Love You 'till the End

I'm sorry for those of you who don't care, but I had to say something about the tragedy that was last night's episode of LOST, "The Candidate".

Oh. Dear. God.

First of all, let me just say, there are a good many times in my life that I've been emotionally moved by a film, a certain episode of a TV show, a song, a work of art, a book, etc. I should probably make a list or at least a blog including some of them. Yeah, that's a good idea. Note to self. Anyways, there was a scene in "The Candidate" that was one of those times.

Even if you aren't a LOST fan, this scene is worth a watch. For those of you that mourn the loss of Jin, Sun, and Sayid (maybe Frank) like you mourn the loss of an old friend, I'm sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl12dAn5gnY

So, that son of a bitch Smokey (who I KNEW was evil all along) stashed a bomb in his backpack then switched backpacks with Jack right before all the Losties got on the Sub. Kate gets shot and everyone scrambles to roll out. Whenever they've got the Sub diving, Jack reaches for his bag for maybe some doctor stuff to help Kate out. Alas, he finds the bomb. Sayid (Mr. Republican Guard Bomb Specialist) says the only way to disarm it is to pull out the two wires at the same time. Jack says "No. Smokey can't kill us, he's trying to get us to kill ourselves by blowing up." Sawyer is like "Screw you, asshole. I've never ever liked you, we both love(d) the same girl, and you most def killed Juliet." So then Sawyer pulls out the wires, the bomb starts ticking faster, Sayid tells Jack about Desmond being alive and then he dashes as far away as possible with the bomb to give our friends a better chance at survival. I love you, Sayid. I'm really sorry that nothing in your life ever worked out.

So, bomb goes off. Frank gets hit by a latch door (dead?). Sub is filling up with water. Hurley wants to go after Sayid but Jack is like "There is no Sayid!" so Hurley goes off with Kate and an oxygen tank. Sun is stuck behind some sub stuff. Sawyer, Jin, and Jack manage to get the sub (refrigerator?) off of Sun. For a split second, I was sure it was going to be okay. Then: Sun is still stuck by some pipes or something. NOOOOOO!!! Sawyer gets knocked out. Jack gets him, starts heading to the oxygen tanks. Sun begs Jin to leave. Jin tells Jack to go, save Sawyer. Jack tries to give Jin the last oxygen tank: "Take this, I can get him out without it." Jin: "No. You can't, Jack."

The look in Jin's eyes when he tells Jack to go, it's like they have an understanding. Man to man. And Sun sees it, too. Without saying any words, it's like they're saying goodbye to their leader. He couldn't save everyone, after all.

Jin begins fighting against the pipes with a new determination. He is resolved to fight to his last breath. Sun, however, knows it is the end. You can see it in her eyes.

Sun: "Jin. You have to go."
Jin: "No. I can do this."
Sun: "No, no you can't. Please, go." (Sobbing)
Then Jin grabs her face with this determined fierceness.
Jin: "I won't leave you."
And he's fighting, and we all know it's no use. And we're crying with Sun because she knows too.
Jin: "I'm gonna get you out of here."
Sun: "No...go...go...please, go."
And then Jin looks at the door. For one second he thinks about leaving, if only so that their daughter Ji Yeon doesn't grow up without her parents. For that one second he contemplates his fateful choice: Give up the love of his life? or Leave his child parent less?
He turns back to Sun and even before the words leave his mouth, you know he'll never leave her.
Jin: (in Korean) "I won't leave you. I will never leave you again." (in English): "I love you, Sun."
And then they're both crying and they kiss. A kiss of promise, of goodbye, of forever. And we can see her wedding ring that she once lost in the episode that we see their first meeting in flashbacks.
Sun: "I love you."
And they kiss, and the water rises, and they look in to each other's eyes. They don't regret their choices. They don't regret their struggles. They are together and that's all that matters.

The sub sinks and so does our hearts. Just when we think it can't hurt anymore, we see the image of their clasped hands, together in death, slowly slip away from each other. It is the end of Sun and Jin and the tears fall even harder. As far as deaths go, that was pretty freaking tragic. I literally cry every time I think about it. And if that wasn't enough, we then see Hurley completely lose it and start to sob, Kate is crying in the sand, and Jack is in tears and rage because he couldn't save them. Oh, we mourn too guys.

In the beginning, Jin and Sun were very flawed. Jin icily tells her to button up her blouse over and over again and doesn't let her talk to other men. Sun resents her husband for treating her like property, you can see the fire in her eyes even then. Through flashbacks we see that they fell in love when they weren't supposed to, she the daughter of a rich businessman/mobster, he a poor son of a fisherman. But they love each other, and that's enough. He asks her father for her hand and Mr. Paik offers him a "job". For years Jin acts as his father-in-law's hit man in order to stay with Sun. His job makes him almost frightening to Sun, more demanding. She's unhappy and strays into the man's arms who she was originally supposed to marry. He teachers her English, her father finds out and has Jin kill him, Jin doesn't go through with it (he doesn't know the guy's been sleeping with his wife) but he dies anyway. Sun prepares to leave her husband in Sydney before their flight back to LAX. However, just when she's supposed to make the decision to leave, she sees Jin with a flower and she realizes that she loves him, still. The plane crashes, they stay away from everyone at first, Jin is seen as hostile towards others and his wife. She reveals that she speaks English, Jin is pissed. He prepares to leave the island on the raft (that everyone knew wouldn't work), they reconcile somewhat before he leaves, the raft is ambushed, Jin ends up lost in the jungle. Eventually he finds his way back to her and their reunion is so sweet. They're in love, you see. They're happy and they get it on and we finally see Jin's sexy chest. Then Juliet tells Sun she's pregnant, they go to medical hatch to see who the daddy is (since Sun was cheating), Jin's the proud papa but it turns out Sun will die in childbirth since she got pregnant on the island. Jin is super happy until Juliet tells him that Sun slept with someone else (she was trying to stop Sun from staying on the island, she wanted her to get off and not die), Jin is pissed but realizes it was partly his fault for being such a jackass (what a man). Jin resolves to get Sun off the island and but gets himself on a freighter that blows up. Jin isn't dead as Sun thinks he is. She is hella angry and becomes Badass Sun and spends three years off the island trying to kill Ben because she blames him for Jin's death. Ben tells her Jin isn't dead and shows her Jin's wedding band. She then spends like, two freaking seasons getting back to the island and trying to get in the same effing time period as him. Then, FINALLY, last freaking week, they are reunited. Everyone smiles and is happy for like two seconds and then everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Jin sees his daughter for the first time on a roll of film, he finds out Ji Yeon is with Grandma Paik, and they both end up on the doomed sub of death.

AFTER ALL OF THAT, they die. As heart wrenching as it was, I have to say, their death was beautiful. Sun spent years thinking he was dead and raising their kid alone only to find out he wasn't dead in the first place. Jin spent three years alone on the island having never seen his daughter. They both frantically searched for one another for a whole freaking season. In the beginning, he was the worst kind of husband: pushy, rude, misogynistic. She was the oppressed housewife who couldn't stand up for herself. By all logic, they never should have been together in the first place. Yet, as fate would have it, they found each other. Against all odds, they loved each other, even when they couldn't stand each other. In the end, the only thing that mattered was that they were finally together. He would never leave her again. They never spoke of Ji Yeon but you could feel her presence and I think Jin did right by her. Instead of leaving his heart to die, he stayed and left his daughter a story she can be proud of. If she were to ever hear the story, she would know how much love her parents had for each other. And in the end, love was enough for them.

RIP Sun, Jin, and Sayid.

("Love You 'till the End" , The Pogues)