LOST: Everything changes...

3.07: "Not In Portland"

Just gonna rattle off some thoughts and "hey-look-at-that"s about tonight's episode. So if you haven't watched and you're waiting to, shove off, or get *SPOILED*!

Another DEADWOOD alum shows up on LOST! Calamity Jane as Juliet's fertility treatment guinea pig sister! Trixie played Dan's wifey or whatever, y'know, the kinda bitchy blond that Sun gut-shot on Desmond's boat.

Man, I forget if I mentioned how surprising and odd it was seeing Calamity as a German dancer/escort in THE GOOD GERMAN.

Cuz it was really surprising and odd.

Great to see her in another light, tho.

Pretty fun seeing Dr. Albert (the rep from Mittel-whatever in "Portland"—Hrmmm... Nazi rocket science in Portland?) and Dr. Jack in this episode, even if they weren't in any scenes together. Why is that fun? Well, you'll hafta go and see SMOKIN ACES to find out. =)

Dr. Albert. One of those Hey-It's-That-Guys, at least in my mind. I'm seeing him pop up pretty regularly these days (including the prematurely unplugged DAY BREAK, bastards), and doing some solid work. My first memory of him on screen—He was the Latino photographer or something on that Brooke Shields sitcom, right? SUDDENLY SUSAN? He's good. Altho the mascara was weirdly overdone. Like, Egyptian Pharaoh or something. Given his connection/representing some subsidiary of Dharma, perhaps that's not so far off, eh?

I much prefer Juliet with straight hair. Altho wavy/curly pulled back wasn't awful.

Man, I've missed Sawyer's pop culture smart mouth. He would be a great guest star on VERONICA MARS, in character.

"Nice to meet you, Sheena."

"This a hobby of yours, Underdog?"

"Can't believe you fell for the Wookie prisoner gag!" Oh, you *knew* that one was coming, didn't you? =)

Ha, and Aldo, the stormtrooper sucker, he's one of the ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA boys! In the underground street fighting episode (which is also Dee's "100 dollar baby" episode), there's this great ROCKY training montage ripoff, and I love when he smashes that bottle over Charlie's head, knocking him out, and then gives the cheezy smile and thumbs up to the camera, clad in a black and white striped sweat suit. That show is crass comedy gold, I tell you what.

Nice boat, Alex, but, frack, I was really hoping to see the Dharma sub. And wha-wha-wha? Alex is the boss's daughter? Ben's daughter. And Alex is Rousseau's daughter (at least, that's what I've been assuming)... which would make Rousseau and Ben... what, to each other? Didn't Rousseau claim that she killed (or was it just "had to kill?") all of her crewmates, including her husband?

Of course, it's possible that Alex is their child and Ben wasn't her husband at the time of her science expedition, or ever, even. So that Rousseau did kill her husband (or he died of some mysterious illness, oh, let's call it... Crazy), but the father of her child happened to already be on the island with the Others...

But, hey, when Benry first showed up, it was Rousseau who brought him to the notice of the cool kids, right? Benry had apparently been caught in one of her traps. She was convinced that he was one of the Others, and was content to hand him over to the Oceanic survivors and then disappear back into the jungle.

So, does Rousseau not remember Ben? Is she that far gone? Has Ben's appearance changed so much that she wouldn't recognize him? Or were they in cahootz back then? Ben using Rousseau to get himself introduced to the survivors as Henry and as a suspicious character in their midst learn about them and perhaps actually retrieve Locke (if that's really what he was there for).

Rousseau and Ben and Alex... Maybe more of Rousseau's story is cracked up than I originally thought?

They rescue Carl from cell 23. Important? How about that brainwashing, eh? I hope they can stop Carl and Mugatu before he kills the Prime Minister of Malaysia! Sawyer seemed pretty sucked into the show, didn't he? Had he been subjected to this sort of thing before? Is this how the Others make more Others from "good ones?"

"God loves you as He loved Jacob."

Didn't we see or know a Jacob somewhere in LOST-dom already...?

Wow, the show really suckered me in with the drama of Kate telling Jack the story over the walkie. The "real fear" and counting to five.

Is *that* the origin/explanation of his tattoo? Or at least part of it (the "5")? I was thinking that the tattoo's origin was gonna be revealed in the tropical/east Asian Doctors Without Borders scenario that seems to be coming up. Y'know, the part where he's in a hammock in some bungalow or something in the scenes-from-the-next-sixteen-eps that ABC's been teasing with.

Juliet's been on the island for three years, which is apparently how long ago her flashback story ended, if we assume that she joined Dr. Albert and Ethan on the island soon after her ex-husband got bussed. Ha, wasn't that just *FUN* seeing that bus in the background, standing at the bus stop just down the block, trying to act all inconspicuous, when Juliet stops her Dr. Ex to tell him about his pregnant sister? Anticipation. =)

Thought: Dharma's got a Scarlet Witch-y probability altering machine, or system, or math, or collection of ESPers, to program bad things to happen to people, i.e. bussing Juliet's ex.

So if that timing is correct, then three years ago, the island was some kind of real operation. Not just a bunch of abandoned projects. At least, the smaller island.

Hey, is the Others' FANTASY ISLAND type village (from the season opener) on the smaller island? Isn't it on the large island? Cuz Ben tells Ethan and whatzhishead to run to the two likely crash sites to mixx in with the survivors. He doesn't tell one of them to take the motorboat and the other to rev up the sub. Have they trashed their village since the Oceanic crash?

Kinda funny how Tom sorta wants to reach out to Jack when they're alone. *This* was the scary evil pirate guy?! Funny, no?

Very interesting when Jack asks why they didn't just take Ben to some real (real world) medical facilities. Tom doesn't talk about Ben never leaving the islands, but starts to give an explanation... "Ever since the sky turned purple..." and then he's interrupted. I forget by what or whom.

Given the question he was answering, it seems like his reply would be completed with something along the lines of... "we can't return to the outside world." That is, ever since the electromagnetic whatzit hatch imploded, the special "exit" heading has stopped working.

Which would likely mean that Walt and Michael didn't make it back to the outside world in the Others' motorboat, right? So they're somewhere in the LOST realm (or maybe someplace in between?) with a puttering motorboat.

Doesn't mean that people can't keep falling *into* the snowglobe, of course...

But how's Ben gonna release Juliet? Maybe getting in and out of LOST-dom is like getting in and out of Narnia. You can only use an entrance and exit once, basically.

Enough LOST overthinking for now...

Keep on keepin on~