Lost, Season 3, Episode 9, “Stranger in a Strange Land”

Okay, sometimes it happens. Once or twice out of 22 episodes a year, we get that’s just kinda so-so. Last night’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” was one of those times. The episode moved. Kind. Of. Slow. And I’m not sure what the three big questions are that were answered. Yeah, we find out what happened to the kids and the other tailies. Yeah we find out about Jack’s tattoos. But, what was the third thing? Hmmmmm….

Anyway, the episode title is also the title of a song by heavy metal rockers Iron Maiden, it’s the body of a caveman found buried in the ice. Not sure that has anything to do with this ep other than something being out of place. It’s also a book by Robert Heinlein, better known for his “Starship Troopers” book that was subsequently made into a (really great!) movie. That book is about a human being that has been raised by Marians and eventually being returned to Earth and his eventual re-intergration with humans.

On with the show….

Jack: We learn about Jack’s stay in Phuket, Thailand, and the eventual tattoos. The girl he meets, Achara, tells him of her “gift”, and eventually Jack finds out she can “see who people are”, and she “marks them”. Not sure exactly what she means by she can see who people are, unless it’s a reference to her being psychic. In any case, after “seeing” Jack for who he is (“You are a leader, a great man. This makes you lonely, frightened and angry”), she puts the tattoo on him. She tells him that receiving the mark will have consequences, to which Jack replies “there always are”. After getting the tattoo, the boy who was friendly Jack on the beach (and sold him soda) now ran from Jack, even though the tattoo was not visible to the boy…it’s like he knew. Then Jack was beaten up by 4 guys (NOTE: 4 is one of the numbers) on the beach as Achara watches from afar. Jack is told to leave the beach and leave the country. It’s as though he’s a Stranger in a Strange Land. (funny that this takes place in Thailand although the tattoo is in Chinese). On the island, Jack is put into the same cage Sawyer was in, which he probably couldn’t stand knowing that Sawyer and Kate had bumped-uglies in there. In reference to Jack and Achara, you think they practiced safe sex, or did Jack just say “Phuket”? ha ha!

Karl: Still in the boat heading to their island with Kate and Sawyer. Hearing Kate and Sawyer arguing about where to put the boat ashore, he tells them to stop fighting, and that “God loves you like he loves Jacob”. The name Jacob has had a couple of showings this season: two episodes ago the name Jacob was part of the brainwashing video that Karl was being forced to watch; and, as you may remember during the first half of this season, there was mention of a “Jacob’s List”, but we have yet to find out about this list. After getting ashore with the boat, Kate, Sawyer and Karl set up camp, but Karl takes off on his own, and while crying in the jungle (“I thought you people were supposed to be tough?”) tells him to go back after Alex (whom Sawyer calls “Sally Slingshot”!!! ha ha!), the girl he loves and likes to name stars with. Remember, Karl told Kate and Sawyer about how he would lay in the backyard with Alex and name constellations, pointing one out to them he called “Ursa Theodorus”. In our own sky, there are two “Ursa” constellations, the Ursa Minor (aka Little Dipper) and the Ursa Major (Big Dipper). “Ursa” means BEAR, so I’m thinking Ursa Theodorus would mean Teddy Bear. Which, we do see one of the kids in the episode holding the teddy bear. Karl thinks he’ll be killed if he goes back, but leaves the company of Sawyer. He tells Kate and Sawyer that Alcatraz Island is where they work, not where they live, and that they give the kids a better life. (Goodwin also mentioned giving the kids a better life. What does this mean? How can life for the kids be better? They don’t even know of the Brady Bunch…)

Kate: Wants to go back to get Jack, but Sawyer does not give in. Her relationship with Sawyer is strained, as they are arguing most of the boat trip back to their island. She is rejected by Sawyer when he says he knows she only hooked up with him in the cage because “you knew I was a dead man”. Kate is upset, but carries on. She is pissed that he let Karl go, though.

Sawyer: Funny reference to the movie “Jaws” as Sawyer, Kate and Karl were leaving the Others island and on the way to the Losties island: Sawyer singing the same song that the fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) was singing right before the shark attacked the boat, “Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I wanna go to bed, had a little drink about an hour ago, and it’s gone right to my head…”. I was half expecting the Dharma Shark to attack them! It’s gotta be fun to write Sawyer’s part, mostly for the funny lines they give this smart-ass. Examples: Kate wants to turn the boat around and go back for Jack, to which Sawyer says “What do you think Captain Bunnykiller (Ben) would do to us?” (Karl replies: “Kill you.”) Also, Sawyer referring to Alex as “Sally Slingshot”. Great one!! When Kate suggests they sail the boat around the island until they find their camp, he says “You got a map you ain’t showin’ me, Magellen?” The funniest line he’s ever uttered, in my opinion, was when Karl told Sawyer and Kate that they (the Others) work on ‘projects’, Sawyer says, “Like the steal-the-kid-off-the-raft project?” ha ha! Also, when Karl told Sawyer about laying in the backyard naming constellations, he says “You have backyards?” ha ha!

Juliet: Being tried by the ‘sheriff’ for her shooting of Tom Pickett, and this is being viewed by the Others. Jack lies to the person called the sheriff when she asks Jack if Juliet said she wanted Ben dead, when Jack finds out that Juliet will probably be killed for the murder, he enlists the help of Ben to save her. When Ben commutes the death sentence, Juliet is marked (just like Jack was ‘marked’) with a weird upside-down starburst burn on her lower back. Like Jack, Juliet is now a ‘stranger in a strange land’. This may put her on the outside of the Others, and maybe be the door that puts her in with the Losties?

Isabel: ‘The Sheriff. This is a new character, apparently responsible for the discipline on the island, because as we heard, they (the Others) don’t like when they kill one another. She does not look happy when Ben commute’s Juliet’s sentence, but follows-through on it. She was also able to read the Chinese of Jack’s tattoos, telling him the meaning: “He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us”, to which Jack replies “that’s what it says, but that’s not what it means.” I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of her.

Cindy: The stewardess who served Jack his drinks on the plane flight, and disappeared when the Tailies were heading through the jungle with Sawyer in the stretcher going to the Losties camp. Now she’s back, and so are the kids. When Jack was in the cage, and Cindy came to talk to Jack, she said they were there to “just watch”. Watch what? And who were the other people with her and the kids? My guess is the other plane passengers who had been ‘taken’ during the night. I’m thinking they’ve all been brainwashed by this point, and are part of the Others village now. When Jack asks her “what are you doing with them?”, she replies “they’re not…ummm….it’s complicated….” What’s complicated? Are they “Watchers” now? What do they watch? Why do they watch?

The Kids: I remember Zack and Emma mostly, because they were the ones that Ana Lucia helped, which is why they asked Cindy to ask Jack how Ana Lucia was doing (they don’t know she’s dead). Spooky seeing the teddy bear again.

Ethan Rom: We find out that he was the surgeon/doctor on the island. Now he’s gone, and they only have Jack? Wonder how long he’ll cooperate with them….

Rousseau: We haven’t seen her in a while, but I’m wondering: In season 1, she said that The Others took her child Alex. We now hear that Ben is Alex’s father. So, if Ben and Rousseau are the parents of Alex, and Rousseau is not “in” with the Others now, I wonder if she too had been “marked” (like Juliet) for something she did against the Others, and was kicked out of the Others group?

Walt/Michael: Where are they? What happened to them?

Preview for next week: I think I saw Vincent…….

Until next week,

Namaste.

*joe

Cool LOST sites with screenshots and info:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php

http://darkufo.blogspot.com/