English as a second language

Drew and I went back to look at the Dharma Initiative film sequence today and ended up watching several other parts of the episode. Of particular note once we stumbled across it was the sequence with Michelle Rodriguez in the pit, after Sawyer brings out his gun. There is a brief shot of Jin - seemingly unprompted - where he looks between Sawyer's hand and Rodriguez... it's hard to explain in this context, but it really looks not only like he thinks she is going to steal the gun away, but that he fully expects her to and is actually anxiously awaiting her move.

Note the following things.

1. Jin was separated from Michael and Sawyer for quite some time after the raft blew up. But he was apparently never under shark threat and had seemingly been on the island for some time already when they made their way back to the beach the next morning, which had to be a time difference of at least a few hours. Could he have somehow grabbed the side of the boat belonging to the "others" and made it back much quicker?

2. As I noted yesterday, when Jin comes out of the jungle to meet Michael and Sawyer on the beach, he is tied up. But when they are taken back into the jungle, they are not tied up - they are thrown into a pit from which, one presumes, Jin alone would not have been able to escape (certainly not if he had also been tied up). This leaves open the possibility that Jin knew, to some degree, his captors.

3. In one Season One episode, Hurley tells Jin there is a rumor that the latter speaks English. This is, of course, mere speculation on the part of the survivors, but it must have come from somewhere - remember that Sun got busted by Kate because she gave a knowing smile after something Kate said; Jin could have had similar looks at times if indeed he did speak or understand English.

4. Of course we have now seen Jin speak English. The common belief is that this is part of a dream sequence, but I'm not so sure. For one thing, he's in a place with artificial light and it doesn't look much like any place in the hatch (though to be fair, we don't get much of a look at it). That being said, why would any of the characters have a dream that takes place in such a location? Why would a dream on this show be so seemingly stoic? Yes, it's annoying if the promo people blew such a huge development if it's real, but when have we ever known promo people to be good at keeping secrets?

Possible theories:

1. Perhaps Jin simply speaks English and has been hiding it like Sun. He didn't seem to have much of an accent in that one line - I daresay he seemed downright American - but maybe he has a little bit of one. Sun's accent isn't very strong either. So why didn't Jin ever bust it out before now, at a point where it could have been useful? One of the following theories might explain that.

2. Perhaps he is connected with the project somehow, if the project is indeed connected to the castaways' ending up on the island. As someone whose inability to communicate well and general reticence would help him maintain a low profile, he could perhaps be observing and/or trying to exert a certain level of control over the proceedings.

3. Perhaps he stumbled upon whoever this other group of people is (at least partially Flight 815 survivors) at some earlier point, and formed an alliance. Note that for much of the first season Jin desires to keep separate from the other survivors, yet he still manages to join with them at crucial times even though he is most interested in his own survival and seems to think he can assure it himself. Why? Perhaps he is trying to move things in the direction that will most benefit him - i.e. helping this other group of people that may be better equipped to get him off the island.

Or maybe it's just some sort of dream sequence. The problem with the other explanations is that I have a very hard time conceiving of a way for them to be satisfying. Even if they exist, we're probably waiting two weeks - I have to figure that if it's not a dream, Jin's English will be one of the last things we get next week (though if that's the case, the promo people dropped the ball even worse than could have been expected). And I just don't know how this question could be answered and keep things reasonable. Though Lost thrives on its mystery and twists, getting too crazy could be a death knell, particularly for my interest. We've got a long way to go this season, though - 19 episodes or so - so there are still plenty of things that could happen. I just hope Abrams and Lindelof don't dig too deep a hole for themselves.

Personally, I'm hoping right now that it's a fakeout. It would explain the prominent promo placement - this show has been known for juking in the past, be it the hallucinogenic paste or... well, that was the big one, but certainly things on the island aren't always what they seem at first glance. And if this is what it seems, the questions it raises are far more problematic than the English-speaking itself. For the sake of not having huge, ugly plot holes, it either needs to be a fakeout, or the answer needs to be really, really, ridiculously good. Good to a degree that I'm not sure actually can exist in this dimension. If Jin does speak English and the explanation is not 100% mind-blowingly outstanding, it's going to become obvious that the shot of the shark circling in the second episode was meant to show the thing the show was jumping. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Don't get me wrong, it could be a cool twist, but if it doesn't work just right it could also be devastating.

(For the record, yes, I'm aware that this blog has started off on kind of a negative foot. Hopefully this won't last, but it's sort of up to the show. Seems like I didn't pick the best episode after which to start.)