It's been a month according to Sawyer, so I'm saying this is Day 31 on the Island. We know 19 out of the 45 people alive on the Island, and this episode was perfect.
So it finally happened. I finally found an episode I consider giving a 10 out of 10, although I won't and you'll see why when I get there. There are like fifteen ways I can begin talking about this episode, so I'll just start by saying that of all the characters to be the star of my favorite episode of the series so far, Jin would not have been any of my first five guesses.
For starters, I realize now that the last episode of Sun and Jin was actually Sun's story, while this was Jin's story, and Jin's story is drastically different. Sun's story was about the romance between these two characters, and while I enjoyed seeing it, there were a few cliches to be found. I expected this episode to be much of the same, but instead I discovered that Jin's story isn't a romance at all. It's a father/son story. It took me thirty six minutes to realize this, even though I take notes during the episode, and did in fact catch the reference to his father and even predicted that his father was still alive. I still didn't understand that it was a father/son story, and that realization was an awesome twist. I say twist only because I didn't predict it, but because this turned the entire theme of the story on its head, I should use a different word. Maybe shake up? I don't know, but I loved it.
I started crying in this episode when Jin broke down after his realization that Sun's father was a monster. I loved seeing the other side of these scenes, because In Sun's story Jin was being corrupted by Sun's father until he became a hardened criminal, but there was still a glimmer of his old self remaining. In Jin's story, we discover that Jin never truly became that hardened criminal, he fought to protect the life of the man Sun's father sent him to kill. He allowed Sun to grow to hate him because he couldn't bring himself to tell Sun the truth about her father.
I'm still not sure I understand Jin not wanting Sun to wear her bathing suit in public. I guess he's a conservative guy regardless, but I love that the writers sort of hung a lantern on how played out Jin's freak out was. The camp sees Jin going off on Sun, and they're just like, "well there he goes again." It's similar to the way they react to seeing Michael yell at Walt. They don't agree with what is going on, but they don't interfere, because it's not their place. The situation they're in has broken down the private sphere, so all these intimate arguments and moments are made public. I would actually like the writers to delve further into this, and maybe have the characters talk more about whether to interfere in situations like this, but maybe that would turn out to be ham fisted, so it's better that they don't.
Then Michael gets involved, and the personal hatred between the two men escalates once again. Much like Jack and Sawyer, Jin and Michael don't get along, but they're in a situation where they are forced to see each other and be around one another. On top of that, there's a minor love triangle between Michael, Sun, and Jin; at least a perceived one. Naturally it appears that everyone sort of sides with Michael; I think it's mostly because of the past incident of Jin going off on Michael with no warning, but I think the tension underlying all of this is that no one can understand Jin, and so no one can really feel comfortable trusting him.
Kate's interaction with Sun was a touch cliche, but I like that it lead to Sun finally revealing to everyone that she can speak English. I love how hurt his reaction was. I had teared up already, but this started to lead to something deeper, but I'll get to that later.
Michael's raft is an interesting plot point. I'm glad that they made it reasonable, and limited the number of people it could carry to four. I like that Sawyer bought his way on by contributing supplies to the effort, and it gave him a motive to beat on Jin later, but I'm curious if Michael and Walt are actually good people to be on the vessel. I mean, I know they built it, but if the goal is to put together the best team, I wouldn't include the useless boy and his dog. Michael built the ship, but does he know how to sail? I just assume that the plan would be to assemble the best team to sail for help, and then come back and rescue everyone else. Am I wrong? Are the four people just going to abandon everyone? Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway. The boat burned up, and of course everyone is going to blame Jin.
I never for one moment thought Jin was the man who started the fire. As soon as I saw the burn marks I was like "oh, he must have been trying to put out the fire." So, kudos to me.
Like I said, I take notes when I'm watching, and I wrote down "did Locke start the fire?" Kudos to the writers for clueing me in that Locke was in the know, and yet not actually have him be the culprit. I know that Locke likes it on the Island, but I'm really glad that he's not sabotaging the others' efforts to get off.
I teared up seeing Sun stand up for Jin. It hurt seeing him in pain, and it felt good watching her explain herself in English, and feel him somehow understand. Then I started bawling during Jin's scene with his father. It was not what I expected. I thought there would be some tension between them. Instead it was perfect. He understood his son's problems, and he responded with good advice and love. It was beautiful. I was completely sobbing when Jin's father just told him to take Sun to America and be happy. It was such good advice, and it came from a place of love.
That made it hurt so much more.
When Jin told Sun it was too late, and began to walk away, I decided that I would give this episode a 10 out of 10. It was the perfect ending. Then I saw there was still six minutes left, and I got worried that somehow the episode would shoot itself in the foot. Instead, it found a way to improve on perfection.
Shannon and Sayid kissed! I loved seeing these two flirt. It was awkward and hilarious, and wonderful. Then Boone came and tried to ruin it, and I worried that Sayid would fall for his shit. Then Locke basically told Shannon to screw Boone, and I loved it. They kissed and it was wonderful, and yet I actually preferred their late scene where he is brushing her hair. It was even more wonderful.
Walt set the fire! I loved this twist, because I saw it coming like twenty seconds before it happened. All the pieces were there, and then it just clicked, and I was like this is awesome!
It still doesn't take away from what Locke said about there being others. Everything he said was true, even if he was lying.
Jin joins Michael in building the "boat"! That was thirty seconds of gold. I was crying and punching my fist in excitement all at the same time. Screw love triangles, I want these two to become friends.
Hurley listens to his walkman to start the montage. By the way, I totally saw him on TV in the flashback. What the hell?
Sun gets to be free in her bathing suit!
Shannon and Sayid!
Claire and Charlie are cute!
Hahahahaha! The walkman cuts out, and it was freaking perfect. Bonus point!
Rating: 11 out of 10 burning rafts.
That's why it wasn't a 10, because it was an 11. I loved this episode. It made me cry, and then it made me laugh. Hard. That's perfection. That's what every episode of television tries to do, but only rarely succeeds. I wondered what it would take for an episode to be perfect, and even though I acted like I didn't know, I suspected it would be some amazing plot twist or an unexpected character death. This wasn't what made this episode amazing, although it did have a twist or two depending on how you count them, but rather it was because of great character moments.
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