LOST Revisited: 6-10 “The Package”
Over in Timeline X, airport security is releasing Jin. He can have the watch back, but not the money. That’s been confiscated. By the way, they don’t come right out and say whether Sun X can speak English, but there are a couple of points where it seems clear that she can. At the hotel, we find out that they aren’t married. Well, that’s why Sun X used her maiden name in the season premiere. You know, they didn’t meet Jacob until after they exchanged vows at their wedding, so this is another case where Timeline X has changes that aren’t explainable by the absence of Jacob.
On the Island, the Lockelganger has to step out and leaves Sayid in charge. Sayid is truly spooky when he admits that he doesn’t feel anything. It’s even worse when Look-a-Locke reassures him with “It’ll help you get through what’s coming.” Oh, it’s going to be bad.
Once Smokey leaves, Jin’s ready to go, too. He’s going to scour the Island and seek out Sun. And then Widmore’s people shoot everybody in the group with tranquilizer darts. They’re specifically interested in Jin, and they bring him back with them.
On the beach, Miles and Frank are playing cards – I can’t tell what game they’re playing, but I like to think it’s Gin. Benry is pretty sure that Richard isn’t coming back, but Ilana has faith – Jacob has never lied to her before. Just how often did she and Jacob speak? I kind of feel like his appearance at the hospital wasn’t their first meeting – there was a sort of familiarity there. Sun’s angry and stressed out, so she goes back to the remains of her garden. Jack tells her about the Lighthouse and the mirrors, and once again we have Jack talking a lot like Locke used to. He’s definitely a believer now.
In Timeline X, Jin talks about going to “the restaurant”, and we already know that isn’t going to end well. They argue, and then Sun undoes a button. Yeah, no matter what Timeline we’re in, the 2004-era Jin doesn’t allow that kind of thing. Only here it starts as an argument and turns into seduction. You know what? It is great to see these two together, even if they aren’t our Sun and Jin.
Back in our timeline, Look-a-Locke appears to Sun. He offers to reunite her with Jin, and she has the obvious questions about why he killed all those people at the Temple. His answer is that “Those people were confused. They were lied to.” Yeah, “dead” is way better than “confused”. He also says that he won’t force Sun to do anything. Sun takes the smart move and runs, but she makes the mistake of looking back once too often and smacks a tree. See? When you’re running from somebody, don’t keep checking your lead. Keep making forward progress so you don’t run into the only tree in a 50-yard radius.
In Timeline X, Jin and Sun bask in their post-coital glow. Sun suggests that they run away together and get away from her father – she has some money saved up, and they can just disappear. Jin doesn’t take this very well, thinking that she’s been deceiving him all along. Then there’s a knock at the door, so Jin hides. For just a second, I thought this was going to turn into a wacky bedroom farce. That would be a weird genre shift right at the end here, wouldn’t it? Instead, it’s Keamy at the door. Guess what? He’s going to be totally creepy this week!
On the Island, Benry finds Sun. Yep, she knocked herself out and Smokey just left her behind. It looks like he can’t force anybody to follow him or take anybody against their will. He always has to give people the choice to follow or not. Sure, he’s likely to kill them if they decline, but it’s totally their choice. When Sun wakes up, she’s speaking in Korean. Know who doesn’t speak Korean? Benry!
When Look-a-Locke returns to his camp, there’s certainly a lot of white smoke around, right? I think that’s interesting. Smokey finds Sayid and wakes him up, but Sayid doesn’t know where Jin is. Boy, everybody’s all into Jin today! Sawyer and Kate feel all left out, I bet. Sayid? He doesn’t feel anything.
Jin wakes up in a place we’ve seen before. It’s Room 23 (Jack’s number), and it’s in the Hydra Station. We saw it when Karl was being brainwashed there, but Walt also spent time there when the Others locked him up. Jin accidentally turns on the brainwashing video, and it looks like the same thing we saw in Season Three. Finally, Island Tina Fey comes in. She explains to Jin that the room was formerly used for research into subliminal images. Jin tries to walk out, but she tasers him.
Island Tina Fey shows Jin some maps that detail the locations of pockets of electromagnetic energy. Those were maps that Jin signed off on back when he worked for Dharma, and ITF (which is short for Island Tina Fey) has some questions about them. Jin refuses to talk until he gets to see Widmore.
Look-a-Locke prepares Sayid for a mission. You know, any time somebody uses that outrigger, I get a little nervous. Remember back when the Lostaways were jumping through time? They used one of those outriggers and somebody in another outrigger opened fire at them. Sawyer shot back and seemingly killed the shooter. So whenever somebody gets in that boat, there’s a chance they’re going to run into some time-jumping Lostaways and get killed. Anyway, Claire talks to Look-a-Locke about the names on the wall. Since her name isn’t on there, she thinks she’s expendable. Smokey assures her that she’s still going to leave with them. She’s worried that Aaron won’t know her when she gets back, and then asks if Kate’s name is on the wall. He answers “Not anymore”.
OK, we didn’t see Kate’s name in the cave, but it was on the wheel in the Lighthouse and it wasn’t crossed out. His answer indicates that it is somewhere in the cave and it’s been crossed out. I guess that means the list in the cave is more current than the one in the Lighthouse. Interesting. Still, he needs Kate to bring in the last three people he needs to leave the Island. But once that’s done, “Whatever happens… happens”. So he’s pretty much given Claire the green light to kill her once they’ve rounded up the Candidates. Also, it brings to mind Faraday explaining last season that “Whatever happened happened.”
When Sawyer confronts him about whatever Sayid’s up to and why he doesn’t just turn to smoke and hop over to Hydra Island. Look-a-Locke says that he can’t do that. Yeah, I guess we’ve only seen him travel between islands using Locke’s body. This seems like a minor point, but if he can’t jump over to Hydra Island without a physical body, that means the Christian Shephard who appeared to Michael on the freighter wasn’t Smokey. And that then puts all of Christian’s other appearances into doubt, too.
Sun X gives Keamy the watch, but he’s more interested in the money. Sun is busy pretending she can’t understand him. Also, as spunkybuddy Sara points out, Keamy does not really move his lips when he talks. It’s really creepy. Keamy’s buddy Omar shows up at the hotel room, and I forgot to mention last time he appeared that he was one of the freighter mercenaries in our Timeline. They find Jin hiding in the bathroom, and this is sort of where Sun slips up a little by indicating to Jin that they want money. Sun and Jin keep telling Keamy that they don’t speak English, and then Keamy remembers that he knows somebody who does – Mikhail. Yep, that would be Mikhail the one-eyed Russian from the Flame Station. Yay! I’m excited because I have a personalized autographed photo of him, and he wrote “Keep an eye out for Benry”, which tickles me to no end. Also, Keamy calls him “Danny’s friend”. Could that be Danny Faraday?
Turns out, Mikhail X still has both eyes. For now. Sun explains that the money was taken by Customs, but she has money in the bank. They agree that Mikhail will take Sun to the bank, while Keamy takes Jin to the restaurant. Jin asks only that he doesn’t tell Sun’s father that the two of them are in a relationship, and Keamy tells him not to worry about it. Yeah, we’ll see about that.
On the Island, Sun seems to be suffering from aphasia. This is actually a real thing, where a head injury can impair your language abilities. It’s unlikely, of course, which Miles points out and then Frank reminds us that a guy who talks to the dead isn’t buying a plot twist. Hee. Nice work, show! Or, it could be that Look-a-Locke did something to her – if she loses her English, she might be easier for him to convince next time. And thematically, it returns her to Season One mode, where she can understand what everybody’s saying, but for one reason or another, she can’t make herself understood. Then, Richard and Hurley arrive back at the beach, and Richard announces that they’re leaving. Batmanuel is running the show!
Over at Hydra Island, the Lockelganger approaches the pylons but does not pass them. Widmore comes out to meet him. Smokey asks for Jin, and Widmore claims he doesn’t have him and doesn’t even know who that is. He reminds Widmore that “a wise man once said that war is coming to this Island. I think it just got here.” Oh, snap. Also, that was something Widmore said to real Locke – apparently Smokey does have some of his memories. Can you be all bad if Locke’s running around in your head? And you know, I don’t think Widmore really intended to be part of that war. I could be wrong, but I think he was just going to let that play out.
Richard tells the assembled Lostaways that they’re going to Hydra Island to destroy Flight 316. Everybody on this show is more confident than I am that they’ll actually be able to use that plane. Sun yells at him in Korean – she wants no part of destroying their only way off the Island. She’s not there to save the world – she’s there to find her husband.
At Bank X, Mikhail and Sun find out that her account is closed, and it was her own father that closed it. Meanwhile, Keamy and Omar tie up Jin in the storage room of the restaurant. There’s some dialogue I can’t make out, and I know I’m not crazy because the aforementioned Sara heard it too. Keamy’s talking as he tapes up Jin, and he says “I’m gonna strap you in here, just in case you figure out what’s about to happen…” and I swear he says “on the Island”. If anybody has closed captioning and can confirm or refute it, let me know. I’ve listened to it so often that it’s turning into a subliminal message. I think I might be in the Dharma Initiative now.
That aside, it turns out that Mr. Paik knows about Sun and Jin, and the $25,000 was Keamy’s payment for killing Jin. Huh. Now, I assume that this only applies to Jin X – Mr. Paik eventually approved of their marriage, so I don’t think he was leading Jin into a trap in our timeline. And in our timeline, Jin pretty much just got involved in Paik’s business because of his relationship with Sun. Once again, more changes you can’t ascribe to Jughead. But it does seem like Keamy is in a bad position – is he just going to kill Jin for free now? Because that is not good business. Anyway, he also says that “some people just aren’t meant to be together”. That is not what we want to hear when our Jin and Sun are struggling to find one another.
Widmore heads to room 23 to meet Jin – he’s mad that Island Tina Fey screwed up the timetable by bringing him so early. What exactly is he up to? Widmore decides to muddle through and asks ITF to take “The Package” from the sub to the infirmary. Alone with Jin, Widmore gives him Sun’s digital camera that they recovered from 316. Jin sees the pictures, and it’s the first time he’s ever seen little Ji Yeon. Oh, man. They’re killing me here. Also, I’m happy to see that Sun still has her dog. Widmore explains that he knows what it’s like to be kept apart from a daughter, but doesn’t mention that in his case, it’s because he’s mean and emotionally withholding. He further says that if Smokey gets off the Island, then Sun and Ji Yeon and everybody they care about “will cease to be”. I’m not certain, but I think that’s the same phrasing Dogen used earlier in the season. Ceasing to be is not necessarily the same thing as dying, and it’s worth noting that they both said it the same way. Repeated dialogue is kind of a big thing this season. Widmore offers to show him “the package”, which makes me giggle. Turns out, the package is a person.
Jin X is in the storage room when Sayid opens fire. We see Sayid find him, but we see how the scene ends now. Sayid X doesn’t know if he can trust Jin, so he gives him a blade to cut his bonds on his own. Sayid is not sticking around one second longer than he has to. Shortly thereafter, Mikhail brings Sun to the restaurant, and alarmingly, it turns out that Keamy survived the shootout. You know, in our timeline, he survived a smoke attack before Benry finally took him out. Doesn’t matter where you go, Keamy is hard to kill. Sun sneaks up on Mikhail and puts a gun to his head. Mikhail knows Jin didn’t do this, so he knocks the gun away and tries to fight. In the scuffle, he gets a couple of shots off, but Jin ends up with the gun and shoots Mikhail dead (Supposedly. He’s another guy who’s hard to kill.) One of the shots blows out his right eye, the same eye ol’ Patchy was missing in our timeline.
And now it gets bad because one of the wild shots hit Sun in the stomach, and she reveals that she’s pregnant as she bleeds out. Oh, this is going to be rough. Also, a couple of things to note. In our timeline, Sun actually got pregnant on the Island. Also, our Jin was infertile until he got to the Island. So either Jin X isn’t the father, or else his plumbing works better in Timeline X. Guess what? Can’t explain that one with Jughead. Timeline X, what is your deal?
On the beach, Jack sits down with Sun and gives her a pad so that she can write. She can still write English, so they can have a conversation. He also brings her a surviving tomato from her garden. Jack promises Sun that he will help her find Jin, and they’ll all leave the Island, and Sun puts her faith in him. Jack is a lot more positive ever since he smashed up the Lighthouse.
Kate and Sawyer have some imaginary cocoa. Sawyer’s sure that Widmore took out Look-a-Locke, and their problems are solved. And then he comes back. Sawyer asks what happened to Sayid. Well, he’s on a mission. Smokey doesn’t like secrets, which means he is on the wrong show, so he sent Sayid to find out what was behind the locked door in the sub. And then we cut to Sayid, who’s swimming out to the sub. His job of investigating the locked door is easier when he sees Island Tina Fey and Seamus bringing out the package – Desmond! Yep, Spectacularry called it!
OK, what’s Widmore doing with Desmond? This isn’t going to be good. I’m glad to see him back, but these aren’t the best circumstances.
There’s a lot to chew on over the next few days. I’ll document Jacob’s wardrobe, try to figure out what Keamy said, think about Desmond, and worry some more about the fact that somebody is going to get on a boat and get killed by time-jumping Lostaways. The weeks are getting longer and longer…
