Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Lost - "The Other Woman"

Episode Title: “The Other Woman”


Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Upon first glance, this week’s episode title seems quite literal. After all, it’s a Juliet-centric outing, and she is in fact the Other woman – meaning she is a female, and she is an “Other”. In fact, she’s the only female Other among Team Rescue or Team Island. Given the Freightors reaction to learning that Juliet was not on Oceanic Flight 815, it would make sense that they might even refer to her as “the Other woman” (although, I’m not sure that the Freightors would call the non-Survivors “Others”, since they probably know precisely who they are).

On the other hand, the phrase “the other woman” carries another connotation that could easily apply to Juliet – that of someone who is the third wheel in a relationship. Again, this could easily apply to our girl Juliet (who, I have to say, has been looking hotter these past few episodes than ever!) in relation to her role in the love triangle along with Jack and Kate. Unfortunately, since Kate is currently with Team Island (although maybe on her way back to Team Rescue after getting the boot from Locke), it’s unlikely that we would have a Kate-Juliet catfight (drool) over our boy Jack this week, so that doesn’t really fit either.

So, the only possible explanation for the title in our current on-Island action would be if another Other woman appeared, perhaps coming back from the Temple (where Alpert and the other Others were headed when we last saw them) to deliver some sort of message / assist Ben / murder some Freightors. While I would excitedly welcome the return of some Others, in hopes that it would mean the return of Alpert or possibly the explanation of why they don’t age, given all the current action on the show, on multiple fronts, introducing another character and storyline might make our brains explode.

However, there is another, much easier explanation for the title. As you’ll see when we get to the ABC description below, this looks to be the first episode of the fourth season of Lost to be a traditional flashback of a main character on the show. Based on the guest stars, it’s looking like this flashback will take place on-Island, before Juliet met any of our Survivors (or maybe even before Oceanic Flight 815 crashed). In this timeframe, the second possibility becomes much more likely – that Juliet is “the other woman” in some sort of relationship.

Think about it – given the limited number of Others on the Island, it had to be pretty slim pickings when it came time to ask someone to Other Prom or to go to Other Makeout Point. Suddenly Ben brings semi-hottie Juliet to the Island and she’s like the hot foreign exchange student that shows up Senior Year. Remember, we did see that she was pretty hot and heavy with Goodwin during her flashback last season. But who’s to say that she didn’t do a little home-wrecking to get him in the sack? Or that Goodwin didn’t ditch his longstanding girlfriend / wife for Juliet once she arrived? Either way, this would create some good tension between Juliet and this “other woman”, and help lead to Juliet becoming something of an “outsider” among the Others – in addition to her radical thoughts about free will still existing on the Island.

Photobucket

I’m also reminded of some of the comments between Ben and Juliet last season – when people thought they might be dating, or used to be dating, or something along those lines. Maybe the introduction of Juliet to the Others’ community led to some home-wrecking that affected Ben directly? Did she “date” Ben before settling with Goodwin? Did she go lesbian and steal Annie away from Ben? Neither one seems likely – but it’s a thought…


ABC Description: Juliet receives an unwelcome visit from someone from her past and is given orders to track down Charlotte and Faraday in order to stop them from completing their mission -- by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Ben offers Locke an enticing deal. Guest starring are Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Andrea Roth as Harper, M.C. Gainey as Mr. Friendly/Tom and Brett Cullen as Goodwin.


Widmore. Let’s play a quick game – which guest star does not belong? Charlotte? No. Faraday? No. Widmore? No. Goodwin? No. WAIT A MINUTE, DID YOU SAY WIDMORE?!?!

This could be huge.

Photobucket

Assuming this really is an on-Island flashback featuring Juliet, and based on the list of guest stars – it pretty much has to be, unless we’ve got Others coming back from the dead, what in the world is Charles Widmore doing there? There are a few possibilities.

The first, least fun, and biggest tease of a guest star ever would be if Widmore was featured in a brief image inside Jacob’s cabin, a la Christian Shepherd in the Hurley-centric season premiere. Remember how people were freaking out about that and assuming it meant he was alive and on the Island? What if we’re getting all excited for this and it turns out to be nothing more than the same? It’s Jacob messing with our minds, I tell you!

But would the writers play the same card twice over the course of six episodes? Seems a little redundant to me, so I don’t think it’s likely.

The next option, which would totally throw out my analysis from last week, would be that Widmore is on friendly terms with the Others. He could be the funding that provides the wealth for Ben and Co. to carry out their wacky experiments, paying a visit to see how his investments are paying off. The only problem here is that we really haven’t seen any evidence of the Others continuing the goals of the Dharma Initiative – rather, they just seem focused on making babies and living a peaceful hippie existence.

On the other hand, if we follow the logic of my analysis last week (where Widmore is working to find the Island in an effort to exploit its unique properties and is the funding behind the Freightors), it seems quite likely that Ben would know of Widmore. After all, he had vast knowledge of each of the Freightors (the enemy), so if Widmore is the one behind the enemy, it would make logic that Ben would know even more about him. It doesn’t seem out of the question to have some scene where Ben is researching Widmore in the flashback, and he appears in a video or something along those lines.

It’s not that this scenario isn’t also without its holes (for one, in the flashforward future, Ben didn’t seem to know who “The Economist” was, since he was trying to use Sayid to lure him out of hiding – so that means there must be someone higher than Widmore behind everything) – but it just feels like the most likely, and would confirm my suspicions from last week that I’m greedily really rooting for, since I think it would make for a fantastic storyline.

Either way, the promise of a Charles Widmore appearance this episode should either help prove our prior theories about the role of Widmore in all this… or totally blow them out of the water…


The Rest. As for the other guest stars, once again it’s the ones that are missing that are just as interesting as the ones that are there. The omission of Miles means we probably won’t get any new insight to his mission or powers this week. The lack of Frank means we’re taking a break from the Freighter this week (and with him, Sayid and Desmond). Based on the preview, it looks like we’ll still have some Ben and Locke scenes, but the action looks to be primary focused on Juliet and Team Rescue, and their interactions with Faraday and Charlotte.


Episode Breakdown: Which brings us to the episode breakdown for the week. We actually get TWO sentences this week, instead of the normal brief single sentence we’ve received for most of this season!

First, Juliet receives an “unwelcome visit” from someone in her past to stop the Freightors. Where would this message come from? With Ben under Locke’s captivity, the only logical place for it to come from would be from some other Other… and if it’s “unwelcome”, my money is on this potential “other woman” who Juliet scorned long ago. This would provide a nice tie-in between the current action and the flashback action in the episode, and give Juliet a tough decision to make – trust someone who probably hates her, or risk the lives of everyone on the Island by siding with Jack.

Since this episode was filmed back before Cane was canned, I won’t get my hopes up for the reappearance of Alpert along with this “other woman”, but maybe this is the first step in the eventual reuniting of our Survivors with the Others, and a bounty of explanations about their purpose on the Island.


Mission. Based on the scenes in the episode preview, it looks like Juliet decides to trust the Others and stop the Freightors – since we see Juliet (seemingly) pointing a gun at Faraday and Charlotte, who were both wearing white radiation suits. This makes me wonder – where in the world are Charlotte and Faraday that they would need to wear these suits? The only place that would seem to require such protection would be the Swan Hatch… but that’s imploded – and wherever Chuck and Dan are seems to be very much unploded, with fully functioning computers.

Photobucket

As I said last week, it seems likely that the mission of the Freightors is to disable the electromagnetic shield around the Island and stabilize the hostiles (Others) before calling for the cavalry. Based on the suits, I’d say that they are working on the former. Perhaps they’ve found the electromagnetic core of the Island and they’re ready to key in some sequence to blow the Bubble apart (although, wasn’t the Swan Hatch acting as a “plug” for this force, making that the core?). Puzzling.

The second sentence may very well be a single scene or two in the episode. Again, based on the lack of Miles in this episode, I don’t think we’re going to make a ton of progress on the Team Island storyline, but it does look like Locke will finally cave and accept some of Ben’s “guidance” regarding what his next move should be in his defense of the Island. After a nice six episode run of Locke being the man in total control and charge of Team Island, it looks like he’s slowly giving up some of that power back to Ben. Oh Locke, when will you learn? He shot you like three days ago!

Okay, I think that wraps it up for this week. The mind-blowingness of this episode migh be directly tied to how the Charles Widmore appearance shakes down, but the Juliet-centricity guarantees at the very least we’ll get some more insight into her character and life among the Others – which is something I’ve been wanting for the past two seasons, so I think it’ll be a solid episode.

Happy Losting!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=271.0

25 comments:

Collin said...

Dude, I totally agree... Juliet is wicked hot for a middle-aged chick. I'm glad this was the underlying basis of your post :)

Anonymous said...

funny, i agree with the guy above...but seriously, unless you are right about Daniel becoming dangerous because he now has a constant, i think the survivors should just get faraday alone and be like "wtf is going on??". i really like him since hes the only one EVER to give ANY info about the island...but hopefully its a good episode, im still having trouble getting over last weeks...

Anonymous said...

I think Daniel and Charlotte are in a new hatch! As I remember the blast door map I wonder if we have seen all the hatches it showed...Swan, Arrow, Hydra, Flame and Pearl. Am I missing one? There were 6, I think, around another place with a "?". It´s about time to reveal some new places, don´t you think? And it would be awesome, too...

TheycallmeVic said...

Ahh yes, that Juliet is easy on the eyes, indeed.

Brian I would like to point out that it's possible Widmore very well is the Economist. We know who he is because we're watching the show, but Ben doesn't necessarily know of him. Just throwing that out there, I guess we'll find out in this episode.

And BTW, we might not see Miles for a while, I read he got cast in some other show, or opera, I gotta find that article again...

Anonymous said...

Who is Harper? She must be the other Other that will talk to Juliet.

Anonymous said...

I agree that a new hatch might be shown this episode...I think I remember D&C stating in an interview that a new hatch would be introduced this season!

Anonymous said...

Okay, define MIDDLE-AGED.... (*taps foot*).

Anyway...

BRIAN: here is a completely off topic thing, but I can't see any of the pictures on your site. I think they are photobucket? I'm having this same problem on other sites that use photobucket. Any idea what I can do so I can see the pics?

By the way, I CAN see them when I use my home computer, but I do most of my browsing/reading while I'm at work (SSSHHHHHHHHHH, don't tell my boss!).

Thanks!

Adam said...

What if the "other woman" is Rousseau? Otherwise known as... Annie!

I have a feeling I'm 100% right about this. Which, knowing Lost, probably means I'm 100% wrong.

TheycallmeVic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TheycallmeVic said...

Katie it sounds like your internet browser is blocking photobucket images. If you're using Firefox you can find the setting in Tools, Options, Content.

Guys there's a good interview with 1 of the producers confirming things on The Constant. Read it here:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20182393,00.html

Anonymous said...

***Somewhat spoilerish Hatch info ahead***


















The hatch that we see in this week's episode is called the Tempest ... it is the island's power station. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Damn...Juliet is lookin mighty fine in that bed pic wit Goodwin...anyway how bout the possibility of that person 4rm Juliets past be an island vision like Christian Shepard or somethin of that nature and Juliet feels that she has to do wat this vision says because it wouldn't be showing up if it werent serious...I get the feelin that Juliet has done more bad things in the past than wat we have seen

Anonymous said...

Damn...Juliet is lookin mighty fine in that bed pic wit Goodwin...anyway how bout the possibility of that person 4rm Juliets past be an island vision like Christian Shepard or somethin of that nature and Juliet feels that she has to do wat this vision says because it wouldn't be showing up if it werent serious...I get the feelin that Juliet has done more bad things in the past than wat we have seen

davis said...

Brian, how could you do an entire episode preview but fail to mention the impending Tsunami that will strike the Island probably in this episode.

Oh wait, thats right - that's the worst storyline ever and would never happen.

Anonymous said...

I'm excited for this new character Harper, even if she only appears in this episode - I looked up the actress playing her, Andrea Roth... talk about SMOKIN' HOT! Sure Juliet is wicked hot for a middle-aged chick, but check out Andrea Roth on IMDB. Yowzers! I hope she and Juliet get in some kind of cat fight... over Ben maybe? :-P

Anonymous said...

the thing I'd want to learn is how Juliet, who was a somewhat timid, emotional doctor in Miami, become a more hardened, calus women on the Island? Let's not forget, she blew away one of her fellow Others last season, in cold blood, and never appeared to express any remorse or regret. Learning this would be an intriguing reveal to understand the character and even perhaps the Island better.

Anonymous said...

One additional thought.....let's also not forget that Sawyer told Kate that Juliete would kill them in a second. Sawyer is a good judge of character so far as sizing up sinister people. I recall in the episode he made that comment it was with great certainty. Also, one other factor....her physical altercation with Kate! Juliete held her own very well until her arm snapped out of its' socket I think. What made her into a kick ass women from the meak, mild women back in Miami?

Eric said...

This probably belongs in last weeks episode discussion, but here goes anyway:

Brian has long argued that time passes the same on and off island, and that any distortions (the rocket taking too long) are a result of going through some kind of barrier. For a long time I did not agree, but I think events on the show have confirmed his argument. So those on the helicopter only experienced a flight of 30 minutes, but they arrived on the freighter after a day of time passed (thus Sayid's comment that we left at dusk but arrived mid-afternoon). What would have happened if Sayid had been on the sat phone with Jack during the flight? Would he have heard Jack speaking reeeeeaaaaalllllllyyyy slllooooooowwwwllly? Or just jumped ahead at some point?

Anonymous said...

A totally random thought: With all of LOST's literary tie-ins, I can't help but wonder if the woman named Harper on this episode is intended to suggest Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hmmmmmm...

Anonymous said...

Also, Juliette apparently knows a bit about Smokey after is was shown with her starring it down last season at the security perrimeter to the barraks. Certainly would hope that tonight we will gain good insight into how and why this character transformed from what she appeared to be off Island to the cunning, somewhat ruthless character she now is.

L'wryn said...

any CLUE when we get to see Micahel???

Stef said...

Yeah, I'm guessing Juliet is in her late 30's... far from middle-aged! I agree with everyone above who are curious to see how she transformed from Miami Juliet to the tough Island chick, who's far more interesting than Kate has ever been.

Andrea Roth plays Janet Gavin, Denis Leary's wife/ex-wife on "Rescue Me." She's very good at playing a woman in complicated, self-destructive situations. I hope she gets to really play in this episode, maybe even future episodes, cuz I think she'd be a great equal - either partner or foe - for our Juliet.

Anonymous said...

Juliet is and has always been a beauty! ;)

I was about to shoot down the person who said she was middle aged - I assumed she was about 29-32. But I just checked the actress Elizabeth Mitchell is 38 in 2 weeks time!

So I guess she is pretty much middle aged. Sexy milf!

Anonymous said...

ANDREA ROTH is a smokin hot MILF!!! I just watched Andrea Roth in BRIDAL FEVER and she is gorgeous and her mega watt smile made the movie not to mention her cleavage. So strange to see her made all tough and scary looking with dark hair and scary lighting. What a different character. If I hadn't known she was coming on LOST I would have never recognized her. Check out her photos at IMDB.COM! Hot!!

Anonymous said...

What's up with this system? I apologize if there's 2 comments. Andrea Roth is a hottie! I just watched her gorgeousness on BRIDAL FEVER and her gorgeous mega-watt smile made the movie. Check out the photos at IMDB.com! They had to do a lot of work to make her look scary! Dark hair! Edging lighting. I wouldn't have recognized her had I not been waiting for her to come on LOST.