Follow along! The episode guide for “The Glass Ballerina” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 17-22.At the time, fans were already starting to grumble about season 3, saying it was focusing too much on the Others and the people on the boat, and not on anyone on the beach. Watching it now in retrospect, it doesn’t feel like that to me (but then again, at the time, I remember really enjoying the first six episodes, unlike so many other fans). But people were annoyed that we had our requisite Jack opener, and then moved to a Sun/Jin flashback rather than someone else’s. This episode was interesting to watch. Now it seems a little ho-hum, because we already knew that she’d had an affair with Jae Lee, but at the time, this was a confirmation of what so many of us simply suspected but didn’t know for sure. I love that end scene where Jin beats the snot out of Jae, yelling about his honour and how he can never do this again, and Jae Lee thinks he’s talking about Sun when he’s actually referring to what he’s done to Paik… or is he?
Fun things I noticed:
• I’ve never understood why NO ONE ever noticed the other island. Not Jin, Michael, or Sawyer as they were on the raft, or Sayid, Jin, and Sun as they were sailing around the island in a boat. Did they just happen to always be in a different spot than that island? It’s not that far.
• I’d never noticed that huge scar on the back of Jae Lee’s head before! How did I miss that? I’m assuming it’s on the actor, not just the character, and looks like he’s been cut across the back of his head from ear to ear. Eek.
• Sawyer’s face and then fake indignation when Pickett suggests Kate could take her dress off never fails to make me laugh.
• At the time this episode aired (for anyone who watched the episodes all later on DVD) many fans speculated that Sun actually went into the hotel and threw Jae Lee out of the window. But Damon and Carlton said no, it definitely wasn’t Sun.
Things that have new meaning:
• The scene of little Sun playing the piano and the metronome ticking away now makes me think of young Daniel playing when his mother comes in and closes the piano lid.
• Ben’s “You never made soup for me” is different now in light of knowing that he was obsessed with Juliet. I remember at the time thinking they’d been a couple, as did many fans.
• I pointed out in my book that Sayid’s plan is the same as that of the Others – take two so that one of them will comply so you don’t hurt the other one. But it’s interesting in retrospect to think just how MUCH Sayid thinks like the Others.
• Now we know that Kate and Sawyer were working on removing the rocks so the Others could build the runway for the Ajira flight in S5.
• And… the love continues between Juliet and Sawyer. Would Sawyer have a memory of Juliet holding a gun to Kate? Would Juliet remember him tossing her water before giving Kate a passionate kiss?
• Ben tells Jack that he’s lived on the island his entire life. Then in “The Man Behind the Curtain” we saw that he wasn’t actually born on the island. But after seeing S5, is it possible he’s referring to his rebirth? Did whatever happen in the Temple with Alpert erase some earlier facts from his memory, and he truly believes that he was born on the island?
• Ben tells Jack that if he complies, he will “take” him home, as if he’ll accompany him. But instead, he accompanies Jack BACK to the island, as if the island is home.
