Lost Watch: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Episode Title: One of Us Air Date: 4/11/2007

Juliet joined the survivors at their camp last night on “Lost,” and her arrival gave loyal viewers a glimpse at trouble brewing down the road.

As predicted, Sayid wanted answers out of Juliet, while Jack protected her from his torture-happy ways.

Turns out Jack was wrong.

The flashbacks were used cleverly on “Lost” last night, a rarity for the show these days. We got to see more of Juliet’s backstory, more about her journey to the island. We got to see why she was motivated to get back home- her sister, who was dying of cancer, has become pregnant because Juliet has discovered a way to make her fertile. But when her cancer returns, Ben promises he can cure it- if Juliet agrees to stay on the island.

And somehow, he keeps his promise.

Last night’s episode also provided much needed hints as to what she was doing working for The Others. She was trying to figure out why women were unable to give birth on the island, why their bodies reject their children if they are conceived there. Turns out Claire was the first person to have a child on the island without dying, and Juliet believes it was because her baby was conceived elsewhere.

Which is probably bad news for Sun.

Claire gets sick after Juliet first arrives, and Juliet tells Jack she can help. She explains that she is sick because way back in Season one, creepy Ethan was injecting her with a drug that would help the baby survive, and that Claire is going through withdrawal from the drug. She tells Jack that Ethan left supplies in the jungle that can save Claire’s life. Though her story makes very little sense, Jack trusts her and lets her help.

Sayid and Sawyer follow her out to the supplies, finally confronting her for the answers that Jack doesn’t seem to need. She shames the former con man and Iraqi interrogator into letting her go so she can help Claire, but it turns out that they might have had a good reason to force information from her.

In the last scene of the episode, Juliet’s flashback take us to right before last week’s episode- to Ben planning how she will manipulate her way into the camp of the survivors, how she will make it look like she has been left behind by The Others along with Jack, Kate, and Sayid. Ben even mentions that the “implant” in Claire has been activated, and that it will make her sick soon…which will give Juliet a crisis to avert and help her gain the trust of the survivors. Though Juliet has a conflicted look on her face, she still agrees to go along with Ben’s plans.

And then he tells her “see you in a week.” Jack needs to stop being such a decent guy and trusting everyone. It's obviously not a policy that is helpful at this point.

One of The Others is in the survivors’ camp, and we don’t know why. Clearly, something bad is coming for our survivors. Is Juliet going to kidnap the pregnant Sun? Will The Others finally make it clear to everyone exactly what they want? Will we find out what Juliet meant when she said “if you knew everything I knew, you’d kill me?” Does her conflicted look she will betray Ben? Did he read everything her face meant and not care?

The episode was a clever precursor to things to come. A few questions were answered and most of Juliet’s true motivations were revealed to us (though it wouldn't be "Lost" if everything became crystal clear) through good use of the flashbacks. And the questions that were not answered were covered up well through Juliet’s refusal to give up too much to Sayid, who at this point is as frustrated with the lack of solid information about The Others as the audience is. Juliet even addressed Jack’s lack of need for questions and asked him why he didn’t need to know more about her. Jack’s unsatisfying answer is that when the submarine blew up three weeks ago, he saw the look on her face, saw that she wanted to get off the island as much as anybody else, and that makes her one of them.

Maybe asking people questions would be a smart habit for Jack to take up. If he was a bit more curious about her, then he might not be leading everyone into trouble as quickly as he has been.

The last few episodes have felt like a slow climb before the big drop on a roller coaster, and it seems like we are close to the top. Like any good rollercoaster, “Lost” will probably follow the rule that the slower the climb up, the faster and steeper the drop down. Hold on tight, because it’s gonna be quite a ride.