Major Trauma

SPOILER WARNING – DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN THE ENTIRE SERIES

As if I didn’t have enough to occupy my time, I decided to watch some season 1 Lost episodes to prime myself for the remainder of season 6. As you may or may not have noticed, each of the season 6 episodes thus far have served as a sort of mirror-image or companion piece to their season 1 counterparts (“LA X” to the pilot; “What Kate Does” to “Tabula Rasa;” etc.). This week brings us “Sundown,” presumably a Sun/Jin-centric episode, and so we go back to season 1’s “House of the Rising Sun,” originally aired October 27th, 2004.

There are three significant storylines to follow in “…Rising Sun.” The central storyline focuses on Sun and Jin’s initial courtship and marriage, followed by their gradual estrangement as Jin goes deeper into shadow working as an enforcer for Sun’s father, Mr. Paik. Despite Jin’s offerings of white flowers, apartment redecoration and a dog named Bpo-Bpo, she makes the covert decision to leave him once they touch down in Sydney (en route to deliver an expensive watch to one of Mr. Paik’s colleagues in Los Angeles). She ends up changing her mind, however, apparently still believing there is good in Jin, and that she still loves him too much to leave. If the pattern of season 6 holds true, I’d guess “Sundown” will give us a possible reunion between the two long-separated lovers (3+ years?)

This is also the episode we learn Sun speaks English, revealing her fluency only to Michael in explaining why Jin attacked him earlier on the beach (for the aforementioned watch).

The second subplot involves Charlie’s heroin addiction and Locke’s first attempts at rehabilitating him. Locke makes allusions to the Island’s power to provide for those in need, and in Charlie’s case, it will somehow deliver his beloved guitar if he only gives up the last of his dwindling stash of H. Charlie finally does give in to Locke’s prodding and is rewarded with his guitar.

This certainly wasn’t the end of Charlie’s addiction storyline, which reached a climax of sorts with the subsequent episode, “The Moth.” More on that next week, perhaps.

The final subplot involved Jack’s attempts to migrate the 815 survivors from the beach to the newly-discovered Caves and the abundant freshwater therein. This effort essentially splits the castaways in two, Kate, Sayid and Sawyer opting to stick on the beach hoping for rescue; Jack, Hurley, Charlie and Locke withdrawing into the jungle and the relative protection of the Caves. Much like the prospect of a Sun-Jin reunion, perhaps “Sundown” will bring the time travelers (Jack, Kate, Jin, Sawyer, Hurley, etc.) and the Ajira 316 castaways (Ben, Sun, Frank, Ilana) back together again. So be it, but “House of the Rising Sun” is especially notable for an altogether different element.

Kate stumbles upon a number of dessicated corpses laid to rest in the Caves, none the apparent victims of foul play. As Jack remarks, there was “no major trauma to the bones.” He also adds that the clothing deterioration looks to put the age of the decay at 40-50 years (approximately 1954…remember that year in Lost lore?) Among the corpses is one female, prompting them to dub the bodies, “Adam & Eve.”

One of the two is carrying a pouch containing the black and white stones I’ve referenced in a few recaps the last two seasons.

Whoever the two corpses are, I’d extrapolate their possession of the stones to figure they have some knowledge of the good vs. evil / light vs. dark battle being waged on the Island. Perhaps they chose to die in peace rather than take part in whatever “game” Jacob and Esau were playing. One particular line of dialogue piqued my interest in this episode, pertaining to Kate’s unwillingness to move to the Caves and all but give up on the chances of a rescue: “I don’t wanna be Eve.” Imagine the irony if it turns out Eve is none other than a time-traveling Kate. I’d like to imagine she finally grew tired of the constant running and found peace alongside “Adam,” content to die on the Island that’s shaped the destinies of the 815 castaways. As to the identity of Adam in such a hypothesis, I’m not gonna go there, lest I have an aneurysm talking about the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle.

Miscellaneous

• • Ah yes, an eye shot.

    

• • An unfortunate scene involving Charlie stepping on a beehive seemed awkward, but it gave us Kate half-naked and hilarious, digital bees attacking Charlie, so it wasn’t all bad.

    

• “…Rising Sun” is the first season 1 episode I’d watched in quite a while, and it was interesting to see the relative immaturity of the characters (development-wise), but with subtle shadings of where’d they’d end up. On that same note (no pun intended), Michael Giacchino’s score for the episode was much more ambient and atmospheric than the focused, intense compositions we’ve seen in the last couple of seasons. It lends an air of mystery to the precedings; altogether appropriate in light of all that was still to come.

Other Stuff from Other Sites

• • “This is the first episode when the whooshing noise is made before and after every flashback.”: [Lostpedia]

• • D’oh! “Jack says ‘It takes 40 or 50 years for clothing to degrade like this’ when talking of Adam and Eve. However in ‘Deus Ex Machina’, Locke says ‘Normally clothing would completely decompose within 2 years, but this is high quality polyester. Could be 2 years, could be 10’.” [Lostpedia]

• “‘Are You Sure?’: at the end of the episode, Hurley is listening to this Willie Nelson song on his CD player. The chorus of this song repeats the question, ‘Are you sure this is where you want to be?’, reflecting the survivors’ choice of the beach or the caves.” [Lostpedia]

That wasn’t too painful; I’ll see if I can knock one of these out each Monday, provided the mirror-image pattern of seasons 1 and 6 continue. Until tomorrow night…