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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

the glass ballerina

The glass ballerina is spinning slowly through the air – then it’s hitting the ground and smashing into pieces... A little Sun runs away from the shattered mess.

She’s practicing at the piano a short while later when her father enters, holding the pieces of the ballerina in a trash bag. He asks if she did it, and she tells him no, that it was the maid. "If you tell me the maid did this, I will be forced to fire her...who broke it?"
"The maid did."
Wow, Sun was a baaad girl.

Present day, Sun, Jin, and Sayid are on the Elizabeth, just offshore from the beach where the black smoke signal fire is burning. Sayid is busy checking Danielle’s maps. Jin interrupts with questions, which Sun translates (for us as well, Jin isn’t subtitled). He wants to leave, he doesn’t think that Jack and the others are coming – it’s been over a day. Sayid believes it could be because they aren’t able to see the smoke, and he wants to sail a little further and light another signal fire. Jin disagrees, and Sun tries to convince him. He reminds her that Sayid is not her husband (we have subtitles now). She tells Sayid, "My husband thinks we have to do as he says because he’s the only one who knows how to sail. But he’s wrong. I can help you sail the boat."
Bad girl.

Jack’s crouched and broken in the corner of his cell. Juliet comes in with a tray of food. "I made the soup myself."
Jack won’t speak or even look at her. It’s the three year old version of Jack again. She leaves, and this time there’s a guard at the door (although he’s missing when they show her in the hallway – maybe he just ran away quickly). Juliet knocks on a door with a red handle and Ben answers. He’s in a room reminiscent of The Pearl – video monitors mounted in the wall. We can see Jack’s cell and the cages. "You never made soup for me."
So the cell is wired for sound as well. But why would he care about the soup? Did Juliet hold him captive in the past? Were they together? Another blonde woman enters the station and asks if she’s interrupting something? "Would it really matter if you were?"
There’s no love lost between the two women. She tells Ben that Ryan has informed her they have a problem. The Iraqi has found the decoy village. Ben doesn’t care about that, "...that’s what we wanted."
How did they know about Jack and Sayid’s plan? Is the survivor’s camp wired for sound too? Ben is surprised when the woman tells him what Ryan found when he followed Sayid. The sailboat. Now they’re worried they could be found.

Ben is flustered – which makes me think he planned to get caught... this guy doesn’t strike me as someone used to surprises. "How quickly can you put together a team?"
Within the hour, she tells him. "Then don’t waste time talking to us."
The woman turns to leave, and Ben has one last thing to say. "Hey Colleen...I want that boat."



Tom, Pickett, and a few other Others are rousting Sawyer and Kate from their cages. Pickett hands Sawyer a lunch box. "...you’re gonna need to keep up your energy."
They’re leading them down a trail under a canopy when they meet up with Colleen and some other Others. Pickett's first name is Danny, and he and Colleen are a couple... why would she care about Ben and Juliet? Tom leaves with Colleen’s group as Sawyer and Kate are led on.

Back on the boat, Sayid is loading a rifle, while Sun is trying to apologize to Jin. She’s telling him that she shouldn’t have disagreed with him in front of Sayid. "You shouldn’t have disagreed with me, period."
He asks her why she came on the boat with them, and she tells him, "I didn’t want to be without you."
Is she lying? Why?

Flashback – Well, she has been lying. She’s nekkid in bed with baldy Jae. She’s trying to end it. Before she can get up to leave Jae hands her a beautiful string of pearls, but she tells him she can’t wear it because of Jin. Jae is insistent. "I don’t want to share you anymore."
So this affair has been going on for a while? He wants her to run away to America with him. She doesn’t answer, but they move in for a kiss. They’re interrupted by a knock at the door – Jae gets up and answers it. It’s Sun’s father.

He ignores Jae completely and walks into the bedroom, where he finds a naked Sun. "Get dressed."
He leaves.

Back on the island, Dan and friends have led Sawyer and Kate to some kind of rock breaking work camp chain gang thing. There are some Others breaking rocks and carting them around, are they prisoners as well? Or being punished for something? Danny hands off his gun to someone – it looks like one of the AK’s from the Swan. He turns to talk to Sawyer and Kate. "Alright, here’s the jig; see these rocks here? That’s where you two come in."
He orders Kate to chop them loose, while Sawyer carts them away.
"You expect me to work in this dress?"
"It’s up to you; you can take it off if you want."
Ha ha ha... she looks to Sawyer for support, but he just grins like it’s a good idea, until he sees that she’s hurt, at which point he tries to redeem himself. "How dare you?"
Ha ha... nice try Sawyer. Dan ignores this and continues. "If you need anything, raise your hand."
Sawyer raises his hand. "I got a question, boss."
"No questions."
"She got to ask a question!"
Danny’s losing patience; Sawyer has gotten under his skin. "If you try to run off, you will be shocked..."
Sawyer mishears (or is just playing with) him, "Shot? We don’t even get a warning?"
Now Danny is really irritated. "Shocked! I said shocked! If you talk to each other you’re gonna be shocked. If you touch each other, you’re gonna be shocked...matter of fact you do anything at all that pisses me off, you’re gonna get shocked."
Kate demands to see Jack, and won’t start working until she does. Dan takes a couple of threatening steps toward her – reaches over, and shocks Sawyer, knocking him to the ground. "That was a partial charge. You got any more questions?"

Flashback – Jin enters his father in-law’s office. Dad slides a folder across the table to him. "We have a problem."
Jin opens it – it’s a picture of Jae. Uh oh. "This man has been stealing from me."
So he’s not going to tell Jin? Either way, he wants Jin to kill him. Jin refuses, dad tries to force him into it, and Jin quits. "You don’t get to quit! This man has shamed me. You married my daughter Jin...that makes you my son. My shame is your shame (yeah – in this case it sure is). I need you to restore our families honor."
Jin takes the folder from him and bows.

Now – Jin, Sun and Sayid have reached the Pala ferry dock. Sayid doesn’t believe it’s been used in quite some time. He wants to tie the boat to the dock and start a signal fire on the beach. Jin wants to know if it’s safe. Sayid snaps at him. "Yes Jin, of course it’s safe."

At the work camp, Kate is busy chopping rocks with a pickaxe while Sawyer is busy checking out her ass.

Danny and Juliet are nearby, going over some kind of schematic. Danny notices Sawyer slacking and yells for him to get back to work. "Whatever you say, boss."
Alex is hiding behind some bushes near Kate. She gets her attention. "Careful – don’t let them see you talking to me. Are they keeping you in the cages?"
Kate nods yes. "Did you see another guy in there with you? About my age, named Carl?"
Kate tells her it’s just the two of them. Alex either says, "I thought he was supposed to be in that cage," or, "I’m not supposed to be in that cage."
I couldn’t make it out. Neither could Kate, she asks what’s she’s talking about, and who she is.
Alex doesn't answer, but asks where she got the dress and Kate tells her, "They gave it to me."
"It’s mine. You can keep it. Looks better on you anyway."
Alex takes off as Sawyer approaches Kate. "Having fun yet, Freckles?"
"Quit staring at my ass."
"Gimme something else to stare at."
Danny tells them to shut up. "Yezzir, boss."

At the Pala beach, Sun is bringing a gas can from the boat to Sayid (the sailboat does have some kind of motor). She’s wondering about the size of this fire and Sayid tells her he needs a big one so Jack won’t miss it. "Why are you lying to me, Sayid?"
"And what would you know about lying, Sun?"
A lot more than he thinks... and she’s better at it than him. Nevertheless, he comes clean. "I’m fairly certain our friends have been captured. There are tracks all over the dock...fresh, as recent as yesterday."
His plan is to build the fire so the Others will send a scout party... by the time they get there it should be night, and Sayid will ambush them, taking two of them hostage and killing the rest. "Two," Sun asks?
"One to make the other cooperate."
He asks Sun to lie to Jin for just a while longer, until the fire is lit, at which point there will be no turning back.

Flashback – Jin comes home to Sun and tells her he saw her father today. She’s sweating it... He tells her dad in-law called him Son for the first time; because he wants him to deliver a message. Sun understands what that means, and tells Jin he doesn’t have to do it. They could run away and start a new life – he won’t have to do this anymore. "I do this for you, Sun. I do this because your father expects it. I do this because that’s what it takes to be married to you."
"And what does it take to be married to you?" Sun snaps back.
Jin leaves, presumably to deliver the message.

Back at the Pala beach – Jin asks Sayid for a gun. Once again we don’t get subtitles for Jin, as Sun translates for Sayid (she’s such a good liar, how do we know that Jin is saying what she says he’s saying?). "He knows what we’re doing...he says he understands English better than I think he does...he knows I betrayed him."
Sayid hands a gun over, asking Jin if he can handle it. Jin answers by deftly popping the clip and checking the chamber or something (I dunno, I don’t have any guns - looked impressive though). The men send Sun back to wait on the Elizabeth. Sayid tells her where he’s hidden a gun on the boat, in case the Others get past him and Jin. "If they get past you that means my husband is dead. And I won’t care anymore."

The work camp again – Juliet tosses Sawyer a Dharma canteen. He opens it, dumps the water out, and tosses it back at her feet. He walks over to Kate and plants one on her...

Danny runs over and hits Sawyer from behind with his rifle. What follows is one of the best fight scenes on Lost so far. A big guy is getting the best of Sawyer, who reaches in and tries to use his own taser on him... but it doesn’t work – the safety is on. Sawyer manages to throw him to the ground anyway, and picks up an AK from the ground. He holds the others back at gunpoint. "James!"
It’s Juliet, holding a gun to Kate’s side. "Put the gun down, right now."
He knows she’s not bluffing and drops the gun. Danny tasers him and he goes down hard.

It’s nighttime now on the Pala beach, while Jin and Sayid wait in the jungle, Sun is making tea aboard the boat. She hears some footsteps and grabs the gun from its hiding place as we see the Others boarding the boat.

Flashback – Jin follows Jae up to the second floor of the hotel – room 1516. Jae turns to see him, and is rightfully scared shitless. Jin pounds Jae’s head against the door, throws him into the room, and proceeds to beat the tar out of him. Is Jae going to confess? Has Jin known all along? "Do you know why I’m here?"
"I’m sorry!"
Jin puts a pillow to the side of Jae’s head and holds a gun against it... but he can’t do it. He tells Jae to leave the country and never come back. "And if I hear you’ve returned, if you have any contact at all (holy shit – DOES Jin know??) I will finish this. Am I clear? You don’t exist."
He leaves him and walks back out to his car. He’s composing himself in the driver’s seat when he hears a strange flapping sound. A second later Jae does his glass ballerina impression and lands on the hood of Jin’s car, smashing the windshield.

He’s clutching the pearls he gave to Sun. I don’t think it was someone finishing the job for Jin, I think Jae just jumped. But did he go up to the roof first? Cause that was a pretty rough landing from just the second floor.

Back on the boat, Colleen finds Sun down in the cabin. Sun points the gun at her and asks to be let off the boat. Colleen can’t do that... she tells Sun there are five of her friends up top. She takes a step toward Sun, who tells her to stop, or she’ll shoot. "No you won’t Sun. I know you, Sun-Hwa Kwon and I know you’re not a killer. Despite what you might think, I am not the enemy, we are not the enemy. But if you shoot me, that’s exactly what we will become."
She takes another step toward Sun as the engine starts up, and Sun pulls the trigger, shooting her in the gut. It seems like she may have been startled by the engine and that’s what caused her to pull the trigger – regardless, Colleen now has a bullet in her torso.

An Other brother peers down into the cabin and sees Sun... he starts shooting at her. Jin and Sayid hear the shots and run to the dock, where they start exchanging gunfire with the Others on the boat. Another great action scene – shootout at the Pala dock. Suns makes her way topside, where Tom spots her. He takes a shot at her as she jumps/falls off the side of the boat. Jin jumps into the water to get her, and they find each other as the boat motors off.

Flashback – Sun is at Jae’s funeral, but standing off in the distance. Her father comes up behind her and tells her she shouldn’t be there. She wants to know what he’s doing there. "I do business with the young man’s father. I’m told he jumped from a balcony (well this kinda makes me think that he DIDN’T). He must have felt a great shame."
He’s hoping that if she didn’t learn her lesson about lying from the glass ballerina, maybe this will do the trick? But it didn’t; she’s still lying to Jin as far as we know. She asks dad if he’ll ever tell Jin. "It is not my place to tell him."

Jin’s drying Sun off on the beach. "I don’t know what I’d do without you..."
He puts his hand on her stomach – "...without both of you."
Sayid apologizes, and asks Sun to tell Jin that he will listen to him the next time. "We should go; we have a long walk ahead of us."
Sun looks pained – is she considering telling Jin the truth? She doesn’t know about Rose and Locke’s miracles – even if the island did get Jin’s little guys swimming again, as far as she knows, the kid is Jae’s.

Sawyer and Kate are being thrown back in their cages – Sawyer’s still hurting. Kate asks him what he was thinking. "I couldn’t help myself. You just looked so damn cute swinging that pickaxe...chain gang looks good on you, freckles."
But he had an ulterior motive – "Two of the guards got some real fight in ‘em, the rest...I ain’t worried about. The heavyset guy packs a helluva punch. Shaggy haired kid's got some martial arts training, but I think I could take him if I had to. FYI, those zapper things got a safety on ‘em."
Kate’s impressed. "Did you see the look on their faces when you got a hold of that rifle?"
"I’m guessing most of these boys never seen any real action. But that blonde that had a gun pointed at you? She woulda shot you, no problem."
Kate asks Sawyer why the woman called him James.
"’cause that’s my name."
Kate looks hurt that he’d never told her that before. "I noticed something else, too. You taste like strawberries."
The hurt goes away. "You taste like fish biscuits. So what do we do now?"
"Well shortcake, now we wait for these bastards to make a mistake."
The POV switches from outside Sawyer’s cage to Ben watching him on one of the monitors in the Hydra.

Jack’s on the monitor above him, Kate to the right. Bottom left is the other half of Jack’s cell, above that, I’m not so sure – it looks like the inside of another station. The top right is a jungle shot, but there’s a floodlight there – maybe somewhere along the canopied path? The monitors seem to change cameras as well, so who knows how many places Ben can observe ...and there’s audio. "...sooner or later they’re gonna let their guard down. And when they do, we’re gonna be there to put them in their place."
Argh, that sucks... it’s a good plan! Frigging Ben.

Jack in his cell – Ben comes in for a visit. He unfolds a chair and sits down. "You know what’s crazy, Jack? A week ago you and I were in exactly the opposite situation."
He knows Jack was angry because he lied about being Henry Gale, but if he had admitted that he was "...one of those people that you and your friends have been calling ‘Others’ all this time, it would have been right back to Sayid and his fists...I want for you to change your perspective, and the first step in doing that would be for me to be decent enough to introduce myself honestly, so... Hi, my name is Benjamin Linus and I’ve lived on this island all my life."
He holds out his hand, but Jack won’t take it. Ben has an a/v cart with a television on it wheeled into the other side of the room. He tells Jack that Kate and Sawyer are safe and close, and that’s all he wants to tell him about them. He says that if Jack cooperates, they’ll send him home. Jack doesn’t believe him. "If you could leave this island why would you still be here?"
"Yes Jack, why would we still be here... your flight crashed on September 22nd, two thousand and four. Today is November 29th... that means you’ve been on our island for sixty-nine days. We do have contact with the outside world, that’s how we know that during those 69 days your fellow Americans re-elected George W Bush, Christopher Reeve has passed away, the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series."
Jack laughs at him. "If you wanted me to believe that you probably should have picked someone else besides the Red Sox."
"No, they were down three games to none against the Yankees in the league championship and then they won eight straight."
Jack still won’t believe him, and Ben looks flustered again. He hits play on the remote in his hand and the TV clicks on, showing a very familiar sight (to me). "Back to Foulke...Red Sox fans have longed to hear it...the Boston Red Sox are world champions!"

Jack is watching the celebration on the field incredulously. "That’s home, Jack... if you listen to me, if you trust me, if you do what I tell you when the time comes... I will take you home."

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copyright © 2006 scott mcnicol