"Lost" Diary: The Glass Ballerina
Welcome back to week two of the "Lost" diary, I am your "Lost" tour guide Daniel. With last week's mildly disappointing (to me at least) premiere behind us, gotta say I am pretty psyched for this week's episode to see what some of our other castaways are up to.
Going back to last week for a second, I got a few comments about my remark that I threw up after Jack asked about his ex-wife at the end of the episode. Look, I get choked up by television more times than I care to admit, and "Lost" has certainly done it to me from time to time, but last week's attempt at drawing out emotion was just silly.
Let's look at the situation: you survive a plane crash and spend the next two months being terrorized by "monsters" and a gang of island inhabitants known as the Others. Then they kidnap you and your friends and drug you. One of them shows you a file with everything you have ever done in your life in it and asks you if you want to know anything ... and you ask if your ex is happy? Are you kidding me? How about, "Hey, what's with the crazy black smoke monster?" Or maybe, "Um, what did you do with the children you kidnapped?" It's just bad TV, plain and simple.
As always, I watch "Lost" with a group of friends and keep track of what happens. Tonight I am joined by Ari, Lauren, Matt, April, Dana and Jason. On with the show ...
9:00 -- It's Sun flashback time -- or should I say Lil' Sun flashback time. The title of the episode isn't too hard to figure out this time, as Lil' Sun broke a glass ballerina and blamed it on the maid.
9:04 -- Jack is still on lockdown in the aquarium and he's not in a very talkative mood. Juliet went back to see Henry Gale (who I officially refuse to call Ben) and he is watching Jack (and some other areas of the island) on a string of monitors. They are interrupted by another Other (the fantastic Paula Malcomson from "Deadwood") with news that "the Iraqi" has a sailboat. This has Henry Gale very worried, something we haven't seen before. "I want that boat," he tells Colleen. Something tells me what Henry Gale wants, Henry Gale gets.
9:08 -- Sawyer and Kate are being led somewhere by a gang of Others when they are interrupted by Colleen. Seems like she is rousing up a posse. Over on the boat, Sun apologizes to Jin...
9:10 -- But it seems like she has a lot more to apologize for. That two-timer! She was banging her English instructor. And she just got caught by her father. Serves her right. Is Jae the father of Jin's baby? Would explain a lot.
9:13 -- Sawyer and Kate are being led through more of the Others camp. They've been given jobs and Sawyer was introduced to the taser. From now on, I am calling Colleen's boyfriend Mr. Taser.
9:18 -- Sun's dad has just asked Jin to kill the man Sun has been sleeping with. Jin tried to say no, but you don't say no to Sun's dad. Also, I am now pretty sure I could write a movie that takes place in Korea -- just use the words "honor" and "shame" a lot.
9:19 -- The question I have for the remainder of this episode: Will Jin find out about Sun's affair? I'm going with yes.
9:20 -- Sayid plans on docking the boat at an "abandoned" dock ... but seeing as we saw last year's season finale, we know different. Then he promises Jin it's safe -- the kiss of death.
9:21 -- Alex, Rousseau's abducted daughter, sneaks up to talk to Kate and asks about Karl. "You're not even supposed to be in that cage?" Is there a different cage they are supposed to be in? Lauren is quietly chanting, "Make out, make out, make out." I've said it before: we all watch "Lost" for different reasons.
9:23 -- "That would be part of the lying you mentioned." -- Sayid. If I am ever kidnapped, I want Sayid to be the one to find me. Or Jeremy Sisto. But seeing as "Kidnapped" is getting the heave-ho, I'll take Sayid.
9:29 -- Pretty heated discussion I just read between Jin and Sun. The lesson, as always, don't marry the daughter of a Korean warlord if you aren't prepared to kill the guy he catches your wife in bed with.
9:31 -- Jin's caught on to what Sun and Sayid were planning, and he's pissed (shamed, maybe?) but he's down to help.
9:33 -- Is now a good time to ask what the Others are building/digging/trying to find? Actually it isn't, because Sawyer just kissed Kate in a way that made Lauren make a noise I have never heard her make before. After beating down a few Others, Sawyer drops the gun he picked up because Juliet has one pointed at Kate. I don't know what to make of Juliet just yet, but I am leaning towards bad girl at the moment.
9:36 -- Sayid and Jin are hiding in the forest. What they don't know is that the Others want the boat. Sun is on the boat, staying "safe." Let's see how this plays out...
9:37 -- For those of you that said "badly," you are correct.
9:40 -- Lauren has requested we re-watch the Sawyer/Kate kiss later. She describes the kiss as "very romantic. Hot, sweaty and dirty, but really romantic."
9:41 -- Jin begins "delivering the message" to Jae. I am guessing that somewhere in the pleading for his life, Jae apologizes for sleeping with Sun.
9:42 -- Nope, Jae got off easy.
9:43 -- Scratch that. No he didn't.
9:44 -- Colleen, staring down the barrel of Sun's gun, says the Others are not the enemy, but that if Sun shoots her, that is what they'll become. Does anyone else think that speech sounds a little like the Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars"? "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine." Anyone?
9:45 -- Bang, bang. Well, guess we'll find out. Sun's shooting draws cheers from the crowd.
9:46 -- Sun manages to escape from the boat and after a Korean version of Marco Polo we get -- what feels to me -- our 10th "Jin and Sun get reunited" moment.
9:50 -- Sun's dad says that Jae "must have felt great shame." See what I told you? This writing for Korean people is apparently very easy.
9:53 -- "You taste like fish biscuits" -- Kate. Great conversation here between the two, but one thing stands out and that's Sawyer's assessment of Juliet. I trust him on these matters so I am now strongly of the belief that Juliet is a bad, bad woman. Oh, and Henry Gale was listening the whole time.
10:00 -- The entire time the last five minutes of the episode was on, I just stared blankly at the screen, jaw wide open. Wow. Ok, where do I begin? Benjamin Linus, pleasure to meet you. What are the Others still doing on the island if they can leave? What does Henry want Jack to do "when the time comes"? Did Walt and Michael really go home?
Wow, ok, so what did we learn? Let's recap...
Henry Gale's real name is Benjamin Linus and he says he's been on the island his whole life ... He claims they can get off the island at any time ... Sawyer is always up to something ... Juliet is to be feared just as much, if not more than, Henry Gale ... The Others are on the island for a reason ... Sun isn't the good girl we thought she was.
Last week we learned the Others had contact with the outside world, via the file Juliet had on Jack. This week we learned either they have Fed Ex or TiVo because they had the World Series on TV for Jack to watch. Tons -- and I mean tons -- of new questions were posed this week, but they came as the result of great truths learned: The Others are here for a reason. What that reason is... I am dying to find out.
This episode was about a B for the first 55 minutes, but obviously it's an A+ for the last five.
Ok, I'm going to try something new this week to spawn some discussion. Let's call it the question of the week. This week's question: You read my take on Juliet, so what do you think -- good or bad? Sound off and I'll see you next week.