It’s kind of nice, every now and then, to have an episode that’s not so jam-packed with clues and information and mind-blowing (and mind numbing) events. Therefore “The Other Woman” was a nice diversion after five weeks of brain pounding LOST. Not that the episode didn’t contain anything cool…
Like a creepy new character in Harper, the island’s therapist (I loved the line “It’s hard being an ‘Other’”); husband to Goodwin, and ultimately Juliet’s rival. (I’m sorry, I’ve been misspelling Juliet’s name for weeks now. I stand corrected.) I know it would be easy to explain away Harper’s attitude towards Juliet as a result of Juliet’s affair with Goodwin, but I think (down deep) that Harper’s character is in the same vein as Ben… perhaps she was hand picked by Ben because of her cold, calculating demeanor. From the beginning, she doesn’t like the attention that Juliet is being given because it takes the focus away from her. I don’t know if we will see her again, but it was interesting to see how her presence was added into previously presented events (like the break-up of the plane).
In connection with Harper, I’d like to talk a bit about her appearance in the “now” of LOST… Did you notice that just before Harper appeared (out of nowhere) to Juliet in the jungle, she was preceded by the whispers? Did you also notice that the whispers accompanied her disappearance as well? At first I wondered if this vision of Harper was a manifestation of the smoke monster… but the more I thought about it, I started to wonder if perhaps the whispers are manifestations of minds that are traveling through time. Perhaps we are hearing the echoes of their thoughts as they move through the continuum. And perhaps this vision of Harper was a Harper that had been sent backward in time to get Juliet to try to stop Charlotte and Daniel. Otherwise it would be hard to explain how Ben could get a message to his people to send Harper to Juliet with the message. He’s been held captive in the basement of his quarters. Unless he can communicate psychically with the rest of the “Others” how else would he have done this? Well… if sometime in the future he connects back with the rest of his group he could send Harper back in time to try to get Juliet to stop the disabling of the Tempest. Makes sense to me.
Why would Ben ask Juliet to do his bidding? We get some more answers in this episode about Ben’s obsession with Juliet and what exactly is his hold over her. It was really kind of cute and yet creepy to see the budding crush Ben had on Juliet. It just added more layers to the character of Ben… to see him so giddy while presenting Juliet with her own house, or when fixing her a private dinner, and yet witness his pure evil side when he takes Juliet out to see what has happened to Goodwin. Ben considers Juliet his property, and will do anything to keep anyone coming between the two of them. (We see in an enhanced flashback that Ben actually sent Goodwin out to the tail section with the intention that he be killed while under cover.) Therefore we know why Juliet does his bidding, she doesn’t want Ben to take retribution on the people the she cares about (in this case her new interest… Jack).
Harper makes an interesting statement to Juliet during one of her sessions. She tells Juliet that Ben likes her because “you look just like her.” There’s been some speculation that the “her” is Ben’s childhood friend Annie, but I really think that Harper means Ben’s mother, whom I believe that Juliet resembles. Another creepy dimension to Ben…
On to some comments about the new Dharma station, the Tempest. During the episode we are told (by Goodwin) that the Tempest is the station that powers the island and Juliet repeats this information to Jack while following Charlotte and Daniel there. But Goodwin’s chemical burns and his statement that he “could kill everyone” if he pulled the wrong switch indicate a much more dangerous purpose for the station. Apparently the Tempest is a station that manufactures, or at least stores toxic gas. Now why would Dharma (and the Tempest is definitely of Dharma manufacture, even though it looks a bit newer – more high tech than the “hatch”) need to have that kind of facility on this island? I haven’t a clue.
In the freighter folk’s first episode, we saw that they have brought gas masks and biohazard suits with them. I had always believed that they brought those items with them because they planned to do to Ben and his people what Ben had done to the Dharma folks, gas them out of existence. Instead, we learn that Charlotte and Daniel have been sent to neutralize the gas… make it inert. They claim that they know Ben has used it in the past, and they want to make sure he can’t use it again. Of course Ben claims that it’s the opposite; that the freighter folk are there to kill everyone with the gas. He’s lying as usual.
There are a few things I don’t understand about the Tempest storyline. I don’t understand why Charlotte and Daniel waited around the beach camp for a couple of days before heading out to neutralize the Tempest station. It seems to me that if the plot point was this important that they wouldn’t have waited so long. I also don’t get why Charlotte and Daniel were the ones chosen to do this… what specifically about the two of them was necessary to complete this mission? Perhaps it’s just one of the things that they were sent to do. It does seem like maybe Daniel was trying hard to remember the codes to put into the computer from (perhaps) a past (or future) memory… and Charlotte was having to encourage him again that he would be able to complete the job.
It was nice to hear a reference to Zack and Emma, the kids from the tail section that were abducted by the Others. Ben mentions that Juliet has been doing a good job of taking care of them. However Juliet pushes Ben to try to reveal some information about why they were taken. I’m surprised she doesn’t know. Ben’s only answer is that they were on the list and that’s all she needed to know. What list (Jacob’s?) and what’s the significance of the list? We still don’t know.
There was a bit of rehash in the scenes at camp Locke… someone (Claire in this case) questions Locke’s tactics, Ben feeds off Locke’s paranoia at his lack of leadership. (“Has the revolution begun yet?”)
Ben had a cool line in the scene where Locke was feeding him dinner… rabbit. (“It didn’t have a number on it did it?” – referring back to the scene’s last year with the numbered rabbit that Ben tortured.)
He also had an interesting line when he tells Locke “if my people still wanted me they would have stormed this camp a long time ago.” Is this Ben lying again, or did I detect a bit of truth behind the wistful look in his eyes… Ben really knew that this was true, and now he is looking for his new role?
However, ultimately the scenes do lead us to some new information when Ben finally promises to show Locke why the freighter folk are a common enemy. What we see is a videotape (taped over the Red Sox game that Juliet showed Jack early in season three) of Charles Widmore having one of Ben’s men (so we are told) beat up. Ben declares that Widmore is the man whose boat is parked off shore… that he’s been trying to find the island, to exploit it. Ben also agrees to give up the name of the man he has on the boat, and he tells Locke to sit down before revealing the name. Of course we don’t find out this episode, but will know next week. The information must have satisfied Locke, because he sets Ben free. I loved Ben’s jaunty little comment “see you guys at dinner”.
Juliet has another interesting viewpoint on the freighter folk and Ben… she says that “these people came to wage war with Ben, and Ben is going to win.” Interesting foreshadowing of what’s still to come this season on LOST.
