Last Week on Lost: The Other Woman

by E. Christopher Clark | Thursday, March 13, 2008

photograph of Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) from The Other Woman, last week's episode of LOST

Teasing tonight’s episode “Ji Yeon” for Entertainment Weekly‘s Doc Jensen, Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof says, “Yes, we know you have all figured out who Ben’s man on the boat is. But once we’ve confirmed that for you, there’s still TEN MINUTES OF SHOW LEFT.”

Well, that one sentence has officially raised my excitement level for tonight from ten to eleven. Can’t wait for nine o’clock now. In the meantime, here (below the fold) are some of my thoughts on last week’s episode, “The Other Woman,” which I re-watched on the bus ride into town this morning since I was home with a sick KayleeBear all day yesterday.

Mr. Friendly cries about his daddy? It’s very stressful being an other? That didn’t have a number on it, did it?

For an episode that has been widely panned as a speed bump on the otherwise smooth highway that has been Lost‘s fourth season, “The Other Woman” certainly had one thing going for it: the comedy factor. The jokes in this episode were fantabulous, in my humble opinion. And they were certainly needed with all of the lethal and potentially lethal goings-on in this episode, both in the present and in the past.

Juliet and Ben
Any Juliet flashback is also a Ben flashback. They are like Sun and Jin in this way. Even in Juliet’s first flashback, when Ben doesn’t actually appear, you can feel his presence lurking. Does Richard have the power or the authority to make that bus run over Juliet’s ex-husband? I don’t think so. That’s Ben’s call.

And so, in judging the effectiveness of “The Other Woman,” we must look at it not as a Juliet-centric episode, but as a Juliet and Ben-centric episode. If we look at it as the latter, I believe we can call it a success.

What do we learn about Juliet that we didn’t already know? She was sleeping with another woman’s husband, her shrink’s husband to be exact. She’s extremely gullible when it comes to Ben’s feelings about her, for a very long time. And that was about it. As a Juliet episode, it’s not particularly illuminating.

But we learn a lot about Ben here, both in the past and in the present. Harper tells us that “Ben is exactly where he wants to be” (note the repetition of Miles’s line from a few weeks back) and that makes us wonder if he took all of those beatings on purpose, when he really might’ve been able to get away. Ben tells Juliet that the reason he’s brought her to see Goodwin’s body is because she is his, sounding like a wounded, abused adolescent, which makes us think that maybe that’s all he is, deep down inside. And, of course, Ben tells Locke that the video tape and the file are his last bargaining chips in a scene that, for those of us who have been watching this show closely, reeks of Ben manipulating Locke (again).

Ben tells Locke that he always has a plan. Locke thinks he wins that conversational battle when he reveals that he knows about Miles’s proposition. And, for a second, Ben puts on his defeated face. But what we (re-)learn about Benjamin Linus in this episode is that, just when it looks like he is finally done for, he’s going to come back kick our asses.

Some Other Random Questions
How did Charlotte and Faraday get a map? Did someone draw it for them, did they come to the island with it already in hand, or did they steal it?

Why is Charlotte so damn violent? Just to provide action/drama for the story? Or is there a legitimate reason for her not just coming clean about what they’re doing? Faraday seems to want to be honest, no matter what. Lapidus was pretty forthcoming. And I don’t yet get/understand/buy why she’s any different.

Ethan’s out sick? That’s a lame excuse for dropping by your mistress’s office anywhere, but on this island where people generally don’t get sick? What’s Goodwin trying to pull?

What’s Harper doing in the jungle? I initially thought that she was a manifestation of Smokey, but the powers that be have said in the latest official podcast that she’s very much alive. In that case, how does she get away from Jack and Juliet so quickly?

Is Ben telling the whole truth about Widmore. Did he tell John the whole truth about the man on the boat?

The list?!? Does the list still exist? Was Ethan trying to extract people as well? Was Claire just the first on the list? Does the list factor into who stays on the island?