'Lost': So what's up with Jin?

It was the sigh of relief heard 'round the “Lost” universe: Jin is alive! He's alive!

When “Lost” viewers last saw Daniel Dae Kim’s Jin, he was standing on a freighter that exploded, as his wife, Sun, watched from a helicopter. Viewers immediately related to Sun's hysterical reaction, delivered by Yunjin Kim. Certainly, Jin would not have been the first "Lost" character to be mourned by fans. But Jin and Sun, the Korean couple who were about to become parents, seem to have touched Losties in a way that made it impossible to begin the grieving process.
The producers assured fans last season that Jin would be seen again -- in life or death. (That's just the way "Lost" rolls.) But those promises didn't go far enough because fans wanted a Jin-Sun reunion.

Nine months later -- in viewer time -- it was revealed Wednesday that Jin survived the explosion, prompting the "Lost" cult to immediately light up message boards and forums with their joy.

"It's nice to be missed," Kim laughed Thursday morning during a telephone interview. "I'm glad they introduced me at the end of an episode like that because it sets up the following episode. It's a nice little teaser."

And what an ending it was. Not only did viewers learn that Jin survived the explosion but also that he's been floating at sea for some time. (We won't even try to guess for how long.)

On other shows, that would be dramatic enough. But no, "Lost" took it one step further by having the English-challenged Jin being rescued by French madwoman Danielle Rousseau, who died last season. This was possible because the rescue occurred in 1988 when the pregnant Rousseau herself was stranded on the island with her science team.

That means Jin is not only struggling with sunburn, dehydration and injuries but has to communicate in 1988 in broken English with a foreigner he originally met in 2004.

Danielle Rousseau"I think that's hilarious," Kim said. "It's bad enough that he's got one language barrier, but now he's got two." "

Next week, Kim said, viewers will know exactly what happened to Jin after the freighter exploded and the island moved, causing its inhabitants to time travel.

"What everyone has been experiencing together jumping back and forth through time, Jin has been experiencing on his own," Kim said. "We're going to find out exactly what he's been doing."

Kim and the producers won't say if or when a Jin-Sun reunion occurs, wrote executive producer Carlton Cuse in an e-mail to The Times.

"Obviously now that we know that Jin is alive, he is very anxious to find out what happened to Sun and he wants to find her -- just as she wants to find him," Cuse wrote. "What happens? We don't want to spoil that for you."

source :www.latimes.com