Lost: "The Package"

 This week's installment could also have been an extended advertisement for Rosetta Stone: Korean. Our star crossed baby-makers, Sun and Jin, struggled against fate and powerful entities in both realities to finally be together. Ultimately though, this episode was more or less about moving pieces around, or in Jin/Sun's case: driving them further apart so that they may be reunited in the climactic final moments of the show.

"The Package": Off Island

• The reason for Jin's prudeness on the plane in the season opener was revealed: he was paranoid as all hell that someone would find out he was banging the boss' daughter out of wedlock. Jin was referred to by Keamy as Sun's "bodygaurd," and like the Whitney Houston movie, he definitely got to deliver his "package" over and over again (to knocked-up success). Unlike the former timeline which had Jin being forced to work for Sun's father after marrying her, Jin seems to have already been under his employ. It is curious as to how that would change, as Jacob was only seen touching them at their wedding (not before), so there may be still more unseen moving parts that had pushed them together in the former reality. 
• That Other (whose name escapes me) with one eye that blew Charlie up, returned as an apt linguist under Keamy's hire and Korean translator with both eyes intact in this new reality...well, that was until Jin introduced him to his angry face and shot him in the eye. OK, there are just way to many identical deaths/injuries happening for it to be coincidence.
• Sun stares longingly into a mirror, like almost every other sideways castaway so far. Is she noticing something about herself or trying to remember something?
• Oddly, this was the first sideways episode that ended on a downer note: Sun gets shot in the babymaker, only to reveal that she had indeed made a baby. Are fates intervening to preclude Ji Yeon's creation (as she wasn't conceived on island), or will the bullet miraculously curve around the baby (a la "Wanted")? Food for thought, Jin isn't sterile in this reality (or Sun still gets around); would a bullet destroying Sun's uterus be some sort of cosmic balancing act to make up for this lack of island influence?

"The Package": On Island

• Resurrection via poopy-waters and siding with Smokey may have some serious side affects: consult your Dr. if you start to feel...absolutely no human emotion. Also, diarrhea and feeling like a Navy Seal is normal. Seriously though, zombie Sayid isn't that fun. You know who else doesn't show much emotion: Jacob and the MIB. It could be safe to assume that it was indeed the muddy waters that have had the biggest impact, as Claire too has followed the MIB - but was resurrected when Jacob was still alive. That might be the key to her eventual salvation. 
• Widmore's ninjas knock out Smokey's camp while he was off searching for Sun, but they only take Jin.We come to learn that they need Jin's Dharma knowledge and location of a pocket of the island's special brand of electro-magnetic energy. Obviously, if you are out trying to scout for a pocket of quantum time bending energy, you want the man who survived not only an explosion of hatch energy, but also a case of swapped temporal consciousnesses. Hence Widmore's mysterious package and everyone's favorite Scott: Desmond. 
• It's hard to tell what Widmore is after; he knows the stakes if Smokey is to leave the island, but one wonders whether or not he wants to use the island's pocket of energy for his own greed. I mean, it's safe to assume he abducted the father of his grandchild and husband to his daughter, which places him on the list of "uncool in-laws." Maybe Widmore is not only trying to slay the beast (who may have had an unseen hand in his exile), but is also looking for a cosmic "do-over." The "rules" don't apply to Desmond, hopefully we'll finally find out why.
• Loved Sawyer taking the mythical smoke monster to task, "Why don't you just fly your ass over there?" Darth Locke reveals that he needs the magic number 6 candidates present at the plane in order for him to leave. Is this so he can kill them all in one spot, or because he needs them in a way similar to the precise way the Oceanic 6 had to be on the Ajira flight back to the island?
• Smokey/Widmore encounter was pretty cool; two powerful entities with a literal line (sonic fence) in the sand. Smokey recalled Locke's memory of Widmore telling him that a war was coming to the island. Could Widmore have known how events were to unfold back then? 
• Sun and Jin's roles are now flipped: Jin's the one who is speaking English and Sun can only speak Korean. Awkward!

OK episode all in all - sort of a lull after last week's lore-fest. In the alternate reality, I bet Sun has a date with Dr. Jack. On the island, it's interesting that Smokey's biggest obstacle so far has been the series perceived greatest evil: Widmore. Has our whole understanding of Widmore been intentionally skewed? Jacob heralded his return, so has Widmore always been part of his plans? Or, has Jacob engineered the masterful "enemy of my enemy" gambit, and played both baddies off against one another, giving our candidates the opportunity to fulfill their destinies.

Whatever happens, happens...