There are many complaints about
Season 3 of Lost that I don’t
think have any merit. There is one, however, that holds a considerable amount
of weight, particularly in the first six episodes. During that period and
indeed much of Season 3 as a whole, the writers had a great deal of difficulty
finding a balance between what was going on with the Others and what was going
on back on the beach. This was slightly understandable at the start of the
series considering how divided the Losties were at the end of Season 2. The
problem was they never really managed to adjust for almost the entirety of the
season and it greatly hurt the dynamic of the show.
This is particularly telling when
you consider the controversy that has now arisen about the set of Lost never
treating minority characters well throughout its run. This opinion was picked
up by many fans during the original season even without knowledge of what was
going on behind the scenes. In her Season 3 volume of Finding Lost Nikki
Stafford remarks that even though Jin and Sun were put at the center of the
second episode of the season, they would essentially be non -factors for much
of the first half of the show. And Sayid, who had been one of the driving
forces of the show the first two seasons, is far more in the background in
Season 3 than he has been before (and as we shall see, in the second half of
the series). This is particularly maddening because of all the potential that the
central situation of The Glass Ballerina has.
Sayid, Jin and Sun are the most
prominent foreigners in the cast, yet until this point they have had next to no
interaction. This is in part because Sayid is fluent in English and Jin and Sun
are not (at least that’s what we thought at the start of the series) but even
after Sun’s fluency was revealed, Sayid has had almost no real contact with
them, either on their own or as a couple. This is in part because they
represent separate functions on the island. Sayid is a soldier and has skills
that are more useful towards their survival while Sun and Jin do not seem to
have those kinds of skills. This is a gross underestimation of their value;
Jin’s ability as a fisherman has kept the island fed, Sun’s ability as a
gardener has been invaluable to Jack and she was vital to him during the failed
effort to save Boone’s life. Jin was
critical to the second raft being built and was willing to potentially
sacrifice his life for the greater good. But despite that Sayid – and much of
the rest of the survivors – tend to rank them in the background with most of
the other women and characters like Hurley, who seem more for comic relief then
their inherent value. Sayid is only now interacting with Sun and Jin because he
does not know how to sail.
Critically though he clearly needs
their help going forward, Sayid spends much of the episode lying to both of
them about what his true actions are. Ironically he seems to have the same
opinion of them as so many of the white people on the island because he
dismisses their demands and doesn’t seem to realize that Sun knows he’s lying
until she calls him on it – and that Jin might be an asset until he reveals
he’s more savvy then Sayid thinks. You
could make the argument that Sayid is doing to try and keep them safe – until
you hear exactly what his plan is. We’ve
known just how brutal an individual Sayid is in so many of his flashback and
his interactions with ‘Henry Gale’ but there’s something truly frightening
about him when he reveals to Sun that when the Others come he intends to keep
two ‘and kill the rest’. In this moment
we realize that Sayid is just as angry at the Others as Jack is and may indeed
have gone along on this mission with as much determination for revenge as Jack
did.
The critical element of The Glass
Ballerina is deception. As we see in the flashbacks, it is becoming
increasingly clear that Sun has been just as capable of lying to protect
herself as the rest of the survivors and even at a young age was capable of lying
to hurt others to protect herself. It
does not come as a shock in this episode when we learn that she was having an
affair with Jae Lee and it has apparently become serious enough that she wants
her to leave Jin for him. Then, however,
Mr. Paik shows up at the hotel and learns the truth (though knowing him, he has
probably known for a while.)
Mr. Paik is considered an
unquestioned villain in Lost lore for good reason; we know the things
he’s capable of and we can see just how big a monster he has been to Jin. But
it’s interesting to watch the interaction he has with Jin. For the only time on
this series, he seems genuinely upset.
Perhaps it is because he considers his daughter’s infidelity a stain on
him; maybe he realizes that there’s something deeper going on with it and he
feels guilty. Whatever the reason he seems in real pain when he expresses that
he needs Jin to ‘end it’. When Jin takes a stand and actually intends to quit,
Paik is angry but he actually seems compassionate to Jin. This is the first
time he calls Jin ‘son’; does he really think or is it a manipulation?
The scene between Jin and Sun is
painful because Sun seems frightened in a way we haven’t seen in the
flashbacks. (I’m not sure when this flashback takes place exactly, but I think
it’s not that long before Sun starts deciding to make her escape from Jin.) Sun
makes an effort to try and persuade Jin to run away; the same argument Jae Lee
made. Jin is conflicted, perhaps because he fears Paik, perhaps because he’s
thinking the same thing.
The scene in the hotel is
frightening, particularly because there is little doubt Jae Lee is sure Paik
has told Jin what he has done and because Jin doesn’t know but still seems
capable of violence. It’s never clear what happened immediately afterward, but
I have always assumed that Paik did not trust Jin to do what he was told and
sent another thug to finish the job. The fact that Jae has the necklace he was
going to give Sun in his hand is one sign, and the way Paik speaks about his
jumping as ‘he must have felt great shame’ convinces me that’s what happened.
Now in a similar situation Sayid
has underestimated both Jin and Sun – and critically, so have the Others.
Colleen Pickett is the leader of the operation to find the boat, which has Ben
very concerned when he hears about it.
Part of me wishes that Colleen had stuck around more than this episode.
In what amounts to two scenes Paula Malcolmson (yet another Deadwood alumnus)
demonstrates the ferocity that she brings to almost every character she
plays. She doesn’t seem to have much use
for Juliet and while she takes Ben’s orders, it really looks like she would
have done it without them.
Colleen’s speech to Sun is another
one that speaks to the smug certainty that the Others have and will continue to
demonstrate throughout Season 3. Again she takes the party line that ‘we are
not the enemy’. This is in contradiction to everything that they have done, and
I’m pretty sure that they have no intention of letting Sun leave of her own
volition. (If they’d known she was pregnant, she wouldn’t have left either.) The thing is the Others seem certain that
because they have read the files on the survivors they know exactly what they
will do, but they’ve already been proven wrong on this before and will be
again. Colleen thinks that, even though the Others clearly know who her father
is and that she is capable of deception, that Sun isn’t a killer. Sun proves
her wrong and it cost them.
Now as much Collen argues that
they are not the enemy, we’ve already seen a lot of evidence that many in their
camp view them exactly that way. Indeed, in this episode we are reacquainted
with her husband Danny who we met very prominently when he abducted Michael and
was pretty much a bastard then. It’s
fitting that he serves as essentially a prison guard in this episode;
everything we will see of Danny is that of a man who is brutal, views no one
with respect (we’ll see later on that this also applies to some of his fellow
Others) and is just itching to take out his rage on his captives. He’s already
showing hostility towards Sawyer, for reasons that are never clear, and Sawyer is more than willing to return the
favor.
It's becoming clear at this point
that whatever reasons the Others arranged for this kidnapping, the only one
they really seem to have wanted is Jack. Kate and Sawyer are more or less given
the kind of busy work that the Others themselves are doing and its just as
clear that they were fundamentally taken together so that one’s safety could be
used to manipulate the others. (Ironically, that’s exactly why Sayid intended
to take two hostage.) This is Sawyer and Kate’s first interaction with Juliet
and its interesting looking at her reaction to them compared to Jack. Sawyer is
clearly holding a grudge from the season premiere and when he makes his break,
he is only stopped by Juliet pointing a gun at Kate. He isn’t underestimating
Juliet at all: he very bluntly tells Kate that Juliet would have shot her
without a second thought.
Danny isn’t the only familiar face
we see. Alex shows up while Kate is working and is clearly concerned about what
has happened to Karl. Even more than with Juliet, it’s clear she not onboard
with what’s going on (which given that she is almost certainly Rousseau’s daughter
is understandable). There’s something poignant about when Alex asks about the
dress Kate is wearing and tells her it used to be hers (and its going to sting
even more when we learn exactly what her connection with Ben is) Sawyer and
Kate think that they might be able to maneuver around the Others: they don’t
know that they’re being watched.
For all of the action going on
with the boat, the great scene of the episode comes when Ben walks into the
prison he’s holding Jack in. Ben tries
to put a humorous spin on the situation (there is an irony to it) but he has a
considerable credibility gap and we don’t exactly blame Jack for barely
tolerating it. Jack has every reason to treat Ben with contempt and not believe
a word he says. (Ben says he’s going to tell the truth but when he introduces
himself to Jack, he’s lying about something very important.) That said when Ben
asks Jack: “Why wouldn’t we leave?” it’s actually a relevant question, one that
none of the survivors have asked themselves in two seasons. Jack is sure Ben is lying, and understandably
doesn’t take Ben seriously when he tells him the Red Sox have won the World
Series. (I know what we already know about Christian’s saying it and how Jack
has decided to take it, but I’ll level with you: in 2004, if I’d been in Jack’s
situation and I’d heard Ben say that the next words out of my mouth would have
been: “Who’d they beat? The Cubs?”)
In her book Stafford tried to argue that
Jack’s reaction to seeing the final out of the World Series was someone who can
not accept his world view anymore. I
didn’t buy that at the time, and indeed Jack’s view wouldn’t start to change
significantly for more than a season. I think that Jack’s reaction was that of
the rational man he is. He’s the prisoner of the Others, the people who he’s
spent the last month trying to protect his people from. For the last two
months, he’s been arguing essentially that this is where they have to survive
and hasn’t really put up much of an
effort for rescue. He truly believes this is where he will spend the rest of
the life. Now for the first time, he gets a real sense that home is just on the
other side of that glass. He knows that the man now offering it to him spent
weeks lying to him and is the leader of
a force that has done everything to keep them on the island. He knows he
can’t trust a word Ben Linus says. But
he wants to go back home. He knows this devil is going to offer him a deal. The
question is, what will it be, can Jack do it, and, most importantly, will Ben keep his promise?
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