about lying, Betty? From the look on his face, even your old man here didn't know you speak English. How do we know she's not covering for him?" "Because she isn't!" shouts Locke. He'd have been there earlier, but I'm guessing he was distracted by a backgammon game with the polar bear and the monster.
Locke asks, "Why would he burn the raft?" "Because I like to jump to conclusions!" shouts Michael. Or maybe he just demonstrates that with his words. Locke cuts him off with, "Okay, it's personal. But why take it out on our best chance of getting off the island? Why would any one of us block an attempt to get home?" Logic being aimed at Michael? No wonder Jack looks concerned -- he's standing right behind Michael, and is therefore in line if Michael's head explodes from the effort of trying to comprehend cool reason right now. Locke continues, "We're so intent on pointing the finger at one another, that we're ignoring the simple, undeniable truth that the problem isn't here. It's there. They've attacked us! Sabotaged us, abducted us, murdered us. Maybe it's time we stopped blaming us and started worrying about them!" Yeah! Locke for Island Potentate in '05! I do like how it's taken roughly 43 minutes in this episode to get the point where everyone needs reminding that there are crazy people out there in the jungle, plus polar bears and monsters. Locke's parting shot: "We're not the only people on this island, and we know it!" Then he heads off for a mid-morning snack of frog ice cream with frog biscuits. Everyone on the beach looks all embarrassed, like, "Oh, that's right. We do have bigger things to worry about than a nascent love triangle complicated by language barriers!" So Sun takes advantage of the guilty pause to repeat, "He did not do it." Now Michael remembers he has a son, and hauls Walt off without even offering an apology or anything. Everyone else is also, "Well...this has certainly been intense, but we should leave you two to talk. In whatever language works for you two."
With a pained look, Sun takes in the damage to her husband's face. You think she's anguished, you can imagine the tears they're crying in the year 2525. He looks at her, then jerks his head away angrily and turns to shuffle away from her. This scene would be excellent and impactful if only I weren't looking at the beach and thinking, "God, I would love another trip to Hawaii."
Cut to Michael surveying the ruined wreckage of his raft as Vincent frolics amidst the charred beams. He kicks it, and tells Walt, "Look at this! I can't salvage a thing. Pontoons, the decking...the fire burnt up all the twine!" He then redirects his urge to pummel on the actual raft itself, beating it with a long pole. Walt's got the uncomfortable look of any kid who's ever witnessed his parents' nuclear meltdown. Michael catches it, and to his credit, he visibly reins in his temper. He apologizes to Walt; Walt accepts graciously. Michael's all, "No, no, come here. We all have setbacks. I mean, God knows, man. That's life. We'll start over, all right?" Walt's all, "You're going to build another one?" Michael vows he will build a better one. Walt asks if he can help, and Michael tells him, "No doubt you can help! Come on!" He and Walt punch knuckles, the boy grins, and Michael moves on.
Sun's made it back to the waterfall, and she sees Jin hefting a duffel over his shoulder. She asks what he's doing. He drops the bag and heads back to what was their shared space. Sun requests that Jin answer her. She does have a point: half their marital misunderstandings could have been cleared up if they just talked to one another. Since Jin's giving her the silent treatment, Sun does all the talking, asking him if he's chosen to deal with her by moving down to the beach. He doesn't answer, and she finally moves over and yanks a bag out of his hand, demanding to know, "Why didn't you just tell me you didn't burn the raft?" Good question. But we're not getting the answer to that, nor to any of the other questions she has: "Why won't you speak to me, Jin?" "What have I done to deserve this?" and "When did we stop talking?" Jin just gives her a look, picks up his fishing net, and stalks off.
Sun shouts in English, "I was going to leave you!" Jin stops on the edge of the clearing, thus throwing more fuel on rampant internet speculation that he knows a lot more English than he lets on. Sun continues, still in English, "I was going to get away. But you made me change my mind. You made me think that you still loved me." Sun switches back to Korean and says plaintively, "I want to go back to the beginning." And that, in my opinion, is all you need to know about why we heard a few sentences in English right there: that's the language in which she thinks about life without Jin. Life with him takes place in their shared language. Jin looks thoughtful, and Sun presses closer to ask if they can't just start over.
Jin looks like he's deliberating, but what he's really doing is falling into flashback. We see him getting out of a car parked at the water's edge; he's kitted out quite nicely in what looks like bespoke and designer sunglasses. He walks down a rough dock, past nets strung with drying fish, and stops at a fisherman's boat. The fisherman turns around, and with a look of tremendous surprise, gasps Jin's name. Jin, who looks like he's holding back tears, composes himself long enough to say, "I'm sorry, father. Please forgive me. I was [breaks down sobbing] ashamed of you." Jin's father also gets a little weepy and quickly moves to embrace his son. Aww! Snif!
We then see the two of them working on the boat together, with Jin telling his daddy about Sun. He tells her she's "beautiful. Intelligent. Hardheaded. We don't talk anymore." Jin's dad wants to know why not, and Jin says, "Because I can't tell her about her father. In a good world, she would hate him, not me." Jin's dad grins and reassures him, "It is a good world." Jin says, "You don't know what I've done," and Jin's dad says, "You're my son. It does not matter what you've done."
And then, in the parallels-that-will-make-you-scream-in-frustration-for-these-two-crazy-kids moment, Jin expresses a profound wish to start over. His dad sees no reason why he can't: Jin has to run an errand for Mr. Paik in which he delivers watches to Paik's associates in Australia and Los Angeles, but after Jin's discharged that chore, his dad suggests, "Walk away. Don't come back. Go to America. Save your marriage." From his couch in Calabasas, California, Nick Lachey laughs bitterly and shouts, "Forget it, Jin! You can travel the world, but you'll never be free of your father-in-law! This I swear!"
Anyway, Jin's back in the present. Only instead of, you know, thinking, "Hey. No more father-in-law issues, and my wife's expressed similar desires to reconnect and begin talking. So why don't I learn from my father's selfless example of love and revive my marriage?" Jin just stays mum and settles for looking all meaningfully at Sun until he finally says, "It's too late." Oh, Jin, you were engineered by the level of humanity in 2525, but they really don't have the hang of healthy romantic relationships in the future, do they? He leaves as Sun stands and sobs into her hands.
Commercials. Any time the block includes both monkeys and a bear, I am thrilled.
When we get back from the commercials, night has fallen. Sayid is staring broodily into the fire. Shannon comes over, looking breathless and excited. "Good news!" she burbles. "The polar bear and the monster have invited us to a mixer on the other side of the mountain! Do you think it'd be weird to double-date with Boone and Locke?" I kid! She says nothing of the kind, because it would drown out the romantic soundtrack. The scene goes to the two of them shot in silhouette against the fire, and then shots of them searching each other's faces before Shannon reaches in and plants one on Sayid. He reacts by asking, "What was that for?" Sayid, just shut it and go with the moment. Shannon tells him, "Everyone gets a new life on this island. I'd like to start now."
Meanwhile, in a less canoodle-y part of the island, Walt's setting up to play backgammon. Locke comes on over and notes, "It's been a while since you and I played." Walt's thrilled for the company; Michael's nowhere to be found, and Walt's not allowed to leave the caves after dark. They start playing, and Walt asks, "Do you have a dad?" "Everyone's got a dad," Locke replies. "Is he cool?" Walt asks. Locke sighs and looks grim as he says, "No. No, he's not." Walt looks like he's just realized he could have it a lot worse. As they play, Locke eventually works around to saying, "Hey, you mind if I ask you something? Why did you burn the raft, Walt?" Walt freezes. He looks up at Locke -- who is, once again, lit so half his face is in the shadows and the other half's in the light -- and Locke reassures him, "Don't worry. I'm not going to tell. You must have had a really good reason." Walt tells him, "I don't want to move anymore. I've been moving places my whole life. I like it here." As Locke turns toward the fire so we can see more of his face in the light, he says, "I like it here too." He smiles at Walt, who gradually looks less anxious.
In the scene, we see Michael picking over the components on Ship Of Fools. Jin comes over, bearing an impressive amount of straight poles. He turns around and looks at Michael. The other man is simply baffled. Jin nods and says, "Boat." Michael understands that Jin's offered to help, and the two of them walk over to a fresh site to build a new Ship Of Fools.
The montage music kicks up; coincidentally, we see Hurley strolling along, kicking to his Discman. He passes Shannon and Sayid doing the kinds of things that would promp people to shout, "Get a room!" if there were actual rooms to get. Sun's wandered out to the water's edge, wrapped in a pareo, which she loosens before standing at the water's edge in her bikini. Boy, if there's any clearer symbol that she's shedding her old life with Jin and moving on, I can't think of it. And that's all juxtaposed with Charlie bringing the eternally pregnant Claire a drink.
Hurley takes all this in as he listens to his music. And then, mid-lyric, the CD player's batteries die. Heh. He takes off the headphones and leans back; the silence seems a little more ominous now that one more vestige of civilization's slipped out of reach.
And that's it. I've had a blast subbing in for the incomparable Daniel -- it's been my pleasure, and I would like to thank all of you who welcomed me so warmly, and Daniel, for making me feel welcome too. See you!