"Lost" Season Six, Episode Nine: "The Package" Television Review

Television Review

"Lost" Season Six, Episode Nine: "The Package"

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

It would've been tough no matter what to follow-up last week's spectacular "Ab Aeterno" with another homerun, or even one nearly as good, but this season has proven multiple times to have surprises in store. This week we follow Jin and Sun, which would often mean we would be in for an hour of goofy melodrama and filler, but the writers really did a great job with this one, striking an absolutely perfect balance between the flash-sideways and on-island timelines for the first time in the season and giving us great character moments from pretty much everyone. This is definitely one of the best episodes following our troubled Korean couple.

Spoilers herein.

The last time we saw Jin and Sun together in the flash-sideways timeline was all the way back in "LA X," when Jin was taken away by customs for having $25,000 in his bag without claiming it. Here we return to LAX and as Jin is released without the money, we learn he and Sun have been sent to Los Angeles to deliver the money (as well as the watch we know so well from season one) to someone--Jin's quick appearance in Sayid's flash-sideways in "Sundown" suggested that person was Martin Keamy, and it turns out that's the case.

But like all of the flashes, Jin and Sun's history is twisted--we learn they are not married and they're hiding a secret relationship from Sun's father, businessman and mafioso Mr. Paik. And now, Jin is without the money to deliver and customs have held him too long and he's missed his meeting with Keamy. When Jin tells Sun he'll attempt to go meet him anyway, Sun tells him not to bother--she has a secret bank account full of cash prepared to run away and start a new life with Jin (a twist on what Jin originally planned in season one), but before they can go anywhere, good old Keamy and Omar come knocking.

As always, Kevin Durand completely steals the show in the sideways as Keamy, but in a pleasant surprise, we're reintroduced to another classic "Lost" villain as well. Andrew Divoff returns as Mikhail Bakunin, who we haven't seen since season three, and he serves as an interpretor for Keamy. The trio of gangsters and the Jin discuss the money situation, and Sun comes up with the idea to just pay them out of her secret account and then get out of there. Little does she or Jin know that the $25,000 is going to Keamy as payment for killing Jin--but then here we are, right back at the moment in "Sundown," where Sayid takes out Keamy and his thugs and finds Jin in a freezer. Lucky them. Until, of course, Mikhail shows up and bullets fly.

The flash-sideways in "The Package" are definitely among the best so far this season, combining sweet nostalgia for seasons past as well as intrigue and thrills of its very own. Most of all, it's great to see Jin and Sun together again for the first time since late season four.

But that's not all, of course. The on-island plot had a lot to impress this week as well. It basically follows three plots--the Flocke camp is attacked by Widmore's group and Jin is kidnapped, Sun deals with the decision between joining the Man in Black or not seeing her husband again, and the Man in Black goes to have a chat with Charles Widmore and sends Sayid on a secret mission of his own.

We get some of the absolute best out of Sun in this episode, as her conflicts with the beach camp and her desire to find Jin give her a chance to really shine, dramatically. Not since "Ji Yeon" has Sun's emotional situation been so palatable. Not much goes on in her story here, but the interactions between her and the other folks (particularly Jack, who shares a very heartfelt moment with her near the end of the episode) are some of the best this season, and the rest of the characters (especially Lapidus and Miles) are given chances to shine as well.

Back on Hydra island, though, a lot of trouble is brewing. The Man in Black comes face to face with Widmore for the first time, and we get a complete confirmation that, regardless of whether he's good or bad, Widmore is on the island to stop Flocke from escaping. Meanwhile, elsewhere on Hydra, Zoe (Widmore's lackey who we met in "Recon") speaks with Jin, and we get some mysterious hints at what her purpose may be on the island. Apparently, she's a geophysicist and she's aware that Jin used to work for Dharma, and apparently his work with them is very important to her reasons on the island. We don't know quite what she wants yet, but it's immensely intriguing nonetheless.

Finally, there's the package. It's the title of the episode, so obviously it was going to come up at some point--but is it the money Jin had to deliver to Keamy, or something else? Well, certainly it can be both, and apparently there's an important package on the island as well. So what is it? Jin's wondering as well, and he outright asks Widmore what it is. "It's not a what," Widmore says, mirroring a line from the Man in Black earlier in the season. "It's a who."

The episode ends with Sayid approaching Widmore's submarine by water, and he discovers just who "the package" is. It's none other than Desmond Hume, wounded and being dragged off the sub, and Sayid realizes its him just as the episode cuts to black. This is Henry Ian Cusick's first appearance in the season since the first episode, and the return of Desmond to the island is definitely an unexpected development that will only lead to even more questions. It had to come eventually, though--as Eloise Hawking told Desmond a long time ago, "the island isn't finished with you yet." The next episode will be Desmond's first centric of the season and the last of the series--can it match the brilliance of "The Constant" or "Flashes Before Your Eyes," easily the two best episodes of the show? We'll have to see next week.

Grade: A