Televisionista

IS SUN A KILLER?

Last week on "Lost" we learned that Sun (Yoon-jin Kim) was not as innocent as we may have presumed in the past. Given the twist in that character's development I was very surprised to hear some critics and fans complaining that the Sun and Jin flashback in the episode "The Glass Ballerina" (original airdate: October 11, 2006) was somewhat slow and tedious, as it actually revealed a lot about the characters involved, including a not very flattering portrayal of Sun as a liar, a cheater and possibly even a killer.

We had already known that Sun was keeping her fluency in English a secret and that she may not have always been entirely honest with her husband Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), but one was led to believe that it was all due to his impulsive nature and her fear of consequences.

In the "Glass Ballerina" episode that flashes back to her early childhood, Sun is however presented as a blatant liar who would stop at nothing to cover her tracks. And her relationship with her "English teacher" Jae is revealed to be much more intimate than we had thought in the past.

What we do not know is what happened to Jae when he landed on Jin's windshield. Was it suicide? Or did Sun's father arrange for his murder? Or was it Sun herself who had pushed him to his untimely death? That would certainly explain Jae holding her pearl necklace in his hand as he lay lifeless and covered in blood on Jin's car.

Finally, the purpose of flashbacks in"Lost" is not only to tell us more about the characters veiled in as much mystery as the island itself, but also to explain some of their actions in the present. And Sun pointing a gun at Coleen, an "Other" who tried to capture her, and shooting her may just have been one of those difficult to understand situations that made more sense given what we now know about Sun and her past.