Television Review: D.O.C. (Lost, S3X18, 2007)

D.O.C. (S03E18)

Airdate: 25 April 2007

Written by: Edward Kitisis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by: Frederick E. O. Toye

Running Time: 43 minutes

By the middle of Season 3, the collective consciousness of the Lost audience was in a state of complex frustration. While few could deny that the show possessed a unique ability to weave intricate narratives and evoke deep emotional responses, the very strengths that had once made it revolutionary were beginning to feel repetitive. The narrative formula, which had worked wonders in the first two seasons, was starting to feel like a rigid constraint rather than a flexible tool. Episodes that would have been hailed as masterpieces only a few months prior were now viewed with a critical eye, their slow pacing and adherence to established structures becoming increasingly apparent. It was within this context that the episode D.O.C. aired, serving as a very telling example of this phenomenon—a showcase of solid production values that nonetheless highlighted the show's struggle to evolve beyond its own conventions.

The title of the episode, "D.O.C.," stands as an acronym for "Date of Conception," a detail that is presented as a crucial piece of information, ostensibly intended to give away the ultimate fate of one of the show's major characters. This character is Sun, who is visibly pregnant and radiating a blissful happiness about it. However, as the narrative has painstakingly established over previous episodes, all women who become pregnant on the Island subsequently die, with the sole exception of those who, like Claire, became pregnant before their arrival. This established lore casts a long shadow over Sun's joy, creating a dramatic irony that the audience is desperate to see resolved, even if the resolution is tragic.

Sun remains blissfully unaware of the ticking clock until she is visited by Juliet, a character who serves as the Others' mole within the Losties camp and a scientist by trade. Juliet wants to ascertain the truth about Sun's condition and her ultimate fate. She brings Sun to the Staff Station, a location that features a secret compartment containing still-functioning equipment, including ultrasound monitors. At this point, Sun, having been told that Jin is sterile, believes that the child she is carrying was conceived during her extramarital affair with Jae. Consequently, she assumes that she and the baby are safe. Juliet performs a test and shows Sun an image of her unborn child, but her palpable delight is soon crushed by a devastating truth. The fetus is too young to have been conceived before the crash; therefore, Sun had conceived her baby on the Island, and Jin is the father. It appears that Jin's sterility, like other people's medical conditions on the Island, has been miraculously cured. Yet, this revelation means a death sentence for Sun, as she is told she has only two months to live. Juliet afterwards records her report to Ben, adding a personal note that she hates him.

The flashback sequences deal with Sun, and in some ways, they put her relationship with Jin in a different light, though they unfortunately reiterate what the audience already knew. The flashback is set immediately after their wedding when a mysterious woman approaches on the street and demands 100,000 US dollars in exchange for silence about Jin's mother being a prostitute—an unimaginable scandal if made public to Mr. Paik. Mr. Paik catches his daughter with the money and decides to keep quiet about it in exchange for asking his son-in-law to do some unspecified "hush hush services" to him personally. Sun later meets Mr. Kwon, who confirms the woman's story, claiming that he raised Jin by himself and he isn't sure whether he was his biological son, but he treated him as such. Sun later pays the woman, who reveals herself to be Jin's mother, but also threatens her life if she dares to ask for money ever again. While this backstory adds texture to Sun's desperation to keep her marriage, it does not offer anything startlingly new.

The side storyline in the episode actually advances the general plot and deals with the mysterious female parachutist that Desmond, Jin, Charlie, and Hurley have discovered in the jungle. It turns out that she is hurt very badly and needs immediate medical attention. While the group contemplates whether to bring her to the beach or bring Jack to tend her wounds, Hurley, by accidentally shooting a flare from the gun, forces the issue. Now everyone, including the Others, could find their location. Mikhail suddenly appears from the jungle, apparently having survived the sonic barrier. He gets captured and, in exchange for his freedom, offers his expertise as a former Soviet Army field medic to help the woman. His efforts are successful, and he is reluctantly released. When the woman wakes up and is told by Hurley that she is among the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, she acts with dismay, claiming that the plane was found and that there weren't any survivors.

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the episode is well-directed by Frederick E. O. Toye and features solid acting, but, for the most part, it doesn't add anything particularly new or anything the audience haven't been able to figure out beforehand. The pregnancy subplot had only two avenues—Sun carrying Jae's baby and living, or Sun carrying Jin's baby and dying—and the script opts for the latter, adding extra melodrama and plot complications to be resolved in the next couple of episodes or seasons. Even Sun's flashback doesn't add anything new, since the audience already knew about her husband's modest background being the source of possible shame and embarrassment for her rich father and family. It felt like padding to fill the runtime.

The only interesting addition is the action choreography, specifically when Jin delivers a roundhouse kick while overpowering Mikhail, establishing that character's apparent skill with martial arts. This moment provides a brief respite from the slow pacing but feels somewhat isolated in an episode otherwise focused on dialogue and exposition.

And then comes the major twist at the end that was supposed to add weeks or months of fan speculations and watercooler discussions in Spring of 2007. The parachutist claims that Oceanic Flight 815 was found and that all survivors are dead. If this is the truth, then the Island could be some sort of mystic purgatory. Alternatively, the whole electromagnetic business with the Swan Station could have created two versions of the doomed plane or parallel universes. Or, the female parachutist is simply lying. There were so many questions raised by this cliffhanger, but by that time, fans of Lost had grown accustomed to the pattern that answers delivered would often be disappointing or dragged out far longer than anticipated.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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