s3e09: Stranger in a Strange Land

I really should know better by now than to let the ABC promotions department jerk me around every single time. Of course they're going to say that the next episode features can't-miss surprises! That said, "three of Lost's biggest mysteries will be answered" is just blatant false advertising. Unless the mysteries were as follows:

1. What happened to the people the Others took?
I'm not sure this would rank in my top three questions, but I guess it was something. We still don't really know what happened, per se, just that they're alive and evidently still kicking it on the island (or rather, the second island).

2. Do the Others live on the island?
I had thought this was already reasonably well implied, although the shots of St. Othersburg that led off this season suggested otherwise. Of course, if they don't live on the island as Isabel suggests, doesn't that make St. Othersburg a gaping plot hole? Or is that just where they live when they're on the island? Whatever. We still don't know where they do live, except that it can't be that far away since that's clearly not a seaworthy boat. I don't consider an answer that vague to be an answer.

3. How much more shitty backstory can we get?
This one was definitely answered: a lot! Seriously, though, I can't think of a third thing that was answered and the backstory was asinine. Was it supposed to be showing that Jack doesn't have the appropriate respect for other groups of people? Because I think we could have guessed that. Oh, and his tattoo, conveniently, contains a message that describes both his place in Thailand and his place with the Others! Oh, how droll. Come on, Lost - no one considers "what does Jack's tattoo mean" to be a mystery of the show at all, let alone one of the biggest ones.

In other plot "developments" (ha!), Sawyer and Kate snipe at each other and Sawyer encourages Carl to go back for Alex. Which he maybe does and maybe doesn't. Juliet is being investigated for killing Pickett and trying to kill Benry. Benry's stitches are infected, and Jack decides to play his buddy, apparently to make sure he (and Juliet) can get off the island as Benry suggested. And Backstory Jack rightfully gets the crap kicked out of him by a bunch of Thai guys.

I wouldn't go so far as to say this was the worst episode of the season, but it was certainly the worst of the "nonstop season" so far, though that's only out of three, of course. It just didn't tell us much of anything, after promising it would. That's been kind of the constant letdown with this show - even most of the answers are only kind of half-answers, and that's when they come at all.

Sigh. And now that February sweeps are over, I suppose we're looking at a lot of water-treading over the next 13 episodes. Cool.