Slapinions

Full disclosure: my cable box went cukoo at 8:56 central time, meaning I missed most of this episode's last few minutes. It returned to normalcy in time for me to see Ben walking free among the Losties, but I have no idea what I missed.

Recently, in the wake of the writer's strike, it was revealed that the rest of the season will now be trimmed to only an additional five episodes. Even so it will end with the same finale; in other words, the story line will be condensed this season and some stories bumped to future seasons.

For those who complained online that they couldn't imagine how any episode could be shuffled to another year without damaging the show as a whole, take a look at this one. A good story, full of action with some interesting fleshing out of the Juliet character: but all in all a tale that could have been told last season, or this one, or one two years down the road.

Essentially the plot and backstory boil down to a sentence each: Juliet and Jack pursue the two freighter personnel to stop them from releasing poison gas on the island. In the backstory Juliet's affair with Goodwin leads Ben to send him to his death (ala David's actions in the Bible).

What do we learn? What questions are raised/answered?

Well, Locke again demonstrates his inability to lead and his predisposition to being suckered in by a con man.  Be it his father, the undercover cop, or Ben, time and time again he goes against all logic and listens to the wrong guy. Why oh why take Ben's word on anything? Why release him to the community? Why take his bait and even talk to the guy?

[oh, and uh, if you're worried about rebellion: don't release a hated evil-doer into a community skeptical of your leadership. The word I'm looking for John, is Duh.]

Via the backstory and his manipulation of Locke we get yet another lesson on how devious Ben is - "I've always got a plan John". This guy is turning into the Superman of bad guys, and no one's found his Kryptonite quite yet. One word of warning: I'd tone down his all-powerful evil powers, or he'll be so over the top he'll become a farce.

Do I buy his spiel about Charles Widmore as the big bad villain of the piece? No, not really. Too obvious for a true Lost revelation, although some facts certainly fit. Wait and see, as always.  

Juliet continues to perplex me. There's real meat to her character but, perhaps because of the actress, she just seems so ho-hum to me. Between her and Kate I'd probably go with her (more brains, good job, no known felony record and all) but as it's being played I can see why Jack still carries a torch for Kate off-isle.

[nice setup at the episode's start, prepping the audience to assume Juliet was off-isle and one of the 'rescued'. Well played, sirs, well played]

[I also love the exchange between her and Jack. To paraphrase: "it's very tiring being a Other Jack" and "Don't you have any secrets you don't want everyone to know?" Jack responds: "Sure. You read them all in my file". Touche!]

Juliet is the 'other woman' of the title, first in Harper-Goodwin's marriage (Harper-Goodwin indeed - it sounds like a publishing group) then, in a fashion, between Jack and Kate.

Near the start of the show the 'whispers' start and Harper

appears to instruct Juliet to stop Dan and Lewis from going to the Tempest power station.

Some points here:

1. The Tempest is a play about a sorcerer that manipulates survivors of a shipwreck.
2. In retrospect, Harpers instructions very nearly put the lives of the entire island at risk and in the hands of Ben. When combined with the whispers, does this mean that Harper was a manifestation of the Monster? I think so. After all, killing all the survivors 'protects' the island.
3. What's the point of having mass quantities of poison gas lying around in a power station? What kind of Nazi stuff is going on there anyway?

I wonder about Ben's "[the rabbit] didn't have a number on it, did it?" comment. Were the rabbits mutated as part of an experiment or was he just being a wisenheimer? Ah, who cares I guess. Small potatoes when you want to gas a whole community and dispatch others to their death for banging a girl you have a crush on.

[Oh, and for the record, I think he sent Goodwin out to put him in harm's way, but I don't think there's anyway he could have predicted he'd meet his death on the assignment.]

That's just about it I think. No numbers that I caught, no great hidden meanings that I managed to catch. Of course, there are those missing three minutes . .

Oh, and uh, that man of Ben's on the boat, the 'face you thought you'd never see again' . ..c'mon folks, it's Michael, don't you think?

Til next week Lost fans!

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• #1 Comment from gaboatman 
  3/7/08 4:40 PM | Permalink

  Dan
  Reading your synopsis and review of this show makes me wish I had been following it all along.  Alas, that is not the case.  But this still was an interesting read.
  Sam