Lessons from Lost

So I was watching Lost last week and the episode (Spoiler alert! Don't read further if you're behind on your viewing!) was about Sun and her pregnancy. They delved further into her and Jin's back story beginning with the fact that although he did work for her father, it was not originally as one of his goons, but as one of the factory people. A strange woman was blackmailing Sun for an obscene amount of money or else she would tell people that Jin's mother had been a prostitute, thus bringing shame upon him. Sun visited Jin's father to talk about this and he begged her not to tell Jin.

So.....Sun decides she needs to pay the lady off and goes to her father to ask for money. She knows her father has a "side" business and he tells her that if she takes this money, then Jin is beholden to him - meaning he needs to begin a life of thuggery. Jin then becomes a man she despises as he grows colder and meaner from doing her dad's bidding. It's at this point that she finds solace in another man's arms and plans to leave Jin. Only she gets on the plane too, the plane crashes on the island, it's discovered she's pregnant and the baby can't be Jin's because he's impotent. Whoa!

From previous episodes, it was thought that Jin had worked for her dad right from the get-go; we now discover that in fact it was Sun's doing. Jin turns, in many ways, into her father all because of this web of deceit and unwillingness for anyone, let alone Sun, to tell the truth.

As I was watching all of this unfold, I was just thinking that if at any one point during this journey, the truth was told and dealt with that it would stop the rest of the events from happening. Instead we moved from one intrigue to another, one secret to another, one lie to another. All of this begets suffering, bitterness, anger and pain. Sure telling the truth can also be painful - at first. Once things are brought to light, darkness has no control over it anymore. It's only when things are left in darkness that you lose control and people get hurt.

This is a lesson for everyone, I think. When one secret or lie is told to cover up another, it only makes things worse and it takes a bigger secret or lie to cover up the last one, and then a bigger one to cover that up, etc. etc. It gets to be a vicious cycle and one that never ends well.

So there you have it. Who said Lost was just about a bunch of good-looking people stranded on an exotic island with crazy 'other' people and an acorporeal beasty running about? It's also educational.

Photo: ©ABC