"The Other Woman"

DECEMBER 21, 2010

FOCUS: JULIET
EPISODE: 4.6
AIRED: MARCH 6, 2008

Granted, “The Constant” is a tough act to follow, but even factoring in a handicap, “The Other Woman” is kind of a lousy episode, since it features a flashback (I thought we were done with those!) about Juliet’s relationship with a dude who we know is dead, and just reinforces that Ben is obsessed with her, rendering most of it rather pointless. And the present day stuff is even weaker, detailing a baffling “mission” to shut off some gas that can kill everyone, which is dramatically inert because they seem hellbent on not making it clear who’s on who’s side and what the “right” thing to do is. Half the people are saying Ben’s trying to kill them and they need to do this to stop him, the other half are saying they need to stop Daniel and Charlotte because they are trying to kill them.

And, you know, who cares? We know not everyone’s going to die either way, so why build an entire episode around this sort of crap? Christ, there’s even a Mexican standoff with a ticking time clock! If you guys want to write this sort of thing, go over to 24. Fans of that show are far less discerning (obviously, or it wouldn’t have lasted 8 seasons, most of them awful). And back to the flashbacks – sure, Juliet got a shit deal on the island, but is depicting her affair with a married man the best way to earn our sympathy? If anything this episode made me like her less.

It’s got a few “saving” moments, however, such as Juliet’s response to Jack’s inquiry about having therapists (“It’s very stressful being an Other, Jack.”), and the tense moment when Goodwin enters the lab in order to grab a nooner with Juliet and ends up having to offer a sandwich. The present day stuff with Ben and Locke is also good; I love his reaction to Locke making rabbit for dinner, and the little callback to the Red Sox game. Again, the whole mystery about the “man on the boat” is rather anticlimactic thanks to the opening credits, but I guess if you’re illiterate you can appreciate the (minor) development in this plotline.

I also like the misdirection at the beginning, since we still don’t know who the 6th Oceanic Six person is, and there’s talk about Juliet being a celebrity and such. It’s the sort of “toying with the audience” approach that actually works, unlike Ben’s disguised voice in “The Economist”. Plus, it doesn’t exactly confirm that Juliet ISN’T one of the Oceanic Six, so it allows the suspense to continue. Granted, realistically she couldn’t be one of them, since she wasn’t an Oceanic flight member to begin with, but since Lost’s writers have already demonstrated their limited grasp on the legal system, I’m guessing that’s the sort of plot point they wouldn’t give a shit about.

Speaking of giving a shit, one thing I meant to bring up earlier but forgot: why isn’t anyone sad about Charlie? Neither Hurley or Claire seem particularly troubled in the slightest, which is odd considering their best friend/boyfriend (respectively) just died like 4 days ago. When Boone died, Shannon was pretty much bummed for the rest of the season - you’d think they’d at least have a moment or two showing their grief. Again though, that’s part of why the show started losing me – they became far more interested in the plot twists and mythology than the people involved with them.

On that note, it’s amusing/somewhat sad how often there are “Unanswered Questions” listed in the Lostpedia entries starting with this season. This episode in particular has four (mostly involving the Harper character, who went the way of Isabel and was never seen again), and many of the previous episodes this season had about as many, whereas most episodes in S1-3 have none at all. Which, of course, is even more maddening when you consider that this is the first season they’ve been able to plan out and execute knowing how many episodes they had left, yet it seems to have the most narrative holes. And you can’t even blame the Writer’s Strike for that – they ended up getting those episodes “back” via extra hours in the 5th and 6th seasons. Also, while it may not have been the ratings powerhouse it once was, I’m sure they could have gotten even more if they asked, because it was still one of ABC’s top rated shows. Bummer.

Tomorrow: the weirdest Hurley moment in the entire series!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"One Of Us"

DECEMBER 3, 2010

FOCUS: JULIET
EPISODE: 3.16
AIRED: APRIL 11, 2007

In a rare case of an episode being about Claire when it’s not her flashback, “One Of Us” finds Jack and the rest returning to camp (thus retiring Kate’s “I OWE him that!” clip in the ‘previously’ once and for all, I think) just as Claire gets sick, and only Juliet can help. Hilariously, poor Emilie de Ravin spends most of the episode asleep, so she still doesn’t really DO anything. No, this is pretty much 100% Juliet’s show, with lots of her background filled in and a few clues about her current plans.

It’s also the rare case of a flashback being a direct “sequel” to the one before it. At the end of her last episode (“Not In Portland”), she was being swayed into joining up with Richard, and this one starts with her about to check in for her first day. Some folks, Jack and Kate for example, their flashbacks jump around all over the place and you really have to pay attention and do some brain work to figure out their overall place in the timeline, so it’s nice to have strong continuity for once.

And it’s really flashback heavy; it seems like the present day stuff barely makes up half the episode. As a result, some stuff seems glossed over – I would have liked more time spent with folks discussing what to do with Juliet (especially the unseen chain of events that led to them having Hurley, of all people, keep an eye on her), and Claire’s illness seems to have little effect on Charlie. Usually he gets all worked up and annoying whenever Claire is in any danger, but he’s basically just sort of puzzled by it for the most part.

For fans of Juliet and Sawyer’s relationship, there’s another great “from the beginning” moment here, when him and Sayid follow her out to where the medicine has been stashed. After confronting her about her and her people being murderers (speaking of which, when is the episode where someone points out that the survivors have killed more Others than the other way around? Or did I miss that line in one I already watched?), she pulls rank and asks Sayid about his days as a torturer (well known), but then turns to Sawyer and reveals that she knows about the guy he killed in Sydney. Now, I’m not sure how the hell they know that (if it happened the day before he got on the plane, how would they have gathered that intelligence? Who would have had known?), but it’s such an awesome, defiant moment for Juliet. I hate to use gamer speak, but there’s nothing better that applies: she totally pwns him.

Since I don’t have much else to say about this episode, I guess I’ll talk about this, which is something that never really occurred to me until I was rewatching this season in particular with all the answers (well, all the ones we got) in mind: why the hell didn’t Ben and the other Others just welcome the survivors and tell them who they were right from the start? Why terrorize them, when they ultimately really didn’t want to cause them any harm? Like, “Hey, you guys OK? Sorry you crashed on our home. So listen, we’ve got a fully functional town just over the hill here, so we can treat the injured. By the way, do you have any pregnant women in your number? We’re trying to solve a medical mystery and we could use one. Want some chicken?” It’s really one of those things that makes you wonder how much of the show they really did have planned out. I really suspect more than ever that when they said they knew how the show would end, they meant they specifically knew it would end with Jack laying down in the jungle, dying, and closing his eyes. Not like, that Locke would be a smoke monster or that Ben and Hurley would team up to watch the island together.

Anyway, tomorrow’s a Desmond episode. Not one of his best, but any Desmond episode is better than average.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Not In Portland"

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

FOCUS: JULIET
EPISODE: 3.7
AIRED: FEBRUARY 7, 2007

It's a good thing I like Elizabeth Mitchell, because otherwise I'd be kind of pissed that Lost came back after a 3 month hiatus with an episode about Juliet instead of Sayid or Hurley or any of the other "classic" characters who had yet to get their own episode this season. But "Not In Portland" is an important episode, because it humanizes an Other for the first time and introduces an important character (Richard!) as well.

Actually two, if you count Tom. I thought we knew his name by now, but either way, his awkward introduction to Jack is awesome. "I'm Tom, by the way", he says, almost like "Hey, we might as well be friends, dude." Jack's reaction is pretty priceless too. Even though he took Walt and delivered the "this is OUR island..." speech, he is (aside from Juliet) clearly the most, ahem, friendly Other so far - he gave Kate some clothes and lotion for her wrists, helps Jack with the surgery (adding another person to the long list of people who make shitty assistants for Jack's medical procedures as well), and I think he's the only one who hasn't taken a whack or a taser shot at Sawyer since they kidnapped him. Shame he didn't last as long as the other Others.

Jack also has some uneasy moments in the episode - I particularly like when he realizes Ben is awake and asks him (tentatively) if he wanted anything for the pain. And his 2nd artery 'nick' truly was an accident, so now he's in the position of trying to save the guy he was trying to kill when he was supposed to be saving from something else. Also, it's a bit underplayed, but I dig how Kate tells him the story now that he's in a position for it to register with him - at that particular moment he needs to follow his own advice. Good stuff.

The Juliet story isn't quite as interesting for the most part - we knew she was a fertility doctor and that she wasn't one of the "original" Others, but it's funny to go back and see Richard before we knew he was an ageless sort of ambassador for the Others, which makes his "recruitment" scene slightly more comical in retrospect - you know he finds his slides showing the group taking group hikes and kayaking trips just as boring as she does. It's also aided in the humor department by Željko Ivanek, playing his usual asshole but a less villainous one than we're accustomed to (he also continues the tradition of Lost folk being from Oz). I particularly love the scene right before he gets hit by a bus, when he's on the phone: "Because you're insufferable and mean... well you asked for the truth Mom...." So delightfully mean-spirited and unnecessary, but totally awesome all the same.

I don't like that they killed Pickett off at the end of the episode though. First of all, if he had to die, it should have been Sawyer who killed him, not Juliet (though at least Sawyer got in that awesome electrocution scene). Second, he made for an intriguing villain at a time when they were softening all of the Others. I like how the Others turned out to be not so bad after all, but it would have been cool to have more personal conflict among them - most of it was based around general "this is OUR island/no it's ours" type issues. These two dudes just wanted to fucking kill each other.

Speaking of Sawyer, he continues displaying his newfound heart when he agrees to help Alex find Carl once he realizes it was the same kid who tried to help him earlier. I really do believe they took the fan outrage over his "tree frog/steal the guns" period from S2 to heart - Christ, later in the season he will challenge Jack to a friendly game of ping pong and help Jin learn important English phrases! Not that I'm opposed to it, but it's just kind of funny when watching them back to back and taking the compressed timeline of the series into consideration - this mean stuff was barely two weeks ago.

Tomorrow: Desmond episode! And the introduction (sort of) of the very thing that would more or less kill the series' greatness: goddamned time travel.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...