• More than a few people have pointed out that both Sun and Jin get smacked in the head during this episode, and they’ve suggested that this is evidence of the off-Island and the on-Island “universes” beginning to “bleed together.” I’ll talk about this briefly a little further down. 

Keamy: “You go get the Arab guy.”
Omar: “Hey, I’m an Arab guy.”

• That comment underlines again for us the ways in which people turn their fellow human beings into “Others.” Keamy’s friend Omar is an “Arab guy,” but you get the sense that Keamy wouldn’t refer to him that way (at least not to his face). Yet he has no problem doing so when it’s just “some Arab guy” that he’s meant to intimidate.

Keamy: “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

• Most famous as the excuse that Woody Allen uttered upon leaving Mia Farrow for soandso, Keamy’s line here was also featured in a Stephen King novel: “The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart wants what the heart wants.” Allen likely isn’t a huge Stephen King fan, so I suspect he was mangling an Emily Dickinson quote when he gave his excuse: “The Heart wants what it wants – or else it doesn’t care.” However, Lost’s writers ARE big Stephen King fans.

• I enjoyed Keamy’s faux-sympathetic chat with Jin and how it again underlined the theme of communication – in this case, communication that seems to mean one thing visually, but means something else entirely when understood. Note that Jin also receives a “reflective moment” in the episode as his image is captured in the steel of the freezer door. He doesn’t notice, which might be significant, and might not be. It’s worth noting that the only two characters not to take a good long look at themselves in the off-Island “universe” are Sayid and Jin, who cross paths here.

• The realization that all of this has been an elaborate plan on the part of Mr. Paik to kill of Jin for “touching the merchandise” was fun. Paik is a dillweed in every “universe,” or so it seems.

• Jin gets his first look at the daughter he’s never met, and it’s a nicely emotional scene. It helps to remind us that as much as this story is about the hoped-for reunion of Jin and Sun, it’s also about much more than that at this point – their daughter is off-Island, and neither Jin nor Sun is going to accept being stuck, trapped, on the Island unable to ever see her again. And yet, wasn’t that Dogen’s fate? To secure the safety of another by giving up personal happiness?

• Am I the only one who chuckled when Widmore offered to show Jin his “Package”?

• Jin takes out Mikhail Bakunin’s eye, making dead, off-Island Mikhail into the “cyclops” that on-Island Mikhail was. Are we starting to see two different timelines beginning to “bleed together,” as many people (including Drew McWeeny at Hitfix and the crew on Chud’s message boards) have suggested? The jury is still out, but I’m ready for anything at this point. I’ve already proposed my Second Snake theory to you all, and while I really like it as a theory I’m not attached to it. I’d talk more about the possibility of the timelines joining together, but this column is already late. I say bring on the convergence, if that’s where we’re headed. And if that’s where we’re headed, I promise to try and help you folks connect the necessary dots. I’ve got a good idea of where to begin.

• Sayid’s off-Island episode ended on a cliffhanger, with the Iraqi Attacki Machine finding Jin in the freezer of Keamy’s restaurant. “The Package” picks up that thread and continues it, leaving us again with a cliffhanger over the fate of Sun and her unborn child. Has Jin killed the unborn Ji-Yeon? Has he murdered his beloved? We don’t know. What we do know: They’re in L.A., and they need to get to a hospital. Quickly. So, who will operate on Sun? Will it be Jack? Has the bullet hit her spine? If so, all signs point to yes. If not, will it be Ethan (given the involvement of a baby) or even…..Juliet?

• Sun’s little sad-face here is hilarious.

Jack: “Sun, come with us and I’ll help you find Jin. I’ll help you find him and I’ll get you both on the plane and as far away from this island as you can get. I promise.”

• I really like the way that Jack reaches out to Sun. We’ve seen Jack promise things before, but he seems genuinely different here. There’s no teeth-gnashing, wild-eyed desperation/determination – which is what we’re mostly used to when it comes to the Island’s Shephard. Can he keep his promise to her that he’ll get them off of the Island? Realistically, no. It’s a possibility, and I don’t doubt his sincerity, but there’s no guarantees. And I think Jack more-or-less knows this. It wasn’t that long ago that Jack told Dogen that he couldn’t trust himself, but his experience at the Lighthouse has resulted in something profound beginning to stir inside of Jack Shephard. And despite the uncertainty of their future, he seems at peace. Not passive, as he was in Season 5, and not antagonistic. Simply at peace. What Jack is arguably really offering Sun here is a chance at communion and community. He’s offering Sun the opportunity to reunite with Jin on her terms and not on the terms of Anti-Locke. He’s offering a change at “live together,” not “die alone.” That’s my read on things at any rate.

• The episode ends with the revelation that Widmore has been keeping Desmond aboard his submarine – something most of us suspected – and with dead-eyed, P-Zombie Sayid discovering the same. That makes Desmond’s reappearance no less exciting to me. What proposed purpose is Desmond supposed to serve? As a weapon against the Man in Black? As an instrument to be used in concert with finding the Island’s electromagnetic pockets? As a bargaining chip? And here’s the wildest theory of all: Are all of the “candidates” meant to distract Anti-Locke from a final, stealth-candidate? We’ve learned that Desmond is “uniquely and miraculously special.” Just what does that really mean? He’s experienced flashes of possible future outcomes, he’s consciousness-traveled, and he was at ground zero of the Swan Failsafe event. Of all the people on this Island, Desmond is the closest thing to a “magical” Jacob figure.

Just a little food for thought.

• Sayid’s emotionless stare is unnerving. As a spy for the Man in Black, will he betray everyone he’s come to know on the Island? Remember that it was Sayid who was present the last time that Desmond’s consciousness faded out and then returned to him – they were both on the freighter for the events of the Constant. Will those experiences “matter” to him anymore? Or is Desmond now just another Other?

Two quick asides:

• Apropos of nothing in particular, I’d like to direct your attention to Gideon Slife’s flickr site, where he’s been producing a poster for every episode of Lost, based off of an iconic image or moment from each installment. I love the idea, and I think that he’s got a good eye for design. It’s neat, essentially, and I thought that you folks might get a kick out of it. The image above is one of Gideon’s creations, and you can see the rest by clicking this link. Support the creative impulse and your fellow fans!

• Finally: a big thank you to all the people who’ve dropped me an email, expressing their interest in picking up a copy of the book I’ll be self-publishing on the themes, literary references, subtext, and whatnot of Lost. It was a real pleasure to hear from you, and I promise to make it worth your while. If you’d like to add your name to my list, you can drop me a line at WhatIsWater@gmail.com. Doing this will not force you to buy anything or get you kidnapped by Others after a plane crash.*

*Should your plane crash and you be subsequently kidnapped by Others the author assumes no responsibility for either of those said events, and in any event, was kidding. But he wishes you luck and advises you to watch out for bears. 

*****

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• Sun gets her prescribed Moment of Reflection just before she opens the door for Widmore’s former nutzoid Mercenary. Are these moments simply repeated metaphors for the ways in which the castaways have achieved a measure of “good being” or not? Do they serve solely to underline the themes of self-reflection that Lost loves so much? Or are they hinting at something else? More on this below.

• Martin Keamy makes another appearance off-Island as Mr. Paik’s hired gun. I recently re-watched the remake of 3:10 to Yuma and was surprised to find that the actor who plays Keamy was in it. I like this guy as a performer, and I hope to see a lot more of him.

Great Keamy Line: “I feel like I’m in a damn Godzilla movie.”

• Ben finding and helping Sun after she smacks herself in the head mirrors Season 5, in which Sun smacks Ben in the head with an oar. His concern here seems genuine, and so Ilana’s subsequent distrust of him smarted a little. I find myself wanting Ben to prove himself to the others. As it stands it seems that Ilana will have Ben in her company, but won’t trust him further than she can throw him. Which, given that it’s Ben we’re talking about, is probably a really good idea.

• To be honest, my initial reaction to Sun’s sudden Aphasia was to roll my eyes. It’s a pretty ludicrous plot-point on some levels, and it seemed designed solely to keep Sun from telling the other candidates what had happened to her, thus continuing Lost’s grand tradition of never letting their characters have the conversations that we would likely have in their places.

But then I realized that Sun was able to communicate the only thing that really counted – the Man in Black had come to her. The rest of her and Anti-Locke’s encounter doesn’t really matter to the castaways, frankly, so what other reason(s) are there for the sudden dain bramage? Well, for one, it again underlines the theme of communication, and it mirrors (albeit clumsily) the way in which Jin found himself unable to communicate with the castaways in Season 1. If Sun’s “Aphasia” continues, expect the now-English-fluent Jin to do the translating. Sun’s loss of her English “voice” also mirrors the way in which Locke lost his voice following the implosion of the Hatch (he needed to use a pad and a pen to write his words down also, just as Sun does with the help of Jack at the end of this installment).

• Whatever the internal reasoning, this arguably-hoary conceit resulted in some wonderful scenes for Sun. Watching her let loose in her native Korean was a pleasure.

• Notice that Sun’s return to consciousness and Sayid’s return to consciousness mirror each other, and the way that consciousness as a concept is again evoked here.

Jin: “Where am I?”
Zoe: “It’s called Room 23.”

• The return to Room 23 makes me happy, as it’s one of my favorite bizarre Dharma locations. We don’t learn anything new about the room itself, but we’re reminded again that Dharma utilized the room to do experiments with “subliminal messaging.” How does this tie into the episode as a whole? These types of experiments involve stimuli (like the sentences and images and sounds that flash in the room) which are processed by people on a level that is “below an individual’s absolute threshold for conscious perception.” Once again, ideas of consciousness and unconsciousness, of manipulation and control, and of the sometimes-innate drive to be free of such controls, to become conscious, present themselves not through long speeches and clunky exposition, but through symbols, subtext, suggestion. Nifty.

• This episode reminded us of the pockets of energy on the Island. In the column for Ab Aeterno I talked about the balance between science and faith. The re-introduction of electromagnetism, and the presence of a geo-physicist on Widmore’s team, suggests that science and faith are going to be converging soon. I’m looking forward to seeing just why it is that Zoe and Widmore need to identify the Island’s “hot spots.” Near as I can tell, there are two located on Zoe’s map, and they bring to mind the dots of a yin-yang symbol, which is very appropriate on an Island with “two sides, one black, one white.” Are these pockets “charged” in opposite directions? Is the energy located at the Orchid Station symbolic of Jacob? And are the “unique electromagnetic fluctuations” of the Swan Station symbolic/representative of the Man in Black? Do the two Island enemies draw their particular “abilities” from these locations? I notice that one of Chud’s message board commenters asked some of these same questions. I think they’re fun to contemplate at this point, regardless of whether they’re eventually proven to be true. What do you think? Do the two pockets that are marked on the map serve to mirror the two seemingly-opposite forces on the Island?

Anti-Locke: “…I’m three people shy of getting off this Island and Kate can help me get those people on the plane. But….once she does….then, whatever happens, happens.”

• There’s a lot going on in this one sentence. First, we learn that the Man in Black needs to recruit three more people in order to leave the Island. Second, it would seem as though the three people he refers to are the remaining candidates on Jacob’s “side,” and that he’s counting on Kate to bring them to him. Third, Anti-Locke implicitly gives Claire permission to kill Kate once she’s outlived her usefulness, which says something about the sincerity of Claire’s apology to Kate, and about Anti-Locke’s intention to give these people what he’s promised them. Fourth, the wording that the Man in Black uses here (“whatever happens, happens”) is the same wording that Daniel Faraday used to describe the unalterable nature of time. Should we be thinking about this? Will Anti-Locke’s escape in part result in some form of massive, cataclysmic course-correction?

Sawyer: “What do you need a boat for? Can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?”
Locke: “Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?”
Great Sawyer Delivery: “No, ’cause that would be ridiculous.”

• Anti-Locke’s inability to cross the water brings to mind the vests that the guards who escorted Widmore off the Island (in flashback) were wearing. Those vests were emblazoned with a symbol that’s contained within the Dharma bagua that the Dharma Initiative used as its “corporate logo.” In the I Ching, that symbol has a specific meaning that now seems more meaningful than it did to me then:

“Water.”

Hmmmm.

• Tarek Jammal is a Chud reader, blogger, and scholar. He was kind enough to contact me the other day and point me toward his Chud-hosted blog where he points out the similarities between the Man in Black’s Island imprisonment/Smoke-form and a story from the religion of Islam, which reads in part:

“He told me that he had sailed in a ship with 30 men from Banu Lakhm and Banu Judham. The waves had tossed them about for a month, then they were brought near to an island, at the time of sunset. They landed on the island, and were met by a beast who was so hairy that they could not tell its front from its back… They said, “Woe to you! What are you?” It said, “I am al-Jassasah (roughly translates in the one who spies).” They said, “What is al-Jassasah?” It said, “O people, go to this man in the monastery, for he is very eager to know about you.” Tamim said that when it named a person to us, we were afraid lest it be a devil.” Tamim said, ‘We quickly went to the monastery. There we found a huge man with his hands tied up to his neck and with iron shackles between his legs up to the ankles. We said, ‘Woe to you, who are you?’ He said, ‘You will soon know about me. Tell me who you are.’ We said, ‘We are people from Arabia. We sailed in a ship, but the waves have been tossing us about for a month, and they brought us to your island…..” [The huge man spoke:] ‘Now I will tell you about myself. I am the Dajjal (The Antichrist). I will soon be permitted to leave this place: I will emerge and travel about the earth.’”

That’s fascinating, isn’t it? I’m admittedly not up on my Islamic theology, and so I truly appreciated Tarek’s willingness to share. There are a lot of obvious parallels between the above story and the imprisonment of the Man in Black. This echoing again reinforces the notion that the Island is a kind of Rosetta Stone, an underlying inspiration for/source of/mirror of world beliefs. Do yourself a favor and visit the article that I’ve pulled the above material from. It’s interesting and well-written – and I’m not just saying that because Tarek had kind words for this column. Shukran, my friend.

• Ilana’s faith is rewarded as Richard returns to the camp wearing Isabella’s cross and brimming with steely-eyed determination. The circle grows again.

Anti-Locke: “Do you know who I am?”
Widmore: “Obviously you’re not John Locke. Everything else I know is a combination of myth, ghost stories, and jungle noises in the night.”

• The meeting between Widmore and the Man in Black was probably my favorite moment of the episode. I love the sudden shift in how we’re asked to look at Widmore. For much of Lost’s running time we’ve heard him referred to as a threat, a danger. But The Package flips things on us, asking us to consider whether Widmore might have some nobler purpose than we’ve been lead to expect. It asks us to reconsider the actions he’s taken. There’s no doubt that Widmore’s a cold man, and that he’s taken some questionable actions (not the least of which is hauling a dazed-and-drugged Desmond to the Island), but is he “evil”? Simply self-interested? Or is he a callous man with a nonetheless-righteous purpose? Whatever the answer, it’s now clear that he wasn’t working alongside the Man in Black all this time. It’s going to be fun to go back once the show is over and revisit his scenes.

• Widmore’s comment to Anti-Locke reinforces the notion that the Man in Black/Smoke Monster has served as the basis for at least some myths. His use of the pylons confirms that he arrived well-prepared for the death of Jacob and the insurrection of Sir Smokealot.

• So why is Widmore protecting Jin? Setting aside potential self-interest for a moment: Is he an ally of Jacob? And if so, what does this say about his desire to have a young Ben Linus kill a young Rousseau and her newborn baby, Alex?

• I also really like the slightly retro quality of the pylons, the strange sight of them lined up and staggered evenly down the beach.

Richard: “This man wants to leave the island? That plane’s the only way he could do it. You wanna know where we’re going? We’re going to stop him.”

• The sense that an ending is coming grows stronger here as the goal of Jacob’s loyal circle becomes clear: destroy Ajira and prevent the Man in Black from leaving. Only, as mentioned above, I’m not sure that the Man in Black’s ultimate plan involves leaving via that plane. Remember that at the end of Ab Aeterno the Man in Black promises Jacob that he’ll kill whoever comes to take his jailer’s place. And remember that it’s arguably impossible to use that plane to leave without a pilot – and the Man in Black doesn’t seem to care about Frank Lapidus at all. If Ajira was the MiB’s true, final goal, why go and try to retrieve Jin from Hydra Island? Why not instead bring your people to Jin as you prepare to leave?

It seems to me that the Man in Black intends to sacrifice the candidates, and that he intends to use them against each other. It’s either that or he intends to “claim” them all and use them as he wishes. There’s no happy ending on Locke’s flight as far as I can tell.

SUNFACE!

• Mikhail Bakunin returns to the narrative as one of Keamy’s goons, which makes perfect sense if you think about it. Bakunin claimed that he served in the Soviet Army, and we saw what looked like his own handwriting on certain documents – handwriting that, when translated, reads “I have forgotten so much about Afghanistan.” I think it’s safe to assume that Bakunin, Keamy and Omar are still ex-military in this off-Island universe. I’ve talked before about Mikhail’s real-life namesake, the philosopher and anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. If you’d like to read up on this, just click on a link.

MORE  GOL’ DURNED JIBBER-JABBER AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!

The Package (S6, ep. 10)

Jack: “Do you trust me?”

Communion. On a show as steeped in religious symbolism as Lost is, we might be tempted to look at that word and think of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, instructing his disciples that this was his blood, and this was his body, and given the time I could probably give you some cock-eyed summary of how it applies to Lost’s sacrificial “God” figure, his enemy, and their various followers. But that’s not why the word interests me as it’s applied to this week’s sturdy, intriguing character-centric episode.

The word communion comes to us courtesy of Latin, the language that named last week’s episode, that contains Jacob’s riddle, and that all of the Island’s Others are required to learn. While it’s often associated with Chistian ritual, the Latin word has “infected” a host of other English words, all of which are present in The Package: Community, Communication. Remember that hippie-dippie pot farm where Classic Locke spent some happy time during one of Season 3’s flashbacks? It was a Commune, which, in the original sense of the word, simply means a local community with a local government which promotes local interests (think of Richard’s Others, and the castaways’ beach camp) and also means “to be in a state of intimate, heightened sensitivity and receptivity, as with one’s surroundings,” as when one “communes” with Nature (See: John Locke on the Island).

In its on-Island segments, The Package focused directly on both these things – drawing attention to the ways in which communication (or more often the serious lack thereof) is improved or cut off, the ways in which it flows or stutters. It showed us how the community of the Jacob-loyal castaways can offer a hope that the Man in Black’s jungle-individualism doesn’t offer. For all of their flaws (and oh, Ben’s flaws…), this group has come together to form a kind of protective circle – giving murderer and healer alike the chance to add themselves to the growing ring; expanding with a slow sureness that mirrors the ways in which Anti-Locke’s group is splintering, the ways in which it is divided. Jack told his fellow castaways that they’d need to learn to live together or they’d die alone. From my perspective, the beach group seems to have embraced the first portion of that advice, while Anti-Locke’s group seems resigned to the second.

Thoughts:

• I’m a fan of the way the episode begins in night-vision, disorienting from the start. It brings up the theme of hidden observers – a thread that’s run through this entire series like a paranoid through Congress. I’ve written at length about the ways in which the Swan/Pearl/Island resemble the philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon. The Swan Station people were observed in secret by the Pearl Station folks, who were in turn observed by still-other people. The Others kept watch over Jack, Kate and Sawyer through remote cameras. The tail-enders spied on Michael, Jin and Sawyer by sending Ana Lucia into their midst. The castaways have been observed by Jacob and/or the MiB.

• Some folks have accused me of thinking about things like this more than the writers of the show have. They’re probably right. But I’m not pointing this stuff out in an effort to prove that Lost is ultimately some uber-intentional, intricate construct meticulously crafted by Merry Elves, or to prove that I’m edumacated. I’m pointing out this stuff because it’s there. Writers have patterns, themes, crutches and flaws that carry through the body of their work both intended and unintended. John Irving’s books tend to have bears and wrestlers. Ayn Rand’s got S&M and self-destruction. I can’t imagine that Lost’s writers are different. As we go along, I’m stopping to point this stuff out. Some of it is, I think, pretty dead-on. Some of it is undeniably speculation. It’s up to you to decide if it’s relevant or bunkum/hooey/hokum/BS/crap. That’s part of the fun, no? And on a related note, as usual, I’m sure that I’ve missed things throughout this episode. Please point these out in the comments. They are always read and appreciated.

• Sawyer’s offer of cocoa mirrors Charlie’s invisible peanut butter from Season 1. Thankfully, we don’t have to watch Sawyer lustily miming the sipping of cocoa. Charlie’s “invisible peanut butter” shtick remains one of my least favorite moments in Lost.

Anti-Locke: “…the only way we can leave the Island is if all the names that haven’t been crossed off go together.”

• Apparently, all of Jacob’s candidates need to accompany Anti-Locke as he leaves the Island. Do we believe this? I believe that he needs all of the candidates, but I don’t know that I believe he intends to take them with him – at least, not as they are now. More on this below.

“Perhaps the best-known and most influential argument for the possibility of zombies comes from Robert Kirk’s article “Sentience and Behavior” (Kirk 1974). Here Kirk appeals to a fictional character—Dan—who gradually turns into a zombie. The first part of this transformation is that Dan loses his capacity to feel pain. When he cuts himself he senses nothing in the injured area. This is odd in itself, but Dan notices something stranger still. Despite the lack of phenomenal pain when he injures himself, he finds himself saying “Ouch!” and otherwise acting just as he always did when he hurt himself. He winces, swears, grasps the hurt part of his body, and so on. He finds this fact bewildering and cannot explain why he acts as he does despite his lack of pain sensations. He goes to the doctor who performs a battery of tests but can find nothing wrong; his brain is perfectly normal. Gradually the same thing happens to all of Dan’s other senses until he is lacking phenomenal awareness altogether. At each stage of his decline he initially expresses dismay, both at the loss of his conscious awareness and at his perceptual abilities, though every time he adapts and his dismay fades with time. Some months after his last sense is altered Dan once again seems perfectly normal. The most plausible explanation for this change, according to Kirk, is that Dan has become a zombie. If we can consistently imagine Dan losing one sense while retaining the associated perceptual abilities, there is no obstacle to expanding the hypothesis about the limited case to include all of Dan’s senses. Thus, zombies are possible.”  – Neil Campbell, “Zombies, Zimboes, and Epiphenomenalism”

Sayid: “I don’t feel anything.”
Anti-Locke: “Excuse me?”
Sayid: “Anger. Happiness. Pain. I don’t feel it anymore.”
Anti-Locke: “Maybe that’s best, Sayid. It’ll help you get through what’s coming.”

• In the column for What Kate Does I talked about Sayid’s Pet Semetary-style return from the grave and about how Hurley’s question to him (“you’re not a zombie, right?”) might have been dead on. Sayid “feels nothing.” He seems hollowed out. Anhedonia is the inability to feel pleasure, but it’s not just pleasure that Sayid is missing. His symptoms are like an extreme form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with all the emotional numbness that’s associated with it. That kind of disconnectedness is often reported in cancer patients, and the darkness that’s supposed to have spread within Sayid sounds much like a metaphorical cancer.

Something very much worth considering, and which I’ve been waiting to talk about until the show gave us more to go on, is the notion of “zombies” in the philosophical sense. In philosophy, “zombies” are hypothetical people who are identical to “normal” people in “all physical respects but have no conscious experience.” These theoretical zombies look like normal people, act like normal people, but are dead inside when it comes to their own consciousness – and consciousness is a major theme in Lost. The idea of awakening, of discovering good being, of becoming “conscious” permeates Lost in every season.

Philosophical zombies, were they to exist, would not  experience emotion the way that you or I would. Nor would they experience physical pain like you or I do (and remember how Dogen “branded” Sayid in the Temple, seeming to test his tolerance for/experience of pain). The “simplified” reasoning for this according to its proponents is that consciousness allows us to experience things like happiness and pain, and without it, we’re hollow. The quote I slapped up above gives an example of this process, and in its broad strokes it highly resembles what we’ve seen happening to Sayid. For all my blather though, we’re no closer to knowing what’s up with this “infection” (although I think, at the risk of sounding full of myself, that I might be on the right track with this general idea). That’s getting aggravating.

• Anti-Locke’s words here imply that he’s going to be asking/telling Sayid to shed a lot of blood in the near future. Will Sayid fight his fellow castaways – maybe even kill them? He’d need to be numb in order to do that.

• I like that Jin sees straight through Anti-Locke and wants nothing to do with him. And I like that Jin again questions why Sawyer is following this “thing.” Sawyer again denies that he’s following anybody – but is that really the truth? At what point do your long-cons turn you into the thing that you despise (remember that James Ford became “Sawyer” out of a desire to punish someone who’d done his family wrong)? At some point, you have to choose your side.

• Once Anti-Locke leaves the camp, Widmore’s team of Insurance Salesmen jump out of the bushes and tranquilize his entire group of recruits, bagging and tagging Jin to take with them. Why don’t they take Sawyer as well? Has his decision to join up with Anti-Locke, no matter how duplicitous, removed his name from candidacy?

Great Miles Line: “Unless Alpert’s covered in bacon grease, I’m not sure Hurley can track anything.”
Better Frank Response: “Hey. Don’t talk about bacon.”

Jack: “I remember when you first planted this here. Feels like a hundred years ago.”

• Sun returns to the garden she’d started in Season 1, and I have to say that I’m enjoying the “nostalgia tour,” as we re-visit locations like this one. Jack seems to be opening up to the possibility of faith in Jacob, while Sun wants nothing to do with any of it. Some folks continue to have problems with Sun and Jin’s perpetual separation, but I continue to view it as one of the most human and understandable of motivations on the show. 

• I love Yunjin Kim’s performance in this episode. There’s a quality of playfulness to her that we haven’t gotten to see much of during Sun’s character arc, and it shows this Ignorant American why she became a star in her native South Korea, as well as why Lost was so interested in her to begin with. It’s a pleasure to watch her act. 

• Lost gets a little naughty in The Package (which, given the title, seems entirely appropriate), giving us several lingering shots of Ms. Paik’s chest. Not that I’m complaining, but it was kind of distrac–

Uhh…What was I saying? Oh. Right. Not that I’m complaining, but it was kind of distracting, the way the show cut back, over and aga –

I’m actually having difficulty concentrating here. It’s like being caught in Room 23 reading short subliminal messages between flashes of Sun’s bra: “Everything Makes Sense….” “You Will Stop Wondering About the Damned Hurley Bird…..” “We are the causes of our own….”

“….Breasts?”

This is easily the second-most blatant example of pandering to the men of the audience (the first being Nikki’s Expose introduction, of course, with “Kate in her underwear in the surf” running a close third – your rankings may vary). All kidding aside, I liked that this episode gave Sun the chance to be sexy. She’s so often called on to be restrained and/or pained that it was a breast of fresh air to watch her flirt in Korean.

Sun: “I don’t believe you. You killed those people at the Temple.”
Anti-Locke: “Those people were confused. They were lied to. I didn’t want to hurt them. Any one of them could have chosen to come with me. And I’m giving you that choice, Sun, right now. I would never make you do anything against your will. I’m asking you. Please. Come with me. Jin’s waiting.”

• Anti-Locke’s methods continue to bring up the themes of community and communion that run through this episode. In all of his interactions with the castaways (and Ben), the Man in Black offers them something that will separate them from their group. In all of his “temptations,” the MiB approaches his potential recruit while they are alone. As I’ve written before, the Island offers people hope and the possibility of a fresh start through communion with their fellow man and the Island itself, but it also offers each person to option to vanish into the jungle, into isolation, into solipsism and despair. Where the offer to join Jack’s group seems to result in a kind of quiet communal strength (albeit an enormously fragile strength), the offer to join Anti-Locke’s group seems to lead to madness, a loss of “consciousness” and/or conscience. Just why is it that the Man in Black needs these people to come with him? I’m almost certain that it’s not to join him on the plane flight out of there. More on this below.

• Sun and Jin’s off-Island story is suitably twisty and surprising. They aren’t married, but they are secret lovers. Sun still wants to run away, but now it’s with Jin, and not from Jin. The fact that she isn’t trying to escape him means that she’s never attempted to learn English (at least as far as we know), and this in turn suggests that she never met with the son of the Hotel magnate who served as her extramarital recreation in her flashbacks. Sun implies that she’s pregnant during her off-Island scene with Jin, which I imagine means that he wouldn’t have potentially impregnated her, and this means…..well, what does that mean? Remember that Jin was, for all purposes, sterile before they came to the Island. Are Jin’s swimmers just friskier in the off-Island “universe”? Is there another guy we don’t know about?

MORE OBSESSIVELY-COMPOSED NONSENSE AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!