It was and Sun and Jin’s turn to flash sideways on last night’s episode of LOST “The Package.” This time around the flash sideways answered – I think – a very old question: what was with that watch that Jin was supposed to be delivering? I say “I think” because the nature of these flash sideways things is still a little bit unclear. Since the present of the flash sideways is so radically different than merely what if they hadn’t crashed, it is really hard to say if an answer to an old question in the sideways world is even valid. For instance, in the sideways world Jin was breaking a code of gangster honor by boning the boss’s daughter, therefore the irony of the watch and cash delivery was that he was delivering himself to his own hitman. Ouch. In the crash universe, he is married to Sun. Albeit, both are intending to run away in one form or another, it seems the watch might have served the same purpose. Jin kept enough secrets on old man Paik having spent some time as his enforcer, and according to his conversation with Hawaiian shirt man it seems like delivering the watch was the last thing Jin would ever have to do – perhaps literally. But I digress.
What we really want to assess her is the ‘answer’ quality of last night’s episode. Being Sun and Jin centric, the episode did function on the strongest point of gravity between team MIB and team Jacob. Locke showed up and tried to convince Sun to come with him, and while he was gone Jin decided he was tired of playing camp with team Locke. Sun wound up bumping her head and losing her ability to speak English (echoing her sideways self, who hasn’t picked up that ability.), while Jin got kidnapped by Widmore’s folk.
The flash sideways again mirrored the island time line events, with Sun and Jin being abducted by Keamy's folks and the whole language barrier issue. In the sideways Sun is pregnant, and there is forbidden love, but it seems poppa Paik is none-too-happy about it; as stated above. Geek out character return of the week was Mikhail "Patchy," without the patch. He show's up to interpret, and as a bit of trivial the actor who plays Mikhail, Andrew Divoff, actyually does speak nine languages - but Korean is not one of them. In a kick ass moment of sideways mirroring 815 timeline, Mikhail took a bullet to the same eye he wears a patch over. I'm guessing he won't live to wear a patch in the sideways. The action lead up to the moment where Sayid found Jin, and aside from slipping him a box cutter to free himself Sayid wasn't of much assistance.
This was very old school LOST, very dramatic in the terms of the character arc but very slow moving in terms of the overarching story. Ultimately it kind of fizzled for me, but I wouldn’t begrudge a Sun or Jin fan for being in love with it. The best aspect of this episode was the reveal of what –er, who – was behind the door on the sub. It was, indeed, Desmond Hume. As for what his purpose is on the island, I’m going to go out on a limb here: I think that Desmond has the ability to cross over into the flash sideways realm and change something.
What? I have no idea – but I’m guessing that since a leopard doesn’t change its spots that regardless of what he says this whole scenario serves Widmore’s deep seated obsession to possess the island. Why Desmond? Because as Faraday told us Desmond is immune to the rules. When Faraday talked to Desmond at the Swan hatch, he somehow communicated with Desmond in the future. Desmond has soaked up so much of the Swan Station’s unique electromagnetic fluctuations that he can now literally surf through time.
The other big reveal was Alpert’s “well, duh” moment. Now he realizes what they have to do: it is what has been going on for all these years – they have to contain the man in black. Current plan: destroy the plane so that no one can leave the island. Sun is not down with this plan, but Jack is strangely non-committal. Why do I get the feeling Jack will soon be campaigning for protector of the island?
Another confusing exchange was the banter that ensued with John Locke and Charles Widmore faced off. Widmore regarded smoky as something of legend and myth. This suggests that the violent, ever present Smokey of our time is something new to the island – but still doesn’t explain why Widmore never noticed that huge fence surrounding Dharmaville. At any rate, the first Locke Widmore summit ended in complete failure as Locke declared war. Here we go folks, this just got real.
