LOST- Episode 49: A Tale of Two Cities

  Previously on LOST: The Others did a lot of stuff to our heroes, up to and including capturing Jack, Kate and Sawyer.

  Things kick off with an old school first season-style opening eyeball.  It belongs to a woman we don't know.  She selects a CD from her collection and begins to sing along to "Downtown."  Before she can forget all her troubles, the smoke alarm goes off and she rushes to the kitchen.  Her muffins are burning and in her hurry to save them, she burns her hands and drops them all over the floor.  A friendly neighbor stops by and is surprised that there is still a man under her house working on the plumbing.  Unseen, he comments that it is a work in progress.  And then the book club begins.  For the second straight season premeire, I am left wondering if I am watching the right show.  Suddenly, the ground begins to shake and when the earthquake subsides, everyone runs outside to see what is going on.  The plumber under the house is none other than Ethan Rom and now we start to get a sense of what is going on.  The suburbanites look up to see a plane break into pieces and crash a few miles away.  The man we know as "Henry Gale" quickly instructs Ethan and Goodwin to get going for some undercover operations.  He wants lists in three days.  After the men set off, "Henry" looks at our woman, sees her holding a Stephen King book and comments that he is out of the club.  The camera pans back and shows the Others little gated community set snug amongst the deeper landscape of Crazy Island.  So the Others are desperate housewives.  Who knew?

  In case there was anyone out there who still liked Jack, our first flashback of the season is a brief one of Jack stalking his presumed ex-wife.  He watches from his car while she happily jokes around with another man.  Jack snaps out of this memory abruptly and finds himself lying on a table in a dank room.  He tries to walk to the door, but smashes into the wall of glass which is containing him.  He tries kicking and yelling, but of course, neither of those things work as far as escape plans go.

  Elsewhere, Kate awakens in a public shower and finds Tom, the beardless wonder hovering over her.  Instead of answering her questions, he instructs her to take a hot shower.  When she refuses to undress in front of him, he comments that she is not his type and leaves with a chuckle. 

  Somewhere else, Sawyer awakens on the dirty ground and finds himself in what can only be described as a cage in a zoo.  He sees a young man in the cage across from him with his back turned.  He calls to him, but gets no answer.  Turning his attention elsewhere, Sawyer sees a large red button with a knife and fork painted on it, so naturally, he decides to press it.  It makes a big racket and a recording of a woman says WARNING but there is no food.  He presses it again and the same thing happens.  The boy speaks up and warns Sawyer not to do that.  Sawyer scoffs at being told what to do, but when he presses the button a third time, he is blasted off of his feet by a shockwave.  "Told you," the boy says.

  Back in the dungeon, Jack climbs onto the table and begins to yank hard on a chain hanging from the ceiling.  A woman enters the room on the other side of the glass and tells him to stop.  Her name is Juliette.  We know her as the woman from the book club.

  Jack flashes back to a meeting with his soon to be ex-wife, Sarah.  She asks where his lawyer is and he says that he fired him.  Jack apologizes and seems ready to make amends and save the marriage.  Unfortunately, he is interrupted by Sarah's cell phone.  She takes the call and seems happy about who is on the other end.  When she is done, Jack asks who the new man is, but Sarah won't tell him.  He says she can have all of their worldly possessions in exchange for the new man's name.  Seems like a good deal, but for some reason, Sarah won't take it and walks away. 

  Back in the present, Juliette tries talking to Jack, but he is kind of angry about the situation he is in.  She has a seat and tries to wait out his stubborn chain yanking.

  Shower complete, Kate can't seem to find her clothes.  There is a note on one of the lockers that says Wear This.  Like a good little Alice in Wonderland, Kate puts on the sundress she finds inside, even though she doesn't seem to like it.  Tom comes back to tell her that "he" is waiting.  Kate is then led by Tom and an armed escort to a gazebo on the beach.  "Henry" is there waiting for her and he offers her coffee and breakfast.  Of course she has to handcuff herself pretty tightly, but other than that, it's rather pleasant.  When she asks why the Others captured her only to bathe her and feed her, "Henry" replies that he wanted her to have some nice memories to hold on to because the next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant for her.

  In his office of the past, Jack tries getting to the bottom of the mystery of his wife's lover by calling every number in her cell phone.  Dear old dad enters and tells him to stop.  You know, John Terry has a good agent.  This is a pretty juicy role for a character that's been dead since the first episode.  Jack's dad has been on this show more than Walt.  Anyway, Jack calls the next number and his father's cell phone ring.  With that, Jack begins to understand why Sarah might want to protect the identity of her new man.  "Let it go," is Dad's humble advice.

  Back in the dungeon, Jack hears a lot of static coming from the intercom on the wall.  The words of the past echo through the speaker as Dad repeats that Jack should let it go.  Juliette reenters and tells Jack that the intercom hasn't worked in years.  She has brought him some officially licensed Dharma Initiative Water and a sandwich.  She instructs him to sit against the wall so she can open the door and give him the food, but Jack won't do it.  He would rather have answers than food, so he gets neither. 

  Back in the zoo, Sawyer has noted that his cage has some other buttons and levers and is trying to flex his problem solving muscles.  The boy across the way calls to him and asks him how long it would take to get back to Sawyer's camp.  Sawyer is slightly amused and continues to work on his levers.  When he turns around, the boy's cage is open and he is gone.  The boy comes over and picks Sawyer's lock as well, instructing him to run in the opposite direction as him.  With the alarm sounding, they both take off.  The first person Sawyer encounters is Juliette, who calmly takes a dart gun out of her back pocket and shoots him down.  Dazed, he is dragged back to his cage by Juliette and Tom.  Once safely locked back inside, Tom grabs the boy, who he calls Carl, by the hair and instructs him to apologize for involving Sawyer in the escape attempt. 

  Back in the dungeon, Juliette really wants Jack to eat something.  He reluctantly and wordlessly agrees to sit down against the wall so she can open the door.  Jack flashes back to the hopsital where he can't focus on his job because Dad is in his peripheral vision, taking a cell phone call and acting way too happy about who is on the other end.  Suspicious, Jack, still in his surgical scrubs, follows Dad to a hotel.  He busts into the room his father enters and demands to see the cell phone.  This really causes quite a scene at the AA meeting.  The moderator explains what is going on and that Dad has told them all about Jack, but this doesn't help.  Jack confronts Dad about Sarah, but really comes off more as a maniacal lunatic the longer this goes on.  Finally, things culminate in a physical attack which makes it officially, the best AA meeting ever!

  When the door to the dungeon opens, Jack springs up and knocks Juliette off her feet.  He takes control of her, holds a knife to her throat and demands to know the way out.  He instructs her to open a large metal door, but she insists that they will die if she does.  "Henry" stops by to back up her story.  Jack tosses her aside and decides to open it himself.  "Henry" sees this and runs for it, closing a door behind him and locking both Jack and Juliette inside.  When Jack gets his own door open, a rush of water comes flooding in and quickly overtakes everything.  Together, Jack and Juliette manage to get the door closed again and save themselves.  Then Juliette punches her captive and knocks him out. 

  Back at the zoo, Sawyer reaches through the bars and retrieves a large rock.  He uses this to hold down a button at his feet.  Then he hits the food button and throws his boot at a lever near the ceiling.  Happy music plays and the recorded woman announces a reward.  The reward is:  an officially licensed big dog biscuit shaped like a fish.  Whoo hoo!!!  Hey, it's still a reward, so Sawyer starts to eat it.  Just then, Tom leads Kate into the cage formerly occupied by Carl.  Tom is impressed that Sawyer got a fish biscuit, but comments that the bears did it in only two hours.  When he leaves, Sawyer and Kate get caught up and share some tender longing in their eyes.  Sawyer even tosses her his biscuit because that's how sweet he is on her.

  Jack wakes up in his dungeon cell, back to square one.  He has figured out that he is in a Dharma station aquarium underwater.  Juliette says it is called the Hydra but when pressed about the Dharma Initiative, she says that it was a long time ago.  Moving on, Juliette has a file in front of her which contains Jack's whole life.  She even has a copy of his father's autopsy report!  When he realizes that she really does have everything, he starts to ask about Sarah.  Juliette asks him what he wants to know.

  Jack flashes back to being released from jail because Sarah posted his bail.  She says she got a drunken call from his dad about where Jack was and came to help.  Then she abruptly walks out.  Jack follows her out the door and sees a man waiting for her across the street.  He really wants to know that man's name, but Sarah won't tell him.  What difference does it make? she would like to know.  She tells him about how drunk his dad was and adds that now he has something to fix.  And with that, the marriage is over.

  In the present, Jack asks if Sarah is happy and Julitte replies with a smile that yes, she is very happy.  Jack can no longer hold back the tears and is so broken down that Juliette can now safely bring him his food.  After she exits, she sees "Henry" waiting for her.  "Good work," he tells her.  "Thank you, Ben," is her reply.  No, thank you, Juliette!  Now I don't have to use annoying quotations for the leader.  His name is Benry Gale.  The End.

Next time on LOST: Sayid. Jin  and Sun go on the offensive to save their friends leading to Sun getting shot and killed.  Just kidding... I think.