LOST Season 3, Episode 7 “Not In Portland”

Welcome back, Losties, to my weekly wrap-up of LOST episodes. It’s been a long hiatus, 16 weeks. A lot has happened in that time: people got engaged, married, and/or divorced all over the world. We celebrated the winter holidays and welcomed in a new year. Brittany divorced K-Fed. We won the Iraq war. Oh wait…nix that last one.

But now it’s back to the show you’ve come to love, LOST.

Last night’s ep was a Juliette-centric episode. Without further delay, let’s chat:

First and foremost, in reference to the episode title, I guess we can all agree that the island is “Not in Portland (Ore.)”. ha ha

Juliette: We first see Juliette going into a room in Miami, Florida, and passes ETHAN ROM on the way in. (Note: Remember that LOST uses lots of anagrams: ETHAN ROM = OTHER MAN). Juliette is treating her sister with an experimental drug in the hopes of allowing her to become fertile. We don’t learn what she is suffering from disease-wise (or I missed it), but when the sister tells Juliette that she is indeed pregnant, the look of success on Juliette’s face implies that the drug does work. We meet Juliette’s ex-husband, Edmund Burke (note: found an Edmund Burke on the ‘net, and he was a supporter of the US colonies during the Revolution, and he lived in England. Don’t know if that has any reference to this character.) When Edmund finds out that Juliette’s work has led to the successful pregnancy of her sister, he wants in and promises to not spill the beans that she was doing the testing illegally. Juliette then goes for a job interview in Portland, Oregon with Mittelos Bioscience (ANAGRAM TIME: MITTELOS = LOST TIME), who want her to work for them due to her abilities as a fertility doctor. She interviews with a Dr Albert. She turns down the job saying the ex wouldn’t let her leave her current job to take this one (she knows he would hang her work on her sister over her head to keep her, probably), but wishes she could. When he asks “what can we do to get you here?” she says she wishes her ex would be hit by a bus, which of course he is later in the episode. On the island, Juliette assists in the freeing of Kate and Sawyer because she wants Jack to save Ben. She and Ben, we find out from Tom (aka Mr Friendly), “got history”. To have Jack save Ben, Juliette kills Danny Pickett, and lets Kate and Sawyer take Alex’s boat to get back to their island. Juliette tells Jack that she’s been on the island 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days, and Ben had told her while he was on the surgery table that if she convinced Jack to save him, he would finally let her go home. If she’s been on the island that long, it would mean she probably missed the birth of her sister’s baby.

Jack: Uses the surgery on Ben to create a way for Kate and Sawyer to escape: by nicking Ben’s kidney sac, he gives the Others 1 hour to let Kate and Sawyer go or he’ll let Ben die. Tells Kate via walkie talkie to NOT come back and look for him, but for them to get away. Funny line was when Jack and Tom were in the observation area of the OR watching Juliette talking to Ben, and Tom says, “I’m Tom, by the way.” Ha ha!

Kate/Sawyer: In their escape from the cages, they get help from Alex, who we know as Rousseau’s daughter who, according to Rousseau, was taken from her by The Others when her shipped crashed on the island. How great was it when Sawyer took Pickett and smashed his head 3 times against the cage button so that he would get the shock?? Ha ha! Alex agrees to help them escape if they’ll help her find her boyfriend, Carl, who had been in the cage across from Sawyer the first day he was caught by The Others. While running from the Others, Alex hides Kate and Sawyer in an underground bunker. Sawyer: "Nice to meet you, Sheena.” Ha ha! They help her find Carl, and eventually get him to Alex’s boat with them. When they leave the island, they take Carl with them.

Alex/Carl: Rousseau’s daughter? Maybe not. In talking to the guard of the building where they think Carl is being held, he says “your dad doesn’t want you out here”. Who’s her Dad? Referring to Ben, perhaps? They find Carl in a room in the building being pounded with loud music, and a bizarre looping film with God references, weird images, and several other references to being “loved”, and also see the name “Jacob” a lot. (In the Bible, Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He married Rachel [NOTE: Rachel is the name of Juliette’s sister] and ended up working for Rachel’s dad. He’s the one who dreamt of the ladder that reached from Earth to Heaven , Jacob’s Ladder. He was always in trouble, but still was close to God, showing how forgiving God could be. As a note, Rachel was sterile and was unable to have kids with Jacob. Nice parallel, eh?) So, the film may have been a way to let the “troubled” Others know that no matter how far they stray, they would always be welcome there. Scary the way he was being brainwashed, though. How many of you were thinking “this is so Clockwork Orange”? ha ha! As Kate and Sawyer were getting ready to leave the island in Alex’s boat with Carl, Sawyer says: “So, you’re the boss’s daughter? I didn’t see that coming.” Ha ha! Great line. But, Juliette tells Alex that she can’t leave and has to go see her father (Ben?). She stays behind as they leave in the boat.

Ethan Rom: So, we’ve now seen that the Hanso Foundation had ‘recruiters’ working off the island to find people to bring to their location. Ethan was one of those ‘recruiters’, and apparently so is Dr Albert (reference to Einstein, who worked on matters associated with time?). Ethan showed up again later in the episode, with Dr Albert, in the morgue where Juliette went to ID the body of her ex-husband who had been smashed by the bus. How many of the other Losties were ‘recruited’ do you think? Well, the psychic that Claire visited in Season 1 could well have been one, telling her to go to LA to give up her baby. And, remember that Kelvin at one point said something about being a Hanso worker for over 10 years (and he was also in the Gulf War…maybe ‘recruited’ Sayeed”?). In the morgue, Dr Albert tells Juliette to come work for them, but when she asks if her sister can come to, they tell her that their office is “not quite in Portland. We’re remotely located.” Yeah…no kidding.

Miscellaneous:
1. Did you see that when the ex-hubby (Edmund) got hit by the bus, there was an ad for Apollo Candy Bars on the side of the bus?
2. There were lots of mentions of the number 3 in this episode: Juliette asked for “three minutes” to talk to Ben. (Side note: remember last year’s ep where Ms Klugh gave Michael “three minutes” to talk to Walt.) Sawyer smashing Pickett’s head into the cage button 3 times. Also, Juliette has been on the island 3 years. I think (have to re-watch the episode this weekend) that Juliette fired 3 shots to kill Pickett.
3. In the brainwashing video, at the end, there was a clip with Dr Gerald DeGroot in it.
4. Guard at the building where Carl was being held was reading “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking.
5. Did you notice the Widmore items, also?? Check the screen shot.
6. Did you see the Oceanic airplane fly past Rachel’s window in Miami?
7. I’m beginning to wonder if Hanso has “recruiters” working on the outside to get people to the island, then maybe the Losties plane (Oceanic 815) was supposed to land somewhere on the island, but crashed when Desmond didn’t push the button. I know, we haven’t seen a landing strip that long, but I’m just putting it out there for you to ponder. So start pondering.

I was very happy with this episode, and look forward to the next 15 uninterrupted episodes!!!

It’s so nice to be back! ;-)

Have a good day.

*joe

Check out some great screen shots here:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php
Look under the INVESTIGATIONS link on the left side, and then select Season 3.