Yeeeeeehaaaaaw! We're back, ba-beee! Backstory! Death! Logical conundrums!! Right out of gate in 2007, Lost definitely dazzled us with a fantastic episode in “Not in Portland” (AKA “Others: Miami”).
First, the backstory. Dr. Juliet Burke was once a meek research scientist in Miami working in a lab run by her oppressive ex-husband, Edmond (24 season 1 villain, Zeljko Ivanek). (Does anyone else note the strong connections to Florida in Lost? Kate was married there, Sawyer did time there, and now Juliet worked there…) Her specialty? Extreme fertility. She successfully impregnated a male mouse (though she modestly pointed out it didn’t carry to term). She also had been stealing samples of some chemical which, when injected into her cancer-stricken sister, Rachel, induced pregnancy. In the first scene at Rachel’s apartment, we saw a familiar face – deceased Other Ethan Rom walked past Juliet in the hallway and said “hello,” though it’s clear from Juliet’s reaction she did not know him at this point. (Did you catch the other imagery around Rachel? At her bedside was a sculpture that looked like a Dharma logo with a yin/yang symbol in the middle, and her pregnancy test was the same Widmore Labs model that Sun used).
Edmond caught Juliet stealing the chemicals she was giving Rachel and threatened to report her to the authorities and ethics boards unless he got publication credit on her research. Juliet was also approached by Mr. Alpert of the Portland-based Mittleos Bioscience, who somehow seemed to know about both her mouse experiment and her secret project with her sister. Alpert wanted Juliet to bring her research to their campus, but she commented in an off-hand way that would only happen if Edmond were hit by a bus. On “Mittleos,” three things: 1) I see an obvious anagram for “Lost Time,” which Juliet’s reveal at the end of the episode suggests is no accident; 2) EW.com notes that “mittleos” is German for “poor” or “bereft of funds” (implications currently unknown); and, 3) perhaps a bit of a stretch, but some similarity to “Mittlewerk,” the Machiavellian scientist who, according to Bad Twin and The Lost Experience, wrested control of the Hanso Foundation from Alvar.
As soon as Juliet revealed her success with Rachel to Edmond, he was, indeed, hit by a bus (which sported an ad for Apollo candy bars, favorite of Hurley and Lost Experience fans everywhere). The creepy factor of this shocking death hit a new high when Alpert showed up at the morgue where Juliet had just identified Edmond’s body, and introduced her to his colleague, Ethan (!), who seemed familiar to Juliet (remember the hallway?). Alpert told Juliet he knew about Rachel’s pregnancy and assured her she would be back within six months for the birth. He also conceded that the Mittleos facility is “not exactly in Portland.” All of this of course took on new meaning at the end of the episode…
Back on the island, still in their hiatus-beginning walkie-talkie chat with Jack (“dammit, Kate, Run!”) Kate and Sawyer make their move and kick some Pickett arse, complete with a fish-biscuit button shock. They steal a gun, lock Pickett and his cohort in the cage and run. Juliet gives the order to have her fellow Others retrieve Kate and Sawyer, even if they have to kill them, defiantly telling Jack he won’t let Ben, who is still on the operating table, die. Jack reveals Juliet’s murderous plans for Ben, and Tom gives her the boot.
An angry Pickett is set free and he and two fellow Others begin their chase. Kate spots the beach (and their “home” island) and finally the reality of the situation sets in. She radios Jack for a boat, when a lucky shot from Pickett blasts her radio. Gunplay, running, and jungle dodging ensue. A few shots later, Sawyer is out of ammo. One of the Others closes on Kate, only to get pegged by Alex’s slingshot! The inexplicably French-accented Alex leads Kate and Sawyer to a trap door, where they hide while the Others pass overhead.
Ben, having overheard Tom’s questioning Jack about Juliet’s instruction to kill him, awakens and demands, of all things, Juliet’s return to the O.R. Ben asks Jack, “one gentleman to another,” for three minutes alone with Juliet. From the gallery, Jack sees them speaking but can’t hear what they’re saying. Tom introduces himself by name to Jack and explains of Ben and Juliet “they’ve got history.” A teary Juliet leaves the O.R. and asks Jack to finish the surgery, promising to help Kate and Sawyer escape. Tom looks on with a surprised look but makes no move to stop her.
Alex tells Kate and Sawyer she has a boat, which they can use if they help her to rescue Karl.
Oprah plans to reveal her biggest secret…no, wait, that’s just a commercial – maybe I watch this show a little too closely.
Juliet spots Kate, Sawyer and Alex on the Hydra monitors as they approach the place where a young Other named Aldo is guarding over Karl (actually, more than guarding, Aldo was reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Wonder what that's all about?). With just one unloaded gun, they hatch a quick plan – Alex marches Kate and Sawyer to the door at gun point and claims to have caught them in an escape attempt. Aldo warns Alex that her dad won’t be happy she’s there. Alex’s dad? Aldo calls “dad” and asks for…Ben! Sawyer jumps Aldo and says he fell for the “ol’ Wookie prisoner gig.” Kate threatens to kneecap Aldo with the rifle they captured from him, and Aldo coughs up Karl’s location. Kate assures Sawyer this was not a bluff. In cell “23” they find Karl, being bombarded with loud noise and bizarre imagery. Karl is hooked up to an i.v., messages blaring and flashing on screen like “we are the causes of our own suffering” and, tellingly, “God loves you like he loved Jacob” (another reference to “Jacob!”). Sawyer carries Karl out of the cell and demands the boat. As an aside, could this be the “room” that Miss Klugh threatened to return Walt to last season? As another aside, what goes on in the cells numbered 4, 8, 15, 16 and 42?
Pickett angrily wakes Aldo. Juliet tells Pickett to let Sawyer and Kate go, claiming it’s Ben’s request. Pickett’s response – I know Ben would rather die than let them go.
Tom begins to explain to Jack that they couldn’t take Ben to an off-island facility because, ever since the sky turned purple…but then an unexpected bleed interrupts! More on this later…
Loading Karl into a boat on the beach, Sawyer tells Alex he is surprised to learn she’s “the boss’s daughter.” Pickett appears and is about to shoot Sawyer (oh, how he hates Sawyer), when Juliet calls to him and guns him down. This cannot possibly play well with her fellow Others…Juliet won’t let Alex go with Sawyer, Kate and Karl because the only way her father will let Karl live is if Alex is around when he wakes up.
Kate radios Jack and lets him know they’re safe. She repeats the story Jack told her on their first day on the island about his first botched surgery (their code for a signal of safety). Just as Kate reaches the part of the story where Jack saved his first surgical patient, Ben stabilizes. Jack demands that Kate promise she will not come back for him. Kate and Sawyer shove off with the dazed Karl on board, Juliet and Alex looking on.
Later, Jack stares at Ben, in recovery, when Juliet returns. Jack tells her he was able to remove the tumor, and suggests a biopsy to see if it’s malignant. Juliet says Jack will go back to his cell until “they” figure out what to do with him. What did Ben say to make Juliet want to save his life? Juliet tells Jack she’s been on the island 3 years, 2 months, 28 days (a lot more than 6 months!) Ben told her he would finally let her go home if she let him live and helped Jack.
So that’s what happened. What does it mean?
Juliet
In light of the first scene of the season, we know Juliet’s story pretty well by now. Always a sucker for domineering men (like Edmond, Alpert and Ben), she was suckered into research in this “not exactly in Portland” facility by off-island agents of the Others, she found a message of empowerment in her favorite novel, Stephen King’s Carrie (about a similarly weak high school girl who eventually explodes with telekinetic rage). We now know the reason Juliet cried in that first scene of the season when she listened to the song, “Downtown” – as idyllic as Othersville seemed, she is nonetheless a prisoner. We also know now what the Powers that Be meant when they teased during the hiatus that Juliet’s agenda is more in line with the 815 survivors’ than the Others’ – she wants to leave the island. The nature of her research and the baby-napping obsession the Others seem to have suggests they have 1) a fertility problem and 2) a real need to sustain their society on the island. Finally, we also know how long she’s been with the Others: just over three years, or almost exactly since the moment Desmond arrived on the island, as well. Will this turn out to be a coincidence?
Deepening Mysteries, or Shark-Jumping?
We got two reveals in “Not in Portland” that seem to throw our sleuthing for a loop. 1) The Others claim that Ben is Alex’s father, and 2) Tom seemed to suggest they needed Jack to operate on Ben because the implosion of the Swan hatch cut them off from the outside world.
We’ve long been led to believe that this French-accented Alex is the teenage daughter of Rousseau, who was abducted as an infant by the then-unseen Others. Rousseau claimed she was pregnant when her ship was marooned on the island, but Ben told Jack he had lived there his whole life. Granted, Ben also once told Jack he was Henry Gale from Minnesota, but still… There is an obvious explanation, particularly in light of the Others’ apparent fertility problems: Ben is more Alex’s adoptive (abductive?) father than her biological one. Still, until anything is stated plainly, it will be hard to know for sure.
As for the Others’ needing Jack to operate on Ben because of the “sky turning purple,” let’s recall the order things went down – the Others selected Jack, Kate and Sawyer (and Hurley) before Michael returned to camp. They ambushed the group, then the Swan Hatch imploded, and then they sent Walt and Michael off on the little ferry. If the implosion cut off their contacts with the outside world, then Walt and Michael never escaped, the Others didn’t need Jack to do the surgery until after they already had him, and they didn’t need Kate and Sawyer to manipulate Jack until then, either. So there must have been a different plan in mind for these captives, which was further supported by Pickett’s snarl that Ben would rather die than let Kate and Sawyer escape (i.e. they had more in store for the pair). I’m also intrigued that the same event that seemed to momentarily reveal the island to the outside world in last season’s finale also somehow cut off the Others’ access to the outside world. I’m hoping for more on this next week, when the Powers that Be say we’ll get more on the Penelope Widmore Arctic Research Bonanza.
Finally, unlike most questions-answered-with-questions moments on Lost, I’m relieved by the idea that the Others’ master plan was not simply to force Jack to do one surgery by threatening Kate and Sawyer. As master plans go, that was kind of weak. Still no idea what they in fact wanted from the trio, but it’s gotta be better than that. Of course, they never just come right out and tell you, so maybe Tom’s cut-off explanation about the “purple sky” wasn’t going in that direction. We’ll have to wait and see.
Until next time, I’m signing off.
First, the backstory. Dr. Juliet Burke was once a meek research scientist in Miami working in a lab run by her oppressive ex-husband, Edmond (24 season 1 villain, Zeljko Ivanek). (Does anyone else note the strong connections to Florida in Lost? Kate was married there, Sawyer did time there, and now Juliet worked there…) Her specialty? Extreme fertility. She successfully impregnated a male mouse (though she modestly pointed out it didn’t carry to term). She also had been stealing samples of some chemical which, when injected into her cancer-stricken sister, Rachel, induced pregnancy. In the first scene at Rachel’s apartment, we saw a familiar face – deceased Other Ethan Rom walked past Juliet in the hallway and said “hello,” though it’s clear from Juliet’s reaction she did not know him at this point. (Did you catch the other imagery around Rachel? At her bedside was a sculpture that looked like a Dharma logo with a yin/yang symbol in the middle, and her pregnancy test was the same Widmore Labs model that Sun used).
Edmond caught Juliet stealing the chemicals she was giving Rachel and threatened to report her to the authorities and ethics boards unless he got publication credit on her research. Juliet was also approached by Mr. Alpert of the Portland-based Mittleos Bioscience, who somehow seemed to know about both her mouse experiment and her secret project with her sister. Alpert wanted Juliet to bring her research to their campus, but she commented in an off-hand way that would only happen if Edmond were hit by a bus. On “Mittleos,” three things: 1) I see an obvious anagram for “Lost Time,” which Juliet’s reveal at the end of the episode suggests is no accident; 2) EW.com notes that “mittleos” is German for “poor” or “bereft of funds” (implications currently unknown); and, 3) perhaps a bit of a stretch, but some similarity to “Mittlewerk,” the Machiavellian scientist who, according to Bad Twin and The Lost Experience, wrested control of the Hanso Foundation from Alvar.
As soon as Juliet revealed her success with Rachel to Edmond, he was, indeed, hit by a bus (which sported an ad for Apollo candy bars, favorite of Hurley and Lost Experience fans everywhere). The creepy factor of this shocking death hit a new high when Alpert showed up at the morgue where Juliet had just identified Edmond’s body, and introduced her to his colleague, Ethan (!), who seemed familiar to Juliet (remember the hallway?). Alpert told Juliet he knew about Rachel’s pregnancy and assured her she would be back within six months for the birth. He also conceded that the Mittleos facility is “not exactly in Portland.” All of this of course took on new meaning at the end of the episode…
Back on the island, still in their hiatus-beginning walkie-talkie chat with Jack (“dammit, Kate, Run!”) Kate and Sawyer make their move and kick some Pickett arse, complete with a fish-biscuit button shock. They steal a gun, lock Pickett and his cohort in the cage and run. Juliet gives the order to have her fellow Others retrieve Kate and Sawyer, even if they have to kill them, defiantly telling Jack he won’t let Ben, who is still on the operating table, die. Jack reveals Juliet’s murderous plans for Ben, and Tom gives her the boot.
An angry Pickett is set free and he and two fellow Others begin their chase. Kate spots the beach (and their “home” island) and finally the reality of the situation sets in. She radios Jack for a boat, when a lucky shot from Pickett blasts her radio. Gunplay, running, and jungle dodging ensue. A few shots later, Sawyer is out of ammo. One of the Others closes on Kate, only to get pegged by Alex’s slingshot! The inexplicably French-accented Alex leads Kate and Sawyer to a trap door, where they hide while the Others pass overhead.
Ben, having overheard Tom’s questioning Jack about Juliet’s instruction to kill him, awakens and demands, of all things, Juliet’s return to the O.R. Ben asks Jack, “one gentleman to another,” for three minutes alone with Juliet. From the gallery, Jack sees them speaking but can’t hear what they’re saying. Tom introduces himself by name to Jack and explains of Ben and Juliet “they’ve got history.” A teary Juliet leaves the O.R. and asks Jack to finish the surgery, promising to help Kate and Sawyer escape. Tom looks on with a surprised look but makes no move to stop her.
Alex tells Kate and Sawyer she has a boat, which they can use if they help her to rescue Karl.
Oprah plans to reveal her biggest secret…no, wait, that’s just a commercial – maybe I watch this show a little too closely.
Juliet spots Kate, Sawyer and Alex on the Hydra monitors as they approach the place where a young Other named Aldo is guarding over Karl (actually, more than guarding, Aldo was reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Wonder what that's all about?). With just one unloaded gun, they hatch a quick plan – Alex marches Kate and Sawyer to the door at gun point and claims to have caught them in an escape attempt. Aldo warns Alex that her dad won’t be happy she’s there. Alex’s dad? Aldo calls “dad” and asks for…Ben! Sawyer jumps Aldo and says he fell for the “ol’ Wookie prisoner gig.” Kate threatens to kneecap Aldo with the rifle they captured from him, and Aldo coughs up Karl’s location. Kate assures Sawyer this was not a bluff. In cell “23” they find Karl, being bombarded with loud noise and bizarre imagery. Karl is hooked up to an i.v., messages blaring and flashing on screen like “we are the causes of our own suffering” and, tellingly, “God loves you like he loved Jacob” (another reference to “Jacob!”). Sawyer carries Karl out of the cell and demands the boat. As an aside, could this be the “room” that Miss Klugh threatened to return Walt to last season? As another aside, what goes on in the cells numbered 4, 8, 15, 16 and 42?
Pickett angrily wakes Aldo. Juliet tells Pickett to let Sawyer and Kate go, claiming it’s Ben’s request. Pickett’s response – I know Ben would rather die than let them go.
Tom begins to explain to Jack that they couldn’t take Ben to an off-island facility because, ever since the sky turned purple…but then an unexpected bleed interrupts! More on this later…
Loading Karl into a boat on the beach, Sawyer tells Alex he is surprised to learn she’s “the boss’s daughter.” Pickett appears and is about to shoot Sawyer (oh, how he hates Sawyer), when Juliet calls to him and guns him down. This cannot possibly play well with her fellow Others…Juliet won’t let Alex go with Sawyer, Kate and Karl because the only way her father will let Karl live is if Alex is around when he wakes up.
Kate radios Jack and lets him know they’re safe. She repeats the story Jack told her on their first day on the island about his first botched surgery (their code for a signal of safety). Just as Kate reaches the part of the story where Jack saved his first surgical patient, Ben stabilizes. Jack demands that Kate promise she will not come back for him. Kate and Sawyer shove off with the dazed Karl on board, Juliet and Alex looking on.
Later, Jack stares at Ben, in recovery, when Juliet returns. Jack tells her he was able to remove the tumor, and suggests a biopsy to see if it’s malignant. Juliet says Jack will go back to his cell until “they” figure out what to do with him. What did Ben say to make Juliet want to save his life? Juliet tells Jack she’s been on the island 3 years, 2 months, 28 days (a lot more than 6 months!) Ben told her he would finally let her go home if she let him live and helped Jack.
So that’s what happened. What does it mean?
Juliet
In light of the first scene of the season, we know Juliet’s story pretty well by now. Always a sucker for domineering men (like Edmond, Alpert and Ben), she was suckered into research in this “not exactly in Portland” facility by off-island agents of the Others, she found a message of empowerment in her favorite novel, Stephen King’s Carrie (about a similarly weak high school girl who eventually explodes with telekinetic rage). We now know the reason Juliet cried in that first scene of the season when she listened to the song, “Downtown” – as idyllic as Othersville seemed, she is nonetheless a prisoner. We also know now what the Powers that Be meant when they teased during the hiatus that Juliet’s agenda is more in line with the 815 survivors’ than the Others’ – she wants to leave the island. The nature of her research and the baby-napping obsession the Others seem to have suggests they have 1) a fertility problem and 2) a real need to sustain their society on the island. Finally, we also know how long she’s been with the Others: just over three years, or almost exactly since the moment Desmond arrived on the island, as well. Will this turn out to be a coincidence?
Deepening Mysteries, or Shark-Jumping?
We got two reveals in “Not in Portland” that seem to throw our sleuthing for a loop. 1) The Others claim that Ben is Alex’s father, and 2) Tom seemed to suggest they needed Jack to operate on Ben because the implosion of the Swan hatch cut them off from the outside world.
We’ve long been led to believe that this French-accented Alex is the teenage daughter of Rousseau, who was abducted as an infant by the then-unseen Others. Rousseau claimed she was pregnant when her ship was marooned on the island, but Ben told Jack he had lived there his whole life. Granted, Ben also once told Jack he was Henry Gale from Minnesota, but still… There is an obvious explanation, particularly in light of the Others’ apparent fertility problems: Ben is more Alex’s adoptive (abductive?) father than her biological one. Still, until anything is stated plainly, it will be hard to know for sure.
As for the Others’ needing Jack to operate on Ben because of the “sky turning purple,” let’s recall the order things went down – the Others selected Jack, Kate and Sawyer (and Hurley) before Michael returned to camp. They ambushed the group, then the Swan Hatch imploded, and then they sent Walt and Michael off on the little ferry. If the implosion cut off their contacts with the outside world, then Walt and Michael never escaped, the Others didn’t need Jack to do the surgery until after they already had him, and they didn’t need Kate and Sawyer to manipulate Jack until then, either. So there must have been a different plan in mind for these captives, which was further supported by Pickett’s snarl that Ben would rather die than let Kate and Sawyer escape (i.e. they had more in store for the pair). I’m also intrigued that the same event that seemed to momentarily reveal the island to the outside world in last season’s finale also somehow cut off the Others’ access to the outside world. I’m hoping for more on this next week, when the Powers that Be say we’ll get more on the Penelope Widmore Arctic Research Bonanza.
Finally, unlike most questions-answered-with-questions moments on Lost, I’m relieved by the idea that the Others’ master plan was not simply to force Jack to do one surgery by threatening Kate and Sawyer. As master plans go, that was kind of weak. Still no idea what they in fact wanted from the trio, but it’s gotta be better than that. Of course, they never just come right out and tell you, so maybe Tom’s cut-off explanation about the “purple sky” wasn’t going in that direction. We’ll have to wait and see.
Until next time, I’m signing off.
3 comments:
Very nice summary. I really enjoyed the episode - kept the suspense running high throughout.
The fight scenes were well-choreographed, too. (You know I'd be a stickler for that). They're all lousy shots, though - except for Juliet and Alex.
Never noticed Alex's accent.
I think the explanation for why Ben couldn't leave the island must be independent of the explosion of the hatch - but probably not independent of the reasons why the hatch exploded in the first place, if you catch my meaning.
Namaste!
- Sinai
When referring to events after the "sky turned purple," could Tom have meant when Desmond failed to push the button while fighting with Calvin, which lead to the plane crash? We've seen clips of the plan breaking in two, but I don't think we've seen anything just before the EM blast that caused the crash.
It may be a stretch, as I believe the sky turned purple when the hatch imploded and not when the numbers weren't pressed, but it would make sense given Tom's statement. We've already heard Ben stating that a "spinal surgeon" fell from the sky and we saw him send Ethan and Goodwin to find out about the people. Maybe Ben became convinced that the "surgeon from the sky" had to perform the operation given the bizzare set of circumstances.
Also, I watched the hour survivor guide before the "premiere" and they did a good job touching on all of the important characters. They didn't even mention any character who has died, except for Mr. Ecko. Strangely, they didn't mention Michael or Walt either. Do you think those two really are gone and no longer a part of the story?
Great comments, all. Carl, I know that Walt and Michael will return (the producers have said as much) but that it will not be until next season. I think you're right about the purle sky being linked more to the implosion than the failure to push the button, and I do not recall the plane crash looking very purple (though it sure did make Othersville shake rattle and roll).
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