Summary: In flashbacks, Juliet meets with Richard and Ethan who take her to the island in the sub. Once on the island she meets Ben and is tasked with solving the problem of women dying in labour on the island, but she is unsuccessful. Juliet wants to leave, but Ben forces her on the island by promising to heal her sister whose cancer has returned. Juliet agrees to the deal. Later when Ben finds out he has cancer, Juliet angrily accuses him of lying. Ben shows her a video of Rachel and her new son to calm her down. In the present, Jack protects Juliet from any interrogation. When the group returns to camp, everyone is less than pleased about Juliet. However, Claire suddenly gets sick and Juliet reveals that it has to do with the medications Ethan was giving her. She retrieves some of Ethan's supplies and saves Claire, earning some trust. However, it's revealed that the whole thing was planned by Ben because he wants to have somebody in the survivors' camp.
The Good: Juliet's story is really well done. We get to see her transformation in full by comparing the early flashback Juliet to the current Juliet on the island. The difference is huge, and it's great to finally see what it was that led to her becoming so cold. We learn that Ben essentially held her hostage on the island for 3 years, simply not allowing her to leave and seemingly emotionally manipulating her the entire time (see: The Unknown). And in all that time, she was operating on patients who were continuously dying, and with nobody close to talk to about her feelings, it led to her becoming closed off emotionally. What helps the story even more is how easy it is to sympathize with Juliet. We know that her heart isn't into staying on the island and there is never a moment in the flashbacks where we don't know what she wants. It's clear that she just wants to leave the island, and that makes her no different from any of the survivors on the beach in that her main goal is to return to the life she had before coming to the island. From a plot perspective, this was really well done as well. We get to see that Juliet was always tightly involved in the others society, and there will presumably be answers on the way now that she's infiltrated the camp. We already get some good answers about why Ethan kidnapped Claire, why she was important and why the others did experiments on pregnancy. We're slowly getting a more fully formed view of how this society works and I'm excited to see more of it. One of the most interesting aspects was Richard, who seemed to have spent a lot of time off the island, possibly as some sort of recruiter. I'm very interested to learn more about him. The island storyline is very well done. Juliet's arrival in the camp shakes things up as expected, and for once I think that everyone's reactions are explored fittingly, since it's obvious that the survivors would not be at all comfortable with one of the others joining their camp. Moments like Hurley being sent against his will to keep an eye on her and Sayid immediately trying to interrogate her make perfect sense. I was also very pleased with Sayid and Sawyer choosing to follow her since they naturally did not trust her at all. That allowed for a great confrontation which pleasingly allowed Juliet's character to shine as we got to see how she approached the problem of Sawyer and Sayid not wanting to trust her with anything. The twist at the end of the episode was very effective. Juliet is there as a spy, and it's her job to get people to trust her. She already succeeded with Jack and so she has infiltrated the camp and will likely be feeding information to Ben. But the intrigue comes in when you consider that Juliet wouldn't have any reason to stay loyal to Ben and it's possible that she changes sides to the survivors. I'm really excited by this storyline and I can't wait to see where it goes. The Bad: Nothing I'll call bad. This was a very consistent episode. The Unknown: Apparently Jacob himself was going to cure Rachel. Who is Jacob? Can he leave the island? Is he on the island? The others seem to worship him. Is he some kind of deity or a grand leader of some sort? It seems like Juliet was converted to whatever belief system the others have which is very interesting. Did Rachel actually have cancer or did Ben just make that up? I wouldn't put it past him to manipulate Juliet like that to get her to stay. But if he did actually cure her cancer, it raises some important questions. How did he do that? Can Jacob cure cancer? Why did Ben get cancer then if he can cure it? Why can't women give birth on the island? Is it something to do with conception that's the problem? If so, why was Claire successful? What does it mean for Sun since she got pregnant on the island? Is she going to die or can Juliet somehow save her? Why are the others so concerned with solving this issue? Are they scientists? What's the point of all these experiments? Why did Ben send Juliet as a spy? What are his plans for the survivors camp? Best Moment: Ben showing the video of Rachel to Juliet was heartbreaking stuff. Juliet has been isolated for so long that she is hardly even herself anymore. But with the slightest glimpse of home, she immediately falls back into the timid, emotional woman she was before, a desperate plea to anyone that is around that she wants to go home. But nobody listens, and when Ben shuts the TV off, Juliet is thrown back into her unfortunate reality. It's a fantastic moment that perfectly captures the emotion of Juliet's storyline. Character of the Episode: Juliet. Conclusion: This was an immensely satisfying episode to watch, one that gave us lots of answers about the others through Juliet's flashbacks while still managing a spectacular character journey showing us how Juliet went from the timid and nervous woman to an emotionally detached and ruthless woman. It's a welcome episode to get after the story was essentially put on hold for 2 whole episodes. Score: 75
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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