The dream of a happy ending for Jin and Sun died in me last night. Maybe it was the dispiriting experience of watching Sun's systematic deconstruction across two different worlds in a story in which it seemed the God of all possible worlds had declared war on her. On the Island, she lost her voice — the consequence of dark magic that stripped away her English. In the Sideways reality, she was brought to the brink of losing her very life, plus the life of her unborn child, and was left to dangle there, her fate to be determined another time, in someone else's story. Maybe it was the discouraging experience of watching Jin get so easily jerked around by some very powerful, very charismatic villains who could cloud his mind by playing to his heart. On the Island, it was Charles Widmore, promising him reunion with his family and deliverance from evil. In the Sideways reality, it was Martin Keamy, who mocked his romantic ideals to his face and managed to get him to say ''thank you'' for doing so. But mostly, my despair comes from not knowing how the hell to parse the parable of the tomato, the lone living vegetable from Sun's ravaged Island garden. Is it a symbol of stubborn hope? Or is it just a symbol of stubbornness? Is it a symbol of valentine red love? Or is it a symbol of blinding red rage? Do Jin and Sun need to learn to hold on to their dreams at all cost — or do they need to learn to let go lest those dreams damn their individual souls? Damn inscrutable tomato! Thou doest vex me!
This is all to say that for anyone who came to ''The Package'' to see the long-awaited reunion of Lost's long-separated husband and wife, it didn't happen. What ''The Package'' gave us instead was a Pandora's Box packed with paranoia, suspicion, squabbling and discord, plus a fiendish father figure or two. Or three. It was also an episode that communed ironically with one of my favorite season 1 outings, the Jin/Sun gem ''... In Translation.'' I enjoyed the episode's scope and energy. For the first time since the premiere, every single character was represented and all the major storylines were nurtured. ''The Package'' may not have advanced the plot of season 6 enough for some people, but it was plenty riveting for me. And it left me filled with dread that some seriously nasty heartbreaking big-time s--- is about to hit the fan. And hey! Desmond's back! Just in time for things to all go to hell, too...
The Sideways World
To Live and Die in L.A.
Jin-Soo Kwon. Peasant son of a poor fisherman and prostitute, ashamed of his poverty and his heritage. He dreamed of owning a hotel and restaurant. Instead, he fell in love with a criminal industrialist's daughter and became one of his goons to prove himself a worthy son-in-law. When he realized the cost of violence to his soul, Jin sought out his real father and begged forgiveness for rejecting him. His father, who had never stopped loving him, gave Jin some advice. Save your marriage. Take your wife and run away and start over in a new world. Jin resolved to do just that — right after he delivered two watches for Mr. Paik. One needed to go to Sydney, the other one needed to go to Los Angeles...
NEXT: Scrambling the Jin/Sun story
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