Lost Rewatch on VHS...In Translation

 

Video recording notes: In an ad for a series called Blind Justice, ABC refers to itself it as ‘the network that brought you Desperate Housewives and Lost.’  Networks and cable would often do so in the dim dark past to emphasize that future series would be ‘the next great drama.’ In the case of Blind Justice, yet another of Steven Bochco many disasters in the 2000s, it would not be the case. The next great drama would be advertised later in this recording when one sees an ad for upcoming medical drama called Grey’s Anatomy. Combined with the passage of NYPD Blue, the times, they were a changin’ for ABC…and in a good way.

Daniel Dae Kim was one of several actors in the cast who was a known entity to me when the series began its run. He had come to my attention as the memorably creepy Wolfram and Hart attorney Gavin Park in the third season of Angel. Not long after his character was killed off on that series, he became a recurring semi-regular on 24, appearing in small roles on the second and third seasons. It is conceivable that his character might have been promoted in future seasons (Mary Lynn Raskjub would find the same happen to her character in the third season) or indeed brought back in a later one (24 would do the same for several characters in its run) but then he would be cast in Lost, and the rest was history.

Dae Kim’s work is in many ways the most layered performance of almost every major character on Lost, certainly in the first season. For the lion’s share of Lost’s run, Jin will be unable to communicate with any other character save for his wife and because the writers chose not to translate what he said when he’s having conversations with any other character in Korean (the writers did so in order to make it clear just how isolated Jin and Sun are from the rest of the group), he remains an enigma. And because the xenophobia that exists in the ‘civilized world’ clearly exists here (Jin beat Michael to a pulp and was handcuffed to a plane, but Charlie shot Ethan and there was no comparable punishment), the survivors are inclined to view him as, well, the other. To this point, the writers have done very little to make us think any differently. We saw signs of a sweet man in Sun’s flashback, but then we saw him change over time with no clear explanation except ‘that he worked for Sun’s father’. Because we’ve only heard Sun’s side of the story, we are inclined to assume that he’s been a monster for a while, and there has been little sign on the island that he has changed.

Now we get the truth, and it’s perhaps the most stunning revelation we’ve gotten on any character’s past since ‘Walkabout’, Jin was a working class man who clearly came from poverty and his devotion for Sun was total, so that he was willing to surrender his own ambitions and work for Sun’s father ‘because she is my dream’.

We also get clear in no uncertain terms the kind of man Mr. Paik is. In a sense the scene where Paik sends an assassin to carry out the hit on Mr. Han is almost unnecessary. When Jin goes to visit Han and introduces himself as working for Paik, Han is clearly terrified and so relieved about ‘the message’ he gets that he almost is fawning over Jin in relief. In a more critical sense, the scene with the assassin is essential to the flashback in that it tells us in no uncertain terms the kind of man Jin actually is as opposed to the one Sun thinks he is. When he beats Han to a pulp, it is an action done out of virtue because he knows what is coming. And when he returns to the Kwon’s home (the other side of the flashback we saw in ‘House of the Rising Sun’) it takes on an entirely different meaning because the viewer now knows what Jin was doing, and how much it cost him emotionally to do it. After Sun storms out of the bathroom (the scene ended there) we stay with Jin and watch him burst into tears.

But as bad as things were before he got on the plane (we’ll get back to that in a moment) things are far worse on the island. We now understand that Jin’s attitude through the series so far has been out of his desire to protect his wife (though we’re still not clear given what we saw in Sun’s flashback why he seemed so hostile now), and as horrible as the situation is for everyone else, one can’t imagine how bad it must be for someone who doesn’t have the benefit of comprehending all the larger issues going on because everyone’s talking as if you don’t exist.  Sun at least the possibility of revealing her secret when she has too, Jin doesn’t have that option, and the fact that she doesn’t understand why her husband is the way he is has cost him in the eyes in the rest of the camp. It’s not like they have made much of an effort - Hurley’s been the only one who tried, and that was more out of desperation than anything else. Hurley tries again in this episode, and is rebuffed, so its likely had events not transpired he would have continued to do so.

And so when the raft is set fire to in the middle of the episode, the events that transpire are painfully sad and familiar.  When Locke makes his speech in front of everyone, he has his own motivations for doing so, but if anyone was thinking rationally it makes perfect sense.  For all the reasons for Jin’s isolation from the group he has no reason to set fire to the raft more than anyone else. But because no one understands him and because no one has tried to interact with him, the camp essentially decides to raise a lynch mob. (The fact that Sawyer is the one who brings him to the beach is a deliberate choice by the writers.) And given the vast array of races in the camp, it’s disturbing not only Michael approaches Jin and starts beating him up but how when Jack tries to break up the fight, Sayid seems just fine in letting it go forward. It’s only when Sun finally realizes the truth about what actually happens that she breaks her silence in order to save her husband – and in doing so, drives a wedge between them that at least now, seems irrevocable.

Some fans have wondered why just before Jin leaves the caves after confessing everything that has gone wrong in Korean, Sun switches to English when she tells Jin that she was going to leave him. This is very strange, and right now the best theory is have is that, even now, Sun can’t bring herself to admit just how desperate she was to escape the man her husband had become and says it in English because, sadly, the writers needed to make this clear to us – and not Jin  - so that the final flashback would cut all the deeper.

Jin returns home and in what will become an outlier for this series, into the arms of his loving  father.  He has hid the truth about how poor his family was out of shame but his father does not hold it against him. Here we get another revelation – Jin was planning a break at the airport too, but with Sun and with his father’s blessing.

But Sun’s not the only one withholding – in the next to last scene, we learned the person who actually burned the raft was Walt. (Though in retrospect, the writers were giving us hints: when Michael demands to know where Jin is, Walt desperately starts trying to put the fire out, when it looks like his father is about to seriously hurt Jin, there is a cut to Walt as if he is struggling to say something very hard for him, and when Michael says he’s going to build another raft Walt almost immediately agrees to help as if he’s trying to assuage his guilt.)  Based on what we saw before everyone was rushing to the raft, it looks like Locke had a clear idea who was responsible before all this began, and only chose to confront Walt in private. When the scene ends Walt tells Locke that “he likes it here’ and Locke says he does too. At this point, they are the only survivors who think that way – and will be for a very long time.

The last scenes of the episode show signs of independence for both Jin and Sun. Jin walks up to Michael with his supplies and says his first English word: “Boat.” It’s the first real attempt he’s made so far to reach out to anyone and it’s clearly appreciated by Michael. Similarly Sun, who has been held back by her decision to protect her husband at the expense of herself, shows first signs of freedom. She stands over the beach, takes off her dress and steps into the water in her swimsuit, and gives off a laugh. It’s the first time an unguarded look of happiness has crossed her face on the island.

But there are signs that things are changing. Like on other occasions, the episode ends with a song being performed as Hurley listens to his MP3 player and the music takes on the tone of reality. But just as the song reaches its climax, there’s a screeching sound and Hurley taps it. His MP3 has run out of power. The normally cheerful Hurley just mutters ‘son of a bitch.’ Ways to escape the reality of their situation are becoming harder with every day.