LOST: The Package

Sun shines. Although nothing could match last week’s stellar epic episode, “The Package” packed enough surprises to keep me hooked through the entire hour. Even when I was busy reading subtitles, Yunjin Kim’s inflection and commanding presence, whether she shouts angrily or coos seductively, let me know exactly what Sun has on her mind in each scene.

My predominant images of Sun from the very early episodes come from scenes in which she plants a garden—a creative and practical outlet for the nurturing side she doesn’t seem to let loose very often—or in which she and Jin become preoccupied with a tiny sweater button. That these images factor heavily in this episode is yet another tribute to LOST’s writers, who can take the simplest image (not to mention the big “meaning of life” ones) and create a metaphor for a life or a relationship. When Sun reveals herself, through an outburst in the garden or the removal of that primly buttoned top, she is surprisingly passionate. In “The Package,” perhaps for the last time, we see why Sun is the perfect metaphorical name for this character. She can scorch enemies or warm the coldest heart with a single look.

The Garden provides another Biblical allusion, even if Jack offers Sun a “love apple” (i.e., tomato) instead of the standard apple-as-symbol-of-knowledge. In the beginning, of Sun’s island life at least, she carefully plants seeds of hope as well as trees. Just as her relationship with Jin flourishes in the least likely of places, so does the garden symbolically grow, resulting at last in a child—and I loved the moment when Jin finally sees his daughter through the eye of a camera. When Sun returns to the island and tries to find solace in her garden, the one place that was truly hers in that long-ago post-crash, pre-separation era, it’s overrun with weeds. Clearly, Jin’s and Sun’s relationship—as well as her own off-island life—needs some careful tending. Sun, however, doesn’t see that hopeful little tomato that Jack later brings to her. I can only hope that, like the metaphorical tomato, Sun survives under the harshest conditions.

I’m a bit concerned, though, because of her bloody hands in this episode. She slices a finger, the blood obvious, when Locke appears to tempt her from the garden with knowledge of Jin’s whereabouts. She refuses to take his hand (but, in a mirror scene with Jack, does accept his after he also promises to reunite her with Jin). In the flashsideways, the last image of Sun being carried off emphasizes her bloody hand. Sun is hardly innocent of deception; after all, she is her father’s daughter. Her hands are bloodied to some extent in every timeline, but I still hope she and Jin can save each other.

I liked the way that more pieces of the big puzzle are neatly slotting into place. Picking up the restaurant scene from Sayid’s flashsideways and presenting more of that day from Sun’s and Jin’s perspectives illustrate another aspect of LOST’s creative storytelling and tight writing. I hated grenade-pulling Mikhail but rather enjoyed his return as a mercenary interpreter.

My real sorrow comes not only with the realization that yet another episode is LOST, even though more puzzle pieces are found, but from the implications of Desmond’s re-introduction to the story. Although Widmore clearly states that “the package” is a person, not a thing, Desmond is still objectified (and not in a sexy, let’s-see-him-nakey-in-the-jungle way). He’s both a constant and a package, perhaps the proverbial key to unlocking the way to overthrow Locke.

When last night’s preview offered us images of Des, the soundtrack went all Scottish with a pipe rendition of what most people call “Amazing Grace.” (How fitting for me that, come this Easter, I’ll be listening to yet another piper playing that song on a beach at sunrise. Resurrection and redemption from one beach to another….but I digress.) Willie Nelson’s plaintive “I once was lost, but now I’m found” from much earlier season promos is echoed in last night’s song for one of my favorite Scots. Let the war begin, even as I fear to see the casualties. Come on, Darlton. If Sun and Jin can’t have a happy ending—and I really don’t care all that much about that old triangle—please reunite Penny and Desmond so they can sail off into the sunset.