Lost Episode 6.10: "The Package"

A pretty solid episode. I really thought tonight's show was going to be a disappointment after last week's great Richard-centric episode, but it wasn't. We learned a lot more, and right off the bat one of my Ten Lost Predictions (listed on the post below) was disproved. Shows what I know. Anyway, I liked it. But even as I write this, certain folks are texting me (Jay) and telling me that the episode sucked. I disagree. To me, it opened up some interesting theories. What I do agree sucked was the stupid "V" logo taking up the bottom right hand corner of the screen. THE ENTIRE TIME. Stupid Abc. I can only take comfort in the fact that they clearly have no idea how or why Lost is such a big hit and they will never be able to replicate it. Muhahahaha. Anyway, let's get into it, starting with the flash-sideways. WARNING: I did not proof this. Too tired. Must... sleep... sometime.

FLASH-SIDEWAYS TIME LINE:


"NO ENGLISH": We opened on Jin in the airport, receiving the bad news that the government was taking the $25,000 he was transporting to his mobster friends. Can the government do that? Well, it's almost April 15th, so I'm sure a lot of you out there are learning that they can, and indeed will. Sun & Jin could have filled out some paperwork to clear it all up, however, in this time-line it appears that Sun can't speak English. She wasn't learning English in this timeline, because she's wasn't planning to leave Jin. I have an interesting theory about Sun's language skills that I'll save for later in this post, but I will just say it has something to do with Sun losing her English on the Island as well as in the Flash-Sideways...


SUN EXPOSURE: Next, we learn that Sun & Jin aren't married in this time-line (which readers of my blog already knew, because she was called Ms. Paik by the airline employee in the season opener, and because she wasn't wearing a ring.) So they get separate rooms, but it doesn't take long before Jin comes knocking and then Sun starts unbuttoning things. What's up with the flash-sideways turning into Cinemax after hours? First Charlotte was a victim of the Lost After Dark treatment with her clichéd red dress and sultry pick up lines (c'mon, she should have been more of a nerd than that) and now Sun gets the saucy treatment. Oh, Lost, you could rise above. I will say this about Lost, though, you see a lot more naked dudes than ladies, overall. They're at the least fair and balanced in their desire for peeking.


SUN LOOKS IN THE MIRROR: We next find Sun & Jin together the morning after, and Jin has unwisely skipped his appointment with Keamy, forcing Keamy to come knocking on Sun's door. Before Sun answers it, though, she looks at herself in the mirror. Remember my post about the main character in each flash-sideways looking at themselves in the mirror? At least I'm right about that. It happened again here. She even seems to remember something. Now, I didn't notice Jin looking in the mirror this episode, so if I had to guess, I'd say Sun is the candidate Kwon based on the ol' mirror test. Also, I should point out that Sun gives herself a really strange look in the mirror, like she recognizes something's wrong. That keeps happening to people. I wonder where it's leading?


JIN IS TERRIBLE AT HIDING: Keamy & Omar come in Sun's room, looking for Jin. Omar comes in and searches the place, and finds Jin by opening the door to reveal him standing there in the doorway like a dude from the board game Mystery Date. Nice hiding, Kwon. Sun & Jin try to talk their way out of it, and Keamy makes a TERRIBLE joke about Godzilla movies, then tells Omar to fetch... Mikhail. Who we all know as Patchy, from the Flame station.


PATCHY WITHOUT THE PATCH: is way less cool looking. Man, eyepatches. Is there any thing they can't do? Patchy takes Sun to the bank, where they learn Sun's secret account is closed. Patchy is not that surprised, because he already knows that Paik knows about the couple. I guess Keamy was hoping that Sun would actually be able to get the money, and that's why he tied Jin up, to wait until she got back to the restaurant with it. I guess his plan after that was just to shoot Jin right after getting the money.


KEAMY'S EVIL PLANS: Keamy starts monologue-ing Jin by revealing his evil plans, which is fitting, since he's about to get killed by Sayid right afterward in true villain style. Apparently, Jin was carrying his own hit money with him right to his hit man. Man, that Paik guy is pretty cold. Keamy says, "The heart wants what the heart wants" which is interesting only because it sounds really familiar to me. Did someone else say that on the show before? Is it from The Notebook? I can't place it. He also says "Some people just aren't meant to be together", but I guess we'll have to wait and see about that.

SHOT IN THE EYE: Sayid shows up, kills a bunch of folks, then gives Jin a box opener. Mikhail shows up with Sun and finds Keamy dying on the ground. Keamy's last words are "Look behind you, you idiot," which seems fitting for his character. Jin is forced to shoot flash-sideways Mikhail in the eye. I'm assuming he's dead now. There's a lesson to learn here, MIkhail: No matter what, fate hates your eyeball.


WILL SUN DIE? I know it's a little late to be adding predictions to my last post of Lost predictions, but one that I honestly forgot to add which I had thought of a couple of days ago was "A MAIN CHARACTER WILL DIE IN THE FLASH-SIDEWAYS". I wish I had remembered to put it on the list, so you guys would think I was cool instead of lame for starting with the Widmore theory right out of the gate. Anyway, I think that will happen. I think Sun will die in this time-line, and therefore Sun & Jin will not have their baby. Meaning their only hope in keeping the baby alive is in the island time-line, where they have to destroy the plane, the catch-22 being that this is their only possible means of escape. I think in the end Jacob will still help them get home to their daughter, though, somehow.

Ok that's the end of the flash-sideways timeline. Let's get back to ISLAND TIME...


TERMINATOR CAM: We open on some night vision goggles creepily watching Kate and Sawyer drink "cocoa". Looks like Widmore wasn't going to wait around for Sawyer to do his dirty work for him. And, I'm guessing since they've been watching and listening to Sawyer they already know how he told Smokey everything that happened on the sub.


COMFORTABLY NUMB: After Locke tells a quickly healing Jin that he's off to find Sun, he stops by Sayid on the way out, and Sayid complains, "I don't feel anything." Creepy, and sad. Locke responds that perhaps that is better to help Sayid "get through what's coming." This fits in really well with a theory I heard on the Jay and Jack podcast. A caller there suggested that Smokey cannot kill a candidate – only other candidates can. Therefore, Smokey needs Sayid in order to use him as a hitman, to kill all of his old friends. Could be scary.


DARTS IN THE NECK: Jin tells Sawyer, wisely, that he's going to get out of there before "that thing" comes back. Unfortunately, he's shot in the neck by a dart, like everyone else is. I thought the use of darts by Widmore's team was interesting, because we saw The Others do that to the Losties back in Season 2, and Widmore used to be their leader. Maybe darts are an old school others method of attack. Anyway, the cast of 30 Rock show up with hi tech gear and drag Jin out of there. For those who like to have names of characters, the girl is Zoe (not Zooey as I wrote previously) and her doughy companion is Seamus.


BEN IS PUSHING IT WITH ILANA: Ben sure has adopted a sassy tone when addressing the lady who hours earlier was making him dig his own grave. Just an observation.


WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE: Sun gets angry that Ilana won't let her leave to find Jin, and runs off to find her old garden. Jack tries to console her, but Sun yells that she doesn't care about Jacob, candidates, Rick Warren or a Purpose-Driven Life. Right on cue, evil Locke shows up and starts talking his smooth-talkin' talk. Sun's not having it and dashes off through the woods, aiming for a tree from a mile off. And apparently, it was an Amnesia Tree, because she wakes up not remembering how to speak English. Now normally, I would cry foul at an amnesia storyline, and at first, I actually did yell my complaints at the screen. But, then a super-awesome theory hit me and I kind of liked it. Here goes...

MY AMNESIA THEORY: Ok, in the Flash Sideways, Sun can't speak English. AND, on the Island, she suddenly forgets how to speak English. On the island, when does this happen? AFTER she speaks to Smokey. Perhaps Smokey even touches her when she's unconscious, Jacob style. So here's my theory. I think that the Man in Black is from the Flash-Sideways time-line. It's his "home" that he keeps talking about returning to. In that time line, the island is underwater and he's free to enact his evil plan to wipe out the "guilty" human race by killing everyone. I think to prevent that catastrophe from happening, Smokey was somehow taken from that time-line and made a prisoner on the island, which was created to exist outside of regular time. (Using Frozen Donkey Wheel/Egyptian/Magnetism technology. You know.) Jacob is put there to guard him, and is trying to convince Smokey that people are good and shouldn't be killed. If this is true, the time-line from the first five seasons of Lost is the "good" time-line that Jacob wants to happen, and the flash sideways is bad, leading to the destruction of life as we know it. Think about what Widmore says to Jin later this episode. Jin is looking at picture of his daughter for the first time, and Widmore says if they don't stop the man in black, everyone Jin knows and loves will "simply cease to be". This is the first time anyone has used the phrase "cease to be." I think it means if the man in black escapes, he will eradicate the time line in which Jin's daughter exists, and the alternate reality will become the main one. And the alternate reality leads to the end of the world. Does that make sense? I think when Smokey got near Sun, someone from the alternate time-line and someone from the real time line got too close together and it had weird crossover effects, causing Sun to lose her English-speaking skills. What do you think?


ROOM 23 IS BACK: I thought it was cool to see good ol' brain-washing Room 23 again. Not sure why Dharma would build a brain-washing room, but it's interesting to note that if Dharma made the video playing in that room, than they may have known about Jacob, because the original video said "God loves you as he loved Jacob" in one section of it. Though it's possible that Ben made his own video to show in there when he took over Hydra Island with the Others. Also weird to think about now that we know Jacob's goals better: Why did the Purge happen? Why did the Others kill all of the Dharma Initiative if Jacob brought them there. I'm guessing because Ben wanted them dead? Maybe because Ben had been taking orders from Jacob's Cabin, which was possessed by the Man in Black? Weird.


DON'T TAZE ME, ZOE: Zoe comes in and tazes Jin, then asks him if he's the same Jin that signed the map of the islands pockets of electromagnetism. Cool to see another map of the island. I think the reason we were shown this is to remind us that Jin knows a lot about the island as a security guard. I think this is important because he would therefore know about any dormant volcanoes that may or may not come into play later this season. (See last post.)

"WE'RE TAKING THE OUTRIGGER": Meanwhile, back at Camp Evil, Smokey and Sayid head off on a mission to talk with Widmore, and they take an outrigger and a gun. I thought this was going to show us the scene from Season 5 where Juliet and Locke and Sawyer got shot at it from a distant outrigger, and that the shooter was going to be Sayid, but alas, it did not happen. Doesn't mean it didn't happen offscreen, though.


WHAT EVER HAPPENS TO KATE, HAPPENS: I thought it was creepy how Smokey basically told Claire that if she stuck around long enough to help him get off the island, then after they got on that plane, "whatever happens, happens." So he basically admitted he was using Kate and didn't care whether or not she lived or died. Also interesting to learn that Kate's name was on the wall, but then it was scratched off. Why was it scratched off? Because she didn't come back to the island for "Destiny" but because she came back to rescue Claire? I dunno.

"NO, CAUSE THAT'D BE RIDICULOUS" Sawyer got off a couple good zingers in this episode as he asked what I asked a couple of blog posts ago... why does Locke need a boat if he's made out of smoke. Locke says that he can't get to that island otherwise, and Sawyer quips, "No, 'cause that'd be ridiculous." The writers are really beating a lot of fans to the punch this episode. The same thing happened when Sun got amnesia, and Miles quickly commented on the ridiculousness of the situation.

RICHARD IS BACK IN ACTION: I love that Richard is back and instantly has a plan. Which I assume is: blow up the plane. Cool. Sun doesn't think so and freaks out again.


LOCKE VS. WIDMORE: It was nice to see Locke and Widmore chatting outside the sonic fence. Locke asks if he knows who he is, and Widmore responds, "I've heard myths, ghost stories, and jungle noises in the night." Which is a cool line. Locke is mad that Widmore stole Jin, and Locke throws Widmore's line back at him that "War is coming to the island." So, like I mentioned before, it looks like I was wrong about my Widmore theory, and that Widmore is a good guy. If so, then I think he was keeping Desmond and Penny apart on purpose, so he could get Desmond on a boat to go to the island. Because Desmond is important to stopping the "bad" time-line from happening, because he is able to cross between them and change things in time. I think Widmore was dead-set on removing Ben from the island because he knew that Ben had been corrupted by the Man in Black, who was disguising himself as Jacob inside the cabin. I don't think he told Keamy to kill his daughter. Or maybe he did, we know he wanted Ben to kill Alex as a baby, so maybe Widmore's kind of an EXTREME follower of Jacob who's a little too zealous but means well? I don't know, I guess the jury's still a little out on Widmore being totally good, but he's at least on the right side, like Ben is now as well. My wife would like me to point out that she's always thought Widmore was good, at least since last season.

"COLONEL, YOU'RE ON A ROLL." This wasn't a line from Lost, but it was a line from a KFC commercial that played during it which I thought was hilariously awful. Get it, 'cause the sandwich is on a Hawaiian roll. My apologies if I know you and you wrote that ad.


ZOE IS A GEOPHYSICIST: I only think this is interesting because there's a volcano on the island, as I keep mentioning. Both volcanoes and electromagnetism are mentioned on this Wikipedia entry for Geophysics. What does Widmore want her to do?


SUN IS A STUBBORN TOMATO: Okay, Jack pulling out the tomato was kind of lame. But, I do think Jack's line about "No one told it that it was supposed to die" was DEFINITELY the writers making an allusion to Sun herself. Because, as I mentioned before, I think we're going to see that she dies in the Flash-Sideways. I like the new self-confident Jack, he's a much better character this way. He even reminds me of Jacob in his calm coolness. Right after this scene my DVR died, and my heart almost went with it. Luckily, my DVR is not smart enough to remember that V is a terrible show, and it still recorded it. So oddly, that V counter in the bottom right actually helped me remember that I could switch to V to watch the end of Lost. And the V counter even showed me how many seconds of the show I missed... :06. Guess that V thing wasn't so bad, after all. But don't ever do it again, ABC.


THE PACKAGE IS A WHO: So, Widmore tells Jin that he's got a package on board, but it's a who, not a what. I immediately complained, "So if it's a who, why did you call it A PACKAGE?!" To which my wife responded "Some ladies would agree that Desmond IS the total package." Touche. So it IS Desmond after all. And Desmond must have been really confused to see Sayid poking out of the water near the dock. Things are going to get interesting next week.

THE PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK: Clearly, the next episode is going to be Desmond centric. The bagpipes alone told us that. The first shot looked to me like it was a shot of ruins in Scotland. After that we got a lot of old footage cut together in order to tell us nothing about what we're going to see next week. There was a shot of the Oceanic Six, a shot of Sawyer in the rain, and a shot of the freighter sinking in the water from Season 4. The supers make the word poem: "DREAMS LOST, LIVES LOST, LOVE LOST" and then Desmond's face is shown waking up as Widmore says, "I'm going to ask you to make a sacrifice. The island isn't done with you yet." Yikes. Sounds like it's gonna be an episode that will have me up typing all night.

Thoughts? Did I miss anything cool? Did you like it? Hate it? Love it? Only 7 episodes left...