Lost: D in a Box

Was anyone else just kind of feeling blah about last week’s episode? At least until the final 10 seconds?

Me too. Last week, we had “The Package,” which I suppose refers to the bun in the oven Sun is carrying in Universe X, as well as the mystery person in Widmore’s sub in Universe 815. Let’s jump in.

The episode starts in night vision goggles, because, why not, creeping on Flocke’s camp, specifically with Kate moping and Sawyer bringing her some cocoa. Jin is wrapping up his injured leg from Crazy Claire’s trap, and Flocke goes to have a little chat with him. He brings up the names that are in the cave, and tells Jin that “Kwon” is written in the cave, and the only way to get off the island is to have everyone whose name isn’t crossed off, to leave the island together. Pointing out that Sun is MIA, Flocke tells Jin he is working on it. Uhhh, time to jump ship, Jin.

Flocke tells Sayid that he is going on a trip, and will be back in the morning. Sayid looks totally vacant and tells Flocke he can’t feel anything. Uh oh, I think someone’s soul has gone missing. Flocke doesn’t seemed too concerned though, and tells Sayid that maybe this way it will be easier to deal with what’s coming. If watching JJ Abrams shows has taught me anything, it’s that it is always better to feel something than nothing. Take Felicity and all her angsty heartbreak, or Sydney with her tough choices and terrible luck…feelings are always your friends and closest allies. So I think there is something seriously wrong with Sayid and he might be a goner. My heart is breaking. But I’m embracing it, JJ!

Once Flocke is momentarily out of the picture, Jin tells Sawyer that he is leaving before that thing that isn’t Locke gets back. Sawyer tries to tell him that things are under control and he has a deal with Charlie Widmore, but then bam, tranquilizer darts for everyone and no one is going anywhere. Except Jin because Zoe and the other Widmorians come out of the woodwork and grab him. When Flocke returns and sees everyone sprawled out all over the campsite, he pulls dart out of Sayid and asks what happened, to which he has no real response. Hold the phone: Anyone else notice how kind of creepy is was with the campers laying out haphazardly like the path of destruction Smokey usually leaves? Hmmm. ALSO, the dart that Flocke pulled out of Sayid and presumably in everyone else was WHITE. Significant? Reading way too much into this white/black dichotomy? Maybe. Or maybe it was a little shout out/ clue that Widmore isn’t actually the worst person on this island?

Off to confront Widmore, Flocke asks Sayid to come with him to the other island. He gives Sayid a gun and tells him to wrap it in plastic, because he is going to swim over while Flocke takes a boat. Sawyer seems confused as to why Flocke is taking a boat, when he could just turn into smoke and float over. Well, apparently he can’t do that. One of his many travel restrictions. Before they head out though, Claire (who is looking more and more like a feral cat every episode), asks Flocke if her name is on the wall. No. Further cementing himself as the bad guy, when jealous Claire asks if Kate’s name is on the wall, he says not anymore, but he still needs Kate to get three other people on that plane so that he can leave. After assuring Claire that she still has a spot on that plane, he lets Claire know that after he gets what he needs from Kate, whatever happens, happens. So, Flocke has told Kate that Aaron has a crazy mother, seemingly throwing Claire under the bus, now he is doing the same thing to Kate, basically telling Claire to hang on until he doesn’t need Kate anymore and then she can kill that baby-stealing runaway.

Flocke makes it over to Hydra Island to get “his” Jin back. Flocke is restricted by some pylons on the beach set up by Widmore’s team, which is way too trigger happy and jumps out of the bushes once Flocke gets too close for comfort. Side note on pylons: who figured out that that was a great way to stop a mysterious black smoke monster? The Dharma initiative had them put up to, I still don’t really know, render people unconscious when they crossed unless they were wearing ear plugs? But it worked like a charm to keep old smokey out. So what’s the deal? Flocke can’t travel far distances or cross sonar fences?

Anyway, Widmore comes out and asks Flocke if he knows who he is talking to. Flocke answers by asking if Widmore knew who he was, and Charles responded that he clearly isn’t John Locke, and everything else he knows about this guy is a combination of myth and ghost stories. How did people know about this thing/man and not tell people like Ben about it? Ben was a leader and doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on with the shape-shifting men in black. When Widmore doesn’t give up Jin, Flocke tells Widmore that war just got to the island. I still don’t have the teams at all figured out if that is the case.

Meanwhile, the beach people are all getting pretty angsty. Sun is tired of all this nonsense about saving the world and talking about fate when all she wants is the find her husband. She sulks off to her old garden (which I swear used to be deeper in the jungle), and she tells Jack to just leave her alone. Bad move. Moments later, Flocke appears and tells Sun that he has found Jin and wants to take her to him. Sun doesn’t believe Flocke, and makes a run for it into the jungle. She is an idiot and keeps looking behind her, so much that she runs into a tree and knocks herself out. Luckily, Flocke lets her be and Ben ends up finding her on the ground. Upon waking her, Sun can only speak Korean, which Jack diagnoses as some selective amnesia that affects the speech center of the brain. Okay. Luckily, Sun can still understand English, but she can only respond in Korean.

Whatever. Then, ta da! Richard and Hurley appear out of the Jungle. He tells them all to pack up because they are leaving and going to destroy the Ajira plane so that Flocke can’t leave, and Sun looses her ish on them all. Sun sulks off again, refusing to destroy their only way off this island, and Jack later finds her on the beach and gives her a tomato, and some paper and pen to communicate, because of course she can still write in English. They have a moment and Sun trusts Jack again, bla bla bla. I feel like the writers could have done something much cooler than making Sun the victim/ annoying teenager. But I guess someone had to do it.

Meanwhile, Jin wakes up in room 23. I don’t get what all the hype is with this room. It is where the faux Dharma folk took Walt and Karl, specializing in subliminal messaging. Zoe walks into room 23 after letting Jin freak out a little and turn on the speakers and cracked out subliminal messaging film, then jolts him with a stun gun, saying she can’t let him leave. I hate this chick. Not only does she look like a poor man’s Rousseau/Lisa Loeb hybrid, she is just annoying and her clothes don’t fit very well. I hate her fake Tiny Fey glasses and her saccharine voice. I also hate that she is potentially messing up my WHOLE theory on the alternate universe.

In my head, the Dharma Initiative that Sawyer/ La Fleur, Miles, Juliet, and Jin were a part of was the Universe X version of Dharmaville, seeing as how the Dharma Purge already happened in Oceanic 815 Universe. In my theory/laws of physics regarding time and universe travel, the only reason the hydro bomb worked, was that it put the Universe X version of the island at the bottom of the ocean. Now here comes Zoe the annoying geophysicist with her maps of pockets of electromagnetism that Jin has signed. How does she have her paws on those is they are from another universe that is underwater and they should be fish food? Maybe this detail doesn’t matter, but it is thoroughly pissing me off since I was assuming that our Losties were back in Oceanic 815 Universe, where Ben purged the hippies and the “incident” not involving the H bomb happened… Grr.

Anyway, Jin demands to see Charles Widmore. Zoe takes him to Chucky, and he does a little manipulation on Jin while ordering Zoe to get “the package”. Widmore gives Jin Sun’s digital camera with pictures of his daughter and Sun. Once he gets the water works going, Widmore tells Jin that basically it won’t matter if he is reunited with Sun if Flocke gets off the island, because they would all cease to exist. Sounds heavy. Widmore tells Jin that it is time the see the package, which is a “who” not a “what” (then why would you give it an amorphous name like package?). The episode ends with Sayid slithering up to the dock, only to get a face full of a disoriented DESMOND. nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I’m heartbroken that he was taken away from Penny and CHARLIE. Oh, Des. Now I don’t know who to love more, Richard or Desmond. Both poor fools on this island.

Well, I have completely neglected the Universe X storyline so here’s the quick breakdown: Jin and Sun aren’t married in Universe X, and neither one speaks English. They are having a secret relationship. Sun is pretty sassy and seems to like sneaking around. Jin does not. Sun wants to run away with Jin and has something to tell him, but Martin Keamy interrupts. Keamy shows up to Sun’s hotel room to get his watch and money since Jin never showed up at the restaurant (damn customs). He knows what’s up between the two love birds. Due to language barrier, Mikhail is called in to translate. Sun says she has money, Jin is taken to the restaurant as collateral. Omar hits Jin’s head against the freezer, Keamy is pissed and cleans him up. K man tells Jin, in English, that the money is for him to kill Jin. Rule no. 1 is don’t mess around with the boss’ daughter. Too bad for Jin.

Sun takes Mikhail to the bank to get money. Her account was emptied by her father. He totally knew. Mikhail takes Sun to the restaurant. Jin hears the shots in the restaurant we know are Sayid’s. Sayid opens the freezer and gives Jin a box cutter to save himself. Good luck. Jin gets loose, inspects the bodies. Sun freaks out over the bodies. Jin and Mikhail struggle, Jin shoots Mikhail in the the eye. Sun is bloody screaming on the floor. She is shot. She is preggers. Jin takes her away.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Sun and Jin more than almost any character story on this show. But for some reason this week just didn’t do it for me. Maybe it was stupid room 23 with Zoe or Sun’s stupid loss in translation, but it just didn’t seem to connect to the Universe X story line in a meaningful way.

But who cares because tonight we get to see DESMOND. I love him. For reals. I can’t wait to find out what happened post hospital. How did Widmore get a hold of him? Did he always know he would need Des? Why did he berate him when he was with Penny? Was he trying to avoid Des ultimately breaking his daughter’s heart because the island already claimed him? What am I talking about? Brotha!

Season 6, Episode 10: The Package (Originally Aired March 30, 2010)

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Tuesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC and Mario Perez.