'Lost': D.O.C.

Now things are starting to get really, really good. Not that Catch-22 wasn't excellent, mind you, but this one, like Manos, takes it up a notch. (See 0:44 for the reference.) I'm a Lost mythology freak: I talk about it all the time, and the strangers on the bus are getting pretty annoyed about it, let me tell you. But all the mythology in the world is merely academic unless there's a personal stake added to it. And this episode does that in spades.

(If you care to read my initial take on this episode when it originally aired, check it out here.)

D.O.C.

4) In Short

"Babies, Russians, and prostitutes, oh my!"

8) On the Island

Sun is working in her garden, when she hears something in the jungle. Which she always does while working in the garden. And yet she keeps working out there. By herself. Anyways, it's Jack, who offers to lend a hand. He wants to know how she's doing with her pregnancy. He asks enough questions to make Sun a touch worried.

In the jungle, the Fateful Four tend to the mysterious parachuter. Desmond claims that he's never seen her before, even though she knows his name. They find a branch lodged deeply lodged in her side, while she whispers, "I'm dying," in both Italian and Spanish. As Charlie and Desmond argue about medical care for the woman, Hurley accidentally fires off a flare gun, revealing their position for miles around.

On the beach, Sun and Kate note that Jack seems different since returning to the beach. Sun wonders if Jack's questioning earlier is tied into the Others' desire for her child. Kate reveals that Juliet was a fertility doctor, only furthering Sun's suspicion. Sun makes a beeline for Juliet, asking what happens to pregnant women on the Island. After a few iterations of this question, Juliet finally (and bluntly) tells Sun that they all die.

As the Fateful Four keep discussing the woman's condition, who should appear in the nearby jungle? Mikhail! Hey Patchy! Upon seeing the four, he books it back the other way. Jin makes chase, eventually catching up to and subduing Mikhail. Kickass fight there. Charlie figures out who Mikhail is, based on Kate's recounting of her experience at the Flame. Mikhail soon notices the dying woman, and makes an offer: he will save her life if they let him go.

Sun sits alone on the beach, mourning her apparent fate. That night, Juliet approaches her tent, covers her mouth, and tells her that if she wants answers, they should leave right now. Juliet insists there may be hope for her yet. The two carry torches into the jungle towards the Staff. Juliet insists there is still equipment there; Kate simply didn't know where to look back in Season 2's "Maternity Leave." She hopes to use the ultrasound to determine Sun's date of conception. The D.O.C. naturally brings up the thorny issue of Sun's infidelity, which makes Juliet's questions that much more awkward for her.

Jin returns at night with needed medical supplies. While prepping her, Hurley reveals that she has a satellite phone on her person, which Mikhail finds really interesting to say the least. Mikhail ends up draining the blood from her chest using techniques I'd rather not discuss lest I faint. After pulling the branch from her chest, she murmurs, "Eu não estou só," Portuguese for "I am not alone." However, Mikhail tells them it means, "Thank you for helping me." That shifty, one-eyed bastard.

Juliet and Sun reach the Staff. Sun peers anxiously down at the flickering lights below. What was once a glistening medical station is now a complete hell hole. Sun asks Juliet why she's helping her. Juliet replies that once upon a time, telling women they were pregnant was a joyous occasion. Since arriving on the Island, she's watched nine women die. She hopes to give Sun good news. Sun reveals her affair to Juliet. "Oh," she replies, pretty damn hysterically. So, in essence, there's hardly any good news for Sun to be found here.

Juliet pulls a switch inside a locker to reveal a hidden room. Behind the thick, steel doors are a room filled with medical equipment and nursery items. Sun asks what this place is for: Juliet replies that it's where they brought the women to die. No wonder she and Jack get along so well. Their bedside manner is equally awesome.

Mikhail dresses the wound and announces she'll be fine. Mikhail wants Des to honor his half of the bargain, which he does to Charlie's surprise. But Jin realizes something's amiss, and gives chase. Turns out Mikhail tried to lift the sat phone. Charlie and Des argue over letting Mikhail go, with Mikhail continually egging Charlie on. Des says he gave his word, and urges Mikhail to leave.

In the Staff, Sun is convinced it's Jae's child. After all, Jin fires blanks. Juliet informs her that on the Island, male sperm count is five times what it is off the Island, so don't be so sure, kiddo. Before Juliet runs the ultrasound, she says, "I lose either way." Sigh. Sun and Juliet see the Child Soon To Be Known as Ji Yeon on the ultrasound. Tears of joy give way to tears of sorrow as Juliet realizes Sun got pregnant on the Island. Sorrow once again turns to happiness as Sun realizes it's Jin's child. What a ridiculously powerful scene, with the two actresses knocking it out of the park.

The two emerge from the Staff into daylight. Juliet and Sun determine that she has two months to live, based on previous cases. That withstanding, she tells Juliet that she received "good news." Juliet tells her she needs to go back in to make sure everything was shut down properly. Once inside, she finds a hidden tape recorder. She presses record, and gives Ben the vital stats on Sun's situation. She also mentions that she's still working on getting samples from the other women, including Kate. After turning off the tape, she utters, "I hate you," and puts the recorder back into the locker.

The Fateful Four construct a makeshift gurney out of the parachute. Charlie's still mad about Des letting Mikhail go. Des counters by pointing out that the Lostaways have killed more Others than vice versa. Touché, brutha. Nearby, the woman wakes up while Hurley tries to make the sat phone work. He excitedly tells her he's from Oceanic 815, and wants to know if she's there to rescue them. The woman is confused. Why? Because apparently Oceanic 815 was discovered...with no survivors. Cue a shocked Hurley! Cue the credits!

15) Off the Island

Sun is walking over a bridge in Korea while talking to her husband to be. He's in their apartment, only it's unfurnished: turns out they are still newlyweds and still not absolutely hating the other. When Sun finishes up her call, a woman on the bench next to her shows Sun a picture of her wedding announcement in the newspaper. Turns out this woman knows a lot about Jin's parents: that he's not only the son of a fisherman (as opposed to preacher man), but also the son of a prostitute. The woman demands $100,000 in three days or she will go public with this information.

Sun unpacks some boxes in their apartment that night. She wants to display some photos of her family, and asks Jin if he has any to contribute. He insists he doesn't have any, and further pressing on Jin's behalf reveals contradictory information about his past that he previously told her. Jin makes with both the huff AND puff and leaves the room.

Later on, Sun visits Jin's father at the docks at which he works. He shows her to his house, with Jin's various accomplishments adorning the walls. He confirms that Jin's mother was a prostitute, but claims she was with many men, and he isn't even sure he's the real father. But he raised Jin on his own anyways after she left the child upon his doorstep. He asks Sun to make sure Jin never knows that she visited him, nor that his mother is alive. Mr. Kwon is possibly the nicest, most understanding person in the entire Lost universe. Bless his heart.

Sun walks up the steps to her father's office. She reluctantly asks for the money to pay off Jin's mother. Moreover, she won't tell him why she needs the money. When he questions why he should do so, she tells him that she's long pretended to not know what he really does, and will continue to do so if he performs this favor. Upon learning it's to stave off shame for Sun's husband, he gives her the cash: with a condition. The debt hangs over his head, not hers. To pay it off, he will leave his cushy floor manager job and start working for Paik directly. This, among many reasons, is why I paid off my credit card debt years ago.

The apartment's coming together, but the marriage is already coming apart. Ah, the irony. Jin asks for the key to the mail slot; Sun tells him it's in the purse. She realizes her error too late: the money is still in there. Jin's naturally curious as to the nature of this money. He's slightly shamed upon learning it's from her father, stating he wants to provide for her himself. She asks him to return the money, which she agrees to do. But of course she won't.

Sun returns to the park bench to give the woman her money. After doing so, she asks why the woman never told her she was in fact Jin's mother. Sun reminds her how powerful her family is, and threatens to kill her should Jin ever find out about anything that's transpired.

16) The Mythology

Just why all children die, along with their mothers, during the second trimester is one of the biggest mysteries in the Lost universe. Juliet's hypothesis in "One of Us" comes true in Season 4's "Ji Yeon": women that get pregnant on-Island can successfully and non-lethally give birth off-Island. And through Claire (and possibly Danielle), we know that women who get preggers off-Island can arrive on the Island and give birth. But if you get knocked up in New Otherton/Lostaway beach and stick around for more than 15 weeks? Yea, that's a problem.

Biologically, the show's demonstrated that the Island potentially ages a woman's reproductive organs prematurely (as evidenced in "Not in Portland"). Simultaneously, the Island kicks up a man's sperm count five-fold. What can we derive from this, beyond the inherent sexist nature of the Island? I don't have any definitive answers, but let's look at this through the "mind into matter" prism I like to apply to most mysteries in the show.

"Mind into matter" states, in brief, that certain items in the human psyche can turn into reality on the Island. It's not mind OVER matter, which implies control over a pre-existing item, but rather creation. Or, even more specifically, reformation: the changing of particles/molecules/atoms inherent to the island from ether into something corporeal. This is what Ben means by a "magic box": it's a space in which something comes from seemingly nothing.

Now, not all creation is good. I'm sure Einstein's none-too-pleased about that whole atom bomb thing, for instance. And not all creation is intentional (see Einstein again). And it's often more difficult to remove something once created than it is to create it in the first place. So let's assume, for a moment, that the conditions in which pregnancies always fail -- prematurely aged female reproductive organs, high sperm count, 15 weeks before the mother's body gives out -- are all symptomatic of the first childbirth attempted in the Island's history.

The father? Ben Linus. The mother? Annie.

In this construction, Annie's death happened post-Purge, as Ben attempted to establish an heir to his newfound throne. Problem is, no one had ever tried to actually give birth on the Island before. Settlers had come for thousands of years, finding the Island through various means, establishing communities, and reveling in a place in which one seemingly never aged. If you don't buy into that concept, perhaps you'll be happier with a scenario in which the Purge inherently displeased the Island to the point where it "changed the rules," if you will.

In either case, the result is the same: Annie dies, Ben grieves, and each subsequent case of attempted pregnancy is history repeating itself due to it being engraved in the psychic DNA of the Island. Either Ben is blind to this fact and stubbornly attempts to fix it, or realizes that the Island (and by extension Jacob) has caused this scenario and uses Juliet Burke as a workaround to overcome the will of the Island. Of course, Jacob HATES technology, so bringing in someone trained in fringe bioscience wasn't the smartest move Ben ever made.

All this is only one way to look at failed pregnancies on the show, but I hope you'll agree it provides a great deal of food for thought. Add to the thought feast below!

23) The Moment

Sun's mixture of joy and pain at learning the date of conception. All hail Yunjin Kim.

42) In Retrospect

1. Well, Naomi's "you're all dead" did my head in when it first aired, but now we know that she's talking about the staged wreckage. Course, we still don't know who staged it. Some people think it's Linus; others, Widmore. Me? Looks like the staging of the Royal Shakespeare Company. That thing has Peter Brook's fingerprints all over it.
2. So much for "karma" when it comes to Des letting Mikhail go, eh?

108) In Summary

When I construct my "Top Five Episodes of Season 3" for the podcast in a few weeks, I won't be surprised to see this episode make the list. Mythology is all well and good, but only truly matters when it intersects with the lives of characters we know and love. It's one thing to watch X-rays on a wall; it's quite another to stare into Sun's when she realizes that her D.O.C. might one day render her D.O.A.

Next up: a happy reunion between two old friends in the Black Rock!

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to join the all-new Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed. Pretty soon he'll have as many platforms as Desmond has pieces to his flash puzzle.