Lost: Season 1 Episode 17 "...In Translation" Review

"We're not the only people on this island and we all know it!"

-John Locke

The 17th episode of Lost follows Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), who gets into an argument with his wife, Sun (Yunjin Kim), about the revealing bathing suit she is wearing.  When Michael (Harold Perrineau) tries to intervene, Sun slaps him, but that doesn't stop Jin from interrogating her about something possibly going on between her and Michael.  Sun tries to apologize to Michael later, but he brushes it off telling her it's her problem, not his.

Michael continues to work on his raft to get himself and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) off of the island, though Walt is mostly uninterested in helping.  Sawyer (Josh Holloway) buys his way onto the raft by trading Michael supplies.  That leaves one spot left on the raft.  That night, the raft is found on fire and unsalvageable.  Michael and Sawyer both blame Jin, but Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) try to talk them down.

Sun finds Jin in the caves treating some burns on his hands.  When Sun asks if he burned the raft, Jin becomes enraged and storms off into the jungle.  The next day, Sawyer attacks Jin and drags him back to the beach.  Michael confronts Jin and hits him several times, with Jin refusing to defend himself.  Finally, Sun intervenes by speaking in English shocking everyone.  She says that Jin burned himself trying to put the fire out.  Jin is too stunned to say anything, but before anymore violence can happen, Locke (Terry O'Qunn) steps in to say it wasn't Jin, but one of Ethan's people, The Others.  Sun tries to get Jin to talk to her saying she wants to start over, but Jin tells her it is too late and he goes to help Michael with the raft claiming the final spot.

Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Shannon's (Maggie Grace) relationship starts to become more serious, but Boone (Ian Somerhalder) warns Sayid that Shannon will dump him the moment she gets what she wants.  Shannon tries to confront Boone, but only finds Locke, who gives her some advice to ignore Boone and finally start her new life on the island.  

That night, Locke and Walt play a game of backgammon and Locke tells Walt he knows he is the one who burned the raft.  Locke promises not to tell and Walt says he burned it because he is tired of moving and likes living on the island.  When Michael starts to build a second raft, Walt changes his mind and helps his father.

In flashbacks we see Jin get the blessing of Mr. Paik (Byron Chung), Sun's father, to marry her, but, in return, Jin must go to work for him.  When one of Mr. Paik's factories is shut down, Jin is sent to deliver a message to the Environmental Safety Secretary (Joey Yu), that Mr. Paik is very displeased.  When the factory is not allowed to reopened, Jin is told to drive an assassin to the house, but Jin saves the Secretary's life by beating him bloody and telling him to reopen the factory.  We then get the scene where Jin comes home covered in blood from the earlier episode, "House of the Rising Sun", but we get an additional shot afterward of Jin crying.  

Finally, Jin goes to see his father (John Shin), who he claims is deceased to Sun and her father, in the small fishing village he grew up in.  With his marriage on the rocks, Jin is being sent on a business trip to Sydney and then Los Angeles.  Sun is going with him.  His father tells him to not go back to Korea afterward, but to stay in America and save his marriage.

What Works:

Up until this point in the show, Jin has been probably the least likable character in the main cast, but this episode does a great job of humanizing him and setting him up on the road to becoming one of the most likable characters on the show.  The flashbacks show us events that we had already seen, but from Jin's perspective.  It's a great  way of showcasing that everything isn't as black and white as it seems and makes you feel really bad for Jin.  The highlight of the flashbacks come from Jin seeing his father.  It's rare for this show to have a good paternal figure, so it's great to see that Mr. Kwon is such a nice guy.

I really liked watching the survivors become so divided.  Like Sawyer said, "It's Lord of the Flies time now."  Watching the tension rise and the accusations fly added a lot of drama to the episode and made it very interesting to watch.

The scene where Jin is finally confronted by Michael is very well directed.  I love how the sound gets all garbled and we can't understand what anyone is saying.  It's a great way of putting us in Jin's shoes and makes the scene even more intense.

Knowing that Walt is the culprit of the raft fire makes this episode very interesting on a re-watch.  I didn't guess that Walt was behind it when the episode first aired, but there are definitely a few clues that Walt is the one responsible.  It's subtle, but it's there and I commend the writers for doing such a good job of riding that line of leaving clues, but not making it too obvious.

Finally, I like the little easter egg of Hurley (Jorge Garcia) being on TV at the Secretary's home.

What Sucks:

My only complaint from this episode comes from after the scene where Sun asks Jin if her burned the raft and he leaves the caves.  The next time we see Jin, he wakes up out in the jungle.  Apparently he took off running, but the show does not do a good job of letting us know that's what Jin is doing.  If we had one more scene, maybe of Michael entering the caves in a rage, with Jin seeing this and taking off into the jungle, it would of helped.  Jumping from Jin leaving the caves in anger to him being kicked in the face by Sawyer was a bit too much.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear, which goes to the most useful character, for "...In Translation" goes to John Locke for giving Shannon some life advice, deescalating the confrontation between Jin and Michael, and for not ratting out Walt to Michael, which wouldn't have done anybody any good.  It's much better to have the other survivors believe one of The Others burned the raft rather than one of their own.  Locke keeping this secret helps to keep the castaways unified.  This is Locke's 4th time winning the award, which ties him for 1st with Jack.

Verdict:

"...In Translation" is another great episode of Lost.  We finally get some humanization of Jin, an intriguing story full conflict and tension, some interesting direction, and a good whodunit.  I do think it needed one additional scene to have the story make more sense, but this episode has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great