What did I think of the latest LOST episode, The Other Woman?

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Well, we have just experienced another great episode of LOST. In many ways this episode seemed like a filler for me, as it really did not move the uber-story of the island or the mystery of the Freighter or the off-island mystery very much. But that is just fine. This is TV.

Now that is not to say this episode was not juicy enough for television to make it another enjoyable episode. It was definitely that.

As I said in my last review, I said I loved Desmond’s little episodes. But I also love Juliet’s little episodes. I think they offer a very unique perspective on what life was like for Juliet, being an Other and everything that pertained.

I think the title is very interesting. Now, not as obvious as The Constant was, it was still a very interesting title with multiple meanings. The title, The Other Woman could be referring to she was a woman among the Others. It could also be referring to she was the Other Woman to Harper, with her affair with Goodwin. She could be the other woman that Jack loves. Sooo many interpretations . . . I love it when episode titles are like that.

This also served to wrap up some other things in Juliet’s story. For one, her relationship with Goodwin. You really never understood why she could fall for a person like Goodwin. But in this episode we were able to see that relationship kind of develop a little more and see how it flourished. That being said, I never really cared for it. I didn’t think that Juliet and Goodwin had a real connection between them. The relationship wasn’t that interesting to me.

For one thing, I simply did not believe that Harper was Goodwin’s wife. I don’t know why I kept thinking that throughout the course of the episode, but I just did. I kept thinking there was going to be a reveal that she was a spy of some sorts for Ben to see how Juliet was acclimating to the island or something. But it never happened. So I guess she really was Goodwin’s wife. I also was not fond of the actress that was selected to play her either. She just didn’t grab me as other LOST guest people have done. We’ll probably never see her again anyway, so that’s a relief.

But the Goodwin-Juliet relationship wasn’t the only relationship that was touched on in this episode. Another relationship we got to see was the relationship between Ben and Juliet. Some people might think that this was something the writers just brought out of the blue, but it was not. This relationship was actually touched on in a deleted scene from the season 3 premiere, A Tale of Two Cities, which later became a LOST: Missing Pieces mobisode entitled The Envelope. So this is something that they have been hinting at for a while.

I think it was very interesting to see Ben’s kind of attraction to Juliet. It amost seems creepy in a way (but creepy is what Michael Emerson does best). That is until Harper, the therapist, reveals why Ben is so attracted to Juliet, is because she reminds him of “her.” Who is this her that Harper was referring to? Now, what I think it could be is Annie, the girl that Ben was drawn to in The Man Behind The Curtain. But there could be many other possibilities to this, as well. Harper could be referring to Ben’s mother, as Juliet does bear a striking resemblance to her. You know how the saying goes: “Men are attracted to women who remind them of their mothers.” But, Ben hardly knew his mother, so I think we can safely say that Juliet reminds Ben of Annie. I hope we really get to see the story-arcs for Ben and Annie play out, if that is indeed the case.

The final relationship that this episode touched on was the Jack and Juliet relationship. The Jack and Juliet relationship is very interesting, and very different from any of the other relationships we’ve seen on this island, and that’s what makes LOST relationships so interesting. They are so unique and each have their own fire, it is so fun to watch. In a prior review, I have said that I like the Jack and Kate relationship (“Jate”), but that being said, I absolutely love the Jack and Juliet relationship. There seems to be that kind of trust between Jack and Juliet that I don’t think you see between Jack and Kate. It’s been a very intriguing relationship from day one.

Although I think the Jack and Juliet is very interesting, what will be more interesting is to see how it plays out over the next season. Because as of right now, as we know, Juliet has not been revealed as one of the Oceanic Six and hasn’t gotten off the island. Could this be a stem of what guilts Jack in the future? That he left Juliet behind? Time will tell . . . .

This episode also got to expand the mythology of LOST in a number of ways. For one, we got to see a new DHARMA station. I, for one, have enjoyed seeing all the various DHARMA stations that are all around the island. Really makes everything cool. Now, when it was originally announced that a DHARMA station would be featured in this episode, I thought immediately that it would be the Orchid, the DHARMA station featured in the July 2007 Comic-Con footage, but alas it wasn’t. But the Tempest was a nice substitute.

We got to see what was so important about this station. It was obviously the station that Ben used to wipe out the DHARMA Initiative members on the island in the “purge” that is talked about so much on this show. So it was nice to see that piece of mythology touched on a bit. But this begs the question: What was the Tempest’s original function? Was it always meant to be a destructive station? So many questions about DHARMA. Give, the series is ending in 2 seasons, we very well may get an answer to all those questions.

In this episode, we also got to see something that I think fans have been speculating about for a long time: Widmore’s connection to the island. I know I have been speculating about this for a while. I have kept saying that this Widmore character was connected to the island, and HE WAS! But not in the way that we would expect him to be connected to the island. It turns out, if what we believe from Ben to be true, that Charles Widmore has been searching for the island for some time. Exactly how much time is unknown, or exactly how Widmore knows about the island is unknown? I was thrilled to get this question answered.

This answer definitely answers more questions. Once you know that Widmore has been trying to find the island, it definitely confirms things Ben has said in the past. In Through the Looking Glass, Ben said that Naomi was a representative of people trying to find this island. Then he says Widmore has been trying to find the island to exploit it. Yu can’t deny the facts. One would like to think that Ben is lying just o get Locke to trust him. But what Ben is saying to Locke about the “answers” matches up with things he has been saying and has been doing in season 3.

Now I’m not saying Ben is being entirely truthful, because that is just not Ben. He will tell half-truths along the way. What he is NOT telling the truth on is that his people have basically abandoned him. Because if you recall, in the season 3 finale, Ben asked Richard to lead all the remaining Others to go to ruins and wait for him. So in that instance he was not telling the truth. But I think we can trust Ben for the time being.

But I think another thing we can ask is Ben’s motivation by telling Locke answers? Is it get to Locke’s good side? As we know, Ben always has an ulterior motive. What is it? Is it because he knows that Locke has a communion to the island that he has not? I wish I had an answer to this question but I don’t. It’s what makes Ben so amazing to watch. You never quite know what he is up to.

I think one thing that has remained constant throughout this season, and even more so with this episode, is what the Freighter Gang’s actual business on the island is. Miles has said that they were looking for Ben, but Miles may have only said that just to get the 3.2 million dollars from Ben. I think that ongoing mystery of the Freighter Gang continued in this episode.

We think that the Freighter Gang are going to use the gas to kill everyone on the island, Faraday reveals that he was just rendering the gas useless. So we really don’t know what the Freighter Gang is doing on the island. Why were they operating in the Tempest with white suts and gas masks? Juliet does say in the episode that the Freighter Gang were waging a war against Ben. Is this true? Who knows, with LOST?

I think all-in-all this was a good episode. I think as far as most Juliet-centric episodes, it was very enjoyable. But it was kind of weak a bit. It gave more fuel to the fire for the future of this show, but overall it was kind of weak. I thought it was well-written and Elizabeth Mitchell carried the episode very well, but in the scheme of things, felt like a filler. But I think it was a nice filler, just the same. It still had elements to move the story along and gave more character fuel for the island storyline.

Another thing I though this episode really did that was give up answers to long-standing questions that have been plaguing them. We saw it with Widmore’s interest in the island, and I think we’re going to see a lot more of answered questions as the series winds down.

RATING: 8/10