"Lost" Season 3 Episode 1 - A Tale of Two Cities

Hello Losties! Welcome Back! It's good to be back, although, like I've already stated a month ago...I'm a bit rusty with the blogging so it may take me awhile to get back into stride. Maybe that is fitting since the producers/writers of Lost are taking us slowly into Season 3. And that's fine with me. My mind can only take a little at a time! Season 2 left us with so many questions and so many hanging storylines. There was only one natural way to kick off the new season. By starting at the beginning again of course! But we'll get to that in a second.

Let me start by saying this. Many are complaining about the amount of commercials that were in the first episode. To this I have 2 things to say!

1. The episode was just as long as your standard non-extended Lost Episode. They may have had commercials more frequently (I didn't pick up on it), but then there were less commercials during that period.
2. Time to suck it up and get TiVo! (or any competing DVR...I guess) I started the episode at 9:15pm Eastern Standard Time and caught up to Live TV a few seconds before the last segment of the show aired. In other words...No commercials! The only thing that must be endured is the 15 minutes of anguish...knowing that Lost is on TV and you're waiting to watch it seamlessly! But the end result is a beautiful thing!

Whew...off the soapbox and onto the next! Now there are other rumors flying rampant of people's disappointment with our season premiere. I.E. Lack of Plot movement, Restating what we already know from another point of view, producers are milking the show to extend the # of seasons they can get out of it, blah blah blah. I won't directly address this (well maybe I will at the end) Instead, I'm just going to explain to you how much I LOVED this episode and how much I got out of it. I'm sure I'll convert a few of you along the way. That's just how I roll!

So if you haven't watched the episode yet you know you can always catch the episode at lost.abc.com

or you can just read their wonderful recaps of the episode:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/episodes?pn=episodes&s=3&ep=301&pg=1

Now let's get down to business! As I stated before...we left off in season 2 with many stories up in the air. "A Tale of Two Cities" follows our Heroes Jack, Kate, and Sawyer as they begin their time in captivity of the so-called "others." But first, we get treated to a mirroring opening to season 2 where we focus in on the eye of a new character (Jack in season 1, Desmond in season 2) and then we play a little tune (Petula Clark's "Downtown"...on CD no-less) and we are slowly introduced to a new setting. A setting that will probably come more familiar to us in this 3rd season. Yep, we're finally getting to see some history of the others as the producers have promised us. And we can bet we'll get treated to a lot more flashbacks with the introduction of new characters. I'm rambling....what did we learn in the 5 minute intro with the others?

• It seems there is some history between Henry (Well I like Henry more than Ben, so maybe we'll call him BENRY) and Juliet (don't know spelling of that yet). I'm sure we'll explore it more, but Benry was NOT invited to the latest book club session where they were reading a Stephen King Novel. A couple sidenotes here: If you recall when Henry was given a book from Locke by Dostoevsky (not even going to check the spelling of that!), he asked if they had any Stephen King. Well what we learn in that opening scene is that Ben is NOT a fan of Mr. King. The other interesting tidbit is that the actual Stephen King is a huge fan of Lost...he writes about it a lot in his Entertainment Weekly column. And he has recently met with the producers to discuss theories and ideas for the show. Crazy stuff.
  
• We finally see the front end of the plane actually descending to the island. There were questions to if the plane actually ever crashed. And I guess we still didn't see it land yet. But man was that a cool shot of it breaking in half! We can assume that this happened as Desmond did not return in time to push the button. Can we assume that this was all part of Henry's plan? Was Kelvin supposed to draw Dezzy out of the hatch long enough for the magnet to be activated? I'm sure we'll find out eventually!
• Benry is convinced that there must be survivors as he sends Ethan and Goodwyn on their assignments. One of the biggest mysteries still out there is...how on earth were there survivors? Henry was more convinced that there would be survivors of the front end of the crash. Significant? Who knows....I thought it was worth noting!
• Oh yeah...how about the nice little Pleasantville townhouse community the Others are residing in? Not much to say about this quite yet, except that they seem awfully civilized. The questions are how did this community get there...and if they have contact with the outside world? Information from tonight's episode would suggest they do. But with LOST, nothing is EVER as it seems!
  
• We supposedly figure out how they learned everyone's names. Ethan and Goodwyn made lists of all of the survivors and brought them back to Henry. I guess we could've figured that out, but I like when they dumb it down and actually show me it!

In summary, wonderful way to open us up into Season 3. Fantastic! I loved it! That would've been enough to hold me over until January! But we still got much more with the episode and we'll dig into that now! I guess the best way to do this is by Character since we followed 3 different imprisonments. As preston and steve pointed out when the police are questioning 3 prisoners they could give one person the Hard line, one the Soft Line, and treat one with a Good Cop/Bad Cop mentality. Well that's exactly what we see here. The Others don't waste any time messing with our favorite love trio:

Kate

Kate was treated to the finest the island had to offer.

• She got a non-sulfur smelling shower (step up from the hatch),
• She got to play dress-up for Benry, and then she got to have a breakfast feast with him, handcuffed of course.
• All of this, as Henry suggested, was to build her up before they break her down, in which Henry said the next "2 Weeks" are going to be hell. 2 Weeks in Lost-Time is usually more than 6 episodes (which encapsulates our Fall "Pod"). So, let's say they don't get rescued, or even escape on their own.....are we to expect that the others RELEASE them after 2 weeks? Welcome them into their community? Something else? Or is Henry STILL playing games by even suggesting 2 weeks? ahhh good times.
• Henry also decided to meddle into the affairs of Kate, Sawyer, and Jack by suggesting to Kate that she must feel for Sawyer more than Jack because she asked about him first. We've already been told by the producers that Kate will finally make her decision. The consensus has been that she'll initially fall for Sawyer...but then end up with Jack in the long run. I think Jack is going to be a little too pre-occupied falling for an "OTHER."

We don't see much else of Kate in this episode until she rejoins Sawyer, which we'll get to in his section. But she looked like she went through some kind of torturing....and was scratched up pretty good. Remember how Season 2 unfolded in the beginning? We kept revisiting the same period of time over and over through the first 3 episodes to see experiences from different points of view. I'm guessing we will revisit what happened to Kate while Jack was pulling on the chains in the 3 Amigos Underwater Prison (more on that in a bit), and Sawyer was moving slower than a Polar Bear!

And this is as good a point as any to point out that all 3 of our captives were injected with SOMETHING.....it obviously was affecting Jack. Didn't notice the effects as much on Kate and Sawyer. Was this the same goo they injected into Michael when he visited the "PRETEND" camp? Was it nothing? Maybe just another mind game? I'm sure we'll find out.

Sawyer

Leave it to Sawyer to provide us with some comic relief throughout the episode. Sawyer was definitely given the ROUGH treatment out of the 3 of them....put in a cage like an animal and pushing crazy buttons. He was accompanied by a silent man, eventually we find to be named Carl (or Karl). I believe most people are under the assumption that Carl is bait for Sawyer...part of the experiment and enlisted with the Others. We've made assumptions like this before, and they usually turn out to be incorrect! (Ana Lucia pretending to be captured by the others when they were all tailies, thinking Eko was Rose's Husband, I could keep going!) But for now, I'm going with the consensus. Who would this guy be otherwise? Maybe he was someone grabbed from the tail section that we never met? Doubt it.... but who knows. So what happened in the Sawyer Storyline?

• We are reminded of many things we saw in the Dharma Swan orientation video with the Zoological Research. Our buddy Tom (aka Zeke or "Mr. Friendly") suggests to Sawyer that Bears resided in the Cage before Sawyer and that they were able to figure out how to get the Dharma fish biscuits quicker than Sawyer. Well, when you hear BEAR in Tropical LOSTland...you immediately think Polar Bears! So Case closed on that one? Not quite. Why on earth did they keep Polar bears in that habitat...and how did they get them there?
• It's amazing how little a peon Tom has been reduced to since Henry has emerged as the leader of the others..... From the season finale of season 1...we thought this guy was the big cheese.....now he's just some goon that is doing all of Henry's dirty work. Crazy stuff.
• Preston and Steve suggested that the way Sawyer was drug into his prison was a homage to a scene from Planet of the Apes. I wouldn't doubt it, but I didn't pick up on it. Just thought I'd mention it for all you movie buffs out there.
• Most of the episode Sawyer was either trying to talk to Carl and escape (which failed miserably and ended up getting shocked by Juliet with the crazy taser gun, or he was pushing the Food Button and getting shocked in the process.
• But of course...then Kate comes all battle wounded and is put in Carl's cage. And Sawyer being the gentlemen that he is offers Kate the Fish biscuit that he fought so hard for. This combined with Kate saying Sawyer's name before Jack is a recipe for LOVE in the land of Lost. More on this next week!

Jack

So as we are learning will be a tradition, we kick-off our seasons getting more background on our hero, Dr. Jack Shepard. And apparently the others are a step ahead of the audience on this one! But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Jack was definitely getting some Good Cop/Bad Cop treatment in the Underwater Hatch that we learn is named Hydra! Let's start off with that!

• Not sure if anyone will remember way back when Michael and Sawyer were floating back to the island after the raft was blown up, they were attacked by a shark. Now, this was pre-mike blogs so you may have not done your research and discovered that there was a DHARMA logo on this Shark. And we knew there was a different symbol on it back then than the swan, but we didn't know what that meant. Slowly but surely, everyone determined there must be an underwater hatch somewhere. And Lost Fans have been dying to know when we'd find out about it. Well...stop wondering! We're there now! Now think further back to season 1.... Remember when Sayid went exploring the perimeter of the island until he ran into a cable and followed it to Rousseau's bunker? You remember how that power cable also went directly into the water too? Could that cable lead to the Underwater Hatch? Does that mean they're not TOO far from the Fuselage Survivor's Camp? Or is the underwater hatch located closer to SuburbianOthersville? Just things to keep in mind.
• Anyways....we can probably sum up Jack's flashbacks pretty quickly (when do I ever actually mean that? lol). Jack was going through the proceedings of divorce with Sarah and had finally come to terms with giving Sarah everything....all he wanted was the name of his replacement. Jack eventually grew to think his DAD was the man that Sarah went to. I believe I even suggested that back in the episode when Christian and Ana Lucia were down in Australia together and he called her "Sarah." While I think there is still more to the story than we saw....we find out that Jack's deliriousness drove his father from being 40 days sober to drinking again. And probably what ultimately led to him drinking on the job where he killed a patient, and then drinking himself to death in Australia. If you dig all the way back to season 1, Jack's Mom sent him to Australia to find his father. Jack's Mother blamed Jack for his father's drunken condition. Well...I think we know why now! One big mess. So what WAS Sarah's involvement with Christian? Why was she calling him? I guess we can assume that she was still concerned for his alcoholism and was trying to help him. But, like I said...I think there is more to tell here.
  
  Side notes:
  
  - Jack was listening to Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serende when he was in his car stalking Sarah. Sayid and Hurley caught this song on radio frequencies on the island as well. And we all know Glenn died in a plane crash.)
  - Apparently Tom (Zeke) was in Jack's flashback as a patient. I saw the picture, but am having trouble getting to the site right now. I don't think it looks like him:
  
  
• The flashbacks coincided perfectly with the interrogation of Jack in his underwater prison. They coincided SO perfectly, I almost got the impression that whatever they drugged him with was making him relive those memories right then as we were seeing them. Jack tackling his father happened simultaneously to Jack tackling Juliet when she opened the door. But I'm just speculating here.
• And how about the intercom? It clearly sounded like we heard Christian saying "Let it Go Jack" through the intercom....something we just heard him say in the flashback. There are several theories here that we could explore. It could be, just as Juliet said, all in his head, the intercom doesn't work. Or they could be messing with him even more, and somehow they have a soundclip from that day. That's just strange....but you know what else is strange?
• How on earth did they get all of that information about Jack? We can assume they have that much information on ALL of our survivors. I read that some people are suggesting they have internet access. I don't know if I'd go that far. But they have so much information on Jack that it was scary. Now, we could go back to the whole theory (MY favorite theory) that they were all recruited for this island. So they may have a profile on all of them due to this. But the autopsy report? How on earth did they get that? And if they already had all of this information, why did Henry want lists? To see who survived? I like to think that the Others aren't really in control on the island either....and perhaps they were SUPPLIED the information from a higher authority.... I'd like to think that the others are just as LOST as the survivors. Juliet said something intriguing to jack with "It doesn't matter who we were, it matters who we are." This was in reference to the Dharma initiative. Have they been there that long to have been apart of DHARMA? And what has happened since then? I'm sure we're going to find out all of these questions.
• And the big question....is Juliet playing Jack or can he really trust her? In the eyes of Henry, she's just playing her role as GOOD COP. It's tough to trust any of the others...but she has some likability factor to her that makes you want to. And she finally got through Jack's rough exterior and got him telling the truth. (REPO Man, Jack? nice one) That's a recipe for disaster....and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!
• My favorite piece of information that was in Jack's File?: "Sarah is Happy" lol....seriously? What did they do, go up to her and ask her if she's happy? Are they stalking her? Are they just basing it off of the information they have? I dunno....I just found it very humorous that A.) Jack expected them to have that answer and B.) They actually HAD that answer! But it was still a good time.
• oooh oooh ooh...I just thought of something. Something I didn't mention in the finale blog. Remember Jack breaking through the wooden door on Desmond's sailboat in the finale with his bare foot? What was that all about? He must have some crazy Karate/Kung Fu skills that we haven't seen yet. And we saw them on display again as he tried to break the glass with his foot in the underwater hatch. I'm guessing this has something to do with him learning poker in Puhket, Thailand......and again....probably where the tatoo came from (even though we do know it's Matthew Fox's actual tatoo...it will be written into the story!)

As you can see, I've overthought the episode like I always do. I'm sure I missed tons of good little tidbits like I always do. And I'll encourage everyone to comment with your thoughts...LIKE I ALWAYS DO! But I really enjoyed this for a season opener. I don't know what the naysayers really expected to find out in the first episode. I think we were given a lot of information to chew on (more than I thought we'd get) and I think plot moved along rather nicely. We have advancements in the Sawyer/Kate Love Saga....and the introduction of the Jack/Juliet/Henry Love triangle. (I don't feel like going back to the top but apparently it was mentioned in the opening that Ben is Juliet's Ex-Husband? I didn't catch that and will watch a 2nd time tonight. Regardless, there does seem to be a history).

Next week we'll continue exploring these stories as we expand to include Sayid and his crew of Sun and Jin who were last seen at the FAKE OTHERS CAMP with Desmond's sailboat. Somehow Sayid, using his military expertise will find out that their friends have been captured. We saw Sun getting shot at and falling into the water....I wonder if this will be the resolution to her pregnancy? Maybe she will miscarry? Who knows...

5 more episodes this Fall....which will end in a big cliffhanger to keep us coming back in January. I have a light spoiler for you all that I will white out below. Just highlight if you want to read!

• Apparently another survivor close to us all will meet their demise in this initial pod of episodes. No ideas who it could be at this juncture. And I don't want to know! I don't even know who is expendable at this point! But I just thought I would share

Well that's it! I'll try to add pictures for things if the site becomes available later. But you can always check them for yourself at lost.cubit.net/investigations.php .

Okay, please post comments! I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts and discuss! Welcome back again.....and hope you enjoyed the rusty write-up! See you next week!