Part Mop. Part Puppet. All Crazy.
Tonight’s episode of Lost, The Glass Ballerina, was all about truthfulness. Actually, it was all about lies and deceit, but they’re both sides of the same coin.
The title refers to an object Sun breaks as a child and the white lie she tells is some kind of portent of her future behavior. Unable to take responsibility for any of her mistakes or misdeeds.
The other unifying theme is adultery. It seems that Sun & Jin aren’t the only unfaithful couple. Benry (Benjamin Linus) seems to have had a fling with Colleen and Juliet knows about it.
On to my thoughts.
More than just those described above. The episode also dealt with people who know they’re being deceived.
Jin knows (I think) about Sun’s adultery but considers it a price he must pay to maintain their union.
Jack, on the other hand, must not know that he’s a pawn. Benjamin is lying on some counts; he has to be.
Jack’s wife Sarah cheated on him.
Jin cheated on Sun with Jae.
Ben cheated on Juliet with Colleen.
Anyone else I’m missing?
Could there be other jilted lovers on the island? I think so.
How did The Others not know about the boat. It seems an odd omission of knowledge.
Do they know about Desmond? Or that Penelope is looking for him?
Next week’s story should fill in some details, but The Boat seems like something they would/should have known about.
Sayid wants to take two hostages; The Others have two hostages (Sawyer & Kate).
The aforementioned adultery/lying storylines.
I think the whole point of this narrative structure was to show us (the viewers) that The Others are not as evil as we thought AND/OR the Lostaways aren’t as good as we thought.
Who knows, though. I sucked at comparative literature.
I gotta imagine Jae was pushed. With how controlling Sun’s father is, I don’t think he trusted Jin to finish the job.
Also, how did Sun’s dad know about her tryst with Jae? Was he having her followed? Did he know about Jin’s infertility?
I think I’m pretty convinced Jae is the father of Sun’s child.
The biggest bombshell. Henry Gale is Benjamin Linus (if he’s to be believed) and The Others have a connection to the outside world. Oh, and he’s been on the island all his life.
Jack’s question still stands “If they can leave, why don’t they?”
I think a ton of issues are still in play:
Are the Dharma Stations still active? Did they ever serve their purported purposes or were they monitoring stations for The Others? Is the Dharma Initiative still active or has the Hanso Foundation given up on it.
Again, how did The Others not know about The Boat?!
Tons of exciting points to ponder until next week. (69 days, etc.)
Oh, and how cute was it to see the two grifters Kate & Sawyer sizing up their captors and playing their con. I knew that kiss couldn’t have been just a hormonal rush.
I’m sure I’ll update this post at some point. Until then.
You're reading Mostly Muppet the personal blog of Seth Miller [About].
I don't really blog that much about Muppets, despite the URL, and focus mainly on Lost, etymology and whatever else strikes my fancy
The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
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Nick
October 12th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Something I noticed about the tazer. I’m pretty sure it had the one line going across on it. That was the symbol on the shark, right? So the tazer comes from the underwater hatch, maybe? I’m probably wrong. And I have a lack of sleep right now. I’ll have to watch it again.
Greg
October 12th, 2006 at 8:38 am
I thought it was pretty boring all in all, but the end was funny when Benjamin was telling Jack of “recent” events
Will
October 12th, 2006 at 9:55 am
The Others may very well know that Desmond had a boat, and may have puzzled out (or observed) that he left in it, but have they had an opportunity to see him come back in it? Remember, in the timeline of the show, Desmond floated back in that boat something like two, three days ago, right?
So, the Others just hadn’t put together/assumed yet that this was the same boat as Desmond’s. Ben might just as well be saying, “What? Did Desmond come back?” when he gets all shocked about the boat.
Jennifer
October 12th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Isn’t it funny that the two criminals (Kate and Sawyer) are behind bars? I have to wonder if The Others plan to send them back to the U.S. in handcuffs.
Also, didn’t Sun’s dad walk in on her and Jae? I think Jae jumped - partly out of “honor” and partly because he didn’t want his life to go on without her in it. If someone had pushed him, how would someone know to put the pearls in his hand? I don’t think Jin knows about Jae, hence his surprise at his apparent suicide. It would be interesting to know how long after Sun slept with Jae that she and Jin took the doomed flight. If we knew that and we are told at some point how far along Sun is in her pregnancy, we might could tell if it was Jae’s baby or not. The “who’s my baby daddy” storyline couldn’t have happened to a more innocent looking person.
dpb
October 12th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Man, you’re posts are normally so insightful about the show but this time I think you missed it. My thoughts:
Okay, first up, and this may be my fault (I did have 4 Crown & Cokes by the time the show started), but how do we know Ben & Colleen had an affair? Did I miss something?
I’m not so certain Jin knew about Sun and Jae getting jiggy wit’it. I’m thinking he would have actually killed him if he did. Which brings me to Jae’s death. I think he jumped. Granted, Sun’s ol’man could have had a backup killer but I believe the focus on the pearls in his hand was an indication that he didn’t want to go on living without Sun. While we’re on the topic, although Jae could be Sun’s baby-daddy, I don’t exactly buy it. How much time had passed between the last Sun/Jae rendezvous and the trip to Australia. Sure it’s plausible. I’m just not sure it’s probable. When they revealed Sun’s pregnancy last season, wasn’t it right after they revealed that Rose’s illness was no longer affecting her? The implication was that the ginormous magnet was keeping her healthy just as we assumed it was making Jin’s swimmers more swimmy. Also, didn’t Kate (or was it Claire?) ask Sun if the kid was Jin’s?
And as for Sun’s pop knowing about Jae/Sun. They were in HIS hotel. If you’re going to cheat on your husband, better do it in a hotel not owned by your father. Just saying…
As for Jack not knowing he’s a pawn, how would he? So far, he’s not been asked to do anything (besides sit in the corner with his back to the wall). Jack is very suspicious of The Others and not very trusting to begin with. Granted, knowledge that the Others have some level of connection with the outside world, may soften him a little. We’ll see.
The boat… I believe sufficiently answered by another commenter. Maybe the Others didn’t know Desmond was back? Speaking of Desmond. Sure they know about him. Wasn’t his hatch-buddy an Other?
As for the bi-narrative analysis, The Others have 3 hostages (don’t forget Jack) not two.
Again, maybe this one is my fault but how is Henry Gale being Benjamin Linus a bombshell? We found out last episode that his name was Ben. We pretty much knew his name was not Henry Gale a la the ID found on the real Henry Gale buried under the balloon. Am I missing something? Has the name Benjamin Linus come up previously and I’ve just forgotten about it? And having been on the island his entire life? eh… interesting, but not all that outrageous.
The real bombshell was the revelation that the Others do have a connection to the outside world. That literaly floored me… and gave me a good laugh. As soon as Ben mentioned the Red Sox winning the World Series, I knew Jack wasn’t going to believe him. To have the video to prove it though… simply astounding.
Finally, Jack’s question about why the Others haven’t left. Again, interesting, but not all that puzzling. Some people would give their left nut (maybe Ben has) to live on a tropical paradise their entire life … especially when you’re the boss.
Okay, that was a long comment… but justified with a show such as this. Can’t wait for next week!
RSL
October 12th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I’ve only got a minute to comment but I don’t think Sun’s kid is Jae Lee’s because she’d be showing more/SOME. It’s 69+ days after they’d have conceived.
Oh and, dpb, the hotel is Jae Lee’s father’s not Sun’s.
Seth
October 12th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
1) The sexual tension in the scene when Colleen interrupts Juliet and Ben leads me to SPECULATE that they were an item. I’m still going on the hunch that Ben and Juliet are no longer an item and someone broke them up. Just a theory.
2) The Others seem to be fairly detail oriented, anal folks. They know first and last names. They have taken great care to be nigh omniscient. If they knew about Desmond’s boat, wouldn’t they also be thorough enough to say “They have Desmond’s boat.”? These don’t seem link rank amateurs. They would have noted the name of the boat and relayed that information to Ben.
3) I’m more confused now that I’ve had a day to think about the whole Jin/Sun story. If Jae is dead, who is Sun running to when she almost leaves Jin at the Australian airport. I think RSL blogged this, but it does bring up a great point. Also, I think there’ another twist waiting to happen on the baby front. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Maybe Sun got busy on the island?
RSL
October 12th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Good point about the boat, Seth. I’m also guessing if they’d known about Desmond or his boat, surely at some point they’d have tried to capture at least one of them.
Despite the fact that I don’t really believe it [despite having blogged it as well], remember that UK promo where Sun is dancing with Michael? And all that tension between them. OMG, think about this… Jae Lee teaches her English and is the only one who knows she knows it. Michael, too, is [for a long while] the sole person privy to Sun’s linguistic prowess. Hrm… Maybe. But I don’t really believe it.
D.ahrm.a
October 13th, 2006 at 1:11 am
Jack’s question (”If you can leave, why don’t you?”) really isn’t of interest to me. If they can leave, why won’t they help the victoms of the plane crash leave?
Bill
October 13th, 2006 at 1:49 am
I’m with DPB in that I disagree with a lot of your analysis of this week’s episode. But I don’t think you’re missing things, I just think the show makes so many things intentionally vague and mysterious, allowing for a lot of different thoughts on the issues.
In other words, your guess is as good as mine on these topics, but here’s what I disagreed with you on:
1. We’re not even sure Ben and Juliette were together, are we? Ben didn’t show up to the book club, and there definitely seems to be tension between the two, but I’m guessing that has something to do with a power coup that will come up again. Maybe Juliette was the leader, but Ben usurped her authority. And I’m not sure where you got that Colleen and Ben were involved. She was even kissing the other guy at the work site. I just didn’t see anything between her and Ben.
2. I don’t think Jin knows about Sun’s infidelity. He couldn’t even handle the info that it was he that was sterile–could he really handle the shame of knowing his wife had an affair? Also, I think Jin would’ve killed Jae (or at least been more certain that he wanted to find him and do him harm) had he known. But you may be right about the baby being Jae’s. If it is, though, how would the audience or the islanders ever know? I don’t think the baby is Michael’s, but it would be easier, visually, to demonstrate than trying to show us that the Asian baby is actually the child of another, similar-looking-to-dumb-Americans Asian man.
3. I thought Sawyer’s kiss was actually a way to give Kate a break. She was starting to look pretty shaky there, and he wanted so much to help her, so he did something he knew would provoke the guards and end their day’s work. Sure, he told Kate all about his “feeling out” of the bad guys, but I think he meant, all along, to take some punishment so Kate could have a break. If he did mean to do it just to test the others’ mettle, fellow grifter Kate wasn’t in on it. Heck, she didn’t react at all once the punches started flying. If she’d been in on the move, she may have at least participated in the brawl.
Anyway, I always enjoy reading your analysis, even when I disagree. And that’s one of the best things about this show: right now, at least, there’s no right answer. We’re all fumbling in the dark, so any guess is as good as any other until proven incorrect. :)
4. I think Jack (who does make three hostages, by the way), does know he’s a pawn, at least in the sense that he knows he’s part of some crazy game. He’s constantly trying to suss out their angle and what the proper move should be to stay ahead of his captors. He doesn’t have a clue as to what they’re doing or what he wants, but the fact that he tried to lie about who and what he was shows that he’s doing his best to keep up with a game for which he doesn’t know the rules.
Greg
October 14th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Here’s something neat.
Google “Benjamin Linus” and look in the sponsor links.
Hanso Adoptions?