Lost - Season 3, Episode 7 - Not In Portland

Welcome Back!!! It has been a very long three months - but we haven't lost (heheheh) our excitement for this show.

Last night's episode slowly brought us back to the Island. It has been so long since we saw an episode that I was starting to forget the character's names.

The episode jumps from flashback to the island. I will try to recap it in the order the show progressed so the recap will be chopped up and mixed up, just like the show is.

If you know what Lost "Easter Eggs" are and want to check out some from this episode go here and here.

The episode started from the perspective of Juliet. She was giving a shot to a woman (who we later find out is her sister, Rachel) that has cancer. We soon realize that this is a flashback.

Juliet is in Miami (wassup!!) and we later find out that her sister is a guinea pig of sorts for a medicine that Juliet has only tested on field mice. This medicine is used to create an environment in the body where the person (or mouse) can get pregnant.

The flashbacks of Juliet in Miami is set against Jack's surgery of Ben at the Hyrda station. We never get to the rest of the survivors on the other island in this episode. The last episode ended with Jack making a cut which would kill Ben within an hour. Jack says he can stop it from killing Ben if Kate and Sawyer are let free.

Jack tells Kate to RUN and her and Sawyer kick some butt and get the hell out of the cage and lock in some of the others. They run to the beach and Kate sees that they are on a separate island across the water from where the plane crashed. Sawyer gives the whole "I told you so" thing to Kate and they are interrupted by the others trying to kill them.

Back in Miami Juliet is working as a Doctor at a medical research center at Miami Central University (which doesn't exist in the real world by the way) that is run by her ex-husband, Edmund Burke. He doesn't seem like a good guy and he still has a lot of control over her. Another Miami tie - when Kate got married to Kevin (and called herself Monica) she lived in Miami. Also, Sawyer was in a jail in Florida in one episode.

We later see Juliet sneak into the lab after hours to steal the medicine she gives to her sister. Her ex-husband catches her while he is making out with his hot new research assistant and tells Juliet to leave and shut off the lights.

At the Hydra, Jack is made aware that Kate and Sawyer can't escape as easily as he thought. Jack throws Juliet "under the bus" and calls her out for trying to convince Jack to kill Ben (as seen in earlier episodes). Juliet denies ever saying such a thing. Tom tells Juliet to leave the room and she agrees.

Kate and Sawyer's walkie-talkie is shot and they run away from the beach and are being chased by the others. Out of nowhere Alex (Danielle Rousseau's daughter) saves Kate and Sawyer by bringing them to an underground hiding spot. The others can't find Kate, Sawyer and Alex and they leave.

A flashback to Miami shows Juliet having a meeting with her ex-husband where he is asking for the two of them to work together because of her success with the research she is doing. He definitely has a lot of control over her still.

Back at the Hydra - After Juliet leaves we find out that Ben has been awake for a few minutes (ouch!) and he asks them to bring Juliet back in the room. He also asks Tom and Jack to leave, which Jack first refuses but then agrees because he is a gentleman.

Out in the forest, Alex says she will help Kate and Sawyer get off the island because she has a boat. Of course there is one condition - help save Alex's boyfriend, Karl. Sawyer and Kate agree and they head to the building where there are indoor holding cells.

At the Hydra, Juliet and Ben talk but we have no clue what they say to each other. Very frustrating to keep us out of the loop! Tom tells Jack that Juliet and Ben have "history" - whatever that means. Juliet comes out and asks Jack to finish the surgery and says she will make sure that his friends leave the island. She leaves and Jack gets back to work.

In Miami, Juliet is having a meeting with Dr. Alpert from Mittelos Bioscience (anagram for "Time Lost" which looks like it is turning into a new theme of the show). He is trying to convince Juliet to come to his research center to help them because she was able to get a male mouse pregnant. He shows her a slide of a womb and Juliet says it looks like a 70 year old and he says no, she is 26 and if she comes to research she can figure out what's wrong. Juliet is interested but says her ex (who runs the lab she works at) would never let her to go unless he was "hit by a bus" and insists that she isn't a leader.

Kate, Sawyer and Alex go find Karl and they first must get around Aldo who is guarding the building (which is at the Hydra). He is reading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, when they pull the "wookie prisoner gag" on him (Star Wars reference). Alex pretends to have captured Kate and Sawyer and she was ordered to bring them to a holding cell. Aldo says that Alex's dad said she shouldn't be there and he tries to call Ben to confirm. So now we know Ben is Alex's dad. When he calls Ben, Sawyer knocks out Aldo and takes his gun. Kate grabs the gun and insists that Aldo tell them where Karl is or she will shoot him in the kneecap. He tells them room 23.

They find Karl and he is strapped to a chair with an IV and crazy lighted glasses on. He is being forced to watch a movie with various images and phrases. There are some Buddhist Phrases as well as phrases from the Bible, images of flowers and faces and a Buddha and bunch of round images (like the moon and maybe a plate of spaghetti?). Here is a video of that scene. Here are screen shots of the text. Here are screen shots of the images. Some of the phrases you see are:

"Plant a good seed and you will joyfully gather fruit"
"EVERYTHING CHANGES"
"We are the causes of our own suffering"
"God loves you as He loved Jacob"
"THINK ABOUT" and then a second screen says "YOUR LIFE"

Most of these phrases are from Buddhist texts such as the Dhammapada.

The scene was something out of Clockwork Orange - very psychedelic and disturbing. Sawyer gets pulled into watching some of the video and Kate snaps him out of it and they carry out Karl who can't even stand and is barely conscious.

In Miami, after the meeting with Dr. Alpert, Juliet goes back to tell her sister about it and that is when she finds out that her sister is pregnant. Her sister tells Juliet that she should tell Edmund and go to work for Mittelos.

Juliet tells Edmund about her sister and that she doesn't want to work with him. He steps out into the street and is suddenly hit by a bus and dies (very strange).

Meanwhile Jack is working hard in the surgery room. Some mistake happens that almost kills Ben but Tom (who is being very "friendly" to Jack - you might say Mr. Friendly) helps Jack with the surgery. Jack asks Tom why, if they could leave the island, they didn't take Ben off the island for the surgery. Tom says ever since the flash that turned the sky purple (from when Desmond made the Swan station explode) they can't...and then they are interrupted by the walkie-talkie. (What can't they do!!???)

Juliet catches up with Sawyer, Kate and Alex and saves them from being shot by an other. Kate calls Jack on the walkie-talkie and tells Jack that they have a boat and they are leaving. Jack tells Kate to tell him the story that she told him the first day on the beach. A tearful Kate tells the story of Jack performing surgery and almost killing a patient. He conquered his fear by letting it in - but for only 5 seconds - and then putting it behind him. This story gives Jack his strength to finish Ben's surgery successfully. He tells Kate that she should leave and never come back to rescue him. Kate doesn't want to agree but she, Sawyer and Karl leave the island on the boat.
Juliet tells Alex she must stay because she knows her dad (Ben) would not let Karl escape if Alex left.
At the morgue in Miami, Ethan and Mr. Alpert show up and talk to Juliet about Mittelos. They say something about knowing her sister is pregnant (they are very thorough in their background searches) and that the sister can't come with. That is when we find out that the research center is "Not in Portland."

On the Island - Juliet heads back to the Hydra. Jack wants to know what Ben told her that convinced her to help Kate and Sawyer escape. She is very reluctant but explains to Jack that she has been on the island for 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days and Ben promised her that if she helped he will let her leave.

My question is based on the brief comment by Tom that ever since the flash that turned the sky purple they were unable to do something - does that mean they can't leave the island for some reason now? How can Ben promise Juliet she can leave if he knows she can't? Doesn't Juliet know the same? What did that flash of light do? Did it screw up time?

Pictures from Lost Media and Lost Easter Eggs. Some info from Lostpedia and the Tail Section.