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Interesting juxtaposition of the first flashback moment of Sun as a child with Sun in the present looking at herself in a mirror—a looking glass in fact—who really sees Sun as she is?

— jazprof

I think the first thing that struck me was how prominent “looks” were in the episode—especially Sawyer looking at Pickett and Colleen, and Sawyer looking at Kate. And the latter also made me think of the double meaning of “looks”—it is both the glance and what draws the glance. Contrasting Kate and Sun—Kate has been dressed in a way to emphasize her looks and to elicit looking (from Sawyer primarily, so it is interesting that it is his looking that is so prominent in the episode). Sun in the opening is not seen and not being seen gives her some measure of safety from her father (blaming the maid). Later she is not as lucky. The way in which the actor playing Mr. Paik has eyes that are unsymmetrical gives his gaze a certain obsessive quality. And certainly he acts as Sun’s owner (his description to Jin that Jae has stolen something from him). In some ways Sun is, herself, the glass ballerina. Then these two meanings of looks play into the other prominent feature in the episode which is the number of triangles—most often a couple, with another person as the intruder, observer, or manipulator. And that leads to my last connection with looks—Ben’s statement to Jack towards the end that he wants Jack to “change his perspective”—that is he wants Jack to change the way he looks at things. And in the next episode Ben will manipulate Jack into being the odd man out observer of Kate/Sawyer. Here though he starts to change Jack’s perspective by showing him scenes of the Red Sox game, and then stating “Home is on the other side of that glass.” So what is the conduit to the outside world—isn’t it the “Looking Glass” station? A looking glass is a mirror—but in Carroll’s story becomes a gateway to another world (transparent rather than reflective—like a two-way mirror—surveillance tool). Jack has to change the way he looks in order to go through the glass? To go home? Is it the way he looks at himself (as in a mirror) that is the most important thing to change?

Sorry if this is a bit garbled—I started seeing so much here that I’m not sure it’s completely coherent. As a random starting point let me begin with what Sayid tells Sun his strategy is—that having built up the fire (making themselves seen) he will capture two of the others. The number is drawn attention to because Sun asks “two?’—and he replies “one to make the other cooperate.” That’s certainly the way the others are playing Kate and Sawyer. But it’s also part of the Sun-Sayid-Jin triangle. Who does Sun owe allegiance too? And then that question is also the focal point of the flashback. Triangles are really all over the place in the episode. Ben/Juliet/Colleen (Colleen: “Am I intruding on something?”). Pickett/Colleen/Sawyer (Pickett to Sawyer: “What you looking at?”). Pickett/Sawyer/Juliet (Bad Cop/Good Cop). Sawyer/Kate/Juliet (Juliet’s actually the one to look out for). Kate/Sawyer/Jack—Kate says she won’t do anything until she sees Jack. At which point Pickett tasers Sawyer—both making Kate cooperate with Pickett, and redirecting her interest to Sawyer.

One specific way that triangles and looks connect has to do with the contrast with Kate being set up to be looked at, whereas Sun should not. Let me look at Kate first (heh). The interchange between Pickett and Sawyer (“What you looking at?”) shows the more typical attitude that a man is supposed to have—proprietary. That contrasts with the way Sawyer acts when Pickett suggests that Kate can work either in the dress or out of it—Sawyer looks at her imagining her without the dress. He follows up Pickett’s sexual suggestion but not the possessiveness that is traditionally supposed to accompany it. When Kate gives him a dirty look in return, he realizes what he is supposed to say and rather lamely says “How dare you?” Later he looks at Kate breaking up rocks and I think we are supposed to take the look as both sexual and romantic. He strides over and kisses her. Again this seems like standard gender role—but then it turns out this was a ploy to get Pickett to come over so he could start a fight and get hold of a gun. Who sees through the little romantic drama—Juliet. While the guys are reacting to Sawyer’s provocation, she just grabs Kate. Which actually makes me wonder about that statement Juliet makes to Kate about breaking Jack’s heart—does Juliet actually believe this or is she manipulating Kate? I tend to think the latter. Still later when Sawyer and Kate discuss what happened and Sawyer talks about taking them off guard—they are being watched by Ben. So in the earlier instances—Sawyer seems not easily manipulated and in fact able to manipulate his captors because he has not completely bought into the Kate as his sexual possession narrative (the main component of which is make her something to be looked at). However at the end—when he thinks he is winning—he is in fact being watched. I also think perhaps that a slight change in the focus of manipulation happened after this—it became Kate, not Sawyer, and the means of manipulation was to keep beating Sawyer up—putting her in the caretaker position.

Contrast this with Sun’s role both in the present and the flashback story. In the flashback story—she breaks the ballerina, but is not seen. To me this becomes her main strategy for surviving as Paik’s daughter—not being seen and placing the blame elsewhere. When she is seen by her father with Jae, her father characterizes this as having had something stolen from him—her looks (her body) have been taken away by having been looked at by the wrong man. (Interesting juxtaposition of the first flashback moment of Sun as a child with Sun in the present looking at herself in a mirror—a looking glass in fact—who really sees Sun as she is?) Then in the present—Jin wants to protect her from Sayid’s strategy of being seen by the others (as Sayid does as well)—both tell her to go to the boat. Sayid tells her about the gun on board; Sun says she doesn’t need it because if the others come then her husband will be dead and she will have nothing left to live for. Sayid repeats what he said about the gun. The subtext there I thought was that Sayid is saying not that she could protect herself, but that she could kill herself (rather than be taken). Again she can not be possessed by the wrong side. Colleen in confronting Sun claims to know her (as the others seem to know all the Losties)—but interestingly this is the first time the Others knowledge fails them. Is this because of Sun’s invisibility in her past. They think she isn’t a killer. But she kills. Does this imply that she has killed before? I suddenly wondered if it will turn out that she is the one who pushed Jae to his death (a long shot I know).

Ok just one more random thought—Ben’s wounds on his lips make him look either like a vampire OR…(wait for it)…a deranged bunny…

Key episodes

#	Title	Aired	Central character	Theories
3.2	The Glass Ballerina	10-11-2006	Sun, Jin, Jae	198

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