LOST: "D.O.C." [SPOILERS]

"I'm Not Dead Yet! I Think I'll Go For A Walk!"

The "secondary" story this time around revisited Desmond, Hurley, Jin, Charlie, and our mysterious helicopter pilot out in the jungle.  She's still in bad shape, and it would seem she's got a tree branched lodged in her (ouch!) and unless she gets some serious medical attention, she's going to die.  She's saying as much, in Spanish now (Hurley understands it to be anyway, could still be Portuguese?)

They argue about what to do next, and for a moment they discuss going to get Jack, but since its an eight hour trip one way, that looks to be no good.  Until Desmond casually mentions, "I'll run back."  Now if you remember Hurley and Charlie's little argument last week about Superman vs. The Flash...  I wonder.

Anyway, Desmond tells Hurley to look through her pack for something that might help, and continues to argue with Charlie, "Nobody knows where we are!"

And then Hurley accidentally fires a flare into the air.  "Oops!"

She starts mumbling something in Chinese this time (according to Jin) and they hear something in the brush.  Everyone's on edge, and someone pops out of the jungle, to everyone's surprise.

It's none other than our previously-demised Russian one-eyed mystery man, Mikhail!  He doesn't seem to be quite as dead as he did a few weeks back, either.  A couple of "oh sh*t!" looks from both sides, and he takes off running into the jungle.  Jin immediately takes off in hot pursuit, and finally catches him.

There's a bit of kung fu action on their part, but eventually Mr. Uno is subdued.  They identify him from Sayid and Kate's description, "He's the one who shot Sayid!"  They argue about what to do with him, and Charlie it seems is still hell-bent on getting some "Other" blood, to which Mikhail replies "I've already died once this week" with that coy "I know something you don't know" grin on his face.  He claims to be able to help the woman, and Desmond backs off with the flare gun and allows it.

They take him back to the still-dying skydiver, who's now prattling on in Italian, according to Mikhail.  He offers to help her, but only if they agree to let him go on his merry way.  More argument and discordance abounds, but Desmond takes charge and allows it.  He (along with all of us!) wants to know what's going on more than anything.  Hurley gets a little carried away and starts giving out too much information, quickly draws nasty looks from the rest of the gang, and then recants, "not like I'd uh tell you that!" (and stuff! like!)

Mikhail checks her out, and the diagnosis is her lung is punctured and filling up with blood.  Unless it gets vented immediately she will die.  So, he pounds an open syringe into her chest, and after some awesome icky bubbly sound effects, she starts gasping for air again.  Then he pulls the branch out.  Gives a prognosis, which includes, "but on this island things are a bit different, so maybe only a day and a half" (!)

She says something else, unsure which language this time (still Italian?) and Mikhail says it was "thank you," but judging from the look on his face I'm not so sure that was an accurate translation....

Desmond agrees to live up to his word and let him go.  As Mikhail is leaving they realize he's stolen the satellite phone!  They chase him down again.  Basically he says, "I had to try!" and after more arguing and calls for revenge from Charlie, he's sent on his way again, giving Charlie a more evil grin than before.

So now it would seem that Charlie's going to be PO's at Desmond, and it'd also seem that there's something going on with Charlie and Mikhail.  Does Mickey want revenge on Charlie for Ethan?  Is he just toying with him?  Argh!

They return to our helmeted heroine, and start building a stretcher.  There's still more arguing about letting Mikhail go, and Desmond seems to be pushing all Charlie's buttons here, "By my count you've killed more of them than they have of you!" (ouch!)

Hurley is playing with the sat. phone, when she starts to wake up.  He starts running on about who they are and where they are, and so forth.  "Oceanic 815? That's not possible! They found the wreckage of Flight 815, there were no survivors! Everyone died!"

*BIG HUGE END-OF-SHOW BONK!*

Zoiks!  More on this below!

The Glass Ballerina Pt. II

The flashback revolved around Sun this time, and was entirely in Korean with English subtitles, which made taking good notes rather difficult, what with trying to watch everything that was going on, taking in the acting, AND trying to read the subs while typing... so here's the gist of it.

In the park, shortly after Jin and Sun's wedding, she runs into an older woman.  After a bit of chitchat things get serious, as the woman seems to know more about the two of them, especially Jin.

She starts asking about his parents, and if she really knows his past.  It'd be a shame (literally) if the truth about him was exposed.  And if Sun doesn't bring her a cool $100,000 she will do just that, and reveal the fact that not only is he the son of a fisherman, but the son of a prostitute as well!

They're moving into a new apartment, and as she's unpacking photos of herself, she starts quizzing Jin about why there are no photos of him.  His story doesn't seem to line up, and he gets rather irate about the third degree business.  She of course (if you remember from before) is still in a somewhat dishonest state of mind and doesn't tell him anything.

She goes and finds Jin's father on his boat in the fishing village.  He is glad to see her, and invites her back to his house to talk.  There are pictures of Jin on the wall.  Talk turns to Jin, and why he would say that his father is dead.  "To avoid the shame" he says (but we already know all this!) and that you cannot tell him you were ever here.  Matter of fact it comes out that he's probably not even Jin's real father anyway, but raised him because the mother abandoned him here.  "You cannot tell him that either!  Do not make him suffer that shame!"

She goes to daddy, the powerful Mr. Paik.  His office is at the top of a rather elaborate set of stairs (hm.  The "Jacob's Ladder" slide, Jack and Desmond running stairs in the stadium, Locke's "escalator" vision... hrmmm....)

She asks him for the money to pay off the old woman.  "Why?" "Can't tell you."

"All these years I've pretended not to know what you do.  I'll continue pretending as long as you do this for me.  No questions asked." "We do not live in a world of no questions asked."  She tells him it would make her happier than anything, and he says that if the money is for Jin, that he will be the one to bear this debt.  And gives it to her.

Back at the apartment, there's some idle chitchat about "Where's the something or other?" "Oh its in my purse."  And she realizes that's where she's put the money.  She goes to try and stop him, but its too late.

"What is this!?"  She comes up with a bunch of excuses, "I was uh going to buy furniture. Yeah that's the ticket!"  He tells her that he will be the one to provide for her, that she needs to take it back to her father because he doesn't want to be indebted to him anymore than he already is.

Sun takes the money to the woman anyway.  "You know who I am and who my father is.  My husband thinks you are dead, do not force me to make that a reality."

So we see more of the conniving side of Sun that we first saw back in "The Glass Ballerina."  If you remember the theme of that episode, there will undoubtedly be more consequences to come of this story....

Bearer of Good News

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Sun is digging in her garden, when Jack approaches rather stealthily, intially giving Sun kidnapping deja vu.

He asks some questions about her pregnancy, some of which unnerve her.  She later asks Kate about what happened to him, and if Jack might be working for them.  Kate tells about Jack's deal, and that its just not possible.  She tells Sun about Juliet and her research, and why she wanted Claire and Aaron.

Sun storms across the beach to confront Juliet, and starts rattling off a series of questions, to which Juliet offers nothing but a blank stare, until she gets to "What happens to pregnant women on the island?!"  "They die" Juliet calmly replies, leaving Sun to take that in.

There's a (very) brief scene where Sun is sitting on the beach watching Aaron and Claire...  really brief.  Like 'what was that scene for?' brief.

Sun is in her tent asleep when Juliet comes in, she is there to take Sun to the "Staff" hatch, where Ethan took Claire.  "Why should I go with you?" "Because there may still be hope."

They hike through the jungle, torches in hand.  Turns out there is still equipment somewhere in this hatch, that Kate and company "didn't look in the right place."  Juliet tells her that if the baby was conceived off of the island that they'll probably be alright, and if not, then they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.

The hatch is still there, and they go inside.  Juliet turns the power back on.  "Why are you helping me?" Sun asks.

Juliet goes on about that "once upon a time I used to give women good news.  Then I came here."  She lost 9 patients in her 3 years here, and she wants to give someone some good news again.

Sun then fesses up about "the other man."  "It was a mistake." "We all make mistakes."

Juliet pokes around one of the lockers and pulls on a hidden lever, which opens a fairly stout blast door.  Inside is all the stuff we saw during Claire's little visit, the crib, the decorations, the rocking chair... and an ultrasound machine.  The goal is to measure the fetus, and from that determine an exact "Date Of Conception" (hence the title.)

"Why is this room hidden?" "Don't worry about it!"  (Just between you and me I think we should be worried about it!)

"What is this place?"  "This is where we'd bring the women to die."

Juliet rigs up the ultrasound and goes to work.  Sun tells her of Jin's inferitlity, and that the baby can't be his.  "And then you came here" Juliet says.  Seems that sperm counts on the island go up by a factor of five, and that's "pretty good odds."  But Sun says, "I lose either way..."  referring to the Catch-22(ha!) she's in.

They find the baby with the ultrasound, and they both get all happy about it.  According to the measurements, the baby would have been conceived on the island, and would make it Jins!  Bonus!  And then it hits both of them what else that means, that Sun is probably doomed.  "I'm sorry.  I will do what I can" Juliet says to her.

As they're leaving the hatch, Sun tells Juliet that "You gave me good news."  They figure out that from Juliet's previous patients, Sun probably only has another two months.

Then Juliet realizes she forgot to do something and goes back inside.  She opens another locker and finds a tape recorder.  Not by accident of course, as she proceeds to leave Ben a message.  She records the facts of Sun and Jin's case, and that she should have (Kate) Austen's samples shortly.

Then she turns it off and says, rather angrily, "I. Hate. You."  At least I think she turned it off. (!)

Conclusions

We get to return to Sun's past and witness more of her (undoubtedly learned) dishonest and "behind the back" actions.  This time, though, it seems that her actions are for the greater good, at least as she sees it.  We also draw a nice parallel between Jin's parentage and the shame that it would bring *him*, to the conflict of what would happen if Sun's baby is not Jin's.  What goes around comes around I guess.

And of course we finally learn that Sun's baby is Jin's.  Which means that Sun has a problem.  She's doomed.  But at least Jin won't have to bear the shame of raising someone else's child, as it appears his father may have done.

As for the return of Mikhail?  (long pause)  Unknown.  And the big bomb dropped by the mystery woman?  (another long pause) more unknown.  I don't even want to speculate.  Others have been, and I just don't think what they're saying makes any sense.  Alternate timelines and things changing because of Desmond's interference with Charlie....  Makes for a good Star Trek episode but I don't think C&D will go that route.  It's both too convenient AND too complicated all at the same time.

I still think that the staircase imagery we saw is relevant to something.  If nothing else just to show that the mere act of asking her father for this was a difficult decision for her, and that she had to cross that one last obstacle to get there.  Whether or not a connection to the "Jacob's Ladder" slide from Carl's film, or Locke's escalator vision, or anything else can be made, I dunno.

Q & A Time!

Answers!

• Jin's baby! Next!
• We know what happened to all the junk in the medical hatch now.  Scratch that one off the list.
• Juliet's feeling for Ben are becoming clearer.  My theory on her is that she's playing along with his will to try and find a way off the island.
• Learned more about Jin's heritage.
• "The Island" does seem to have mystical powers which improve health and healing, witness Mikhail's and Juliet's statements....
  

Questions!

• All Dead!? No Survivors?! OMFGWTF!!1!one!!1
• OK, Mikhail, we saw you die.  What's up with that?  Where were you going in such a hurry?  Did you see Hurley's flare or were you already looking for her?
• See the first two, they need to be repeated!
• What will happen with Sun? Will Juliet really try and help her?  Is she fed up with being the bearer of bad news and actually wants to help?
• Does J really "hate" Ben badly enough?  Whose side will she end up on?  The survivors or her own?  I think she's headed for a fallout with the Others anyway.
• Why was "Naomi" (still hasn't been spoken on the show) speaking in about 3 or 4 different languages?
• So if the island is indeed behind these healing powers, what's up with Ben?

Next Time!

One step closer to the finale!  Seems like Locke's made a "deal with the devil" if you get my drift, and has to enlist someone else to do his dirty work for him....

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