LOST Season 3 Episode 7 (WARNING: SPOILERS)
“Not In Portland”

The long wait is over and we’re back on the island (or, at least, the other island of the Others), and Ben’s still on the table and Kate and Sawyer are running for their lives.
We also see Juliet’s pre-island life in Miami, where her efforts at getting her ill sister pregnant apparently bring her to the attention of the Dharma Initiative (or what’s left of it, at any rate).
Still, we’re not shown her first arrival on the island, so we still have no firm idea of the exact state of the program some three years ago (when she claims to have arrived).
Ben, meanwhile, tough little bugger that he is, awakens while his back is gaping open and he’s bleeding to death. His words to Juliet are unheard by us, though she claims that Ben made her a deal: help Kate and Sawyer get back to their island, so Jack can finish getting the tumour out of him, and he lets her go, back to her life in the real world.
Still, I don’t really trust Juliet. She can seem really sweet (and she looks a lot like a blonde Carrie Anne-Moss; yowzah!), but I don’t trust her. At this point, anything she says and does is suspect in my eyes. Plus, Tom did say she and Ben have a “history.” (And she was making a deal with Jack to let Ben die on the operating table, fer efs sake!)
And, speaking of history, it seems that Alex is Ben’s daughter. So now we just have to determine whether that’s biological, or if he ended up adopting her after she was taken from Danielle. (I’m trying to think back to season 1, to Rousseau’s recollections, and I don’t remember her mentioning any other name except Alex’s. I was also under the distinct impression that all her other team members died. When I have time I’ll go back and check those episodes out…)
So Jack’s asking Kate to tell him the same story he told her way back in the pilot episode pays off in a big way as not only does it coincide with a little accident on the operating table, but it’s also a neat little goodbye from the Doc to Kate, with the added “Don’t come back here to get me.”
So for the time being, Jack’s with the Others. So what do the rest of the survivors do without a doctor?

Parting shot: So Ethan’s been with the Initiative for some time now…

Parting shot 2: Nice. Brainwashing through techno. See? Your parents were right when they said raves were bad for you…

LOST Season 3 Episodes 1-6 Recap

With the impending return of Lost to the airwaves, I thought it prudent to take a look back at the first half dozen episodes of the season, to perhaps better prepare myself for all that is yet to come.

As the third season opens, we get to see “the Others” from up close, as a number of them become pivotal characters to the long and winding thread that is Lost. After the initial introduction to the Others (where we are given the briefest of glimpses of dearly departed Ethan and Goodwin), what becomes steadily apparent is that all is not kosher on this side of the fence.
There is a strange tension between Ben (a.k.a. The Baddie Formerly Known As Henry) and Juliet, with Jack becoming a reluctant pawn in the game being played by the factions within the Others’ camp, a tension which reaches one of its peaks with the ersatz tape of To Kill A Mockingbird which Juliet plays for Jack. We also see Alex’s repeated acts of rebellion and attempted escape.

It’s interesting to note that even as we are shown that not all of the Others are “bad,” we also see in the first 2 episodes of the season (“A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Glass Ballerina”) less desirable character traits of some of Lost’s principals: Jack’s tendency for obsessive behavior, and Sun’s capacity for lying. (And here, I bought her whole “there is no other man.” I am so a sucker when it comes to Sun…)
It is also in “The Glass Ballerina” where it is implied that Jin may know of Sun’s infidelity.

Then there’s Desmond’s new ability. (He may not have turned into the Hulk, as Hurley feared, but he’s become the Amazing Precog!)

And even as we bid adieu to Mr. Eko, we welcome Nikki and Paolo (who I sincerely hope contribute more to the show than Ana Lucia ended up doing).

And how about that cliffhanger, huh? Kate finally makes her choice, and Jack risks all on a gambit which could very well end up with the good doctor going the way of Boone and Shannon and the dodo.

Not too long left before we find out if that’s the case…