Lost: Season 3, Episode 2 "The Glass Ballerina" Review

 "You taste like fish biscuits."

-Kate Austen

The second episode of season 3 starts off in a flashback to young Sun (Yunjin Kim), who breaks a glass ballerina and allows the maid to take the blame, which gets her fired.  As an adult, Sun is revealed to have had an affair with Jae Lee (Tony Lee), but is discovered by her father, Mr. Paik (Byron Chung).

Mr. Paik tells Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) that Jae is stealing from him and that Jin must kill him.  Jin refuses at first, but eventually is manipulated into agreeing.  Jin attacks Jae, but instead of killing him, Jin orders him to leave South Korea and never return.  As Jin returns to his car, Jae jumps to his death and lands on top of it.

On the island, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) believes that Jack's (Matthew Fox) group has been captured and wants to move to a different position and start a fire to lead the Others into a trap, but Jin does not want to put Sun in harm's way.  Sayid and Sun both lie to Jin about the plan, but Jin understands English better than they realized.  He agrees to Sayid's plan anyway and the men hide in the jungle, while Sun waits onboard the sailboat.  The Others sneak around Sayid and Jin by coming from the water.  Sun shoots one of them, Colleen (Paula Malcolmson), and jumps overboard as the Others steal the boat.  Sun and Sayid apologize to Jin and the group heads back to their camp.

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) are forced to do manual labor for the Others.  Sawyer tries his best to annoy the Others and eventually kisses Kate and starts a breakout attempt.  He gets a hold of a gun, but Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) threatens to shoot Kate and he backs down.  Back in the cages, Sawyer reveals the whole thing was a ploy to test the Others for weaknesses.

Ben (Michael Emerson) visits Jack and promises to let Jack go home if he cooperates.  To prove he has contact with the outside world, Ben shows Jack a recording of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series.

What Works:

I have some issues with the flashbacks in this episode, which I'll get into later, but I do really like both Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim's performances.  They are both carrying a lot of weight here and are very conflicted.  All of their scenes are impressive in terms of their performances.

I love that Sun shoots Colleen here.  Colleen gives a classic speech about how Sun isn't a killer and won't shoot her.  We've heard this speech a million times and usually our heroes don't end up pulling the trigger, but Sun does.  It's awesome and badass.

Sawyer is a lot of fun in this episode and I love watching him push Pickett's (Michael Bowen) buttons.  Holloway looks like is having fun with it and I really liked his two interactions with Juliet, especially when we know the future of these two characters.

Finally, the scene where Ben shows Jack the World Series is one of my favorite scenes in the series.  The amount of emotion Matthew Fox showcases while saying very little leaves an impact.  It's an awesome moment and a great way to end the episode.

What Sucks:

On it's own, this is a fine episode of Lost, but placement is a very big problem.  The next episode, "Further Instructions" was originally supposed to be the second episode of the season, but it was switched with this one and that was a terrible decision.  We're dying to know what happened to everyone who was in the hatch, but instead we get more of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and a not super interesting story with the sailboat crew.  If this had been the 3rd episode of the season, I think it would have been received better.

Part of the problem is that this episode feels like it's spinning its wheels a little bit.  There isn't much forward momentum on any front.  I wouldn't call it a filler episode, but it's closer to being filler than I would like and that shouldn't be the case with the second episode of the season.

Finally, I think the flashbacks for this episode should have been switched with "D.O.C."  That episode focused on the identity of the father of Sun's child, so having Sun's affair be the focus of the flashbacks makes sense.  This story focuses on Sun lying to Jin for a noble reason, as do the "D.O.C." flashbacks involving Jin's mother.  Had the flashbacks been switched, both episodes would feel more cohesive.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in an episode.  For "The Glass Ballerina," the award goes to Sun Kwon for helping Sayid, shooting Colleen, and escaping from the sailboat.  This is her 3rd time winning the award, which puts her in 7th place overall.

Verdict:

"The Glass Ballerina" is a fine episode, even if it treads water a bit.  Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, and Josh Holloway all do a great job and I love the World Series scene.  I just wish this was the third episode of the season instead of the second and that we could swap the flashbacks with "D.O.C."

 7/10: Good