LOST, EPISODE 3.9: “STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND”
Expectations for this show are too high. We are spoiled. Not every episode is going to be action packed and answer the questions posed from the previous week. The producers of the show actually listened to the fans and busted their ass to give us 16 episodes in a row without reruns. And every single episode is produced at such high quality that it feels like each week we are treated to a one hour movie. So I, for one, am not complaining. I love it and will stick by the show until the very last scene of the series finale.
I have a feeling that last night’s episode will divide the devoted into two parties: those who love answers to longstanding questions, and those who are frustrated and/or impatient by new characters and island developments.
{Pop Culture Aside: Lost creator JJ Abrams directed tonight’s episode of The Office!}
Here are my weekly thoughts and theories:
The title of the episode obviously refers to both Jack in
By repeatedly stating that the kidnapped Tail Section children are “in a better place,” do the Others mean that they rescued the kids from growing up on the beach, and provided them with food, housing, clothing and education?
There were other people with flight attendant Cindy and the kids who were observing Jack in his cage. Are they also Tail Section survivors? Are they on the Otherville Jury? Is that why they were observing Jack? Have they been observing the entire time? If so, hopefully they shielded the children’s eyes when Kate and Saywer had their little jungle fling!
Where has Sheriff Isabel been? Does she sit and watch everything and lord over all Others, or is she connected in any way to the infamous Jacob and his list? If Ben was able to stay Juliet’s execution, is Isabel second in charge?
Ben told Jack that his bedside manner left something to be desired, which is exactly what Jack’s Dad told him when he was talking to his future wife Sarah after her car accident.
Ethan was one hell of a menacing surgeon. Why send your community’s only real doctor to harass plane crash survivors and kidnap a pregnant woman? Ethan must also be the village handyman. We saw him fixing Juliet’s plumbing earlier this season.
Achara told Jack that he was a leader, which is ironic because Jack told Locke early on in Season 1 that he wasn’t a leader. She also told Jack he was a great man, which is how Ben (as Henry Gale) described his leader when asked about him while he was being held prisoner in the Hatch.
Achara had a gift – a visionary of sorts. Obviously many folks on the island have similar gifts or their lives have been affected by people with the same gift: Claire and her psychic, Desmond’s new psychic abilities, etc.
Let’s see…we learn that Achara is a tattoo artist of sorts, and then we see that Juliet gets branded. Perhaps Achara is on the island as the Official Branding Artist of Otherville.
The brand that the Others burned into Juliet’s lower back kind of resembles the map that Locke saw on the back of the Hatch blast door – it has eight branches and the long stem could signify the underwater hatch that we have yet to see.
They never explained the rest of Jack’s tattoo. We really only saw the origins of the bottom half. There is a number 5, which could represent the 5 seconds he counts before letting the fear go while operating. (In real life, however, it represents Party of Five, as that is Matthew Fox’s real tattoo and he has said as much).
Yeah, that was very nice of Tom to hold an umbrella over Ben before boarding the boat. I think my theory about him and Ben from last week is going to prove to be correct. Then again, he wasn’t on that boat leaving with Ben at the end…
There was a large boat awaiting Jack, Juliet and Ben in the distance (much bigger and longer than the tug boat that Michael and Walt were ‘released’ to go home in). So how is it that the survivors on the beach don’t hear that engine? And where are they getting fuel?
Did anyone else find it funny or strange that Jack is a spinal surgeon who can’t put together a simple kite?
Karl has never heard of The Brady Bunch. Like Ben, he must have grown up on the island.
Karl mentioned that he and Alex named a constellation the Teddy Bear. The Tail Section survivor kids had one with them, and we also saw a barefoot Other dragging one behind last season when Eko and Jin were hiding in the bushes.
Is Alex really Ben’s daughter? Did he kidnap her from Rousseau when she was a baby? Why does she call him Ben and not Dad?
If the Others really do have a submarine (which the producers confirmed although I’ll believe it when I see it), why on earth take a patient recovering from spinal surgery on a sailboat and then a motor boat?
At the end of the episode, were Jack and Juliet headed ‘home,’ where Ben promised they would both be released to go? Or were they headed back to Otherville, where Ben calls home, the Stepford village we saw earlier in the season?
Crazy Theory of the Week
Jack is an Other. He was recruited for a job before the crash…but maybe he didn’t know what for (similar to how Mittelos wooed Juliet). Think about it – he is a doctor, Juliet is a doctor, and the Others always seem to be looking for medical staff. Also, regardless of the fact that he was a prisoner, everything he demanded from the Others, he received: he told Ben to stop Juliet’s execution, he told Alex to let him out of his cage, etc.
Isabel translates his tattoo as follows: “He walks amongst us but he is not one of us.” Perhaps that refers to Jack when he is among the other crash survivors. [FYI, there are claims that the real interpretation is “Eagles high, cleaving sky.” Which of course alludes to the airplane, the kite, etc.]