Alright, I’ve voiced my complaints on this season’s “treading water” episodes enough. In light of last week’s exceptional, Ricardo-centric episode, one would assume tonight couldn’t be anything less than a comparative letdown (short of sudden ninja attacks taking over the plot — who doesn’t love sudden ninja attacks?), especially since “The Package” was billed as a Sun/Jin episode. Blech, right? Well, color me pleasantly surprised we got an episode chockful of good stuff to analyze, and a fairly entertaining plot to boot. Ricardus’ journey to eternal life, it ain’t, but I thought it worked pretty damn well. Let’s get on with our customary thematic exercise.
I’d view tonight’s episode as consisting of two plot threads woven throughout. The more tangible of the two was the continuing battle for hearts and minds being conducted between Esau, Jacob, and now Widmore. This is assuming there’s more than two sides to this battle — we don’t yet know where Widmore’s allegiances lie, though his intimations in the past were that he served the Island above all else. I’d tend to place whoever’s looking out for the Island on the “good” side of things, but not necessarily on Jacob’s (assuming he’s good). We don’t yet know who represents good and evil between Jacob and Esau as of yet, and who’s to say either of them is good? Our perceptions are never truly on solid ground.