TV Review

Juliet(Mitchell) and Jack (Fox) in LOST:The Other Woman(2008).
© ABC

Mania Grade: B
Series: Lost
Episode: The Other Woman
Starring: Elizabeth Mitchell, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Michael Emmerson,
Written By: Christina M. Kim, Drew Goddard
Directed By: Eric Laneuville
Network: ABC

LOST: The Other Woman

By: Stephen Lackey
Date: Sunday, March 09, 2008

Juliet is one of the few newer character added to LOST that fans actually cared about. Other than her being attractive, she has more depth than most of the other newer characters and her personality is unpredictable and intriguing. There’s always the question about whether she will do the right thing in general or the right thing for her. This week, with the Juliet flashback we learn more about her and many of her decisions up to now also make more sense. Sure she wanted to leave the island and that’s the main reason she has done what she has but she also knows full well what would happen to those she cared about if she didn’t do as Ben asked of her. We also get even darker shades to Ben and to my eye we get a definitive look at the true chink in Ben’s armor, his one weakness.

At first seeing Juliet settling in to her new home on the island as part of Ben’s group did not excite me. Then when I saw that Juliet was making it with married man Goodwin, I was even less interested. What rescued the flashback was Ben. We’ve known for a while that Ben had a thing for Juliet but now we see that he was actually much more aggressive with her than we were previously led to believe. I thought Ben was about as creepy as he could be but I was wrong for sure. Juliet got introduced first hand to just how evil Ben could be so her secrecy and her unending obedience to Ben all feels exactly right after this reveal. This evolution of the story arc is a perfect example of what makes LOST such a great show. This isn’t just a clever twist in the story, it’s a precise deepening of a character that has been purposefully mysterious since her first appearance on the show. The one question I was left with is the throw away line from one of the others; “she looks just like her” in reference to Juliet. Who is the “her” anyway?

In current time, I was happy to finally see one of the Others reappear on the show. I’ve been wondering for a long time what happened to the rest of Ben’s people. The one that appears tells Juliet that she must go to a facility at the center of the island and stop Dan and Charlotte from releasing gas onto the island that would kill everyone. Juliet asks the obvious question “why me, why don’t one of you go?”. The reply seemed a bit weird to me. The answer was something like “Ben wants you to go”. So, how do they know that Ben wants her to go? How do they know what Dan and Charlotte are up too? This exchange just felt awkward and it’ll continue to feel that way until later when it’s explained in a future episode. The most interesting part comes when Juliet asks how Ben can do anything when he’s a captive. The response to that question is vague and exciting and well predictable; Ben is right where he wants to be. We’ve gathered that for a while but this episode finally sees Ben stepping into action. He reveals to Locke that Penny’s father is the owner of the freighter and that he wants to exploit the island and its current inhabitants for personal financial gain. Obviously, Ben has only revealed a half truth here, but the repercussions of that half truth are fascinating. It seems that Penny and her father are working against each other. Could her father be doing it simply to keep Penny away from Desmond? I don’t think that’s all he’s up to, but he probably isn’t too unhappy if that happens along with whatever his other plan might be.

While this episode did feature some exhilarating moments, overall I have to say it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped it would be when I heard this was going to be a Juliet story. I didn’t like all of this new soap opera stuff with Goodwin but it was a proper tool to make us all hate Ben even more than we already did. With that said, it was a solid entry in a stellar season of one of the best shows on television. The closing moment this week wasn’t a surprise twist like in previous installments, it was just simply hilarious. Ben is one evil and manipulative dude and he’s a real pleasure to watch. Maybe Sawyer will go beat him up some more now that he’s out. I think it’s high time someone challenges Locke’s authority in the barracks. Are people really just scared of him?

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Comments/Responses

dante83 • Mar 08, 2008, 10:48pm •

this season has probably been the best season I've seen in a while. Has anyone figured out who Ben's inside man? It struck me in the final moments before the teaser for next week...anyone have their theories?

mlaforcer • Mar 08, 2008, 10:59pm •

Dante...A few others along with me think it is Michael...The producers have mentioned he would be back and I think this is where they re-introduce him...

mckracken • Mar 08, 2008, 11:28pm •

I think Michael is a no-brainer as the inside man but theres got to be more to it than that, why else would Locke let him roam around the barracks as a free man like that all of a sudden? why didnt Sawyer and Hurley try to stop Ben when they saw him?
I think that Sawyer and Hurley and the other Lost-a-ways are going to get fed up with this King-Locke Rules Supreme shit that he keeps pulling...there might be some major defections or a coup inside Camp Locke.
I do think he's pulling the King tyrant crap a bit too thick...and Ben is right, they will catch on that he really doesnt have a master plan at all.

Hobbs • Mar 09, 2008, 07:35am •

We were eventually going to have a so-so episode after so many great ones. I thought this was a wasted episode actually. The flashback was clever to start out with because it was posed as a possible flash ahead preview but tricked us at the last moment. I thought the flash back points could have been made without actually spending an entire episode on it. Ben was pshyco over Juilet, so what. Did we need to spend an entire episode flashback to make that point?

I was bothered by the fact that shrink lady disappears right in front of jack and he doesn't think WTF? Jack ask the question "why" more then a child does so you think he would have been grilling Juilet about that magic trick.

With so few episodes left in the entire show I thought there could have been more in this one. Yeah, there were interesting things like the place where the gas is released, Ben is really evil (which we already knew), yadda, yadda, yadda. Overall I think the "B" rating is high. I would have given it a "C" but overall the show still rocks.

hanso • Mar 09, 2008, 07:56am •

I thought this episode was blah. Juliet is having an affair with a married Other?...Who cares!
Juliet frolockin around with Goodwin in secrecy was a wasted flasback in my opinion unless they bring back Goodwin's wife Harper(the whispering teleporter) for a couple of more episodes and a payoff of some sort at later episode. I guess I could've done with something more interesting in Juliet's story than she being "the Other woman". Plus we already knew Ben had a thing for Juliet and we already know Ben is frackin insane, I didn't need to seem him send out Goodwin in hopes of getting him killed to prove that. The fact that he was the man responsible for the Purge, the death of his father, etc etc had done that already.

The thing I liked about this episode was a sort of confirmation(if you believe Ben) that Charles Widmore is indeed one of the main players in terms of being a villain of this show. It seems failry obvious that a powerful man or group are behind placing a fake Oceanic 815 in the bottom of the ocean and Widmore fits that description. By having people stop searching for 815 it keeps the Island from being found and Widmore can keep doing what he's doing. We had learned the previous episode that Widmore was interested in the island by that scene of him buying the diary of the black rock's captain.

Also, that throw away line you are talking about "you remind him of her" I believe that there are 2 possible answers. First, Juliet might remind Ben of his mother. If I'm not mistaken she was a white blonde chick and little Ben saw his dead mother running around the island, maybe he kept seeing her through out his life. But since he wants to sleep with Juliet it would be pretty creepy that Ben wants to screw his mom and for that reason the person I lean to Juliet reminding Ben of is......Annie! Was Annie her name? Not a hundred percent sure, anyway she was that little girl that was Ben's friend, you know the one that gave him those wooden dolls for his birthday. I don't think she died at the Purge so I'm picking Annie, who I'm sure turned out to be Ben's lover, wife or whatever and probably died as a result of being pregnant which led to Ben kidnapping Alex, as the person that JUliet reminds Ben of.

The spy in the freighter is/has to be Michael. "A face from the past you thought you'd never see again." i believe was the quote from the ad of the next episode of Lost. So it seems it will be Michael and he's probably assumed a new identity. The people flying in Oceanic 815 were confirmed dead, meaning Michael couldn't assume his idendity once he made it to the real world. Ben probably gave him one of his fake passports in exchange for his services :)
I have a question for you guys. I've been thinking about the Desmond episode and how you could get side effects if you came to the island and didn't follow an exact coordinate to get in. Why don't the castaways exhibit any effects? and Do you think the Sickness that killed Danielle's crew is actually the side effects of entering the island the wrong way?

chocobar • Mar 09, 2008, 10:19am •

Hanso,
If I'm remembering this correctly, the side effects are a result of being exposed to a large dose of electro radiation, or something along those lines. Desmond was exposed when the hatch imploded and when he pressed the shiny button, Dan was exposed to little bits of radiation over time during his experiments over the last 10 years. I think Dan mentions this at some point in the episode. Or maybe the doctor on the freighter.

hanso • Mar 09, 2008, 10:56am •

chocobar,
You are correct sir. I had forgoten about being exposed to electromagnetism or radiation. Thus, why Sayid and Frank don't display any symptoms. Thanks.

joeybaloney • Mar 09, 2008, 11:19am •

Stephen � nice work getting this out over the weekend. Thanks!
Personally I thought this was a pretty solid episode. Not the best this season but I thought it went a long way in further explaining Juliet�s motivations and also provided some great moments both in terms of characters and moving the story along (though obviously not that far along. This is Lost after all).
Ben had the two best lines of the night. When he was showing Juliet Goodwin�s body and exclaimed, �You�re mine!� beat �Take as much time as you need.� And then at the end blowing off Sawyer and Hurly�s WTF looks with �See you guys at dinner.� Beautiful Ben stuff.
Yeah. This was more soap-opera-ish then other flashbacks but I thought it was all interesting Other background. A freakin� psychologist for Others? Goodwin being married caught me totally off guard. There is such a mythical/paranormal mystique surrounding them but this episode again just makes them seem like normal everyday fucked up people. And then Richard Eyeliner doesn�t age a day in 40 years. That kind of juxtaposition fascinates me and I�ll take these little reveals with pleasure until we get to the final season and the big picture. The flashbacks/forwards can�t all be Desmond time hopping. Though of course, that�s a bigger draw for me too. I don�t mind these so-so episodes one in a while.
I was totally tricked at the beginning too, Hobbs. When Juliet was complaining about the celebrity bit the whole room with me was like �Holy fuck! She�s one of the Oceanic Six?!?!� That was brilliant. Anyone know if Aaron is considered one of them or do we still have two to be revealed?
Locke used to be my man but this season he�s kinda pissing me off.
With regards to the side effects you�re right chocobar. Faraday has said people suffer from them if they�ve been exposed to large doses of radiation OR electromagnetism. I wonder if that, in any way, plays into Charlie appearing to Hurly back in the states. He, Desmond, Lock and Eko were in the hatch when it imploded. Charlie�s dead, and said as much, but could his essence or soul be traveling all over the place? �I am dead. But I�m also here.� I�m probably talking out my ass here. Just wild speculation. Could pave the way for a return of Eko though (who should play BA in the A-Team movie).
Juliet may remind Ben of both Annie and his mother. She does look like mommy a bit. We haven�t seen what an adult Annie looks like yet but they say you marry your mother don�t they.
Regarding Michael as Ben�s spy. He does seem the most obvious choice and I�ll kinda be let down if it is in fact him because of that. That said and in response to hanso�s thoughts on him using an alias:
**Potential Spoiler** - I never ever read stuff about upcoming episodes cuz I really enjoy the ride each episode is but a jackass friend of mine sent me a link I read. The episode where Ben�s man is revealed is entitled �Meet Kevin Johnson� and will supposedly air on 3/20. ** End O�Spoiler**

mbeckham1 • Mar 09, 2008, 12:36pm •

Actually, I had the opposit thought about Charles Widmore and Desmond. I was thinking that perhaps he saw the future or had contact with one of the unstuck pepole, and has been using that future knowledge.

He knew coming between Des and Penny would set Des on the path, and getting him out of prison would keep him on that path. he may have even arranged Des getting the boat to go on the race.

So he's using Des to test the island and expose its secretes. Maybe Des is Charles's constant.

hanso • Mar 09, 2008, 01:23pm •

Joeybaloney,

I agree, those lines you mentioned about Ben were sweet. I also enjoyed the "it's stressful being an Other" line Juliet gave Jack when he asked about them having psychiatrist.

*****spoiler*****
thanks for that spoiler, guess now it's really official ist's mIchael.

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LOST: The Other Woman

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