TV-Reviewed

The discovery of a woman who possibly fell from a downed helicopter made for an emotional scene last week on Lost. Just who is this woman?

Flashback

Sun and Jin are in Korea, shortly after their wedding. They’re still giddy about being married, which is great to see. Sun is not with Jin at the moment, however, as she is out on the town running a few errands. After she sits down on a bench, she meets an older woman who knows who she and Jin are. She threatens to embarrass the Paik family by revealing Jin is the son of a simple fisherman and the son of a prostitute if Sun doesn’t bring her $100,000 soon. You can see Sun is clearly disturbed by the woman’s threats.

Back home, Sun asks Jin about his family. Jin clearly doesn’t want to talk about his parents. He has previously said that his parents are dead, but Sun pushes for more information. When Jin gets upset, Sun stops questioning him about his parents and the lack of photographs of them.

After some searching, Sun is able to track down Jin’s father, who, as we already know, is a fisherman. He seems delighted to finally meet Sun. They chat about the wedding and then about Jin’s mother. Mr. Kwon confirms that Jin’s mother “was with many men” and that she left him to raise Jin when he was just a baby. Mr. Kwon pleads with Sun not to tell Jin about who his mother is or that she’s still alive. He doesn’t want Jin to become embarrassed or shamed in any way.

Sun drops by her father’s office and asks her father for the money. Since $100,000 is a lot of money, he wants to know what the money is for, but Sun is unwilling to reveal the real reason for the money. He reluctantly gives Sun the money but warns her that if the money is for Jin, Jin will be not be working the floors anymore and will have to deliver more messages as he did in the past.

Back home, Jin and Sun chat for a bit and when Jin notices the large amount of money in Sun’s purse, he asks her about it. She lies and says it’s for the honeymoon. Jin doesn’t want to have to owe Sun’s father anymore than they already do and asks her to give the money back to her father.

The next day, we see Sun meeting the older woman in a public area. Sun has brought the money and gives it to the woman. Sun then asks the woman a question, revealing she has figured out that the woman in question is in fact Jin’s mother. Before Sun leaves, she threatens the woman by saying something to the effect of “Jin has told me that you are dead; don’t make me turn this into a reality”.

Beach/The Staff

Sun is working away in her garden when she is approached by Jack. He asks her about her pregnancy and she tells him that she feels fine, but is a little tired every now and then, which is normal for a pregnant woman. She, like many others, is a little wary of Jack. She’s not sure if his intentions are true or if he is working with the Others now. This is explored in a future scene with Kate, but Kate is reluctant to question Jack’s loyalties. Kate, however, does tell Sun about the nature of Juliet’s medical work and Sun becomes immediately interested. The two women approach Juliet and Sun demands to know more about the work Juliet has done with pregnant women. Juliet reveals to Sun that every pregnant woman has died.

In the middle of the night, Juliet comes into Sun’s tent and covers Sun’s mouth with her hand to keep her quiet. She tells her that she’ll try and help with her pregnancy, but they need to get to The Staff, which is where other pregnant women have been cared for. When they reach The Staff, Sun and Juliet make their way through the doors and go into the locker room. The examination room is well hidden, which is why Kate and Claire weren’t able to find the room when they visited it earlier.

Juliet is surprised to learn from Sun that she’s not sure who the father is. She cheated on Jin with Jae Lee after they learned Jin is infertile, so it’s unlikely Jin is the father. Juliet tells Sun something a little surprising, which is on the island, a man’s amount of sperm is about five times as high as elsewhere, so it’s entirely possible that Jin is the father, but it depends on the date of conception, which is why Juliet needs to use the ultrasound machine and determine the date.

After getting the machine going, Juliet and Sun are excited to see a healthy baby. It’s obviously too early to know the gender of the baby, but they’re just excited that it’s healthy. Now to the important part: how old is the baby? Juliet determines the baby was conceived on the island. It’s mixed news, as the baby is Jin’s, but it means Sun will likely die within the next two months. Juliet leads Sun outside of The Staff and heads back inside to do something. Inside, Juliet records a message for Ben. She tells him about Sun’s pregnancy and that she hopes to collect “samples” from the other women and that Kate will hopefully be next.

Crash Site

The guys are frantically trying to get answers from the woman who has crashed, but they’re surprised when someone drops by from the jungle; it’s Mikhail. Holy crap, I thought he was dead! It was theorized by some Lost fans that the fence didn’t actually kill him, and it seems they were right. Anyway, he quickly tries to run away but is tackled by the men. Mikhail tells the men he’ll help tend to the woman’s injuries if they agree to release him when he’s finished. They agree to his condition.

A quick examination of the crash victim reveals a branch from a tree has punctured one of the woman’s lungs and she’ll likely die soon. With the help of a medical aid pack, Mikhail and the men are able to help the woman breathe properly. When Mikhail tries to leave, Charlie doesn’t want them to let him go, but Desmond says they must keep their word. Jin then realizes the satellite phone is missing, so they run after Mikhail and take it back from him.

Afterwards, Hurley is fooling around with the phone, joking about making a call to his mom when the parachutist awakes and talks to Hurley. He tells her that they were on Oceanic Flight 815 and crash-landed on the island. The woman is shocked to hear the news and says that it is impossible for them to be survivors of 815. She explains that, “They found the plane,” and that, “There were no survivors. They were all dead.” Hurley, dumbfounded by this, can only remark, “What?” before the episode concludes.

Holy crap!? That’s how I would sum up my impression of this episode. Wow. I want to address a few things that stuck out in my mind.

1) Yoon-jin Kim, who plays Sun Kwon was excellent in this episode. She was phenomenal.

2) What’s up with Mikhail? How is he alive after being “killed” by the sonic fence? Where is he off to now?

3) When Hurley fired the flare, was it really an accident? I know I didn’t mention this in my recap/review, but this seemed a little suspect. The flare gun was pointed straight up in the air, just as you would point it if you were to signal someone. Hurley is a favorite character of mine, but this made me a little curious.

4) Who is the parachutist? Not many people can speak five languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese).

5) What sort of “samples” is Juliet referring to collecting?

6) What “other women” is Juliet referring to? The producers have already killed off just about every remaining woman. Kate is the only one I can think of that they don’t have a “sample” of/from. They’ve already examined Claire. Hmmm.

7) How did Sun locate Jin’s father so damn quickly?

8 ) That whole ending freaked me out. What do you mean the plane was found and no survivors were found? What?! This totally threw me, but it was a hell of an ending. This is the sort of ending we should expect. I want to be expecting more at the end of the episode, and this episode definitely succeeded in this respect.

Lost - S03E18 - D.O.C.
Original Air Date: April 25, 2007

Rating: 9.6