3.20 The Man Behind the Curtain

While Ben and Richard hunt for the misplaced recording device, Locke shows up, body bag over his shoulder, and gains the upper hand in his relationship with Ben. He demands to see Jacob, believing that there is no such person – that Ben has invented him as a way of having a scapegoat for all his kingly decisions. Mikhail bursts into camp, telling the story of the parachutist, and suggesting strongly that the Others head for the survivors camp. Ben and Locke had been heading to see Jacob, and when Mikhail wonders why Locke is now calling the shots, Locke attacks him and beats him about the head for a while. Soon, Locke and Ben are heading off to see Jacob.

They approach an old cabin in the middle of the night. Ben lights an oil lamp and warns Locke to douse his flashlight, as Jacob does not like technology. Inside the cabin, there is no one – just an empty unmoving rocking chair. But Ben begins to carry on a conversation with this invisible person. It’s all one-sided; there are no replies. Locke sees it as a show for his benefit, but when he turns to leave, another voice says something. When Locke turns back and turns on his flashlight, the room erupts in poltergeist-type activity, with doors slamming, windows breaking, oil lamps crashing to the floor, and Ben being thrown back against the wall when he asks Jacob to calm down. Locke goes outside, and Ben soon follows. Locke still believes it was a trick, so Ben asks if he can show him one more thing.

They stop at an open pit. Inside are numerous human skeletons. Ben explains that they are the bodies of the Dharma people, and how he was smart enough not to be in that pit. He chides Locke for not being as smart, and then shoots him. Locke falls backward into the put, shot in the chest.  Ben asks Locke what Jacob said, and Locke replies, "He said, ‘Help me’." Ben says he hopes Jacob does help him, and leaves him in the pit.

Back at camp:

Sawyer returns, pulls Sayid aside, and plays him the incriminating tape of Juliet. Sayid assembles the survivors and plays the tape for them. Jack and Juliet, who have been off somewhere, return, and Juliet tells Sawyer to turn over the tape and play it. It contains a message from Ben, outlining the plans of the Others to attack the camp and take all pregnant women (Juliet is supposed to mark the tents of the pregnant ones to make it easy. Juliet had already told Jack about this, and Jack had been formulating a plan. He now says he is ready to start catching up.

Ben’s mini backstory:

A young couple is hiking in the woods outside Portland, when the woman – 7 months pregnant – gives birth to Ben and dies in childbirth. The car that stops to help them is a man and a woman who work for Dharma. Later, Ben’s father and a teenage, withdrawn Ben arrive on the island. Ben’s dad has accepted the offer to work there, but is disgusted to find out he will be doing janitorial type jobs. He also isn’t happy that his life is often in danger because of attacks by the other inhabitants of the island, the ‘hostiles’. Depressed by the death of his wife, he blames his son for this, and drinks Dharma Initiative beer every night until he passes out. Ben sees his mother at his window and in the woods, and one day, goes outside the barricade to try to find her. Instead, he meets one of the hostiles (Richard Alpert). He asks Richard if he can go with him, and Richard says he must be patient.

Some time later, Ben, now a young man in his 20s, accompanies his dad on a road trip to Pearl Station, where he kills him with poison gas. He returns to the barracks and links up with Richard and the other hostiles, who have killed all of the Dharma people and taken over.

Comments

Just to confuse everyone more, now we have a ghost! But we also have the definitive explanation of why the Dharma Initiative is no longer on the island.

It’s great having Jack on board (assuming he is on board). I was worried that he had been brainwashed.

I assume that Locke will not die, but will simply summon his great healing powers and get well soon.

This is another excellent episode. The show is on a roll now, with plenty of conflict, mystery, and sub-plots.

Nits

When Jacob gets angry, the lit lantern falls off the table, shatters on the floor, and fire spreads across the floor. Moments later, Locke leaves the cabin, and Ben follows not long after. Ben carries the lantern and hangs it back up – it is bother unlit and intact! And the cabin does not burn to the ground! (Maybe Jacob fixed the lantern and put out the fire).

Quotable Quotes

Ben: Something you should know, John, before we go. Whether or not you think he's the Wizard of Oz, I can assure you that Jacob is very, very real. And we're gonna go see him, and he's not gonna like it. In fact I have a feeling he's going to be very angry. And that's why my hand was shaking because this is not a man you go and see. This is a man who summons you.
Locke: Well I guess there's a first time for everything.

(Locke and Ben are standing over a large open grave of bodies wearing Dharma suits)
Ben: This is where I came from, John. These are my people - the Dharma Initiative. They came here seeking harmony, but they couldn't coexist with the island's original inhabitants. When it became clear that one side had to go, one side had to be "purged", I did what I had to do. I was one of the people that was smart enough to make sure that I didn't end up in that ditch. Which makes me considerably smarter than you, John. (Ben pulls out a gun and shoots John in the stomach)

Ben: What did Jacob say to you?
Locke: (dying in the ditch) Why did you do this?
Ben: Because you heard him. Now, I need to know what he said.
Locke: "Help me."
Ben: John, I'm not going to ask you again. What did he say to you!?
Locke: He said, "Help me."
Ben: Well I certainly hope he helps you, John!

3.19 The Brig

Kate leaves Sawyer’s tent after another romantic interlude, saying that she has to sleep in her own tent to feel comfortable. Sawyer half-follows her, since he needs to do a pee. He notices Hurley and Jin, back from their ‘camping trip’, doing something to Desmond’s shelter and looking suspicious. Uninterested, he continues on his way. While standing in the dark jungle, he hears rustling noises and draws his gun. Locke emerges, saying he is looking for Sawyer. After awhile, Sawyer lowers his gun. Locke says he has infiltrated the Others and captured Ben, and he wants Sawyer to kill him. Sawyer says he is not a murderer, and Locke says he made a mistake. He begins to walk away, and Sawyer, intrigued reluctantly follows. Locke’s tiny hidden smile reveals that this was exactly what he wanted.

As they walk, Locke reveals that he knows about Sawyer’s previous murder from reading his file. Sawyer becomes agitated, whacking Locke’s head and then holding a knife at his throat and demanding to know why Locke wants him. Locke says he could not do it himself.

Locke leads Sawyer to the Black Rock, the landlocked pirate ship whose hold is filled with the skeletons of slaves. Locke says he has Ben tied up in the brig. Sawyer enters the brig; sure enough, there is a hooded man tied up in there, complaining in a muffled gagged voice. Locke closes and bars the door, trapping the complaining Sawyer as well. Sawyer removes the hood and sees he is locked in with Anthony Cooper, a man who is a stranger to him.

Danielle shows up at the Black Rock unexpectedly. She has come to get some dynamite. Locke is unperturbed, banking on the fact that Danielle will not get involved in this kind of situation. Sure enough, she ignores Sawyer’s cries from the brig, takes her dynamite, and leaves.

Sawyer talks to Cooper a little, and, over time, realizes most horribly that this is the man who, by conning his father, pushed his father over the edge and caused the murder/suicide of his parents. Cooper shows no remorse, and in fact seems to think the whole thing is meaningless. He has even more reason to feel that way, since he believes that he and everyone else on the ‘island’ are dead. In fact, his last memory is of being in a serious car crash and closing his eyes while on a stretcher. He is also aware that flight 815 was found with all bodies intact – and dead.

Sawyer tries to make Cooper read the letter, but Cooper gets halfway through and then rips it up. Enraged, Sawyer strangles him. Locke then opens the brig and quietly thanks Sawyer.

Sawyer heads back to camp, but not before Locke tells him that Juliet is a mole who is still working for Ben. He gives Sawyer the personal recording device with Juliet’s message to Ben to use as proof to the survivors that Juliet is bad. Locke also says that in three days, the Others will raid the camp and take the pregnant women – and they say no one will get hurt. Locke also says that he is not infiltrating the Others – he is on his own journey now. He slings a bagful of dead Cooper over his shoulder and heads out on that journey.

Back at camp:

Hurley and the campers are hiding the parachutist (Naomi) in Desmond’s tent while she heals. Charlie and Hurley want Jack to look at her wound, but Desmond doesn’t trust Jack, nor do the other campers. Instead, Hurley fetches Sayid. Naomi tells Sayid that the plane was found in a deep trench off of Bali, with all bodies dead and accounted for. Sayid is suspicious after questioning Naomi. This doesn’t exactly endure him to her, but she still gives him the broken phone to fix. While Sayid is working on the phone, Kate sees him and it. Sayid tells her where they got it, but warns her to keep it a secret. Kate doesn’t listen and goes to tell Jack, asking to talk to him in private. Juliet, who is sitting there, says she will go, but Jack insists that she can stay. So Kate tells both of them about the phone, Naomi, and, most importantly to her, the fact that no one trusts Jack anymore. Jack is very concerned about the phone, but unconcerned about whether anyone trusts him. Intriguingly, Juliet says they should tell Kate something that seems to be relevant to where they are and whether they will be rescued. Jack heads off toward Desmond’s tent and confrontation.

In mini-flashback:

We go back 8 days to learn about Locke’s time with the Others and Ben. Locke is a bit of a celebrity among the Others, since he is known as the Guy Who Is No Longer Paralyzed. Ben seems to believe that Locke is special; he says he is healing faster since Locke arrived. It seems to be true, too: Cooper bites Locke quite severely in their first meeting, and two days later, Locke is fully healed. Ben was pushing Locke hard to kill Cooper, even trying to get him to do it in front of virtually the whole camp. But Locke was unable to do it. Richard Alpert suggests getting someone else to do it, and gives Locke Sawyer’s file.

Comments

This is one of the better recent episodes, with plenty of gray areas, and the bombshell that the survivors may not have survived after all. This has been one of my theories for some time, but I’m not about to believe it just yet.

The structure of this episode helps to build the tension and queasiness. For example, I liked the scene amid the Others’ tent village, where Locke is happily helping Cindy pitch her tent. All around them, Others are peacefully setting up camp in an idyllic valley. Now pull back to reveal Locke’s father tied to a pole in the middle of all this!

If the bodies of the people on flight 815 have truly been found dead at the bottom of an ocean trench, then the only explanation that comes to mind is that the island is the afterlife (with Ben or Jacob as the pseudo devil?). However, the producers have apparently denied that this is the case. The producers are painting themselves into a corner where they will have some explaining to do, and have to be very creative to adequately explain everything. At this point, it is highly likely that whatever explanation they come up with (if they bother coming up with one at all) will be a disappointment to most fans. It is just too difficult to come up with something original, logical, and not trick-laden. More likely, it will involve an alternative universe and timeline, one that was punctured by the plane crash and is tied to the strange magnetic and healing properties of the island.

Quotable Quotes

Sawyer: You want me to walk you home?
Kate: It's five tents, I think I'll make it.
Sawyer: You sure? I gotta pee anyway.
Kate: That is so romantic.

"You're wasting your time, bug eye. Me and him have been through all this. All he wants is his daddy."
- Anthony Cooper to Ben

Sayid: Naomi, from where, exactly, did you take off?
Naomi: A ship, a freighter, about 80 nautical miles west of here. I'm part of a search and recovery team.
Sayid: You told my friends the wreckage of flight 815 was discovered; did you mean the partial wreckage?
Naomi: No, they found the entire plane off the coast of Bali in an ocean trench four miles deep. They sent down cameras in these little robots to survey the wreck. The bodies were all there.
Sayid: Well, obviously we're not dead.
Naomi: Obviously.

Cooper: (Reading the letter) "You don't know who I am, but I know who you are and I know what you done. You had sex with my mother, and then you stole my dad's money all away, so he got angry and he killed my mother, and then he killed himself-" Blah, blah, blah, blah. So, what? Is this supposed to be you? You wrote this letter? Hey, wait a second. Did you take my name because you were on some kind of revenge kick?
Sawyer: Keep reading!
Cooper: Easy, easy, don't get all worked up. Look, I ran that con two dozen times. If your mother was one of the-
Sawyer: Mary. Her name was Mary.
Cooper: Mary from Jasper, Alabama. Yeah, I remember her. She practically begged me to take her $38,000 and to rescue her from her sorry little life.
Sawyer: You finish the letter!

3.18 D.O.C.

The female parachutist is mumbling in various languages, most of which, like Chinese and Italian, are indecipherable to Desmond and the boys. But Hurley picks up on Spanish for "I’m tired", and they discover that she is badly injured: a branch is protruding from her side. Desmond really cannot help her, and matters complicate when Mikhail stumbles out of the jungle and almost tramples them. He quickly turns and keeps running, but Jin tracks him down and overpowers him. Mikhail doesn’t explain how he has risen from his obvious death at the electromagnetic killing barricade, but he does say the he was a Russian field medic who can save the woman’s life. In return, he asks that he be allowed to go free after he has succeeded. Mikhail knows what he is doing, and does save her life, and Desmond keeps his word and lets him go, despite the strong objections of Charlie, who wants to take Mikhail back as a prisoner. Jin notices that the woman’s high-tech phone is missing, catches Mikhail again, and gets the phone. Once again, Charlie pushes hard for captivity, but Desmond insists that Mikhail be let free.

Back at camp, Jack visits Sun and asks her some personal questions about her pregnancy. Jack says they are just routine questions as he tries to catch up on people he didn’t see when he was away. But Sun senses something is wrong, and confronts Kate, who admits that Juliet had done research on pregnant women. Now Sun confronts Juliet, who admits that all pregnant women have died. Later that night, Juliet visits Sun and tells her that she can help her, but that she must go with her alone – now – in the middle of the night. Together, they return to the medical station where Claire and Kate searched for the serum. There didn’t seem to be much there of any worth on the last visit, but Juliet knows of a hidden room where there is still working equipment – including a sonogram. Juliet says she needs to find out when the baby was conceived. If the baby was conceived on the island, she says Sun is going to die. If the baby was conceived before Sun reached the island, Sun is not at risk. The situation is complicated by Sun’s statement that she slept with someone else before she reached the island. So either Sun is pregnant from another man, or she is carrying Jin’s baby and is going to die. The latter is the case, although Juliet promises to do whatever she can to help her. After Sun leaves, Juliet leaves a taped message to Ben, telling him that she has gotten blood samples of Sun, and will get samples of the other women in due course. After she shuts the recorder, she adds, "I hate you."

The parachutist gains consciousness, and sees Hurley. When Hurley tells her that he is a survivor of flight 815, the woman expresses astonishment, stating that this is impossible. She says the flight 815 plane was found, and there were no survivors!

Sun’s flashback backstory:

Not long after Sun’s wedding, she is approached by an older woman who says that Jin’s mother was a prostitute, and that Jin does not know this. She says she will keep this secret if she is given 100 thousand dollars in 3 days. Sun visits Jin’s father and confirms that the story is true. Jin’s father also begs her to spare Jin the shame that this knowledge would bring. Now Sun visits her father and asks him for the money. She does not say exactly why she needs it, but does say it will spare someone she loves a great shame. Her father guesses that she means to spare Jin, and says that it is Jin’s debt. He will pay it off by no longer working as floor manager – now Jin will work directly for Sun’s father (doing his dirty work).

Sun pays the woman the money, but also confronts the woman, telling her she knows she is Jin’s mother, and threatening to kill her is she does not disappear.

Comments

D.O.C. stands for ‘Date Of Conception’.

So now we know that Juliet is being coerced into what she is doing, just as Michael was, just as mostly every Other is. Not that this will ensure that she won’t go ahead with it. In fact, it is more likely that she will go ahead with it.

After Mikhail finishes treating the parachutists’s wound, she says something in Portuguese. Mikhail translates it as, "Thank you." However, what she actually says is, "I am not alone."

Nits

"It’s 6am Saturday morning," in Juliet’s taped message to Ben – straight from the Department of Redundancy Department. (It often is 6am in the morning – I’ve noticed that too).

Quotable Quotes

Desmond: We need to bring Jack here.
Charlie: It's an eight hour walk! One way!
Desmond: Then I'll run.
Charlie: Are you out of your mind? It's not safe. It's gonna be dark soon. Who knows who's out in this jungle!? In case you have forgotten, there are people on this island trying to kill us!
Desmond: Nobody knows we're here!
Hurley: [fires off a flare] [pause] Oops.

Desmond: Who are you? (pause) I said, "Who are you?"
Charlie: He's the guy who shot Sayid. Kate told us he lived down in that station Locke blew up. He's an Other.
Hurley: I thought Locke killed that guy with the electro fence thingy.
Desmond: You've got five seconds to talk or I fire this gun, Brother.
Mikhail: That's a flare gun.
Desmond: And how do you think it will feel taking a flare to the chest at this range?
Mikhail: As your friend pointed out, I've already died once this week.

Jin: Phone!
Charlie: You stole this?
Mikhail: How could you respect me if I didn't try?

Sun: Why didn't you tell me you were Jin's mother?
Woman: I gave birth to him, but that does not make me his mother.
Sun: You know how powerful my family is. My husband believes that you are dead. Do not force me to make that a reality.

"Ben, it's 6am on Saturday morning. Kwon is pregnant. The fetus is healthy and was conceived on the island with her husband. He was sterile before they got here. I'm still working on getting samples from the other women; I should have Austen's soon. I'll report back when I know more. [turns off recorder] I hate you."
- Juliet (speaking into tape recorder)

Parachutist: Who are you?
Hurley: Hugo Reyes. I crashed here on Oceanic Flight 815--a bunch of us survived. Is that why you're here? Were you looking for us?
Parachutist: 815. Flight 815? The one from Sydney?
Hurley: Yeah!
Parachutist: No, that's not possible.
Hurley: Yeah, I know. It wasn't easy, but we found food, and a hatch, and more food -
Parachutist: No. No, Flight 815. They found the plane. There were no survivors. They were all dead.

3.17 Catch-22

Desmond has had another one of his flash-forwards. He sees Hurley lifting the cable near where Danielle was first contacted; Jin is there, too, and Penny shows up somehow. Perhaps most importantly, Charlie is killed when one of Danielle’s booby-traps shoots an arrow into his throat. Desmond is obsessed with assembling the crew he saw in the vision, and ensuring that nothing is changed – including making sure that Charlie is killed. Desmond believes that if he can keep things the same, Penny will suddenly be on the island.

Under the guise of a camping trip, Desmond gets all the guys to go. They reach the cable on the beach and camp there for the evening. In the dark of night, they hear a helicopter engine, then something – or someone – is dropped into the jungle, just before the helicopter crashes into the ocean.

In the morning, the guys head out toward where the thing was dropped. Desmond reaches the place where he saw Charlie die, but he changes his mind and saves Charlie’s life instead. They continue on, finding a parachutist hanging from a tree, wearing a full helmet, face and body fully covered. Desmond cuts the lines, pulls of the helmet – and it is not Penny – it is a dark-haired woman who says his name before passing out.

Camp life: Sawyer entices Jack to play a few games of table tennis, and finally finds something he can beat the Doc at. Kate sees Jack and Juliet having dinner together and talking quietly and up close; she promptly barges into Sawyer’s tent and jumps on him. Later, Sawyer figures out why she did what she did and confronts her about it.

Desmond’s flashback backstory:

After dating a girl for six years, Desmond got drunk and joined a community of monks, without even stopping to tell the girl he had changed his mind. He took a vow of silence for a time, then became a part of the community. As a nonice, he seemed well on the path to full monkhood. But after finally confronting the girl whom he stood up, he gets caught in the act of getting drunk on a couple of expensive bottle of monk-produced wine. Kicked out of the monkery, he meets Penny on his way out, and the attraction is mutual and immediate, even though she looks just a little like the Cat in the Hat (I’m serious – the corners of her mouth curl up just like his do).

Comments

Is anyone else getting just a little sick of these backstories? I mean, they’re not horrible or anything, but in some cases, they are also not revealing anything new or relevant or important about the character. Yes, Desmond is a coward; Desmond is scared. We already knew that. Well, here’s another example.

When Desmond turns in his robes, the monk has a photo on his desk. The photo is of the monk standing next to Ms Hawking (the jewelry store woman who knew all about time travel). By the way, the photo is a quick a dirty job, and obviously Photoshopped (of course, it is only really visible if you freeze-frame).

Nits

Why does Jin want to go camping? Isn’t ‘camping’ what they do every single day already?

Quotable Quotes

Desmond: It was, it was like a sorta jigsaw puzzle. Only, I didn’t have the picture on the box so, I don’t know how the pieces fit exactly, but one of the pieces, the first one, it was your pulling the cable out of the sand.
Hurley: So, what are the other pieces?
Desmond: If I tell you that, it'll change the picture on the box.

Kate: It's strange huh?
Jack: What's that?
Kate: Being back, not, looking for a way out of a cage. Not finding a reason to go running off into the jungle again; I almost don't know what to do with myself.
Jack: Well enjoy it. I'm sure something will go wrong soon enough.

"If we don't play every 108 minutes, the island is going to explode!"
- Sawyer (explaining the workings of the ping pong table to Jack)

"You need me to make you a mix tape?"
- Sawyer to Kate

Sawyer: Did you tell him?
Kate: Did I tell who what?
Sawyer: You know, did you tell the Doc ... about you and me?
Kate: No, but he knows. He saw us in one of their surveillance monitors.
Sawyer: I thought you said the camera was broken.
Kate: Well, they had another camera.
Sawyer: Perverts.

"Hope I'm not interrupting. You two arguing over who's your favorite Other?"
- Sawyer (to Jack and Juliet)

Charlie: Why didn't you tell us [about the parachutist]?
Desmond: Would you come if I had?
Charlie: Of course. Why wouldn't I?
Desmond: I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want anything to change.
Charlie: Fair enough. Look, if whatever your seeing leads to your girl getting us rescued, why would we want to change anything, right?
Desmond: Right.

Desmond: If the flashes don't happen exactly how I saw them, the picture changes. I was supposed to let you die, Charlie.
Charlie: What's that supposed to mean?
Desmond: It means it's bloody pointless! I keep saving your life and what good is it, then? It's just gonna keep happening again and again. Maybe that's the point, ya? Maybe, it's a test?
Charlie: Test?
Desmond: Like God testing Abraham. Except, that I failed because I changed what I saw.

3.16 One of Us

Sayid, Jack, Kate, and Juliet head back toward the beach. When they stop to camp for the night, Kate attempts to get some information from Jack about his week with the Others. Jack doesn’t say much – just that he took care of Ben so he could get off the island. Meanwhile, Sayid takes advantage of a moment alone with Juliet to ask her to explain who she is and why the Others are on the island. When she isn’t forthright, he threatens her gently but menacingly. Jack returns and says that Juliet will be left alone until she is ready to answer the questions, and that she comes under his (Jack’s) protection.

On the beach, Charlie is passing Claire’s sleeping shelter and hears Aaron crying. He soothes Aaron and find Claire still asleep – she didn’t even hear the crying. Claire doesn’t feel very well, so she goes back to sleep while Charlie takes care of the baby.

On the trip back, Juliet shares her trepidation about how long it will take her to be accepted by the survivors after all the things ‘her people’ did to them.

Claire is getting sicker and sicker; Jack and the others arrive back. No one is very happy to see Juliet, least of all Sawyer. Juliet sits alone on the beach. Hurley wanders over and gives Juliet a not so subtle warning about what happens to Other infiltrators who enter their camp. There is also a meeting to discuss Juliet, with Sawyer pushing hard for Sayid to pump her for information. Sayid says he does not torture anymore, but he also says he does not trust her. Jack says that the fact that he trusts her should be enough, but Sayid disagrees. The meeting is interrupted by Claire, who stumbles in looking white as a ghost, and promptly passes out, bleeding profusely from the nose. Jack has no idea why. Juliet tells him it is because of drugs that she gave Claire to help her to keep her baby – every other woman who conceived on the island lost their baby and died in the late stages of pregnancy. Juliet tells that Ethan was treating her, but when it was discovered that Ethan was not on the plane, Ethan took it upon himself to kidnap Claire. Juliet says she knows where a serum is that will save Claire. Jack tells her to go get the medicine. But Sawyer and Sayid are not so trusting. They follow her and try to corner her into telling all. But she pulls the history card, reeling off all the bad things they have done in their lives. They back down and let her go.

True to her word, Juliet injects Claire and Claire gets better.

Juliet’s flashback backstory:

Juliet and her sister arrive at the high security entrance to Mittelos airport. Juliet is offered a strong tranquilizer for the trip, both to soothe the journey and, you would think, to zonk her out so she has no memory of how she got to the secret location. She initially balks about taking the tranquilizer, but suddenly chug-a-lugs it.

She awakens inside the submarine, which has stopped moving. She crawls up what will be the first of many hatches, and sees the island – and shakes hands with Ben.

Juliet is in an operating room, disappointed that the woman on the table has just died. Also there are Goodwin and Ethan. Another pregnant woman has died on the island – every woman has. Juliet says she has failed, and asks Ben to go home because her sister is giving birth in three months. But Ben says he knows her sister has cancer again. Ben promises that if Juliet stays, Ben will cure her cancer.

Juliet discovers that Ben has cancer when she views an x-ray of his back, after he complained of back pain.

Ben takes her to Mikhail’s station and shows her live footage of her healthy sister and her healthy two year old son.

Ben and Juliet have a meeting. Ben goes over the plan – Juliet will appear to be dumped out of the Others. She will infiltrate the survivors. A pre-planted bug will be activated in Claire – Juliet will save her, gaining the trust of the people. Ben then hands Juliet a gas mask, and says that he will see her in a week.

Comments

The notion of the ‘infiltrator’ is one that has worked well in past episodes of Lost that featured Henry/Ben. Juliet as infiltrator also causes tension; it’s almost unfortunate that the creators decided to let us know so early that she is evil (or has ulterior motives). Unless of course, she will not follow through on those orders – or perhaps Jack is playing dumb and does not trust her.

In a previous episode, Mikhail claimed that the satellite communications stopped working after the plane crashed. However, in this episode, Ben visits Mikhail the day after the crash, and the satellite is still working.

So it appears that in one week, the Others are going to invade the camp, use gas to knock out everyone, and then…do something.

Nits

Why does Jack insist that Juliet needs time before she can answer the questions about herself and the Others? Why does she need time? Just answer the questions! The only reason she needs time is so she can hatch her evil plan.

When Ben hands Juliet a form that is supposed to be proof that her sister Rachel cancer has returned, it has information on it like, "Sex: Male; Height: 5’11"; Weight: 187. That doesn’t sound like a description of Rachel to me. Unless…that makes the fact that Juliet got this 5 foot 11 male pregnant even more impressive!

Quotable Quotes

Jack: They'll come around. Just give 'em some time.
Juliet: My people kept Sayid chained to a swing-set for three days, then I dragged Kate into the jungle, handcuffed myself to her, and lied about it. How much time do you think they need?
Jack: We'll be back to our beach in a couple hours. So, they'll probably be over it by then.

"I want to know what you people are doing on this island. Why you're terrorizing us, making lists, kidnapping children. I want to know everything. But the first thing I'd like to know is: Who are you?"
- Sayid (to Juliet)

Juliet: What happened to her?
Jin: (speaks in Korean)
Sun: He said, 'What do you care?'

Ben: Let's go over it again. Just to be sure.
Juliet: I drag Austen out in to the jungle, handcuff myself to her, then tell her I was gassed just like she was.
Ben: Then, if she catches you in the lie -
Juliet: I'll admit to it. Tell her it was the only way to earn her trust.
Ben: Good. What then?
Juliet: They'll take me back to the beach. I know you want me to go there, but after everything we've done to them they're going to be a problem.
Ben: We've activate the implant within Claire. She should be symptomatic within the next 48 hours. By the time you get to that camp, you'll have a nice, big crisis to solve.
Juliet: I'll need supplies.
Ben: Pryce is already on his way. He'll hide the case at Ethan's old drop point. Tell Jack that you can save her; he trusts you. Are you alright?
Juliet: I'm fine.
Ben: (Ben puts a gas mask on the table) See you in a week.

Jack: They're good people. They're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But, eventually, they're gonna need some answers.
Juliet: Why don't you? You keep talking about them. Why don't I ever have to explain myself to you?
Jack: You were there. You were standing right next to me when that submarine exploded. In that moment, I saw it in your eyes: you want to get off this island more than anything else in the world. That makes you one of us.

"Mikhail! It's Ben! We're approaching the house! Don't shoot us."
- Ben

Sayid: I don't trust her, Jack. If she's so innocent, why won't she answer my questions?
Jack: Give her some time. She's afraid.
Sayid: How much time?
Jack: Look, the fact that I trust her should be enough.
Sayid: It's not.

Hurley: I don't remember you from the dock, where you put bags on our heads, after you shocked us.
Juliet: I had the day off.

"The last one of you guys that came over here, Ethan, he kidnapped Claire and Charlie got upset. We buried him over there."
- Hurley to Juliet

3.15 Left Behind

Kate is still locked in the pool room at the Others’ complex. When she hears the door rattle, she hides behind it and swings a metal stick at Juliet when she enters. But the spry Juliet ducks, and flips Kate over like a pack of cards, temporarily damaging her back.

Locke visits Kate, only to tell her that he is going with the Others. He infers that he has been invited to do so, and says that they are not happy with what Kate did in her past.

Some time later, Kate watches as the Others gather outside and don gas masks. A smoking cannister is tossed into her room, and she passes out. She awakens on the jungle floor, handcuffed to Juliet. Juliet says she was also abandoned.

Kate drags the unwilling Juliet back toward the Village of the Others, ostensibly to rescue her friends. Juliet tells her not to go back for Jack, as she already broke his heart – he saw her romantic interlude with Sawyer. They tussle, and Kate accidentally dislocates Juliet’s shoulder. While apologizing, the smoke monster appears. Kate and Juliet hide in a thicket of thin trees (that looks exactly like the thicket that everyone has been hiding from the smoke monster in, even going back to season one). When the monster goes, the pair head for the village. The monster returns, and they run and fall in a big mud pile and get covered with mud. Then they have to run through a huge pit of jello – no, I was hoping that would happen but it didn’t. Instead, they reach the barrier of the Others area. Juliet brings Kate in and then turns it on, repelling the smoke monster. She also brandishes a hidden key to the handcuffs, which she now uses. She says she hid the key in the hopes that she wouldn’t get left behind again. She also admits being familiar with the smoke monster (although earlier, she acted like she had never seen it before) and that she knew it would be repelled by the barricade.

At the semi-deserted village, Juliet goes to get Sayid and suggests that Kate get Jack. Kate enters Jack’s apartment and finds items strewn everywhere, including Jack, who is still unconscious on the floor. Jack wakes up, and while still groggy, is subjected to another teary, screwed up face apology from Kate, this time for coming back to rescue him when he didn’t need to be rescued. Jack is able to walk, and together, Jack, Kate, Juliet, and Sayid head for ‘home’, with Jack overriding Sayid’s objection to Juliet coming with them.

Hurley tells Sawyer that he is about to be voted against and banished, forced to move half a mile down the beach. Sawyer appears unperturbed, and rejects Hurley’s suggestion that he make amends. But after trying his hand at cleaning a fish, Sawyer changes his mind. He seeks out Hurley and agrees to make nice. He compliments Claire’s baby, gives her a blanket, hunts boar with Desmond, and puts on a boar-b-cue complete with beer and fixins. But when Charlie mentions that there is no vote, Sawyer realizes he has been conned into being nice by Hurley. Hurley’s motivation is to make Sawyer take over the reigns as leader, in the absence of Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Kate.

Kate’s flashback backstory:

Kate’s car breaks down while she is fleeing the Marshall in Iowa. At a gas station, she bails a woman out who is trying to scam a customer. It’s Cassidy (who was scammed by Sawyer some time ago). They become friends. Cassidy agrees to help Kate get a meeting with her mother. Kate wants to find out why her mom turned her in. Kate walks up to her mom’s the house and is promptly arrested. But wait: it’s a trick- it’s actually Cassidy, dressed up to look like Kate – to suss out the place. Kate does get her meeting – in the toilet of the diner where her mother works. Kate’s mom says she loved the man who Kate burned alive, and it obvious that she still hates Kate for doing it. She threatens to turn Kate in if she ever sees her again.

Cassidy drops Kate off at the gas station, but not before revealing that she is carrying the baby of the man who scammed her.

Comments

Cassidy never actually mentions Sawyer’s name, but it is possible that one day, Sawyer might mention Cassidy’s name to Kate, and Kate might make the connection.

This is the second time that Hurley has scammed Sawyer. He also fooled Sawyer into thinking that Sawyer could beat him at table tennis.

Nits

While waitressing, Kate's mother uses the expression, ‘no worries’ when talking to Cassidy. This is an Australian expression that is not used much in America (at least the last time I checked).

Why can’t that smoke monster find people when they hide behind thickets of small trees? Last time I checked, smoke could go just about anywhere it wanted.

What’s with Sawyer? This guy is supposed to be a con artist, a charmer, and he doesn’t know how to at least pretend that he likes people? Wouldn’t he be doing that kind of thing all the time in his profession?

When the smoke monster is approaching the women in the rain, there is something red and rectangular shaped off to the left of the screen (just briefly). It’s probably someone wearing a red shirt.

When Sawyer talks to Claire, Aaron gets upset and starts crying. However, in a much earlier episode, it was the sound of Sawyer’s voice that made Aaron stop crying. This would have been a good story for Sawyer to tell to Claire if he wanted to impress her with small talk – but for some reason, he doesn’t remember this happening.

Quotable Quotes

Juliet: I hope you're not dragging me all the way back there for him.
Kate: Excuse me?
Juliet: I hope you're not going back for Jack. Because I was standing right there when he told you not to come back! And now that you've ruined his chance to get off the island –

"Welcome to the wonderful world of not knowing what the hell's going on."
- Kate to Juliet

3.14 Expose

One minute, Nikki is running through through the jungle in a panic, stopping suddenly to frantically dig a hole with her hands and bury something we cannot see. The next, we are watching a flashback of her where she is a pole dancer, removing her trenchcoat to reveal a star-studded bikini. Backstage, she is shot by a shadowy man wearing a fedora. Wait…it’s all a campy television show called Expose, and Nikki is the guest star who has been killed. She has more than a professional relationship with the senior citizen who is directing the show, as we find out when we see him and her enjoying a delicious meal at his expansive home, cooked up by his young, slim, Meditteranean chef Paolo. When Zukerman slumps suddenly into his food and dies, Nikki seems panicked, but she only concerned that his planned poisoning by she and Paolo remains the perfect crime. Together, they take a Matryoshka doll from his safe.

Through a series of clever mini-flashbacks, we learn about Nikki and Paolo’s exploits on the island. (In some cases, Nikki is, I believe, placed in footage where she did not exist earlier, such as during the initial crash). We see another perspective on Jack’s "live together, die alone" speech. We find out that Nikki tried to get Arnzt to help her find their missing bag – the bag with the treasure. We are surprised to see that Paolo knew about the ‘Pearl’ station long before anyone else, but told no one, because he hid his treasure there. Paolo says he hid that treasure because he feared that Nikki wouldn’t need him once she had it. But he tells her that too late; she has just unleashed a poisonous spider on him that bites and paralyzes him. What she didn’t count on was that this female spider immediately attracted tens of excited male spiders, one of which bites and paralyzes her. That’s why she buried the bag. She makes it to the beach and falls onto the sand, sparing Sawyer from another table tennis loss to Hurley. She mumbles something. Sawyer thinks she said, "Powerlines." Hurley says it was, "Paolo lies." That makes more sense, since Paolo is her boyfriend. Hurley pronounces her dead, while Sawyer notices the dirt under her fingernails and guesses that she had buried something.

Sawyer’s ‘perimeter sweep’ is actually a hunt for the buried treasure, and he finds it: a bag of diamonds.

We also overhear a conversation between Ben and Juliet in the Pearl Station, where they discuss Ben’s plan to capture Jack and coerce him into performing the required surgery.

Their search for clues leads them to the main suspect, Paolo, who is also dead. Sun believes that the Others killed the pair, and when Sawyer states that the Others are all the way on the other side of the island, Sun reminds him that she was abducted by the Others, leading to many telling looks between Sawyer and Charlie. Later, while Charlie and Sun are digging holes, Charlie decides to tell Sun that he was the one who abducted her, and that he was following Sawyer directive. Sun later confronts Sawyer on this, but says she will not tell Jin, otherwise they will have to dig another grave.

Sawyer, who tried to give the diamonds to Sun (she refused, saying they were worthless) now scatters them in the grave.

As Hurley and Sawyer are piling, Hurley realizes Nikki’s last word was actually, "Paralyzed." But it’s a little too late.

Comments

Using the backdrop of the campy television series Expose, this episode is also campy and silly. It is a straight camp horror entry that, except for small flashbacks to earlier events, has little to do with the Lost universe that we are currently concerned with. There are some clever self-referential jokes about death and the fate of guest stars.

The monster sound that occurs when the male spiders attach Nikki seems to indicate that they are somehow related to the ‘monster’ and the island’s automated defense system.

Nits

It’s ridiculous. If you’re paralyzed, you are still breathing, and your body is still warm – and it doesn’t go into rigor mortis. Wouldn’t one of these people have noticed that Nikki and Paolo were still breathing, warm, and flexible?

It is extraordinarily out of character for Charlie to tell Sun that he was the one who kidnapped her, and for Sawyer to give away the diamonds. And we get very little emotional ‘bang’ from Sun. I would have thought that she would have been absolutely devastated by this news.

Quotable Quotes

"I’m a  guest star, and we all know what happens to guest stars."
- Nikki

Hurley: Nikki’s dead.
Sawyer: Who the hell’s Nikki?

Juliet: That him, Shephard?
Ben: Yes.
Juliet: He's cute. Why are we doing this? Shephard will never agree to do the surgery.
Ben: No, I can convince him to do it.
Juliet: How?
Ben: Same way I get anybody to do anything; I find what he's emotionally invested in and I exploit it.
Juliet: So, what? We just grab all three of them? Ford and Austen too?
Ben: No, they need to come to us.
Juliet: And, how do we make that happen?
Ben: Michael, of course.

Shannon: (to Boone) If you quit flirting with random guys maybe we could actually get on the plane!
Nikki: (to Paulo) Promise me we'll never end up like them.

Sun: Charlie told me it was your idea to kidnap me.
Sawyer: You're gonna tell Jin?
Sun: No.
Sawyer: Why not?
Sun: Because then we have to dig another grave.