Lost---The Glass Ballerina
With all of the internet abuzz about whether or not the breakouts from two seasons ago can recover from their second season slumps (hello! Desmond is introduced, the hatch blows up, Jack got divorced, The Tailies were on the other end of the radio, Mr. Eko has a giant Jesus stick, and there was a station observing The Swan whose observations were sent to a valley in the middle of nowhere! That's a slump to you??? Well fine then! Michael's gonna shoot Ana Lucia AND Libby. AND GET OFF THE ISLAND!), I am constantly reminded why I love Lost. Beyond the mystery, beyond the gasps and edge of my seat "What the hell just happened?" moments, beyond the allusions that make this English major foam at the mouth, Lost is a stunning study in character portrayal and advancement. The Glass Ballerina provides us with one such example.
Remember when Sun was a sweet innocent woman who gardened in her spare time and got screamed at by her overbearing, jealous husband the rest of the time. Remember when we relished in the shedding of her fear and Jin's power over her as she let the scarf covering her overprotected body blow beautifully away from her in one of the most touching scenes in my personal television history? Well, turns out she already let that scarf blow away from her in a different metaphor. That's right, Sun's a ho. Hooooo! Sun's a hooooo. Hoooo! Sun's a hoooo. I said that Sun's a hooo. Heavily alluded to last season, we see her in bed with Mr. I ran away to marry an American girl. He tries to give her a pearl necklace, she refuses, Daddy knocks on the door and finds his little girl in bed with another man.
This is what's interesting to me. Mr. Paik would have loved Sun to marry this man, in fact, they met because their parents set them up on a date together. So why so blue Panda Bear? The short scene from Sun's childhood provides us with clues. When Sun was a child she broke a Glass Ballerina. When her father came into her piano room with the glass shards he practically begged her to fess up. What did she do? Blamed it on the maid AFTER her father told her that she would be fired if Sun accused her of the valdalization. Sun's actions then, selfishly destroying things while refusing to take any of the blame become a trend. Mr. Paik tells Sun (at homeboy's funeral---Jin didn't have the stomach to kill him, but at least Baldy was shameful enough to throw himself overboard...or was he???) that it isn't his place to tell Jin.
So, Sun, who we thought was a sweet delicate flower, is a selfish and philandering wife and daughter. Jin, who we thought was overbearing and mean is a dedicated and spurned husband, and Mr. Paik, the guy who orders hits on people and wouldn't let Sun marry Jin because of his family's history as fishmen, values honor over individual advancement. Whoa. Hey.
On a side note: Daddy's got a Glass Eye. So does Marvin Candle. As well as a fake arm. On the same side. And who's glass eye was in the arrow station?
Elsewhere on the island Sawyer and Kate are workin on the railroad and Alex is hiding around in bushes. My hypothesis that Alex and kid in the cage are together or siblings (Rousseau never mentioned a second kid...genetic experiments maybe?) may be right. Why are the Others stealing Alexes clothes to give to Kate? Does this mean that she has jumped ship? Did she get in trouble for helping Claire escape? Will she find the Losties and infiltrate because of her prior relationship with Claire? If so, is she a plant?
It is good to know that Sawyer thinks that he can take out the Others physically, Sayid, Eko and Jack on your side can't hurt, but dude...they've got a ridiculously stocked armory.
The relationships between Ben (Henry Gale), Juliette, Big Guy, and Colleen (who I am officially on the record as hating) are starting to be fleshed out. I think that Juliette and Ben used to be together. And that maybe Colleen wants a piece of that uber-creey action? Did Colleen call big dude Dad? If so...how is Mr. Friendly related to all of this? Maybe he's Big Guy Dad's lover. I knoooow he doesn't like the ladies.
We finally get back to Sayid, Jin and Sun floating around in the ocean. Sun is getting sick from the baby(now we're wondering, who's baby is it? See? Lost even has a little bit of Maury Povich. And I love me some Maury), and Sayid is docking them at the place where the four were held with guns to their heads. He wants to drawn the Others to them and Jin apparently understands the English that she is trying to hide from him. Do I remember correctly that she said in English once that she was going to leave him? Does this mean that he understood that? Also, do we think that he ultimately found out about Sun's affair and that this is the betrayal that he is referring to? Either way, the boys camp out in trees and Sun is left of the boat to keep safe. Too bad the others already know about the boat and have been sent to retreive it by Ben. They come out of nowhere (where is their boat? What are there, like 8 of them?) and inflitrate the boat. Colleen comes down first, encountering Sun with a gun. She tells her that she knows her, calls her by her full name and is generally creepy and manish. She says that Sun won't shoot her, that if she does that they will quickly become the bad guys (if they aren't the bad guys right now, then who is? Does this imply another group of people?)...so, Sun shoots her. See Man Lady? Sun's the one with the balls. Sun narrowly escapes gunfire from Mr. Friendly and jumps into the water to be saved by Jin. After all, he's got Baldy's baby to think about.
Creepster Ben talks to Jack and reveals the date. Fanboys and girls commence drooling. The Red Sox won the series. Does this ploy have to be used in every "we don't know what happened during that year" movie or T.V. Show? Ben wheels in a T.V. and shows Jack the series clincher over the Cards. He suggests that if Jack does something then he can go home, like Walt and Michael. How does one get off of the island? The news of the boat didn't seem to stun Juliette (I think that she's a robot by the way...and does anyone else think that maybe she is a botched replica of Desmond's GF?). All that's gonna happen, apparently is that they'll go around in circles. In any occasion, Jack is not going to take any deal. He has nothing to go back to anyway. At least here Kate is 50% in love with him (and she tastes like strawberries after a delicious breakfast with McCreepy). The most interesting information of the night comes in this scene. McCreepy tells Jack that he has been on this island all of his life. How old is he? 40? 45? The film in the Swan Station said that the DeGroots started the Dharma project in the late 70's and the copyright on the film was the early 80's. This would mean that Ben's presense on the island would predate the Dharma Initiative's presense on the island. Iiiiiiiinnnneresting. Who then, does he have contact with from the outside world? Two groups of people would explain the disparity of conditions in infratructures (the peaceful village and the run down stations). If these people are not the Dharma Initiative...who are they? And why are they still on this island if they can get off?
Other questions:
Where are those freaking kids that they stole? Who were the people that they were using for manual labor and what were they clearing the land for? How psyched am I to see Locke and Hurley again next week? Who's Sun's babydaddy and will they take the baby? Who's taking care of Vincent? Did McCreepy's people make the foot? Who is the girl the Baldy married?
Until next time remember: Juliette never made soup for McCreepy.