Review: Lost 6.10: The Package

Jin and Sun have a better relationship in the other timeline.

Lost - Season Six, Episode Ten - The Package
Written between 18th and 20th February 2013

Jin and Sun - the eternal romance. The show's longest running couple often seems rather reptitive in the way that the only captivating way to draw drama from it seemed to be to have them seperate, be brought together again and then seperate with almost infinite progression. Adding to this slight tedium is that it has, at least for me, always been difficult to get a grasp of Jin as a character - my fault more than anything, probably, but I've never really found them that interesting.
     The flashsideways became, for me, rather more interesting with the second appearance this season of Flash-Sideways Martin Keamy, the episode running concurrently with Sayid's story in Sundown. In this universe, Jin and Sun's relationship isn't blessed by Sun's father, and instead of running away from her marriage, she's planning to elope with him against her father's wishes. The couple have a night of passion and are then caught by Keamy's operation. While Sun goes with translator Mikhail (who was a minor villain in Season 3) to her bank, Keamy ties Jin up in a freezer. Sayid kills Keamy and his gang, and frees Jin. Sayid gone, Jin is forced to shoot Mikhail, and accidentally catches a pregnant Sun in the process.
     In the main timeline, The Man In Black's camp got attacked while he was out, leading to Widmore's team holding Jin captive. The MIB goes to Sun and tells her that he has Jin, but she doesn't trust him and ends up hitting her head as she runs away. While the MIB goes back and discovers his camp waking up after being shot with sedatives, it's found that Sun has aphasia and has temporarily forgotten how to speak English. She reacts badly when Richard returns to the group and describes his plans to blow up the Ajira plane. Widmore is kind to Jin, and shows him pictures of his daughter Ji Yeon, telling him that they must stop the MIB and that they can do that using The Package. As MIB's spy Sayid finds out, the Package is in fact a kidnapped Desmond.

MIB confronts Widmore over Jin's capture.

     I can't quite describe how much I like Kevin Durand, especially in this role. Off-island Keamy is a lot less brutal than his unforgivable appearance in the main timeline, and I really do enjoy how much he enjoys being a villain. It's something rather refeshing in Lost - there's no soppy background story, no great belief system. Keamy is just a gangster who really enjoys being an asshole, and he improves every scene he's in.
     I am being incredibly and unashamedly biased when I say that this episode doesn't really have much for me to talk about, and that's soley because I find neither of the two characters this episode focusses around very captivating. Jin and Sun's arc ended a long time ago, and they've been stringing along on a series of wild-goose chases since the end of Season Four. The Package felt very, very padded, and didn't do much for me besides provide a fun final performance for Keamy and a hint towards next week's spectacular Desmond episode.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: With Desmond on the scene, will everyone live Happily Ever After?