Lost - Left Behind / One of Us

*** / ****

I really liked this episode of Lost. I have noticed all of the Kate episodes are often well liked by me. I guess it is because of how the flashbacks off and present time on the island just seems to correlate so well and define Kate Austen. Whatever the case, Left Behind, like Lost does with such clever effect, connects characters that involve other characters on the island. In this episode’s case, Kate actually meets Cassidy, the lover Sawyer conned (sent to prison and was also pregnant with his child!), through a chance meeting. A bum car and mechanic’s drive to a nearby town has Kate rescuing Cassidy from certain arrest when a store owner calls her bluff regarding fake jewelry, and threatens to call police. Kate doesn’t need the police around and Cassidy confronts her about it. However, Cassidy feels she owes Kate for getting her out of the jam and participates in an arrangement for Kate to see her mother. I think we all can see what is coming when Kate does get to talk with her mother in the café restroom (thanks to Cassidy’s getting food on her apron). The mother disappointed with Kate over killing her husband in the house explosion, disapproving so that she was willing to turn her daughter over to the authorities is what results of this encounter. Again, Kate must endure the fact that her mother chose the abusive, alcoholic stepfather over her. Never again would Kate be able to see her mother. Kate gave up her life for her mother and this is how she is repaid. Cassidy tells Kate of the man who she loved and conned her…that it is Sawyer and that Kate told Cassidy to turn him in just reeks of irony.

On Lost it is a common theme, conning. Hurley cons Sawyer into believing the camp plans to excommunicate him! Hurley uses this to influence Sawyer into treating those in camp humanely, so that this would credit him with some merit among them. Helping Desmond hunt, offering blankets to Claire (although Aaron’s hearing his voice makes him cry!), and trying to rein in his sarcastic digs ingratiates him a bit more to the beach camp. And sure enough Hurley has built Sawyer up as a substitute leader since Jack and Locke (Sayid and Kate) are away! Good for Hurley! And Sawyer building good will, and accepting that despite his general anti-social personality he must try to enhance his standing with the Oceanic survivors, could only benefit him in the end.

If I have a complaint it is that Desmond, a character of such substance and significance, had been seemingly squandered (or less emphasized) by the writer’s room. He had become more or less a cameo, which I feel is not the best use of the character. It was also as if the Desmond-Charlie sub-story was put on hold or in limbo while particular emphasis focuses on Ben, the Others, Kate, Locke, Sayid, Juliet, and Jack.

Kate being handcuffed to Juliet after Ben and the Others gas them (leaving with Locke, who had a bandage on his wrist), certainly leaves a good bit of suspicion. Juliet just happens to be left behind. Jack likes Juliet a lot and even asks Kate, when he awakens from being gassed also, if she left with Ben. Ben knew Juliet had found favor with Jack. And sure enough Jack “protects” Juliet after this episode, vouching for her when Sayid [rightfully] questions the coincidence of Ben and the Others leaving her behind. Juliet later revealed to be a mole for Ben would seem to vindicate Kate and Sayid and pain Jack as a dupe. But I think there’s much more to that than meets the eye. I still believe Juliet has great distaste for Ben, just looking to stick it to him. I could be wrong, and if proven so I will call myself out right on the blog. I don’t look purposely for spoilers and prefer to be surprised and startled by each episode.

Kate’s whole predicament because she was looking to rescue her mother from a domestic abusive marriage has this hanging tragedy all over it. Kate’s face as her mother once again disapproves of her actions (no matter the intent) says it all: surrendering all for this woman has brought her nothing but grief. Being told by your own mother that she preferred that dirtbag to her own daughter—that is the pits. So Kate is on the island, told through Juliet that Jack saw her in Sawyer’s arms on Ben’s security monitors in the Hydra station. Juliet goes one step further by telling Kate that she broke Jack’s heart. Kate eventually realizes when Juliet pulls out a key to the handcuffs that this whole ordeal with them cuffed together was staged. The two running for cover as the smoke monster noised its presence and aimed for them (shining this bright light towards Juliet while they hid in a tree), cuffed, and their animosity was all a con…yes, another con. Juliet tells her she thought if they were stuck together that they could get through their differences, working together. Yeah, I was a bit indifferent towards this. I would most certainly, in Kate’s position, consider Juliet questionable. Jack asking Kate about Juliet, though, and Kate’s reaction says a lot about how things have changed over the course of the third season. Kate breaking down and apologizing to Jack shows that she endures yet further heartbreak by realizing that if she doesn’t return, Locke and Sayid (and Rousseau) wouldn’t have came with her. Locke wouldn’t have blown up the sub, and Jack would have gotten off the island. Jack ultimately accepts all of this and seems okay (if just because Juliet was still with them). They will return to the beach with the other Oceanic survivors. But where had Ben, Locke, and the Others went off to?

Speaking of Locke, when he meets up with Kate (handcuffed and left in the game room) he sure is behaving oddly. Kate does ask him why he is acting as he is, perhaps if he had been brainwashed. Locke telling Kate he spoke highly of her and yet being told of her past actions he seems to imply with his demeanor and lack of detailed dialogue with her seems to indicate she’s a disappointment to him; this one brief scene with Locke leaves plenty of questions and his distanced approach to Kate would seem to propose his being influenced by Ben. The appearance of Locke’s father in The Man from Tallahassee seems to have been the catalyst in a change of behavior…how far this has driven Locke away from the hero he might have been remains to be seen.

Juliet imputing the code that turns off the sonar shield around the Others community after removing the handcuffs and the subsequent revelation that the smoke monster cannot penetrate the shield once she turns it back on, certainly leaves much to dwell on. How does Juliet's presence with Jack, Kate, and Sayid not produce mistrust? Why wouldn't Kate question whether or not Juliet is a plant by Ben? The handcuffs, knowing the code, revealing all that information about Jack to Kate, and being left behind by Ben: Kate has reasons to doubt Juliet. Later on Sayid and Sawyer have every reason to question her although she does give it right back to them. Will she betray Jack and further hurt him? Let's hope not, but Lost has a way of see-sawing their characters from one extreme to another emotionally. And it is easy to see how Juliet will become a bone of contention between Jack and Kate. So the plot thickens!

Episode 15 of the third season
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***½ / ****

The third season is dedicated to Juliet. What a significant character. Hurley sits down next to an isolated Juliet, now similarly treated as Kate and Sawyer (both in no way trusting her) were in the Others' project camp on Hydra Island.

Juliet not being able to leave the island because Ben wants her fertility work to be successful in the island, when initially she had no idea this captivity came with her trip does distinguish her as someone understandably sympathetic, especially when she begs to go home. Ben's cold No to her and continued reliance on her as a manipulative tool to use against Jack does point to an intriguing development. Obviously she wants off the island and despises Ben so any chance she'd get to screw him over and gain access to transportation she'd take it. So her being Team Ben against Team Jack might not be as clear cut as this episode might lead us to believe.

Juliet being revealed as a mole, with Ben telling her he'd see her in a week at the very end of One of Us just kind of left me a bit indifferent, although I realize there was this hammering home of the two factions on this island still having seemingly a neverending unresolved issue. But, honestly, isn't enough eventually enough? How much more can the Oceanic survivors endure really?

I love that scene at the end of the episode where Jack, to Juliet, talks of seeing in her eyes--when Locke blew up the sub--that she wanted off the island. This realization of Jack's, his eventual trust in her, and his defense of her that could be his downfall, puts him in quite a vulnerable position.

The episode goes out of its way to present Juliet as this kidnapped fertility doctor, not allowed to leave the island, just needing the opportunity to get back home to Miami. Despite every attempt to help the female community under Ben’s leadership get pregnant through her work, Juliet’s lack of success is the very shackles keeping her on the island…Ben wants her to stay until she “figures it out”. This might never be, and Juliet resigns to the possibility she’ll be stuck on this island the rest of her life. It had been three years and Juliet was sleeping with Goodwin (later to be killed by Ana during a struggle), partaking in a book club, occasionally listening to music in order to unwind. A prisoner under Ben’s vice grip, would Juliet ever be released from her bondage? Despite her role as a mole, a major sticking point of that twist at the end in order to cast absolute suspicion on her, I think the inclusion of her story (which includes being taken to the island by sub through Mikhail, agreeing to work for a fictitious company in the guise of a contract for only a certain amount of time, leaving behind a sister she dearly loved and helped to impregnate, watching as one woman after another dies while Ethan begins to grow more and more frustrated…) presents this duality of character. Ben’s comment about being excluded from the Book Club, her requesting Jack to kill Ben on the operating table, and Ben keeping her on the island against her will certainly provides us with evidence to believe she’s got plenty of ill will build up against him. Yet she’s in The Pearl with Ben contemplating how to marshal Jack into the fold to do surgery, and the end of this episode has Ben coordinating a plan with her infiltrating the camp as a spy. So what Juliet ultimately does to the Oceanic camp (and what Ben has in store for them or towards them) is left for us to ponder as the end fades to black.

Sayid and Sawyer’s confrontation with Juliet as she digs up the medicine is perhaps my favorite scene of the episode. It has Juliet facing off with these two aggressive personalities and holding her own. Because they aren’t innocent…far from it. And she sure enough proves a point by bringing up just what Sayid and Sawyer are guilty of…the torture in Iraq and murder of a man in Sydney. Ben knows how to dig up the dirt and Juliet uses it to get a point across. Seeing Sayid and Sawyer back down, as Juliet rushes the medicine to Claire is rather impressive. And Jack looking right into Sayid’s face, telling him that Juliet will not be touched or hurt because she’s “under his protection” produces quite a bit of friction. Jack returning to the island and Sawyer taken aback by his return, yet both of them hugging just the same is quite a moment. Having the “band back together”, so to speak, just didn’t appear to be expected after the second season indicated Sawyer, Kate, and Jack’s capture would keep them under guard and imprisoned. Yet here they are back with their beach camp…a mole in their midst.

Elizabeth Mitchell sure receives a huge showcase to offer her talents as an actress. What an emotional wallop of a scene involving Juliet seeing her sister playing with the child she helped to create, only for a bit before Ben tells Richard Alpert that's enough. Ben just gives her a taste, teasing her of what she's missing. That Juliet told her sister she'd be back "soon", expecting to be there during the birth of the child, only for Ben to keep her from doing so adds significant brevity to her distaste for him.

The montage at the end where Juliet looks on at the Oceanic survivors going about their day as she sets up her tent, while juxtaposed with the acknowledgement of  her role as a mole is quite an incredible set up for what comes after. Alex told Locke that Ben is a master of manipulation, so will he ever be stopped or continue to call the shots, determining how everything results on the island? Will Juliet follow his orders and conspire against Jack and his people?

Episode 16 of the third season