Watching Lost

After last week’s action-packed, mind-boggling episode, I have to admit that this week’s episode was a little bit of a letdown. We were told we were going to learn about three of Lost’s mysteries, but I only counted two: Jack’s tattoos and the children. Did I miss one??

The episode begins with Kate, Sawyer, and Karl on the boat. Kate wants to go back to rescue Jack. Sawyer thinks she’s crazy. We find out from Karl that the Alcatraz island is where the Others work, not where they live. They live on the same island as the Losties. Karl tells them that they took the kids to “give them a better life.” Later, Sawyer finds Karl crying over Alex in the jungle. Sawyer tells Karl to go back and get her, but Karl says he’ll be killed if he goes back. The most touching moment between Kate and Sawyer came at the end when Sawyer told Kate that he knows she feels guilty for sleeping with him. He says he knows she only slept with him because she thought he was going to die. Kate doesn’t deny it, but she does look hurt.

Back on Alcatraz Island, Jack is moved from his cell into Sawyer’s cage outside. Juliet is placed in Jack’s old cell because “she’s in trouble” for killing Pickett. Juliet wants Jack to help Ben because his stitches are infected. Jack says he won’t help Ben or Juliet, but then he figures out that Ben is still ultimately in charge, and Jack wants to try to help save Juliet, so he ends up offering to help Ben if Juliet won’t be executed. Ben writes a note to Isabel (see below) telling her not to kill Juliet, just “mark” her. When Jack sees Juliet later, she has this weird star-shaped mark on her. He puts some aloe on it for her, and she tells him that they’re all going to be leaving this island soon to go back to what Ben calls “home.”

Later, Jack wakes up in his cage with a bunch of people staring at him. One is Cindy, the stewardess. She tells him that they’re there to watch. One of the children (so I guess we know they’re okay-that’s the answered mystery?) comes over and wants to know how Ana Lucia’s doing. Jack yells at them to go away, and they all look thoroughly perplexed. So, have they been brainwashed or something? I was very confused.

Jack’s flashback was pretty anti-climactic for me. He’s in Thailand (I think it was supposed to be Thailand). A little boy sells him a drink on the beach, and the boy seems fond of Jack. Jack’s trying to put a kite together, and Achara (Bai Ling) comes over to help. They start up a little relationship, but he knows nothing about her. At one point, a man gives her an envelope full of apparently money. I’m thinking she’s a prostitute, of course; she says that she has “a gift.” Later, we find out that her gift is the ability to see who people are. Her tattoos aren’t decoration; they’re definition. She says, “I see who people are, and I mark them.” Ooookaaay. She tells him that he is a leader and a great man, but this makes him lonely and angry. He asks her to mark him, but she says it’s against her people and that there will be consequences, but she does it anyway. And, boy, what consequences! The next day some men come and beat Jack unmercifully as Achara watches in tears. They tell him to leave the country. So, what did those tattoos mean? Well, we find out a little later, but it still doesn’t explain the beating.

A new character showed up – Isabel, aka The Sheriff. She’s not a very nice person. She knows what Jack’s tattoos say, and she says they’re very ironic. She’s almost taunting him about them. As the Others are getting ready to leave the island to go “home,” Isabel reads Jack’s tattoos: He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us. Jack replies, “That’s what they say, but that’s not what they mean.” So, what DO they mean?? It would work well if that’s really what they mean, don’t you think??

Lost, Stranger in a Strange Land, Jack, Achara, Bai Ling, tattoos, Isabel, Juliet, The Sheriff