S1Ep17 - ... In Translation (Jin's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello once again my friends -

This episode was one of my favorites. I can't put my finger on it, but I loved it. And the funny thing is that "House of the Rising Sun," (Sun's flashback, early in the season) was one of my least favorite episodes.

On to "the issues":

1) The eye
SEVERAL episodes have started with a close-up on someone's eye, and this one did it again with Jin's eye. Maybe there will be some sort of significance to this later.

2) Sun's dad runs some sort of car company or car manufacturing company. I will bring that up again later...

3) When Sun slapped Michael and then came back to talk to him later, she said "I was protecting you from Jin, you don't know what he's capable of!"
After seeing the entire episode and seeing that, at least in what they showed us thus far, Jin did NOT actually kill anyone and seemed to be a good guy at heart, it makes me wonder if Sun thinks he IS a killer since she saw him with all the blood all over him.

4) Hurley being shown on Korean TV.
If right now you are saying to yourself, "What?" ... then there is just no hope for you. Two of you on this list (you know who you are) have already admitted to me that you did not catch the fact that when Jin first went to "deliver the message" and the guy said "Not in front of my daughter!" and they both turned to see the little girl with the dog watching TV, that HURLEY was on the TV shown getting into a car with some Korean words also on the screen. Now, if you did NOT see this, then I feel like a total failure, because I have obviously not done my job in TRAINING YOU to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be looking in the background and peripheral view of scenes for things just like this.

So of course those people on the boards who do NOT read the spoilers were all freaking out about why Hurley was on TV. I know why, but I'm not going to say, as you will find out soon enough. And yes, of course some nerd on the boards translated the Korean subtitles, but I'm not going to tell you that either, because it will ruin it. The one thing I will say, because I don't know if this is significant or not and therefore isn't a spoiler, is that some people were wondering that if the fact that Hurley was shown getting into a car was important because Sun's dad owns a car company. The other thing everyone was wondering, even those of us who know the spoilers, was why Hurley would be shown on KOREAN TV.

5) Can I just say once again how much I cannot stand Boone? Seriously, every time he comes on the screen I just start yelling. Now he was wearing some other lame tank top with some symbol on it that I'm sure signifies something, but no one on the boards has brought it up because, like me, they just don't care about him.

6) HUGE theme of "starting over" in this episode. Locke straight up says it to Shannon: "Everyone gets a new life on this island." Jin says to his father in his flashback near the end that he wishes he could start over, and that's when his dad tells him that he should just cold bust out once he gets to the U.S. and never come back.... At the end Sun also says "Can't we just go back... to the beginning?" Michael tells Walt that he wants to rebuild the raft. And then Shannon tells Sayid that she's ready to start over before they start sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

7) I could've done without Sawyer's obvious Lord of the Flies comment. I mean, they are literally turning into that, and we savvy viewers don't need it spoon-fed to us, thank you very much. But really, were you not seriously disturbed when Michael was going all berserker on Jin and everyone else, including Sun, was just STANDING there, watching it? I know Jack tried to stop it, but it was a fairly lame attempt that was easily deterred by everyone else. Very creepy. Also, some people thought maybe Jin does speak English. I don't think he does. They made of point of doing that weird thing where they showed everyone fighting on the beach and focused in on his ear and then you heard them all just sound like gibberish, as he would hear them. Also, even though she spoke English to him at the end... I think she was doing that because she still didn't have the guts to tell him in Korean that she was going to leave him (so he would really understand). We'll see. He obviously knows one English word, see #10 below.

8) Locke once again is rocking the hiz-ouse: his speech to Shannon about starting over and not giving Boone "exactly what he wants... your attention," and his "Everyone knows we are not the only people on this island!?!?!?!?!!" tirade, to his HUGE reveal (I think it will be very key) that his dad was "not cool," to him YET AGAIN knowing everything that's going on (both with Shannon and with Walt at the end). Yes, I'm starting the Locke Fan Club this weekend. Who's with me?

9) Something that didn't make sense to me: After all that, and learning that Jin also wanted to escape Sun's dad and start over, why would he tell her "It's too late?" when she was trying to reconcile? That I do not understand.

10) What I will say is that I think Jin and Michael have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Despite the fact that they are both obviously not perfect, they have both been shown in their flashbacks to be "good at heart." Michael didn't do anything wrong in his flashback and always loved Walt and wanted him back. Jin did EVERYTHING for Sun and even now doesn't want to tell her the truth about her father since he knows it will hurt her. If the island does divide into two camps, I am guessing they will both be on the "good" side. And Jin wins for best line of the episode when he tried to make peace with Michael at the end: "BOAT." Hurley is the runner up with "Didn't see that coming..." when Sun started speaking English.

11) So of course the huge twist was that Walt burned the raft. Which leads to many more questions: 1) Why did Locke cover for him? Despite the fact that Locke wants to stay on the island, too... typically Locke tries to steer people in the right direction. Maybe he was just trying to prevent Jin from getting any more of a beat-down and so he blamed it on The Others. Or maybe he feels that he needs to keep growing the bond he has with Walt for a bigger reason. 2) Did Walt start the fire the normal way, or ev-eeel-young-pyrokinetic-Drew Barrymore-in-"Firestarter"-style? 3) In that scene, did you notice that right before they had the deep talk, Walt once again rolled the dice the way he wanted? If you didn't notice that, seriously, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!?! 4) When Walt says, "Did you have a dad? Was he cool?" and Locke replied, "No... no, he was not cool," we now have a picture of a not-so-good childhood for Locke. His dad was mean, we don't know what happened to his real mom, but he was living with a foster mom, during which his sister died and then that resulted in his foster mom spiraling into a depression for 5 years before she ended up dying. Several people wonder if the fact that he probably lost a parent leads to his connection with Walt. But it seems like he has a lot in common with Sawyer, too? More to ponder. 5) Walt still gives me the creeps and I think he is a little selfish brat. Many people think he can't stay on the show since each season, only a month or two is supposed to have passed, so if it goes like 5 years, he will age more obviously than the adult actors, and so therefore he can't stay on the show. That has never been confirmed or denied and I'm sure the writers can find a way around that, but since I don't like him, I hope it's true. I am not a big fan of evil little kids (e.g: The Ring, Children of the Corn, etc).

12) And last, but not least... It was incredible the number of posts asking what the song was that played at the end before Hurley's walkman batteries died out. If those peeps had been hangin' with me for the last YEAR then they would know that that was the song "Delicate" by Damien Rice. For those of you who had seen the previews for (or the movie itself) "Closer," another song by Damien, "The Blower's Daughter" was in that. The bottom line is that it is an awesome CD and you should all get it. Also, an issue that has been discussed on the boards for a very long time was how Hurley could keep listening to his walkman 1) when it seems like the batteries could/should have been put to better use and 2) because it was so cheesy with the closing scene montages. I truly believe that him finally running out of batteries was a little "wink" to all the nerds on the boards. Triumph of the Nerds!

13) Speaking of nerds... if you think *I* am a nerd, then you have no idea. Seriously, I came across some crazy crap on the boards this time around, ranging from "Shannon and Sayid's kiss is a statement on the war" to people fighting quite viciously over whether Sun is "hot or not." But the Geek of the Week prize goes to the dude who made a diagram depicting all of the relationships on the show. Enough said.


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Was that Hurley on the korean guys TV???
- Definitely him. Nice episode tonight. At the end I wondered aloud how many batteries he had for that CD player. Sure enough, it died right on cue.
- Locke totally coerced Walt into burning the raft. There's no way he isn't trying to keep everyone on the island.
- I agree, his reasoning for burning the raft was lame so I'm guessing there was another reason. If Locke knew why he wouldn't have asked. But he knew, perhaps suspects why. Remember, Walt is special. He's telekinetic in some way. Perhaps he has an unknowing psychic tie to whatever is manipulating things on the island. I'm guessing he and Claire's baby were brought there on purpose. No way is the island letting him leave. Burning the boat a test of some sort?
- Did anyone think that way his CD player just gave out at the end was a bad omen or something? I really hope he doesn't die. Without Hurley on that island everyone would just drown in their own drama.
- I laughed out loud... at the ending. I was rather disappointed - playing us out with insipid music and character montage? Is this "Lost" or "Dawson"? Run a little short on plot this week, did we? How clichéd. Then the batteries died and I realized I'd been played. Sweet!
- And I totally missed that he was on the television. I must be blind. Perfect ending this week. Absolutely perfect. And next week looks like some hardcore Lost "mythology" stuff. Combined with the Hurley back-story this one could wind up one of the best eps of the series. And how come no one's commenting on Sayid finally gettin' sum?
- I have a feeling Hurley was on the news for being a computer hacker/ virus creator. I have no evidence to back this up other than he looks like a computer geek.
- The scene where Locke yelled at everyone was much needed. The Hurley in the TV scene was cool. I was expecting Jin to already know English, which to me would have been better, but maybe he's going to learn from someone else. And Jin has a good heart, maybe he saw the kid burn the raft and he did not want to say anything.
- I'm starting to believe the theory that I've heard from a few others that this is all some big experiment -- there is no island. The main characters only THINK there's an island. Some characters aren't even real (like the pilot who died, like Ethan, maybe others) they're just manifestations of the experiment, like the Monster, like the polar bears, etc. Anyway, until proven wrong, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. I think the writers have been pretty good with everything if that theory holds true.
- Does anybody else think that Michael and Walt are named for Michael Eisner and Walt Disney, and that that might say something about their relationship?
- I never thought that until you pointed it out, and you may be right... The LOST producers have admitted that Hurley is inspired by our own Harry Knowles. Then there's the name "John Locke". Claire's name may be symbolic too (i.e. clairvoyant). So I wouldn't put it pass them that Michael and Walt were named after Eisner and Disney.
- Wow, that’s so weird. Last night I was talking to my friend about the exact same thing. I think it’s a possible stab at that contrast between the two. I mean if you think about it Walt is special and "magical" and Michael is just a hot head trying to gain control. Abrams isn’t an idiot and this is an ABC show and I don't have to say it, but I will, Disney owns ABC.
- Has anyone thought of the possibility that the island is actually a small un-submerged portion of the lost continent of Atlantis? Or being that they're in the Pacific, perhaps Lemuria? Both were supposedly highly advanced, and some legends claim that these were actually lands teeming with not only highly advanced scientific technologies, but also practical forms of magic. I myself would love for the series to take this direction, seeing as how I believe the characters have already been using magic since their arrival on the island, whether consciously or unconsciously (Locke's ability to walk, Claire's fear of having her baby "raised by another," heck...more here than I care to mention right now?) To me, it feels like they're subconsciously manifesting the things they desire, the things they're afraid of, or the past that they've left unresolved. Sorta like the novel "Sphere" somewhat...maybe. Okay, not at all.

- e