I have to admit, I had my doubts about this week’s installment of Lost. Jin and Sun shows usually tend to be a bit of a culdesac in terms of plot, but that changes this week as the Lost creative team delivers a show on par with the best of the season, and an ending that shares a deep emotional tie with last year’s finale. “Ji-Yeon” just may be the best Sun-Jin episode ever. It answers some important questions and provides the final fate of a longtime cast member.

Spoilers follow.

photo credit: wcm1111

“Ji-Yeon” is framed by a flash forward — in the future, Sun goes into labor and rushes to the hospital. Once there, she experiences complications that may result in a C-Section. Knowing the fate of all the pregnant women in Othertown, one must wonder if Sun is experiencing the lingering effects of the Island on pregnant women.

Meanwhile, seemingly across town, Jin rushes to buy a stuffed panda for his new daughter. A series of unfortunate events threaten to make him late for the delivery, and as Sun calls out to him in the hospital to no avail, the audience is left to wonder what the state of their relationship is when they get off the Island. We will soon find out.

Back in the past, a conversation with Daniel leads Sun to believe that the best course of action for the safety of her family is to leave Jack’s Beach Camp and move into the Baracks with Locke and what now seems to be the majority of the original cast. Daniel’s refusal to say whether or not the freighter crew is on the Island to rescue them, makes Sun suspect that Dan and his team are going to do them harm. Juliet, however, knows that Sun will die if she makes that choice, so she pulls out all the stops in trying to convince Sun and Jin to stay at camp. Her past lies have caught up with her, though, and Sun and Jin don’t trust her. So Juliet plays her final card — she reveals to Jin that Sun cheated on him before coming to the Island. Devestated, Jin heads out on the ocean with Bernard to fish and clear his head, while Sun stays behind worrying that her marriage is in ruins.

While this is going on, Sayid and Desmond apparently have been locked up on the Freighter since we last saw them. Frank comes to visit, delivering a few cans of beans (the kitchen, he says, has a “problem”), and warns them not to try to bust out again. He’s disturbed to learn, however, that someone on the boat let them out back in “The Constant,” and that they did not actually break out of sick bay on their own. After Frank leaves, someone slips our boys a note warning them not to trust the Captain.

On Carl’s old catamaran, Jin and Bernard are fishing. I think it bears mentioning that Jin’s English has now been established as much better than before. Bernard tells Jin about how Rose had cancer, but that the Island appears to have healed her. Even with this knowledge, however, Rose chose to stay with Jack and leave the Island, rather than go off with Locke.

It’s here that Bernard echoes what a lot of the audience has been thinking when he explains that “Locke’s a murderer.” He and Rose won’t follow a man like that, even if it means that Rose may leave the Island and get cancer again.

“I guess that makes us the good guys,” Bernard says. To me, this crystalizes the difference between Jack and Locke’s sides — the dark side/light side dichotomy introduced way back in the pilot of the show. Jack may be stressed and a little unhinged, but at least he’s not a deranged sociopathic fanatic like Locke. Oh yeah, and he’s not as much of a dupe as Locke, either.

Bernard then brings up karma and the importance of doing good in the world. Jin understands and agrees, and so he quietly makes a decision on what to do about Sun.

On the freighter, Desmond and Sayid are taken to the captain. As they make their way across the deck of the boat, they see Regina, played by stuntwoman and actress Zoe Bell, walk across the deck wrapped in chains. She casually steps over the guardrail and falls into the ocean. Although Desmond and Sayid are horrified, the rest of the freighter crew seems to only vaguely care about what’s just happened. It’s hard to believe that a guest star billed well before the start of the season would appear as a disembodied voice, and then die in what is effectively a walk-on cameo. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Regina — otherwise it seems like a waste of the actress.

Sayid and Desmond finally meet the Captain who is a reasonable-seeming Australian guy. He explains that the crew are experiencing an intense kind of cabin fever, and that it’s possibly being caused by their proximity to the Island. Unfortunately, there’s a saboteur aboard, so they are unable to leave their current position.

The Captain takes them to his office where openly reveals that the boat is owned by Charles Widmore, and it’s fairly clear that he understands Desmond’s connection to the Widmore family. But that’s now old news to the audience — he has even better information to reveal. It just so happens that he’s keeping the black box from “Oceanic 815″ in a safe in his office. Of course, we all know that it’s not the real black box, but the one taken from the plane found at the bottom of the sea.

Why, the Captain wonders, would someone go to all the expense and trouble to plant a crashed plane at the bottom of the Indian ocean? And who would get the 314 bodies needed to make such a stunt seem authentic?

This question why, he says, that he needs to get ahold of Benjamin Linus. Of course, given their history with Ben, Sayid and Desmond are hardpressed not to believe him. The note says not to trust the Captain, but isn’t Ben a genocidal maniac? Didn’t he kill the entire Dharma Initiative for reasons that have yet to be fully explained? If you ask me, I’d be more inclined to trust Widmore’s freighter crew than I would Ben.

Back on the Island in perhaps one of the finest scenes of the whole series, Jin comes to Sun and tells her that he forgives her for cheating on him. He know what kind of man he used to be — he was a horrible person before he came to the Island. But now he’s different — he’s a better man as a result of everything that’s happened to him. He just wants to know if the baby is his. Sun truthfully (and quite emotionally) tells him that it is his. In the past I’ve had a hard time connecting with Jin and Sun, but this moment — of both forgiveness and acceptance — had an honesty to it that is on the same level of some of the great moments of the show. I really felt for these two characters and hoped that their story arc would experience a postive outcome.

Back in the future, Sun gives birth to a baby girl. Jin finally makes it to the hospital, but we learn that his storyline has been a red herring — and a flashback. This is past-Jin (actually, way-way -past Jin), who is working for Sun’s father and trying to curry favor with a Chinese ambassador whose daughter has just given birth. Jin is not with Sun in the future — but the question is, where is he? Back on the Island, or worse?

After she makes it home from the hospital, Sun is visited by Hurley, who is the only one of the Oceanic Six to make the journey to see her. Of course, we know that the others are indisposed — Jack is suicidal and addicted to hillbilly heroin, Kate is legally barred from leaving the state of California, and Sayid is off traveling the world as a hitman for Ben. Who is the final member of the six? We’re not going to get that answer tonight — though we will soon learn who it isn’t. After a few awkward moments with the baby, Hurley says that they should take her to see Jin.

Following their meeting with the Captain, Sayid and Desmond are given “proper” quarters on the freighter. Not only are they sharing their cabin with a dozen cockroaches, but there is a suspicious red splatter on the wall, suggesting that someone very recently blew their brains out there. The Doctor is mildly troubled by this, and calls for a crewman to come clean it up. At long last, Ben’s mole on the ship — and the worst kept secret in the history of Lost — is revealed. “Kevin” the crewman is in fact Michael. Although I’m not sure if Michael and Desmond ever met, Sayid manages to keep his familiarity with him a secret. The teaser at the end of the episode gives some hints of conflict between Sayid and Michael next week, but this is where the freighter arc ends in the current installment.

The final scene of the show features Sun and Hurley at Jin’s grave. It’s unclear how Jin died, but my assumption is that he is a member of the Oceanic Eight, who in Jack’s fiction survived the crash, but did not all survive to be rescued (only the Oceainc Six were rescued). I believe very strongly that the final member of the six, despite the fact that sites like Aintitcool say otherwise, has yet to be revealed.

As Sun recounted the birth of her daughter at her husband’s graveside, I found myself hit by a flood of emotion. Jin is not a character I have particularly connected to, but the thought of him not being able to see his daughter before he died really hit home for me. In many ways, his death is more tragic that Charlie’s — but given how they’ve set up Jin’s redemption arc, I’m sure it will be just as heroic and self-sacrificing.

Not to repeat myself again, but this was a very strong episode. Both the freighter and the Oceanic Six arcs were advanced significantly, and we got some excellent acting and character moments from Sun, Jin and Bernard. It’s no question to me now that this is the best show on television — network or cable.

I give this week’s episode a predictable (but well-deserved) 5 out of 5 Walts:

photo credit: wcm1111