Lost ReWatch: A Tale of Two Cities
Season 3, Episode 1
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Hero of the episode: Sara Zero of the episode: Ben, Jack
Quote(s) of the episode: “So I guess I’m out of the book club?” Ben to Juliet | “Why are you feeding me breakfast?” –Kate to Ben | “It doesn’t matter who he is. It just matters who you’re not.” –Sara to Jack | “Look at the bright side. Now you have something to fix.” –Sara to Jack about his drunk father
Music vibes: curious to start; frightening when Jack tries to escape
Little things: Juliet argues at book club like they aren’t on an island in the middle of nowhere; Sawyer is briefly happy after figuring out how to get food in his cage; Sawyer gives Kate some of his food
Episode notebook:
Opens with another shot of an eye, this time it’s Juliet. She’s playing music, and prepping for book club. Parallels to the opening of Season 2.
Others’ perspective of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.
Jack-focused flashbacks. In the past, he’s stalking his estranged wife trying to figure out who she’s seeing.
On the island, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer all wake up in different places and receive different treatment from their captors.
Jack refuses to accept divorce proceedings with Sara. He believes they can fix their problems, but she does not.
Sara seeks Christian’s help to get Jack to move on.
Juliet questions Jack about his life off the island. Was she paired with him because of her likeness to Sara?
Jack refuses to give an inch to Juliet. She wants to give him food and water, but he must sit with his back to the wall in the cage. He sees it as giving in.
Jack accuses his dad of an affair with Sara, leading to Christian relapsing on alcohol.
Jack tries and fails to escape. He’s being held in the Hydra Dharma station. It’s an underwater cage.
Juliet reveals they have access to information from the outside world.
Episode recap: Let the mind games begin! The creators/writers of Lost are once again toying with the audience in the season opener. The previous season began with a man, who we now know as Desmond, going about his morning routine: eating, working out, and washing dishes. This scene could have taken place anywhere—you'd never guess he was on a remote island. They didn’t break from the formula in season three. In this latest episode, we see Juliet getting ready for book club, playing music, tidying up her home, and unfortunately burning the muffins she planned to serve. Book club discussion is a bit boisterous and angry because Juliet picked a title no one likes, the lively and argumentative talking is interrupted by loud noises and the house shaking. Is it an earthquake? No. It’s flight 815 breaking apart and crashing!
Instead of opening with the survivors we’ve come to empathize with, we get the enemy’s perspective. And yes, the Others were the enemy all along, plotting from the moment Oceanic Flight 815 broke apart. Ben, aka Fake Henry, dispatches Goodwin to the tail section and Ethan to the front section of the plane, pretending they’re also survivors of the crash. They collect names and personal information as part of the long-term plan. I remember Ben’s personal motives (more on that later in the season) in gathering info, but I don’t recall the larger plan. But that’s part of the fun of rewatching this show.
Overall, this is a Jack-focused episode. His stubbornness in the past and present takes center stage. Jack awakens in a darkened and locked room. He yanks on locked doors to no avail, kicks at the thick glass to no avail, and pulls on chains suspended from the ceiling to no avail. Not even Juliet can get him to stop. When Jack fixates on an issue, he keeps going until there is no fight left in him.
Off the island, when Sara told Jack their marriage was over, he couldn’t accept it. They had problems that could be fixed if only Sara would give him another chance. But Sara has moved on with someone else, which Jack also refuses to accept. He wants to know the other man’s name; he wants to know what the other man has that Jack doesn’t. A failed marriage and a deteriorating relationship with his father, Christian, are problems Jack just can’t fix.
While Jack is trying to escape from his physical and mental problems on the island, Sawyer and Kate experience captivity by the Others in totally different ways. Kate is allowed to take a shower, put on a dress, and have breakfast—or as Ben puts it a chance to feel like a lady before the unpleasantness begins. Sawyer is treated like a literal animal, locked up in an outdoor cage. Watching this episode again, I see this as the Others playing mind games. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are all subject to different levels of treatment because the Others need to know the limits, and the breaking points of their captives. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer need to be broken down emotionally before they can be of real use to the Others.
Jack doesn’t want to be broken down. He doesn’t want the Others to have power over him. Even after a failed escape attempt, Jack doesn’t want to give in until Juliet dangles a carrot in front of him—information about Sara. Somehow the Others have contact with the outside world and knowing that Sara is happy gives Jack some comfort. It allows him to take a breath and actually listen to Juliet. Listen but not surrender. Please keep reading my recap of episode two is posted.