LOST DISCOVERIES

LOST:

... And Found

Created by: Jeffery Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof

Written by: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof

Directed by: Stephen Williams

 

Air date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2005

 

LOST, Episode 2.5 “... And Found”

by Sara

 

A Soulful Spike Society Review

www.soulfulspike.com

 

You know, it’s really not fair. I mean, think about it--I have the unenviable task of following in Rob’s stellar reviewing footsteps. Talk about adding a little pressure to my first stab at reviewing Lost. Yeesh.

 

It occurred to me as I watched “…And Found” that if you’d told the average Lost viewer at about this same time last year that Jin would become not only one of the show’s most sympathetic characters but half of a star-crossed couple, said viewer would either call the men in the white jackets or demand you share whatever you were on because it was clearly some primo stuff. The Jin we first met… well, not too many viewers would have nominated him for any “Husband of the Year” awards. Frankly, he fit more than a couple of stereotypes regarding how Asian men behave as head of their household, particularly when it comes to the women of said household

 

Yet from the very beginning, according to an article I recently read, both Daniel Dae Kim and Yoon-jin Kim knew Jin and Sun’s backstories—enabling each actor to incorporate that knowledge into their performances. Meaning that when we too became aware of Jin’s history, particularly with his wife’s father, our perception of Jin changed even when he himself hadn’t—we simply gained information that helped us contextualize his behavior and actions, thus helping us see the pattern that had been there all along. Which in turn is what made for such a smooth and natural transformation regarding our feelings towards the character from someone we’d barely miss to someone we root for and would truly mourn if he were to shuffle off the mortal coil.

 

“...And Found” added yet further context to our understanding of both Jin and Sun as they took center stage among those who spent the episode looking for—and in some cases finding—that which was lost. Sun’s hunt for her wedding ring at (we presume) the same time Jin was looking for Michael, who in turn was trying to find Walt, was paralleled in traditional Lost style by flashbacks in which we also see Sun and Jin searching for things that were less tangible yet equally as important.

 

In Sun’s case, I sensed that despite her protestations to the contrary she was hoping to make a connection of the romantic kind—albeit not necessarily through the services of a matchmaker. Her arguments with her mother as she prepared for the blind date lacked heat or even much vehemence, giving me the feeling Sun was well aware the clock was ticking when it came to her “value” as a prospective mate—she knew she was making her way down the podium from silver to bronze, as her mom so delicately put it, if not edging on being out of medal contention entirely (a metaphor that made me wonder if we can place these events around the year 1988, when Seoul hosted the summer Olympics). Which is perhaps what made Kwan’s revelation of an American girlfriend particularly disappointing—here she’d found a nice guy who had the added bonus of already meeting her parents’ approval, only to discover they were looking for different things all along: Sun genuinely was open to the possibility of making a match, while Kwan only wanted to ease the pressure he was getting from his family (and I think was genuinely dismayed to realize he’d been mistaken in believing she sought the same thing).

 

Back in the present, Sun’s search for her ring—symbol of the connection she did eventually make—helps remind us that before Jin left she was once again in the position of looking for a relationship with someone who perhaps didn’t feel the same in return; despite their farewell kiss we know Sun and Jin’s marriage was on shaky ground, their future as a couple far from certain. And because we know the return of the message bottle to their shore has given Sun more than enough reason to fear Jin is dead, we realize in a way Jack, Hurley and Locke don’t why finding her ring is so important to her—it may be all she has left of Jin. Yet I think there was more to her search than that particular motivation. Even though Sun buried the bottle in order that the other castaways could continue to have hope, it may be that she herself has not given up on it either; her relief and happiness upon finding the ring suggest to me that, to her, losing the ring meant she’d truly lost her husband—discovering something that seemed as if it was gone forever gave her new reason to hope Jin too might one day be found.

 

Meanwhile, Jin’s present-day search for Michael ultimately reflected what we see take place over the course of his flashback—in both instances Jin placed his principles above his self-interest. Which in and of itself adds new depth to our understanding of Jin’s very conflicted feelings towards his wife; we know that this same guy we just watched quit his job rather than treat a single person with anything short of basic human decency—despite how near-miraculous it was for someone of his background to have landed such a position at all—will someday beat a man senseless in front of his own daughter at the behest of his father-in-law. So, perhaps for the first time, in this episode we get a sense of what Jin truly lost when he agreed to work for Sun’s father. He didn’t just give up his dreams—in a very real way Jin sacrificed his beliefs, indeed who he was as a person, in his desire to become a husband he believed worth of wife, and in doing so he ceased being the man she fell in love with. Yet by the end of the episode, what the flashback also tells us is that Jin’s present-day determination to find and help his friend means he is on his way toward being the man Sun first bumped into once again—the man who chose doing what was right over doing what was easy.

 

In other news, bit by bit we’re also finding out a little more about our second set of castaways. Ana-Lucia is unquestionably the head of their group, but so far it seems she learned everything she needed to know about being a leader from watching Buffy’s seventh season. Libby strikes me as someone almost as ill-suited for life in the great outdoors as Shannon, yet considering how quickly Libby saw through and sized up Sawyer it appears she’s not only intelligent but perceptive as well, with a pretty solid understanding of human nature.

 

And then there’s Mr. Echo. Right now, of all the tail-enders we’ve met I think he piques my curiosity and interest the most. Self-possessed in the extreme, he radiates an air of competence not unlike that of Locke—and apparently plays a similar role within their small group, acting as hunter, tracker, and general go-to guy when it comes to all things outdoorsy. He clearly values loyalty, as seen in his decision to help Jin when he sees the man’s unwavering determination to go after Michael. Yet conversely he doesn’t necessarily expect it from Ana-Lucia, given his utter lack of surprise when she says she won’t wait for him—in fact, he clearly expected her to proceed without him.

 

Mr. Echo’s name, I suspect, is as much a fabrication as Sawyer’s. There’s an obvious symbolism in the word that immediately intrigues—in Greek myth Echo was a nymph who warned Zeus of Hera’s imminent arrival, thus saving him from being caught with his loincloth down; as punishment Hera cursed Echo so that she was unable to say things of her own devising but instead could only repeat exactly what was said to her. In our understanding of the word today an echo is still merely a copy of a thing, not the genuine article, making me wonder if our guy considers himself but a semblance of a man, or at least the man he once was? Furthermore, a pamphlet I read at a printing company while waiting to talk our contact there just the other day helped me recognize another, equally interesting facet of that particular word: in the radio operators alphabet, where A equals Alpha, B is Bravo, and C is Charlie, Echo represents the letter E. And given that we already know the tail-ender’s group consists of Ana-Lucia, Bernard, and Cindy, who’s to say Jin’s new buddy didn’t notice and pick something in keeping with that interesting little pattern?

 

Finally, we at last had confirmation that the Others are indeed a group unto themselves, separate from Ana-Lucia and her band of survivors. Moving as silently through the woods as any wild predator—more quietly, in fact, than the boar Jin encountered—the simple sight of their muddied bare feet and legs is as sure a sign as the corpse they left skewered on a stake that these folks have gone native. The teddy bear trussed in wire is but the chilly icing on a very creepy cake.

 

Structurally, “…And Found” features what I believe is a Lost first: flashbacks from the perspective of two characters in the same episode. Obviously we’ve seen the castaways appear in each other’s backstories, and in the season finale we were treated to glimpses of each of our regulars as they made their separate ways onto Oceanic flight 815. But not until now has an episode split its flashback time to feature two distinct—albeit connected—points of view as “And Found” did in showing us how Jin and Sun met. I also have to applaud the transitions from the present-day scenes to those set in the past, which moved seamlessly from a physical detail in the “now”—Sun’s bare left hand, Jin walking past our field of vision—to the exact same detail in the ensuing flashback.

 

Moreover, I have to applaud the masterful way the directing, musical score and ambient soundtrack were employed to heighten the tension as we waited for our first glimpse of the Others to almost unbearable levels. The fade of the score to a steady drumbeat as Echo became increasingly aware something was amiss; the way that beat ended the moment Echo turned, finger on his lips, to shush Jin; the utter silence, other than the natural noises of the forest, as the duo hid in the bushes; and finally the resumption of that same drumbeat, reminiscent of both a human heartbeat and the kind of tribal drums so often heard in those old B movies set in the jungle, as the Others strode by. Way to get the adrenaline pumping, team.

 

And finally, some brief observations I didn’t have the brainpower to work in above but wanted to throw out there for your consideration anyway:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I’d say this was one of those episodes that doesn’t necessarily knock your socks off the first time through, but turns out to be pretty rewarding once you’ve had a chance to consider everything you’ve seen. It wasn’t the most action-packed or earth-shattering hour of the season or the series, but it did its share of stage setting and plot forwarding. Most important, “... And Found” provided viewers with a chance to catch our collective breath as we head into what promises to be a stretch of fairly intense episodes between the return of Michael, Jin and Sawyer, what they’ll have to tell their friends about the existence of the Others, the news of Walt’s kidnapping, and of course the inevitable turmoil that will accompany the addition of new personalities to a group dynamic that’s pretty damn complicated already. A solid addition to what’s shaping up to be one of those rare sophomore seasons that actually lives up to the promise of the first. Nice job, gang.


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