LOST, EPISODE 3.7: NOT IN PORTLAND
Apologies for the delay, my friends. Now that the show is on at 10pm, I will not be posting a Lost Blog every Wednesday night after each episode. I was exhausted at work today, and there is no way I can stay up that late on a ‘school night’ to write. So I appreciate your patience and readership!
Overall thoughts…I am thrilled that the show is back on for a very long run. I love Juliet’s character, and the dichotomy of her as a ‘mess’ in her prior life and as a woman of authority on Other
And as a huge fan of Deadwood, it has been fun to watch 3 actresses from that show appear on this one:
Robin Weigert/Calamity Jane: Rachel (Juliet’s sister)
Paula Malcomson/Trixie: Colleen (Other killed by Sun on boat)
Kim Dickens/Joanie Stubbs: Cassidy (Sawyer’s ex/con)
THOUGHTS
My first thought upon hearing the title of this episode was that it was yet another reference to The Wizard of Oz (i.e. ‘we’re not in
The company that was trying to recruit Juliet, Mittelos Bioscience, is an anagram for Lost Time. It seems entirely too convenient, given that Juliet will be losing time with her sister once she is taken to Other
I would be willing to bet that the sonograms that the recruiter showed to Juliet were from her sister. She thought they were scans of a senior citizen, but he told her they were from a woman in her late 20’s. And he was well aware of her sister’s pregnancy. If the sonograms did indeed belong to Rachel (Juliet’s sister), that might explain why the Others are experiencing procreation difficulties…the premature disintegration of reproductive organs due to experimental medication.
The recruiter told Juliet she was ‘special.’ Walt was referred to as ‘special’ on many occasions. Juliet probably has unique abilities above and beyond her scientific capabilities. If her powers are psychic in nature, perhaps she had something to do with the bus that ran over her ex-husband…
But the producers seem to want us to believe that Mittelos is an offshoot of Dharma or The Hanso Foundation, and that they wield serious power. Causing a bus to crash doesn’t sound crazy when you think about the possibility of making an entire aircraft break in half and crash onto an island controlled by said company…
Nice pop culture shout-outs to Star Wars (Sawyer’s wookie comment) and A Clockwork Orange (Karl’s torture chamber).
Something tells me that this wasn’t the first time that the Others have subjected someone to brutal behavior modification techniques like the ones in the room where Karl was being held. I wonder if that’s what Isaiah
When Jack inquires why the Others didn’t just take Ben to a surgeon in the outside world, Tom mentioned the sky turning purple. Timeline wise, that doesn’t make sense. When Desmond turned to key to implode the hatch, causing the island to shake and the sky to turn purple, the Others already had Jack captive. In fact, they let Michael and Walt ‘go’ just after it occurred. So I doubt that the hatch explosion really affected their ability to leave the island or communicate with the real world.
Earlier this season, when Kate had breakfast with Ben on the beach after first being kidnapped, he told her the next two weeks were going to be uncomfortable. She returned from that meal looking miserable, with severely bruised wrists. My feeling is that most of these events were a set-up and all is going according to Ben’s master plan…Kate’s easy cage escape, Kate & Sawyer’s cage romp, Jack seeing Kate & Sawyer’s romp on a monitor, Jack noticing the spinal x-rays, Juliet’s video plea for Jack to kill Ben, etc.
For all of their talk about being ‘good,’ these Others have sure proven to be anything but. See: guns, psychological manipulation, prison-like work-camps, torture.
QUESTIONS
Is Juliet really being held against her will on Other
Who is the father of Rachel’s child? Is he involved with Mittelos/Dharma?
Last season, did Ethan inject Claire with the same drugs that Juliet stole for her sister? Claire was already pregnant when she was injected, but Rachel wasn’t, so that would be interesting.
Is Alex really Ben’s daughter, or did he just find her in the jungle as a baby and raise her as an adoptive father after Rousseau went crazy? How on earth can Rousseau not be aware that her daughter is still alive? Is she in cahoots with Ben? Does Alex know that her mom is alive? OR…was Alex a product of a fertility experiment conducted by Ben that led to Rousseau’s ouster and insanity?
Was Karl a rogue Other? Why would the Others subject him to such torture, especially if he’s dating the Boss’ daughter? What must he have done to fall out of their good graces? Have some of the other Others been brainwashed using this method?
Why didn’t Tom kidnap Jack the first time they met in the jungle, knowing that Ben had a tumor and Jack was a doctor?! Why also wait to take Kate and Sawyer captive, when they had the opportunity to do so during that same encounter with Jack?
We know now that there is yet another ‘they’ in the Others mix; someone above Juliet and Ben. Could the infamous Jacob be among this new group?
CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK
Tom has had an apparent change of heart and/or demeanor. He went from Zeke, the tough guy with the fake beard who tried to scare the castaways in the jungle, to a concerned friend introducing himself to Jack while overseeing Ben’s surgery. He has not left Ben’s side, and even told Juliet to leave at one point. And when he told Kate he wasn’t interested in her or her shower earlier in the season, my gaydar alert went into warp speed. So my theory is that Tom is…Ben’s partner. I don’t think the ‘history’ between Ben and Juliet that Tom referred to was romantic at all. As a matter of fact, I believe that the tension between those two is primarily due to the power struggle that ensued after Juliet was forced to work and stay on Other
POP CULTURE FYI
Both Matthew Fox (Jack) and Nestor Carbonell, who plays Mittelos Bioscience recruiter Richard Alpert in this episode of Lost, have small roles in the movie Smokin’ Aces. Interestingly enough, in the film, Carbonell kills Fox. Let’s hope that art doesn’t imitate…art.
