LOST: The Other Woman [RECAP]

Welcome Home, Juliet

The episode starts with a shot of someone combing out the sand in a miniature Zen garden.  It's Juliet, sitting on a couch in what looks like it could be her office.  There are diplomas on the wall, and a desk.  A woman enters the room.  She introduces herself as "Dr. Harper Stanhope," and apologizes for the nature of the meeting.

"I don't think I need therapy," Juliet says, and it becomes clear she's not in her office, but rather Dr. Stanhope's.  "How about we call it talking instead." "I've only been here a week." "What's your least favorite part so far."

"I don't like being treated like a celebrity, I don't like being the center of attention." Could it be that Juliet is one of the Oceanic Six?  Or somehow related?

"You feel isoltead, alone, maybe you feel that all eyes are on you?" "I'm not a celebrity, I'm no different than anyone else here."

And then a familiar face opens the door, It's Tom, aka Mr. Friendly.  In the background we can see the familiar paneling of the Others' barracks huts.  We realize that this is Juliet's flashback.  "Ben would like to see you, Doc," he says to Juliet.  "Welcome to the island."

She heads out the door towards Ben, who's standing on the porch of a house, with a bouquet of flowers in hand.  "Welcome to your humble abode."  She's surprised by this.  "This is amazing, I'm only going to be here for six months."

Ben, sort of smirks, and counters, "Yeah, right, of course.  But we want you to feel at home."

Goodwin's Return

Later, we find Juliet sitting on the floor in her lab, crying.  Suddenly she hears someone rummaging around in the storage section.  She investigates.  It's another familiar face, this time Goodwin, the Other who infiltrated the tail section survivors.  He's suffered a nasty burn on his arm, and is looking for gauze.

She treats him, and they make some small talk.  She's lost one of her patients, Henrietta.  "No one expects you to fix it overnight," Goodwin tells her.  Talk turns to her therapist.  "Harper hates me.  We talk because we have to.  I get the feeling she's a mean and spiteful person."

"She's my wife."  Juliet has that look and quickly apoogizes.  "I know this place can wear on you, if you need to talk I'm around."  "If you promise not to tell your wife what I said, I won't tell anyone how you got that burn.  I know a chemical burn when I see it."

"Deal, by the way, I'm Goodwin."

Busted!

Ben and Juliet are in her house(?), discussing some of the results from her work.  About immune system problems.  Goodwin comes in, and is surprised to find Ben there.  He's come to offer Juliet a sandwich (the beginning of the sandwich thing! aha!) and it's clear from Ben's reaction that he gets what's going on, and is jealous.

Juliet heads off for her appointment with Harper.  "What do you think of Ben?" "He's great.  Smart, interesting, challenging, he's been good to me."  "I'm not surprised, you look just like her."  Juliet pauses, and starts to ask Harper what she means, but is preempted.

"I see you and my husband have become friendly."  Juliet is visibly uncomfortable at the change in subject.  "He's been helpful," she tells Harper.

"Juliet, I'm not an idiot.  When did it start?"  "I'm not doing this!" "I followed you, watched  you."  "I'm sorry."  "It doesn't matter anymore.  If you continue, there will be consequences."

"I don't want him to get hurt.  I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about Ben."

Here to Eternity

Juliet gets up out of the water, and goes to Goodwin who's lying on the beach.  He pours a glass of wine for the both of them, its obviously not DHARMA issue.  "I swiped this off the sub," he mentions.

"I wish we could do this all the time, I hate that we have to be so private."  "What's the matter with being private?"  "Why don't we tell them?" "I don't think its a good idea.  Ben wouldn't like it."

"You're worried about Ben?  Why?" (cue the spooky music)  "Because he has a crush on you.  He follows you around like a puppy."

Goodwin tells her about his latest work, about a gas storage tank, and how he could kill everyone with a flip of the wrong switch.  "The last thing he cares about is you and me."

Switch gears now to the most-rehashed moment in LOST history, the image of Oceanic 815 breaking up over the Others' barracks.  We're witness to the same replay, where Ben orders Goodwin off towards the tail section.

This time though, its clear why Goodwin is the one sent off, and we also see that Juliet knows.  And in the background, Harper looks on with a face that defies explanation.  Is it fear for Goodwin?  Hate for Juliet? What, exactly?

The Dinner Party

Juliet knocks on Ben's door and enters.  "Hi! Come on in!" Ben is acting like, well, very *un*-Ben like to be honest.  She's been duped into a dinner date, judging from the candles and table settings.  Talk turns to the children from the tail section ("Who are we to question who's on the list?"), and how Goodwin is trying to possibly recruit Ana Lucia. 

"Goodwin stays where he is, there's no reason for him to hurry back, right?" He says with a more Ben-like tone of voice.  "His assignment will be over soon."

You're Mine

Once again, Juliet is in her lab, this time going over some paperwork.  Ben arrives.  "What are you reading?"

"Shepard's file.  Mikhail dropped it off.  He's a spinal surgeon, he can help you."  Ben doesn't seem to care.  "I thought you'd be more excited.  What's wrong."  "I need you to come with me."

They hike out into the boonies, and soon....  "I'm sorry, Juliet."

There's Goodwin's body, still impaled on the stake where Ana Lucia left him.  "I assume they found out he wasn't one of them.  I guess I should have listened to you."

"Why are you showing me this, why me instead of his wife?  You knew this would happen!"

He has a look on his face like, "Yeah of course I knew!"  "Why? You're asking me why?  After everything I've done to get you here, to keep you here, how could you not understand."

"That you're mine!"  And he looks a little regretful at that outburst.  "Take as much time as you need." And he turns and walks away.

Whispers

Meanwhile, back on the beach (yay! I get to say that again!) Juliet is trying to put up a piece of one of the shelters.  Sun helps her out.  "Why are you going to all this trouble when we're going to be leaving?"

Jack enters the picture.  Faraday and Charlotte have disappeared, along with all their stuff.  Jin starts ranting on in Korean, and with Sun's translation, we learn that the two have taken off into the jungle.  "Why didn't you tell anyone?" "I thought they were are friends."  "Aren't they?"

Jack and Juliet take up torches and head off after them.  I think Jin and Sun did also, but that's the last we saw of them.  It starts pouring down rain in typical jungle fashion.  Jack and Juliet split up, and suddenly she starts hearing the whispers from the trees.  She turns around.

It's Harper.  "I came to deliver a message from Ben.  The two you're looking for are heading for the Tempest.  If they figure out how to deploy the gas, then everybody on the island is going to die."  "Why don't you stop them."  "Ben wants you to do it."  "How am I supposed to stop them?"  "By pointing that gun and pulling the trigger."

Jack finds them, and draws his gun on Harper.  She seems to be indifferent.  "Maybe you and your gun can go too."  The whispers return, and Jack seems to hear them, also.  They turn back to find Harper gone again.

"The Tempest?" Jack asks Juliet.  "It's safer for you if I don't talk about it."  But she does anyway.  "It's an electrical station that powers the island." "If there's something you need to tell me, now's the time."

She gets serious, and asks Jack to help her.  Jack relucantly agrees, and they continue on.

Kate's Return

Faraday and Charlotte have stopped for a moment by the creek, presumably to get their bearings.  "What happens if I... if I can't do it?" Daniel asks Charlotte.  "I know you can do this.  We should get going."  Just then Kate stumbles out of the brush, and startle the two of them.  Kate and Charlotte have already met, of course.

"So they have Miles?" "He's fine. What are you doing out here?"  Charlotte makes up a story about the phone being dead, but Kate sees it poking out of the bag, with the green light on.

"What's that in the bag? Mind if I take a look?"  "Go ahead, show her."  Faraday opens it up to reveal the cache of gas-masks.  "What's this?"

And Kate takes a pipe to the back of the head.

"Something's wrong, we should have caught up to them!"  Juliet remarks as she and Jack arrive at the creek.  They find Kate, who is half conscious at this point.  Juliet looks at Jack tending to Kate, with a bit of jealousy I think.  "I'll go get some water," and she leaves.

Kate tells Jack where they've gone to.  "Juliet!" he yells, but nothing.

The two of them try to trail Juliet.  Kate tells Jack why she stayed with Locke, to find out if they knew about her past.  "We should get moving."

The Tempest

Juliet arrives at the Tempest station.  It looks like a large bunker built into the top of a hill.  The main panel appears to be busted out, whether due to age or sabotage we can't say.  She opens the door with the manual release, and enters with gun drawn.

The inside is your typical DHARMA decor.  Greenish concrete walls, with the familiar flickering fluorescent lamps.  Red lights are flashing, and an alarm is going off.  "Warning! Test Unauthorized! Switch to Manual operations!"

She enters the control room on a catwalk above the equipment below.  There is a man in a white hazmat suit at the station.  "Override Denied!" the computer keeps verbalizing alarm notices.  "Repeated attempts to access storage tanks will result in contamination!"

Faraday turns around to find Juliet, and her gun.  "Juliet! What are you doing here!?"

"Step away from the computer!" "So sorry, can't do that."  He turns back around, and she rips his mask off.  "You want to release the gas!" "I'm trying to render it inert! I just want to make it safe!"

And Charlotte gives Juliet the pipe-to-the-head just as she did Kate.  But Juliet doesn't go down.  They struggle, and Charlotte's mask comes off.  The computer continues to announce its warnings.  "Contamination Imminent!"  Juliet finally pistol-whips Charlotte to end the fight.

"Tell him to stop!"  "We're trying to disable it!  You want to stop us you'll have to kill us both!"

Juliet allows Daniel to continue, which he does, frantically. "Come on!"  The computer counts down to zero, but finally stops at two seconds.  Everyone, especially Faraday, releases a huge sigh of relief.  "That," He says, "That was a close one."

The three of them walk out of the Tempest to find Jack and Kate.  A few words are exchanged, but Juliet explains and defuses the situation.  Kate, Faraday, and Charlotte go back into the bunker to show what happened.  Juliet and Jack remain outside.

"He wanted me to kill them.  Ben. He told me to kill both of them."  "How can he tell you anything?"  "These people came here to wage war against Ben, and Ben's going to win.  When he does, you don't want to be anywhere near me.  Because he thinks that I'm his."

Jack plants a big kiss on Juliet.  "He knows where to find me."  And the camera trucks back down the corridor of the Tempest, as the lights flicker randomly.

Rabbitses!

Eww, what the hell is that!? Oh, it's Locke.  He's cleaning a carcass of some sort or another.  Claire approaches, with Aaron in tow.  They talk about Miles, and Claire wants to talk to him.  She feels she might have more luck than John at getting what they want from him.  "It's not going to happen.  Remember what Charlie said?"

"All he said was who's boat it isn't.  Don't you want to know who's it *is*?"

The door to Ben's prison opens, and Locke brings him his dinner.  It's rabbit.  Apparently they're fresh out of chickens.  "This didn't have a number on it, did it?"

"So has the revolution begun yet?  You're the leader now, its a tough position.  It always starts innocent, then if you're not careful, you've got a full-blown insurrection.  They'll be angry when they realize you don't have a plan."

"I assume you do?" Locke retorts.  "I always have a plan."  "Does it involve raising 3.2 million dollars? That's a lot of money."  John hands him bill.  "Maybe this'll get you started."  Locke almost makes it out the door.

"I can help you."  John stops.  "We have shared interests, or at least a common enemy."  "The ones on the freighter?"  "Not them, the one they work for.  I give you my word I'll tell you everything."

Locke's heard this before.  "I don't trust your word."  "Alright, I guess I'll have to show you."

The Plot Thickens

"No tricks," Locke tells Ben as he leads him up from the basement.  "You're not leading me into the jungle so you can disappear or shoot me in the back."  "We don't even have to leave the living room.  We have a deal, right?"

"How do I know you won't go meet your people?" "If they wanted me they'd have stormed this place by now.  It's behind that picture."  He gestures towards a colorful landscape of some kind.  Behind it is a safe.  "36-15-28"  Locke opens it up, and pulls out a video tape, labelled RED SOX.  "I taped over the game," Ben tells him.

John puts the tape in the deck.  A black car pulls into a warehouse somewhere.  Richard Widmore gets out of the back seat.  "That's the man who's boat is parked offshore.  That's the man who's been trying to find the island."  Another man, blindfolded is pulled from the car.  "One of my people who had the misfortune to get caught."

"What does he want?"  Ben explains to Locke how Widmore wants to exploit the island's "abilities" for monetary gain.  On the tape, Widmore pounds the tar out of the blindfolded man.

"He wants to exploit the island and he'll do everything in his power to find it."  Widmore looks up at the camera just before the tape stops.

"Everything I know about Widmore is in that file."  Locke pulls a packet of papers from the safe.  "Some it is vague, some concrete, some guess work.  It's all yours.  Sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner, it was the only bargaining chip I had left."  (Yeah, right!)

"One more thing I need to know," Locke says, "Your man on the boat.  Tell me who it is."

"Alright. But you might want to sit down."

We see Ben walking across the compound, much to the surprise and dismay of Sawyer and Hurley, who are playing horseshoes.  "See you guys at dinner!"

BONK!!

Whoa! How about that! Widmore's officially behind the freighter now!  Oh, and lots more....

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