LOST- Episode 55: Not in Portland

LOST IS BACK!  LOST IS BACK!  LOST IS BACK!

  Previously on LOST- Ben asked Jack to perform spinal surgery, which Jack agreed to after he saw Kate and Sawyer gettin' it on from the surveillance room.  Once the surgery began, Jack staged a coup and ordered Kate to run.

  Juliet is sitting on the beach and, awww, she looks sad.  She leaves the beach and enters a dimly lit corridor.  As she walks down the hall, Ethan greets her with a friendly hello.  So this is a flashback, because Ethan is, like, you know, dead.  She enters a room at the end of the hall and sits down on a bed next to a sleeping, sickly looking woman.  Juliet whips out a syringe and fills it with a small bottle marked Test Sample.  The woman wakes up and Juliet tells her to lift up her shirt.  She then injects the drug into the woman's stomach.  The woman yelps with pain and jokingly tells Juliet that she is some doctor.  Juliet replies that she is not doing it as a doctor but as her sister.  Juliet wants her sister, Rachel, to come live with her, but Rachel says she wants to live on the beach.  Juliet opens up the curtains and says, "This is Miami!  Everything is on the beach!"  And the swerves just keep on coming!

  In the present, Juliet watches silently as Jack is making his move in the operating room.  Over at the zoo cages, Danny is distracted by Kate and Jack's radio argument, giving Sawyer the chance to attack.  In the OR, Tom orders Juliet to fix the incision Jack made in Ben's kidney, but she can't do that because she is not a surgeon.  Back at the zoo, Kate and Sawyer win the day but Sawyer decides to get some payback.  He thrusts Danny's head into the food button in his cage three times, causing a jolt of electricity to shoot into the man's body.  The pouring rain makes the shock especially bad.  Kate and Sawyer lock Danny in the cage and run off.

  Over in the OR, Tom asks Juliet what to do and she says to tell Danny to bring back Austen and Ford.  Jack is furious and reminds her that he is going to let Ben die.  Juliet almost smirks, confidently disbelieving that Jack will let a patient go.  Juliet orders one of the Others to get going and adds matter-of-factly, "If you have to, kill them."  Cue creepy LOST title screen.

  Juliet flashes back to Miami, where she uses her key card to enter a Bio-research lab after hours.  As she walks down the hall, she takes a cell phone call about an appointment for 2 o'clock the next day.  Juliet enters a dark lab and begins Operation: Steal More Test Samples.  Suddenly, the lights come on, so Juliet ducks into a hiding spot.  A man and woman enter and begin doing the things men and women do.  Bio-research labs- the ultimate aphrodisiac!  Before things go too far, Juliet's cell rings again, alerting the couple to her presence.  Juliet makes up a crappy excuse, then the man, Edmund,  introduces Juliet to his friend as his ex-wife.  As Juliet leaves, Ed asks her to turn off the lights.  Oh, Zeljko Ivanek, you so good at playing a creepy sleazeball!

  In the present, Juliet informs Jack of the flaw in his plan, that is, that they are on a different island, therefore making Kate and Sawyer's escape impossible.  Juliet offers to negotiate for a peaceful resolution, but Jack counters with spilling the beans about Juliet secretly asking for Ben's death.  Voices are raised until Tom bellows for quiet.  Tom tells Juliet to get out, not because he necessarily believes Jack, but because she already admitted to not being able to do anything for Ben.  As Juliet leaves, she tells Tom that Jack would never let a patient die on purpose.   

  Meanwhile, as Danny is rescued from the cage, Kate and Sawyer are off and running through the rainy jungle.  They make it to the beach and see Crazy Island exactly where they left it, two miles away.  They scramble along the beach looking for a boat, which Sawyer thinks is a fool's errand, but what else are they gonna do?  Kate calls Jack on the walkie talkie and tells him about their situation.  As Jack tries to put the screws to Tom, he hears gunfire.  At the beach, Kate has the walkie blown right out of her hand.  Danny has arrived with the cavalry and they have decided to ask questions later.  Kate and Sawyer take off into the jungle, avoiding bullets at every turn.  They hide, but Sawyer is out of bullets.  Things look bleak until they are saved by young Alex Rousseau.  She leads them into one of her hidey-holes and they watch tensely as Danny and friends pass by over their heads. 

  Back in the OR, Tom questions whether Juliet really asked Jack to kill Ben.  Jack nods and says she will get her wish in 40 minutes.  To the surprise of both men, they hear a voice.  Ben is awake and talking.  He asks to speak to Juliet. 

  In the research lab of the past, Juliet is summoned to Edmund's office.  He tells her he knows what she is doing and he wants in, ethics be damned.  He's not exactly asking either.  More like threatening.  He has a point, since with the company backing, Juliet's research turns from borderline criminal activity into scientific breakthroughs.  Juliet is then given some time to think about it.

  In the present, Tom finds Juliet and summons her to see Ben.  Meanwhile, Kate, Sawyer and Alex emerge from hiding.  Alex tells them that she has a boat and they can use it in exchange for helping her rescue her boyfriend.  Sawyer correctly guesses that the boy is Carl, the kid who first occupied Kate's cage. 

  Over in the OR, Ben reveals that he has been able to hear what has been going on and is impressed with Jack's chess move.  Juliet arrives and Ben asks to speak to her alone.  Jack won't allow it but reluctantly agress after being asked nicely by a potentially dying man.  Jack goes to the observation room but can't hear what Ben is saying.  Even Others hate awkward silence so Tom introduces himself and informs Jack that Juliet and Ben have history.  After a few moments, Juliet emerges and asks Jack to fix Ben and finish the surgery.  In exchange for this, Juliet is going to help his friends escape.  Jack and Tom, now BFF, share a bewildered look.

  Juliet flashes back to a job interview with Mittelos Science from outside Portland.  The man she has met is showing her a slideshow of how great their company is and how everyone is happy and goes on field trips.  Juliet wonders why they want her and it is because she is a brilliant doctor.  She even impregnated a male mouse!  The man puts the offer on the table but Juliet is forced to turn it down because her bastard ex-husband would never let her go.  She begins to get upset, but the man keeps pressing, asking what would get her to change his mind.  Unfortunately, Juliet believes it to be nothing short of getting hit by a bus.  She composes herself slightly, says she is not a leader and dismisses herself.

  Back in the present, Juliet IS a leader.  She marches into the surveillance room to get a bead on Kate and Sawyer.  When she sees that Alex is helping them she lets out an, "Aw, hell."

  Kate, Sawyer and Alex approach a Dharma station where a guard named Aldo is standing guard.  Alex approaches the station with a gun pointed at Sawyer's head yelling for Aldo to open the door.  Aldo falls for the trick and is easily disabled, but not before revealing to the audience that Alex believes Ben is her father.  Kate threatens a confession out of Aldo that Carl is in Room 23.  They race down the dark hall to find that Room 23 is a crazy reprogramming room, where Carl is strapped to a chair and being forced to watch a sensory overload of bizarre images and subliminal messages.  They unhook Carl from the chair and an IV and carry him out of there. 

  Later, Danny is putting the boots to Aldo for being an idiot when Juliet comes to tell him that they are letting Ford and Austen go.  Danny doesn't believe it, and says that Ben would rather die on the table than let them go.  As Danny stalks off, Juliet flashes back to her apartment.  Rachel is there with the great news that Juliet's experiment worked and she is pregnant.  Later that day, Juliet finds Ed coming out of the building and tells him the news.  Ed congratulates her but is visibly disappointed when he finds out she doesn't want to publish her findings.  In mid-sentence he steps into the street and is HIT BY A BUS.  Freaky, eh?

  In the present, Jack is back to work and notices that Tom is a little squeamish about the blood.  Jack asks why they didn't get Ben off the island if they could.  Tom starts to respond that "ever since the sky turned purple"- but he is interrupted by Jack hitting an artery and squirting blood everywhere.  This was not part of the plan and Ben could be in real trouble now. 

  At the beach, the gang of escapees pull Alex's boat toward the water.  Unfortunately, they are busted by Danny who approaches slowly with gun drawn.  Just as he is about to kill Sawyer, Juliet calls his name.  When he turns, Juliet guns him down in cold blood. 

  Back in the OR, Jack is forced to enlist the squeamish Tom's help in order to stop Ben's bleeding.  Back at the beach, Juliet sees her former prisoners off, but tells Alex that she has to stay behind.  Alex says a tearful good-bye to a still dazed Carl.  Then Juliet reminds Kate of Jack's order.  In the OR, Jack still doesn't have things under control but forces Tom to hold the walkie talkie up to him.  As Kate recounts the tale Jack told them at their first meeting-a tale remarkably similar to what Jack is going through now- Jack finds his courage and ability and is able to finish the task at hand.  When the story is done, Jack orders Kate to leave and never come back for him.  Kate cries as the walkie is shut off and Sawyer reminds her that they have to go. 

  Later, the surgery is complete and Jack waits for whatever is next from the observation window.  Juliet approaches and Jack asks her what Ben said to her.  She tries to blow it off, but Jack insists that she owes him an answer after everything that has happened.  Juliet flashes back to identifying her ex-husband at the morgue.  After being left alone, she is consoled by the dude from Portland, as well as by Ethan, who Juliet vaguely recognizes.  Juliet is slightly aghast that she got exactly what she had wished for in a weak moment, but the two men dismiss her puzzlement and offer her the job, which actually is kind of Not in Portland.

  After snapping out of her thoughts, Juliet answers Jack's question and  tells him exactly how many years, months and days she has been on the island.  "He said that if I let him live and that I helped you, that he would finally let me go home."

Next time on the non-stop season of 24, I mean LOST! 

  Claire wonders what the hell is going on with Desmond and Kate breaks her promise to Jack by coming back to Othersville with a whole bunch of Locke and Sayid action at her side.