Lost Re-Watch / Season 1 - House of the Rising Sun

So here is our first Sun and Jin centric episode. I think I feel the same as the majority of Lost fans, Sun and Jin episodes aren't usually all that interesting. I know Jin is a good person eventually, and Sun has made mistakes, so I didn't really find all that much new in the flashbacks here. The on island stuff however...

Thoughts / House of the Rising Sun

"When Jin attacks Michael without provocation, a rivalry begins to form, much to Sun's dismay. Meanwhile, Jack proposes that everyone move to the caves, though some argue that this would  giving up on possible rescue. Flashbacks in this episode concentrate around Sun and Jin's marriage and how it was slowly falling apart." - Lostpedia

We begin with Sun watching Jin fishing in the water, while she is smelling flowers. Was Jin just catching fish with his bare hands? Crazy. Suddenly Sun notices that Kate is speaking with Jack. She's hearing everything they're saying in English, reminding us re-watchers that she understands them perfectly. The conversation between Jack and Kate begins with Jack's tattoo's. Setting up a future episode that we'll eventually see in season 3, explaining the origins of Jack's tattoo's. Yup.


We're tossed into a flashback and Sun is at a party her father has put on. It's evening, and Sun is wearing a beautiful pink dress. A waiter arrives to hand her a drink. He's also slipped her a secret note on a napkin, and we see that the waiter is in fact Jin. They meet in private and discuss eloping together. Jin seems very different from the quiet - almost abusive - Korean man we know currently on the island. He hands Sun a flower and we're pulled out of the flashback, back to the island, to see Jin stomping over towards Michael and Walt who are walking along the beach.

Jin picks up speed and tackles Michael into the water. It definitely seems like Jin is trying to drown Michael, and right in front of Walt as well. Walt tries to help but Jin pushes him down onto the sand. He yells for help. Sayid and (quite surprisingly) Sawyer come running to the rescue. Sayid tackles Jin off Michael. Sayid restrains Jin and demands that Sawyer give him the sky marshal's handcuffs. Sawyer hands them to Sayid and he cuffs Jin to a large piece of plane wreckage.


Next we have some awesome jungle wandering music. Jack and Kate are heading to the newly discovered caves. Once they arrive they begin going through some of the luggage that was found along with Jack's father's coffin. Jack specifically asks Charlie to keep an eye out for drugs. I love how Charlie responds. Once Jack leaves you can see Charlie get a chill up his spine with the simple mention of the word "drugs" by Jack, Charlie immediately heads outside for some alone time with his stash. Charlie leans up against and tree and John Locke catches him. Charlie assumes he's in trouble for the drug use but John informs him that he's standing on a beehive. "I thought beehives were supposed to be in trees?" says a panicked Charlie.

Back on the beach we see Sayid doing some light interrogating once again. He's asking Michael what he did to Jin. Michael immediately responds in anger at being accused of something. He hasn't done anything. Sun points at her wrist and says something in Korean. Sayid shouts "The cuffs stay on!" Sun is obviously trying to explain the watch situation that we find out about later on in the episode. Brilliant writers I tell ya.

Back in Korea, Jin is asking Sun's father if he can take her hand in marriage. Although all we see is a worried and anxious Sun while she waits for Jin. When he arrives he leads her on as if he has bad news, but then tells her that her father has given them his blessing. There's a catch though, he needs to work for her father. Jin seems to think that "after a year of management training" he'll perhaps be able move on to something else. However we know that doesn't end up being the case. Even on the island, Jin is still very loyal to her father with this whole upcoming watch issue with Michael.

It's Charlie versus the beehive. John, Jack, and Kate are gathered and trying to help Charlie get away unscathed. According to John if he moves he'll split the hive so they find a briefcase to try and cover it up. Charlie gets stung on the neck though and the hive splits wide open. The bees attack and our Losties all escape to the caves. Suddenly we're introduced to "our very own Adam and Eve" as John cleverly states. Their names could have actually been Adam and Eve, since I don't believe we ever were given proper names. I could be wrong as I've only seen most of season 6 once, so the mother could have said her name in there somewhere. Comment below if I'm wrong on this, please.

Jack finds the black and white stones on one of the corpses that were laid to rest in the wall. These stones turned out to be game pieces that Jacob had left in his brothers pocket. A game that he and his brother had once played long ago.

In the next flashback Sun arrives from what looks like expensive shopping. She finds a present waiting for her, it's her new puppy, Popo if I remember correctly from a later episode. Jin tells her that she'll need to train it and when Sun asks to spend time with him, he gets a phone call. Jin tells her "It's your father." almost as if it's her fault and so he shouldn't feel bad about it. Which, when you really think about it, it totally is her fault. Because of the choices Sun has made on her path in life, her husband has to pay the consequences by working for her father. Seems Jin may have known more about his wife than we thought he did. Maybe he had a feeling she had something to do with Jin's employment.

Back in the caves (I'll probably be saying that a lot for the remainder of the season) Jack is beginning to try to convince people to move from the beach to the caves. The caves give them fresh water and protection from the sun and predators. Sounds like a good idea right?

We have a quick scene with Michael and Walt where Walt is asking what his father did to the Korean people. Michael is offended and wonders what Walt's mother said about him. Walt argues that Michael doesn't even know his birthday. Michael responds with "August 24th, what's mine?" Walt has no clue. Michael shrugs it off and continues walking down the beach with his son.


Sun is speaking with Jin and asking if they should try to communicate and explain themselves. Jin exclaims "We will not explain ourselves to a thief!" Then we're tossed into another flashback where Jin is rushing in the door covered in blood. Jin heads into the bathroom to wash up and Sun realizes that it's not Jin's blood. Jin refuses to talk to Sun and tell what's going on, no doubt because it's her father and doesn't want her to know how he actually runs his automotive business.

Jack and Kate are heading back to the beach with fresh water for everyone. Kate goes to tie her shoe and assumes Jack is checking her out. She confronts him on it and Jack, the stupid idiot, starts changing the subject. Jack is trying to plan out how they're going to convince everyone to move into the caves. Kate tells him that she's not even convinced of the idea as of yet.

Back in the caves (see, told ya) Charlie looks around to see if anybody is watching, then heads outside. Locke steps up behind Charlie and begins tagging along behind. "Are you following me?" asks an annoyed Charlie. "Yes" responds Locke. "Bugger off." "I know who you are and what you're looking for." Locke somehow knows all about Charlie's band. I don't really have a theory on this, because knowing how Locke's life was, I doubt he really got into Drive Shaft through coincidence, if was at all. Just a thought, but maybe Smokie showed him information that he would need in order to gain everyone's trust. I'm not sure why this would be? Or even how really. I just remember Smokie showing Mr. Eko a handful of images later on in the show.

Locke wants to help Charlie with his drug addiction. Charlie just wants his guitar again. Locke tells him that "You'll see it again." "Because I have faith."

Now we begin to see some seeds planted for later episodes. Jack begins trying to convince people to move to the caves. Jack tries to talk Sayid into the idea but he won't go for it. He believes that rescue could be awarded if they stay on the beach and wait. It's quite curious since Jack is the sole reason a few escape the island later on. For now though, Jack wants to make a home within those caves.


Kate and Sawyer play cat and mouse. Kate wants to know if Sawyer is moving to the caves, or staying on the beach. While Sawyer is asking her the same question. I'm guessing they don't really come to a proper conclusion since they both end up staying together on the beach while Jack goes to hide in the caves.

Michael heads out to chop some wood. Sun notices and follows. Here comes the big scene of the episode. Sun confronts Michael and in English, asks for help.

Flashback time. Sun is planning her escape while her husband is busy on the phone, no doubt with more work related stuff. Jin seems extremely agitated as he shouts at Sun to move the dog. The woman helping Sun with her escape asks if she's "Taken her lessons?" which of course we find out is English lessons. Back to Michael chopping fire-wood. Sun shows up. Queue the shocking "Sun speaks English" moment and commercial break.

Sun explains to Michael, in English, that what Jin did to Michael today was a misunderstanding. She continues to explain that it was because of his watch. Having that watch was a question of honor. It must of been a very special watch of her father's and Jin is clearly terrified of the man. Jin most likely feared him very much. Perhaps he thought he would lose Sun if he did not do what her father told him to do.




Now for my favorite scene of the episode. Locke is talking to Charlie. "Just hand it to me, you're gonna run out eventually. Painful detox is inevitable. Give it up now, at least it'll be your choice." Charlie hands over his last bit of heroin. Locke asks him to look up. Lo and behold, his guitar is hanging from the cliff above. The look on Charlie's face clearly shows how important it is to him. Really awesome seeing Charlie happy and stepping onto the path that John Locke paved for him. Charlie turns into a much better person when he's away from his drugs. This island might give you what you're looking for, but you have to give something in return.

Jack is ready to move his group to the caves and when he goes to pick up Kate, she doesn't want to go. Doesn't want to "dig in" with him. Jack asks her how she got to be the way she is and she completely shuts him out. She's acting extremely weird but that's what she does best I think. When you least expect it she'll act on impulse and change her mind. Usually resulting in something that hurts or confuses those around her. She's probably just used to being alone, much like Sawyer. I'm sure that's why they find such a connection during their time on this island.

Michael shows up with the axe and begins yelling at Jin, who has no idea what he's saying to him. He seems to be taking out all his anger and frustration on Jin, but eventually cuts him free. Leaving some of the handcuff that stays on Jin's wrist for what seems to be forever. Michael gives the watch back to Jin, which ends up back in Michael's hand a little while later. Michael then trades it into a pawn-shop for a pistol to kill himself with much later on.

In this final flashback scene we have Jin and Sun in the airport. This is also the scene we saw in "White Rabbit" where Jack is yelling about getting his father's casket on the plane. Sun begins to head for the door to make her escape. She's tearing up and keeps looking back at Jin. Jin looks back at her and pulls out a flower, just like he used to. Sun smiles and returns to Jin's side. I guess Jin will never know how important that moment was for him. Really makes you think that sometimes, the little things matter in life. Something that might seem insignificant could change your entire path in life. Who knows? Make every moment count.

Jack arrives at the caves with the other half of the survivors, including Hurley who "goes where the boars at." Charlie is trying to play his guitar and obviously feeling the effects of early detox already. He has some tough days ahead of him. Hurley puts on his headphones and we get one of our last music montages to close out an episode. We see both parties, one at the beach sitting in silence around a fire, and the other in the caves. We have our first camp break-up, and so ends this episode. Next up is "The Moth." Thanks for checking this out, I'll try to get watching The Moth as soon as I can.

What do you guys think of Sun and Jin episodes? Don't worry about spoilers, you can write about whatever you like. What do you think about how they died in season 6? After 3 years they were finally reunited and they died together. Jin didn't even get to see his baby girl, Ji-Yeon. Discuss...