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Written by Cayley
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Friday, 27 April 2007 |
 Episode 3x18: "D.O.C." focuses mainly on Sun and Jin Kwon, both in the
early days of their marriage and as Sun faces her immediate and
possibly short future. These are two people who love each other very
much, but shame seems to follow them and challenge their relationship
at their most crucial of moments.
Beginning with the flashbacks we learn that although Jin has told Sun
his father was a fisherman, neither of them knew about Jin's mother.
The news that the woman who bore him was a prostitute would bring Jin
much shame. Sun will do anything to protect him from this and agrees to
pay the woman her price. Ironically, by asking her father for the
extortion money, Sun has sealed her husbands fate as an enforcer for
her father, which is what destroys their marriage and drives Sun into
the arms of another man before they get on Flight 815.
Early in the episode, Sun discovers the bad news about the history of pregnant women on the island. In the wee hours of the morning Sun and Juliet go to the medical hatch's secret stash to use the ultrasound machine. It's important to get a date of conception because this will determine who the baby's father is, and, more importantly, determine if Sun will face the same fate as nine other patients of Dr. Burke, namely death. This was a very emotional scene for Sun, and also for the audience. As the measurements are taken from the ultrasound I'm impossibly rooting for each guy to be the dad. I want the baby to be Jin's but I don't want Sun to die. As Sun is told she is 53 days along, I somehow manage to say "Yay" and "Oh no!" at the same time. That's not easy. Doing the math, also not easy for me, this means she got pregnant at about day 37. Of course it would have been much more logical if it had happened around day 48 or 49, when Jin and Sun were reunited after returning with the Tailies. But of course it was before that. Timeline-wise, on the 35th day on the island, Jin was still pretty humiliated by the revelation that Sun could speak English. This doesn't seem like a particularly romantic phase of their relationship. If the conception date is off by more than just a day or two, I might believe they conceived on day 41, the day Aaron was born and Boone died. Extreme emotional events can bring even the angriest of couples together. However, I don't believe it to be a really important point when they conceived, just that they did.
Meanwhile, in other island events, Desmond, Hurley, Charlie and Jin are tending to Naomi, the mystery parachutist. The four men make a couple of startling discoveries. One is that Naomi has a branch in her side from her fall from the trees, and the other is that Mikhail Bakunin did not in fact, stay microwaved. Jin does an amazing job of chasing the Russian through the underbrush in a circle, right back to where Naomi is laying. As soon as Jin kung-fu's Mikhail into submission, they turn back to where Naomi is dying and Mikhail offers to help. By doing so, he secures a promise to be let go and knowledge of the satellite phone. Note to Hurley: If you must give the undead Other a list, tell him about the hula doll and the beef stew first! As he treats his patient, Mikhail does cryptically mention how quickly she will heal, thanks to the island. He doesn't elaborate, and soon attempts to slink off with the purloined phone, but again, Jin is too quick for him. At this point I'm most interested in whether Mikhail led Jack and the gang to believe he was dead, or was actually dead. Also, why did Naomi speak a different language each time she woke up? Hurley understood her speaking Spanish, Mikhail claimed she thanked him in Italian, Jin said she spoke Chinese, and when she dropped this weeks cliffhanger, she had a lovely British accent. She told Hurley that the wreckage of Flight 815 was found and there were no survivors. How could this be? This was not the only mystery added to the list. Juliet returns to the hatch after she is finished examining Sun. She records a message to Ben on a hidden tape recorder, and judging from the way she gives her update, I conclude that the others did not know Sun was pregnant. Also, the way she says "I hate you" after shutting off the recording, I feel Juliet is either working under duress or knows of a plot she finds detestable. Perhaps it has something to do with whatever she thinks she's going to "collect" from Kate and the other ladies.
As far as the story of the Kwon's, it seems as though shame and deception have brought much trouble to their marriage. Jin would be ashamed to learn of his mothers past, so Sun covered it up. This, to me, was so unnecessary and tragic. Only Sun and Jin needed to know about this, and it obviously didn't bother Sun. If it had she would have left him, not tried to protect him. I understand that their culture places much importance on this sort of thing but pride is universal. Hiding the shameful truth affects pretty much everyone, in the real world and on the island. If Jin and Sun could have been honest about even something so devastating as the truth about Jin's lineage, they would have remained happy, and Sun would not have been filled with the shame of believing her baby to be the result of her affair with Jae Lee. In the end, despite the knowledge that she will most likely die in another two months, the joy of learning the baby is Jin's was enough to alleviate the shame, and give her a moment of good news.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 August 2007 )
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