Sea. 1, Ep. 6: House of the Rising Sun

As you can probably surmise from the title of today's episode, "House of the Rising Sun" focuses on Sun and, by extension, Jin. While some fans may be quick to dismiss this episode (I get the feeling that most people don't have a whole lot of interest invested in Jin and Sun, but I may be off target with that assumption), I think it serves as an example of another one of the show's many strengths: the devotion to developing a wide array of realistically complex characters. The episodes following the pilot gave us a healthy dose of Jack, Kate, and Locke, but "House of the Rising Sun" takes some of the focus off of those select few and reminds us that there are a lot of other people who survived the plane crash.

Up until this point, we haven't seen much of the Korean couple, but we have gleaned that Jin is a domineering husband, and Sun is his meek and subservient wife. Neither of them appear to speak any English, but toward the tail-end of the episode we learn about Sun's impressive bilingual skills which she has effectively hidden from everyone else, including Jin.

Okay. On to the events of the episode.

After the camera opens up on Sun's eye, we're treated to a morning scene on the beach where everyone's preparing for another day of survivin'. Things are sunny and serene 'til Jin comes out of nowhere and goes all Ronnie Lott on Michael. Jin wrestles him into the surf and punches his lights out, and he only stops when Sayid and Sawyer intervene and pull the two apart. In light of the attack, Sayid cuffs Jin to a piece of the wreckage on the beach. Jin is unable to defend himself or explain his actions, so the others ask Michael why he thinks he was attacked. He claims that he wasn't doing anything, and that may be true, but the audience most likely remembers how Michael stumbled across the topless Sun as she was washing up in a previous episode. Did Jin get wind of this somehow? Oh, it's very, very saucy. Actually, by the end of the episode we learn that Jin attacked Michael because of a wristwatch. Michael found it somewhere on the island and claimed it as his own. Unbeknownst to him, it belonged to Sun's father, and it was entrusted to Jin. According to Sun, being in possession of it was a "question of honor" for Jin. So it turned out to be one big cross-cultural misunderstanding. Not so saucy.

Elsewhere on the island, Jack, Kate, Charlie and Locke have gone to the caves to get a supply of drinking water. Charlie steps out momentarily for a taste of Sweet Lady H and stumbles upon a beehive. The others try to help him escape the danger, but Charlie panics and stirs up the whole nest. They all flee in different directions. Jack and Kate return to the caves and inadvertently find two old skeletons. One of the skeletons has a pouch around its neck, and Jack takes it off and inspects what's inside: A WHITE STONE AND A BLACK STONE. Ah, yes

. The classic theme established in the pilot episode reemerges here, though the significance is probably lost on us for the time being. Jack can't determine how the two died (though he does say that it looks like they've been dead for 40 or 50 years), but the good doctor is familiar enough with anatomy to know that one of them was a male and the other was a female. Locke dubs them the island's "very own Adam and Eve."

After reviewing this scene, we'd be remiss if we didn't venture some sort of guess as to who was laid to rest in the caves. After learning in the fifth season that Rose and Bernard of 1977 were living happily on their own in the jungle, I think they became the leading candidates to become 2004's skeletons. I would accept that, except that it wouldn't fit the timeframe (at most, they would've been dead less than 30 years) and we still have the mystery of the black and white stones. They might just be mere symbolism, but it could just as well be a plot device that the writers placed there so that at a later date we'd be able to figure out the skeletons' identities. I'm leading toward the latter, and I'll tell you why: in looking at what others have said about the skeletons, I came across a link to a 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview with Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. When asked directly about the importance of the skeletons in the caves, here's what they said:

What is the meaning or significance of the two skeletons that Jack and Kate found in the cave of season 1?
CUSE: The answer to that question goes to the nature of the timeline of the island. We don't want to say too much about it, but there are a couple Easter eggs embedded in [the Feb. 7 episode], one of which is an anagram that actually sheds some light on the skeletons and hints at a larger mythological mystery that will start to unfold later in the season. 
LINDELOF: There were certain things we knew from the very beginning. Independent of ever knowing when the end was going to be, we knew what it was going to be, and we wanted to start setting it up as early as season 1, or else people would think that we were making it up as we were going along. So the skeletons are the living — or, I guess, slowly decomposing — proof of that. When all is said and done, people are going to point to the skeletons and say, ''That is proof that from the very beginning, they always knew that they were going to do this.''

That interview can be found in its entirety here. But that's kinda cool. It sounds like they've known who the skeletons will be all along. When I first watched this episode, I figured that the skeletons were just there so we'd know that others have been on the island. Maybe they'll turn out to be Sun and Jin? I mean, they are the focus of this episode. It'd make sense...I guess. But I guess we can look forward to yet another moment of connectivity somewhere in the sixth season. In the meantime, we should find that February 7th episode (I'm not sure which one it is--I'll have to look it up) and scour it for an anagram!

Running alongside this excitement in the caves is the bulk of the episode, which concerns itself with a brief history of Jin and Sun's relationship. We see that originally Jin seemed like a nice enough guy. It appears that he loved Sun so much that he obsequiously took a demanding and dangerous position in her father's company so that he could earn his father-in-law-to-be's marriage blessing. But the new job was the beginning of the end. The relationship became so turbulent that Sun hatched a plan to ditch Jin when they were supposed to fly together to the United States. She would lay low until everyone thought her dead, and she would be rid of both her father and Jin. But the scheme falls apart at the airport when Sun is visibly torn about what to do. Sitting on the proverbial fence, she looks over at Jin, who's smiling warmly. He's wielding a flower he's purchased for her, to boot. This apparently melts her heart, and she decides not to leave him after all. Instead of making a break for it, she boards a flight destined to crash on some bizarre island. Good choice, Sun. No, really. Good one. I guess the moral of the story is: true love conquers all, and then you board a flight and survive a horrific electromagnetic event that breaks your plane apart like a dry twig. Or something like that.

One final note concerns Charlie and Locke. It's in this episode that Charlie begins his detox from heroin addiction. Locke learns about Charlie's habit and tactfully approaches him in a one-on-one situation. Then he starts talkin' that destiny and faith stuff again, which we'll soon come to know as trademark John Locke. He says that he's certain that Charlie's guitar will show up. In fact, he knows exactly where it is, but doesn't reveal the location 'til Charlie hands over his baggie of drugs. Charlie does it, and is delighted to see that his guitar made it through the crash in one piece. I know of at least two people (won't mention names) who don't like Locke, and I can see how they might not like his approach in these scenes where he's being a bit forceful with Charlie. But, c'mon! He has good intentions! He just wants to see Charlie off the junk! There. That's all I'll say on the matter.

And the episode comes to a close as Hurley listens to Willie Nelson ask, "are you sure that this is where you want to be?" Judging by the downtrodden looks on Jack and Kate's faces, I'd say no, Willie. No, it's not.

Thanks for reading!