Marriage
Issues: Sun & Jin
Sun and Jin met literally by running into each other. Jin had just quit his job at the Seoul Gateway Hotel, and Sun had recently learned from Jae Lee, the man her mother tried to fix her up with, that he was in love with an American woman. Jin, distracted by another woman walking by, runs into Jin, and it is love at first sight.
Sun and Jin started their
marriage off happy, and looking forward to the future, when Jin's year of
training at her father's automobile plant was over. This all changed when Sun was blackmailed by Jin's mother, threatening to reveal that she was a prostitute, and shame Jin. Sun paid her $100,00 of her father's money to remain quiet, but in exchange with her father had to agree that Jin would work directly for her father.
Jin started changing, becoming secretive about
what he did for her father, which turned out to be more of a mob-type business.
At first Jin's personality didn't fit in with what Mr. Paik had in mind, but
eventually he started doing the heavy-handed dealings that Mr. Paik wanted him
to do. This started to affect the marriage. Sun was left alone quite a bit of
the time and when they did find time together, it was interrupted. But Jin
continued to honor his promise to her father. Honor seems very important to Jin.
Earlier in the marriage Sun seemed the cosmopolitan girl, dressed chic
and modern, but somewhere along the line that changed and she became more modest
and subservient to Jin. Whether this was due to Jin's change in personality is
not clear, but it points to this reason.
Sun started to learn English so
eventually she could run away from the marriage and the man that she didn't know
any more. Sun returned to Jae Lee, the man who her mother originally set her up with, but who was seeing an American woman, for English lessons. As she continued their lessons, she grew closer and closer with Jae Lee. At the same time, Jin began pressuring her to have a child. The stress of unsuccessfully trying to conceive, began to wear on the couple. They see a gynecologist who tells Jin and Sun that Sun is infertile, which enrages Jin. Later, the doctor confesses to Sun that it is Jin who is infertile, but he was terrified of what Jin might do to him if he told them the truth.
As time went on, Sun and Jae Lee's relationship became physical. Jae suggested that she run away with him to America, now that her English had become so good. Before Sun could respond, her father burst into the room, discovering his daughter's affair. Infuriated, Mr. Paik calls Jin in, demands that he "take care of" a problem for him, and passes a photograph of Jae Lee to Jin. Jin understands his assignement, goes to Jae Lee's apartment,but instead of killing him, he beats him and demands he leaves the country. As Jin leaves the building, Jae Lee's body falls onto his car. Did he jump, or was he pushed?
Sun continued with her plans to escape Jin at the airport in Sydney,
hopefully leading him and her family to believe she was kidnapped and
eventually, dead. At the last minute she found she could not go through with it
when she caught a glimpse of the old Jin holding a simple flower out to her in a
gesture of love.
Little did Sun know, that Jin had a similar idea
in mind when he planned to run away from Mr. Paik and take Sun with him. But at
the Sydney airport an associate of his father cornered him in the bathroom and
told him in no uncertain terms that he will do as Mr. Paik says.
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Quote:
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"Yes, I know you're planning to run
away. But you're going to take that watch to Mr. Paik's friend in California.
You do anything else, anything. You will lose her. You are not free. You never
have been, and you never will be."
Excerpt from Exodus 2, written by Damon Lindelof and
Carlton Cuse
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Once it was revealed to everyone on the island that Sun
knew English, Jin turned his back on her, angered that she humiliated him. Sun
asked him tearfully if they could start again and go back to the beginning, but
Jin turned and walked away.
When it came time for Jin to leave on
the raft, Sun approached him with a notepad with phonetically spelled english
words to help him with communication. Jin broke down and told Sun he was sorry
and they both apologized for their past behavior. Reluctantly, Sun let Jin go
and he sailed away on the raft, hoping to bring rescue back for her and the
others.
Sun and Jin hear that Jack, Sawyer and Locke
have gone off to find Michael (he's looking for Walt again) and Jin wants to go
with. Sun has a "fit" and goes off on Jin, telling him how upset she was when he
went on the raft and she didn't know if he was alive or not and she didn't want
to go through that again. Jin tells her he doesn't like to be told what to do.
Sun comes back with that she didn't like it either for the past 4 years.
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Quote:
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JIN [subtitled]: Not yet. Honey... I don't like being told what
to do.
SUN [subtitled]: Being told what to do was my life for four
years... I didn't like it much either.
JIN [subtitled]: Right. I don't
suppose you did. [He moves closer and puts his arm around
her.]
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On the island, Sun discovers that she is pregnant, and reluctantly tells Jin the truth--that he is infertile. Jin accepts this information from Sun, and announces that the baby, then, is a miracle.
Sun is the spoiled daughter of a very wealthy man. As a child, she broke a statuary, and when confronted by her father, she lied, accusing the maid. Her father reminded her that if she persisted in accusing the maid, he would have to fire her. Sun decides to stay with her story. This willingness on both their parts to allow someone else to bear the consequences of Sun's actions follow them throughout their relationship--ultiamtely affecting Jin, and possibly being the cause of Jae Lee's death.
Her father appears to be involved in some shady
business. He told Jin that he could marry Sun if he spent a year training for
him. Sun was not happy about it, but was happy that her father was going to let
her marry Jin.
Jin originally worked in a lesser capacity at Paik Industries, but after Sun asked her father for $100,000 to pay off Jin's mother, he went to work directly for Mr. Paik. Sun admitted to her father that she knows what he does, and will keep quiet as long as he gives her the money. He agrees, but in exchange for Jin.
Daddy Issues:
Jin
Jin told Sun's father that his own father was
dead when he asked permission to marry her. He was ashamed that his father was a
mere fisherman scraping by. Sun also believes he is dead.
Jin
reunites with his father, expressing his shame and seeking advice while trying
to leave the clutches of his father-in-law Mr. Paik. Jin's father told him to
save his marriage, to walk away from Mr Paik and not come back.
After Sun is approached by the blackmailer, she seeks out Mr. Kwon and discovers that he is alive. She reveals to him that Jin told her that he was dead, and Mr. Kwon, though hurt, understands that Jin was ashamed of his background. Sun then asks about Jin's mother, and Mr. Kwon confirms that she was "With a lot of men." In fact, she left baby Jin with him to raise, and Mr. Kwon isn't even sure that the baby was his.
Jin's mother blackmails Sun with information about Jin's parentage: the father is a fisherman, and the mother, herself, is a prostitute.
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