Charlotte and Dan have disappeared from camp without telling anyone. Jin saw them head into the jungle, but told no one. His reason? He took at face value Jack’s statement that they were friends and posed no threat. Jack seems to think otherwise, and quickly heads out with Juliet to track them, while Jin and Sun head out together, also to search. It starts to rain – always a bad sign – and Juliet encounters Harper, her therapist from her days as an Other. Harper is there to deliver a message to Juliet from Ben. She says that Charlotte and Dan are heading for a station known as the Tempest, there to release a deadly gas and kill everyone on the island. Harper tells Juliet she must kill them before they do so. Jack arrives, and also sees Harper, but she seems to disappear into thin air.
In flashback, we find out that Harper wasn’t much help to Juliet as a therapist back then, and her help deteriorated even more after she found out that Juliet was sleeping with her (Harper’s) husband, Goodwin. This worries Harper, because she (and everyone else) knows that Ben thinks Juliet belongs to him. Sure enough, somehow Ben does find out about the affair, although he never lets on. His reaction is to assign Goodwin to infiltrate the tailies, and to basically keep him on assignment there until it becomes a suicide mission and Goodwin is killed. To rub in this point, Ben drags Juliet all the way out into the jungle, without telling her why, and shows her Goodwin’s impaled and decomposing body. Now Ben reveals, in his own roundabout way, that he knew and the two of them, and that Juliet is his. For a moment, Ben lets his guard down and shows the full extent of his crazed, megalomaniac personality. Then he quickly returns to being just cruelly civil.
Meanwhile, Kate has stumbled upon Charlotte and Dan. Kate asks a few questions, and when the answers don’t sound right, she asks to look in Dan’s bag. She sees the gas masks, and then Charlotte bashes her on the head and knocks her out.
Jack and Juliet went up the hill…and find Kate, alive and groaning. Kate tells what happens and Juliet goes off to get her some water – but just keeps on going. Kate explains to Jack why she stayed with Locke.
Juliet reaches the Tempest. Dan is at the console, wrestling with commands while the vats of chemicals are about to explode. Juliet points her gun and tells him to back away, but he refuses. Charlotte arrives; Juliet and Charlotte knock each other around for awhile, until Charlotte is able to convince Juliet that they are there to render the gas inert and stop Ben from using it to kill everyone. Juliet lets Dan proceed, and he secures the tanks with a couple of seconds to go before disaster.
Jack and Kate arrive. Kate needs a lot of explaining before she will lower her gun, but, eventually, she believes Charlotte and Dan. Juliet tells Jack that Ben thinks she belongs to him, and that being near her will not be a good place to be when Ben wins this war – which she is sure he will. Jack and Juliet kiss – and Jack says Ben knows where to find him.
Over at Eggtown:
Locke is still pumping Ben for information, with little success so far. But in exchange for a semblance of freedom, Ben tells Locke that Charles Widmore’s boat is anchored off the island. Ben says Widmore is trying to find the island, and he has already killed anyone who has gotten in his way. Widmore already knows about the island, and views it as a tourist attraction – people will flock to see the place that cured the cripple Locke. Ben gives Locke a thick file about Widmore, but Locke says it still isn’t enough. Locke asks for the name of Ben’s man on the boat. Ben tells Locke to sit down. We as viewers don’t get to hear what Ben says next, but he must have told Locke what he wanted, because in the next scene, Sawyer and Hurley stop playing horseshoes and look on in shock and awe as Ben, unchained and alone, heads toward one of the buildings with a pile of towels.
Locke also has a visit from Claire. She wants to find out why the boat is her and asks to speak to Miles, feeling that a softer approach might work better than Locke’s methods. Locke is not receptive to her suggestion, mostly, it seems, because he views it as a criticism of his ability as a leader. When Locke mentions Charlie’s message about the boat, Claire reminds him that Charlie just said whose boat it wasn’t. Locke slams down the knife he is using, and the scene ends before we can see how this conflict is resolved.
Comments
The creators have done an excellent job of planning the structure of the complex relationships of Lost. I was impressed that we have only now learned why Goodwin was sent to infiltrate the tailies.
Harper seemed to disappear like a specter. Have the Others figured out some way to transport, bend time, or recall ghosts?
Every episode makes me just that little bit more creeped out about the kind of person Ben really is.
Nits
After Jack and Juliet find Charlotte and Dan’s trail, we never see them get a message to Jin and Sun – nor is there any way for them to communicate with them. So presumably, Jin and Sun are still searching!
It is an extreme health risk for Juliet to touch the multi-day-old rotting corpse face of Goodwin.
It takes quite a lot of time for people to reach the Tempest, giving the impression that it is a long way inland. However, after Jack, Juliet, and Kate arrive, some shots back toward the ocean direction reveal that the ocean is not nearly as far away as it should be after all that walking. Of course, it is possible that the track curved around and ended up near the ocean again, I suppose, but in that case, you would want to walk along the beach and then head in. The island looks mountainous, and you could always make better time by sticking to the beach as long as possible.
The behavior of Charlotte and Dan lends itself to television script cliché, and has very little basis in common sense. If your goal is to do something that the people around you will feel is in their best interest, then why sneak away to do it, and why bash everyone who tries to stop you? It’s the only negative about this episode.
Since Ben’s use of the gas may not have been imminent, I don’t think it was necessary for Charlotte and Dan to act like they had to disable it immediately, without sharing their plans with anyone. On the other hand, they were probably smart not to trust anyone, since as far as they know, Ben may have spies everywhere.
Quotable Quotes
Juliet: Ben, this is amazing. Seriously, you shouldn't have gone to all the trouble. I'm only gonna be here for six months.
Ben: Right, of course. But... we want you to feel at home.
Claire: I wanna know what's going on with Miles.
Locke: Right now, not a whole lot. I'm... bringing him food and water until he decides to talk.
Claire: I'd like to talk to him myself.
Locke: And why would you want to do that?
Claire: John, we have to find out who these people are and where they came from and why they're not interested in rescuing us.
Locke: And you don't think I'm gonna get that out of him?
Claire: No, I... I just think we might be taking the wrong approach. I mean, you killed one, Ben shot one, and now we're holding one prisoner. You know, it's not hard to understand why they might think we're hostile. I might be just a little less intimidating.
Locke: It's not gonna happen, Claire. You do remember what Charlie said about these people.
Claire: All Charlie said was whose boat it isn't. Don't you wanna know whose boat it is?
Jack: You people have therapists?
Juliet: It's very stressful being an Other, Jack.
Juliet: You knew this would happen. You sent him out here because you knew this would happen. You wanted this! You wanted him to die! Why?
Ben: Why? You're asking me why? After everything I did to get you here, after everything I've done to keep you here - how can you possibly not understand...that you're mine!
"John, three months ago in Gainesville, Florida, the virgin mary seemed to appear in a patch of mold on the side of an old housing complex. When the word got out, over 5,000 people came to see her face for themselves. You've survived an airline crash on this island. One minute, you're in a wheelchair. The next minute, you're doing jumping jacks. If 5,000 people came out to see a piece of mold, how many people do you think would come here to see you?"
- Ben
"Juliet... look me in the eye and tell me you are certain that Benjamin Linus wouldn't use this gas to kill everyone on this island! We know he's used it before. If you wanna stop us, you're gonna have to shoot us both."
- Charlotte
Juliet: (to Jack) Don't you understand? These people came here to wage war against Ben, and Ben's gonna win. Jack, and when he does, you don't wanna be anywhere near me.
Jack: Why not?
Juliet: Because he thinks that I'm his. And he knows how I feel about you.
Sawyer: What the hell you are doin' out?
Ben: (smiling) See you guys at dinner.
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