LOST Rewatch: The Glass Ballerina

The episode takes its name from a flashback from Sun’s past. When she was little, she broke a glass ballerina, and then blamed the maid for having done it. Later, we learn that Sun had an affair with the man that was teaching her English, and that Sun’s father found out and ordered Jin to kill the man. But Jin could not do it, and told the man to leave the country and disappear instead. But instead, he killed himself, throwing himself off the balcony and landing on Jin’s car. Sun goes to his funeral.

Alex asks Kate about Karl. Alex tells her that the dress they gave her is her’s. Kate and Sawyer are breaking and moving rocks.

Sayid realizes that Jack and his party have been captured. They light a fire to try to attract a scouting party of the Others to kill except for a couple of hostages. We discover that Jin understands more English than Sun assumed. The Others take their sailboat. Sun shoots one of them, then dives off the boat.

Ben notes the irony that a week earlier Ben was the prisoner and Jack payed him visits, and now the reverse. Ben tells Jack that he wants him to change his perspective, and so he introduces himself as Benjamin Linus, and says he has lived on this island his whole life. He tells him that if he cooperates when the time is right, he will send him home. Jack thinks the Others are trapped on the island, just like them. Ben tells him the Red Sox have won the World Series, and when Jack laughs and mocks, Ben shows him proof.

The significance of this for Jack is of course poignant, given his father’s habit of saying, “That’s why the Sox will never win the Series.”

The symbolism of the glass ballerina is important, too. It is about the fact that we may do damage by accident, but then depending on the choices we make thereafter, to cover up what happened or accept responsibility, we may cause much greater harm than we did at first. An expensive piece of ornamentation is broken, but then someone loses their job. A marriage goes off the rails, but then there is an affair, and in the end someone loses their life. Ironically, while Sun felt disturbed by what she assumed Jin did for her father, Jin could not bring himself to kill people even when ordered to.