After two great episodes, Lost hit a speed bump in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” The ABC promo-writers (who already did everything they could to spoil what should have been the episode’s biggest moment) promised us the answers to three of Lost’s biggest mysteries. I only counted one and a half answers, and no big mysteries were solved. In short, the episode fell a bit flat (I’m liking Jack flashbacks less and less) and only served to catch Jack, Kate and Sawyer up on things we already kind of knew. So here’s what happened…
FLASHBACK
In Jack’s flashback, a local boy in Phuket, Thailand sold “Dr. Jack” some sodas while chattering in the native tongue, which Dr. Jack doesn’t understand. Jack struggled to assemble a kite (sigh, his daddy never flew kites with him), until he was assisted by an exotic local named Achara (B-movie action star Bai Ling). Later, at an outdoor restaurant, the waiter (Achara’s brother), told Jack he was very brave to eat Thai food. (Maybe it’s just living in L.A., but isn’t Thai food pretty ubiquitous these days?) Achara asked if he was in Phuket to find himself, when a stranger gave her an envelope because, she explained, “I have a gift.” Jack retorted in his typical “I scoff at curtness but never demand explanations” manner, “must be one hell of a gift.” After a month of cavorting by the beach, Jack followed Achara into an alley, through a beaded curtain, and into what appeared to be a tattoo parlor. Achara protested, “I am not a tattoo artist. I am able to see who people are. It’s not creation, it is definition.” Naturally, Jack wanted to know who he was. Achara first told him it’s not allowed because he’s an outsider, then “revealed” to Jack that he is a leader, a great man, but that makes him "lonely and frightened and angry.” When Jack demanded that she then “put it on him,” Achara warned in her pervasive faux-ominous manner that there would be consequences. He snapped back, “there always are.” Later, on the beach, the kid who sold him the soda before ran away in fear. Locals showed up, saw the Asian characters tattooed on Jack’s shoulder (which was still devoid of the more obvious pyramid and “5” he now sports), and opened up a can of Thai whoop-ass. They ordered him to leave the country, while Achara looked on in the background. She was crying but seemed to have led the men to Jack, since, you know, there are consequences....
REAL TIME PART 1 – JACK
Back in real time, in one of the better scenes of the episode, Jack assumes Tom’s claim that Jack is being “moved” means they’ll kill him, what with all the kidnapping and torturing the Others have done before…Tom retorts about Jack being in a glass house and in need of stones. The Others cuff Jack and march him past Juliet, also in cuffs, who is led to Jack’s former cell. He (and we) meet a new character amongst the Others, a somewhat older woman who Tom later calls “the sheriff” (but not literally, Jack) and who we then learn is named Isabel. Jack is moved to Sawyer’s polar bear cage. Tom brings a cold sandwich and tells Jack that Juliet is in trouble.
Later, as Jack plays with the fish biscuit device but stops short of a shock, Juliet brings Jack a picture of Ben’s infected stitches. She asks, as a personal favor, for him to help, and tells him she is in trouble for killing someone. He asks who, but she responds only that “it’s complicated.” (Really? She needed to help save Sawyer and Kate, and Pickett was about to kill Sawyer. I just explained it in one sentence, but Juliet felt compelled to be…mysterious). But Jack refuses to help either Ben or Juliet, and she’s led away. Later, Isabel reads Jack’s tattoo, in the original Chinese. He insists he knows what it says. She asks Jack to come with her to an office where Juliet is cuffed to a chair. Isabel confirms that not only do they not live on Hyrda island, but the Others don’t even like to go there. She asks Jack some questions about Juliet’s story. Jack denies Juliet asked him to kill Ben, saying he meant to turn them against each other to create chaos. Isabel asks why he’s now lying for Juliet, and Jack asks to go back to his cage.
Later, Jack awakens to a gathering outside his cage. People are muttering, and up comes…Cindy??? Jack recognizes her (which kind of annoyed me since, although she was the flight attendant on a plane he took two and half months ago, there has never been any sense that he interacted with her at all). Jack asks the straight question – what is Cindy doing with the Others after they took her? She says it’s not that simple, and they’re here to watch. The abducted girl (a runner-up to the recent Grey’s Anatomy guest star for “worst performance by a little blonde girl with a pony tail) asks how Ana Lucia is doing (an odd question, since they were abducted before the tailies rendezvoused with the beach crew). Rather than press Cindy for more meaningful answers, Jack angrily sends them away. As an aside (and one of my several complaints about this episode), this scene should have been the big wow! moment of the week. I mean, here were the tail section abductees, healthy, happy, and dressed like they just received their J-Crew Spring Catalog order. But since this scene has been available online and in TV promos for weeks, there was no shock in seeing these long-missing characters, and since they told us nothing about where they’ve been, it fell a little flat.
FLASHBACK
In Jack’s flashback, a local boy in Phuket, Thailand sold “Dr. Jack” some sodas while chattering in the native tongue, which Dr. Jack doesn’t understand. Jack struggled to assemble a kite (sigh, his daddy never flew kites with him), until he was assisted by an exotic local named Achara (B-movie action star Bai Ling). Later, at an outdoor restaurant, the waiter (Achara’s brother), told Jack he was very brave to eat Thai food. (Maybe it’s just living in L.A., but isn’t Thai food pretty ubiquitous these days?) Achara asked if he was in Phuket to find himself, when a stranger gave her an envelope because, she explained, “I have a gift.” Jack retorted in his typical “I scoff at curtness but never demand explanations” manner, “must be one hell of a gift.” After a month of cavorting by the beach, Jack followed Achara into an alley, through a beaded curtain, and into what appeared to be a tattoo parlor. Achara protested, “I am not a tattoo artist. I am able to see who people are. It’s not creation, it is definition.” Naturally, Jack wanted to know who he was. Achara first told him it’s not allowed because he’s an outsider, then “revealed” to Jack that he is a leader, a great man, but that makes him "lonely and frightened and angry.” When Jack demanded that she then “put it on him,” Achara warned in her pervasive faux-ominous manner that there would be consequences. He snapped back, “there always are.” Later, on the beach, the kid who sold him the soda before ran away in fear. Locals showed up, saw the Asian characters tattooed on Jack’s shoulder (which was still devoid of the more obvious pyramid and “5” he now sports), and opened up a can of Thai whoop-ass. They ordered him to leave the country, while Achara looked on in the background. She was crying but seemed to have led the men to Jack, since, you know, there are consequences....
REAL TIME PART 1 – JACK
Back in real time, in one of the better scenes of the episode, Jack assumes Tom’s claim that Jack is being “moved” means they’ll kill him, what with all the kidnapping and torturing the Others have done before…Tom retorts about Jack being in a glass house and in need of stones. The Others cuff Jack and march him past Juliet, also in cuffs, who is led to Jack’s former cell. He (and we) meet a new character amongst the Others, a somewhat older woman who Tom later calls “the sheriff” (but not literally, Jack) and who we then learn is named Isabel. Jack is moved to Sawyer’s polar bear cage. Tom brings a cold sandwich and tells Jack that Juliet is in trouble.
Later, as Jack plays with the fish biscuit device but stops short of a shock, Juliet brings Jack a picture of Ben’s infected stitches. She asks, as a personal favor, for him to help, and tells him she is in trouble for killing someone. He asks who, but she responds only that “it’s complicated.” (Really? She needed to help save Sawyer and Kate, and Pickett was about to kill Sawyer. I just explained it in one sentence, but Juliet felt compelled to be…mysterious). But Jack refuses to help either Ben or Juliet, and she’s led away. Later, Isabel reads Jack’s tattoo, in the original Chinese. He insists he knows what it says. She asks Jack to come with her to an office where Juliet is cuffed to a chair. Isabel confirms that not only do they not live on Hyrda island, but the Others don’t even like to go there. She asks Jack some questions about Juliet’s story. Jack denies Juliet asked him to kill Ben, saying he meant to turn them against each other to create chaos. Isabel asks why he’s now lying for Juliet, and Jack asks to go back to his cage.
Later, Jack awakens to a gathering outside his cage. People are muttering, and up comes…Cindy??? Jack recognizes her (which kind of annoyed me since, although she was the flight attendant on a plane he took two and half months ago, there has never been any sense that he interacted with her at all). Jack asks the straight question – what is Cindy doing with the Others after they took her? She says it’s not that simple, and they’re here to watch. The abducted girl (a runner-up to the recent Grey’s Anatomy guest star for “worst performance by a little blonde girl with a pony tail) asks how Ana Lucia is doing (an odd question, since they were abducted before the tailies rendezvoused with the beach crew). Rather than press Cindy for more meaningful answers, Jack angrily sends them away. As an aside (and one of my several complaints about this episode), this scene should have been the big wow! moment of the week. I mean, here were the tail section abductees, healthy, happy, and dressed like they just received their J-Crew Spring Catalog order. But since this scene has been available online and in TV promos for weeks, there was no shock in seeing these long-missing characters, and since they told us nothing about where they’ve been, it fell a little flat.
Tirade over…Alex breaks the camera by Jack’s cell. She asks why Jack saved Ben, and tells Jack Juliet is going to have her verdict read. The Others are pretty strict about killing one of their own. Alex tells Jack, “If it wasn’t for you, she never would have done it.” Jack tells Alex, “I saved your father because I said I would.” Alex confirms that Isabel will do what Ben says, so Jack tells Alex to get him out of the cage. Back in the O.R., Jack stops the Others from injecting Ben. Thankfully, Ben is awake – Hydra island scenes are always better when Ben is in them. Jack scoffs that he’d be more impressed with the Others if they had a surgeon. “We had an excellent surgeon, Jack,” says Ben. “His name was Ethan.” (Prepare for next tirade…) Jack says he has to re-incise and Ben needs a doctor to stay with him, which he will do if Ben stops Juliet’s execution. Ben assures Jack she doesn’t care about him and she’s one of them, but writes the order for Alex to deliver...
So let me get this straight… Ben learns he has a tumor. He shares a suburban subdivision with an excellent surgeon (Ethan). Yet when a plane breaks up overhead, and he as yet has no idea who’s on board, who does Ben order to infiltrate the survivor’s camp? Ethan! Now, I love Lost’s puzzles as much as the next guy, but this strikes me as much more of a logical blunder. Ben could have sent Tom, Pickett, Isabel, Ms. Klugh, or any of the countless other Others, but instead he sent his only surgeon off into an unknown situation. Sorry, folks, but this just seems dumb to me. Tirade number 2, over…
Alex takes Jack to Juliet’s sentencing hearing in what looks like an elementary school auditorium. She hands Isabel the note, and Juliet’s sentence is commuted. Ben has, however, ordered that Juliet is to be “marked,” which seems to really freak out Tom.
Later, Juliet brings Jack his grilled cheese in the cage. He asks her to let him see the marking. She turns around, and on her back is an asterisk shaped brand with a long upper prong. Ew.com
refers to this as a scorpion shape, and, as you can see from this picture, thetailsection.com likens it to an upside-down Scientological cross. Jack tells her to break off an aloe branch, and he spreads the oil on her new mark. Jack tells Juliet he helped her because, since both were told they were going home, Jack wants to make sure Ben keeps his word to both of them. Juliet tells Jack that, since Kate and Sawyer know where Jack is being kept, the whole gang (with Jack in tow) will be leaving Hyrda for what Ben calls “home.” Finally, Isabel reveals what Jack’s tattoo means: “He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us.” How apropos! He wasn’t Thai when he was in Thailand, and he’s about to be a non-Other in Othersville! Jack replies, “that’s what they say – that’s not what they mean.” Jack appears to prefer the apparently fake explanation Achara gave him (about being a lonely leader). Jack, Ben and another Other row off to where some large boats await in the background. Juliet and Jack later ride off on a boat like the one Tom’s crew used to ambush the raft and take Walt.REAL TIME PART 2 – KATE AND SAWYER
Still in Alex’s boat, Kate tells Sawyer to stop paddling, turn around to save Jack. Karl, still in la-la land, repeats some of what he saw in the aversion therapy video, “God loves you as he loved Jacob.” Sawyer snarls at Kate, “Sorry kiddo, Jack’s alone.” Sawyer decides to take the boat straight to shore instead of paddling around to their camp, since it's hard to steer in the dark.
On land, Karl tells them they shouldn’t fight because they’re lucky to be alive. He also reveals (to them, anyway), that Hydra is just where they work on “projects” but the Others actually live on the main island. As for the abductees, “We give them a better life than yours.” They even have back yards! Sawyer’s reaction is, “well ain’t that quaint.” In the morning, Karl is gone. They find him crying. Sawyer punches him so he’ll “cowboy up.” Sawyer calls him Bobby of the Brady Bunch, which Karl has never heard of (oh, the humanity!) Sawyer tells Karl to go back to where the backyards are and get Alex back…even if the Others will kill him. Sawyer later tells Kate he sent Karl away because Karl is a target. He tells Kate she feels guilty that she was with him just because she thought he would die (self-loathe, much, James?) Kate and Sawyer make their way through the jungle, Karl looks up at the stars, as Alex does the same (a scene ripped off from “An American Tail”) and Jack, Juliet and the Others steam back to Othersville.
So what were the big reveals? Jack’s tattoo means he’s an outsider? Gotta tell you, I obsess about this show more than most people, and I never lost any sleep over Jack’s tattoo. What else, that Cindy and the kids are alive and well? Saw it on the promo. And that the Others don’t live at the Hyrda station? We already knew it. After the smorgasbord that was “Not in Portland” and the brilliant puzzle that was “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” I felt let down by “Stranger in a Strange Land.” Jack has got to stop thwarting our thirst for answers with his angry tirades (some more face time with Cindy would have been nice). Sawyer’s sabotaging his new relationship with Kate when they finally have a moment to relax was also pretty lame. And after last week left us with “no matter what I do, you’re gonna die, Charlie,” I wanted to see more of the beach camp folks. Oh, well. I guess they can’t all be gems.
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