s4e06: The Other Woman

Coy start to this one, as it's briefly made to look like Juliet (wearing way too much makeup) has gotten off the island and is now meeting with a therapist. But oh, we tricked you! It's actually a therapist of the Other variety. We're on the island for the whole of the episode, as Charlotte and Daniel make their way to a power station where apparently there is a way to release a toxic gas that would kill everyone on the island - the therapist, Harper, appears to Juliet and tells her that Ben wants Juliet to go after Charlotte and Daniel and kill them if necessary. So that part of the episode is mostly split between walking/talking in the jungle and Juliet's flashbacks, where we see the trajectory of her previously-revealed relationship with Goodwin, who it turns out was married when he and Juliet met. To Harper. B'oh! Ben, who has a big crush on Juliet and is creepily possessive of her, sends Goodwin to his death at Ana Lucia's hands. (How could he have known that, some have asked? I say he just figured it was likely that eventually the Others were discovered. You could also make the case that he was just getting Goodwin away from Juliet, and then once Ethan was killed, not retracting Goodwin was Ben's way of leaving him for dead, when he had to figure Goodwin would also be discovered eventually.) Eventually we get to the Tempest station, where it transpires that Daniel and Charlotte are actually trying to turn the gas mechanisms off, presumably so that they can do their thing on the island without fearing that a loosed Ben could use it on them (we know he hasn't hesitated to gas his enemies in the past). Juliet and Jack kiss again, with Jack telling her that he's willing to take Ben on for her. Drew has said that one thing he didn't like about the flash-forwards from last season is seeing Jack at such a low, depressed point, and I guess I would agree in one sense - we know from the flash-forwards that Jack and Juliet don't end up together (at least not off the island), so the little courtship going on seems like kind of a waste. This episode wasn't "Eggtown" bad, but it did tread a lot of water in the main plot.

But then there was the "B" plot. In this case, B stands for Ben. Ben shows Locke a video with unsurprising master bad guy Charles Widmore, who Ben says has been looking for the island for some time. When Locke asks why, Ben compares the island to a piece of mold shaped like the Virgin Mary that drew 5,000 pilgrims to Gainesville, Florida - he asks Locke if that many people would go to see mold, how many people would come to see Locke, a man healed by the island's mystical properties? Locke has one more question - who is Ben's man on the boat? Ben tells Locke while we have to watch some commercials instead of finding out. Come on, show - we know it's Michael. Ben told Locke he had to sit down - it's not like it's going to be some character we've never met, and no one else got off the island. And we know Michael's coming back, and we know that next episode has a cliffhanger good enough that the episode split was made 7-6 rather than 8-5 even though the first eight episodes were produced. Are you really going to tell me it's not Michael? There's no way it's not. Everyone has suspected this since episode 2. Quit fucking around. Anyway, the episode ends with Sawyer and Hurley seeing Ben out walking around and expressing surprise and anger (at least on Sawyer's part). This combined with Locke's shutdown of Claire when she asked if she could talk to Miles and Ben's question of whether the revolution had started yet might not be so far off.

Next week: a Sun/Jin episode! We learn the last of the Oceanic Six - so, Sun and Jin, right? I mean, presumably Sun and someone. And a face we never expected to see again! Jesus. It's Michael. You are fooling nobody.