Archive Post: S3E16 - "One of Us"

Episode: One of Us

Character: Juliet

In last night’s episode, we got a lot of cool answers to some of the smaller questions. And of course, in traditional Lost fashion, several more questions were raised. Let’s get into it.

Juliet = Liar, Jack = Stupid: I think that Jack seriously needs to stop thinking with “Mr. Happy” and start thinking with his brain. There is a giant monster made out of smoke that has attacked and killed people on the island, and he’s not asking Juliet any questions?! And why trust her? He should know by now that NOBODY on that island (except maybe Hurley J) can be trusted.

Who is Jacob? We’ve never met him, but we’ve heard his name mentioned a number of times. Whenever he is mentioned, he is described as a powerful and threatening person. But I can’t help but wonder if he is a person at all. Could Ben have invented the idea of Jacob to use as a threat? I can say this, though…. If Jacob is a real person, I have a strong feeling that he will be someone that we have already met before. Maybe it’s smokey’s name.

A Bumpy Ride: After spiking Juliet’s orange juice with a mild tranquilizer, Richard (Alpert) explained that she would need to drink it before going on the submarine because it’s a “bumpy ride”. There is definitely something to that! Are they just trying to keep the location of the island a secret (not that she would be able to look out the window of a submarine and remember her way to the island). So why put her to sleep? Maybe because they didn’t really travel to the island via submarine. Or maybe there was some sort of secret underwater apparatus that they had to travel through. Or maybe they had to time-travel to get there.

Q: Why was Juliet crying at the beginning of season 3? The last time Juliet saw her sister was as she was being dropped off at the Herarat Aviation building, where she meets up with Ethan and Mr. Alpert. The song playing in the car was “Downtown”. While Juliet was getting ready in the season premiere, she put the CD in the stereo and played that song. So, it appears that she was just crying because she missed her sister.

Herarat Aviation: The name of the place where Juliet was dropped off was Herarat Aviation. This is just a small easter egg put in by the producers. The meaning of it is still in question. Here are the two possibilities:

1. “Herarat” is either a clue to Juliet (“Her”) being “a rat”.
2. (Probably what is intended) “Herarat” is an anagram for “Earhart”…. As in Amelia Earhart, who has been referenced several times. The woman who met Juliet in the first episode for the book club was named (in the scripts) as Amelia, and she bore a strong resemblance to Amelia Earhart. Maybe she crash-landed on the island. Or Maybe she’s actually Jacob. J

Dharma vs. Others: This episode has confused me on how the others are associated with Dharma. By the symbols that we saw on this guy’s shirt and on the side of the submarine, it makes me think that at least the submarine and the shirt belong to the Dharma Initiative. If Ben & Co. didn’t work for Dharma (as I’d previously theorized), then the others tend to have all of their stuff. We even saw the Dharma maps showed the Dharma barracks. So that means that the houses belonged to Dharma as well. So here’s my question: If the submarine is Dharma’s, and the hatches are Dharma’s, and the houses are Dharma’s, where the hell did Ben live for the 20+ years that he spent on the island before the Dharma Initiative showed up and built all those things? Was he raised by wolves? Or Boars? Or Smokey?

Ethan’s Tree Symbol: The tree next to Ethan’s drop-point had a symbol carved into it that caught my eye. It appears to be the logo of the others, as it seems to be the same symbol that was branded on Juliet’s back. So what is the significance of the symbol? It looks a lot like this symbol, which, from what I read, is a letter referenced in the investigations of Ummo. For those that don’t know anything about Ummo, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: “Ummoism describes a series of decades-long claims that aliens from the planet Ummo were communicating with persons on Earth.”

Return of the Cancer: When Juliet asked to go home to be with her sister, Ben tells her that her sister’s cancer came back, and she will die soon. But he told her that if she helps them, then Jacob promised that he will heal her sister. So wait…. Does Jacob have the cure for cancer? Or is Ben lying to Juliet about the cancer coming back?

Cancer-Free Island: Ben told Juliet that nobody on the island has ever had cancer. But wait… Ben has cancer. How did that happen? Is he immune to the healing abilities of the island? Maybe Ben needs to have a talk with Rose—she had cancer before crashing on the island, but is now healed (or so she thinks).

No Mo’ Babies? So the big reveal tonight (other than the fact that Juliet is a mole and a liar) is that people on the island cannot have babies, and that is what Juliet was brought there to investigate. She’s been trying to fix it but has been unsuccessful so far. She mentioned that Claire was the first person on the island to successfully have a kid. But what about Ben’s parents? What about Rousseau? They both apparently had kids on the island. The only thing that makes sense is that the inability to reproduce is relatively new (maybe within the past 5 years). So this begs the question… what happened 5 years ago (or whenever) that made it impossible to have a baby?

Sun better watch out! Lots of talk this week about babies and not being able to reproduce, it seems that in the upcoming episodes, the island’s current preggy (Sun) will be facing some issues. I think that her being pregnant is the reason that Juliet is infiltrating their camp. I think that they’re planning on kidnapping her the same way that Ethan kidnapped Claire in season one. I got goosebumps watching Ben and Juliet’s conversation at the end of the episode where Ben said that he’d see her in a week. I’m just really anticipating a full-on head-to-head confrontation between the Others and the Losties.

Next Week: The next episode will be called “Catch 22”, and will be a Desmond-centric episode. Unfortunatley, the preview at the end of last night’s episode had clips from more than one episode. So I can’t really theorize about what will happen next week. But I hope it isn’t as confusing as the last Desmond-centric episode. And let me ask this…. If Desmond’s already had a flashback episode this season, why not give Charlie one? I think he’s the only one who hasn’t had a flashback this season.

I’d love to hear your feedback. I know I missed a few things in the recap because I didn’t get a chance to re-watch the episode (ABC hasn’t posted it to their site yet). L So if you have any thoughts or theories on last night’s episode, don’t hesitate to send it along.

Until next week.

-drew.