It is Day 7, September 28, 2004, and Jack Shephard, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) and John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) go to the caves to gather water and investigate.

James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) manage to subdue and handcuff Jin to the wreckage.

The castaways argue whether to stay on the beach where a rescue party could see them (and keep the signal fire burning), or move to the caves, where there is more shelter and fresh water.

The group splits into two camps accordingly: Jack, Locke, Charlie, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia), Jin, Sun, Ethan Rom (William Mapother), Dr. Leslie Arzt (Daniel Roebuck), Doug, and Sullivan (Scott Paulin) move to the caves while Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin), Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau), Walt, Vincent (Madison), Shannon Rutherford (Maggie Grace), Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder), Rose Nadler (L. Scott Caldwell), Scott Jackson (Christian Bowman), and Steve Jenkins (Dustin Watchman) remain on the beach.

Yunjin Kim initially auditioned for the role of Kate, but the producers liked her so much that they created an entirely new character, part of "a couple [that's] alienated from the rest of the group because they can't communicate.

He had moved from South Korea as a toddler and forgotten most of his Korean by the time he won the role of Jin; while Kim helped him with the language,[3][4] his accent reportedly sounded poor to native speakers.

The two actors discussed "potentially negative feedback" with the producers early in the series' development,[10][11] and Yunjin Kim's fear led co-creator J. J. Abrams to ensure her character's story would be told.

[10] Supervising producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who wrote "House of the Rising Sun", found it difficult to write the Jin-Sun storyline, as he did not speak Korean and had to get into a "cultural headspace" for which he had no personal reference.

[12] Showrunner Damon Lindelof commented that given the script was written in English, only during the dailies the producers noticed that almost all of the episode would be subtitled, making them fear for ABC's reaction.

[13] From Dae Kim's perspective, Jin crashed on the island only to find himself in a "worst-case scenario" – he is "among a bunch of strangers, he doesn't speak any English, and he's suspicious of people already.

"[12] Referring to the episode's Jin-Sun and Locke-Charlie storylines, Grillo-Marxuach felt that the island was about being "forced to confront your inner demons [and] work out things" never addressed before.

In her 2006 work Finding Lost: The Unofficial Guide, Nikki Stafford called it "an excellent episode, with a beautiful, mournful musical score.

He cited its showcase of Yunjin Kim and the revelations surrounding Jin and Sun's relationship, though Dougherty admitted some viewers might have found these minor characters uninteresting.

He described the main Jin-Sun storyline as "delicate and gripping," and believed Sun's eventual decision to stay with her husband was as "intriguing" as the revelation that she could speak English.

He felt that Jin's situation deserved sympathy and was good fodder for future storylines, and also was pleased that the language barrier was somewhat resolved so early in the series with Sun's ability to speak English.