LOST: A Tale of Two Cities [SPOILERS]

Book Club

The episode starts with an interesting parallel of last season's premiere, with Juliet (newcomer Elizabeth Mitchell) pulling a CD (rather than vinyl) off the shelf and popping it in the player.  She's hosting a book club meeting, where they're discussing a Stephen King book (and g-d-it all I couldn't see which one, got a phone call!!! (thanks ma! ) right about then!!!)  Of course (OF COURSE) this phone call came so I couldn't see who was arguing about the book being a meaningless bit of pop-culture whatnot (nice!), but I think it might've been none other than our Henry.

They all run outside (again, phone call!!!) to see flight 815 breaking up over the island , orders are issued, and the gang goes to work.  It's during this scene that we see the Others all live in a nice little groomed village on the other side of the hills.  They lead apparently average suburban lives and wear average soccer-mom suburban clothes.

The Subjects

Sawyer finds himself in a cage set up for testing the resourcefulness of animals (or something), and gets himself zapped by it.  Across the way is a kid in another cage, named Carl, who manages(?) to escape and tries to get Sawyer out as well.  They're both caught and "Carl" disappears, but not before being forced to apologize to Sawyer.   Now, the question here is:  Is Carl one of "them" or another hapless prisoner?

There is a new Dharma logo here (and we'll see it again later.)

He finally gets the machine to work for him, and gets a new(?) fish-biscuit and a pile of monkey chow as a "reward!"  (Hey it only took the bears two hours!)

Kate, however finds herself in slightly better circumstances, awaking on the floor of a locker room with "Mr. Friendly."  He tells her to take a shower, and laughs off her protests as her "not being his type." What? Zeke? Nawwwww.....

She comes out of the shower to find her clothes missing, replaced by a rather skimpy dress.  She's then escorted under a covered walkway (same new logo) which leads to "Henry" dressed rather neatly eating strawberries drinking coffee under a tent on the beach.  He has Kate put a set of cuffs on, and explains the fineries of this meal and her dress as making her feel "back in civilzation."

We don't see Kate again, until she's brought into Carl's old cage by Sawyer.  She appears to be hungry, and her wrists are torn up pretty good from the cuffs.  I think its pretty obvious she didn't cooperate with Henry.  Meaningful glances are exchanged and Sawyer tosses her his newfound fish-biscuit.

Jack-o and Juliet

We come back from the show-opening break to see Jack in the car spying on his wife. Curiously the radio is playing the same tune that Hurley and Saied discovered on their pumped-up radio some time back, when Hurley made some joke about time travel.  (insert uncomfortable pause)

Jack awakes from this dream (or remembrance?) to find himself on a table (how apropos) in a room with a glass wall and a bunch of chains hanging from the ceiling.  There's a table with what looks like a sound board on the other side of the glass, along with a big covered red button, and a door.  On his side there is also an intercom.

Jack is introduced to "Juliet", who seems to be a rather pleasant, forthcoming, and cooperative example of "The Others."  Of course we all know none of them are what they seem, right?

At one point Jack's dad seems to tell him to "let it go" over the intercom.  Of course he could just hallucinating from the knockout drugs... or is he?

They seem to get along well in the next few segments.  At least sort of.  Jack remains defiant, and finally seems to accept that she can come in.

He jumps her as she enters, tosses her darts and forces her out the door.  They run into Henry, who (seemingly indifferent if Juliet gets cut) warns them they'll all die if he opens the door behind him.  Jack (of course) thinks he's bluffing and opens it anyway.

Wrong choice!  The compartment quickly fills up with water, Henry escapes through one door, and Jack and Juliet back into the room.  Jack punches the big red button (the jolly candylike button!) and is promptly cold-cocked by Juliet.

Jack, the Control Freak

The flashback, and the primary point of this episode as I see it, is about Jack.  Jack and his issues with control.

His wife is divorcing him, and he -has- to know the name of the guy she's leaving him for.  That guy (or his dad?) apparently calls her during their little meeting, and so starts the seeds of paranoia in Jack.

He goes to his dad, who tells him to "let it go," that its over, and there's nothing he can do about it.  (What? Never!)  Jack Sr. gets a call from Sarah.  This furthers Jack's paranoia and loss of control.  He begins to suspect his dad is the one involved with his wife, and we see that later when Jack sees him get another call in the hospital hallway.

Jack follows his dad into a hotel, and into a room.  Just so happens this is his dad's AA group (I didn't recognize anybody else there, was hoping for another connection).  Jack loses it there, and point-blank accuses him of sleeping with his wife.  Then he totally loses it, jumps on his dad, and winds up in jail.

It's his wife that bails him out, in one last gesture I guess.  She offers him a rather curt goodbye and turns and walks out.  He follows to see her going to a car where "the guy" is waiting.  He has to gain one last aspect of control by demanding to know if that's him, and what Jack is to her.

She replies "it's not what you are, but what you're not."

Back to Jack in what we learn is "The Hydra" station, and (at least this part of it) is an underground or underwater aquarium, (sharks...or dolphins?) hence the glass walls and bulkheads..  It's at this point that we find Juliet has a complete dossier on Jack.  He wants to know if his ex-wife is happy.  Apparently she is.

It's at this point that Jack finally "lets it go."  Whether that was by conscious choice, manipulation, or just plain "being broken" I don't know.  It's pretty obvious, though, that after he finally relinquishes control and let's go that he's broken.  It remains to be seen how broken.

The Artist Formerly Known as Henry Gale

So after Jack finally submits, Juliet leaves her side of the room to go to Jack's side.  "Henry" is in the hall, and offers a "Good Job".  "Thanks, Ben" is the reply.  So we learn the real name of our "Henry Gale."

Conclusions and Questions

So, what have we done here?  We've seen Jack go from being a proud, defiant, and "in-control" kind of guy to relenquishing that control and finally letting go of his ex-wife.  I'm sure this will be important in the future as he and Juliet talk more.  (wink wink.)

Kate and Sawyer?  Not much to tell except Kate didn't cooperate, and Sawyer's been playing with his new toys in order to get fish-biscuits and monkey chow.

The Others?  What exactly did we find out that we didn't know before?  They live (lived?) in a neat little village and led average "normal" lives.  Do they still?  Did that change when the plane crashed? Why?

Where is this new "Hydra" station?  What's the significance of the Hydra, the mythological creature with eight heads, and if you cut one off, two grow back in it's place?  Jack's dossier would indicate that they have two-way communication with somebody off the island.

Apparently they've done some sort of work with dolphins there in the aquarium at The Hydra.  Who was Carl? Will we see him again?

I'm sure there are more questions, but I really can't think of any.  Like I said at the beginning, this was more about Jack's character than anything.  Sure the introduction to "The Hydra" was interesting and all, but it all seemed just a big yawner.

So lets see how this pans out in the next few episodes of this "season 2.5".....

And exactly why was this titled "A Tale of Two Cities" again?

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