Previously, a season two episode had seemed to confirm that Jin was infertile, leading to ramped up speculation online that Sun was pregnant by her lover Jae Lee. A later episode in the third season would resolve this storyline, showing that Jin was cured of his infertility and is the father of their baby. Sun's deception over the affair would later be resolved in the season four episode "Ji Yeon", when Juliet tells Jin about Sun and Jae Lee. Actor Daniel Dae Kim enjoyed the fight scene between him and guest actor Tony Lee, commenting that "I really appreciate the fact that [Jin]'s just a down-and-dirty street fighter. I think his style of fighting fits his character". He continued "it was great to see a different layer to Sun's character. Because previously she had always been the good wife, and Jin was the bad husband". Actress Yunjin Kim added that "now we know that [Sun]'s not what she's been advertised to be for the last two seasons, but actually she has a lot of secrets." It was originally scheduled to air on October 18, 2006, but was swapped with the episode "Further Instructions" and broadcast one week earlier. When "The Glass Ballerina" first aired, it was the seventh most watched episode of the week in the United States, with 16.890 million viewers and a 6.9 rating in the key demographic of adults ages 18–49. "Lost" critic Andrew Dignan of "Slant Magazine" noted that like the season premiere, the episode "mostly serves to add uncomfortable wrinkles to one of the show's saints, going so far as to make the consistently sympathetic Sun quite unlikable." He added "While I... question the need for the flashbacks, I must confess to finding this particular episode more wonderfully twisted than usual." Jeff Jensen of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote "Last week's Jin/Sun episode was something of a disappointment, not because it was a bad episode of "Lost", per se (I would give it a solid B), but because it wasn't as good as the exhilarating season premiere (which I would give an A+)." IGN's Chris Carabott rated the episode 6.8/10, explaining that after the premiere's "exciting, new direction" of an episode, "The Glass Ballerina" helped "Lost" "take a step back [as it] delivers nothing new or substantial". He felt the flashbacks were repetitive and "a lot more like filler than the basis for compelling television", but praised the final scene between Jack and Ben as "the only compelling scene in the whole episode".