Thursday, September 27, 2007

. . . And Themes














. . . And Found, Episode 2.5 is loaded with many a LOST theme.
Here's just a few.

The flashback opens with Sun's mom despairing that her
daughter will ever find a husband. Sun tells her mom:

I'll find a husband when the time is right.

Mrs. Paik replies:

Your father says the time is now.

There has been speculation that Mr. Paik may be a Mrs. Hawking
type time guardian. I wonder if this was driving Mr. Paik's desire
for Sun to marry. And if so, did the universe course correct on
him and bring Jin to Sun? Or was that just the Destiny book that Jin's
friend used that said this was Jin's year to find love?

And speaking of that possible course correction, it was necessitated
by another LOST theme. Jae and his courting of Sun was an attempt
by Jae to pull a con on his parents and Sun's. Is there anyone on
this show that isn't a con artist of some degree?

There's a big thematic discussion that occurs between Sun
and Locke. Now that's an odd couple if ever there was one. Sun is
looking for her lost ring and pulls up her garden in frustration. Locke
witnesses this and the following discussion takes place:

Locke: Oh, I used to get angry all the time. Frustrated too.
Sun: You are not frustrated anymore?
Locke: I'm not lost anymore.
Sun: How did you do that?
Locke: Same way anything lost gets found. I stopped looking.


Huh? What about all that trying to get into the Swan? What about
sacrificing Boone and pounding on the Hatch? What about lighting
dynamite while Hurley ran at you and yelled at you to stop? What
about the fact that it took Sayid to fix the computer? What about
the fact Jack doesn't want to push the button?

This goes back to my recent post about the Swan's effect on Locke.
Outside the Swan, Locke sees clearly what he's gained, how far
he's come, but inside the Swan, that frustration and fear and anger
returns over and over. So again I ask was the Swan Locke's destiny
or a diversion?

Finally, Jin is told in his flashback by the Destiny book that love
will be orange. Ironically, while there is a lot of orange in
the episode, Sun isn't the one wearing it. Granted Jin ogling a
woman in orange leads him to bump into and meet Sun, but
the most interesting use of orange to me is Michael's shirt.

Here we have the theme of sacrificing ourselves and our goals
and desires for the sake of others out of a brotherly love.
Jin actually does this in his flashback as well when he permits
the scruffy Koreans to use the fancy shmancy toilet at the hotel.
But it plays out most clearly in Jin's determination to find
Michael and help Michael find Walt even at the expense of
delaying his return to Sun. In this case orange equalled Jin's
love for Michael bringing their story that started out with
bitterness and even hatred half circle to a place of friendship
that will sacrifice for the other.

4 comments:

Capcom said...

Wow Memphish, this is some great thinking! But not surprising coming from vous. :-)

Ditto me too, on what you said about Locke. There has got to be some explaination for Locke's contradicting behavior (other than inconsistent script writing against character type, or that he's just a nut-job) so that previous theory of yours makes so much sense to me still. Even if it doesn't have anything to do with location, Jacob has to have been manipulating Locke once in a while, to make him act un-Locke-like so many times.

I like what you wrote about Jin, that's nice and very well put.

Capcom said...

BTW, what you pointed out about what Locke said to Sun also goes with your previous post about Mr. Fibber. He likes to put forth the persona of being like a wise man and guru to everyone, but many times at the slightest sign of opposition he turns into a mushy crybaby. :-(

hatchling23 said...

Since you bring up Jin. One of the interesting things about Jin is that he does not fit into the "Bad DAD" theme.

It came to mind when they got caught at the beach and were lined up on their knees, Tom radioed Ben and told him who he had prisoner.
The first thing Ben said was, "Kill Kwon". It made me wonder if somehow Jin is a bigger threat to Ben and the others than Sayid?

Good Article.

hatchling23

Cool_Freeze said...

Hatchling23 addresses a good point. Jin doesn't fit the "bad dad" persona and that has always been something of interest to me on the show. Almost every other character has some daddy issue of sorts.

Jin is the only one that doesn't speak complete English on the island as well. You could almost say that Jin is the only one justified in his actions. He made a "deal with the devil" for the love his life and yet his love betrayed him. =/ Poor Jin.

Yet another great post Memphish,

CF