Season 6, Episode 10:
The Package
Someone spies on the Man in Black and his "recruits" using night vision. Jin is wrapping his wounded ankle in bandages when the Man in Black sits down, asking what he knows about the cave. Jin already knows about the names of the Candidates, so the Man in Black explains that in order to leave the Island, everyone whose name hasn't been crossed off needs to leave together. He tells Jin not to worry about Sun.
Jin is finally released from customs security with his luggage and the watch, but not the money, which has been confiscated. Neither Jin nor Sun understand exactly what's happened, since they don't speak English, but Jin tells her that he doesn't know what the money was for, only that it was to go to the man he was supposed to meet at the restaurant. Since they've missed the meeting, Sun and Jin go to their hotel but there's initially a mixup and they're given just the one room. Jin has to request a second room, telling the reception clerk that he and Sun are not married.
The Man in Black tells Sayid to keep an eye on the camp while he runs an errand overnight. Sayid reveals that he's lost the ability to feel anything—pain, anger, even happiness—but the Man in Black thinks that considering what's to come, not feeling anything might be best. Once "Locke" has gone, Jin starts packing a bag and preparing to leave, which catches Sawyer's attention. Sawyer tries to convince Jin to stay and help him carry out the escape plan, but Jin only wants to find Sun. Just then, someone starts firing tranquilizer darts into the camp, knocking everyone unconscious. Tina Fey's stunt double Zoe and the Nerd Herders the rest of Widmore's goons locate Jin and take him. On the beach, tensions are rising as "Jacob's followers" are left with nothing to do but wait, since Ilana still believes that Richard will return and give them instructions. Eventually Sun gets fed-up, slams her knife into a makeshift table and storms off into the jungle. Jack follows her to the garden that Sun used to keep, though it's completely overgrown and all the plants are dead. He relays his experience in the lighthouse, but Sun doesn't care about Candidates or destiny. She just wants to find Jin, and tells Jack to leave her alone.
Jin goes to Sun's hotel room, angry that he failed to deliver the watch and planning to go to the restaurant anyway. Sun invites him inside and tells him it's a silly idea, since it's already 11:30pm. It's revealed that despite not being married, they are in a relationship and very much in love, and Jin spends the night in Sun's room...
Sun is pulling the dead plants out of her garden when the Man in Black appears and tells her that Jin is back at his camp, offering to take Sun there. She is suspicious, having learned about the slaughter at the Temple, but the Man in Black shrugs it off. He offers his hand, but instead, Sun starts running through the jungle, nervously looking back over her shoulder at the Man in Black, until she accidentally runs into a low-hanging branch and is knocked out.
The next morning, Sun suggests that she and Jin should run away together, saying she has a secret account that they could use to disappear. Though he loves Sun, Jin doesn't like the idea of running away. Sun is about to tell him something important when there's a knock at the door. Jin hides in the bathroom while Sun answers the door and finds Martin Keamy waiting there: he's the man that Jin is supposed to meet.
Ben finds Sun unconscious in the jungle, with a bad knock on the head and somehow unable to speak English anymore, though she's able to tell Ben that "Locke" was there. In the jungle, the Man in Black returns to his camp and finds everyone tranquilized. He wakes Sayid, finds out about the attack and asks about what happened to Jin. In Room 23 on Hydra Island, Jin wakes up and gets a quick glimpse of the psychedelic light-and-noise show when Zoe arrives. Jin tries to leave, but Zoe hits him with a taser and shows him a grid map drawn up by the DHARMA Initiative, signed by Jin-Soo Kwon and mapping pockets of electromagnetic energy. Jin says he'll only talk to the boss, and Zoe agrees. At the recruits' camp, the Man in Black sends Sayid on a mission before talking to Claire, who is wondering whether or not her name was on the list of Candidates. She still has some… negative feelings towards Kate, but the Man in Black reminds her that Kate isn't to be touched. At least, not until they're off the Island. As he and Sayid leave, they're stopped by Sawyer.
Sun gives Keamy the watch, in the process trying to hide evidence that Jin was ever in the room. However, Keamy and his henchman, Omar, spot two champagne glasses and quickly find Jin hiding in the bathroom. Sun and Jin suggest paying Keamy off using the money she saved for running away, while Keamy sends for a translator: Mikhail. Once Mikhail arrives and is able to translate, Sun tells Keamy about the money being confiscated in customs and agrees to pay him off herself. Keamy sends Mikhail and Sun to the bank to get the money, while he takes Jin to the restaurant. Jin asks Keamy not to tell Sun's father about their relationship, and Keamy agrees.
At the beach camp, Jack inspects Sun's head wound and diagnoses her with aphasia, a temporary, trauma-induced condition that affects the language centres of her brain and prevents her from speaking English, though she can still understand it. Ilana is suspicious of Ben, who protests that he didn't do anything to Sun, only found her in the jungle. Just then, Richard and Hurley return. Richard tells them all to pack their bags: they're leaving. On Hydra Island, the Man in Black pulls up on the shore in an outrigger and finds that a sonic fence has been erected around the perimeter. He asks to speak with Widmore and the Nerd Herders lead him around the shoreline to where Widmore is waiting.
At the beach camp, Richard determines that the Man in Black is attempting to use the Ajira plane to escape the Island, and proposes that they blow it up. This angers Sun, who rants at Richard (albeit in Korean) that she's not interested in "saving the world", only in saving her husband and bringing him home.
Sun and Mikhail are at the bank, attempting to withdraw the money, but the account has already been closed by Sun's father. At Keamy's restaurant, he and Omar tie Jin to a chair and leave him in a walk-in refrigerator. Knowing that Jin can't understand him, Keamy reveals that the money and the watch were payment from Sun's father for a hit on Jin, as punishment for Jin's relationship with Sun.
Jin looks on as Widmore chews out Zoe for kidnapping Jin in the first place, forcing him to move up the entire timetable. Zoe replies that maybe Widmore should've put a mercenary in charge rather than a geophysicist. Once Zoe has left, Jin demands to know what Widmore wants. Widmore sets Jin's mind at ease by giving him a digital camera: Sun's camera, recovered from the Ajira plane, and full of photos of Ji Yeon. Jin is moved, almost to tears, as he looks at pictures of the daughter he's never met. Widmore tells Jin that any happiness he might have with Sun and Ji Yeon would be short lived if the Man in Black were to escape the Island, and takes him to see "the package". Jin asks what the package is, but Widmore replies that it's a "who", not a what.
Locked in the walk-in fridge, Jin hears gunshots from outside. Sayid enters but rather than free Jin outright, gives him a boxcutter so that he can cut the bonds himself. Later, Mikhail returns to the restaurant with Sun and finds everyone dead… except for Keamy, who is barely conscious. While Mikhail checks on Keamy, Jin gets the drop on him, putting a gun to the back of his head. Mikhail guesses that Jin isn't a killer and fights back; during the scuffle, the gun goes off, but Jin is able to wrestle it away and shoots Mikhail in the eye. Unfortunately, Sun has been hit by a stray bullet. As Jin carries her out of the restaurant, Sun reveals that she is pregnant.
Jack finds Sun sitting alone on the beach and gives her a notepad and pen so that she can communicate. He also gives her something else: a ripe tomato, recovered from Sun's garden when everything else growing there had died. Sun tells Jack that the Man in Black claimed to have Jin, but she didn't go with him because she didn't trust him. Jack asks if she trusts him, and when Sun nods, he promises to help her and Jin escape the Island. At the recruits' camp, Sawyer and Kate have a talk. He says that he's worried, but thinks everything will be all over soon because Widmore's people probably blew the Man in Black and Sayid away. Moments later, the Man in Black returns, sans Sayid. When Sawyer asks why, the Man in Black mentions the locked and guarded room on the submarine, and says that he doesn't like secrets. At the submarine dock on Hydra Island, Sayid is in the water, watching as Zoe and another Nerd Herder retrieve "the package" from the submarine: a drugged and groggy Desmond David Hume.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Call-Back:
- Widmore's crew holds Jin captive in Room 23.
- The Man in Black tells Widmore that "a wise man once said that war was coming to this island", referencing Widmore's conversation with the real Locke in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham".
- Commercial Pop-Up: When this episode first aired in the USA, ABC ran a countdown clock for V at the bottom of the screen. The placement unfortunately lined up with the notepad Sun uses to communicate with Jack, blocking the text of what she was trying to say. Fans complained on social media and were backed up by Damon Lindelof. Even The Colbert Report made jokes about the banners.
- Deal with the Devil: Defied. Sun refuses to even consider joining with the Man in Black, despite the fact that he makes the very tempting offer to reunite her with Jin, knowing that he killed the people at the Temple and cannot be trusted.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Package" is both the $25,000 that is the Macguffin in Jin's story, and Desmond, who Widmore actually refers to as "the package" and who, in future episodes, becomes a Macguffin for all the factions on the Island.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Played for Laughs. Illana suspects Ben may have been the one to knock Sun unconscious due to the fact he keeps talking saying it wasn't him instead of staying quiet, given his past as a Consummate Liar.Ben: Why won't you believe me?
Ilana: Because you're speaking. - Imperiled in Pregnancy: Sun is shot when Jin and Mikhail fight. She tells Jin that she's pregnant as he carries her out of the restaurant.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Ironically, Charles Widmore, who previously served as the darker shade of black to Ben, is now this as he is in another Evil Versus Evil conflict with the Man in Black. Widmore is a power-hungry mass murderer, but the Man in Black is a literal monster who several characters have described as evil incarnate, and Widmore implies that allowing him to leave the Island would result in The End of the World as We Know It, so he still comes across as the lesser of two evils.
- Living Macguffin: Widmore's mysterious "package" is Desmond Hume, whom he implies is very important to the upcoming war.
- Moe Greene Special: In the Flash-sideways, Jin kills Mikhail by shooting him through the same eye he lost in the original timeline.
- Omniglot: According to Keamy, Mikhail speaks nine different languages. It's confirmed that he speaks Korean at the very least.
- Once More, with Clarity: Jin and Sayid's meeting in the Flash-sideways from "Sundown" is repeated, revealing why Keamy had Jin locked up and tied to a chair to begin with.
- Pet the Dog: Widmore shows Jin some pictures of his daughter, Ji Yeon, knowing that he has never seen her before, and empathizes with his desire to be reunited with his family.
- Refusal of the Call: Sun couldn't care less about being a Candidate or her destiny on the Island, all she wants is to be reunited with Jin. She even states outright that she's there to bring Jin home, not to save the world.Sun: I don't care. I don't care about Alpert, or being a candidate.
Jack: Sun... there was a reason why we were—
Sun: I don't want to hear about how this is our purpose or destiny! I just want you to go away and leave me alone! - Surrounded by Idiots: Widmore doesn't think much of his current minions, in particular calling out Zoe for kidnapping Jin ahead of schedule and alerting the Man in Black to their presence. As Zoe points out, it doesn't help that they're mostly scientists rather than trained mercenaries.
