LOST
Season 4 Episode 10
“Something Nice Back Home”
Written by Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Directed by Stephen Williams
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

WTF?! She just disappeared into the jungle?!

Sorry.

Okay.
Flash-forward first.

We get a post-trial Jack and Kate, and apparently, Jack took Kate up on her offer and has evidently come to terms with seeing Aaron, so the three of them are currently playing at Happy Families, with Alice in Wonderland the bedtime reading of choice.
But the old obsessive Jack is still around, as he catches Kate on the phone with someone, and he clearly suspects something’s going on that he’s not supposed to know about.
Jack then gets a glimpse of Christian, and gets called down to Santa Rosa, where Hugo’s stopped taking his meds. Hugo tells Jack of Charlie’s visits, and says Charlie has a message for Jack: You’re not supposed to raise him. (Really creepy, this, particularly since it purportedly came from Charlie’s mouth, and it seems to imply that the “him” is Aaron.)
Hugo also tells Jack that Charlie said someone would be visiting Jack, soon.

As if to disprove the pronouncements of Hugo’s “Charlie,” Jack asks Kate to marry him, and she says… Yes.
But Jack sees Christian at work and this shakes him to the core, so he asks a fellow doctor to write him a prescription for some meds, claiming the stress from the engagement is getting to him.
Kate arrives at home to find a sloshed Jack, who confronts her about where she’s been. She says she had some “errands” to run, but Jack doggedly persists, and Kate says to leave it, but Dr. Obsesso is back in the house, and it comes out: she was doing something for Sawyer. (I suspect something for his daughter, given that Kate already met Cassidy before.)
This pisses off Dr. Obsesso, who pointedly says, Sawyer isn’t here. He chose to stay behind. I’m the one who came back. I’m the one who’s here. I’m the one who saved you.
Kate says, I don’t want you anywhere near my son if you’re going to be like this.
Jack, angrily, He isn’t even related to you!
Enter a sleepy Aaron from screen left, and Kate tearily watches Jack walk out.

Now.
Back to the Island.


The discomfort Jack was taking some meds for in a previous episode turns out to be a troubled appendix that’s fit to burst.
So Juliet tasks Sun and Jin to return to the medical station to retrieve surgical instruments and medical supplies for the instant Island appendectomy. But since the Kwons aren’t familiar with the instruments and medical paraphernalia, Daniel (who’s experienced at conducting animal autopsies) volunteers.
No one’s really crazy about the idea, but Daniel manages to persuade them that all he really wants to do is help, so he and Charlotte go with the Kwons.
In retrieving the surgical instruments, we learn that, a) Daniel likes Charlotte, and b) Charlotte knows Korean.
Jin picks up on the Brit B!tch’s fluency with the language, and confronts her one-on-one about it, finally getting her to admit she does understand Korean by threatening to break Daniel’s fingers.
Jin asks Charlotte to make sure that when the helicopter returns, that Sun is on it so she can leave the Island. Charlotte apparently agrees.

Meanwhile, Jack requests that he be awake during the surgery so he can talk Juliet through it. He wants Kate to be there, to hold up a mirror so he can view the proceedings, while under a local anesthetic.
Things get hairy during the appendectomy though, and Juliet is forced to have Jack chloroformed.
The procedure looks to be a success, and while Juliet is suturing an apparently unconscious Jack, she tells Kate about the Tempest kiss, and that she believes Jack kissed her so he could prove to himself that he wasn’t in love with, ahem, someone else.
Kate thanks Juliet for saving Jack’s life, but after she’s left the tent, Juliet says, I know you’re awake, and awake Jack is…

Meanwhile still, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, and Miles continue to make their trek back to the beach.
They come upon the site of the ambush and Miles picks up the ghostly whispers of dead Rousseau and Karl, and finds their shallowly buried bodies.
When Miles begins to show an interest in Claire, Sawyer gets protective and warns the angry ghost whisperer to stay away from Claire.
They then run into Frank, who tells them to hide, since Keamy’s right behind him. Keamy’s leading the survivors of Smokey’s attack back to the helicopter. Keamy hears Aaron’s soft cry, and is just barely distracted by Frank, who insists they have to leave before dark. And leave they do.
Later on, in the middle of the night, Claire wakes up to find Aaron missing from her side.
She then sees Christian holding the baby.


The following morning, Sawyer awakens to find Claire missing. Miles says she got up in the middle of the night and walked out into the jungle, with someone she called “Dad.”
Sawyer hears Aaron’s cries, and finds the baby.
But.
There’s.
No.
Sign.
Of.
Claire.

WTF?! She just disappeared into the jungle?!

Okay, so we have the flashforward which puts into motion the events that will lead to the suicidal, pill-popping Jack we saw in Season 3’s finale. That’s a Jack who came this close to having a happily-ever-after with Kate, and is presumably receiving visits from his deceased father.
Poor Dr. Obsesso…
But, while that section had some interesting bits in it, this installment’s real kick in the ‘nads is that cliffhanger, as Claire’s just suddenly not there anymore, having apparently gone off with her dead da.
And what’s with Miles’ interest in Claire? Is there something there that he sees, which Sawyer can’t? (The interest Miles was showing for Claire seemed to be more than a mere attraction sort of thing. Could he have been sensing Christian’s presence around Claire, or is there something else? Something about Aaron, or about Claire herself?)

Other bits that were noteworthy include Rose’s observation that people get well on the Island, and not sick. So why did Jack develop appendicitis?
Is the Island lashing out at Dr. Obsesso for some reason? For using the NaomiPhone to call the terrible Boat People to the Island?
And then there’s the bit with Ju-Ju telling Kate about the Tempest liplock, while knowing full well that Jack wasn’t unconscious, that he would hear everything she said. I felt so bad for Ju-Ju just then, as not only was she making a verbal acknowledgment of her place in the Island quadrangle, but she was also giving Jack his out, if he so wanted it…
Poor Ju-Ju…

Oh, and I loved Rose giving the Brit B!tch attitude. You go, girl! Put that C.S. Lewis harpy in her place!

COUNTDOWN: 38.

(Images courtesy of ABC, impawards.com, and ew.com.)

LOST
Season 4 Episode 6
“The Other Woman”
Written by Drew Goddard & Christina M. Kim
Directed by Eric Laneuville
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Flashback time, and we see Juliet a week into her Island stay, when she meets her therapist, Harper Stanhope (Rescue Me‘s Andrea Roth) for the first time.
In short order, we understand that Ben has what appears to be a not insubstantial crush on Juliet (as Harper makes mention later on, because Juliet looks “so much like her,” which I can only assume means Annie; so that sexual vibe I picked up on before between Juliet and Ben actually turns out to be one-way unrequited lust, sort of), and after Juliet first meets Goodwin—a very loaded meeting, considering that we already know they end up being lovers—that Juliet doesn’t think very highly of Harper, and that Harper is Goodwin’s wife. (Apparently, Goodwin doesn’t think highly of Harper either, as he says later on that he’s been sleeping on the couch for a year now…)
And thus do we have a double meaning to this episode’s title…

At one of their sessions, Harper confronts Juliet about her affair with Goodwin, and then warns Juliet that if the affair continues, there will be consequences. Harper goes on to say that she doesn’t want to see Goodwin get hurt.
Juliet says, I would never hurt him.
Harper says, I’m not worried about you; I’m worried about Ben.
And thus, Ben’s reasons for sending Goodwin off to infiltrate the Tailies also becomes awfully clear.
True enough, we see a repeat of that fateful day (where we slyly edit around having to hire William Mapother on for another guest shot by showing reactions shots of the Bizarre Love Quadrangle), soon followed by Ben getting Juliet to his place under the pretense of a dinner party, when it’s actually a candlelit date. (Ewwww.)
During the dinner, Juliet says that maybe Goodwin can come back, now that the children (Zach and Emma?) who were on the list were abducted from the Tailies.
Ben claims though that Goodwin is continuing his deep cover mission since he thinks Ana-Lucia might be turned to join them. (And there’s something gleefully evil about how transparent Ben is in trying to get Juliet jealous.)

Later on, Ben brings Juliet out to the spot where Ana-Lucia left the impaled body of Goodwin, and Juliet breaks down of course, then asks, Why did you bring me here?
Ben counters with, Why you and not his wife?
Juliet says, You knew this would happen. That’s why you sent him out there.
Ben says, Don’t you understand? You’re mine. (Double ewwww.)

Now, onward ho, to the present!
At the Barracks, we once again get a clear view of Valis, as if the writers are really trying to tell us something. (Dang, why do I not have my own copy?)
We get some verbal sparring between Locke and Ben, the result of which is a deal being struck: Ben says let me sleep in a bed, eat with utensils, walk around free, and I’ll tell you what you’d like to know.
Namely: Ben shows Locke a surreptitiously shot video of ol’ Charlie Widmore beating a blindfolded someone up. According to Ben, Widmore has been searching for the Island for a very long time, in order to exploit its mysteries. The man he’s beating up: one of Ben’s people.
Again, according to Ben, that freighter off shore belongs to Da Widmore, and he gives Locke a file on Charlie W.
Locke then asks, So who’s your spy on board?
Ben says, All right, but you might want to sit down for this.
When next we see Ben, he’s looking smug and walking free around the Barracks with fresh linen, much to the shock of Sawyer and Hugo.

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Daniel and Charlotte sneak off, and Jack, Juliet, Jin and Sun search the jungle.
While Juliet is looking around, she suddenly hears that pesky whispering, and who should pop up but Harper, who tells Juliet that she was sent here by Ben to tell Juliet that Daniel and Charlotte are off to the Tempest, where they will purportedly release some deadly gas which will kill everyone on the Island. (Apparently, this is what Ben did once before, when he slaughtered the Dharma people.)
Juliet asks, How does Ben know all this when he’s a prisoner?
Harper says, Ben’s exactly where he wants to be.
She then says Ben sent her here to tell Juliet to go and intercept the strangers and use her gun to kill them both. Jack arrives, holds Harper at gunpoint, but the whispering starts up again, distracting both Jack and Juliet, and when they look back, Harper’s gone…

Meanwhiler, Kate runs into Daniel and Charlotte, and when she starts asking too many questions, is knocked unconscious by Charlotte (the b!tch). When Jack and Juliet find her, Juliet is obviously affected by the very evident emotion Jack has for Kate, so she sneaks off to the Tempest (a power station for the Island, as she quickly explained to Jack) herself.
Kate of course, is one of the Island’s best trackers, so despite her aching, bleeding noggin, she tracks Juliet and Daniel and Charlotte.

At the Tempest (which isn’t so much a power station as it is a poison gas factory), Juliet finds Daniel in full protective gear, trying to override the computer, with a recording (you know, you’ve heard the one) warning of imminent contamination.
Juliet holds Daniel at gunpoint (there’s no sign of the b!tch), but Daniel keeps on tapping at the keyboard. Juliet rips off his gas mask, and he says he’s trying to render the gases inert.
Charlotte sneaks up behind Juliet, and an all-out brawl ensues, where Juliet takes some nasty hits from Ms. C.S. Lewis. B!tch. On the plus side, Juliet does manage to rip off the b!tch’s gas mask too.
The automated countdown gets all the way down to 1, we all know this drill, before it stops, Daniel apparently saving the day. Yahoo! Go, Faraday!

Jack and Kate arrive and the b!tch explains that they were here to prevent Ben from possibly using the gas against them. Kate is unconvinced (and rightly pissed off), so she goes inside the Tempest with the b!tch to check the veracity of her claims.
Outside, Juliet tells Jack, Ben sent me here to kill them both.
Juliet then goes on to say, These people are here to wage a war on Ben, and he’s going to win.
She then goes on to say, And when Ben wins, you don’t want to be anywhere near me, Jack.
And why is that? Jack asks.
Because Ben believes I’m his, and he knows how I feel about you, Juliet says.
Jack says, He knows where he can find me, then proceeds to liplock with Juliet. (I kept on half-expecting to see Kate catch them, but she never showed up. Of course, they were kissing right in front of the open Tempest doors, so all anyone had to do was look out, and voila. But I guess Kate was too busy being pissed off at the b!tch. I so wanna see Kate smack Charlotte around some…)

So this episode basically answers the question, What exactly is the deal between Juliet and Ben, that “history” between the both of them that was alluded to by Mr. Friendly before, and re-begs the questions, What happened to Annie?
The episode also puts forward Charles Widmore as the (or at least, a) baddie. But of course, this is all The World According to Ben, and we all know he speaketh with fork-ed tongue, so, all we really see is good ol’ Charlie wailing on some poor, blindfolded schmuck.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see…

And that whole Harper appearing (and disappearing) in the jungle to a chorus of whispers, sort’a smells like one of those Island apparitions. Is this Smokey in the form of Harper? Or Jacob?

Oh, and on the con side, the whole countdown to gassy Armageddon (all the way to 1, mind you) was a tad tired.

And speaking of countdowns…

COUNTDOWN: 42.

(Image courtesy of ABC and fanpop.com.)