Ji Yeon

Last night's Lost was the kind of "pull the wool over yours eyes" episode that made the series so damned surprising and addictive in the first season. And, like, 75% of it was in Korean, which is just awesome.

Anyway, the on-Island events revolved entirely around Sun being awesome and the result of same. Why is she awesome? Because she walks up to Daniel Faraday and flat out asks him if they're going to rescue to Oceanic 815 survivors. And he evades. So she decides to go to Locke's camp (with Jin) because, well, who needs to be on the beach if the boat people aren't going to rescue them? Kate helps Sun with directions (she's useful!?)

This is complicated by the fact that Juliet figures out what's happening when Sun sneaks into her tent looking for more prenatal vitamins. Smart girl, our Other woman. Sun doesn't trust Juliet, and keeps walking away with Jin (who has gotten pretty good at English in the time since we saw him last for any serious extended period of time). Jin's "Where Sun go, I go" is probably the most meaningful, romantic piece of broken English I've ever heard. And such amazing role reversal from the first season, when he was ordering her around. Wow. Anyway, this is put a stop when Juliet reveals Sun's affair to Jin. Jin gets pissed off (wouldn't you) and goes back to the beach and won't hear a word from Sun, but gets a nice pep talk about marriage from Bernard (hey, he and Rose are still alive!) Jin sucks it up and returns to Sun. He tells her he understands why she had an affair, and says that she cheated on the man he was before he got to the Island, and that's not the man he is now. He wants to know the baby is his, and she says it is. And our Island romance is safe once again.

This is all set eerily against a flash-forward where you knew something is off (because how could it not be), but had no idea what. The timing of the flash forward sequences worked amazingly with the on-Island story, which was all about Jin and Sun staying together and fears about the baby getting born. Sun is far along in her pregnancy (though I think they mentioned it was early to have the baby... but it looked like at least 8 months). She calls the hospital. They recognize her as Oceanic 6. This is set against a hilarious sequence of Jin futilely trying to get a huge stuffed panda as a gift. And here's where the episode got amazing. I was convinced that Jin was going to die because the story was so funny. Convinced. There had to be some tragedy here. It made sense with the whole on-Island story of them staying together, of Sun being superstitious of choosing baby names so early (oh, I forgot to mention that above), etc. Anyway, Jin puts the panda in a cab, but, like, drops his phone in the middle of the street and I think he's going to get run over. He gets his phone, but someone steals his cab, and his panda. He goes back to the shop where he bought it and shells out some serious cash for another one (the last in the store, which was on hold for someone else). It feels wrong. It just feels wrong. His eyes are desperate. Sun is in labor and is screaming Jin's name and I, and I assume everyone else, is thinking "goddammit, Jin, she doesn't need a panda, just get to the fucking hospital". Sun delivers a baby girl. Jin gets to a hospital, runs to the maternity ward... but there's a guard at the door. "The Ambassador" just became a grandfather. And the guard tells Jin it was a boy. A boy? The wha~!? Jin takes the news in stride and ties a blue ribbon around the panda's next (smart boy) while discarding a pink ribbon. The door opens and we can plainly see that the woman inside is not Sun. "The Ambassador" steps out and Jin offers the panda on behalf of Paik Automotives. Dude. DUDE. That's just not right. My heart has dropped, like, to my small intestine. We get a final sequence with Sun, where Hurley comes to visit (post-mental hospital stay? not sure, the post-Island timeline is soooo up in the air), and they go visit Jin's grave. Again. The wha~!?

Now, they mentioned Sun was Oceanic 6. Is Jin? No, and I really hoped he was. But Sun's stuff was flash-forward while Jin's was flash-back. Not because of the tombstone (though clearly Sun clearly believes Jin to be dead, and who am I to argue with her). But because of a subtle reference to the Year of the Dragon (2000-2001). So freaking subtle. Hey, that's why we try and watch these things twice when we have the time. It also makes sense of Jin's "I've only been married two months" statement, which through me for a loop when I thought it was still a flash-forward. That dog! Anyway, that puts his trip two months after he married Sun.

Oh, there was also some stuff on the Freighter that will come into play next week in the Michael flashback. What, you didn't see Harold Perrineau's name in the credits or hear the announcement last July that Michael was coming back? I mean, man, they just did not try to keep this a secret. I'm not disappointed that there was no surprise to who Ben's man on the boat was... so long as the show can throw me for a loop with exactly how this development came to be.